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Welcome to OneLife Ministries, an on-line ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. I hope persons of varied wisdom paths will find inspiration here.
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox
MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Teacher, Author, Chaplain
You are invited to join Brian at his groups on Facebook : Brian Kenneth Wilcox; Sanctum of Prayer; Love & Light; Christian Spirituality. Brian is on YouTube with videos pertaining to spirituality. Brian is on Tweeter. For details or booking of events, you can contact Brian at briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
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Enter this sanctuary time by settling down, becoming quiet, and breathing deeply some breaths. Remind yourself you are in the Presence of Love. This place you are entering, within, is the inner Temple, where you are One with God. You may wish to use a mantra, or prayer phrase, follow the breathing in-and-out, or witness the arising and falling of all around you as the manifestation of universal-Spirit. Enjoy these moments of quietly settling and come out when you are ready.
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The Fruit of the Spirit is … gentleness....
*Galatians 5.22
Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle [or, like infants] among you,like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
*I Thessalonians 2.6-8 (ESV)
Spiritual Teaching
Bill Hybels writes, in Bill and Lynne Hybels, Honest to God, the following remembrance of his father, and sees in it an image of gentleness of Heart:
Recently, my brother and I spent a lunch hour discussing the mark our dad left on our lives....
Dan and I reminisced about the times we had sailed with him on Lake Michigan. We remembered violent storms with fifty-mile-an-hour winds. All the other sailors would dash for the harbor, but Dad would smile from ear to ear and say, “Let's head out farther!”
We talked about the tough business decisions we had seen him make. We winced when we remembered his firm hand of discipline that blocked our rebellious streaks. We never doubted it. Dad was strong, tough, and thoroughly masculine.
Yet for nearly twenty-five years he spent nearly every Sunday afternoon standing in front of a hundred mentally retarded women at the state mental hospital. Gently and patiently he led them in a song service. Few of them could even sing, but he didn't care. He knew it made them feel loved. Afterward he stood by the door while each of those disheveled, broken women planted kisses on his cheek. As little guys, Dan and I had the unspeakable privilege of watching our six-foot-three, two-hundred-twenty-pound, thoroughly masculine dad treat these forgotten women with a gentleness that marked us.
Responding
How do you see the role of gentleness within your spiritual walk with the Christ? Whom do you know has impressed you with his or her gentleness and strength? How did he or she manifests the gentleness of the Spirit in relationship to others?
©Brian Wilcox, and OneLife Ministries. 07/25/2010
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life, as an Associate of Greenbough House of Prayer. He lives with his two doggie friends, Bandit Ty and St. Francis and serves as a jail Chaplain. He is creator and administrator of the Facebook sites Sanctum of Prayer, Christian Spirituality, and his business site Love & Light. His personal Facebook page is Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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