“Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8 The Message Version)
I don’t want to be known as a faker to God.
It’s not my intentions to ever appear to be something that I am not.
We can’t fool Him.
He knows us so intimately – better than we know ourselves. Why? Because He made us in His image. He’s the Creator. He’s the Author of our story, our lives.
Brennan Manning said in his book The Ragamuffin Gospel “Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality. Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality, and reality. It should fashion whole men and women living lives of love and communion. False, manhandled religion produces the opposite effect. Whenever religion shows contempt or disregards the rights of persons, even under the noblest pretexts, it draws us away from reality and God.”
So why do I try to fool Him sometimes? 
Perhaps it’s not so much me – fooling God, but rather – me fooling, or attempting to fool, others. We can become so good at this fakery, this mask that we wear that no one around us would ever suspect – that’s how good we can become at it.
I’m not accusing anyone of faking it today – that is never my place or intention.
All that I am pointing out is that sometimes, in MY own life, I attempt to fake it spiritually…and it never goes well. Have you ever been there? Please tell me that you have, I don’t want to be the only one.
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I can sing all the right songs.
I can read all the right portions of scripture.
I can dress and look the part.
But deep down inside, the real me, the one that is genuine has taken a back seat and there’s the fake me putting on a show.
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I don’t say this so that you’ll have pity on me, or that you’ll judge me (or think of me differently, “What?! a pastor/officer/soldier – admitting to faking it, how dare he!”) …I’m just being honest. AND -In my honesty, I hope that there are those who also can relate, and perhaps come to terms with this fakery in their (your) own life.
Like me:
-You don’t want to just go through the motions of merely existing.
-You want to impact the world for Christ.
-You want to be authentic instead of a plastic soldier that looks awesome on the outside but is hollowed out on the inside.
-You want to reach real people for Christ because of your sincerity and genuine faith in Christ.
-You know anything less than authentic faith will NOT fool God. – He wants us to live for Him (die to self, become selfless just. like. Him.) He doesn’t want our lip-service and platitudes.
Die Faker, DIE!!!
Dear Salvationist,
I will not be a faker.
We cannot be phony about this faith, these uniforms, this army and especially WHOSE we are.
“Haven’t you yet learned that your body is the home of the Holy Spirit God gave you, and that he lives within you? Your own body does not belong to you.20 For God has bought you with a great price. So use every part of your body to give glory back to God because he owns it.” (1 Corinthians 6:19,20 TLB)
So perhaps you can join me as I casually, ever so silently, rather quickly – put to death my fake-self once more. Let’s cast it aside and get back to what really matters: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Luke 10:27 – in reference to the Shema)
With ALL my heart.
With ALL my soul.
With ALL my strength.
And with ALL my mind.
From this flows everything else.
Die Faker Die.
Something more to ponder today.
Disclaimer: The ponderings and opinions written here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Salvation Army.
Pastor's Ponderings 
Wow. Transparent much? No, you’re certainly not the only one, by a long shot. At this place in my journey, the act of “putting the fake self to death” seems to be happening over and over; in my life as well as others. Not presuming to re-write what you already did so well, humbly, for me it’s more a matter of walking authentically (and I’d argue it’s not quite the same as repeatedly “putting fake to death”.) No one ever said it’s easy.