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J. I. Packer

J. I. Packer Quotes

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Famous J. I. Packer Quotes

“Nothing can alter the character of God. In the course of a human life, tastes and outlook and temper may change radically: a kind, equable man may turn bitter and crotchety: a man of good-will may grow cynical and callous. But nothing of this sort happens to the Creator. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good, than He used to be.”

MenHumansKindMayCharacterGodHappensUsedTurnsCoursesGrowsTasteCreatorBitterUsed To BeHuman LifeTemperCynicalTruthfulOutlookGood WillMercifulCallousCharacter Of God
Author:J. I. Packer
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“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.”

ThinkingHumansChildrenEarthFictionChangedTaughtBabyChristmasFantasticFedsAlmightyHelplessIncarnationStaggeringChristian Christmas
Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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“We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this level. Let us ask the Lord to show us.”

HeartIdeasShowsAsksChurchPrayerLevelsResponsibilityLordGoes OnPrayingNo IdeaSuspects
Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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“Do I as a Christian understand myself? Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? I am a child of God, God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Saviour is my brother; every Christian is my brother too. Say it over and over again to yourself first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, any time when your mind is free, and ask God that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true. For this is the Christians secret of the Christian life, of a God-honouring life.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance, and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?”

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Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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“God was happy without humans before they were made; he would have continued happy had he simply destroyed them after they had sinned; but as it is he has set his love upon particular sinners, and this means that, by his own free voluntary choice, he will not know perfect and unmixed happiness again till he has brought every one of them to heaven. He has in effect resolved that henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional upon ours.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“It has been said that in the New Testament doctrine is grace; and ethics is gratitude; and something is wrong with any form of Christianity in which, experimentally and practically, this saying is not being verified. Those who suppose that the doctrine of God's grace tends to encourage moral laxity are simply showing that, in the most literal sense, they do not know what they are talking about. For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure.”

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Author:J. I. Packer
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“Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity? In the faith of the New Testament it is central. The love of God, the taking of human form by the Son, the meaning of the cross, Christ's heavenly intercession, the way of salvation-all are to be explained in terms of itand any explanation from which the thought of propitiation is missing will be incomplete, and indeed actually misleading, by New Testament standards”

WayHumansFormTermChristChristianityMissingSonStandardsCrossesSalvationGod LoveExplanationHeavenlyTestamentNew TestamentMisleadIncompleteIntercessionHuman FormPropitiation
Author:J. I. Packer
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“I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, One who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted for me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.”

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Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--because at the Father's will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.”

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Book:Knowing God Devotional Journal: A One-Year Guide
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