How well do you know God?  How well do you want to know God?  Are you excited about Him or bored with Him?  How well do you know yourself?  How much do you want to know about yourself?  What does your knowledge of yourself do for you or to you?  John Calvin was right when he wrote over four hundred years ago in the opening paragraph of the Institutes of the Christian Religion that to know God is to know self and to know self is to know God.  Knowledge of God and knowledge of self are inseparably linked.  Is it any wonder that people are struggling today?  Is it any wonder that we have lived in a therapeutic culture for decades?  Either we are not looking for this knowledge, or we look for it in all the wrong places.

Philip Ryken, a teaching elder on staff at Tenth PCA in Philadelphia, is a good writer and communicator of truth.  His burden is that people don’t know God, and that many who profess to know Him or about Him do not demonstrate the reality of that knowledge.  James Boice says in the book’s foreword that “people in our day, even in the church, know very little about God and therefore do not know themselves well either, if at all.  For the most part people have turned away from God and have plunged even deeper into the sad spiritual ignorance of our times.” Recently in teaching a series on Psalm 139, I commented on the Psalmist’s words, “How precious are your thoughts to me O God….”  It came to me that we do think a lot about God; we cannot help but do that from time to time. But how much are our thoughts just that, our thoughts, and how much are our thoughts His thoughts about Himself?

How easy would it be for you to compile a list of characteristics or attributes, of God? Would you want to be involved in a study group on the attributes of God?  There are people who long to know God more intimately.  Look at some of the things they are doing and reading to that end. As Ryken suggests, generally we are too busy or too preoccupied with other things to put forth the effort to know God. Well aware of the lack of interest in solid doctrinal teaching, especially about God and ourselves, he chose to deal with this vital subject using a method that appeals to people of all ages—stories!  Everybody, young and old, likes stories, and as Ryken states, “The best stories are in the Bible.”  Hence, he has chosen some well known story passages in the Bible to teach the attributes of God.  He then uses those Bible stories to illustrate, explain, and apply the truth to our daily lives.  You know, it doesn’t do us much good to know something about God, but it does make all the difference in the world to know God personally and truly.

The opening chapter “To God Be the Glory” is worth the price of the book.  Ryken keys off an analysis from David Wells’ book, God in the Wasteland, that God is now weightless.  There is not much to Him as far as most people are concerned.  He is actually unimportant, less interesting than TV, and lacks authority.  Our flippancy or indifference about God influences our worship and our witness to the world because “we have become children of a lightweight God.”  I was particularly struck and deeply challenged by Ryken’s use of Moses on Mount Sinai. Though Moses was only allowed to see God’s back, he reflected God’s radiance and glory when he came down from the mountain.  Ryken reminds us that one of the lessons we learn from that story is that we, too, are capable of reflecting God’s glory, but often we do not.  Of course, it took some time for Moses to be with God, to think about God, to talk with God, and to humble himself before God. Those things don’t rate high on our daily to-do list.

Discovering God will bless the reader and challenge, stimulate, broaden, and deepen our thoughts about God.  I have recommended it to our director of youth ministries as a resource for teenagers.  Adults should build it into their education curriculum.  Small groups would benefit from working through it.  It is well written, well outlined, and easy to follow—a gold mine for those willing to mine the nuggets.  I agree with Boice in the foreword that this book will only point you in the right direction. It will not tell us all there is to know about God, but if we are willing to study, think, and pray about God, it will change our lives.

- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator