'My Father's house is....

[headheart]

...a house of prayer,' said Jesus. Then he presently set about cleaning out all the stuff that was not.

During my studies I noticed that the one thing that the disciples were really determined to find out from Jesus and that was how to pray. So eagerly they cornered the Master one day and asked him to teach them how to pray, and we all know what Jesus said.

He said, 'Sit thou in the lotus position and gaze at the tip of your nose, breath short breathes and recite anything you like over and over until your mind is completely empty, you will then begin to hear a faint humming sound like a bumble bee and you will feel a warm feeling in your spine, sort of tingly and it will ascend to your head at which point a flash of light will buzz through you and you will be zooted off to a location somewhere out on a planet with our heavenly buddy called....oh, I forget. If you keep chanting the name over and over but try to do it with feeling you will be greatly refreshed and that is what it means to prayer. Oh I forgot, if you like you can fashion yourself a necklace and add some beads and while you are getting into the position of the butterfly for freedom, you can do the bead prayers and incantation and if you don't end up like someone in a knot in the shape of a pentangle, you will have reached the ultimate state of kundalini and the white serpent will give the total nirvi kulpa samhadi.'

The disciples were amazed and then decided to hitch their hopes to the first passer by who could tell them what it meant to really pray.

I for one prefer the Lord's Prayer. It is a wonderful guide to correct prayer and living.




pssst...just incase you think I am joking about how distorted the teaching of Scriptures can become here is a little quote from the work of Swami Prabhavananda titled The Sermon on the Mount according to Vendanta....my reading is from 97 & 98 the last two stanza's...where he is summarizing the Lord's Prayer....

'In order to escape from maya and regain our freedom and perfection, we must restrain the outgoing senses and turn within, where God dwells; we must take refuge in God and pray for divine grace. Sri Krishna says, "How hard to break through is this my mantra...! But he who takes refuge within me only shall pass beyond maya, he and no other.

When we pass beyond maya and God becomes revealed, then we see that "From Joy springs this universe, in Joy exists this universe." We experience God everywhere, within every creature and object, and we recognize that his is, "the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever."

The real humdinger is this link to 'Christian Yoga'

Christian Yoga

[headheart]

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[Findo]

Thanks for pointing out how keen the disciples were to find out "how" to pray.. I hadn't really noticed before..

I think it's worth thinking about - Jesus didn't say "pray this prayer", but rather "pray like this" - in other words, the Lord's prayer is guide.. the kind of things we should pray for, not necessarily the actual words (not that saying it is a bad thing).

[Steadfastlove]

The link to Christian Yoga didn't work for me, but a thought anyway..... the meditation of eastern religions involves emptying one's mind.... and guess what will come along and inhabit an unguarded mind???
The meditation of the bible however, involves FILLING one's mind, and heart, with the laws, statutes and words of God.... BIG difference!

[headheart]

The link to Christian Yoga didn't work for me, but a thought anyway..... the meditation of eastern religions involves emptying one's mind.... and guess what will come along and inhabit an unguarded mind???
The meditation of the bible however, involves FILLING one's mind, and heart, with the laws, statutes and words of God.... BIG difference!

Right on the button. Jesus felt very strongly about us using our temples for anything but correct prayer to the Father. I am convinced that the reason that the whole incident at the Synagogue when Jesus chased the profiteers out was so large because Jesus saw a time when the body would be neither hot nor cold but luke warm and ready for being spewed out, a time when the judgment would come to the house of God, a purging before His return to judge the nations. It is so strong how Jesus feels about prayer, in Gethsamene when he rebukes the disciples for being so lethargic and not able to pray with him. Jesus is our great example in prayer, the intercessor of intercessors, and perhaps this is the area where he will purge the threshing floor with fire. When I look around the world I wonder if His coming is really very near.

Shalom.

ps. I checked the link and it is good, it is perhaps quite a slow site....

[BrianK]

my dads friend did yogo(sp?) and they said chant this name but he decended not do and search the name on google and it was a demons name.

[headheart]

my dads friend did yogo(sp?) and they said chant this name but he decended not do and search the name on google and it was a demons name.

Thanks for sharing that Brian. In the introduction to a book that I am planning to read by Gabriele Trinkle titled 'Delivered to Declare' she quotes Ephesians 5:11 - And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. The NIV translates it as 'Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.' The obsession with Yoga and Meditation and the agressive marketing of things mystical to Christians of late; has really convinced me to share some clear ideas about what PRAYER really is all about for Chrsitians. The empy head, mantra, and yoga type merge with Christianity shows a unsoundness in proper bibical teaching on prayer, and considering that the Scriptures (Genesis - Revelation) use the word pray (313 times) and prayer (114 times) and intercession (9 times) it is clear that a careful study of prayer from the Scriptures (Genesis - Revelation) should be the first place we go rather than shopping out to the 'self help systems and methods' of the world.

The following extract from a Newsletter I receive per email, really got me thinking about the lengths that the Yoga crowd are prepared to got to, to indoctrinat little ones.

Yoga for Children

Kids in public school are learning yoga. According to yoga instructor, Mark Blanchard, (of Progressive Power Yoga, he taught children at Colfax Elementary school in California this past November. On his blog, he states: "I will be introducing yoga to all of the kids at the school as I donate a full yoga program." Blanchard has been featured in many magazines such as Family Circle and Seventeen and has trained many actors and actresses (like Jennifer Lopez and Drew Barrymore). Blanchard plans to "bring Progressive Power Yoga to as many places as I can around the states (as well as the globe) in the coming year."

Part of Blanchard's plans include working with Mini Yogis Yoga for Kids. On the Mini Yogis website, they list not only Blanchard's company but many other organizations as well, many of which are schools like Happy Land Preschool in Culver City and St. Monica's Elementary School in Santa Monica.

Yoga for kids is on the rise, and if your child attends public school, you may want to check to see if they are teaching him or her yoga. A program called YogaEd provides yoga classes under the heading of "health/wellness" programs for schools. Those programs take place in several states including California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Washington, DC.

Parents whose kids are in Christian schools may need to be concerned too. More and more churches and Christian organizations are opening their doors to the practice of Yoga. And the biggest Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson, published a book titled Yoga for Christians earlier this year. It's just a matter of time before kids in Christian schools will be learning Yoga and eventually the art of meditation.

It is tragic to know that countless public school children are being taught eastern mysticism and will learn how to say "Namaste (the god in me greets the god in you) before they learn that they can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ without going into altered states through meditation. And it is equally tragic that much of Christendom will not be able to help them because they are doing the same practices through their spiritual formation programs in their churches.

It seems that ending prayer and bible study in schools is reaping a really bad harvest as the cults sweep into lead little ones to bitter waters. Without proper instruction in prayer, it is no wonder that so many are buying into the meditation and yoga practices that would have been laughed at as dabbling in the occult a decade or so ago. It does seem that there is a lot of ignorance as to the danger of Yoga, and disguising it as Christian Yoga is a very wicked practice indeed. I hope that those who have been damaged by Yoga will come forward and testify of it's harmfulness, but better still give some sound biblical teaching on what real PRAYER IS....

Firstly, perhaps a really exacting definition of what Prayer is biblically speaking will get us rolling back in the right direction and get this Bride ready for it's Groom...

[BrianK]

headheart I know this is off topic but it says you were a babe then became a man but doesn't God tell us to humble ourselves and approach him in pray like we are little children?

[headheart]

headheart I know this is off topic but it says you were a babe then became a man but doesn't God tell us to humble ourselves and approach him in pray like we are little children?

Certainly trusting God in the same way that a little child trusts his mommy and daddy. However, in the matter of prayer there is much that we need to learn to grow up, or mature in the faith. If we stay in diapers we will always been asking for things for our own selves, I think part of maturing is becoming more like Jesus in our behaviour and that certainly includes being more like Him in prayer as well.

In the early days we are so needy, I mean for ourselves. Lord, I need your help and so on and so forth, but really when our prayer life starts to mature as our life in general, I think we need to be praying (interceding) on behalf of all saints, and especially for those who minister the Gospel.

I know that when I started out in prayer, I walked around naked for a few years...hahahaha....I did not know much about the armour of God or its importance and the fact of being engaged in a spiritual WAR !!! ....so I just never checked out the store room, for armour. (Ephesians)

There is also the matter of maturing in Christ and with this we learn to operate in the priestly office and kingly office...after all 'Hebrews' does refer to us as priests unto our God. There is so much growing up and maturity in faith, but more in being Christlike in prayer.

A baby believer might give a few minutes prayer for a friend, but as one deepens in the Spirit one might spend a night or a week in fasting and prayer. Prayer definitely takes a lot of self sacrifice, or as Rees Howells discovered, it took everything. Complete surrender in prayer has got to be a target that we need to work at throughout our lives....I know I am still a baby but compared with how I was thirty years ago, I know that I have plenty of growing up in this area, to be like the Master who spent fourty days in the desert, who prayed until he began to bleed. Certainly the pathway to the cross was marked with prayer, and as Scripture says, 'With loud cries he cried out to Him who would save Him.'

We have such a long, long way to go in this regard. I do believe prayer is a definite thermometer to gauge our growth in Christ. It does not make us more spiritual, it just reveals the level of our loyalty and faithfulness to the Lord.

Man I am so amped for prayer after your question. Thanks.