image by Ioc Nguyen from Unsplash J.I. Packer's book Knowing God was a classic that I'd often heard my parents recommend, but when your home has shelves of theological and Christian books and your parents are somehow always discovering a new gem of a book every other day, you get a bit desensitized after a while. I mentally stowed Knowing God away on my endless To-Read list and figured one of these days--after I'd finished the stack of half-read books waiting for me patiently on my desk/bedside/bookshelf--I'd get into it. ...knowing at the same time that the chances weren't all that good, considering how many times I'd said that to myself about multiple books. Reader, I am proud to report I finally did get to it. And it was a lot more simple and straight-forward than I expected, for an old book. I thought, to help consolidate what I'd read (and also to compile my notes since my handwriting isn't the most legible) I would do a short chapter by chapter series of posts breaking down the main points of each chapters, and some of the key quotes and discussion questions which I felt were the most helpful. So for chapter 1! Packer begins by establishing why he wrote this book, his premise on what it meant to know God (and what it was NOT) as well as why it was important: "The conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God--ignorance both of His ways and of the practice of communion with Him--lies at the root of much of the church's weakness today." The knowledge of God's nature and character is practical and deeply relevant for life (preachh!) contrary to popular opinion that theology is stuffy/academic and only necessary for Bible seminary students and pastors. 5 foundations which should characterize our knowledge of God: 1. God communicates to us via the Bible 2. God rules over all things for His glory 3. God is Saviour and actively manifests His love through the saving work of Jesus 4. God is triune 5. Godliness = responding to the revelation of God with trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. True religion = a life lived and seen in the light of God's word. Packer also warns that before we embark on learning about God, we need to examine our hearts to discern our motivations for doing so, and ask ourselves this question: "Why do I want to know about God, what will I do with this knowledge?" Theological knowledge will only feed our egos if we pursue it for its own sake, if we "seek it for the wrong purpose and value it by the wrong standard." Our desire to grow in knowledge of God should be practical, rather than theoretical--in order to know God and enjoy Him better. (This, by the way, is something I had learnt myself, but never was able to articulate so clearly and powerfully. I agree with him one hundred percent. If we only seek knowledge about God for its own sake, and fail to apply it to our lives practically, we are in huge danger of becoming proud, self-righteous hypocrites blinded to our own sins, like the scribes and Pharisees) "We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God." How do we ensure this? By meditating on each truth that we learn about Him--dwelling on it, so that it has an impact how we think of and relate to God. This should give rise to praise and prayer--how we grow in love in delight and enjoyment of God. Packer defines meditation = purposefully dwelling on knowledge of God: "talking to oneself about God, arguing oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God's power and grace." It is "an experience of being humbled and exalted" as we draw near to God and realize a little more what He is like, and what that means for us right now in our lives.
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