Getting there...

I'm lined up to preach in the contemporary service at church this Sunday.

The topic is about being fully surrendered to Jesus. We're going to look at one of Jesus' more outrageous claims that a person must hate (yeah, we're not shying away from the ESV language that actually includes the word "hate") their family and their own life in order to be His disciple.

Crazy stuff from a human perspective. Hate my family? Uh...yeah...sure Jesus. What about all that love stuff that you talked about? How do you explain that?

I'll be the first to say that passages like this make me question my level of surrender to Jesus.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm wrestling with this sermon.

I know that too many of us (yours truly included) are happy with our plastic Jesus tucked away in our pockets where He can't really bother us. We'll pull Him out whenever it's convenient for us.

And I don't think that's an accurate working definition of being fully surrendered.

I'm praying that the words of this passage will push many out of their little "Jesus box" and that their eyes would be open to how He calls each of us to fully live for Him.