Living Well According to Movie Stars

So I picked up a magazine the other day and lo and behold, an actress who's had her entire body reshaped by plastic surgery is "advising" women how to be happy. Oh, really?

She got the cover, and apparently her way of life is the happiness route, and she's in fine position to tell us. That being, divorced twice, living with men off and on, and marrying a guy 16 years her junior. Nothing, and I mean, nothing in the article gave any credit to God getting her through an abusive childhood, failed marriages, or the birth of her children--any God, but by her sheer ability to make her "realty" a happy one.  By the way, the last I heard she was in Kabbalah . Yet again another lie propagated by a well respected women's magazine that happiness is somehow achieved by ... self.

I know there are bunch of readers who don't want to read this stuff, but it's God's truth, not mine, that He gets all the credit for our lives and we'll never be happy outside of having a relationship with Him. But Hollywood will never give God His due. Now, what's the name of her surgeon?

Are you Worshiping the Sun or the Son?

I know what you’re going to say. It’s exercise! It has nothing to do with God. Let’s look at what the Wikipedia says about the word yoga:

1. a school of Hindu philosophy advocating and prescribing a course of physical and mental disciplines for attaining liberation from the material world and union of the self with the Supreme Being or ultimate principle.

2. any of the methods or disciplines prescribed, esp. a series of postures and breathing exercises practiced to achieve control of the body and mind, tranquility, etc.

3. union of the self with the Supreme Being or ultimate principle.

Not a valid source? How about hatha yoga Webster's Dictionary?

a system of physical exercises for the control and perfection of the body that constitutes one of the four chief Hindu disciplines

If you're a Christian and you're taking Yoga classes, or doing them on you're own, you're practicing a form of Hindu ritual. Sorry, but that's what you're doing.

Yoga opens doors to a New-Age lifestyle. If someone is not grounded in Christ they can easily be awed and drawn into the philosophy that is yoga. Often people subscribe to yoga magazines once they begin classes, and in these magazines lurk new age teachings, swami's, yogi's and guru's all hawking their wares.

Perhaps you can see how easy it is to get involved with eastern mystic religions. You can start out with taking yoga classes, then find yourself dropping your guard when it comes to your own Christian faith when you begin to read about expanding your soul, fountains of energy, and reading "God is in everyone." Yoga classes include short periods of meditation, sometimes incense burning, eastern music and New Age or Eastern religion readings. Sometimes you're given a mantra. If you're reading their material, you've taken the next step away from Jesus Christ. Yoga is a lure, but the postures are just the invitation into an entirely different belief system. Here is an example of some of those beliefs that are incorporated into the poses.

Lotus Pose, in Hindu the Lotus is the thousand fold petals of the soul.

Namaste means the divine spark located in the heart center, so you are bowing to the "god" in each of us. As one yoga teacher states in the Yoga Journal:

Ideally, Namaste should be done both at the beginning and at the end of class. Usually, it is done at the end of class because the mind is less active and the energy in the room is more peaceful. The teacher initiates Namaste as a symbol of gratitude and respect toward her students and her own teachers and in return invites the students to connect with their lineage, thereby allowing the truth to flow—the truth that we are all one when we live from the heart.

Om means the cosmic sound of all of God

Chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel, and these "wheels" were thought of as spinning vortexes of energy.

Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) is symbolic and has mythic overtones for worshiping the sun.

Yoga always teaches philosophy and "wisdom" with poses. Here is one such wisdom taught, this is from a popular yoga magazine:

Step by Step. If you've been practicing yoga for a while, you're familiar with asana, pranayama, and meditation. But you might not know much about the first two steps of the path: the five yamas and five niyamas. These are the ethical precepts, or core values, of yoga as well as its starting place—meant to be practiced before you do your very first Sun Salutation. They provide a recipe for living in the world with ease. Yoga Journal

Now, watch the "onion unfolds" as you start with postures and end at the "royal path."

Asana: A body position that will give you the control you need to sit in states of God communion.

Pranayama: Breath control, to teach you to become "breathless" so you will become one with God.

Yamas: Rule or Code of living, usually a strict way of life, including vegetarianism, abstinence from sex (even if married).

Niyama: set of behaviors codified as "the observances" in numerous scriptures including the Shandilya and Varuha Upanishads, Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Gorakshanatha, the Tirumantiram of Tirumular and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. All the above texts list ten Niyamas, with the exception of Patanjali's work, which lists only five. They comprise the "shall-do" in our dealings with the inner world, and Swami Vivekananda describes them as the second step of Raja yoga (Sanskrit: राज योग). (Wikipedia)

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a foundational text of Yoga.[1] It forms part of the corpus of Sutra literature dating to India's Mauryan period. In Indian philosophy

Raja Yoga: ("royal yoga", "royal union", also known as Classical Yoga) is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation (dhyana) to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.

This opinion has nothing to do with intolerance. This has to do with knowing what you're signing up for, where yoga originated, where it's going to take you, and if there is another form of exercise you can do that does not include a Hindu disciplines repackaged into something benign.

Are you worshiping the sun or the Son?

BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness: Strengthening Your Body and Soul in Christ

Biblical resources: 1 John 5:21

"Dear Children, keep yourself from Idols."

An idol is anything that substitutes for the true faith, anything that robs Christ of his full Deity. (Life Application Bible, NIV, Zondervan)

The Big Guru Breakup

Here is a never before shown picture of me at my guru church. This was taken in Hollywood, California in 1973 at the temple of my guru.

Over the next few weeks (in between other interests) I'm going to share some of my personal experiences of life on the inside of an dharmic religion that makes claims to be a church of all religions, thereby including Jesus in their teachings, and what I know of why they added him, and how they successfully re-wrote his teachings and published parts of the New Testament.

Pantheistic  (Eastern) religion and Christianity can't be reconciled. I've written about this exclusively on this blog but it bears repeating. I will share some of why I broke up with my guru after a 30 year relationship, and how I returned to Jesus Christ.

I try (now more than ever) to remember that all of my experiences are the sum total of who I am, and that I must love all parts of my life to love the whole me. Thus, I embrace the memories of it "all" but see now how I was out of step with God in this church. We each only have our own experiences. I can only write about mine. But, I can also say I witnessed a swath of suffering in the lives of other devoted devotees striving for perfection under the iron hand of discipline.

What I've learned as a Christian is there is no perfection in this world. Stay tuned.

Damage Control

Throughout the world our Christian image is in the toilet, thanks, in part, to G.W. latching onto various Christian leaders and proclaiming that God chose him to rule the country, and look at our country today. Few US Presidents have been as openly religious as Bush, but this didn’t help the Christian populace when he couldn’t justify the Iraq war or explain our current economy. But this isn’t a political site, and we continue to pray for our leaders.

A year ago the Barna Group did a survey showing that 16-to 29-year-olds were more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago. They also do not believe that there's one moral objective truth. The same report indicates more and more people view Christianity negatively and with out-right hostility. Don’t think this viewpoint just happened. There’s an agenda at work to tear down Christianity. It’s never been more urgent that Christians act like Christians.

High profile evangelical leaders have damaged our credibility, too, leaving us to hold the explanation bag when they fall off their holier than thou bandwagons. Thanks to the lightening fast media, Blogs, chat rooms and bulletin boards, everyone has a good laugh, and these fallen preachers are representatives of all Christians.

Todd Bentley for example, the tattooed healing preacher from Florida was recently caught having an affair with one of his parishioners, and people are having a good “I told you he was a fake” moment. Ted Haggard founded one of the most successful mega churches in the country, yet was having a homosexual relationship with a male prostitute while furiously preaching against homosexuality.

There is a large and growing body of Americans who believe that Christians are armed with ignorance and hate and they're waiting for the "old guard" to die so new ideas can flourish. These new ideas include new age, eastern religions, wiccan, astrology, and atheism, to name a few.

If we’re doing the works of the righteous, we must be righteous. We must forsake sin even in the presence of adversities and popularity. We must spread the message that God is the creator, the ruler, judge, savior, father, preserver, and benefactor. We must grow in God’s Word, in Grace, and pray without ceasing.

Fact: I get more hits when I write about atheism than when I write about Christianity.

Nothing but Feelings

While reading a New York Times Bestselling book, I felt compelled to write a review that's going to call into question the author's beliefs, but she's freely calling into question the beliefs of Christians. My husband asked me if I felt the writer was telling her own story, or if she was pushing a belief system on the readers. She's pushing a belief system on her readers, I told him, making statements of fact, such as meditation is the only way. Then I said, "I think that Christians, as a whole, are too passive. Few of us are defending Christ in the manner that say, Paul, defended Him, through great suffering, opposition and death. Would we die for the name and Truth of Jesus Christ?

Are we a bunch of Peter's crouching behind the water fountain in the courtyard, lest someone finds out we're Jesus followers and not cool? By not speaking up when we see or hear Jesus persecuted, isn't that the same as denying Christ? Is it a sin to be passive about how people speak, write or portray the Son of man?

Without a doubt there's a movement to eradicate Christianity. The American Atheists are clearly pushing an agenda in Washington. The media, even public television, is out to debunk Christian beliefs. PBS just presented a program that brings into question whether Moses ever existed. The celebrity anti-Christian circus would require another article, but even the least of us who follow celebrity gossip know about Kabbalah and Scientology.

Then, of course, I began to wonder just how well I, not only shield my eyes from lies, but really stand up and defend Jesus?

While eternal life is a free gift given on the basis of God's grace (Ephesians 2:8,9), each of us will still be judged by Christ. This judgment will reward us for how we have lived. God's gracious gift of salvation does not free us from the requirement for faithful obedience. ¹

When I meet God, what if he asks, "Did you defend my Son?" And when I say, "Why, yes," and he asks, "We'll, what about the time when your friends used His name in vain and you said nothing?" I'll of course look dumbfounded, shuffle my feet around and make some lame excuse such as that using the Lord's name in vain became part of the American lexicon. "But what about that time you watched a TV show that made fun of my Son, and that time you enjoyed a movie that ridiculed him? What happened there?" I'll probably say something like, "What could I do even if I didn't like it?" Here God will say something like, "Why didn't you turn it off, walk out, warn others about the content? Why didn't you post the Truth on that blog you kept? I happened to be one of your readers."

By now you want to know what book I'm talking about that's led to this conversation with God.

First things first. This author is an amazing writer. There's nothing negative to say about her writing, in fact, I envy her ease of it and how she turns a phrase into a living, breathing thing. Her writing was so good that, even though it prompted this article, I kept reading. Perhaps more than anything that's why I'm here, now, not to defame her but to tell others that one must be prudent with the ideas and feelings of others when it comes to our spiritual life. Always look for the truth in the Word.

The name of the book is, Eat Pray Love, and her name is Elizabeth Gilbert.

She claims to have no personal issues with the many names of God, but prefers to use the name "God," rather, than, say for example, Shiva. She also believes God could be a woman, but prefers to think of him as a man. Culturally she claims to be a Christian, but not theologically. I stopped and re-read this again, scratching my head, wondering where the editor was because clearly there's no such animal as a cultural Christian. One either believes in Jesus or not. The writer goes on to say that Jesus is just a great teacher, and to quote her directly: "I do reserve the right to ask myself in certain trying situations what indeed He would do, though I can't swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the only path to God."

How can anyone believe anything at all about Jesus if they don't believe what he said about himself? How can she "not swallow" what Jesus claimed himself to be? What did Jesus claim?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." John 3:16-18

For those who claim the Gospels were not composed by Jesus, it's important to note that they were written by four eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus and all four recount similar, if not exact experiences, including the resurrection. These four disciples wrote what they remembered, not what they extrapolated off the Internet, out of books, or heard from a guru. In actuality there were hundreds if not thousands of people who saw Jesus, both before and after he was resurrected.

I came across something else in the Bible about the testimonies of Jesus. He makes a case for himself, perhaps knowing there would be people in this world who reserved the right not to believe in him, which of course is free will, the very gift God gave humans over all other creatures on this planet.

"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.

You have sent John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony, but I mention it that you maybe be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you posses eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me, to have life.

I do not accept praise from men, but I know you, I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" John 5:31-47 NIV

Sadly, many Christians don't know exactly what Jesus said and they can get sucked into false teachings that promise they're in harmony with Christianity, and without much dissension.

"...most of the Christians I know accept my feelings on this with grace and open mindedness..."

She doesn't know any Christians. Christian's profess belief in Jesus as Christ and follow the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. There is no middle ground with Jesus Christ. One only has to pick up a Bible and read the RED.

Open mindedness means having or showing a mind receptive to new ideas or arguments. She doesn't present new ideas or arguments. To this writer, any explanation other than none would have helped me have an open mind to her feelings pertaining to Jesus.

After a few more chapters about her painful divorce (which I feel no empathy as she left an otherwise decent man), she flies the reader to Italy. Now, the story holds me tightly and is so provocatively written that after beautiful, breathless months spent in Europe we're abruptly dumped in India, and pummeled on Hindu philosophy, a detailed, rehashed monologue about yoga, ashram life, meditation techniques and how to find the right guru, peppered with cheeky comments about God being a turnip. Nothing unique in selling Hinduism, different, untold, or captivating. Her guru hammer had me ready to sob. She'd taken us out of glorious Italy on an amazing journey and dropped us on our heads in a shabby chic ashram.

Inside the ashram she meets more privileged spiritual seeking cohorts (whom she points out are all successful (which isn't true or they wouldn't be there). One even has a PhD, mind you! Why some people think education justifies bad choices, I'll never know. So, all these inmates of hers had the free choice to put their lives (and those of their husbands, wives, children, employers, friends, cats and dogs) on hold to travel half way around the world to suffer (but not too much) for their guru, completely unconcerned while zoning out in meditation, about the millions of real Hindus who haven't enough clean water to drink. The devoted ones eat delicious meals, have their personal needs met, with just a few inconveniences (for effect), yet on the other side of the wall people are living in abject poverty.

Christians would have been working outside, in the trenches, to help those in need, not spending their days in service to those within the ashram. Therein is a pivotal difference between Christ and a guru. Christ wants us to roll up our sleeves and administer to the poor and needy, but guru's want you serve them first, then their devotees (who support the guru's pampered lifestyle), while ignoring the poverty and suffering all around them.

I wanted rip the book in two and keep the part I was adoring! But no. Here I am reading what I already know about Hinduism (or any variant of it) and wanting to find this writer's phone number and call her and scream, "How could you have ruined such a perfectly fabulous book?"

I understand that she had to write about her experience in the ashram since she went there, but she presents her case for yoga with an air of professional qualifications, discounting Christ, to proclaim her own feelings, with certainty that her--struggling in a dark fake cave and sitting rigid for hours of meditation is the only way to know God. This chapter tries to sell a package that all Hindu guru's have sold since Swami Vivekananda successfully introduced yoga to the West in the late 1800's.

Her single experience wasn't based on years and years of this kind of spiritual pursuit but a few months, and yes, the ashram makes for an interesting adventure because of her talent as a writer, but she's not walked this razor's edge long enough to weigh in with such authority that the actual teachings are superior to Christ's.

Now, as I continue reading, weary from frustration, she begins what I call the Hindu witnessing and proof they all proclaim, in one manner or another, yet they deny witnessing.

* You're chosen

* The guru was unique, chosen by his master, enlightened

* You received an initiation.

* The guru seldom visited the austere, desolate ashrams in India that were run mostly by volunteers, rather her guru lived most of the time in America. This void is explained. The devotees do not need the guru in their presence to benefit from them. They can be alive or dead, here or thousands of miles away. It's all the same.

* Ashram life was difficult. There are long hours of physical work and tedious hours of meditation. Devotees are exhausted and under fed.

* To come to the ashram the guru wants the devotee to be in good physical and mental health and have financial assets. This is stance is viewed as practical, giving credence to the guru.
You're not to be a drain on anyone.

* If your family objects to you coming to the ashram, you should not to come. Your family is not to be a drain on anyone. You're to serve the guru and his/her followers without any resistance.

* Any abuse you receive (hard labor, lack of food or sleep and hours of still meditation) will help you on the path.

* The guru came from a "line" of guru's.

* The guru gives a mantra, and special lessons.

She presented many other commonalities of yogic life seen in similar sects, but there are too many to list. What's important to note is her "feelings" were her guide to truth. Because she "felt" something in her meditations, this was proof enough to her that she was communicating with God.

Why then were her original feelings about her husband not enough to sustain her marriage? Feelings are never accurate, especially when God is involved.

Group experiences seemed to hold some value to her as well. She tells a story about a rowdy crowd of people waiting to see their guru and calmed into bliss when he appeared on stage, therefore the yogi is authentic by his ability to transcend people who came looking for spiritual joy.

A crowed can be convinced to drink cyanide.

Yogi's are seeking an experience. They gather for that experience. They come together with silly "bliss bunny" smiles and meditate together. Whether in a group or alone, they are not meditating to just sit there. They're straining for something God-like, whether it's a breathless state or to gaze into the third eye (often described as a blue light with a white star), or some form of out-of-body feeling. They may very well hallucinate by a self imposed hypnotic states, fueled by opiate type endorphins.

She writes, "In mystical India, as in many shamanistic traditions, kundalini shaki (life force) is considered a dangerous force to play around with if you are unsupervised; the inexperienced Yogi could quite literally blow his mind with it."

I knew such an inexperienced man and after doing a technique to control Kundalini, he went behind a gas station and stabbed himself to death. Read that again. I did not mean to say that he cut his wrists. He, quite literally stabbed himself to death. If this is any indication of what she means by blowing ones mind, then on this note she is indeed accurate.

I studied, mediated and followed a very famous Indian guru during most of my life. I was a profoundly excellent devotee. Though I didn't live in an ashram, I'd stayed in one, and visited many in America. One need not travel to India to have this deprived experience. I knew hundreds of yogis for up to 30 years, but not one of them had ever attained much. I don't mean money, though most of them had little financial success, but happiness. There were drugs, alcohol, affairs, divorces, physical abuses, and because yogi's do not believe in sin and have no way to be absolved the guilt. They seemed a bunch of shame driven antisocial beings. I'd never seen anyone enter into the highest state, Samadhi, and yet we heard many times of our gurus experience. None of these struggling yogi's were better off, if anything, all of them suffered mental and emotional problems. Guru's offer much to the unpopular, the antisocial and the broken people who never quite fit into anything. Here they become special, and needed, chosen, ripe for picking. If they came from the Christian faith they generally grew up with a distorted view of Christianity perpetrated by their parents.

Everything this author shares about her yoga experience I've heard before, accept this one thing: "You come to your Guru, then, not only to receive lessons, as from any teacher, but to actually receive the Guru's state of grace. Such transfers of grace can occur in even the most fleeting of encounters with a great being."

I experienced no Grace in eastern religion. Grace is the divine favor toward man; the mercy of God, as distinguished from His justice; also, any benefits His mercy imparts; divine love or pardon; a state of acceptance with God; enjoyment of the divine favor.

When I left my guru, I did so for reasons that had nothing to do with his deceptions--those I learned about them many years later (his followers continue to disbelieve what's been uncovered). I had no grudge to bear against the guru, I loved him dearly. I just needed space from the people he attracted, including the monks and nuns who ran the organization like a gulag. I was completely unaware that I'd been slowly brainwashed into believing the Hindu philosophy, and had abandoned so many years ago the truths in the Bible.

I came back to Christ in a simple way. I began reading the Bible. Truth was revealed. I remember setting the Bible on my lap, glancing up at my husband and saying, "They (our old guru church) have it all wrong."

The first thing the Lord showed me was that the Christian life is a fight against evil forces from without and temptation from within. Christ paid for our sins. God wants us to live by faith, not by magic, or by trying to manipulate God. Satan tried to temp Jesus into sinning by quoting scripture. Don't be fooled. One can't believe Jesus was a good teacher if one doesn't believe what he taught.

Jesus said, "If a kingdom cannot stand against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Mark 3:24

"It is also written: Do not put your God to the test." Matthew 4:7



₁ Life Application Study Bible, Zondervan

Modern Day Guru’s Part III - Buyer Beware

“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.” Matthew 13-14 Message

For the sake of this article, I am using the term guru, in its more modern term. Meaning anyone who supposedly has knowledge of religious subjects.

God is very clear who the Boss is, and everyone knows He’s the boss, and if we’re not following Jesus Christ, we’re rebelling. Everyone hates to hear that, and people get up on their laurels wanting to “do their own thing.” Okay, I get that--I’m simply trying to advise you that gurus make money on their followers, and they don’t really care about anyone but themselves. I know this because I followed one. I got into dharmic religions through the counter-culture of the 60's, the "do your own thing" era. Plus, I wasn't raised a Christian, and the ones I knew were not redeeming so, though I was saved by the Jesus Movement, I bailed out too soon. I discovered early in my Christian walk hypocrisy in my small band of Christians, and quit without seeking truth from Christ. Plus Christianity sounded very conforming to me, and my generation didn't want to conform. The first time I registered to vote I did so as a Libertarian Party just to raise some eyebrows, and it did at the local polling place.

Most people don't want to be told what to do--or believe in, and the idea that we're free to choose what we want to be acceptable as our God, is an American right. I get that too. Yet, when we try on religions, we're apt to be greatly disappointed in our choice. The idea of a hell is so distasteful to most Americans (it was to me!) that they'd rather turn their spiritual life over to a famous syndicated talk show host by following her spiritual choice rather than crack a Bible and see what it has to say. The devil is laughing all the way to the bank. The idea of a devil isn't popular, either. Satan knows this and uses it to his advantage.

I swore an allegiance with an eastern guru without ever knowing about the truth in Christ.

Did I know that there was salvation in life through Christ before signing up with a Guru? Yes. I knew, I'd been told. I willingly left the side of Christ for a Guru. I walked away for something that seemed mystical; something that might show me more than what the Christians were showing me. Therein was my problem. I wanted the Christians to show me something...not Jesus. And that's what happens, we want a show.

My guru, who was dead since 1952, still had quite a show. For being dead, his organization had grown world-wide. There were temples, meditations, incense, Indian music, and all the eastern mysticism which is very beautiful. They owned beautiful gardens and properties overlooking the ocean. I can't deny even now how peaceful those places were, but they're not only for eastern religions. Christians can have gardens and beautiful retreats, and yet, most Christian churches lean toward a more austere environment with little or no Christian elements. Nature draws us in naturally, and many eastern religions are in touch with the beauty in nature and use that to attract members.

My church had famous movie stars, a president or two, a Beatle, all the trappings that seem to qualify them as God's representative. It was tied up in a nice package. It was appealing. But many things are appealing to our flesh that isn't good for us.

The guru I had made an investment with couldn't give me unconditional love because he wasn't God incarnate, though we were told he was, and many stories where shared either in his writings or amongst devotees, of his divine quality. There was a kind of love affair going on there... A divine love affair. Affairs don't last, and neither did this one. As long as I was young and idealistic, this religion worked for me, but life isn't young and idealistic forever.

I really thought that the history of the Bible and Jesus was too inconceivable to believe and written by the church to manipulate people. This is what we were told, if not from the pulpit, certainly within smaller groups. On the other hand we were told so many goofy stories, completely unprovable by science and history, that it’s embarrassing to admit I believed any of it, and yet we didn’t believe the Bible! And that’s how these gurus want things to run. They don’t want you poking your nose into the Bible, lest you find some truth there. The only Bible they want you to read or know about is their version.

Recently a talk show host began to support a new-age German philosopher. Her stamp of approval escalated him into mainstream media. He teaches non-ego and enlightenment states (which is impossible to attain) so what he’s really spewing is ancient philosophy and eastern teachings—claiming them modern, and using his hypnotic German accent as part of his persuasive presentation. After watching a few of his videos I was captivated by his sheer sense of bloated self-worth. He needs to kill his own ego.

Why am I picking on TV personalities? Well, I’m not. I’m just stating a fact and it's disturbing to me that people I love are starting to follow this fake. Why didn’t this A-lister talk show host support Jesus Christ whose given her the blessed life she now enjoys? Because she's come to believe she's God. Being taught we are God is the number one ticket for guru's.

I did the same thing! I was born again in 1971 and took up with a Hindu guru in 1973. The idea that I could control my own destiny was too seductive for me to turn and run. The devil has his ways.

The Bible warns us to be wary of those motivated by fame, power and money, or plain rebellion. Satan is a deceiver and extremely motivated to use these phony teachers to get what he wants, our soul. Don’t take the word of anyone over the Word of God.

Jesus warns us of the cost of following him and many people don’t want to pay the Cross.

All gurus teach a self-directed life, which means results are promised to one self--you're never to look outside of yourself for your happiness. These gurus put themselves on a throne and promise their followers the same throne. From my own experience, I'm telling you, this does not work. We can't be God, we can't control anything but our own choices.

A guru's premise is ALWAYS that you’re flawed and what they’re selling will make you feel better, look better or have a closer relationship with God. For some reason they have been allowed to talk to God and get it right, whereas the rest of us must take their word.

We are not flawed.
We were born into sin.
Only Jesus Christ can free us.

Gurus want you to believe you’re more than human or less than human. To be more than human is to make a mistake, and to be less of human is to believe you are the mistake. Their techniques shame us when they fail to work and keep us preoccupied with our flaws. The more mistakes we make as human, the more money they make when we strive to be less human. People idolize their gurus and make themselves bad.

Modern day gurus do not believe in the true Jesus Christ. To believe in Christ is to believe everyone has sinned; the penalty for our sin is death; Jesus Christ died for our sins; to be forgiven for our sin; we must believe and confess that Jesus is Lord. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ.

Modern day gurus will correct you if you quote scripture as truth. They believe they have the answer, not Jesus Christ, because they have a better way, a life full of strict details where there's no freedom in the doing, doing, doing...

Jesus says to beware of those whose words sound religious but who are motivated by money, fame, or power. You can tell who they are because in their teaching they minimize Christ and glorify themselves.

Further proof that Christ is the way and the truth and the life:

Word of Christ –Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Col 3:16 Message

Word of God - Jesus commented, “Even more blessed are those who hear God’s Word and guard it with their lives!” Luke 11:28 Message

Word of Life – “so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.” Phil 2:16 Message

Word of Truth - “Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.” – Tim 2:15 Message

Abides forever – “Sky and earth will wear out; my words won’t wear out.” Mark 13:31 Message

Endures forever – “God’s Word goes on and on forever.
This is the Word that conceived the new life in you.” 1 Peter 1:25

Soul Saving – “It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else!” Romans 1:16 Message



**Photo National Geographic

Modern Day Guru's Part I - It's all in a Name

“The right name is an advertisement in itself.”

Hopkins, Claude

-American jazz pianist and bandleader

The word guru from Merriam Webster Online means:

1: a personal religious teacher and spiritual guide in Hinduism

2: a: a teacher and especially intellectual guide in matters of fundamental concern b: one who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent c: a person with knowledge or expertise: expert

The first meaning of a word is its strongest definition. Remember that rule when writing.

Before we jump into modern gurus, let’s understand the term. A guru is a Hindu teacher. The second meaning was added to Webster’s more recently, yet I’m unable to site the date (if you can contribute that information, please email me).

I currently have in my possession a Christian magazine with an article titled: "How this exercise guru brings fitness and faith--"

As Christian’s, especially Christian writers, shouldn’t we shy away from any references to Hinduism? But what about the second meaning? It’s a second meaning. A good writer uses their strongest vocabulary to make a themselves clear, and that’s my point here. Guru is now cultural for anyone who’s a leader in a particular field. There is a guru energy drink, jazz gurus, a current cutesy comedy movie about a guru, staring Mike Myers, there are marketing gurus, golf gurus, there’s a guru power bar, management gurus, fitness gurus and guru shoes. There are 92,600,000 guru definitions on Google as of July of 2008. That’s a lot of gurus, and none of them should be in reference to a Christian.

Part II of this series will unpack what modern gurus are selling.

**Artwork Permission from Zeb Toons copyrighted

Part II of this series will unpack what modern gurus are selling.

Selling Green in Religions

"Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that build your house." Proverbs 24:27

I had some ideas of my own based on simple observation of ecological dialog that things in the "green zone" were leaning heavily toward eastern philosophy.

But it wasn't until I stumbled upon the writings of Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (April 29, 1907 – March 30, 1987) a professor of medieval history who wrote, The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis (Published in 1967), did I see the post-modernism link with ecology and religion. According to White, Judea-Christian theology was fundamentally exploitative of the natural world because the Bible asserts man's dominion over nature and establishes a trend of anthropocentrism. Or, Christianity makes a distinction between man (formed in God's image) and the rest of creation, which has no "soul" or "reason" and is thus inferior--Christ followers don't care for anything but themselves.

The jest of his theory, which is spreading, is western Christianity literally separated humans from nature in the garden of Eden and created dualism, but other religions saw the divine in every tree, river, animal and bird, and therefore, are more environmentally friendly. Before you point out that Prof. White wrote the article back in 1967, his philosophy is currently in vogue, and eastern religions now enjoy a "superior," attitude toward Christians in the Green Zone of marketing pagan ideas.

There have been signs for sometime time that east beats west in environmental issues. As far back as 2001, USA Today featured an article by Micheal J.Strada, a political science professor and author of, "The tenets of Eastern religion are more compatible with nature than their Western counterparts." I encourage you to read this entire article and see how some of the earlier points made in this series are brought up, and how as Christians we need ready explanations for the accusations against the Christian God. The Dalai Lama said that the need for environmental responsibility dovetails with Buddhist teachings on valuing human life, whether that is one person or the world's entire population.

Statements like these are like car wrecks, you can't look away without wondering how it happened that western Christianity is viewed as the exploiter to everything BAD that's happened to the environment. Volcanoes release more than 120 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year! Why isn't that in the news?

A full scale marketing campaign is ensuing as a guilt trip, a burden for Christians to bear--that the only answer out there is to reform the entire kit-and-caboodle known as Christianity, and get a composter! Or convert to Hinduism or Buddhism if you give a fig about the environment!

To many young Christians, reform is the answer, rather than education, especially when it comes to the environment and truth. Satan pushes his agenda. Don't forget that!

As a Christian we can end the discourse by mentioning, India has one of the ten most polluted areas in the world, and so does China.

Linfen, China, where residents say they literally choke on coal dust in the evenings, exemplifies many Chinese cities. Ranipet, India, where leather tanning wastes contaminate groundwater with hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich, resulting in water that apparently stings like an insect bite. What is the Hindu government doing about pollution? The Ganges River, the Hindu's most sacred place is filled with tons of chemicals, sewage waste and other filth which is dumped into the Gangels daily, by Hindus, spreading disease among the 350 million who live along its shores.

Ask those who preach their eco-friendly eastern message why the Western USA is not listed in the top ten?

People who believe that Christians are polluters are going to tell you that the Hebrew Yahweh, tends to denigrate ecology, since most of the values associated with modern environmentalism were considered feminine traits in Biblical times. Eastern religions embrace both mother and father in God. "If you're closer to the Mother than to the Father, address God as Mother." There's something appealing to a female God, and you'll find some evidence of this in Catholicism, where Christ's mother is an intercessor to her Son.

God of the Bible created this world with all its beauty and perfection. It was called the Garden of Eden. There is no scientific evidence that those practicing eastern religions are happier, healthier, or more earth friendlier than Christians--the total opposite! Don’t be too easily fooled no matter how many degrees (or IMDb credits) are attached to the person’s name pushing the idea that Christians don't care about the environment. Research where these “new ideas” originated from, and who they benefit.

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, and the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of thorn-bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." Isaiah 56:3

The Selling of Yoga

Looking into New Religion Part II - The Selling of Yoga

The medical world touts yoga and meditation as the cure for everything from flatulence to cancer. Yoga teaches you how to move the energy in your body, and since everything is made of energy, animal, vegetable and mineral, we can control our health, well-being and our spiritual life. Since energy vibrates at different levels, and depending on the rate of vibration, you can either see it, such as rock, or not see it, such as wind. A table is energy re-arranged. We are energy, not souls, according to yoga.

This makes perfect sense and is believable, scientific even, and is usually the hook to drag people into yoga classes. We know there’s a life force within us and Christians call that the soul. The spirit that lives within us is part of the Holy Trinity. The problem with yoga, is this philosophy (which trickles into the classes) teaches that all life force, both that which vibrates at high rate and that which vibrates at a low rate, is God. We used to say, “God is in the lamp post.”

The duty of a good Yogi is to get in touch with that energy and control it’s flow. But, we’re told, we can’t control the energy if we’re freely operating in duality, or in this three-dimensional world. What this means is, if we’re hyped up, we can’t tune into God. Thus, in order to sit for hours in meditation, one prepares ones body by doing Hatha (system of physical) yoga, or what we now recognize as a yoga class. What’s the harm?

Eastern healing arts always work with “energy channels and states of awareness.” Yoga can not exist without this philosophy. Classes always combine postures and meditation. Yoga teaches that unless we’re in a motionless, erect state, our eyes focused between the eyebrows (called the 3rd eye) we’re not centered, or out of balance to the energy–or God. Yoga classes can call this practice anything they want, but it’s a Hatha Yoga.

Just who's teaching the class?

Over the years, I’ve known many yoga instructors. All of them were involved in some form of eastern religion or thought. You can’t be a yoga teacher if you’re not seriously instructed in the history of yoga. Before you start the class ask the instructor if he/she believes Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and if he died for our sins. I can almost guarantee you, you'll get an explanation something like this:

"I believe in Jesus, but Jesus isn't the only way, I mean, think about it. What about those poor souls in the amazon who never heard about him? What kind of God abandons innocent people? God loves everyone. Krishna and Buddha taught the same message as Jesus. Besides, there's proof Jesus knew yoga and taught it to his disciples. He was only a great yogi, or sage. Doesn't it make sense that the lord responds to all, and works for all?" Then they might quote Carl Jung:

"The deeper your understanding of self realization the more influences we have on the whole universe by our spiritual vibrations. Yoga offers the possibility of a controllable experiences and this satisfies our scientific need for facts--and besides this, by reason if its breadth and depth, its venerable age, its doctrine and method, which includes every phase of life, it promises undreamed of possibilities!"*

All Yoga classes use eastern lexicon freely and over time introduce more of the philosophies into the class. Talk of higher power and chakras (energy centers in the spine), burning of incense, playing or singing chants, and nearly always, at least at the end, some kind of guided meditation. They often teach yoga breath work which may or may not include a mantra, such as Aum. You may see an altar with flowers and statues, along with incense, even food, an offering to their Gods. There may be gongs and Thangka's hanging around. They might sell books, soap stone elephants, lotus chains and sandalwood beads. You might see yogic symbols on the walls, such as the Aum (OM) sign, lotus flowers, and pictures of India Gods, such a Lord Krishna. Or, the other extreme, you won’t see anything but blank walls and yoga mats.

The Yoga class environment depends on where the classes are given and what kind of yoga is being taught. In Indian philosophy, yoga is the name of one of the six orthodox philosophical schools. There isn’t just one kind of yoga class, but all systems of yoga do not harmonize with Christianity.

“What is the big deal about yoga? Who cares what it’s called, right? It’s just exercise to lower my blood pressure–my doctor recommended it! You’re another intolerant right-winged Christian full of yourself!”

As Paul said in Galatians 4: 16 “Have I now become the enemy by telling you the truth?

Yoga is a Sanskrit word and it encompasses a group of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. Its disciplines of asceticism and meditation are believed to lead to spiritual experiences and a profound understanding or insight into the nature of existence.

If you practice yoga of any kind, the understand the root:

Pantanjali

Patañjali ** is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, a major work containing aphorisms (original thought) on the philosophical aspects of mind and consciousness... In recent decades the Yoga Sutra has become quite popular worldwide for the precepts regarding practice of Raja Yoga and its philosophical basis. "Yoga" involves inner contemplation, a rigorous system (works) of meditation practice, ethics, metaphysics, and devotion to the one common soul, God, or Brahman. (You are God.)

Physical movements of yoga practice in combination with pranayama (life control), constitutes a form of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", and referring specifically to the seated posture, most basic of all the asanas. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samadhi (state of perfection); transpersonal (mystical states) self-realization (one with God).


The Sanskrit term yoga has many meanings. It is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, "to control", "to yoke", or "to unite". Common meanings include "joining" or "uniting", and related ideas such as "union" and "conjunction." Sanskrit is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism.

Satan loves ignorance, and practicing an ancient yogi discipline is ignorance of the Bible's message of freedom in Christ.

“But now that you know God–or rather are known by God–how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” Galatians 3:16

Cancel the yoga class and take a stretching class.

To be Continued...


* CG Jung, Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Self Realization Fellowship
**Patañjali is known to be an incarnation of A-di S'esha who is the first ego-expansion of Vishnu, Sankarshana. Sankarshana, the manifestation of Vishnu His primeval energies and opulences, is part of the so-called catur vyu-ha, the fourfold manifestation of Vishnu. (Wikipedia)

Celebrity Religions

Looking into a New Religion - Part II: Celebrity Religions

In today’s world most people bypass the Bible in their search for spiritual answers. Sadly, the Bible is out of vogue. It’s never quoted as a source of happiness, a road map for life or the ultimate truth–instead, daily we’re filled with messages coming from every media source that the Bible is just another ancient religious manuscript amongst so many to choose from.

“Do your own thing,” is no longer counter-culture but mainstream.

There is a billion-dollar industry based solely on celebrity “branding” that reaches farther than jeans, perfume, hairstyles and purses. There’s a website called, Celebrity Religion, and if you read through the religions associated with current Hollywood luminaries, you’ll be hard pressed to find Christians amongst them. But you will find atheists, Sunni Islamist, Scientologists, Tibetan Buddhists, Agnostics, Kabbala followers and yogis. Influential celebrities are telling us via every media outlet that the God of the Bible isn’t relevant today, or doesn’t exist at all. It isn’t subliminal messages, no, we’re way past subtle.

The celebrity system jump started the trend. To name a few major events that changed Evangelical America, we need only look back to the 1960's. In 1964 Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Black Muslims, recruited Cassius Clay, heavyweight champion of the world into the Nation of Islam, and in 1968 the Beatles went to Rishikesh India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Celebrity religious branding was launched.

All these years later, fans now look to celebrities for the answers to everything–life, diet, beauty, God.

Recently, celebrity queen regnant Oprah Winfrey decried Jesus, stating there are “many paths,” and on national television denouncing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Now, she's promoting Echart Tolle's teachings, which amounts to regurgitated, revamped eastern religion--enticingly repackaged under "A New Earth. Awakening to Your Life's Purpose." His claims to "I AM" are lifted right out of the teachings of Krishna, an Indian incarnation of God.

How many Christian women are still buying her magazines and watching her show? How many fence sitters, nonbelievers and teenagers are influenced a celebrity? If we're going to stand up for Jesus Christ we must mobilize and write sponsors. Too tired? Too busy? Perfectly wonderful for Satan...and the beat goes on.

Network television is a major source of misinformation about Christianity, but it doesn’t stop with TV royalty denying Jesus.

Cable channels are churning out reenactments touted as scientific proof, flat out refuting established Christian doctrine. They load the show with college professors and writers (selling books) to back their claims. The History Channel, for example has aired many Biblical stories, such as the Garden of Eden and the story of Cain and Abel, making claims that there’s no plausible truth to them. Many of their productions push the “secret message” stories, such as lost or hidden “books” claiming much of the truth of Jesus was hidden from Christians. Their boldest video is regarding the Cross, that the symbol was well established before Jesus, and it was represented as life and “adopted by the Christians.”

The History Channel is owned by A&E. A&E Television Networks (AETN) is a joint venture of The Hearst Corporation, ABC, Inc. and NBC Universal.

Entertainment.

Notice now the connection with celebrities and religious information, what we’re being told as truth, and whose selling the lies.

If it only ended there...

Stay tuned for this continued series.

Left Alone in Our Vanities

As you can see there’s a gap in my blog of missing articles for the past few months. I am dealing with my father who is quite ill with stroke related problems that mimic--or resolve into Alzheimer's symptoms. The situation has been quite grave and taking up most of my days.

Truly, I would not know where to begin to explain the journey I’ve been on—and still travel with a man who made no arrangements for his future, even knowing he was getting sick. From what I’ve learned from other caregivers, the denial factor of having Alzheimer's is about 95% in those over 70. Younger patients seem more willing to get involved with their healthcare and future. Those who remain in denial leave their illness to loved ones (wives and adult children), saddling them with the responsibilities of handling every aspect of their lives, including financial, person and healthcare. Daily it is the job of an advocate because no one can care for your loved one as well as you.

My dear and loved father lived in the moment and in later years strayed into that which gave him pleasure and promised he would not be alone.

God has held this up before and showed me Ecclesiastes. Verse after verse reminds me that our lives are not held up to vanity, to self pleasure and selfishness but to serve God. When Solomon speaks of vanity, I think of dad, not that he preened before a mirror but the deeper meaning; that he sought that which gave him pleasure. After mother died, he had no barometer to keep him from going deep into his own sin and selfishness. Thus, when reading the commentary of Matthew Henry, I am warned to change the course of my life, lest I be alone like dad, solely dependent upon the kindness of strangers if his children were unwilling to forgive his shortcomings.

I said in my heart, Come now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also was vanity. Ecc 2:1

This is the proposition he lays down and undertakes to prove: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It was no new text; his father David had more than once spoken to the same purport. The truth itself here asserted is, that all is vanity, all besides God and considered as abstract from him, the all of this world, all worldly employments and enjoyments, the all that is in the world (1 Jn. 2:16), all that which is agreeable to our senses and to our fancies in this present state, which gains pleasure to ourselves or reputation with others. It is all vanity, not only in the abuse of it, when it is perverted by the sin of man, but even in the use of it. Man, considered with reference to these things, is vanity (Ps. 39:5, 6), and, if there were not another life after this, were made in vain (Ps. 89:47); and those things, considered in reference to man (whatever they are in themselves), are vanity. They are impertinent to the soul, foreign, and add nothing to it; they do not answer the end, nor yield any true satisfaction; they are uncertain in their continuance, are fading, and perishing, and passing away, and will certainly deceive and disappoint those that put a confidence in them....Matthew Henry

As time allows I will be posting some more information on those who are seeking non-Christian belief systems.

Can I Pray For Myself?

“The greatest gift Christianity gave to me was the approval to pray for myself…” Turtle-Dove

As a member of a church—strongly tied to Hinduisum with a smattering of Christian ideology and a guru. Prayer was taught to me in a universal way, which is taught in religions that practice pantheism.

Webster defines pantheism as a doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe and the worship of all gods of different creeds, cults, or peoples indifferently.

Our prayers in this church (which still has a worldwide base) were directed “outward” towards the universe in general.

Think of the planet covered by a blanket and if part of the blanket is torn, the entire fabric is compromised.

Prayer was explained as an energy force that we could project towards the world crises and that we could actually control. They teach we’re divine beings, a bubble in God’s ultimate sea. We were told that we could create an energy force that would heal what ailed our world without having to leave our meditation cushions.

Everything we did, even on an individual bases affected some other part of the world, and that was their theory on prayer.

Prayer involved creating energy in our hands by rubbing them together and "thrusting" this energy into the air, chanting OM, and whirling our hands around and and around and chanting OM, imagining our healing energy going out to whoever needed it. Thus we were God, healing people.

I myself led this technique in what they called a World Wide Prayer Circle every Thursday night at a local temple.

When you pray in this manner, you disassociate with self, as you are praying in an impersonal way to pray. Also, where is God in this? We can not heal anyone, unless we're a doctor!

If someone you love dies of cancer; you’ll blame yourself for not throwing enough energy their way.

We were told that asking God for anything personal was “begging,” and we were not to be beggars before God. Coming to our Lord and petitioning him was selfishly wrong.

Though I meditated and loved God, I only approached Him as a great universal energy, a cosmic force to experience in deep meditation, not a loving, caring, embracing Father who could help me if I asked. We were told to only consider the needs of others—to “be aware beyond self,” and never to reflect on the needs of our own; otherwise we were succumbing to ego. Nor were we to have “predetermined expectations from God.”

Jesus says we are to expect answers! “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:23.

When Our Bible Isn’t Enough

Today I was introduced to the practice of Lectio Divina in a Christian church. When I asked our group leader what Lectio Divina meant, and its origins, she couldn’t say with any certainty, suggesting I research it later. She then led the group in a modified ancient spiritual discipline. I read the Bible instead, since I practice nothing without knowledge of what I’m practicing before God. Having spent 30 years seeking God through disciplines, I’m of a discerning mind.

Paul addresses worshiping without knowledge of Christ in Acts 17:22-25. He understood that God works in all peoples, and it’s important to build off their existing beliefs and longings rather than assuming they know nothing of value [1] but that doesn’t mean we practice their beliefs.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6) Not one of the ways, but the only way. This is the idea that marks the Christian faith. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10,12). [2]

I’m sure I’m the only person today who went home and researched Lectio Divina, and that kind of acceptance—the willingness to try something else without stopping to ask for the reference to it in our Bible, is a short coming of current modern Christians.

There’s nothing wrong with reading philosophical or inspirational books, but Christians need some discretion when practices are transposed into their churches by lay people, and in some instances, by ministers. If we don’t believe the Bible is the final word, then we’re sure to seek answers from other sources. There’s nothing Satan loves more than Christians looking for Truth elsewhere. “Is there an underlying message being delivered that the average Christian can’t interpret the Bible and we must go outside the source and seek interpretation?" [3]

But I bring to the table 30 years of experience in spiritual disciplines, and know the dangers and damage inflected when told we should incorporate a discipline into our prayer life. Having found glorious freedom in Christ, I now stand firm in Biblical Truths and must point out possible deviations that can lead to problematic dogmas, even though it won’t leave me very popular in today’s emergence culture. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)

Lecto Divina was presented to us as a way to deepen our study of the Word. If we repeated phrases in the Bible, and meditated on those phrases, we would get greater insight into the meaning of God’s word by allowing God into our beings. What I later learned is Lectio Divina is rooted in early Catholicism, practiced by monks, and considered a Stairway to Heaven -- a 4-runged ladder to Heaven, each rung being one of the four steps in a method of Bible reading. [4]

Hinduism also practices a step-by-step path to God, Patanjali’s Eight Fold Path. [5]

Having studied and practiced eastern philosophies, I’m well acquainted to the devotion of meditative disciplines as a means of seeking God and salvation, and the entanglements.

Most people aren’t familiar with meditation, beyond knowing it lowers blood pressure. Years ago, Christians were highly suspect of meditation, linking it to eastern religion, and rightly so. Our current media has defused the practice by promising better health by way of yoga and meditation. Physical changes do occur during meditation by affecting the brain, which in turns controls the body. Deep and continued meditation releases dolophine endorphins (natural body pain killers) giving us a “feel good” emotion that, when incorporated into a prayer life, can be misunderstood as connecting with God. Because these endorphins relax us and are a pleasing sensation (blissful), we’re apt to seek that experience rather than our study of God’s Word. Like mood-altering drugs, meditation is addictive and why monks have been known to do it for 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years. [6] But there’s more, and that reality is the danger we must question.

Its hypothesized that the mental states commonly referred to as altered states of consciousness seen during certain spiritual/ religious practices are principally due to transient prefrontal cortex deregulation. [7]

A Washington Post article reported on a study by the University of Wisconsin: “It (meditation) demonstrates…that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine…meditation not only changes the workings of the brain in the short term, but also quite possibly produces permanent changes." [8]

Most of us want to change something about ourselves, and the “idea” sounds great. But if meditation through repetitive prayer is introduced as a means to become closer to God, then we’re essentially saying that it is through this discipline we know God, not through Grace. Even more damaging, and an often over looked aspect of meditation, is the door being opened to hypnotic suggestion, or brainwashing. Participants while under group meditation can be influenced by their moderator’s ideas, or in a church setting, their theologies.

Repetitive praying can produce a hypnotic state, and that can produce the feeling of well-being and misunderstood to be something divine. Remember, repeating a Biblical phrase will produce the same mood-altering effect as repeating a Hindu phrase, or a transcendental meditation mantra.

Those who’ve practiced meditation with religiosity find it nearly impossible to believe anything but what they’re involved with, such as eastern philosophies. The depth of their convictions is literally ingrained into their brains by way of a physical change.

Deprogramming is difficult and current Christian apologetics aren’t able to reach into their subconscious and undo years of damage. Reasoning, rationalizing, even proof of Christ’s salvation will not unhinge their beliefs. Hence, it’s imperative to be vigilant when introduced to any techniques that use repetitive prayer or meditations as a mean to higher God awareness or consciousness.

One could assume I’m just biased because I once practiced meditation, similar to an ex smoker railing against tobacco companies. However, my concern for practicing ancient rituals is justifiable, and no compromising should be made regarding our Christian faith.

Practicing techniques of prayer from other religions in a Christian church is in essence, saying that there’s a kernel of truth in all religions and we can take some of other teachings and integrate it—or blend it into our Christian religious life to give us something fuller than what’s promised in the Bible. All the while congregants aren’t told where these methods are originating.

The concept of “blending” religions is not new, only given a different title within the Christian community. Churches of “all religions,” have existed in America since the early 20’s when eastern gurus came ashore and taught the concept that God is within all teaching. [9] They boondoggled the American public, so desperate were they for mystical experiences, and robbed them blind to support their own lavish lifestyles. Though the 1960’s generation wants to take credit for introducing eastern religions to America, it’s been around for a long time. The flower children didn’t do their homework, and neither are some of our Christian brother’s and sisters today. Deception is everywhere. The packages are very pretty, disguised as deeper understandings of the Bible.

Why shouldn’t it be okay to take a little of this, and a little of that, and make it our own walk? Because Jesus said, “I am the way,” and for a Christian that should be enough.

Nor should we limit God’s power to change us in his way, or seek other sources for revelations. That’s not to mean we’re to be closed minded, it means we’re discretionary. There’s a difference.

Christ is superior to anyone or anything we might come across in our studies. Faith pleases God, and seeking other sources questions our faith. If “doing something” is going to make us holy and closer to God, then we’ve just set a limit on God’s glorious power.

Had God waited for Rahab (Joshua 2:1) to become holy, he would not have used her to welcome the Israelite spies, nor spared her life when Jericho fell.There’s one final aspect to this discussion. If Christians are told to do “something like Lectio Divina” by someone perceived with authority, then without discretion, without praying to God about the matter at hand, one might believe they’re failing God if they question the practice, or aren’t comfortable doing it. I heard one woman say about Lectio Divina, “but I don’t feel comfortable or understand this,” and she was told, “don’t worry, you’ll get it,” in other words, she hadn’t gotten it yet even though she was saved by Jesus Christ, by the blood he shed.

Sadly, not everyone questions what they're told to do (especially by someone they hold in authority), nor seek the Bible’s wisdom or even God’s. Without proper understanding and discretion Christians can be led to shame for not practicing something their church is pushing, and shame puts distance between us and God. Maybe that’s the most important message I can share.

God wants us to question everything. God wants to talk directly to you. You don’t have to do anything but talk to him. God made us in his image. If my daughter sat before me repeating phrases I’d be bored to tears! That isn’t communicating with God and it’s putting a limit on his glorious power.

For further reading, you might check out Please Contemplate This, an extensive article about programs and practices rife with occult methodologies and techniques at work in churches and youth ministries around the country: Taizé, Lectio Divina, The Labyrinth (prayer walk), Renovaré, guided imagery, Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, Centering Prayer, Ignatian Awareness Examen, The Jesus Prayer, and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, to name but a handful. [10]

[1] Faith in Action Bible NIV

[2] Crossroads Church

[3] Debra Twardowski – Jesus Psychology

[4] Lectio Divina

[5] Patanjali’s Eight Fold Path

[6] Washington Post

[7] Neurobiology of spirituality

[8] Washington Post

[9] Gurus In America - Wikipedia

[10] Apologetics Coordination Team