Hope Wins, by Goff Hope

In the face of suffering, hard places or death, Goff Hope encourages us to hope in the gospel and the goodness of God

Hope Wins - How a Vision of Our Eternal Future Impacts Our Lives Today
By Goff Hope
Authentic
ISBN No: 978-1-78893—276-9
Reviewed by Martin M’Caw

Goff Hope is a leader in the King’s Community Church in Norwich with more than 30 years' experience.

In the opening chapters Hope Wins serves as a searchlight scanning the hopelessness of contemporary life. The clues are in some of the chapter headings: Hope on trial, When hope dies, Hope in the face of Illness, Hope in the face of death.

The starting point for Goff Hope’s experience was the consultant’s words ‘you have cancer’. That was 12 years ago. Despite numerous scans and more than 20 operations the cancer has not gone away, but hope remains the rock in Goff Hope’s experience and faith.

Contemporary hope is to win the lottery, have a life of ease and free of illness and trouble. ‘Some hope’ mutters the realist.

Christian hope has certainty and sureness. In the words of the old hymn ‘All my hope on God is founded, all my trust he will renew’.

And so in the second half of Hope Wins Goff takes us through the positives of Christian faith. The chapter headings make the point: Rediscovering heaven, Hope in the face of suffering, Holding on to hope, The hope that transforms life, Living with Heaven’s perspective.

None of that makes a simplistic read about the Christian life being easy peasy. He writes about how in the struggles of faith and the struggles of life we experience the comfort and strength of Christ holding us up and leading us on, through the problems of illness, bereavement, and all the things that trouble and worry us in contemporary life.

The book is a must for the struggling Christian, an invitation for the floundering agnostic, and a challenge to the bewildered atheist.

In what are almost his closing words Goff Hope writes hope ‘enriches our lives, driving out our insecurities and fears and equips us to walk through the darkest moments’.

The Revd Dr Martin M’Caw (retired Baptist minister and Wing Chaplain No2 Welsh Wing RAF Cadets, also retired)

Baptist Times, 22/09/2023

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