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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; see www.compassion.com .
Prayer
Spirit of Christ, I pray for the grace to search my heart, to see if there be any way I am avoiding a total “Yes” to Your will in my life. I, often, struggle with saying that “Yes,” but I know my willingness to say that “Yes” is a beginning You can begin with and bring to full fruition, as my heart remains open to be transformed into Your Love. In Christ, Amen.
Scripture
And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.
*Titus 2.7 (NLT)
Quote
Sincerity is, perhaps, the most vitally important quality of true prayer. It is the only valid test of our faith, our hope, and our love of God. No matter how deep our meditations, or how severe our penances, how grand our liturgy, how pure our chant, how noble our thoughts about the mysteries of God; they are all useless if we do not really mean what we say.
Thomas Merton. No Man is an Island.
Spiritual Teaching
Late one evening a poor farmer was returning from market and had lost his prayerbook. The wheel of his cart had come off in the middle of the woods, also. He was distressed that the day would pass without his saying prayers.
So, this is the prayer he made: "I have done something very foolish, my Lord. I came away from home this morning without my prayerbook. And my memory is so bad I cannot recite a single prayer from it. So, this is what I will do. I will recite the alphabet five times very slowly and you, to whom all prayers are known, can put the letters together to form the prayers I cannot remember."
The Lord spoke to the angels: "Look, of all the prayers offered me today, this one is without doubt the best, for it came from a heart simple and sincere."
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Sincerity in spiritual matters is the voidness of the hypocrisy that parades a claim it has no intent or desire to fulfill. Sincerity is the mark of a humble heart, open and ready to be aided by Grace to be what he or she longs to be, but cannot be apart from divine Help.
And, indeed, you may feel unworthy or unable to be Christlike. Being spiritual may appear for the more gifted, so you think. Yet, Spirit knows our hearts, and Life blesses the least sincere desire and action on our part. In spiritual matters, what matters most is not our ability, but our willingness, our sincere availability. Give Spirit one small letter of loving desire, and the Divine can make a whole opus out of it. Amen.
Responding
1)What lesson does the above story share about prayer? About religion and spirituality generally?
2)Share what sincerity in faith means to you?
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*To contact the writer of OneLife Ministries, Brian Kenneth Wilcox, see below:
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, with friends and under a vow of simplicity. Brian is an ecumenical-interspiritual leader, who chooses not to identify with any group and seeks to be open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He affirms that all spiritual paths lead ultimately back to Jesus Christ. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for preaching, Spiritual Direction, retreats, workshops, animal blessing services, house blessings, weddings, funerals, or other spiritual requests. You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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