Knowing God- A Review

I recently read the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer and I must say, I am blown away.  It's pretty sad for me to say this, but I never heard of Knowing God until I recently looked in the IVP (InterVarsity Press) catalog.  I actually thought it was a newer book when I asked to read it for a review...but it's not.

  The original was written by Packer back in the 70's and was re-done in 1993 but even though there is a gap of 17 years to now and more so for the original, the content was powerful!  J.I. makes great efforts into making God personal and known.  He teaches theology as well as application to said theology int he pages of this book.  His writing style is easy to read and he is gifted at penetrating the issue he desires to bring to the reader.

  His basis for writing thie book was clear on page 23 when he said: "Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquintance, not simply with doctrine of God's attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are".

  J.I. reminds us that we can easily succomb to knowledge about God and lose sight of Knowing God for himself.  This book goes to not only the doctrinal level of understanding but shows the personal nature of God throughout this learning.  He breaks the book into 3 parts; 1. Know the Lord; 2. Behold Your God; 3. If God Be For Us.  Each one has a distict feel to it and makes sense into the whole idea of Knowing God.  The first is the encouragment of getting away from the sunple knowing about and actually getting to know God himself.  The second portion displays who God is in thought as well as in personally to our lives.  The third part of the book shares how deeply our sin has effected our relationship to God and how painstakingly God has set out to make this right byt sending Jesus.

  I greatly appreciate J.I. for this work and believe that this will be one of the books I hand out to teens who are hungry for knowledge of God, not just about God.  It is a deeply personal book and I highly reccomend reading it for any believer!