So as you walk the tight rope of life, “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; keep your foot from evil.” Proverbs 4:25-27
Dear Holy Spirit, There is so much in this world that divides the body of believers. Help what truth is yours be spoken to those who seek you. May this word come forth without offense or bitterness. Help us have grace and your mercy for each other. Let your spirit shine into our hearts as we seek your plan and destiny for each of us, as we love those into the kingdom. Amen
I was sitting with my sweet granddaughter as her mother asked her how her day went at school. She then asked her if she did yoga in her class. I said, “Not again..”
Years ago when my children attended the same elementary school, the kids came home and told me they had yoga in PE and meditation in music class. I took action! Yes, this momma did! So over the years as my children left home I was thinking I was on easy street as I had fought that battle and won. I pretty much started to wince right there at the kids table as I looked at my precious grandchildren. Awe, the next generation....
When this happened the first time, I had just finished reading several books* about new age, the history and what to watch out for that could slip under the door. Being a mom who was on guard, I always pictured that kind of green crawling smoke that went down the streets of Egypt in the movie,”The 10 Commandments” on that Passover night. You know, the story with the plagues and the snakes and God saying, “thou shall have no other gods before me.” Yep, I was on the look out for those things that slip in on us. Those things that I had innocently done. Those things the world agrees and adjusts to, and God has put a sticker on your heart, the kind that has a circle and a slash through it.
So I talked a little to my granddaughter about how tough it is to be a Christian and to walk a narrow path that is not so popular. The title of this blog popped in my head. The tight rope! Yes, walking a tight rope is tricky! Balancing, losing friends over your life lessons that have become your calling, learning not to be judgmental, but not losing the message, walking with grace, following God’s instruction, standing firm as you get criticism. All with love. Yep, doing the right thing can be a lonely awkward tight walk.
My, oh my! I was not popular then and I won’t be now.
So that next day back in 1989, after my kids told me the news, I went to the library and looked up yoga, the roots, the beliefs, of this form of religion/exercise. Today I thought, “who really stops their car and googles yoga exercise or its foundation on the way to the gym?“ No, we just sit in and do it! What floored me then was this was a religion that was founded on eastern ideals and beliefs. I learned that each pose was a form of worship.*See notes I was struck that you cannot have a Bible in the library at this grade school but this eastern religion was allowed to slip under the door as a disguised form of exercise.
In the midst of this I have heard people say, “Oh, it’s ok. I don’t focus on their god, I focus on Jesus.” Well, if Jesus was sitting next to you what would you say? It’s a Christian Ouija board, or a Christian 8 ball. “Oh, I like you Jesus but I like my yoga.” “This is just exercise Jesus, it is not about you.” Well, everything is about Jesus in some form! Show me something that is not? His Dad created the earth! His Dad saw the first free will of rebellion form in his fallen angel who has a plan to deter us. Now Jesus watches us compromise vs. standing firm as instructed.
The other thing that tightens my rope is people saying, “It helps my back!” Really? Great! But how about your spirit? Well, guess what spirit the Eastern religion has attached to that exercise -The Kundalini spirit. In Sakit, India it is the serpent power. A visual of “coiled up.” The original serpent was found in Eden speaking deception to Eve. 2 Corinthians 11:14, “And no wonder, for satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
Well, I believe in stretching and being limber, but just do it without the yoga class! Stretch away. And while you’re at it, keep your eyes on the prize at the other end of the rope and you won’t fall off the tight rope!
Jesus has you...for he says, “you are the temple of the living God.”
Research, Supporting Verses and Books
CHRISTIAN YOGA: AN OXYMORON? (Short Exert)
The Yoga most practiced by Christians is Hatha Yoga. The poses themselves are often depictions of Hindu deities, and the hand positions mimic the hand positions seen on the statues of Hindu gods. These hand positions are called mudras and are thought to help manipulate and channel prana, a supposed divine force or breath of the universe.
The purpose of Hatha Yoga is not physical and it is not to relax; it is part of a complex spiritual path to prepare the student for more advanced meditative states and also to lead the practitioner to the realization that the true self is divine (the Atman). The goal is to dis-identify with the body and self as one's real identity in order to reach a state of Self-realization; that is, to realize the divine nature of Self.
*Confronting the New Age by Douglas Groothuis
Dvd "Dangerous Meditations"
Yoga and Christian Yoga: http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/yoga.html
Yoga Kundalini Yoga pt 2 www.jashow.org/wiki/index.php?title=Kundalini_Yoga_-_Part_2
KUNDALINI ENERGY Yoga’s Power, Influence, and Occult Phenomena in the Church
‘’n those days Israel had no king; and everyone did as they saw fit.” Judges 17:6 This implies that Israel departed from the covenant standards of conduct in the law, to do what ever they pleased.
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
“.Dear Children do not let anyone lead you astray..the reason the Son of God appears to us is to destroy the devil’s work.” 1 John 3:7-8
