Knowing God (The IVP Signature Collection)

Review "A hundred years from now only a handful of books written today will still be widely read and accepted as Christian classics. Dr. James I. Packer's Knowing God may well prove to be one of them. A gifted theologian and writer, Dr. Packer has the rare ability to deal with profound and basic spiritual truths in a practical and highly readable way. This book will help every reader grasp in a fuller way one of the Bible's greatest truths: that we can know God personally because God wants us to know him." -- Billy Graham"The books and essays Dr. Packer has written could fill shelves, but he is still known best for his fine work in Knowing God. Others may have followed with books about desiring, loving, serving, or seeking God, but Dr. Packer's volume says it simply, says it best." -- Joni Eareckson Tada"Knowing God is must reading for any Christian who is serious about their faith. While it is theology, it is practical, and while it is profound, it is easy reading. I highly recommend it." -- John Perkins"I first read the book in 1977 in what was then the ninth American printing. I was discipled by that book before I knew what discipleship was! As I reread it recently, I was embarrassed by all the ideas I kept coming upon that I thought were mine. Then I realized that through his book Packer had made them mine. It dawned on me that bad books try to tell us what to think, while good books help us to think. But truly good books shape the way we think. That's what this book did for me. There isn't a song I've written that hasn't been impacted by the point of view in this book. Knowing God not only points to the door, it provides the key, helps us open it and prepares us for the One we shall discover waiting for us on the other side. In his book Packer rescues us from the 'private religious hunches' of our theologically fickle age, from the 'gigantic conspiracy of misdirection' that would rob us of the deep, simple joy of knowing God." -- Michael Card"'Those who know God have great contentment in God.' It is no wonder so many are so discontented! They don't know God. Oh if only they would use Knowing God as a devotional study. It would create such a thirst for more of God that they would keep on coming to him in his Word and drinking of him. This book is the classic God used to launch me into a study of the sovereignty of God. I'll never be the same!" -- Kay Arthur"For years I have been asked to list the top twenty Christian books I have read. Knowing God has been on that list since the mid-1970s. This volume is Packer at his very best." -- Chuck Swindoll"Here is a theologian who puts the hay where the sheep can reach it?plainly shows us ordinary folks what it means to know God." -- Elisabeth Elliot"As long as I am able to read, I hope to read Knowing God by James I. Packer each year. It is so basic, scholarly, warm and reverent, I wonder how I managed without it for so long." -- Stuart Briscoe"[Packer's] style is succinct, vivid, and epigrammatic. His perspective is mind stretching, as he surveys the whole biblical scene. And the truth he handles fires the heart. At least it fired mine and compelled me to turn aside to worship and to pray." -- John R. W. Stott"The thing that makes Dr. Packer's writing so vital, practical, and credible is that the man lives what he writes. Knowing God is the work of a man who does?know him; and which makes us want to know him, too?and shows us how." -- Jack Hayford"If I can't put the Bible on this list, I'll choose a Packer book instead. Every national and world leader must seek to know the nations and world in which they serve. And in order to know this world and its people, we must first know the God who shaped and molded us all. Packer simply and powerfully re-introduces us to God: his attributes, actions, and, most important, his grace." -- Joshua DuBois, "My Top Five," Christianity Today, September 2014"Few writings deserve to be called 'Christian classics,' but this is surely one of the