Yoga and the Bible

In my old age, (I am exaggerating), I have found that I have some trouble with joints on the left side.  The Alberta Health care system provides for some face to face counselling on health related matters, and my counselor encouraged me to get involved with yoga classes.  I progressed from the extremely gentle Realignment Yoga, to the Power Yoga offered at lunch time.  With some practice, I am finding that I am actually quite flexible.  It is a lot of fun and I feel that the yoga class is my candy dessert exercise class.  I am also feeling that I am getting stronger in ways that help me move, during day to day demands on the body.  I can feel that my muscles and joints are there for me when I need them.  This is a great blessing.

In sitting and thinking about it, it occurred to me that there is something similar in the spiritual realm.   Many people nowadays, have very little knowledge of the Bible, the Bible stories, about faith in God, about the Ten Commandments and the Creed, daily and weekly worship.  They have become very, very weak in this area.  And they don't know it.  Until they muscle up and practice it, they are not aware of what they are missing, of what is not there for them when they are in crisis situations, or ethical conundrums, how to teach their kids, or how to pray.  They need to take their Bible class, the way they take their yoga class.

They will suffer a spiritual breakdown, a psychological breakdown, an existential breakdown, fall into cynicism,  skepticism, nihilism, drug addictions, anxiety, neurosis, etc. and not quite know how it hit them.  Their spirit is weak and untrained, like my body was weak and untrained.  I don't want to say that I am better than those people.  But I work at keeping the message of hope, love, grace, forgiveness, in my mind, through going to sermon, to communion, and reading my Bible.  Also, we are all going to age, lose everything and die.  How are we preparing for that? How will you cope and how will you cope when your loved ones die? --Sit in lotus position?  Hardly.

Some might think that the Eastern Yoga and consciousness raising provides a kind of spirituality.

I find that all the business with calming yourself and getting into your body and out of your mind, is a healthy exercise.  I don't pray or chant to any gods, etc. I focus on the stretches and what I can stretch better, and how I can get circulation into tissues that don't get a lot of circulation.  It's good.  Thinking more about what you are doing and why you are doing it, is also a healthy exercise.

I would recommend, however, to all those who think that yoga and mindfulness is the answer, that they are missing out on forming their spirit.

Don't just shape your body, shape your spirit, too.  Read your Bible.

And then there also is the "Kindness Muscle":  http://www.businessinsider.com/lasting-relationships-rely-on-traits-2015-11   Boy, we can all learn a lot there, working on the kindness muscle in our relationships.

"Versions" of the Bible / Atheists and Jews

It has happened to me several times now that someone thought that the various "versions" of the Bible are all different and products of various edits over the years.  Every time some editor (I don't know who they would mean) has picked away at the literature, there is a new version.

Some rabbi, whose talk a friend of mine liked on Facebook, went on for about half an hour tying to distinguish the "a son of man" in Daniel, from the "the Son of Man" of the Gospels.  In the middle of that he laughed in scorn at the King James "version".  First of all, it was a great travesty to go from "a" son of man to "the"son of man.  Then it was ridiculous that there could be "versions" of this.

We must be grasping at straws, me thinks.  Messianic Jews find this passage extremely compelling.

The fact is that the manuscripts are ancient and have been treated with reverence and care.  The different versions, deal with changes in our contemporary language and expression.  All try to be faithful to the original.

For an example of different "versions" of the Bible see this: http://biblehub.com/
for the Bible in different languages and editions.



---------------  Also from Facebook below:  Comedian wrong about the Bible.

"The moment an atheist or critic of the Bible (or comedian, in this case) uses this ridiculous telephone canard, you can be sure they have zero idea what they are talking about, and are farting hot wind for rhetorical effect.
The Bible did not come to us through a process of editing, rewriting, or multiple translations. Every, single reputable translation we have comes directly from spectacularly well-attested Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. And in general, the newer, more literal translations (ESV, NASB, etc.) are drawn from the very oldest manuscripts, which long predate the sources for older English translations, like the King James. And of course, the Bible's manuscript evidence is stronger than virtually any other work of antiquity, including the works of philosophers like Plato and authors like Homer, whom no one seriously disputes as authentic and essentially true to their autographs.
In other words, when someone uses the telephone argument, you can dismiss them, and suggest they come back when they know what they're talking about."
~@Gregory Shane Morris

John 17:17

Luther on Psalm 51

We are at the very tail end of the Brecht:  Luther:  Shaping and Defining the Reformation, which takes us into the early 1530's, the publishing of the commentary on Galatians, Melanchton's refining of the Apology to the Augsburg confession regarding justification, and a commentary on Psalm 51.

When confronted with the great Psalm 51 and its main themes of repentance and justification, Luther felt that he was truly a student who needed the Holy Spirit as his schoolmaster.  Nevertheless, his commentary may be called a masterpiece.   Luther's modesty came from the fact that it was impossible for a human to understand what sin, grace, and true repentance were;  this had to be given by God.  Because the papacy had not understood sin as an evil root and a sickness unto death, it was also unable to understand grace.  Therefore, Luther could not limit himself to a mere commentary, but also had to argue against this false view.  It is not by chance that in this context we find Luther's tersest definition of theology:  "The knowledge of God and of man is divine wisdom and true theology.  And it is the knowledge of God and of man that is ultimately related to the God who justifies and to man the sinner, so that the subject of theology is really man who is guilty and lost and the God who justifies and who is the Savior."  Anything in theology that is more than this is an error and worth nothing at all.  It really has to do with the eternal fate of man.  But by the God who shows mercy Luther means no one but the Christ who gives his promise.  He, and not the judge, as the whole tradition had said, is the righteous God.  This was the bridge over the deep chasm between God's righteousness and his mercy.  Contrary to all expectations, the sinner could plead for mercy.  The Christian life consisted of nothing but  grace.  Everything depended on whether one thought of God as vengeful or as merciful, for he would meet man accordingly.  To lose oneself in the depths of grace "is our true theology."  God had nothing to do with saints; a "holy man" was a fiction.  Even after a gracious God had forgiven him, a Christian needed God's help in his daily struggle against sin.  External crosses and dangers thus were some of the means that the Holy Spirit used to train Christians.

Man's sinfulness was not in his deeds.  On the basis of Ps. 51:7, it was part of his elemental nature.  However, Luther was cautious not to ascribe a special taint to marriage, procreation, and conception.  The original sinfulness of man was ultimately a mystery, although it was a primary theological statement without which the Holy Scriptures could not be understood.  But God loved those who acknowledged that they were lost.  He purified them and set them free.  "God is no other than the one who loves the contrite, the tormented, the perplexed, the God of the humble.  If I could understand this, I would be a theologian."   Anyone who came to God in a lost conodition brought him the most appropriate offering.  However, it was difficult to turn from this lost condition to trusting in God;  this was the "true theology."  In contrast to the preceding lectures, the exposition of Psalm 51 dealt hardly at all with the contemporary situation.  It concentrated completely on the real concern of theology, the God who was gracious to the sinner, As Luther had really done ever since his decisive discovery.  (pp. 456-457)

It would be nice to find a link to this commentary.  It sounds very worth reading.


In the meantime, and it being Lent, we can contemplate what it means to bring a real sinner to our merciful God, who is to be thanked and praised for his undeserved kindness for such as each of us.


"The Christian life consisted of nothing but  grace.  Everything depended on whether one thought of God as vengeful or as merciful, for he would meet man accordingly.  To lose oneself in the depths of grace "is our true theology."-- Wow. 


(...  I can't find the commentary on-line.  But we do have Psalm 51, itself!)




    For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
 ¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
   blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
   and cleanse me from my sin.
 ³ For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
   and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
   and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
   sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
   you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
 ⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
   wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
   and blot out all my iniquity.
 ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
   and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
   or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
   and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
 ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
   you who are God my Savior,
   and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
   you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise.
 ¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
   to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
   in burnt offerings offered whole;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Video on Tyndale and the first English Bible

A friend sent me a link to this excellent video released Dec. 14th on Tyndale and the first English Bible.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/media/video/ondemand/bible-is-true/william-tyndale