Jonathan Edwards

I recently purchased a set of books on Jonathan Edwards which I am greatly enjoying. I just read this quote, and it struck a chord. The authors are commenting on one of Edwards' more important sermons, 'A Divine and Supernatural Light'.

When a person believes the gospel message, the things of Christianity, of the Bible, and of church that once seemed so ordinary compared to really interesting things - whether celebrities or sports or movies or whatever else - now possess a "glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and temporal." In Edwards's biblical view, the person seized by the Spirit cannot see Christianity any longer in earthly terms. Like a butterfly that emerges from a cocoon, the converted sinner sees Christianity and its doctrines as things of beauty. Everything changes at this point for the redeemed person. Life overflows with God's goodness and beauty. The existence that once had no center - or that had a destructive one - now revolves around the person of Jesus Christ, whose work suddenly leaps off every page of the Bible and pours into every corner of life, calling the Christian to experience the joyful process of conformity to the divine will.

I would love to see more of this in myself and in others.