Competitive Mothering

Had to share this wonderful post from Tim Challies about Competitive Mothering. You can read it here.  I'm sure this is something all of us deal with, I know I do!

The Yoga Question....still going

We have a family vacation coming up - and coming up rather quickly. We will be taking our camper down to the Keys at the end of June for 1 week of fun, sun, kayaking and fishing heaven. Every vacation, I am prompted to do what most ladies do - loose weight. I guess the thought of soaking in a bathing suite all week in front of people is a bit frustrating with extra weight. Well, who am I kidding, I will probably hide behind my Columbia fishing pants and new Columbia fishing shirts I got for Mother's Day.

Well, in order to get in somewhat presentable shape, I have embarked on the Insanity journey. Don't know anything about insanity? Well, let me tell you - it is by far the HARDEST workout ever! Six days a week of pure, hard, intense, cardio interval training. I admit, I hate it. I hate the squats. I hate the jumps. I hate the suicide drills and pushups and every other hard exercise that I am attempting to accomplish. But I honestly WANT to fit in those Columbia shorts hanging in my closet with the tags still on them. They are so nice and I have had them as motivation to get in them - for 2 years! Its time, really time to finally make this happen. I was hating the Insanity still and then came the cardio recovery day. It was a bit slower but had several yoga poses embedded in it. Sigh. What to do. Do I do the poses? Not do the poses? For the day, I followed along. In all fairness, Shaun T wasn't guiding us in any type of breathing or meditating exercise. It was pure stretching and recovery that happened to be a yoga pose. Afterwards though, I felt bad - guilty almost defiled. How could I, in good conscience, participate in something that is so questionable, so controversial? Or is Yoga simply misunderstood? I really wasn't sure how to move forward with the program. On Saturday, Tim Challies linked an article entitled, Hindus Want To Take Back Yoga. You can read the article here. This particular quote caught my eye:

Shah is wary of these adaptations, noting that yoga teaches pluralism, “the idea that there are multiple paths to the Divine (or God.)” “I believe that at some point a person with an exclusivist mindset (i.e. the idea that my God is the only God, my way is the only way, those who don’t believe in my God cannot be ‘saved’, etc.), who is deepening his/her yoga practice will eventually realize there is an inherent contradiction between his/her belief and the path of yoga,” Shah said. “I have yet to understand how ‘Christian yoga’ reconciles that.”

So, as I read this I see Hindus, where Yoga originating telling me that Yoga cannot be separated like people try to make it....ie Christian Yoga. Now, I know Albert Mohler has been very outspoken against Christians participating in Yoga and I have tended to agree with him. I have read much on Sola Sisters website regarding the New Age and the issues with practicing yoga. I believe, unless he has recanted, that even Mark Driscoll has said No on the yoga thing. What are we to do with this? I have read that every yoga pose, every pose, is a sacrificial pose to a hindu god...an act of worship. I will tell you that I have tended to side with Dr. Mohler. I have chosen not to participate in yoga exercise classes. Let me go a step further here. My church, a Southern Baptist church (which isn't Reformed in nature), has a nice gym that we are members of. They offer several types of yoga and pilates classes. I have never taken one of them, and really have no intention on taking them. But am I being unreasonable? Philippians 4:8 ESV tells us:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

I am having a hard time reconciling if yoga is honorable, just, pure, lovely, excellent. Can we take those characteristics and apply them to yoga? Well, the answer is no, not in a hindu form. Thus, in our minds, in order to make it these things, we just take out the eastern mysticism practices. Does that make it right? I mean, IF Hindus are telling us this can't be done....can it? I really would love to hear comments. I have debated this with good friends. I have plenty who see no issue with Yoga. Their excuse is "they can't make me worship a Hindu god." But if the very pose itself is an act, then can we do it? As for Insanity.....I continue to hate it. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. Hopefully, I will get my desired results before vacation. However, I will not be doing any yoga poses. I believe I can stretch without doing yoga and eliminate any question about it. Please share away!

 

FREE Systematic Theology Class

I know this makes me a nerd, but I was so excited to see this: Mongergism Books is giving away Wayne Grudem's entire class on Systematic Theology. It is on 3 CDs in MP3 format. You can check out the entire deal here. The only thing you had to pay for was shipping, which for the very basic 7-14 day shipment was $4.99. What a deal!!!

 

Thoughts on Bible Study

In the last week, I have seen two really good blog posts on Bible Study - especially women's. The first was last week on Marinate Blog, called "Why That 'Verse of the Day' Is Not Changing Your Life.  It is an excellent post on why these so called church Bible studies don't really change you.  It is worth the read.

The second was posted over at The Gospel Coalition's blog and it was called "Why Bible Study Doesn't Transform Us."

Both of these are excellent articles on where the real life changing power comes from - the careful and diligent study of the Bible, alone.

This has really been a burden I have been pondering lately.  I see so many people go to Bible study after Bible study - which typically end up being a book discussion and not "real" Bible study - and there is no true change.  I know the drill, I have sat in on several "book" discussions disguised as Bible study.  Oh, I remember that study of being Mary in a Martha world.  Besides not enjoying it, the book had some horrible flaws to it and most of the class never noticed them.

Change.  Real life altering, life changing, victorious living change can come ONLY through real Bible study - the study of the Bible.

I would simply like to challenge women to take the summer and only study God's word.  I will list some resources below to aid you in that.  But really, how about picking a book of the Bible and working through it all summer?  Study it.  Memorize it.  Analyze it.  Use all those literary and English tools from days past and apply them.  Get your hands on a good concordance, look up the original language.  Ask yourselves who, what, when, where, why, how to every book, chapter, verse.  Remember that a devotion a day isn't going to bring life altering, God honoring change.  So can we all agree to put Jesus Calling away for the summer and see what God has to say to us??

Do you want to know the character of God?  Do you want to understand who God truly is and how He works in our lives?  While good intending authors can assist us in understanding, they cannot replace the very Word of God.  Hebrews tells us that the Word is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword.  1 Peter tells us that while the grass and flowers fade, the word of the Lord endures forever.  Chapter two tells us to long for pure milk of the word so we can grow in our salvation.  Ladies, its time to shelve that Bible study and spend some time drinking pure milk.

If anyone is interested in going through a book together, please email me at solamom@verizon.net and we will come up with a book to work through together.  Right now, besides preparing for the Daniel class I teach on Wednesday nights, I am working through 1 Peter.  But I would love to work through a book with a couple of ladies.

Now onto some resources:

First, get a good word for word translation.  The ESV is my preferred however, when I do book studies, I study typically out of the New American Standard Version - The New Inductive Study Bible from Precept Ministries.  I like this particular Bible because I keep all my markings in it and it also has various charts to help you keep track of your lists and answer questions.  There are NO study notes - so an excellent choice to really force you to study for yourselves.  I remember hearing in a Bible study class, from the leader of the class, "I read the study notes more than the Bible itself."  No, ladies, this should not be.  You can study the word for yourself!

Next, get some good resources:  commentaries, Greek/Hebrew dictionaries, Bible Dictionaries, etc.  These are aids only, not the meat.  You use them ONLY after you have analyzed the text.  My absolute favorite resource is Logos software.  Next would be MacArthur's commentary.  If you do a book on prophecy, check out Walvoord's books.

If the thought of Bible study on your own is scary, then get a study that doesn't focus on self examination more than the text.  I highly recommend Precept Upon Precept.  While there may be a self application question here and there, by far the bulk of these studies are of the text.  They give you just enough guidance to work through the text but you are doing most of the work.

I have also written a Bible study on 1 Samuel (2 Samuel is underway but not quite complete yet).  This is similar to Precept Upon Precept, however I do give you some journaling space.  It also has a prayer guidance for the day and the prayer portion is really where the practical application comes in.  If your interested, please email me at solamom@verizon.net and I will email you a PDF version of the study.

Memorize the Word!  If you have children, consider enrolling them in the summer Bible Bee and memorizing along with them.  Also, Desiring God has an app for the iPhone/iPad market (not sure about Android) called Fighter Verse.  It is an excellent app to help you memorize the Bible.

And I know I said put the books and studies away, but if you would like to breeze through an easy read on How To Study The Bible, then get your hands on Kay Arthur's book, "How to Study the Bible."  She teaches you the inductive method.  Personally, I have found the inductive method to be the best way to study!

To close, read this challenge here by Dan Phillips.  It goes along with exactly everything that the other two blogs and this post has said.

I hope to hear from some of you!  1 Peter 1:25, "But the Word of the Lord endures Forever."  And this is the word which is preached to you.

The Glory of Creation

I have a post up at Laced With Grace today. You can read it here.