Faithful or Pretender

I learned at an early age how to pretend. It seemed like there was always something to hide from. The hiding places somehow felt safe even though they weren’t real. These places became forts with 100 feet high and 5 feet wide walls that were unbreachable. Until somebody fired a reality cannon ball. That could crumble the whole fortress. But I had a maze of secret passageways that led to forts all across this pretend kingdom.

Pretending is healthy for a young mind as long as it’s not influenced by fear. Fear is like fire. It can keep you from freezing to death or burn up an entire city. And lie about its source. Fear tells us not to play with matches because such activity would lead to fire and brimstone, which you should be very afraid of. This same fear has been given an opportunity to tell us that God is an angry God. This angry God has shared all our personal information with His chief assistant, Santa Claus. Santa has a staff of hundreds of elves checking and updating this so called “Good or Bad List” for the single purpose of making sure we are deprived for being naughty.

I was told that I needed to find Jesus and He would make me good as long as I at least kept the ten commandments, or maybe just some of them. It was the effort that counts, they said. I am so sorry to tell you I couldn’t pull it off. I kept stumbling. It seemed all the people around me were able to do what was expected of them. Not me. I had to come to terms with being a subclass Christian.

All this guilt is what has caused me to decide to pretend to be good. You know, fake it till you make it is not an easy task. At some point pretending requires we develop accomplished skills sets in lying. Lying is not so hard. What’s difficult is doing it in a way so as not to get caught.

There are practiced pretenders who have gone to large universities and seminaries and have developed sophisticated strategies for legitimizing who they pretend to be. They preach, from ornate pulpits, impressive interpretations of how to make pretending look like faith.  We have learned how to pretend to put on the full armor of God every day. We have learned how to pretend to die daily because, well, it’s in the Bible. We pretend that the Bible is the perfect guidebook to righteous living and getting closer to God. We are taught to pretend to confess all our sins in order to get forgiven again. Not only to confess, but to keep legal sized note pads filled with all the sins we commit daily so we don’t forget any of them. We are instructed that if we pretend well enough, we will get a crown filled with shiny jewels and new neck muscles to hold up this weighty pretend head gear. We are encouraged to pretend to be happy about getting to go to church at least two times a week, because one must not forsake the assembly. The consequences of not adhering to this encouragement would be irreversible. Some say the rules in the Bible are unbending and permanent, except for those who have a deeper understanding or who have achieved enlightenment of what the rules are or are not. Pretenders believe that they must work tirelessly to earn or inherit the promises of God and bring many with them into this effort for righteousness.

The goal of any respectable pretender is to convince us that God is an unyielding task master and you must conquer your sin habits in order to please Him.  Your continual repentance is your only hope.

The most egregious of pretenders are those who take on the role of Holy Spirit. The pretender of good intentions many have been distracted from their true identity and robbed of the ability to focus on the goodness of God. They have replaced it with a focus of being better Christians, and of making God number one in their lives. Holy Spirit pretenders give lists of duties that ensure bondage. These slaves of right behavior drag behind them long chains of ideas designed to wrap us up into a tidy group of box dwellers. They have decided for us what is right and wrong or what is good and bad. A judgement call for self-appointed magistrates.

I think that the Church - the bride of Christ - has been exposed to being run by and filled with pretenders. Because of the shallowing effect of the illusion of depth, Christians of today are happy with being spoon fed a gospel that lacks power. God’s power has been replaced with manufactured, flesh driven manpower. Willpower can’t sustain life. It produces opponents to faith.  Pretenders.

So, what is faith?

Faith is knowing that God is faithful, and trusting that faithfulness has no other purpose but for our good. Faith is the very footing of our relationship with God. God has created us to be dependent, and faith is the agent that releases us to that dependency.

·      Pretending creates the feeling of trust, but faith is the statement and reality of trust.

·      Pretending creates a need for deeper understanding, but faith shows us we already have understanding.

·      Pretending exposes our lack, but faith opens us to the truth of having everything we need for life and godliness.

·      Pretending makes us religious, but faith puts us in relationship.

·      Pretending tells us we must manage our sins and gives us a chance to earn forgiveness. But faith confirms our forgiveness through the goodness of God’s boundless grace.

·      Pretending has us confessing and repenting from our sins. Faith says all our sin are forgiven by the death and resurrection of Christ.

·      Pretending says we must find Christ. Faith comes because Christ found us.

Faith is not fabricated though disciplined effort. It’s not a means of twisting God’s arm to get what you think you need. Faith is one of the fruit of God’s Spirit. It is a gift He gives through relationship with Him. Faith is not jumping off a cliff but jumping into the powerful hands of our Father.

Romans 10: 5-9 For Moses writes of the righteousness which is of the Law, "The man who does those things shall live by them. "But the righteousness of faith says this: "Do not say in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven?" that is, to bring Christ down; or "Who shall descend into the deep?"; that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what does it say? "The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart"; that is, the Word of Faith which we proclaim; Because if you confess the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

1Corinthians 2:5-7- And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore since we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right of the throne of God.

Pretenders say you must earn your way into Heaven, but the Gospel declaresSee Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. Pretenders say you must believe without giving you a reason to believe, but saving faith follows facts. Because God’s Word is true, and you can trust Him. Because Christ has been raised, your faith is worth more than gold. Pretenders say you can move God with your faith, but faith is always a response to something God has said or done.