Was introduced by Chee Boon (my DTC teacher) this book, was lent by him this book of his precious and very classic edition actually. Started reading it 2 weeks ago, very very touched and relevant, since I call my current spiritual life stage as the stage of "Knowing God", so decided to buy one copy so I can take my time reading and highlighting them while reading. Plus, bit pressured reading Chee Boon's very classic n precious copy, scared of tearing them accidentally, haha... Btw, I stopped reading because busy with Amy, Evian and Cindy's visit. Today is public holiday (replacement of National Day). So started reading again last night and today... Gonna record down those phrase that struck me the best :)
God... I want to know You...
Caution: Yun, know your purpose of reading this!
Page 20:
For this very reason we need, before we start to ascend our mountain, to stop and ask ourselves a very fundamental question - a question, indeed, that we always ought to put to ourselves whenever we embark on any line of study in God's holy book. The question concerns our own motives and intentions as students. We need to ask ourselves: what is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have got it? For the fact that we have to face is this: that if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject-matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves a a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those wholse theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate, and dismiss them as very poor specimens. For, as Paul told the conceited Corinthians, 'knowledge puffs up ... the man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know' (1 Cor 8:1). To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude, and pray to be kept from it. As we saw ealier, there can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge; but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it, if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard. In this way, doctrinal study really can become a danger to spiritual life, and we today, no less than the Corinthians of old, need to be on our guard here.
So, this is extremely a good start to reading this book. After reading this paragraph, I really paused and 'beng kui' before God's foot to commit my purpose of reading this book, of 'Knowing about Him', of knowing His Word.
And, this is what I desire:
In order to know You better, personally, so as to love You better, serve You better, live my (Christian) life better, delight in You, and that my heart may respond to it and my life be conformed to it.
Ok, continue.. this is from page 21:
And this must be our attitude too. Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God's attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are. As he is the subject of our study, and our helper in it, so He must Himself the the end of it. We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God. It was for this purpose that revelation was given, and it is to this use that we must put it.
Title: Knowing God
Author: J.I. Packer
First edition 1973
My copy: 2005 edition
YES!! God... keep me safe from all the distraction and possibility of forgetting my ultimate purpose of knowing You... Lead me to You, and You only, Lord...
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