Knowing God

Hello all,

I've been making my way through J. I. Packer's book, Knowing God. It's a book that has sat on my shelf for many years and I've only recently picked it up and started reading it.

Here's an excerpt I'd like to share with all to reflect on:

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Knowing vs. Knowing About
We need frankly to face ourselves at this point. We are, perhaps, orthodox evangelicals. We can state the gospel clearly, and can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If asked how one may know God, we can at once produce the right formula -- that we come to know God through Jesus Christ the Lord, in virtue of his cross and mediation, on the bases of his word of promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, via a personal exercise of faith. Yet the gaiety, goodness, and unfetteredness of spirit which are the marks of those who have known God are rare among us -- rarer, perhaps, than they are in some other Christian circles where, by comparison, evangelical truth is less clearly and fully known. Here, too, it would seem that the last may prove to be first, and the first last. A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him.

To focus this point further, let me say two things:

1. One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of Him.
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2. One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of Him.
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Evidence of Knowing God
We have said that when people know God, losses and 'crosses' cease to matter to them; what they have gained simply banishes these things from their minds. What other effects does knowledge of God have on a person? ... We may summarize its witness in four propositions.

1. Those who know God have great energy for God.
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2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God.
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3. Those who know God show great boldness for God.
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4. Those who know God have great contentment in God.
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Have a blessed weekend!

In Him,
Charlton