Sunday, August 19, 2012

"Desperate for Hope" by Bruce W. Martin

This book is all about finding hope in the difficult situations life throws at us.  However, what I like is that this is not a cookie-cutter book.  It does not say that suffering will disappear if we are just more "good" or "holy."  This book actually follows the story of Job primarily (along with other small Bible stories on suffering).  It chronicles how the righteous in Yeshua (recall, it is only by Yeshua that we are righteous--not of our own works) will suffer in this world.  There is not even a hint of the prosperity gospel or the health & wealth gospel that plagues America.  Martin makes the point that Yeshua suffered, and so must we.  Heartbreaking is the fact that Martin parallels this book with his own personal struggles.  Family accounts of rape and misfortune, coupled with his own person infertility and adoption woes, fill the pages.  When you finish reading this book, you won't have some twelve-step plan for overcoming suffering.  What you will have, though, is hope.  Hope that Yeshua will fulfill every promise He made and that He is with you...even to the end of the age.  ;)

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