God IN ______

One of the reasons I love Jonathan Edwards is that he reminds me that life is not about God AND ______ so much as God IN ______. In other words, Christ is not one more element to fit into an already packed schedule--one more item on a growing list of priorities. Knowing Christ means seeing all of life in a new way, with new glasses. Jesus Christ gives meaning to all priorities, not only heading the list but coloring every one with new and exciting meaning. To become a Christian is, in a sense, to make all of life sacramental. "From him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom 11:36). It is not God AND job, family, sex, friends, food, rest, driving, buying a home, reading a book, drinking coffee--it is God IN these things.

The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love fo God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or in each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them. --'God Glorified in Man's Dependence'

When a saint dies, he has no cause at all to grieve because he leaves his friends and relations whom he dearly loves; for he doth not properly leave them, he enjoys them still in Christ, because every thing that they love in them, and love them for, is in Christ in an infinite degree, whether it be nearness of relation, or any perfection and good received, or love in us, or a likeness in dispositions, or whatever is a rational ground of love. --'Heaven' (Miscellaneous Observations)

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean. --'The Christian Pilgrim'