a friend’s recent Facebook status:
... one of many Facebook posts that give credence to man-made gods
“I cast my demons out at the feet of Ganesh. Remove the obstacles bravely with grace.”
Ganesh is described as the lord of good fortune who is said to provide prosperity, fortune and success. He is referred to as the lord of beginnings and the remover of obstacles of both material and spiritual kinds. It is said that Ganesh was created by his mother using earth which she moulded into the shape of a boy.
He is only one of 33 million Hindu gods ...
Do not turn to idols or make gods for yourselves. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:4)
Idols made by human hands have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see, ears, but cannot hear, nor do they have breath ... All who trust in them will be like them. (Psalm 135:15-18)
I am not throwing stones ... I was spiritually blind and spiritually compromised ... believing in life force energy and good luck charms and jinxes and karma, alongside God. But, you cannot drink from the cup of demons and still drink from the Lord’s cup.
(1 Corinthians 10:21)
You will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
(Deuteronomy 4:28-29)
I based my previous beliefs on my feelings, human thoughts and popular practices. Now that I am in Christ, my faith in God comes from His Spirit, who lives in me. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
(1 Corinthians 2:12)
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. (1 Samuel 15:23)
The methods of divination and fortune-telling are endless. They are described as the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by occult or supernatural means.
Let no one be found among you … who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
(Deuteronomy 18:10-11)
Reiki.org describes Reiki as a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that, according to this site, also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. It suggests that when one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.
The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words - Rei which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki which is "life force energy." So Reiki is described as 'actually' "spiritually guided life force energy."
They capitalize 'God,' but this practice is not biblical.
Therefore, it is not of God.
The people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them. (Luke 4:40)
Miracles like this fill the pages of the Gospel, and are performed today - but not for the reasons and ways described in the practice of reiki. They are by the power of The Holy Spirit, that lives in faithful followers of Christ, and by God's mercy and grace, for His Glory, in Jesus name.
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25)
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
(Colossians 2:8)
Smudging is defined as a Sacred Smoke Bowl Blessing. It is said that this is a powerful spiritual cleansing technique which calls upon the supposed spirits of various sacred plants to drive away negative energy and to restore balance to an individual, a group, a space, or all three.
This is another pagan practice. It is of witchcraft and the occult. The 'spirits' called upon are not of God.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen
(Romans 1;25)
“You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
God made the earth and everything on the earth. We are to pray to the Creator, not to His creation. It is possible to have real communication with Him, our Father, the Almighty God. He tells us to "Be still, and know that I am God ..."
Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
(Deuteronomy 4:15-19)
"There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan."
- C.S. Lewis
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)
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