Month: January 2022

Are You Following Jesus or Religion?

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I have been on this kick of decolonizing and deconstructing my faith and what people in my country call “Christianity.” At the root is not a heart of judgement. It is a heart plagued with confusion. What we say we believe has not matched what we are demonstrating to the world. If I notice it, who else notices? I am running into more and more people completely over American Christianity and some have abandoned God altogether.

I will tell you 2020 opened the eyes of many people, myself included on how crazy Christianity is in America. I have never seen people go so insane over politics, vaccines, masks, conspiracy theories, etc…People dumped long term friends over things that will not matter in 5 years. People disgraced and dishonored the name of God for politics. I saw racism spring forth out of white church friends. There were Christians who made a mockery of God’s name.

I used to think using God’s name in vain was primarily about using swear words. It’s not. It’s also about assigning God’s name to things, ideas, and ideologies that have nothing to do with God or for selfish gain. The “God told me crowd ” are some of the greatest offenders when it comes to using God’s name in vain. What they say does not match the character, heart, or person of God.

It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for me since 2020. I have honestly been jaded by church (religious activities). I don’t want to go. I worship at home and fellowship with my biological family. The church I was attending was more focused on getting Trump re-elected than preaching the Gospel. There was more focus on trying to get people into church buildings than addressing the hurting and dying on the street. I recall going out to feed the homeless in lock down and the line to my car was unreal. There are people in my city who eat of the trash and sleep on the cold streets, yet the highest concern was getting back into a building or forcing God to make someone President.

I think I am strange because my main concerns when it comes to my faith are honoring God, helping the poor, sharing the Gospel. We are filling buildings with people who may still be on their way to hell. I am not sure we are teaching people how to have their own personal relationship with Jesus.

When I have tried to mentor or disciple people for Jesus there has normally been some form of conflict that arose with some people who wanted me to simply tell them they were amazing instead of teach what Jesus taught. They bucked any form of correction or anything that held them to a higher standard. Quite a few either left and abandoned the group or picked a fight with me or said God was calling them elsewhere. We have created in America a “Me-Centered gospel,” that promotes calling out the gold in people rather than teaching them they are accountable for their choices. It keeps people immature and carnal. The early apostles never changed the words of Jesus to make people feel good about themselves. Unfortunately we have a pendulum that has swung from intense judgement to anything goes (un-sanctified mercy).

Aside from the priorities, I have heard the most ridiculous conspiracy theories that make God seem like an incompetent loser. We tell people God is all powerful, all knowing, undefeated, cannot be sabotaged, and then pass around these theories on how the social elite can overthrow God’s plans. It is lunacy to me. Either God is who He says He is or we need to just all go home and sit down and be quiet. The same God who saved the life of Moses and Jesus from being murdered before their time, who delivered His people out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, raised up King Saul and then took him down is now powerless against secret societies and those pesky Democrats. It all came off as crazy and as manifested unbelief to me.

It’s puzzled me because I have thought, “Maybe I am following a different Jesus.” I truly have sat with the Gospels and studied the life of Jesus. I have read the bible cover to cover many times and even studied some texts in their original language. What I have struggled with most are the priorities of the modern Western Church vs the priorities of Jesus. The behavior part, well we are all still in process. God is still working on me and I do my best to yield to God. We can only expect perfection from God. The world (people who do not know God) should see something different in a person united with Jesus. Those are His words, not mine.

The Jesus I know is highly concerned about the poor, outcasts, the rejected by society, widows, orphans, human beings being sold as slaves, injustice, racism, sexism, all the isms that seek to subjugate or diminish His father’s creation, the broken hearted, the oppressed, those who are not reconciled to the Father (evangelism is a priority), revealing the Father’s heart, delivering the oppressed, truth telling, service to the world, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, bringing God’s hope to the hopeless.

I do not know self centered Jesus who is mostly concerned with Himself, His rights, pushing Himself on others, bullying, excessive rudeness, doing all He can to make Christians rich and comfortable while asking nothing from them.

I do not know political Jesus who rants and raves that you must support whatever political party He chooses or be doomed for hell.

I do not know Jesus of the patriarchy, because Jesus shocked the world by loving women, empowering women to speak for Him, listening to women, protecting women, cherishing women, honoring women, and healing women. Jesus came to serve, not be served.

I do not know white Jesus who mainly cares about white people and their desires. He cares nothing for the other 90% of the world’s population nor the billions of people of color who existed before there were any white people. I know brown Jesus from Nazareth who died for the entire world.

I do not know capitalist or American Jesus who values money and profits more than people. Money is not the highest goal of Jesus, it’s relationship with people. Jesus is not a consumer. Jesus does not treat people like commodities. He loved people enough to die for them.

I do not know the Jesus who quotes scripture at people without helping them to understand it or live it out. Jesus enters into the suffering and lives of flawed people to assist them, not harm them.

I do not know nationalist Jesus who only cares about certain nations. God so loved the world! The entire world.

I do not know the Jesus who hates Africans or black people, nor uses them as the scapegoat. God’s first humans were African. Their melanin rich skin was not called a curse. It was called a blessing.

I will keep inviting my heavenly Father to teach me who He is, and I will keep pursuing Jesus of Nazareth-Yahusha. I don’t know who others are following if it does not match the scriptures of who Jesus is. Cultural Jesus can save no one. He’s not real. He is the god made in human’s image, not the Son of God.

I know this post is long, yet I hope it helps someone. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus did not come to establish a religion. He did not come to form a political party. Jesus came to reconcile the entire world to the Father. He came for RELATIONSHIP and out of that relationship we are transformed. Transformed people transform cities. Jesus changed the world starting with 12 disciples. There are supposedly 2.2 billion Christians on this planet. What are we transforming? Loads of people are running away from Christians and it’s because the agenda of Christians does not match the agenda of Jesus. Our agenda needs to align with Jesus, not the current Christian culture.

I leave you with this note I sensed from Father God on New Years. I am not saying, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” I am sharing something you are invited to pray over and test/weigh against the full counsel of God, the character of God, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. God is not mocked. Claiming the name of Jesus is not a joke. He asks for our entire lives. Our lives are no longer our own, they were purchased with a high price.

What I sensed from the Father, certainly test and weigh it.

“You will see a continued dividing line between those united to my heart and those united to their religion. Their festivals and conferences bring me no joy. They have set their faces to be like Israel was; honoring me with their lips while denying me with their actions. I will purify my true church, my people. You will see more clearly who is following my son and who is following their own agenda.

I am not mocked. I am calling those bearing the name of my son higher. I’m calling them into agreement with my son. Some will listen and grow; some will ignore my correction. Those who ignore my correction will notice a tension and struggle upon their lives. My grace abounds upon those yielded to my son. Your nation has polluted the other nations with her greed, sexual immorality, gluttony, perversion, and pride. She must be purified.

I have sown pockets of my remnant in your nation to pray, to preach, to model the precepts of my son. Those who do not have true unity with my son will see tension in the years to come. The idols of America will not save her. Her military will not save her. Her police state will not help her. Her economy will not save her. She will see that I alone am God.

Mankind has repeatedly played the role of desiring idols over my presence. I continually invite my people into relationship with me through my son and to live out of my presence. This is where they will find life, hope, peace, joy, goodness, identity, love and their purpose. Invite people into my presence.

I am tired of man’s religion and systems of oppression. I have watched pastor’s rob the flock while denying them any access to their presence, counsel, and love. I have watched my people in churches suffer in silence and it rips away at my heart. I will purify those who claim my name.

I have given many opportunities to the church to repent and they do not. They believe they are the “Untouchables” due to my promises of mercy and grace. They forget that I am just. I am the God of Perfect Justice.

Your world will continue to try to contain plagues environmental challenges and discord. They have collectively opened the doors to evil and partnered with the evil one. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The world, the earth, the environment responds to spiritual allegiances. Your world has given their allegiance to sin and idols. Behind those idols is bondage, death, destruction. I’m not punishing the world. The world is suffering because of mankind‘s allegiances. They are partnered with death.

Even amongst the people who call themselves the church there are idols. They play the harlot worse than Israel. They prop up their agenda, politicians, festivals, conferences, and services and then stamp my name on their agenda while neglecting what I actually told them to do!

I love my son instructed my people to love me with all of their being to honor me with their entire lives; to seek first my kingdom, to care for the poor, to fight for for holy justice; to make disciples, to add value, to preach the genuine good news of my son.

Your world must pursue my son to live; seek him and live. Come out of agreement with what does not align with the kingdom of heaven; come into alignment with what my son is doing. This requires those who are called by my name to seek my voice, know my voice, and follow. Lay aside personal and cultural agendas to pursue heavens agenda. We are calling your world to repentance and relationship.”

I am blessing you. May you and I pick up our cross and follow Jesus.

Love in Him,

Erin Lamb

Are We Different or Just Like the World?

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Do we look, talk, or behave any differently than those who do not claim to know Jesus? I ask myself this question, so not picking on anyone else. I will say since 2016 I have encountered countless people who exited Christianity over the church’s obsession with a political party and candidate, over the blatant ignoring or horrible responses to racial unrest (our job is supposed to be justice and reconciliation, not throwing black on black crime stats at people (btw white on white crime is higher!)) or ignoring the pain of hurting people, over the nastiness, rebellion, and vileness that has come out of some Christians over face masks or not getting their way.

The primary allegiance is to be God for a believer, not the earthly country where we were born. Our greatest loyalty is to God, not a flag or nation. Our mandates first come from heaven, not the government. We are Ambassadors of Heaven on earth if we are truly united with God. We showcase who He is, His vision, His character and attributes. We are not our own! We live under the jurisdiction of a Higher Power, the highest power. We reverence God first!!! We worship God, not politicians, not political party, not ourselves, not ideologies, not the church, not ministers, not money, not pleasure, not youth, not marriage, not sex, not keeping up the Joneses, not miracles/signs/wonders, not material possessions. We worship GOD; the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

We are in this world, yet not of this world. We are children of the light, not traffickers of the darkness. We are royalty. We are are seated in heavenly places with Jesus, if we are truly united with Him. We are not led by our flesh or worldly passions. We are led by the Spirit of God who continually bears good fruit.

Those who do not have the Spirit of God in them are NOT the children of God, not heirs, and will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no condemnation (final judgement of God’s wrath) for those who are in Christ Jesus who LIVE according to the Spirit and NOT after the flesh. If you and live according to the flesh (the selfish, self centered, ego, me first, lustful pursuits) we are unwise to think God is going to slap a gold star on us and say, “Good job.” God corrects those He calls a son or daughter.

I ask God to deal with me more than anyone else. God change me from the inside out and allow that transformation to manifest in such a way that it glorifies your Son. He paid the highest price to pull me out of death and into the light. I am no longer a slave, I am God’s friend. I ask God to purge me of limiting beliefs, any false beliefs from growing up in church (some people meant well, yet they taught things the wrong way), and I ask God to help me crucify my flesh so it comes up into alignment with heaven. What does this mean. I ask God to help me to not live out of my ego, out of selfishness, out of the me-centric worldview. You know, the “God bless me and no one else,” mantra.

So my prayer for us today is we cast aside living like the world and live abiding (remaining intimately connected) to Jesus. May we know Jesus for ourselves, know God’s love, and then reveal who He is to the world. God cares far more where people spend eternity than for our comfort. Earth is our temporary assignment, heaven is our permanent home. We live from and for eternity!

God bless you! Seek first the precepts, presence, and knowledge of God.

Warmly,

Erin

Leaving American Christianity to Find Jesus

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Happy New Year! I hope this year is an incredible year for you. God is good. God is incredibly good. One of my favorite verses has been out of the Psalms, it is Psalm 84: 11 and it is as follows:

 For the Lord God is brighter than the brilliance of a sunrise!
    Wrapping himself around me like a shield,
    he is so generous with his gifts of grace and glory.
    Those who walk along his paths with integrity
    will never lack one thing they need, for he provides it all!

God withholds nothing good from those who walk uprightly. When I look over my life, even in my challenges I have seen the goodness of God. He is a sun and a shield. God is a strong tower. God is truth. God is faithful. God is kind. God is unlike anyone else I have ever met on this planet. God is my family.

The Bible states that those who believe in God are to be family to each other, safe, kind, loving, generous, helpful, servants, trustworthy, and forgiving. I have spent my life in churches and I would not call most Christians safe or loving. I would say my greatest betrayals in life came from people who still show up Sunday after Sunday saying they love God. I am not a perfect person. I have flaws, we all do. Yet I cannot think of one person I have betrayed. I cannot think of one person I knowingly worked against them or tried to harm them. My experiences with the collective called “Christians” or “Christianity” has not been this way. I will say there are a handful of professing Christians who have been amazing (outside biological family), yet they are few and I cherish them.

What is this good thing that Christians are offering to the world? How are we living that is so different than the world? Honestly, I have connections with people in the marketplace who do not even know Jesus who have treated me better than professing Christians.

I started examining what we teach people Christianity is in my country. This version of Christianity was okay with murdering Indigenous people, okay with raping/enslaving Africans, okay with subjugation of women, okay with violating the very nature of Christ. The version of Christianity I have seen the past 4-6 years is more concerned with who you vote for than whether you know Jesus. More concerned with building mega churches than helping the poor. Chanting for the rights of the unborn while ignoring loving the person in front of them. More concerned with whatever the current conspiracy theory is or being anti-vax or anti-facemask than loving thy neighbor. I don’t care where you stand on the face masks or vaccines, it’s the level of hatred, vile, and cruelty I have seen emerge from people when they encounter someone who does not agree with them.

I look at Christianity and go, “What is this? This is not the Jesus I read about in the Bible, nor the one I know from years of relationship.” Along with that, people add God’s name onto whatever unkind agenda they have. God is telling them to be unloving, unkind, cruel, brutal, or savage.

I thought that maybe we are dealing with something new, yet we are not. What we are seeing today is a manifestation of the version of Christianity that was sown on these shores in the 1400s, the “Me-Centered Gospel.” It’s the “God bless me and no one else.” It’s the “I will do whatever I need to do to get my way.” It is the “I will push you in the dirt if you don’t agree with me.”

I am not this type of Christian and ceased telling people I am a Christian at all. I tell people I am a follower of Jesus. I am not interested in America’s version of Christianity. I am not interested in worshiping a flag, political candidate, or political party. I am not interested in love of country and getting my way over love of the Kingdom of God.

The American church is not my family. Many times the collective is focused on things God is not even doing. However, they add His name to the agenda so that must be it right? Wrong, like ancient Israel my Nation has often missed the voice of God and traveled her own way after idols. I say as Jesus said, “My family are the ones who do the will of my Father.”

If you are not American, please do not follow our example. Look to Jesus. Follow Jesus. If you are American, please do not follow the example of other Christians. Follow Jesus. To those who say to me that I am cynical and God is pleased with the American church, I beg to differ. I sensed from the Lord in 2018 that a shaking was coming to the church and America. Many platform Christians said blessing was coming. Nope. 2020 shut the doors of many churches. While many blamed the devil or Democrats (which I have no party affiliation, so please do not send me a nasty message. I will throw it in the garbage), I rarely heard anyone saying maybe God was reprimanding the church. You see, I have been doing street ministry for almost a decade and one of the number reasons people want nothing to do with Jesus is because of Christians. God is NOT represented as He is or even well. It’s difficult to represent someone you don’t know! America’s version of Christianity is rooted in religion. Religion is not the same as relationship. We will NOT bear the fruit of Jesus through religion. Jesus stated “I am the Vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me, you WILL bear good fruit.” The reason the fruit is bad in my Nation is because you and I cannot bear fruit from religion or a political spirit or nationalism or even pride.

In 2020 when I did not agree with all the prophetic words about who would be President I had Christians literally curse me out, tell me I was not saved, threaten me, harass me, and send me nasty messages. I have been talking about racism, sexism, and other things that go on in Christiandom that are not aligned with Jesus and have made more enemies and lost some connections. I truly don’t care about any loss for me. I am used to Christians being offended with me and then showing their butts. I know it’s a graphic phrase, yet church people have done things to me I would not do to my worst enemy. Some of them attach God’s name to their meanness and if their God is the one I am worshiping I question why. Jesus has never cursed me out then said the the Father told Him to do it.

I am sad for the world that has poor examples of what God is like. There is a MASS exodus from churches and it’s not because people hate God. They see the devil in the church and prefer the devil who knows he’s the devil. Or they are seeking house churches or online church.

The other day I cried for God. I shed tears for Him. I keep asking Him to make me a better person, not a bitter person. I do understand why people are deconstructing their faith, leaving organized church, and moving away from American Christianity. I hope I never walk away from Jesus. I do know the past few years have made me question greatly what American’s call Christianity. American Christianity is not for me. It does not look like Jesus to me. Jesus is my hope. The Kingdom of Heaven is my home. Following Jesus is what I desire to do. I am not into the other things people say is “Christian.”

I leave you with this dream I had a year or so ago. I was in this beautiful white church filled with people. I heard a commotion outside. People were screaming. I looked up and a man was standing next to me. He said, “You must get out now.” I told him I needed to help others and he said, “You must go now.” I got up and when I went outside there was a gigantic lion attacking people. They were being shredded to death. I still wanted to stop and help people. The man yelled loudly, “Get in the car and get out now. Don’t look back.” I drove off and did not look back. I sensed in 2020 there would be a major dividing line in churches, like two distinct camps emerging. I saw that transpire over politics. I sensed again in 2022 (last week) there would be an even deeper divide. There will be those who seek to follow Jesus and those who seek to keep going with religion.

I am not asking you to take my words and run with them. Talk to God for yourself. Pray. Fast and pray. Ask God what His heart is for what America calls “Christianity.” Is He pleased with it? Or have Christians just attached God’s name on the agenda and it’s not even worshiping the real God.

I have never seen people behave as poorly as what I have seen the past 4-6 years. I pray for my nation, yet as stated my heart is to simply follow Jesus. Even if I lose mother, father, sister, brother, church people, etc…they will never be more important than Him and completing the mission for Him. The church is not a building, it’s supposed to be a people. God did not send Jesus to build a religion or political party, He sent Him to build a family. My prayer is God continues to purge me and that I finish this race well. I hope that God changes the American Church so she resembles Jesus.

Leaving American Christianity in search of the real Jesus…

Love in Him,

Erin Lamb