Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Can I Use "Eastern Language" in my Prayer and Devotional Life?


Can I use "Eastern Language" in My Prayer and Devotional Life?

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I am not sure how many of you that read this blog are real familiar with the Emergent Church Movement. If not I suggest you get familiar with it in order that you not be caught up in it at all. It is a basket of bad apples!. For more informations go to a blog site called Emergent No to begin. Also note that there are many other good sites that address the problems of the Emergent movement.
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This brings me to my question of the day: Can I use "Eastern Language in My Prayer and Devotional Life?
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Now I understand that we are not to be doing Yoga, or other strange stuff that we see some of the eastern mystics do, nor are we to be doing TM as a part of and a way to worship (formally or informally), pray and have devotions.
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So I have thought about how the Bible would bear on this question that I have since I hold Sola Scriptura. This doctrine I hold states the sufficiency of the Bible to be the only rule of 1. faith (orthodoxy) and 2. practice (orthopraxy) (did I spell that right :)
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1. The Bible - Written in an Eastern Culture
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I notice that the Bible is written in a culture far from mine. I live in the US and the ways of the eastern cultures are so strange to my way of life, So in my discoveries I found that the Bible is written in an eastern culture.
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2. Grammatical and Historical Intrepretation Takes me to the East.
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In seeking to understand the Bible I must take the Theological, Grammatical (Eastern language) and Historical (In Eastern Culture) approach in interpreting it.
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3. I discovered that the Hebrew writers used language that establishes mental pictures. The are very poetical and picturesque (did I spell that correctly:) Here are a few examples:
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Psa 42:1-2 To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. (2) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
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Psa 56:8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
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Psalm 23 - We have the two images of comfort and protection from our God in a.) The Shepherd and b.) the Feast

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Psa 36:7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
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Psa 40:1-2 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. (2) He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
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Therefore I conclude that if we only use the Bible imagery alone ( which some are only comfortable with) that we are using Eastern language. So the answer to the question is yes. I can use the images of the Bible, or I can use images as they come to me as I often like to do of "jumping into my Father's arms of love". . However our mental thoughts of God must not profane His character in any way. This is Sola Scripture in practice
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