RADICAL: WHO DO YOU REALLY WORSHIP?

Put yourself in the shoes of the eager followers of Jesus in the first century. What if you were the potential diciple being told to drop your nets? What if you were the person whom Jesus told to not even say good-bye to your family? What if you were told to hate your families and give up everything you had in order to follow Jesus?
.
...This is where we come face to face with a dangerous reality. We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love him in a way that makes our closest relationships in this world look like hate. And it is entirely possible that he will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor.
.
...But we don't want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. "Jesus wouldn't really tell us not to bury our father or not to say good-bye to our family. Jesus didn't literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor. What Jesus really meant was....."
.
...This is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus we are comfortable with.
.
...A nice, middle class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, bacause , after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.
.
...But do you realize what you and I are doing at this point? We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look alot like us because, after all , that is whom we ae most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church building to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.
.
RADICAL: TAKING BACK YOUR FAITH FROM THE AMERICAN DREAM - BY DAVID PLATT