¤ ¤ 00:00:01.36\00:00:03.67 ¤ I want to spend my life mending broken people ¤ 00:00:03.70\00:00:05.10 ¤ I want to spend my life removing pain ¤ 00:00:14.68\00:00:25.75 ¤ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ¤ 00:00:25.79\00:00:35.60 ¤ I want to spend my life mending broken people ¤ 00:00:35.63\00:00:56.28 ¤ ¤ 00:00:56.32\00:01:06.49 (Yvonne Shelton) Hello and welcome to 3ABN Today. I'm so 00:01:06.53\00:01:10.57 excited about our program today My name is Yvonne Shelton and 00:01:10.60\00:01:14.90 you are going to be so inspired and encouraged and informed by 00:01:14.94\00:01:20.68 our guest today. But before I introduce her, let me read a 00:01:20.71\00:01:24.55 scripture to you that I felt impressed to share this morning 00:01:24.58\00:01:28.75 with you. This morning when I was having my devotions. This is 00:01:28.78\00:01:38.66 from Colossians 2 verses 6-10: As you, therefore, have received 00:01:38.69\00:01:45.13 Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in 00:01:45.17\00:01:50.84 Him and established in the faith as you have been taught 00:01:50.87\00:01:56.58 abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone 00:01:56.61\00:02:00.52 cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to 00:02:00.55\00:02:06.22 the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the 00:02:06.25\00:02:11.93 world and not according to Christ, for in Him dwells all 00:02:11.96\00:02:17.47 the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete 00:02:17.50\00:02:22.30 in Him who is the head of all principality and power. 00:02:22.34\00:02:29.18 And as you'll see this scripture really says it all. Before I 00:02:29.21\00:02:34.28 introduce Blessings to you we're going to have some music from 00:02:34.32\00:02:38.35 our very own E.T. Everett. She's going to play Bind Us Together/ 00:02:38.39\00:02:44.13 Family of God. 00:02:44.16\00:02:46.90 ¤ ¤ 00:02:51.17\00:07:12.83 Thank you so much E.T. That was so soothing wasn't it? That was 00:07:12.86\00:07:16.36 so beautiful. Well let me introduce you to our guest for 00:07:16.40\00:07:20.64 today. Her name, I mentioned it before, is Blessings Robertson- 00:07:20.67\00:07:25.97 Winn and Blessings has an amazing testimony of how she was 00:07:26.01\00:07:32.01 involved with Yoga. So we're going to talk about your journey 00:07:32.05\00:07:36.08 But before we get to the yoga part let's find out more about 00:07:36.12\00:07:39.79 you. How were you raised? Were you raised in a Christian home? 00:07:39.82\00:07:42.82 Give us a bit of your journey. 00:07:42.86\00:07:46.59 Sure yes, I was indeed. I was 00:07:46.63\00:07:47.96 raised by my mother who was, I can't remember, the third or 00:07:48.00\00:07:52.50 fourth generation, I need to dig into that a little bit more, but 00:07:52.53\00:07:55.94 Seventh-day Adventist, you know. Made sure to adhere to all the 00:07:55.97\00:08:00.28 metrics that we SDAs love to have in our lives. So you know 00:08:00.31\00:08:04.28 not eating unclean foods, making sure that you observe Sabbath. 00:08:04.31\00:08:07.85 You know again, checking all the boxes. I was an avid prayer. You 00:08:07.88\00:08:15.19 know prayer life was a big component in my development. 00:08:15.22\00:08:17.23 My mother had me read and memorize scripture and I did 00:08:17.26\00:08:23.23 find myself reciting that throughout my life even when I 00:08:23.26\00:08:26.90 turned away from the faith and turned away from God. But it's 00:08:26.94\00:08:30.51 just not enough. It's one thing to practice with an idealism in 00:08:30.54\00:08:36.95 it and it's another thing to be serving God, to be just 00:08:36.98\00:08:41.85 completely surrendered and to have discipleship that means 00:08:41.88\00:08:48.69 more to you than the world. Means more to you than any title 00:08:48.72\00:08:51.49 or man's law. And I didn't come to realize that until much later 00:08:51.53\00:08:55.53 on in life. 00:08:55.56\00:08:56.90 So you were brought up in a home where your mother was Adventist. 00:08:56.93\00:09:01.34 (Yes) What about your dad? 00:09:01.37\00:09:02.70 Unfortunately, my father was not but he was absolutely more than 00:09:02.74\00:09:07.21 tolerant and willing to have my mother coach us kids to be 00:09:07.24\00:09:12.78 Adventist, to believe in Christ. When he was 12 years old his 00:09:12.81\00:09:17.02 parents asked him whether he wanted to continue going to 00:09:17.05\00:09:21.86 church. He was a Episcopalian. And he said you know I'm going 00:09:21.89\00:09:25.13 alone. It makes no sense. I'm done with it. And then he went 00:09:25.16\00:09:28.66 through you know young adulthood not really having a faith and by 00:09:28.70\00:09:32.87 the time that time that he was in college exploring life and 00:09:32.90\00:09:36.40 you know young adulthood this was the time when they were 00:09:36.44\00:09:39.77 recruiting for the Viet Nam war and this is when spiritualism 00:09:39.81\00:09:42.64 really broke out in America and the whole mantra give peace a 00:09:42.68\00:09:46.88 chance you know and people started looking to other 00:09:46.92\00:09:49.78 religions to try to fill the gap and so my father was definitely 00:09:49.82\00:09:53.69 wooed by you know Buddhism just in general eastern religions. 00:09:53.72\00:10:00.26 But yet he did not push those ideals on me. He let my mother 00:10:00.30\00:10:05.93 take the helm on my soul and my faith. 00:10:05.97\00:10:10.24 So at what point did you kind of veer off into eastern religious 00:10:10.27\00:10:17.75 thought? 00:10:17.78\00:10:19.11 Well interestingly enough I think I didn't realize that a 00:10:19.15\00:10:22.38 doorway had opened. The fact that I had a father who was 00:10:22.42\00:10:26.32 sympathetic to esotericism and eastern god and religion. And he 00:10:26.35\00:10:31.63 didn't describe it as occultism so I didn't think of it as being 00:10:31.66\00:10:34.50 anything harmful or dangerous. And again I grew up in 00:10:34.53\00:10:36.97 Berkley, a very 00:10:37.00\00:10:38.33 eccentric place where you see a little bit of everything and it 00:10:38.37\00:10:41.40 was not uncommon to see people practicing or share a culture. 00:10:41.44\00:10:45.87 So I didn't find it necessarily offensive. But when I definitely 00:10:45.91\00:10:52.91 started to get challenges when I got a full-ride scholarship to 00:10:52.95\00:10:55.72 a Jesuit University of all places and so you know and 00:10:55.75\00:11:01.72 actually, before that, because I did go to a Catholic school in 00:11:01.76\00:11:05.13 junior high. We didn't have Adventist education available to 00:11:05.16\00:11:09.06 us nearby and so public schools were a little too wonky and 00:11:09.10\00:11:15.40 undisciplined so I ended up going into Catholic school for 00:11:15.44\00:11:20.61 the safety of it and for you know just having a place where 00:11:20.64\00:11:24.88 I could learn and not have to be harassed about things that kids 00:11:24.91\00:11:28.18 are harassed about every day even now. And so I was exposed 00:11:28.22\00:11:32.29 to teachings that aren't Biblical and my parents warned 00:11:32.32\00:11:38.26 me you know the idols that are there, you know that's not what 00:11:38.29\00:11:42.16 God teaches us. You know the policy about what happens to the 00:11:42.20\00:11:46.37 body and the soul when you die. Just teachings that are 00:11:46.40\00:11:49.74 falsified and not Biblical. And... 00:11:49.77\00:11:53.38 Were you confused? 00:11:53.41\00:11:54.74 No, I wasn't confused but it definitely opened a gateway to 00:11:54.78\00:11:59.31 consider other possibilities. And so it's kind of like a 00:11:59.35\00:12:06.99 buffet, you know, when you're in a very eclectic environment 00:12:07.02\00:12:10.69 it's like I kind of reckoned it to being what it must have been 00:12:10.73\00:12:12.99 like for the Israelites when they were trying to find the 00:12:13.03\00:12:14.93 promised land and being among idolatrous people. You know, we 00:12:14.96\00:12:19.57 are humans. We want to relate with each other and so some of 00:12:19.60\00:12:24.51 those things bleed into us if we're not faithful, if we're not 00:12:24.54\00:12:28.58 reading, if we're not attentive. Then you can get conjecturing 00:12:28.61\00:12:33.08 philosophy that betrays what you know to be true but you'll 00:12:33.11\00:12:37.02 accept it in order to be included. So that pretty well 00:12:37.05\00:12:41.12 sums it up. And when I went to college you know the Bible 00:12:41.16\00:12:44.59 wasn't included in any of the curriculum. It was more about 00:12:44.63\00:12:48.53 learning how Christianity had been a thorn in the side of 00:12:48.56\00:12:51.83 society in one way or another and not necessarily about 00:12:51.87\00:12:55.24 developing my character with Christ. And again, opening up, 00:12:55.27\00:13:00.31 you know. And then by the time that I graduated college you 00:13:00.34\00:13:04.28 know I'd stopped reading the Bible and I had been thrown into 00:13:04.31\00:13:07.88 Hollywood and it just kind of started there spiraling out. 00:13:07.92\00:13:11.35 Isn't it interesting how the devil is...he's very patient. He 00:13:11.39\00:13:16.52 doesn't bring you from A to Z in 10 seconds or 10 minutes or 00:13:16.56\00:13:21.33 even 10 days and sometimes not even 10 years. It's slowly. 00:13:21.36\00:13:25.70 (Right) And you start drifting and before you know it, you know 00:13:25.73\00:13:29.57 you were here and anchored and you're out here adrift. (Right) 00:13:29.60\00:13:33.44 And it's just amazing to me how he's just so insidious and how 00:13:33.48\00:13:40.05 he introduces these little things at each juncture (Right) 00:13:40.08\00:13:44.75 Because just as God has a plan for us, Satan has a plan for us. 00:13:44.79\00:13:50.43 Absolutely. For every great plan that God has, the 00:13:50.46\00:13:52.86 opposition is there waiting. And if you have even a tiny little 00:13:52.89\00:13:55.66 thread he'll find that thread and he'll just pull it until the 00:13:55.70\00:14:00.20 whole sweater is just collapsed. And I think that was pretty much 00:14:00.24\00:14:04.87 metaphorical for what happened to me in my life. 00:14:04.91\00:14:07.68 Yes, yes. So you go through... and that's another interesting 00:14:07.71\00:14:12.78 thing...college. That is the place where so many children of 00:14:12.81\00:14:17.05 faith, young people of faith, leave the faith. (Yeah) Because 00:14:17.09\00:14:22.02 they're introduced to philosophies that are 00:14:22.06\00:14:27.93 antithetical to the Bible. And so...in the interest and under 00:14:27.96\00:14:34.14 the guise of intellectualism (Yes) and academia and so you 00:14:34.17\00:14:38.34 think you're learning about something that's important and 00:14:38.37\00:14:42.11 ...the Bible is important. The Bible is true and everything 00:14:42.14\00:14:46.68 should measure against that (absolutely) but they make it 00:14:46.72\00:14:51.12 obsolete (right) and so by the time you get out there's so many 00:14:51.15\00:14:55.22 young people who lose their Christianity in college. 00:14:55.26\00:14:58.36 (Yes) Because they start veering off (right). So after college 00:14:58.39\00:15:03.23 were you then totally out of the church. Where were you? 00:15:03.26\00:15:07.90 Yeah, I was still praying but I was no longer reading my Bible. 00:15:07.94\00:15:13.48 And I was eager to put my title that I paid so much money for 00:15:13.51\00:15:20.92 at this private Jesuit University to work. And you know 00:15:20.95\00:15:27.06 I launched into Hollywood and I worked with a company that's now 00:15:27.09\00:15:29.36 defunct called The Band Apart. And it was owned by Quentin 00:15:29.39\00:15:34.10 Tarantino, Michael Bednarczyk, and Lawrence Bender and at the 00:15:34.13\00:15:38.43 time they were you know responsible for big hits like 00:15:38.47\00:15:40.84 The Mexican and Usual Suspects. So they were just developing 00:15:40.87\00:15:46.14 hit after hit after hit. 00:15:46.17\00:15:47.51 And what were you doing? 00:15:47.54\00:15:48.88 And so I was working in their commercial division for music 00:15:48.91\00:15:53.88 videos and again commercials and I was the right hand to 00:15:53.92\00:15:56.99 a director by 00:15:57.02\00:15:58.35 the name of Darren Grant, a very talented young man. And my main 00:15:58.39\00:16:02.89 role, like if you want to say what was my main duty there, 00:16:02.92\00:16:08.16 it was writing scripts. And so we called them treatments. So, 00:16:08.20\00:16:11.97 what would happen is up and coming artists or established 00:16:12.00\00:16:14.74 artists would send in their music and they would say come up 00:16:14.77\00:16:17.91 with a vision, you know, a music video for this. And so in comes 00:16:17.94\00:16:22.94 the mail. I open it up we listen to the CD. My director and I 00:16:22.98\00:16:26.92 would sit and labor over it. What can we come up with that's 00:16:26.95\00:16:30.35 really cool, that would really make an impression on you know 00:16:30.39\00:16:33.36 the kids and the MTV-type crowd. For instance, I worked with 00:16:33.39\00:16:41.06 Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, (two voices unclear) 00:16:41.10\00:16:46.40 Destiny's Child. I worked with Boys to Men, Eric Benet, just 00:16:46.43\00:16:51.27 countless artists that weren't just here in the U.S. but also 00:16:51.31\00:16:57.38 abroad in Europe, Devala Morgan, Craig David. And I'm going to be 00:16:57.41\00:17:06.55 truthful, it was fun. But I can say that what's glitters is not 00:17:06.59\00:17:11.29 always gold. And there was a lot of effort that went into making 00:17:11.33\00:17:15.00 these people larger than life. And that's the part that 00:17:15.03\00:17:20.20 children and society don't understand that without the 00:17:20.24\00:17:22.94 cameras, without these story lines and these big production 00:17:22.97\00:17:26.47 budgets they're no different than you and I. They're sinners 00:17:26.51\00:17:29.64 just like you and I. 00:17:29.68\00:17:31.15 And many of them are miserable. (Absolutely) I mean I was in the 00:17:31.18\00:17:35.78 entertainment industry for many years too and I got to know a 00:17:35.82\00:17:39.75 lot of people who had a lot of money, but money, you know, 00:17:39.79\00:17:45.16 life is just so empty. 00:17:45.19\00:17:47.90 Very, very empty. 00:17:47.93\00:17:49.26 So empty. So just like you said what glitters is not gold. So 00:17:49.30\00:17:52.30 were you...had you started doing yoga at this point? 00:17:52.33\00:17:55.77 At this point, I had been introduced to Ti Chi by my god 00:17:55.80\00:17:59.34 mother and she too was a Buddhist and she was also the 00:17:59.37\00:18:05.98 mother of my best friend. I lost my best friend. 00:18:06.01\00:18:10.32 (Two voices) He's my father was 00:18:10.35\00:18:11.69 sympathetic to that particular faith. And my best friend had 00:18:13.25\00:18:19.49 passed away and it made she and I even closer. You know I 00:18:19.53\00:18:24.17 counted on her counseling and her guidance. You know my mother 00:18:24.20\00:18:28.80 was not from the United States My mother was an exile from the 00:18:28.84\00:18:35.28 Mosquito Coast and so her tradition and her ways were very 00:18:35.31\00:18:38.45 against what American women are and so she was kind of like my 00:18:38.48\00:18:43.05 reinforcement of well how do I grow up American you know? 00:18:43.08\00:18:46.76 And when we would spend quality time together she would take me 00:18:46.79\00:18:51.39 to places like Buddhist temples to chant and she would take me 00:18:51.43\00:18:55.50 to a yoga class or a Ti Chi class. That's how I really got 00:18:55.53\00:18:59.93 introduced to the physical practice of it. 00:18:59.97\00:19:02.44 And what did you think when you first, started it? What was 00:19:02.47\00:19:06.51 going through your mind when you first started it... 00:19:06.54\00:19:08.68 I just thought it was a measure of bonding with her. I didn't 00:19:08.71\00:19:10.88 really put my faith in it or anything like that. I just, I 00:19:10.91\00:19:14.95 really you know minimalized it and compartmentalized it like 00:19:14.98\00:19:18.05 this is just a physical thing I'm doing with her. It has 00:19:18.09\00:19:20.86 nothing to do...I know who God is you know. But it has a way of 00:19:20.89\00:19:26.03 if you're not serving God fully then you can be corrupted very 00:19:26.06\00:19:30.13 easily. 00:19:30.17\00:19:31.53 Absolutely, absolutely. So you started taking Ti Chi. You 00:19:31.57\00:19:35.50 started hanging out with your Buddhist godmother and that 00:19:35.54\00:19:40.91 opened the door to influences. Because your dad also had opened 00:19:40.94\00:19:47.22 the door to some influences. But now you're starting to 00:19:47.25\00:19:51.12 incorporate some of the practices (right) into that. And 00:19:51.15\00:19:56.56 so what happened that got you really involved with yoga to the 00:19:56.59\00:20:02.26 point where you wanted to teach? 00:20:02.30\00:20:03.63 So my father, unfortunately, when I was pregnant with my 00:20:03.67\00:20:07.30 second child was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and we didn't 00:20:07.34\00:20:10.91 find it until he was in his fourth stage and at first they 00:20:10.94\00:20:14.44 diagnosed him as having blood cancer. And so they gave him 10 00:20:14.48\00:20:18.81 years to live. They said it's okay, it's treatable, you have 00:20:18.85\00:20:20.98 about 10 years. But they completely missed it and it 00:20:21.02\00:20:24.05 wasn't until he had to have a G tube inserted in his belly that 00:20:24.09\00:20:30.39 they were able to do an upper endoscopy to find the tumor in 00:20:30.43\00:20:34.06 his throat. But it had passed the size, you know. It started 00:20:34.10\00:20:38.13 eating up his spine. It paralyzed him. It was very, very 00:20:38.17\00:20:42.20 hard. And so at the same time I had adopted my nephew and we had 00:20:42.24\00:20:47.88 been raising him since he was 12 and here I was with a now 15- 00:20:47.91\00:20:52.21 year-old teenage boy, a 17-month old girl and a nine-month belly 00:20:52.25\00:20:59.15 with about a month to go. And my mother has always been a kept 00:20:59.19\00:21:04.93 woman like a princess so she never learned to do some of the 00:21:04.96\00:21:09.46 simple things, financial things and so now I had her as well. 00:21:09.50\00:21:13.94 And my husband was playing with the San Francisco Giants in the 00:21:13.97\00:21:18.04 majors. It's a very taxing and rigorous schedule and so I had a 00:21:18.07\00:21:23.68 lot on my plate. And one of his friends, actually a Christian, 00:21:23.71\00:21:27.25 recommended a spiritual guide, a guru so to speak, and I went 00:21:27.28\00:21:35.16 to him. And he advised me and he spoke to me in Christian 00:21:35.19\00:21:38.73 terms because he was raised Catholic but he was actually you 00:21:38.76\00:21:42.43 know into this whole Krishna you know Hinduism but he spoke the 00:21:42.46\00:21:48.80 Christian dialect. And I started to put my trust in him and allow 00:21:48.84\00:21:54.44 him to guide me and then it led to yoga. 00:21:54.48\00:21:56.98 Isn't that interesting? It's so amazing to me how there's so 00:21:57.01\00:22:01.92 many gurus and people...There's a very popular woman on 00:22:01.95\00:22:08.29 television who talks the jargon of Christianity but she's a 00:22:08.32\00:22:14.76 Yoruban priestess (right, right) and she counsels people and 00:22:14.80\00:22:19.73 she's using this Christian jargon but she's a pagan (right) 00:22:19.77\00:22:23.27 priestess. (right) And so a lot of these people...That's why 00:22:23.30\00:22:28.34 it's so, so, so important to not just listen to what people say 00:22:28.38\00:22:32.28 but to know the word. 00:22:32.31\00:22:35.48 To measure it against the word. Absolutely (yes, yes) 00:22:35.52\00:22:36.85 In fact Colossians 2 00:22:36.89\00:22:38.22 what you read today is exactly what turned me completely away 00:22:38.25\00:22:42.79 from even entertaining it. Because then I did get to a 00:22:42.82\00:22:46.53 point where I realized it wasn't right and I do what to be clear 00:22:46.56\00:22:50.97 in saying that my father, my God, mother, they're 00:22:51.00\00:22:55.30 well-meaning people. They don't desire harm for you. They really 00:22:55.34\00:22:59.04 believe. You know they're ignorant to the word and when 00:22:59.07\00:23:02.14 you're ignorant to the word you're searching for truth, you're searching for 00:23:02.18\00:23:04.78 meaning and you'll attach to whatever is comfortable for you. 00:23:04.81\00:23:07.75 And you know eastern religions they do not tell you that you 00:23:07.78\00:23:12.45 need to refine your character. They tell you the way that you 00:23:12.49\00:23:16.19 are is fine, you're perfectly imperfect. And that is the 00:23:16.22\00:23:19.39 furthest thing from the truth. Now God says you know I accept 00:23:19.43\00:23:23.87 you where you are but I'm not going to leave you that way. 00:23:23.90\00:23:25.80 That's right, that's right. 00:23:25.83\00:23:28.24 And here in this other philosophy do as you wilt. 00:23:28.27\00:23:31.21 Do what you like. Follow your heart. Well we know from 00:23:31.24\00:23:34.61 scripture that the heart is deceitful and wicked, who can 00:23:34.64\00:23:38.61 know it. (that's right) You know and I can say the decisions that 00:23:38.65\00:23:43.25 I've made with my heart haven't been the best. You know like a 00:23:43.28\00:23:47.09 boyfriend that you know is no good for you. Red flags 00:23:47.12\00:23:49.19 everywhere and you say I can change him. You're heart really 00:23:49.22\00:23:52.66 makes you think that. But in the end you're the one that changes. 00:23:52.69\00:23:55.76 That's right, that's right. You don't realize when you're 00:23:55.80\00:23:58.87 getting into some of these things...that's why the Bible is 00:23:58.90\00:24:02.64 so important because it's our anchor. It brings us back to 00:24:02.67\00:24:06.81 where we're supposed to be. If we don't know it then there are 00:24:06.84\00:24:11.95 well-meaning people who just want the best for you and they 00:24:11.98\00:24:15.02 feel like this is going to be good for you. (Yeah) So just try 00:24:15.05\00:24:18.15 this. I feel peaceful with it. (right) Why not, you know, go 00:24:18.19\00:24:23.26 ahead and try it and see how you feel with it. Do you. But that's 00:24:23.29\00:24:28.50 Exactly do you. 00:24:28.53\00:24:30.23 That's not Biblical and that if we...the heart is deceitful and 00:24:30.27\00:24:36.00 desperately wicked, right, above all things, who can know it? So 00:24:36.04\00:24:41.61 we don't...we can't go by feelings. We can't go by like oh 00:24:41.64\00:24:46.92 we should be...this is okay. I did the same thing with 00:24:46.95\00:24:50.39 acupuncture. I did the same thing and when you realize later 00:24:50.42\00:24:54.49 on down the road, what have I done? (right) I've gone so far 00:24:54.52\00:25:00.33 away from where I was supposed to be. And it's sooo subtle and 00:25:00.36\00:25:05.50 insidious. So tell us you got so into this that you went to India 00:25:05.53\00:25:12.34 Well, I was deeply grieving. I was suffering. I was alone. I'm 00:25:12.37\00:25:20.72 sure being a new mother to two children under the age of two 00:25:20.75\00:25:24.12 and a 15-year-old and all the stresses that were going on. Yes 00:25:24.15\00:25:28.99 I was eternally blessed from before I even knew I was and 00:25:29.02\00:25:33.73 then on top of that, we had wealth and success and you know 00:25:33.76\00:25:38.13 everything at our fingertips. You name it. There was nothing 00:25:38.17\00:25:41.17 that we lacked. And I don't say that to glorify it but I say it 00:25:41.20\00:25:46.81 to help paint the picture of how money doesn't buy your salvation 00:25:46.84\00:25:53.05 and surely it does not buy your happiness. And happiness is 00:25:53.08\00:25:57.72 temporary. If anything, what I was really in search of was joy. 00:25:57.75\00:26:00.12 And either way, I was suffering and I said okay you know my dad 00:26:00.16\00:26:08.73 believed in this and he's the one I really miss. And what I 00:26:08.76\00:26:13.34 didn't realize at the time was that I had made my father an 00:26:13.37\00:26:16.04 idol in my life. I had put my father above Christ to where he 00:26:16.07\00:26:20.68 was my sanctuary. My father gave me a safety net, you know. He 00:26:20.71\00:26:25.38 gave me counseling on everything I could imagine and he was so 00:26:25.41\00:26:29.18 well, read. He was the most intelligent man, I've ever met 00:26:29.22\00:26:31.79 in my life. And if he wasn't cooking, telling a joke, he was 00:26:31.82\00:26:36.06 reading. And he was legally blind. So he would hold books 00:26:36.09\00:26:38.99 like this, this close...You know they were like his best friend. 00:26:39.03\00:26:41.70 He would hold books to his face and read for countless hours. 00:26:41.73\00:26:45.03 So he seemed like a man who had good reason. And you know I went 00:26:45.07\00:26:53.71 in search of connecting with him. But the Bible tells us you 00:26:53.74\00:26:57.61 can't connect with the dead. You'll maybe get that 00:26:57.65\00:27:00.65 opportunity in that direction but ultimately the dead know 00:27:00.68\00:27:04.95 nothing. (right) And so I went on this spiritual quest to try 00:27:04.99\00:27:08.22 to reunite with my father. (Ohh) And in the end what I realized 00:27:08.26\00:27:13.50 was it wasn't my father that was the lord, it was my heavenly 00:27:13.53\00:27:18.13 Father. And I've never been more content or happy in my life 00:27:18.17\00:27:23.44 after that discovery. 00:27:23.47\00:27:25.07 _praise the Lord So describe for us what happens 00:27:25.11\00:27:29.84 in a yoga class and how is yoga not compatible with Christianity 00:27:29.88\00:27:38.05 Why can't I do yoga and be a Christian too? 00:27:38.09\00:27:40.62 Right. So I thought I could. I thought oh it's just exercise, 00:27:40.66\00:27:44.33 it's physical and really good at stretching. You know, I'm good 00:27:44.36\00:27:47.70 at this. I got it you know. And I caught the eye of a lot of 00:27:47.73\00:27:50.90 instructors and they said hey I think you'd be a great teacher 00:27:50.93\00:27:53.54 and they recruited me to take up teacher training, and I did. 00:27:53.57\00:27:57.64 And so initially I did it with core power. We had a group of 00:27:57.67\00:28:01.01 20 people. But we never actually got the text, the actual ancient 00:28:01.04\00:28:07.32 text. We got a manuscript, a manual, an American watered down 00:28:07.35\00:28:12.49 manual that just told point A to point Z of the class. And so 00:28:12.52\00:28:18.56 it's memorize this. At this point you do X, at this point 00:28:18.59\00:28:22.20 you do, you know, whatever it might be. It was very 00:28:22.23\00:28:24.93 prescriptive, it was very perfunctory and I thought 00:28:24.97\00:28:28.27 nothing of it. Oh this is a cinch, it's like taking a 00:28:28.30\00:28:30.07 jazzercise class, you know. I got it. And so I did that. So 00:28:30.11\00:28:34.34 then I said to myself well it's connected to "light." I need 00:28:34.38\00:28:38.21 to explore this. So I ended up on the counsel of a D.O., a 00:28:38.25\00:28:46.09 naturopath, a doctor who was actually an Ayurvedic, a Hindu 00:28:46.12\00:28:49.09 who tried to recruit me into her faith. She sent me to Kerala 00:28:49.12\00:28:52.99 India because she wanted me to be her right hand. So I did, I 00:28:53.03\00:28:58.80 went to Kerala, India, and I lived in an ashram and I studied 00:28:58.83\00:29:03.27 therapeutic yoga. 00:29:03.30\00:29:04.64 I think we have some pictures. 00:29:04.67\00:29:06.01 Yeah so India's a beautiful country with a beautiful culture 00:29:06.04\00:29:11.61 and there's so many different religions there. There's the 00:29:11.65\00:29:15.68 Muslim faith, there's the Christian faith, there's 00:29:15.72\00:29:19.19 Hinduism. You know you name it It's kind of like a mini Berkley 00:29:19.22\00:29:22.62 essence. And so connecting with the people, that was my 00:29:22.66\00:29:26.36 favorite thing there. But I started to become mesmerized by 00:29:26.39\00:29:31.53 this whole occult world and I didn't realize it was occultic. 00:29:31.57\00:29:35.87 Yoga is Hinduism. Yoga is a prescriptive physical practice 00:29:35.90\00:29:41.81 that the Vedics, the swamis and the gurus give you in order to 00:29:41.84\00:29:48.48 exercise the esoteric manuscript patanjali yoga sutras. You know 00:29:48.52\00:29:56.46 in essence their bible. And there are warnings that come 00:29:56.49\00:30:01.70 with this that the American teachers are never taught, you 00:30:01.73\00:30:05.00 know. You're never told that these physical practices and the 00:30:05.03\00:30:09.44 breath work that's involved in it and the chanting is a part of 00:30:09.47\00:30:13.91 their occultic practice and that you're performing rituals and 00:30:13.94\00:30:17.91 that these rituals can lead to psychosis can lead to chronic 00:30:17.95\00:30:23.12 disease, irreparable harm, you know, lunacy, heart conditions 00:30:23.15\00:30:28.52 things that no one can find cures for. 00:30:28.56\00:30:30.83 Oh, I was doing research on it. I just wrote a little booklet 00:30:30.86\00:30:35.83 called Perilous Practices about yoga and I was doing research 00:30:35.86\00:30:41.10 about it and I went on YouTube and I saw a guru who said...I 00:30:41.14\00:30:49.74 was looking up information about kundalini yoga and he said Do 00:30:49.78\00:30:52.68 not do this...if you don't have someone supervising you, do not 00:30:52.71\00:31:00.69 do it. It can change your life. In days you will be 00:31:00.72\00:31:07.96 unrecognizable by your own family. And I'm thinking, Oh 00:31:08.00\00:31:13.87 I mean this is demonic possession. That's what he is 00:31:13.90\00:31:16.30 talking about (Yeah) He said it is the strongest, most dangerous 00:31:16.34\00:31:19.51 yoga that you can do. So don't do it without proper supervision 00:31:19.54\00:31:25.11 (right) And I was listening to this...and when you study the 00:31:25.15\00:31:30.69 foundations, and that's what, just like you were saying, 00:31:30.72\00:31:33.79 people don't know the foundation If you study the foundation of 00:31:33.82\00:31:38.99 yoga, which is Hinduism, acupuncture, which is Taoism 00:31:39.03\00:31:42.90 you realize that, wait a minute, this is totally against God. 00:31:42.93\00:31:48.34 Right right. It's a different... You know people get upset with 00:31:48.37\00:31:53.31 me because I've left the practice and I've stopped 00:31:53.34\00:31:56.11 teaching. They kind of go you're a hypocrite. I rather you call 00:31:56.14\00:32:00.15 me a hypocrite than God. 00:32:00.18\00:32:01.65 How are you a hypocrite? You're not doing...you know you're 00:32:01.68\00:32:04.32 doing what you think is the right thing. 00:32:04.35\00:32:05.85 Right. Because they just feel like you did this so how can you 00:32:05.89\00:32:11.09 dare, you know, now you're holier than thou. And I say, you 00:32:11.13\00:32:14.10 know, it's not about judging. It's about learning and if 00:32:14.13\00:32:17.63 you're open to learning the truth, then I'll share it with 00:32:17.67\00:32:20.60 you, but if you are comfortable in darkness and you'd rather 00:32:20.64\00:32:22.67 practice darkness I can't stop you. Right. But I shouldn't be a 00:32:22.70\00:32:27.71 stumbling block to you. I'm going to give you the light. I'm 00:32:27.74\00:32:29.08 going to give you the truth. And so for my ex-students, I try to 00:32:29.11\00:32:31.61 enlighten them and tell them you put so much faith in me. You 00:32:31.65\00:32:34.98 gave me so much credit you know and you trusted me. And you 00:32:35.02\00:32:38.99 trusted me when I led you into darkness. You held my hand and 00:32:39.02\00:32:41.79 you sang and now that I'm trying to give you light you 00:32:41.82\00:32:45.49 know you are casting me away. And it's a little bit difficult 00:32:45.53\00:32:50.33 to be honest, you know, when you're held in high esteem in a 00:32:50.37\00:32:55.67 position or title and then all of a sudden, you're no longer 00:32:55.70\00:32:59.27 considered an authority in that because you're against what 00:32:59.31\00:33:02.94 they're wanting to do. But I don't do it because I think I'm 00:33:02.98\00:33:07.38 holier than thou. I do it because I want them to know the 00:33:07.42\00:33:10.65 truth. I want them to know the light. 00:33:10.69\00:33:12.02 Yes, you don't want them to be lost. Yeah, so walk us through 00:33:12.05\00:33:16.83 a typical yoga class. What happens when you go in? 00:33:16.86\00:33:21.26 Okay, so it depends on the kind of class that you're taking. 00:33:21.33\00:33:23.97 There are different branches of yoga. I mean they even have goat 00:33:24.00\00:33:27.64 yoga now. (I saw that) I don't know if you've spent enough time 00:33:27.67\00:33:32.87 around goats but they don't have bowel control and I don't like 00:33:32.91\00:33:36.44 a yoga goat on me. So anyway. But I digress. So you come into 00:33:36.48\00:33:43.82 a class and regardless of your ability you come in. You get the 00:33:43.85\00:33:48.72 same yoga mat, same yoga block, you know, stretching tools, yoga 00:33:48.76\00:33:53.26 rope. And you're instructed to lie on your back in what's 00:33:53.29\00:33:57.03 called corpse pose with your face up toward the sky, 00:33:57.07\00:34:02.00 your palms open, your 00:34:02.04\00:34:03.37 legs spread apart. And here you're basically...I hate to say 00:34:03.41\00:34:10.11 it, you're kind of getting brain washed. You're told empty your 00:34:10.15\00:34:13.68 mind, you know you're perfect the way that you are, let this 00:34:13.72\00:34:17.49 next 60 minutes or 30 minutes, however long the class you're 00:34:17.52\00:34:20.72 taking take you into this transcendent space. And so the 00:34:20.76\00:34:26.86 goal of yoga is actually to take you to an altered state of 00:34:26.90\00:34:29.86 consciousness, so the practice, again this is a prescriptive 00:34:29.90\00:34:34.04 practice that is going to take you to this next level, this 00:34:34.07\00:34:37.51 higher level. So I'm going to work on you on various levels. 00:34:37.54\00:34:42.28 I'm going to work on you teaching you how to breathe, 00:34:42.31\00:34:44.38 right? I'm going to teach you not to think. I'm going to teach 00:34:44.41\00:34:49.22 you not to counter with your judgment anything that I say. 00:34:49.25\00:34:53.52 I'm going to ask you to empty your mind so that I can fill it 00:34:53.56\00:34:56.19 with what I want. And from that dead pose you're then going to 00:34:56.22\00:35:01.33 go into child pose, which is a rebirth, a reincarnation. And so 00:35:01.36\00:35:04.93 now you're being initiated into the whole, the sutra, the 00:35:04.97\00:35:10.81 practice of yoga the ritualistic behaviors and the idolatry of it 00:35:10.84\00:35:15.78 you know, the worship. And I'll take you through a sequence of 00:35:15.81\00:35:19.45 poses and each pose has a specific length and time and it 00:35:19.48\00:35:23.39 has a specific effect on your organs, on your mentality, and 00:35:23.42\00:35:27.99 if before class or after class if I encourage you to chant with 00:35:28.02\00:35:32.56 me, these beautiful Sanskrit, you know it sounds beautiful. 00:35:32.59\00:35:36.73 you are actually beckoning and inviting deities to come into 00:35:36.77\00:35:44.87 you and to complete their mission, whatever that may be. 00:35:44.91\00:35:48.14 And so you just become host body for this altered consciousness, 00:35:48.18\00:35:53.25 this other dimension of spiritual life. And in the end 00:35:53.28\00:35:58.45 you know, you're exhausted, if you took my class you would have 00:35:58.49\00:36:01.56 been exhausted as (Laughter obscures words) and you would 00:36:01.59\00:36:07.36 lie again in corpse pose and so this whole death and life cycle 00:36:07.40\00:36:10.37 is repeated there. And you walk out, you know, feeling, some 00:36:10.40\00:36:16.34 people feel blissful, some people feel remorseful, crying, 00:36:16.37\00:36:20.41 some people have had panic attacks, people have passed out. 00:36:20.44\00:36:23.04 Some people leave in the middle of class. Some people say it 00:36:23.08\00:36:26.31 just doesn't feel right. And at the end I ask everyone, you know 00:36:26.35\00:36:30.52 hold your palms together at your heart center, you know, because 00:36:30.55\00:36:34.26 we're talking about in that world these centers of awareness 00:36:34.29\00:36:38.33 a chakra is where energy is in the body. And from there I tell 00:36:38.36\00:36:42.00 you to put it at your third eye, the all-knowing and then you 00:36:42.03\00:36:45.90 know we bow to the universe and we bow to each other because 00:36:45.93\00:36:48.67 we're all gods and everything around us are gods. And so as a 00:36:48.70\00:36:52.31 Christian can you really participate in that and separate 00:36:52.34\00:36:56.24 it. The question is something we need to ask ourselves. 00:36:56.28\00:36:59.75 Absolutely, absolutely. Can you...it's pagan. It's yoking 00:36:59.78\00:37:07.12 with...the whole idea of yoga is yoking. Even the lotus pose 00:37:07.16\00:37:12.79 the mudra, the fingers together, which I don't want to do because 00:37:12.83\00:37:17.33 it means I'm inviting the gods to come into me. And I think 00:37:17.37\00:37:25.67 most people don't, they don't know that because just like you 00:37:25.71\00:37:29.61 said they get the surface info, the manual, (right) but they 00:37:29.64\00:37:34.22 don't get the foundation. 00:37:34.25\00:37:35.58 They don't know the foundation, they don't know the true power 00:37:35.62\00:37:40.29 of this practice. And it is dangerous, you know Swamis warn 00:37:40.32\00:37:47.16 against it. Again we have a commercialized bastardized 00:37:47.20\00:37:49.76 version of it here in America and it might be a blessing that 00:37:49.80\00:37:51.97 it is that way, but nonetheless it's a gateway and a 00:37:52.00\00:37:55.30 steppingstone to something much deeper. So I went from being you 00:37:55.34\00:37:57.37 know an exercisaholic with yoga to a faithful ashram you know 00:37:57.41\00:38:07.22 taking six weeks of my life to go study away from my family 00:38:07.25\00:38:11.32 I was really invested in it. And then seeking deeper meaning 00:38:11.35\00:38:16.59 and said like mentioned the mudras, the finger yoga and 00:38:16.62\00:38:20.50 interestingly enough when I realized what I was doing and I 00:38:20.53\00:38:27.20 tried to walk away from it I threw everything out. Then at 00:38:27.24\00:38:31.31 that point is when I started to have these weird kind of 00:38:31.34\00:38:37.08 supernatural things starting to happen to me. (Like what?) 00:38:37.11\00:38:39.41 So for instance, you know I'm also an avid runner and cyclist 00:38:39.45\00:38:46.15 so I would always stretch out my hips and I was in a particular 00:38:46.19\00:38:50.26 pose called Baddha Konasana can or cobbler's pose where you put 00:38:50.29\00:38:52.59 the soles of your feet together and you allow your knees to fall 00:38:52.63\00:38:55.66 to the side. And I had been sleeping like that stretching 00:38:55.70\00:38:58.93 out my hips and I also had myself in a propped position 00:38:58.97\00:39:03.17 something that I learned in therapeutic yoga. And again this 00:39:03.20\00:39:06.94 is me saying well now I'm Christian and saved. I know the 00:39:06.98\00:39:09.74 dangers. I won't go to class but I'll still do certain stretches. 00:39:09.78\00:39:12.95 And before I could fall asleep there was something pulling on 00:39:12.98\00:39:19.55 my legs. Visceral, like (you could literally feel the pull) 00:39:19.59\00:39:26.53 literally feel something pulling on my legs and I started praying 00:39:26.56\00:39:28.00 fervently, you know, God, Jesus the blood of Christ be on you, 00:39:28.03\00:39:32.57 you know, I rebuke you, whatever this is. And things like that 00:39:32.60\00:39:35.37 started to unfold. And I called Doctor, not doctor, but Pastor 00:39:35.40\00:39:41.28 Lomacang and I said there is just something really strange 00:39:41.31\00:39:44.28 happening. And he said, well you have opened the doorway and he 00:39:44.31\00:39:48.25 said, Have you gotten rid of everything? I said, yes. So this 00:39:48.28\00:39:50.79 went on for months, like six months. And one day I called him 00:39:50.82\00:39:54.72 because another event had happened and he says to me, 00:39:54.76\00:39:58.43 there's something still there, there's something still there. 00:39:58.46\00:40:00.70 So we prayed and I went to my room on my side of the bed and 00:40:00.73\00:40:04.03 I prayed with he and Angela and he said, in his prayer, he said, 00:40:04.07\00:40:08.90 reveal to her the force. And right in that moment, I wasn't 00:40:08.94\00:40:13.27 really conscious of it but I can envision my bachelor's chest, 00:40:13.31\00:40:17.75 the nightstand with a keepsake box where I held like the 00:40:17.78\00:40:22.78 bracelets from my children's births and you know their little 00:40:22.82\00:40:26.12 name tags from their bassinet and in that little keepsake was 00:40:26.15\00:40:32.33 a mudra book, a little mudra book. And when I opened it 00:40:32.36\00:40:38.43 I just kind of said, I can't believe this. You know and I 00:40:38.47\00:40:42.74 called him immediately and I said look what I found. And 00:40:42.77\00:40:47.88 interestingly the mudra that I had bookmarked I left it open 00:40:47.91\00:40:51.81 and it was a mudra that it's supposed to unleash power from 00:40:51.85\00:41:01.39 the root the rubadia chakra and so and it describes all 00:41:01.42\00:41:10.27 kinds of things that could come with it. And I just said, I 00:41:10.30\00:41:13.87 can't believe I did this. I burned it. I didn't even want to 00:41:13.90\00:41:15.60 throw it in the trash because I didn't want someone else to come 00:41:15.64\00:41:18.24 across it. (right) But this stuff has power, it really does. 00:41:18.27\00:41:22.18 It attracts, what people don't realize that you can have 00:41:22.21\00:41:25.71 something in your house that will attract demons. And that's 00:41:25.75\00:41:29.75 what...And you don't even know if that's the case. But it gives 00:41:29.78\00:41:33.86 them permission to come in. 00:41:33.89\00:41:36.69 Absolutely. And you know I was doubtful of that. Because 00:41:36.73\00:41:40.86 sometimes as Christians, we'll say I'll accept Jesus but I'm 00:41:40.90\00:41:43.40 not going to even you know begin to say that there's devils and 00:41:43.43\00:41:48.37 demons and these things. But the Bible says we fight against not 00:41:48.40\00:41:52.17 flesh but what? (That's right) Right? So here we are fighting 00:41:52.21\00:41:56.44 against principalities and they show up. If you allow them 00:41:56.48\00:41:58.91 they'll walk right in. (That's right) And if you don't know the 00:41:58.95\00:42:03.49 word and if you don't have the counsel and the elders to help 00:42:03.52\00:42:07.09 you through it, you could spiral out. 00:42:07.12\00:42:09.96 So how did you know to call Pastor John and Angie? 00:42:09.99\00:42:14.00 You know, we've been building a friendship and now we're like 00:42:14.03\00:42:18.87 family. And you know through COVID I came back to Christ. 00:42:18.90\00:42:23.91 Tell us about that. 00:42:23.94\00:42:25.87 Sure. Again I was searching for meaning trying to reconnect with 00:42:25.91\00:42:30.11 my father and end this 12-year grief. And you know I'd gotten 00:42:30.15\00:42:34.68 into yoga and all these things and and my world was just...it 00:42:34.72\00:42:38.79 seemed to be fine. You know I didn't need for anything. I was 00:42:38.82\00:42:42.99 able to get whatever I wanted at my fingertips any time that I 00:42:43.02\00:42:48.00 needed it. It wasn't a big deal. But when COVID hit I could see 00:42:48.03\00:42:52.73 the writing on the wall and I said, Oh, oh, we're going to get 00:42:52.77\00:42:55.80 shut down. And being a yoga instructor I knew, you know, 00:42:55.84\00:42:59.37 that gyms were going to close down. So I said I know what I 00:42:59.41\00:43:02.88 need. A Peloton bike. So I got a Peloton and I was, you know, 00:43:02.91\00:43:08.85 one of the first to do it. And I just thought I'm going to ride 00:43:08.88\00:43:13.72 through the storm. Literally, I was going to ride the storm out. 00:43:13.76\00:43:16.06 And so that lasted for about four months and then things got 00:43:16.09\00:43:20.20 really nasty. You know if you recall the COVID environment, it 00:43:20.23\00:43:24.13 was black lives matter, it was arguing from this extreme to 00:43:24.17\00:43:28.57 that extreme and there was just controversy and conspiracy 00:43:28.60\00:43:33.98 everywhere. And whenever I looked at the news it was just 00:43:34.01\00:43:38.78 dismal. And I didn't know what was going to happen. And I 00:43:38.81\00:43:42.88 literally started to have fear just fill me and I started to 00:43:42.92\00:43:50.36 experience anxiety. And that anxiety was crippling and it 00:43:50.39\00:43:54.96 made me indecisive and unsure of myself. And I've always been 00:43:55.00\00:43:58.20 confident. I've never had issues when it came to that. But this 00:43:58.23\00:44:02.14 was like a chemical disability. And there was nothing I could do 00:44:02.17\00:44:06.68 I couldn't even muster up the energy to do a yoga practice or 00:44:06.71\00:44:13.21 anything like that. And it literally brought me to my knees 00:44:13.25\00:44:16.85 and I started to pray. I took my little travel Bible and I 00:44:16.89\00:44:20.09 hid myself in the closet and every day I prayed. I said just 00:44:20.12\00:44:22.86 God take this grief from me. And every day I prayed for 00:44:22.89\00:44:26.86 discernment. I said God help me, help me see clearly, help me see 00:44:26.90\00:44:30.27 things, please. And it stripped me down to the barest thing 00:44:30.30\00:44:35.04 you know. There in my luxury closet with every brand name you 00:44:35.07\00:44:39.51 can imagine. None of it meant anything. None of that's going 00:44:39.54\00:44:45.38 to rescue you (that's right) There in our multimillion-dollar 00:44:45.41\00:44:49.05 home it felt like a hole. It did not fill me. And unfortunately I 00:44:49.08\00:44:56.83 was so anxious and so scared that I couldn't even appreciate 00:44:56.86\00:45:02.90 the most beautiful gifts that I have which are my husband and 00:45:02.93\00:45:05.70 my children. Just looking at them made me fearful. You know 00:45:05.73\00:45:10.81 because I was like what's going to happen to them? Everything 00:45:10.84\00:45:13.44 felt out of control. And my niece had moved in with us. She 00:45:13.48\00:45:19.98 was there going on three years. She had moved in from New York 00:45:20.02\00:45:24.45 She came to do a post back to get her medical degree. And she 00:45:24.49\00:45:29.06 had done Sabbath by herself, worship for three years by 00:45:29.09\00:45:32.29 herself. And she says 00:45:32.33\00:45:34.66 to me, you know, she invited me again, do you want to worship? 00:45:34.70\00:45:37.37 And I said sure. And so the pastor that she was watching, 00:45:37.40\00:45:41.50 kind of a rogue Adventist and it made me even more fearful. He 00:45:41.54\00:45:44.74 was feeding the flame. And I said, I can't do this. Can we 00:45:44.77\00:45:47.58 we find someone else. She goes Oh, there's this guy. I've seen 00:45:47.61\00:45:51.81 him before. I've watched his series on Spirits Unclean, 00:45:51.85\00:45:55.95 Unclean Spirits. And that's how we found Lomacang. And we 00:45:55.98\00:46:01.32 watched him for a year straight. My mother, my two kids, my niece 00:46:01.36\00:46:04.03 I have three journals full of his sermons. And he helped 00:46:04.06\00:46:10.77 sanctify us, he helped bring us back. And so I'm really thankful 00:46:10.80\00:46:14.64 that 3ABN was there, you know, to shine the light, for a lost 00:46:14.67\00:46:20.01 soul such as myself. 00:46:20.04\00:46:21.64 The Holy Spirit used him (absolutely) to draw. He was a 00:46:21.68\00:46:26.92 vessel. 00:46:26.95\00:46:28.28 And I emailed him and said we're ready to get baptized. And I 00:46:28.32\00:46:31.95 never heard from him for a year. 00:46:31.99\00:46:33.39 Really, for one year!? 00:46:33.42\00:46:35.79 For one year. I think his emails were flooded totally. And 00:46:35.82\00:46:40.23 serendipitously we ran into each other in Pleasanton. And... 00:46:40.26\00:46:46.57 And you know that was divine... as my husband would say was it a 00:46:46.60\00:46:49.27 coincidence or divine providence 00:46:49.30\00:46:51.74 It was providence. Absolutely. We have a picture actually of 00:46:51.77\00:46:56.11 your baptism we need to show. 00:46:56.14\00:46:58.35 Yeah, February of 2020 he baptized myself and my two 00:46:58.38\00:47:04.95 children. 00:47:04.99\00:47:06.32 Aw, praise the Lord. That was a wonderful day wasn't it? 00:47:06.35\00:47:11.69 It was glorious. That was a battle giving that testimony and 00:47:11.73\00:47:15.90 it was difficult actually. A considerable tremor came over me 00:47:15.93\00:47:24.71 as I started to talk about the yoga (yes). And it became a very 00:47:24.74\00:47:30.95 spiritual intense battle and I'm thankful God was there. The Holy 00:47:30.98\00:47:36.08 Spirit was there to see me through and to let me be 00:47:36.12\00:47:39.05 victorious. 00:47:39.09\00:47:40.42 Amen, amen. And the fact that you're sharing this you know 00:47:40.46\00:47:43.43 that the enemy is furious because he doesn't want people 00:47:43.46\00:47:47.10 to know the truth. He can hide under deceit, deception, you 00:47:47.13\00:47:54.80 know that's what he does. And so for you to come out and say 00:47:54.84\00:47:58.87 get away from it. Just don't even do...What about...okay two 00:47:58.91\00:48:04.25 things. One thing is Christian yoga and the other is just 00:48:04.28\00:48:10.42 stretching. (Yeah) So first let's go with stretching. What's 00:48:10.45\00:48:15.82 the difference between yoga and stretching? 00:48:15.86\00:48:18.46 Well again yoga is an arm of Hinduism and it is like the 00:48:18.49\00:48:26.33 medicinal, physical practice. So if you has say some sort of 00:48:26.37\00:48:34.34 surgery, pneumonia, or something the doctor will give you a 00:48:34.38\00:48:37.78 little breathing device and you'll have to exercise and 00:48:37.81\00:48:40.25 inflate those muscles to recover them you know as part of your 00:48:40.28\00:48:44.15 therapeutic practice to recovery (right) And so again the vedics 00:48:44.19\00:48:48.62 they believe that this is something that you do in order 00:48:48.66\00:48:51.73 to achieve enlightenment and an altered state of consciousness. 00:48:51.76\00:48:55.36 That's very different than stretching. Stretching is 00:48:55.40\00:48:57.77 essential, it's healthy, it's key. You can do it any kind of 00:48:57.80\00:49:03.20 number of ways. It doesn't have to be yoga. For some reason now 00:49:03.24\00:49:05.47 yoga's synonymous with stretching. But before yoga came 00:49:05.51\00:49:10.81 to this world, you know people were stretching. (right) You 00:49:10.85\00:49:14.02 think of gymnasts, you think of dancers, you know. They're able 00:49:14.05\00:49:16.82 to do that without having to do a disciplined yoga class. 00:49:16.85\00:49:21.49 And I think that's what people need to know. Stretching is fine 00:49:21.52\00:49:24.49 it's when you introduce meditation, breathing, the mind/ 00:49:24.53\00:49:28.66 body connection (right), enlightenment all of those terms 00:49:28.70\00:49:32.30 that's when you start saying okay, it's not just stretching. 00:49:32.33\00:49:35.47 But just, you know, stretching and also the sequences like the 00:49:35.50\00:49:41.54 surya namaskar, the sun worship where you go through 00:49:41.58\00:49:45.58 this whole series of movements (Yeah, sun salutation) yeah sun 00:49:45.61\00:49:52.25 salutation and it is...and people see and they're like oh 00:49:52.29\00:49:59.53 well that doesn't...you know I can do that. You know they're 00:49:59.56\00:50:02.40 doing the movements in sequence and that is a worship of the sun 00:50:02.43\00:50:07.80 It's a devotional. 00:50:07.84\00:50:09.17 It's a devotional. It's a moving liturgy to the sun god (right). 00:50:09.20\00:50:12.67 And so if people actually knew which...today, now you know 00:50:12.71\00:50:20.28 you know then, now you have to make a decision and if it's 00:50:20.32\00:50:24.95 really hard for you to make that decision and if you don't want 00:50:24.99\00:50:28.22 to let it go you really need to look at that (right). How 00:50:28.26\00:50:32.49 important is it to you? (right) Is it more important than Jesus? 00:50:32.53\00:50:36.16 Well and I think that's what's happening with the whole 00:50:36.20\00:50:38.23 Christian yoga movement, you know, is that people like myself 00:50:38.27\00:50:42.34 who are finding oh, oh, I've been entangled with darkness 00:50:42.37\00:50:46.78 they're addicted to the practice of it and they've forgotten how 00:50:46.81\00:50:50.58 to just move their body and relieve their tension without 00:50:50.61\00:50:54.32 this, you know, worship series. And so they try to justify these 00:50:54.35\00:51:00.89 movements but all their doing is replacing the names and adding 00:51:00.92\00:51:04.69 scriptures to it. So prayer pose or prayer warrior is the new 00:51:04.73\00:51:11.40 name instead of warrior 1, warrior 2, warrior 3. And it 00:51:11.43\00:51:16.54 doesn't matter how you change the name if you see a cat, it's 00:51:16.57\00:51:19.97 still, a cat, even if I call it holy cat, it's still a cat. 00:51:20.01\00:51:25.15 (true) You got to be careful you know because again well-meaning 00:51:25.18\00:51:29.75 people can mislead you. Not everybody is dark and after you 00:51:29.78\00:51:33.12 they just don't know any better. 00:51:33.15\00:51:34.86 That is so true. You cannot just change the name and think that 00:51:34.89\00:51:41.46 now it's a new thing. It's not. (mm-hum) It's just a repackaged 00:51:41.50\00:51:47.00 It's paganism, it's still an idol. 00:51:47.04\00:51:50.87 It's repackaged paganism. Yes, and so we have to be aware of 00:51:50.91\00:51:56.91 what we're doing at all times. And know that the devil is 00:51:56.95\00:52:01.25 really trying to deceive and like trip and trap us into this 00:52:01.28\00:52:08.59 and trip us up. (right) And so you know we have to be aware of 00:52:08.62\00:52:13.46 that and the word, if we just stay in the word we can know 00:52:13.50\00:52:18.97 which way to go and how to navigate. We're going to take a 00:52:19.00\00:52:23.61 quick break and we're going to be back momentarily so don't 00:52:23.64\00:52:27.48 change that dial, stay with us. We'll be right back. 00:52:27.51\00:52:30.78