I find a certain joy in poking fun at our American culture of over doing, well, pretty much everything. Too much eating. Too much spending. Too much playing. Too much working. Really, very little is done in moderation here in America.

We have this habit of taking a good thing to destructive excess. We become obese from too much eating. Families are estranged from too much working. Financial security and opportunity is destroyed by too much spending. Responsibility is forgotten with too much playing.

While these things in and of themselves are (usually) not expressly condemned, they seem to become our disaster.

Again, from Thomas Watson’s insight and wisdom:

More are hurt by lawful things than unlawful, as more are killed with wine than poison. Gross sins are affright, but how many take a surfeit the state (of being more than full) and die, in using lawful things inordinately. Recreation is lawful, eating and drinking are lawful, but many offend by excess and their table is a snare. Relations are lawful, but how often does Satan tempt to overlove! How often is the wife and child laid in God’s room! Excess makes things lawful become sinful.

Thomas Watson writes:

The bare knowledge of God’s will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God’s will, but he was a traitor.

I know I write about this a lot. But I suppose it’s a topic you can’t quite say enough about.

As much as I love God’s word, and I love to study it and encourage other people to study it, getting God’s word—on it’s own—it’s not enough. We have to believe it, and do it.

Watson’s analogy is well received. Knowledge alone is like winter’s sun, which makes things bright, but no necessarily warm.

After a long weekend of shooting weddings, I came to the end of the day, exhausted, and realized that I hadn’t written a post yet, nor did I have too much inspiration to do so. So, I cracked open my copy of A Puritan Golden Treasury. A collection of brief quotations from famous puritan authors on all sorts of topics.

I read through a few of them before I stumbled on one that I really very much liked. Thomas Watson writes this:

“That which the saints scarce take notice of in themselves, God in a special manner observes. "I was hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink. Then shall the righteous say, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee?” (Matt 25:35). They as it were overlooked and disclaimed their own works of charity, but Christ takes notice of them.”

I thought this was an interesting perspective.

Christians are well accustomed to debasing themselves. After all, we are sinners, and indeed there isn’t a drop of blood in our veins deserving of God’s love, although he gives it anyway.

But, I think this often bleeds beyond its limits and we forget that God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us. A fact that implies that we will do good things. And, although we may fail to see that good God is working in us, we can be sure that Jesus is taking very particular note of it.

I find that to be encouraging.

The classic puritan Christian, Thomas Watson, eloquently shares his thoughts on the tension between the heart and the mind.

"The bare knowledge of God’s will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God’s will, but he was a traitor."

“Knowledge alone is like a winter sun…” Superb. The sun is always hot, but its heat is not appreciated under a blanket of frozen water. Much like our minds, when filled with heat radiating knowledge of God and his word—it can’t do anything for an icy heart.

Thomas Watson affirms that both must be working for spiritual prosperity.

The familiar verse, James 1:2-3, reads:

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”

It’s hard to remember that for Christians, affliction is not God’s disfavor, but his favor. God changes, builds and refines us. One such way is through our trials and difficulties. It’s easy to see in retrospect, but difficult to embrace in the moment.

To that end I think, Thomas Watson wrote this:

“To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort; but to be assured that all things which fall out shall co-operate for their good, that their crosses shall be turned into blessings, that showers of affliction water the withering root of their grace and make it flourish more; this may fill their hearts with joy till they run over.”

When I began reading Thomas Watson’s The Lord’s Supper I was expecting, and probably seeking, a better idea of the biblical teaching of the sacrament of communion. What I got was actually much more beautiful.

This book is almost more of a large pamphlet than a book, finishing at just eighty-six pages. I thought when I began I would start it and finish it all in one day. I quickly decided to take it slowly. Watson clearly writes to a group of people who already share a common understanding of the sacrament, as so he makes no defense for any kind of theological standpoint. Instead, as with most Puritan literature, he focuses primarily and consistently on the cross and the implications that it bears for us.

Watson calls us back consistently to undertake the difficult task of examining ourselves, particularly in the context of the sacrament. However, readers who earnestly consider his words will in all likelihood find them permeating their daily walks.

I ended up reading this book like a daily devotional. Taking just a few pages at a time and thinking about them, praying about them, and considering how what was said might affect my life. So what might have taken only a matter of hours on an intellectual level, took more than a week on a spiritual level. I regret no part of that.

In classic literature such as the puritans, it can sometimes seem like your reading a completely different language. As far as ease of reading goes, Watson falls on the easier side. The most difficult part of this book for modern readers will probably be a sometimes unusual vocabulary and occasionally a strange sentence structure.

All in all, I would recommend this book to Christians; particularly those interested in finding deeper love for Jesus, gratitude for the cross, and humility of heart. What honest Christian doesn’t want that?

While reading Thomas Watson’s The Lord’s Supper, I was reminded of something important for all of us, as Christians, to remember. While discussing preparedness to come to the table of the Lord, Watson writes:

“We must come to the Lord’s table with self-denying hearts. When we have prepared ourselves in the best manner we can, let us take heed of trusting our preparations. ‘So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do’ (Luke 17:10). Use duty, but do not idolize it. We ought to use duties to fit us for Christ, but we must not make Christ, but we must not make a Christ of our duties. Duty is a golden path to walk in, but not a silver crutch to lean on.

Alas, what are all our preparations? God can spy a hole in our best garments. ‘Woe to man, if thou shouldst examine him and weigh him up’ (Augustine). ‘All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags’ (Isa. 64:6)”

Watson reaches this thought after discussing the need for us to prepare ourselves to come to the table of the Lord. However, even after all of these preparations, we have not made ourselves worthy to come—we remain completely unworthy. However, thanks to the very One we come in solemn memory of, we have been counted worthy.

Watson’s thought here is a biblical concept that spreads out over many areas of our lives. It’s not faith that saves, Jesus saves. It’s not me who saves the sinner, it’s Jesus who saves the sinner. I think especially as we endeavor to be vessels of Christ’s love to the world, we should remember we are only vessels. We frequent a tendency to feel that success is based on our performance—it’s not; it’s based on the prerogative of a good and loving God. So let’s not put our trust in the work of our hands or the work of our hearts but in God who works all things for the good of those who love him and his perfect glory.

The group Leeland has a beautiful song in a similar vein to this discussion. It’s called Carried to the Table and you can listen to it for free on their MySpace page.

Jesus, I pray that you would place the emphasis in our hearts on you. Jesus, help us to put our trust, not in any kind of work of our own, but in you grace, in your love, in your mercy, as displayed perfectly in your cross. Jesus, give us humility; sanctify us, God!