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

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.

This brings me to my question of the day: Can I use "Eastern Language in My Prayer and Devotional Life?

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.

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 :)


1. The Bible - Written in an Eastern Culture

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.


2. Grammatical and Historical Intrepretation Takes me to the East.


In seeking to understand the Bible I must take the Theological, Grammatical (Eastern language) and Historical (In Eastern Culture) approach in interpreting it.


3. 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:

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?

Psa 56:8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

Psalm 23 - We have the two images of comfort and protection from our God in

a.) The Shepherd and
b.) the Feast


Psa 36:7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

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.

4. Conclusion:

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!