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Tim and Katina singing ‘How deep the Father’s love for us’ at New Hope Church in Fulton, MD.  Click here to download the sermons and daily messages for the 40 Days of Loving Series hosted by New Hope to your iPhone or iPod from iTunes.

Note: This is Part II of the article ‘Xeroxed faith in Christ’. To read Part I, click here

The process for an adult joining the Roman Catholic Church may take up to two years (read more); to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church, one must agree to thirteen statements (read more), in the United Methodist Church, there is a 24 page Liturgy (read more).

While I have nothing against the initiation process for the aforementioned denominations, (neither am I against the need for conformity in some respects), I think it is important to understand that the people who make it into heaven are not all going to look, dress, speak and act in one particular way.

The scriptures point to that there are going to be many surprises on who makes it into heaven. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23 that on Judgment Day, not everyone who did things in His name will get into heaven. With that in mind, I reject any faith tradition that forces someone into conformity if it is done under the premise that it will summon God’s favor.

Now don’t get me wrong, good works is essential (James 2:20). It, as a matter of fact is a symptom of a healthy relationship with Christ; something we do because Christ (already) loves us (but not to earn His favor).

For most of my life, I’ve been a religious person. I attended church every week, held several (church) leadership positions and lead out in many worship services. While I was a very religious person, I need to be honest with you and say that I did not have a relationship with Christ.

While I was highly regarded and praised for my successes in the faith community to which I belonged, I was a failure where my faith in Christ was concerned. Why? What Christ wanted from me was not religiosity, He wanted a relationship. That is, a relationship with me, not a Xeroxed relationship; that is, one that was handed down or copied from my parents, my teachers or religious leaders. A personal relationship with me is all that He wanted (all that He wants).

Where am I now?

The short answer is that I am where God wants me to be at the moment. The long answer is that I am still discovering God, I am still questioning God, I am still wondering about God, still discovering His purpose in my life, for my life.

It is my hope to continue this non-xeroxed, non-hand-me-down, personal journey of faith where Christ would continuously reveal Himself to me. My daily prayer is that He would continue to open the eyes of my heart so that I can see Him for myself.

How about you? Is your faith xeroxed or is it the real deal, based on your own (personal) experience with the Father? If not, I invite you to join me on this journey of faith; take the time to study His Word, listen for His voice and submit to His will.

Finally, choose Relationship above Religiosity. Ask God to free you from religiosity (That was an important step that took the shackles off my feet). This will open the door to you being fully reconciled to a personal relationship with Him. At the end of the day, really that is what He desires of us, not a Xeroxed faith, but an authentic and personal relationship with Him.

God bless you,

Akhenaton
mail@pharaohsprotege.com

When I was growing up, there was a couple who attended my church who were very much like Simon of American Idol. They spent a tremendous amount of time traveling to and from the homes of members to call them out if they wore jewelry, skirts above their knees and even if the song that they sang at church was a few beats too fast.

Christianity at the time for me was more about the appearance of rather than actually having a relationship with Christ. A tremendous amount of energy and time was spent trying to look and be a certain way rather than submitting to The Way (John 14:6).

My problem was that there were so many don’ts and do’s that the freedom I was promised that came from knowing Christ never materialized. I had never experienced the joy that the Bible-thumping televangelists spoke about; neither did I the passion. What I had was a laundry list of what not to wear, where not to go, what not to eat, when to worship, how to worship, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

For close to two decades, I worshiped a false god. That is the false god of pride in that I ‘knew and kept’ the Ten Commandments, that I worshiped on ‘the right day’, that I did not wear certain things, that I did not eat pork, smoke or drink alcohol. That false god made me believe that that was all that I needed to do and that it all sufficed where a relationship with Christ was concerned.

What I did not realize was that all I needed to do was believe in Jesus Christ. (John 3:15). Belief in Jesus Christ was all I needed to do.

Belief in Jesus Christ…

• The Prophet who confronts us and calls us to repentance of sin.
• The Priest who comforts and saves us from sin.
• The King who asks us to give Him total control of our lives.

Last week we celebrated Christ’s death and resurrection. My understanding is that Christ did not come so that I would have a Xeroxed form of Christianity. A Xeroxed Christianity is one that is grounded in a desire to look good in the eyes of church folk or one that was handed down through the generations or by religious leaders. He (Christ) came and died in the hopes that I would develop a personal relationship with Him…starting from the ground up, not one that was handed down.

Where am I now? Is my faith still Xeroxed? Find out in Part II of this article.

Akhenaton
mail@pharaohsprotege.com

I am currently reading the book Vintage Jesus by one of my favorite preachers, Mark Discroll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church (link) in Seattle, Washington.

In Vintage Jesus, Discroll answers the following questions:

• Chapter 1 Is Jesus the Only God?
• Chapter 2 How Human Was Jesus?
• Chapter 3 How Did People Know Jesus Was Coming?
• Chapter 4 Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?
• Chapter 5 Why Did Jesus’ Mom Need to Be a Virgin?
• Chapter 6 What Did Jesus Accomplish on the Cross?
• Chapter 7 Did Jesus Rise from Death?
• Chapter 8 Where Is Jesus Today?
• Chapter 9 Why Should We Worship Jesus?
• Chapter 10 What Makes Jesus Superior to Other Saviors?
• Chapter 11 What Difference Has Jesus Made in History?
• Chapter 12 What Will Jesus Do upon His Return?

Discroll takes a non-traditional and often hilarious approach to answering these very important questions about the deity of Jesus while using pop culture including insights from such people as Martin Luther King Jr., Hugh Hefner, Jack Bauer, Fidel Castro, Oprah, Kanye West, Gandhi, Homer Simpson, Mike Tyson, Gil Grissom and Madonna.

Below, click the PLAY button to view his sermon on the question ‘Is Jesus really God?’.
To purchase the book, click here.

A study released today by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that the U.S. religious marketplace has become extremely volatile. The study found that “nearly half of American adults are leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether”.

In August of last year, I gave an account of an experience on a busy street corner in Brooklyn, NY which in part addresses what I think is responsible for the aforementioned.

First published in August of 2007

Shouting as loud as her slender figure would allow was elderly woman I ran into on a busy street corner in Brooklyn, NY on Sunday.

“Turn from your wicked ways; you will burn in hell; get out of Babylon; stop committing adultery” …and she was going on and on, looking passersby directly in their eyes, while forcing Bible tracts in their hands.

The majority of those who passed in her direction, hurriedly did so in order to get away from this seemingly crazy woman.

When I saw the commotion, I turned to a friend who was with me and suggested that a smile, followed by the words “Jesus loves you with an everlasting love” would have sufficed (while of course offering the Bible tracts).

The reality is that most people are jaded when it comes to Christianity, case in point, the response of the passersby that afternoon. Many have come to know Christendom not as a place of solace, hope and faith but as the footstool for fire and brimstone messages, condemnation and intolerance.

I’ve found that many churches are hijacked by non-Biblical traditions, they are out of touch with their communities and blind or afraid to get their hands ‘dirty’ when it comes to the real issues that even their congregants face, save for those outside their walls.

My non-Christian friends say that they see nothing appealing about Christianity and they rightfully say so. To the post-modern mindset, really, what is appealing about sitting in a ‘sanctuary’ for two hours (more or less), “listening to a select few perform classical music, followed by sedentary singing and a long speech about a guy named God”?

Traditional methods are not working. I personally quite frankly see tradition to be synonymous with mediocrity; God does not tolerate mediocrity.

A repeating pattern I find when I visit churches that have a traditional format is that the congregation is often void of young adults while those even younger anxiously wait for when they reach the age where they can chose to not go to church.

In this age of iPhones, Harry Potter, MTV and MySpace, traditional Christianity needs a high dose of Reality, an even greater dose of Practicality and most importantly, Relevance if she serious about reaching the masses.

What she (Christianity) needs to do is roll up her sleeves, loosen her neck ties, replace her high heeled shoes with sneakers and revise not her message, but her methods of presenting the message of salvation to the masses.

To move forward, stereotypes of and by Christians need to be broken; the status-quo needs to be challenged to give up centuries old traditions and allow for open and honest dialog if the trends of recent are to change.

Until then, like that lady on the street corner in Brooklyn, people are just going to continue to hurriedly pass us by as if we are a bunch of crazy people, simply because they do not understand what a friend called “the thee, thou and thy” language that we speak.

I found the following great churches in my area to be at the forefront of keeping it simple…

• The Life Center Church- Camp Springs, MD
• New Hope Church- Fulton, MD
• Journey’s Crossing- Silver Spring, MD
• Find a church in your area that keeps it simple here

Akhenaton

mail@pharaohsprotege.com