Stuck on a rock and in a hard place

No the above title is not a poor attempt at a well-known cliche or a mistranslation of it found somewhere. Its been very true for me lately, actually it is always true that being firmly planted on the Rock is the best place to be when you find yourself in a hard place.

A recent hard place for me was the predicament I found myself in at university, where I was required to study a unit called Asian Mind, Health & Spirituality as part of my degree. I wasn't too sure about its content, but I knew that it focus on the practices and faith of Asian religions. I was a little afraid that I might be asked to compromise my faith during the practical workshops. The first day I wasn't reassured at all, when the lecturer told the class that if anyone was a Christian it would be most beneficial for them if they were to put Christianity aside for this subject. Even amongst the inner turmoil I felt like God said he would be my rock in this hard place, and that he wanted me to complete this unit.

Its only been a few weeks in but I can thank God placing me in this class, and for being my firm rock. The things I am learning have only served to make me more certain that He is the only ONE. God has revealed alot to me. The most frequent thing I am seeing is how the enemy has taken a truth and just twisted it ever so slighty, which has lead to whole groups of people being led away from the true God. God using this class to grow in my heart an even greater desire to see people set free from Satan's lies and deceptions.

Taoism seems to have alot of wisdom and some of the quotes even seem to be parallels to verses in the Bible. They can seem right, yet have wrong meanings. There is a Taoist saying that says “Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river” For us to really be strong we need to be still and allow a great power to work through us that sounds Biblical. Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God" and in John 7 the Holy Spirit that lives within us is referred to as a living stream / river. It almost seems to fit... but it doesn't. The reason is their idea of God is 'self', and they believe the power that comes from within, must come from oneself. If only they knew where true power comes from, if only they knew where the true living waters flow, then God's living waters could flow mightly through them.

The past two week have been spent looking at Hinduism, and its quite complex. Many schools of thoughts exist in Hinduism, but amongst them there are also many common strands. They have a saying that says "this life is only a bridge, don't build your house on it" The principle of not storing wealth here on earth is a good one, but the problem is that they don't know where they are going (where the bridge leads) and they don't know how to get there (who will lead the way). They're heading for nothingness, when they should be heading for fullness, and they think they're taking the bridge of reincarnation, but in reality there is only the one way, the one known as THE WAY. Unfortunately they will achieve a state of having nothing.

One of six main schools of thoughts in Hinduism is Yoga. Some people have differing views on yoga, some Christians like to take part in the practices of yoga if it is done by a Christian yogi (a Yoga devotee and teacher). It was eye-opening for me to learn of yoga's place in Hinduism and what the word yoga actually means. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means "to yoke" or "to bind", and the practice of yoga is the process of uniting ones "individual self" with the "greater self". Binding our wills to God and what he wants us to be is a good thing, but binding our will to that of the Hindu gods does not sound like a good idea to me. Taking time out, stretching, exercising, relaxing, breathing are all things we should do, but for me at least there is no way I'm doing yoga (yoking & binding).