Douglas Wilson's post (and picture) on approaching worship

An Invitation to Mess With It

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We have a meal here that entails consecration. All of Christ is offered to you, and in natural return, you are summoned to come. But when you are summoned to come, this means that all of you is summoned to come.

The cup of blessing is here, set before you. But we want always to remember what the Scriptures teach about the nature of blessing. “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” (Ps. 119:2). So you are invited to come, and you are being exhorted to come with an entire heart.

The underlying cause of great affliction for many struggling Christians is partialism. They want to have God in their lives, but they want to hold back something for themselves in reserve. God can have that, but we want to retain this. Thus we parcel ourselves out, and are surprised when nothing works as it ought. God is happy to work with the fragments of your life, but He insists on having all of them.

Different people want to retain different things, but the results are always some sort of dislocation. Some want to keep control of their money, others of private lusts, and others of their position in the community. If we turn whatever it is over to God, He might mess with it.

But God’s people are, always and everywhere, exhorted to deal with God in bulk. “Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). So what you are saying by approaching this Table—since it is governed by the words of Scripture, and not our own private desires—is that you want God to take whatever it is . . . and mess with it.

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.