Yoga came from pagan religion and it is not only physical exercises ,but also spiritual. Yes , spiritual in a pagan way when you have to open yourself to many hindu gods.
one of the ideas of yoga is to fill your mind with nothing and have a clean mind. The Bible teaches as to fill our mind with the Word of God and prayer.
And logical question for a born again Christian - Why would a Christian need yoga? Doesn't JESUS privides us FULL peace? Spiritual life to the full ? Why would Christian need extra help with getting peace?:)
In the Bible God says that He is jealous God and He will not give His glory to an other nor to idols.
" Do you think a Christian can do the physical aspects of Yoga without doing the Hindu religious stuff? Can you separate the two? "
Christian can do physical aspects in a place that has nothing to do with pagan religion. He can go to gym and choose the program he needs. Look at the gymnastics how fit physically they are. Did they need yoga to achieve it?
So yoga ,actually is for getting spiritual peace. Ask Hindu what is the purpose of yoga and I'm pretty sure he will start to talk about spiritual fitness ,not about physical . That simply means that yoga is not about just physical fitness ,but about spiritual wealth. As a Christians, we know that only Jesus is Lord of everyone and everything and that only He can give you peace and all your spirit needs.
Bible says that pagan food sacrificed to idols is food sacrificed to demons. So is Hindus open themselves to their idols while doing yoga, whom are they opening themselves?
And if a Christian joins them, whom is he joining then? God forbids us to be a friends of the world (James 4:4) . What to talk then about pagan religions' ideas?
Jesus does not mix with anyone . He will not give His glory to an other .
Jesus is the Living GOD. Resurrected. Buda is still in his tomb..no debate here...
As far as physical maintenance of the human body...All exercise that streaches, strenthens, tones an maintains health is good ta me. Yoga, Ti Chi, Karate, Kungfoo, Boxing, Sevat, Sword, Fencing, Archery, What ever...is good for the body...where a persons mind is focused while doin any of these feats is most important...Keepin the mind an heart in an on the Lord Jesus/Yeshua...jus my 2 bits...xo
My point here is Bible vs paganism suggested activities. Boxing,karate are not the same as yoga.Not the right example , because this is just from different cuture and has nothing to do with religion and spirituality .But,yoga has ..
I'm not sure how/why you can be so certain that someone is following Hinduism just because they're posing their body a certain way? That's like saying that someone is a born-again Christian just because they warm a pew on Sunday morning.
Ahh but Karate (Kung Fu) does have it's roots in religion. It was part of Zen Buddhism but eventually went away from it's Buddhism roots and is now practiced without the religious aspects.
It is not the position of the body but the position of the mind that is the real issue.
Yep, all of the oriental martial arts had some roots in eastern religions (e.g. yin/yang). The difference is where your heart and mind is. At one time or another I've practiced Boxing, Karate, Yoga and Gung Fu. Not once did I sit around meditating on nothing trying to "clear the mind." Stretching is stretching, nothing more! Running is running, nothing more!
Very interesting but we must be talking about two totally different things ( I hope )
First according to Webster Yoga is ....# Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility that is achieved through the three ...
# a system of exercises practiced as part of the Hindu discipline to promote control of the body and mind
So if we are exercising in a pattern that is stretching but that would not be Yoga , then we are not out of his will , however we open dangerous doors if we allow some of the other aspects to come along with the exercise . I asked , what does the Word say about this and 2 scriptures came to mind which may or may not apply here if we substitute yoga for meat .
First : I think 1 Cor . * Vs 1- 8 which has love as its main theme . Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that �we all have knowledge� about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn�t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.[a]
4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.
7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It�s true that we can�t win God�s approval by what we eat. We don�t lose anything if we don�t eat it, and we don�t gain anything if we do.
Second Is 1 Cor Vs 9-13 which is probably more pertinent to some of the forum members ................But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you�with your �superior knowledge��eating in the temple of an idol, won�t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer[b] for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers[c] by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live�for I don�t want to cause another believer to stumble.
Have you ever heard the story of the man stranded on his roof during a flood? A man came by in a boat and said "Let me help you get to safety." The man replied "God is going to save me" and so the man in the boat left. A short time later, another man in a boat came by. This time the water was much higher. Again the man refused to go with the rescuer because God was going to save him. The next time the man was offered rescue from a helicopter, but again he refused. He died and was ushered into Heaven. He asked God why He didn't save him. God said, "I gave you three chances to be rescued and you refused. Why did you not accept the help I sent you?"
If practicing the yoga positions helps you to relax and remove stress from your life, I say go for it. I often meditate to relax and it really does help. I believe the intentions of the person matter more than the action itself. Let me make that more clear... If I hit my horse with a whip intending to cause pain, then the act of hitting him is a sin. If I hit my horse with a whip to direct him out of harm's way, hitting him is not a sin because I mean it for good, not for harm.
I also believe in many of the "alternative therapies" because I believe all healing is from God. He created a wonderful, complex body for our spirits to reside in here on Earth. I have had chronic pain as the results of two bad horseback riding accidents. I did the whole doctor thing and x-rays and all that fun painkiller stuff, but it's not for me. What does help is accupressure and massage therapy. And, yes, I believe in the merideans and all sort of crazy things. And to top it all off, my acupressure/massage therapist used to be a pastor. This all came from pagan countries. God inspired an individual how to heal others, just like He inspired the writing of the Bible. If you are discounting Yoga because it came from a pagan country, then it logically follows that you must also discount the Bible, for it also came from pagan countries.
Are we going to be like the man in the flood messing up God's plans because we think we deserve a miracle?
