Concerns about New Age and the Church

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the status of the Church? Or the world? I often do, but I try not to think about it so much and do what I can about the little things. But once in a while, there are things i can't push aside, things that shouldn't be ignored or blown off. And, little or big, I can't sit around and watch them without saying something.

Like yoga. I felt bad at my Bible study last week when I made a comment that I didn't think we should be doing yoga. My friends seemed to think I was going off the deep end. And I really did feel bad for offending them if I did, and for saying what I did. But at the same time, I believe it's truth, and I'm honestly afraid not to speak the truth about the New Age, because I see it seeping into the Church so often. And it worries me that many will be led astray like in 2 Timothy chapter 4.

Then I got to thinking about Yoga, and why Christians practice it. And it worries me that so many people are willing to just do whatever as long as it doesn't pose a direct threat or send up immediate red flags. I feel as if many Christians aren't taking time to actually think and research, pray and be taught about the practices they keep. Maybe they aren't all as godly as they sound. Maybe they aren't biblical.

So let me take a minute to educate my readers on Yoga. It's a part of the Hindu religion, a practice used to unite your soul with the Greater Soul of the universe, to allow you to meditate without the distraction of physical pain or constraints. The positions ("stretches") are each designed with a specific purpose to accomplish that goal. In this article, I read that Hindus are actually bothered by Christians practicing yoga and claiming they can use it as a Christian exersize. One Swami said that the idea of yoga as exersize is like calling Baptism underwater aerobics. It simply wasn't meant to be used that way--it was meant as a spiritual endeavor. If I were to ask everyone in my bible study to keel toward Mecca and pray to Allah, they would say I was insane. If I were to say "In the spirit of the Muslims who look toward Mecca and pray five times a day, I think that we should maybe try doing that this week. I think it would connect us with God", I think my friends would tell me I'm insane. But the same kind of attitude is used in practicing yoga. When I hear "I want to do a yoga class" I really hear, "Let's go do stretches that were designed to connect us with an ungodly spirit". With or without the actual meditation part, we are still emulating a religion that we claim to be seperate from.

I probably do sound like a fanatic. But I just get nervous when I see people taking part in New Age practices and claiming that it is part of their walk with God. I know that many people say that to them, yoga is just a form of exersize, but I take issue with that. Because no Hindu will tell you that their yoga is just exersize. And the yoga taught in America today is modeled right after the Hindu practice.

If we state that GOd is original, and Christianity is unique from hindu, Islam, Judeaism, etc, then why are we borrowing practices from those religions? Why would we want to take part in something that came from a stated foe of Christianity? We do not believe that "all paths lead to God" or that "Everything has some part of God in it". We do not believe that practices are what unite us with God, but rather that it is His grace alone, through Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. While exersize in and of itself is beneficial, I wonder why we have such trouble handling our stress, when Jesus told us to come to Him with our burdens (Matthew 11:28), and to cast our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (2 Peter 5:7). That said, I'm not sure that we need yoga to relax ourselves. And I have dealt with my share of stress. I think that we're depriving oruselves of a chance to know God better and trust Him more wholly when we decide to use New Age methods to calm our anxiety instead of the old fashioned prayer and patience.

I don't like arguing with people, and I don't like having to defend myself when it's something, to me, that anyone should see as a problem. New Age practices have no place in the church. God is original. God speaks to us in these last days through His Son (Hebrews 1:2), and the God-breathed scripture (1 Timothy 3:16-17). He has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1:3), and we are complete, thoroghly equipped for every good work (1 Tim 3:17) through scripture and Christ.

If you've read this far, I want to encourage you to start looking into practices and teachings that don't align themselves with Scripture. And to familiarize yourself with heretical docterine so that you can be able to discern it. I'm not saying that as a fanatic, but as one who has taken to heart what Ephesians 5:15 and 16 say: See then that you walk carefully, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. I leave you with this, and hope that you are still my friends.

Colossians 2:8-10 NKJV
Beware lest anyone cheat you throuh philosphy and empty deciet, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.

My 40th Post!

This feels like my forth, but apparently it's my forthieth... or blogger can't count. I didn't spend time looking back, but maybe I should.
Anyway, this is a poem about a certain teenager I know, but it applies to many I've met and talked with. And I don't really know if it's any good, but the one person who I know for sure reads my blog will at least be interested in it.

Something tells me you've spent most of your years
running from things no one should see
and, hiding from the monsters
you fear
to take off your mask and live without lies
It could mean everything you've ever known will vanish

And something tells me
your thoughts are riddled with
confusion and questions
and the pain of saying goodbye
to everything you've believed
and lived that caused you to die
threatens to unravel your new life.

Still you can see Someone moving,
changing your being--forming your heart
and you sense His call
More than just a passing pleasure or a flickering dream
forgotten like the dried leaves of fall
more than the best things you've craved
is His dream for your life and all
you've ever lived to believe in
So don't forget--and don't ever let go
because He's holding you
and it's better to believe in the whisper of hope
than to die in the shriveling thorns.

PDT Eye-Theatre and Generations

I've heard a lot of people lately saying things like, "I'm 25 and accomplished nothing" or "I'm almost thirty and have nothing to show for it". Got me thinking. When does a person need to have accomplished what they're supposed to have accomplished? Why are we so dissatisfied with the things we are accomplishing?

So many of us are saying that we feel like we're still kids, but at the same time we're saying we're getting old.

What is old? Is that when the kids you babysat start graduating from high school? Or the kids down the street talk about things and you have no idea what they're even saying? Or maybe it's when you stop being able to keep up with new developments in technology. I think that people in our grandparents' generation are completely overwhelmed right now because of the changes that happen so fast. They had technology when they were our age, but it didn't develop so quickly. I mean, think about how three years ago hardly anyone had LCD monitors. Now they're making Geordie LeForge goggles you can watch movies on! A forth grader was telling me about them today, and I seriously started wondering if he was trying to pull my leg. And then I thought to myself that maybe I'm old. Not only does the pdt eye theater sound completely useless and unnecessary, it's the kind of thing we imagined when we thought of a hundred years from now... and it's now. Ten years ago, the things we thought were thirty or fifty years in the future are starting to happen now.
I think about my grandparents and the lives they've lived. And now they aren't really able to keep up with technology and society (although my grandma really can hold her own with computers), but something tells me they weren't wondering what they'd accomplished when they were twenty-five. They'd already lived through the darkest period of American history (arguably, but don't argue), and would only live to see more hard times. But I think that their lives were richer then.
Which brings me back to the original question. Why is my generation so dissatisfied with what they are accomplishing? People who are headed up the ladder in their business offices, own their own businesses, have their master's degrees, etc. are wishing that they were married and "settled down". People who have families (and I am included in this often), see their lives and wish that they'd finished college or wonder why they aren't pursuing a career. People who aren't married think they're headed to the reject pile; people who are married think they need kids; and the cycle goes on and on until we're seventy-five and die?
I've never been a believer in that whole carpe diem idea. I believing in looking ahead and behind and being content to live in today expecting the consequences for whatever choices I make. I think that when we can see our current life as part of a lifetime, all of the experiences and relationships now contributing to our futures, it's easier to get a perspective and realize that what we do now is important, not only for ourselves, but for others.
The technology and developments are continually causing us to think forward, and pushing and pulling us toward our uncertain futures. But I think that we need to slow down a little more often and consider the value of whatever position we're in, and enjoy it while we're there.
But I'm just wondering out loud. What do you think?