James Innell Packer (22 July 1926 – 17 July 2020) was an English-born Canadian evangelical theologian, cleric and writer in the low-church Anglican and Calvinist traditions. He was considered one of the most influential evangelicals in North America. He was a contributor to Christianity Today, where I briefly worked as a receptionist.
“Call me Jim,” he said with a smile as he shook my hand.
My (unspoken) response was, “I can’t do that. You are J. I. Packer!”
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“There is a tremendous relief in knowing that {God’s} love to me is utterly realistic,
based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me,
so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me,
in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself,
and quench His determination to bless me.”
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.
Wait on the Lord” is a constant refrain in the Psalms,
and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting.
He is not in such a hurry as we are,
and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present,
or to guide us more than one step at a time.
When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God.
When action is needed, light will come.
[He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32 New International Version]
The meaning of “He will give us all things” can be put thus: one day we will see that nothing – literally nothing –
which could have increased our eternal happiness has been denied us, and that nothing – literally nothing –
that could have reduced that happiness has been left with us.
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Most recently I have read, and re-read, his book, Finishing Our Course With Joy (2014). There is something very attractive about finishing well in this life, as Mr. Packer himself clearly did.