WHO ALL BEAUTY REFLECTS

'All the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation, is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being.' 

Jonathan Edwards in Dane C Ortlund, Edwards on the Christian Life, p.27.

THE PURE FUN OF HOLINESS

'...there is nothing more thrilling, more solid, more exhilarating, more humanity-restoring, more radiantly joyous, than holiness.'
Dane C Ortlund, Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God, p.26.

THE IMPLICATIONS OF FOLLOWING A KING BORN IN A MANGER

'The manger at Christmas means that, if you live like Jesus, there won't always be room for you in a lot of inns.' 

Timothy Keller, Hidden Christmas, p.119. 

WHERE PLEASURE SHOULD LEAD US

'The Christian life is not an an ascetic life, but a life in which every received pleasure draws the mind up to supreme Pleasure, Christ himself, in his resplendent beauty. Joy is fundamentally a vision of God.' 

Dane Ortlund in Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.162.

THE LIMITS TO THE JOY OF SEX

'Human love knows no definitive consummation, no absolute fulfillment. Loving relationships are never complete. They are always ongoing, always reaching out for more. Regardless of the quality or frequency of lovemaking, there is always a measure of yearning present.' 

Dianne Bergant in Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.151.

CHRISTIAN BEAUTIFICATION

'Christian living is participation in God, in "the supreme loveliness of his nature". And if what defines God supremely is his beauty or loveliness or excellency, then to participate in the triune life of God is to be swept up into, and to exude that heavenly resplendence. A Christian is one who id being beatified.' 

Jonathan Edwards in Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.146.

THE TELESCOPE OF FAITH

'When you have a telescope, you can look through the wrong end (which makes everything look much further away than it is). Or you can look through the right end, and the distance is compressed for a moment. Too many of us have the telescope of faith turned the wrong way round, and Christ looks further away. Too many of us are so fixated on this life, particularly on what's not going well for us, with life's disappointments. The telescope is turned the other way, and heaven just seems further away even than it does without it. 

Song 5:1 makes us turn the telescope the right way around. Christ invites us to look at that day through the lens of this text and make it more real, more immediate. This text is intended to offer healing for our greyness and grumpiness. As we struggle in this life, we look through the telescope and we see the wedding feast, the perfect world and the glory that will be ours for all eternity. We see that we have not missed out on anything that matters because we are heading into the centre of the universe of all history to which marriage and sexuality point - and to which all singleness and unexpressed sexuality points to - the final climax of intimacy that will be ours in Christ.'

Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.104. 

MEETING JESUS

'To see Him will have an impact upon us similar to seeing and sensing all the most spectacular and precious sights and experiences added together. We may think of the most wonderful feeling of relief and gratitude we have ever experienced, when perhaps some terrible fear was removed. We may add to this the deepest sensation of love we have ever felt, and also the most humbling sense of awe and wonder.

Then we may add the greatest surge of excitement we have ever encountered, along with the most powerful thrill of triumph that ever swept over us. Finally, we may combine with all these the most profound amazement at breathtaking scenes of beauty and power that we have ever experienced. If we take all these magnificent impressions together, the very best of earthly sensations, magnified many times, we will have some small sense of the majesty and wonder of seeing Christ Jesus our Lord.' 

Peter Masters in Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.102.

MARRIAGE & THE BIBLE

'The marriage metaphor...keeps popping is again in the Bible like rocky granite outcrops revealing what underlies the whole landscape.'

Julian Hardyman, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, p.100.

WHAT JESUS SAYS TO HIS PEOPLE

'You have praised Me, I will praise you; you think much of Me, I think quite as much of you. You use great expressions for Me, I will use just the same for you. You say My love is better than wine, so is yours to Me. You tell Me all My garments smell of myrrh, so do yours. You say My word is sweeter than honey to your lips, so is yours to Mine; all that you say of Me, I say it to you. I see Myself in your eyes, I can see My own beauty in you. And whatever belongs to Me, belongs to you. Therefore, O My love, I will sing back the song - you have singing it to your beloved and I will sing it to My beloved. You have sung it your husband, I will sing it to My sister, My spouse.' 

Charles Spurgeon in Julian Hardyman, Jesus. Lover of My Soul, p.95.