Obedience

I've just begun reading Thomas Watson's *The Ten Commandments* in an effort to learn from the Law. Already I'm feeling the heat. This book was one of three that Watson published in a collection called *A Body of Practical Divinity*. (The first book was called *A body of Divinity* and the third *The Lord's Prayer*.) Apparently Watson didn't write much else, but every reference I find to this book is golden.

Almost four years have past since I first purchased the book. It is funny to me that I have such a strong memory of buying it. During a two-week stint in South Africa with the Wegener family, we checked out a Christian book store in Capetown that was supposed to be quite good. The store as a whole was just alright, but an elderly man who frequented the store had just passed away and his survivors had put his entire library up for sale in this shop. On David Wegener's recommendation, I bought three books there that day. The second and third were Watson's *The Lord's Prayer* and Murray's *Redemption Accomplished and Applied,* which is amazing.

Anyway, enough with the nostalgia. I've only begun this one, but it promises lots of conviction and lots of growth. The first part is on obedience. Watson asks the question, "What makes our obedience acceptable?" Aside from the obvious but all important intermediation of Christ, his observations were cutting. Sincerity, for instance. Purity of intent. And, this is where I fall so desperately short, joyfulness in giving our obedience.

I often jokingly boss people around with the command, "Like it!" or "You'll do it and you'll like it!" Well, joke's on me. Sometimes I get the suspicion that we'll spend eternity watching God's homevideos of how we thought we knew what we were doing, but suddenly in a really ironic manner discovered we were wrong/hypocrites/idiots/sinners, like a divine version of "Punked." Does anyone else get that feeling? If the gag reel of my life is available in the life hereafter, please bring popcorn.