If loving God with all your heart means offering up to him your emotional self, and loving God with all your mind means cultivating a quiet mind brought into obedience to Christ, what does loving God with all your soul mean?

First, becoming justified. Then, sanctified. 

There is no topic more paramount than the justification of your soul. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Satan, sin and death were conquered. And a pathway was opened wide and clear for this fallen world to be reconciled with God. Your part to play in this is a simple yet profoundly critical choice. The only choice that matters. Will you take the free gift of salvation offered to you by the sacrifice of Christ? 

I have an atheist acquaintance who once got into a friendly debate with me over this topic. He said if he had sinned against another person, he understood them taking offense. But why would some God somewhere care about what he'd done? He hadn't sinned against that God, so why does he owe that God anything? At the time, I was unable to answer him. 

A couple of years later, the answer came to me while listening to the message that Pastor Caleb Campbell was giving at Desert Springs Bible Church. Caleb said that when God created the universe he poured out his love into it. You can see the care and creativity put into all things, from the grandiose galaxy down to the veins of a leaf. God is truly the muse for every artist there ever was, inspiring all human creative endeavors from Day Six on with the immeasurable beauty of the universe around us. 

And no creation was more favored than mankind. We were given a soul, and animated by God's very breath. He made us in his image. Every day he walked with us in the Garden, wanting to savor his relationship with us. We were loved and cherished. 

But we invited evil here.

When you have a child whom you love and adore, and you raise them with great care, and then they choose to invite evil into their lives.... it hurts. 

If you think of it from his perspective, he has had to sit and watch evil inhabit and destroy from the inside out that which he loves and holds dear. Because he gave us freedom, as unconditional love requires, we had a choice. We made the wrong one. And he was most definitely the offended party. 

Once evil took up residence here, we got what Adam and Eve wanted. They knew the difference between good and evil. But I bet they regretted the choice. Yet they had no power to take it back. 

But God did not sit, victimized, and feel sorry for himself. He made a plan to get us back. He decided to send his son to become flesh and take on our punishment so that we could be reconciled to him again. So he could take back that intimate relationship. That is why Jesus Christ, the Good News for All Mankind, came to us. That is why he lived, that is why he died. He paid for our sins so we could be justified, evil could be eradicated, and all could be forgiven.

So if I have the opportunity to see that atheist acquaintance again, I now know the answer to his question. When you sin against someone's cherished child, you sin against them. When you sin against God's beloved creation, you sin against him. What mankind owed, and what Jesus paid, was an enormous debt.

If you have never been reconciled to the Father through the Son, I invite you to do that now. HE invites you to do it. It is only a matter of choosing to believe and trust in him. Of saying, "God, I have sinned against you, but I want to be reconciled. I want you to save me and dwell in my heart. Please give me the gift of salvation made possible by your son, Jesus Christ." 

Salvation and eternal life with God are a gift. You can only have a gift if you accept it. A gift offered to someone who refuses it remains with the giver. It's up to you to accept. The opposite of salvation and eternal life are damnation and everlasting death. That is why there is no choice more critical and no subject more paramount than this. Your eternity is at stake.

But God is not finished with you once you have been saved. Justification is the dawn, and sanctification is the rest of the day. Once you've let in the son-light, he begins a good work in you: bringing you to Christlikeness.

If God has saved us, aren't we done? Shouldn't we live our lives as we want, and look forward to eternal life? Paul asked the same question in the book of Romans:

And again in 1 Corinthians 6:12:

As well as Galatians 5:1:

Sanctification is the process of cooperating with the work of God in your life. It means that his goal of unity with you is also your goal. That his will in the world is also your will. The process is not an easy one, because the strongholds of sin and selfishness take a siege like no other to pull them down. But it is not your work. You can't remove even a single stone. The warrior responsible is God, and you are the prize inside that the enemy is hiding away. Your only job is to allow him to attack the stronghold. Let go of your attachment to patterns of sin, lies, and attitudes against the Spirit, and let him make you wholly new.

In the yoga community, there is a lot of talk about enlightenment. About the attaining of a state of being where you are free from suffering, free from the selfishness of the egoic mind, and perpetually united to divinity in bliss. The Yoga Sutras, which are often used in teacher training, explain the "steps" to achieving the goal. You could say it is a twist on works-based righteousness.

In Old Testament times, the people had the law to tell them what to do and not to do. If they could follow the law perfectly, then they would be in no need of salvation. But none of them could achieve that. So, they would offer sacrifices for their sins, giving a spotless, innocent animal as recompense.

No matter where you go, no matter the religion or creed you hold dear, there is this idea that if you follow a strict path you will achieve righteousness. You will find God. You will regain what we lost when we invited evil here.

But hang around on planet Earth long enough and you will discover what all human beings, reaching back through the ages, have already known: nobody's perfect. The systems we've erected set us up for failure. God is not attainable that way.

It is a good thing that human beings are not the only ones working on the reconciliation of God and man. We cannot attain God by scrambling to climb heavenward, but he can reach down and pull us up. The secret is the surrender of our desire to do it ourselves, to be the author of our own salvation. The secret is to let God help you.

He created us to be in perfect unity and everlasting relationship with him. He created us so we could be loved by him, love him completely, and love those around us unconditionally. Allow him to reach down and pull you up. Cooperate with him in this work of reunion he began in you.

Decide you will choose the best instead of the good: "'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are helpful." (1 Cor 6:12)

Decide you will not be dominated by sin, but dwell in freedom: "'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything." (1 Cor 6:12) "Do not submit yourselves again to a yoke of slavery." (Gal 5:1)

Decide to walk in newness of life, and let the dead stay dead: "...in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Rom 6:1)

Did you ever notice that the pursuit of happiness is the goal of every human being? Deep down, achieving lasting happiness is the motivation for everything you do.

Rejoice, because happiness is what you receive when you cooperate with God. It is his goal for you. But he has no illusions as to what will make you happy and what will cause that happiness to last forever. He knows that when you are in union with him, you will be happy. That is what he created you for:

Joy, unending joy.

Peace that passes understanding.

Hope that does not disappoint.

Love that endures forever.

Faith that can move mountains.

Life, and life abundant.

And he has promised he will bring that work to completion.

Be encouraged, brothers and sisters in Christ. Putting sin to death in your life is a painful, long and trying process at times, but cooperation with God leads to rewards that far exceed that pain. Let his Spirit, alive in you, give you rest. Rely on his promises. Fight the good fight, run the race. Keep his words always at the forefront of your mind:

After my conversion to Catholicism, I went through a honeymoon period in my faith. The Holy Spirit was content to woo me with many blissful and mystical experiences. My Father God was elated every time his baby daughter looked his way, and let her know. I was avidly looking for opportunities to meditate and pray. In my spare time, I composed prayers and spiritual writings out of an outflowing of adoration for Jesus that I could not contain.

At the time, my boyfriend and I were attending Our Lady of Perpetual Help Byzantine Catholic Church. It was the ideal place for someone new to the Catholic faith to gain understanding, since the pastor's heart was entirely given over to the work of the Lord. His name was Father Chris, and despite his many ailments, which usually kept him wheel-chair bound, when he got behind the pulpit to preach on Sunday morning he inspired, challenged, educated, admonished and conveyed the love of Christ to his parishioners. His caring leadership was a blessing to everyone he encountered, and his endurance of the pain that wracked his body was honorable and awe-inspiring in a Pauline sort of way.

A couple of years after converting, Brent and I were married. Because he was a Software Engineer and Albuquerque was not exactly a technology town, we ended up taking a job that moved us out of New Mexico. That also meant leaving Our Lady of Perpetual Help behind. And it was there that the trouble began for me.

Before continuing, I must caution you. I wish only to honestly tell my experience of what took place, and not to attack anyone. If you are Catholic, look at the following as an opportunity for ecclesiastic introspection. If you are not, please do not judge. Sin is present in every church and every denomination, because humans are present. Rather, take these stories as an opportunity to discern. Pray for those who are finding it hard to see God for all the distractions within the body of Christ. Pray that they find a place to worship where they can be fed and grow, and where they can reach out and serve. With the compassion and understanding of our Master, read on.

With our move to Colorado Springs, my husband and I began an arduous spiritual journey, searching for the right church. My Holy Spirit experiences seemed to dry up, and I found myself in the desert of my faith walk. This journey lasted ten long years, and through it all we longed for a drink of God's Spirit, or any sign that he was still out there.

Our first church in Colorado Springs was a Byzantine Catholic mission church.  It had the form of prayer we preferred, but the "why" of the worship had been misplaced.  The minister was endlessly wishing he was elsewhere, and the congregation was preoccupied with procedures and rubrics rather than the Gospel.  We finally were forced to make another choice, because the mission closed after several months. 

The next church parish we attended was Roman Catholic.  It loved to emphasize how "We are the body of Christ!" At first, this was a message that hit home and reminded all present how they need to actively reach out and play their role as a member of that body. But it began to get a little weird when months went by and the same message was repeated, without the actual person of Christ ever being mentioned. Were they ever going to talk about Jesus? Did the pastor forget that that body he was so fond of mentioning had a head? I caught on that the real point of the message in their eyes was that everyone should volunteer their time, talent and treasure to their church.

Things took a really sour turn one Sunday morning when it was time for the Gospel reading. The Gospel is a sacred part of the mass, and Catholics hold the reading in reverence. But, for some odd reason, as the lector started to read, a kid with a big boom box blasting music was making his way down one aisle. My husband got up to tell him to stop when we noticed a woman talking loudly on her phone, pacing around before the pulpit. Then, next to the sanctuary up front, we saw a big screen TV, and a kid playing a noisy video game.  The video game audio was piped into the church's sound system - as if the boom box wasn't loud enough.  It became clear that this was a skit to teach us how life distracts us from God. But it was ill-timed. If there is one thing Catholics understand, it is reverence for the things of God. The Gospel reading is too sacred to mar with the kitsch of a skit. My husband had us get up and walk out.

That event caused us never to return to that church. Instead, we hopped from parish to parish, hoping to find one that felt more like home. What we found was that no church wanted to preach as if Jesus and his resurrection were real. They wanted to talk about whatever was lighthearted and trivial, whatever was sure not to offend. And they seemed to think the mass needed fixing. It was much too old-fashioned, and so they endlessly needed to spruce it up. Furthermore, priest after priest gave off the impression that they weren't the ones running the place. They had given their leadership role to a committee of lay people.  These lay ministers clearly had no education about the liturgy and worship which they were butchering.

It was then that I became aware of an internal battle going on within the American Catholic Church between those of a more liberal mindset and those who were conservative. The liberals wanted married priests, women priests, and an endlessly re-invented, better mass. One with a rock band. They wanted to look and act more Protestant. The conservatives wanted their Latin mass back, but if they couldn't have it, at least they didn't want to mess with the traditional Irish sweet-song hymns and the general respect for the sacredness of the mass. This is an over-generalization, of course, but it was these kinds of attitudes we kept encountering. Everyone was more interested in pushing on the Church their personal agendas rather than growing in or spreading the Gospel. They thought that if they could just have it their way, the people leaving the Catholic church in droves would come running home.

What those people who left needed was Jesus. They couldn't find him in the Catholic church, so they left. If the Protestants are attracting huge numbers, it's not because of a great band and more modern service. That might get a person in the door initially, but what holds them there is when they encounter the Living God. Preach Jesus, and they will come! In fact, what I found to be so confusing was that a perfect opportunity to share the Gospel arose every mass -- after the Gospel reading! But time and again each priest would not even mention the words just read in scripture, nor related concepts, nor a sign of any personal faith in Christ. They'd talk about the crazy weather we were having or the latest Cosmopolitan article, but never the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Eventually, life events took us from Colorado Springs to Phoenix, Arizona. We began to attend another Roman Catholic church there, but encountered the same watered-down, irrelevant message as we had in the previous ones.

The only respite came from a guest priest, Father Nacho, who would sometimes say mass.  Every once in a while, you encounter a Spirit-filled person whose very being emanates the triune God. This visiting priest was that way.  "A prophet," my husband called him.  He once announced at mass "I am hearing complaints that I preach the Gospel too often, but I say, I will not cease to preach it because you still don't understand it!"

We looked forward to the Sundays when he would preach, because we knew we'd come away from mass profoundly touched by the wisdom, mystery, and power of God. But, as all guests do, this priest left within the year. And because we had no other cause to stay, and in fact felt very disconnected from that community, we looked for a church home elsewhere. Said poetically, the color gray tends not to attract. True, it won't offend, but neither will it attract. It stands for nothing.

By this time we were experiencing a crisis of faith.  We desperately needed life-support from a pastor who understood our spiritual needs. We thought maybe it was time to try the Byzantine Catholic Church in Phoenix.  Perhaps it would give us a home, since our first positive encounter with Catholicism had been at a Byzantine church. Roman Catholicism in the Southwest had not fed us, so perhaps the difference lay in which Catholic rite you attended (for an explanation of Catholic rites, click here.)  

Instead, we found a church that cared more about the importance of upholding their cultural tradition than the message of Christ.  Our crisis need for our faith to be fed was met with the pastor starting every single homily with a bazooka joke.  My husband said that it was slowly turning his faith into a joke.  

Still, we tried to reach out to this community. At one point, I invited every young family there to a children's cookie decorating party. I thought it would be a good way to fellowship with them. But Catholics are notorious for avoiding fellowship, and apparently these Catholics were no different from their Roman counterparts. Not one of my many invited families showed. I ended up calling in all of the neighborhood kids, and made a party of it anyway.  I couldn't help but think of the wedding parable:

My husband's disillusion was intensifying.  Absent the Gospel message, he just couldn't stand to hear one more joke from the pulpit. I don't think it normally would have been a problem, but the accumulation of negative experiences was beginning to get to him.

This time, we attended a Melkite Catholic Church. Unfortunately, this church was caught up in the lie of a works-based salvation. One memorable homily was on the parable of the wedding feast already mentioned above.  The focus this time was on verses 11-12 which, if you recall, had one guest thrown out of the feast to "wailing and gnashing of teeth" because he had not worn the correct wedding garment. Well, the deacon was giving this particular homily, and explained how it meant that if you didn't wear a coat and tie to church, you were in grave sin. My husband later wondered aloud about how poor people obviously do not have enough money to spend time with God.

But the final nail on the coffin of us attending this particular Melkite Church came one Sunday when a woman in the front pew collapsed. She had been in a horrible car accident just a few weeks earlier, in which her husband had been killed. Though over 90% of her aorta was severed, they managed to save her life. So, to see her collapse was a cause for great concern. Her family in the pew around her quickly gathered near, and talking was going on. Everyone was alarmed. What did the priest do?

Well, her collapse had interrupted his homily. He faced away, and silently stared out a window while rocking back and forth on his heels.  This lasted long enough for an ambulance to arrive and take her away.  As the stretcher started to move down the aisle, he turned back to the congregation and said "Isn't it funny how I was teaching on patience, and here we are, having to be patient?"

No prayers were offered for her as she was wheeled out. Not one word of concern, nor even a glance was afforded her. For someone trying to be God's representative on Earth, this priest lacked the compassion of Christ so much that he couldn't be troubled by the incident in the least.

It should not surprise you that this started a period where we didn't go to church at all. My husband began to repeat the same jaded statement, "You know, we live on Mars." And when you'd ask him why, he'd say, "There's no churches on Mars, so we must be on Mars."

At first, our motivation for staying home was to save our children for growing up in an environment which called itself Christian, but preached something else. We thought they'd grow up to say "If this is Christianity, I don't want to be Christian."  Ironic that to preserve our children in the Christian faith, it was necessary to prevent them from going to church.

Our intermittent church attendance was finally punctuated with one last dire church experience.  Based on a recommendation, we attended yet another new Roman Catholic parish. We only lasted four Sundays. This new church had a tradition of waving their fists in the air during the Alleluia hymn - a slower version of the Arsenio Hall one-handed fist pump. We thought it was a bit strange and unreserved for Catholics to be doing such a thing, but we simply tried to ignore it. That worked until the Sunday when the priest made the whole topic of his homily about the fist pumping. He told his parishioners that people who refused to do the fist pumps were "people of fear." He called them, that is us, "Sadducees."  My husband was very offended at the message, and actually shouted out at the end of the homily "Don't call us Sadducees!"

In three separate and private conversations with that priest after the mass and in the days that followed, my husband was seeking an apology from the priest. The priest, in turn, wanted nothing except for my husband to understand the gravity of the crime he committed by speaking up during mass.  

My husband noted that the notion of Jesus over-turning the tables of the money-changers at church was entirely lost on this pastor. We stopped attending mass.

We worried for our faith. My husband struggled with believing in a God who didn't seem to be active in his own church. He thought maybe he was becoming an agnostic. Meanwhile, I began to sense the presence of God in yoga class and spent my time with him there. My whole yoga routine became worship of Jesus. In this way, the Holy Spirit seemed to be saying, "I am still here, do not be discouraged."

God sometimes chooses the strangest tools to bring you to where he wants you to go. For us, when he was ready to give us the church home we had been seeking for ten years, he used...

Google.

Our Master did not lead a life in the comfort zone. He did not fit in to any mold already established: he was neither a Pharisee nor a Sadducee, and loved sinners but never sinned. In this way, Christian yoga teachers emulate our Lord. We do not fit into pre-established molds: we are not a fully accepted part of the yoga nor the Christian communities. There are those in both communities who understand the value of practicing yoga as a Christian spiritual discipline, and so support us. But you might be surprised at the venom that can sometimes come our way.

A few days ago, I looked up "Christian yoga" on YouTube.com and found a video called: Christoga - Christian Yoga. It is a short advertisement for a Christian yoga video. It is amazing the reactions it elicited.

Some claiming to represent yoga said:

• "Here's another example of how Christians take someone else's hard work and steal it and then slap their name on it."
  
• "Yoga is stretching. If you hallucinate while you're stretching, well, that's a different issue."
  
• "I find it sad that people are associating yoga with religion, yoga is just a vehicle for worship and wellbeing not a religion, if it was a religion you would have less people practicing it."
  
• "You see many religious people have been sucked in to this new false belief that it's ok for a Christian to practice yoga... the two don't and never will mix... one does not support the other...if religious people do actually support yoga then they themselves have been deceived... simple as that."
  
• "Great... let's take two of the world's richest spirititual traditions and combine them to make money from ignorant western retards!!! This is soooo sad. I'm a Hindu... stop abusing my traditions you western imperialists."
  
• "The creators of Yoga - Hindus - did not label it and gave it free to this world but now @#$%^&* Christians using words like Christian Yoga????"
  
• "Christians are like dogs. They need to pee on everything to mark their territory. Predatory culture!"

Some claiming to represent Christianity said:

• "First ask yourself what is yoga, what do the different poses represent... Yoga is in itself a belief system as yoga doesn't follow God's teachings [so] it should be pretty simple...Christians are told to not practice anything from different religions it's as simple as that."
  
• "Christians should not be involved in yoga. It is a form of spiritual meditation. Anything spiritual that is not of God is demonic. What a huge deception this is. It would be the same as getting involved in witchcraft and then calling it Christian witchcraft."
  
• "YOGA MEANS: DIVINE CONNECTION. CONNECTION WITH A GOD. THE ONLY WAY TO CONNECT WITH GOD IS TROUGH "JESUS CHRIST" IF THERE IS [AN]OTHER WAY, THEN MY FRIENDS HE DIED IN VAIN! WAKE UP YOGA, NEW AGE RELIGION IS THE SECRET DOCTRINE OF LUCIFER!"
  
• "Wow, I guess you can't be a born again spirit filled Christian...because if you were you would recognize straight away that some spiritual practices are forbidden and are also dangerous... maybe you should pick up a Bible and read it.... you may learn something..."
  
• "The two women look rather like some Oprah Winfrey educated new age temple prostitutes [rather] than Christian women."
  
• "What planet are you on? Because it's not Earth.... You obviously aren't a born again Christian.... that part is obviously clear... If you have any brains the answers you got would tell you stop."
  

As with any proposed idea, two common causes of resistence are fanaticism and misinformation.  I cannot address fanatics, since fanatics are emotionally attached to the outcome of a debate and feel threatened by the idea of considering positions other than their own. But to remedy the problem of misinformation, I'm taking time to write this post.

What is yoga?

Like meditation, Yoga is a spiritual discipline. Yoga combines three practices: breathing exercises, meditation/contemplation, and physical postures. Yoga originally began with more emphasis on meditation and less emphasis on postures. The practice of yoga dates as far back as 5000 BC. It predates Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, but it has been adopted by all of these religions. Like other spiritual disciplines (i.e. prayer, fasting, etc.), it can be used in any religious context, and does not belong to any one religion. Hatha yoga, which are the postures, can be removed from a religious context altogether and be used solely as a form of exercise. In fact, that often happens in cases where organizations are trying to appeal to a large, general demographic, like gyms and fitness clubs.

What is Christian yoga?

Christian yoga takes the breathing exercises, meditation and physical postures, and adds in Jesus Christ. The Bible is read throughout, personal witness is given and Christian or instrumental music is played. Christian yoga begins in prayer, and its aim is the worship of and contemplation of the Triune God. There is nothing about it that diverts in any direction away from Christian doctrine or devotion. It is instead a unique way to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" Mark 12:30.

Why do people object to Christian yoga?

From the yoga camp:

Although yoga predates the religions which have adopted it by at least 1500 years, nevertheless practitioners of those religions will sometimes object to it being adopted by Christianity. This is understandable, since it has been part of their religious tradition for as much as 3,000 years! In some cases, this can lead to feelings of their faith being trampled upon by ours, whether or not they are aware that yoga is something that predates them. But this is not a universal reaction. In most cases, people are more open-hearted about it, and indeed, yoga has often been called, "India's gift to the world." BKS Iyengar, the founder of the Iyengar yoga school, stated in his book, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, "Yoga is for everyone."

From the Christian camp:

In a lot of cases, fear and ignorance lead people to reject yoga. Because yoga is practiced by other religions as a spiritual discipline, it can sometimes be misunderstood to be a religion in itself. Yoga is as neutral as meditation, prayer or fasting - three other disciplines practiced across many religions - and can be applied as easily in a Christian context. But, thankfully, as the years pass and it becomes more clear that Christians who practice yoga are not harmed by it, this fear is dissipating. It also helps that doctors and other authorities are now recommending yoga for its health benefits to their patients. This has added substantially to its acceptance in the West.

It is true that in rare cases, when you enter a non-Christian yoga class, you may encounter philosophies that disagree with Christianity. This is because of the history and traditions being passed down by that particular teacher or studio. It may surprise you to know that the teachings can vary substantially from studio to studio, or sometimes from teacher to teacher within the same studio! But with Christian yoga, there is no room for anti-Christian thought. If you enter a Holy Yoga class, you enter a class led by Jesus and for Jesus. Brooke Boon, founder of Holy Yoga, summarizes it well:

I have attended non-Christian yoga classes at many studios of differing schools of thought. I rarely encountered teachings against my Christian beliefs, but if I did, I ignored them, and instead lifted up my practice as a gift to my Savior. If any chanting went on, I would chant to myself, "Jesus, Jesus" instead. Still, I obviously wished for a yoga practice that was free from such distractions.

When I discovered there was such a thing as Christian yoga, I was elated, since I had been using my yoga as a prayer to our Lord for years prior. Yoga has always been a way for me to contemplate my God and abide in his Spirit. With yoga, Jesus has guided me towards physical health, which had previously eluded me. My body is the temple of his Spirit, and my soul longs to be still and know him. In both ways, Jesus uses my spiritual discipline of yoga to heal, strengthen and mature me. It has been one of the most significant blessings in my life.

I believe Christ himself not only approves of Christian yoga, but called me and those in my ministry to teach it. In each and every Christian yoga class I have taken or taught, his promise has been demonstrated: "For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them” Matthew 18:20.