Friday, October 28, 2016

Book Review: None Like Him

None Like Him. Jen Wilkin. 2016. Crossway. 163 pages. [Source: Review copy]

None Like Him is a wonderful read that is easy to recommend. I loved that it was so accessible and practical. It is a book about God's attributes. But instead of being your traditionally routine book about God's attributes, it gets a bit of a spin. It first covers an attribute, and, then challenges you to rethink--or to think--about HOW that attribute being true of God is GOOD, life-changing news for you right here, right now. The book is about God--about who He is and what He has done--but it is also about how KNOWING God, knowing about God, transforms your life--what you do, what you say, how you think, etc. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it makes a book about God's attributes me-centered instead of God-centered. But it does remind you in each and every chapter--if not on each and every page--WHY the GOOD news is such great news. This book may just get you EXCITED about God: humbled and ready to give thanks to our amazing God.

It focuses on TEN attributes of God. It is a surprisingly quick read. I don't know if the book is really that short. Or if her writing style was so contagiously enthusiastic that she kept me turning pages because I wanted to learn more.

One thing that I really loved was the introduction and conclusion. She chooses two stereotypical verses and puts a spin on them. The first being from Proverbs 31, the last being from Psalm 139.

I would definitely recommend this one. It may be good to pair this one alongside another book focusing on God's attributes. For example, let Knowing God by J.I. Packer be your steak and let Jen Wilkin's None Like Him be your baked potato!

Though None Like Him might be a quicker read than your typical "theology" book, it is both concise and thought-provoking. I give you as food for thought: "Our whole lives as Christ-followers are to be given over to the identification and celebration of the limits God has ordained for us." And "We are capable of bearing his image as we were intended only when we embrace our limits." And "Our limitations are by design. Whether we spend the remainder of our lives denying or embracing this basic truth makes all the difference in how we will love God and others."

And here's another one that really captured my attention. I've always thought of being needy as a sin or a deficit. She challenges, "We were created to need both God and others. We deny this to our peril. We are not needy because of sin; we are needy by divine design."

Favorite quotes:
Life is too short and too precious to spend fearing the wrong things in the wrong ways.
When we lose sight of the majesty of God, we invariably fill the gap in our vision with the fable of the majesty of someone else.
Worshipful reverence and awe, not cowering dread, define a right fear of the Lord.
It is the joyful duty, the delightful task of his children to spend their lives, both this one and the next, discovering who he is.
The Scriptures sketch his character with a fine-tipped pen for those who have eyes to see, elaborating across sixty-six books the story of who he is, what he has done, and what he will yet do.
During this life, we will not reach the end of our contemplation of God. Though we know him in part, we love him deeply. What we cannot know about him would only serve to increase our love for him were he to reveal it to us.
God has never and will never declare his need for us. It is for us to say, “I need thee every hour.” It is for him to say, “I am.”
Praise God that his plans do not rely on my faithfulness, his joy doesn’t hinge on my good behavior, his glory doesn’t depend on my performance.
Sanctification is the process of learning increasing dependence, not autonomy.
The Bible begins with a time stamp, “in the beginning,” and then spends sixty-six books describing the God who decrees seasons and times but is not bound by them in the least.
Just as my assurance of salvation rests in the fact that God cannot change, my hope of sanctification rests in the fact that I can. What greater disavowal of the gospel of grace than to claim it is capable of changing every sinner’s heart but mine?
The business of every believer is to strive to understand what God has revealed. What he has revealed is sufficient for salvation, needful for godliness, and supremely worthy of meditation.


© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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