What a great idea for a book! In ten short chapters, Geoff Thomas winsomely presents the great blessings held out in the gospel: knowing God and knowing yourself, being forgiven and adopted, all things working together for your good, learning to be content, becoming wiser and stronger, knowing life’s purpose, belonging to the best and happiest people on earth, and being assured that God will welcome you when you die.
The tone is naturally conversational, bursting with enthusiasm, solemn where it needs to be, and deeply earnest. The introduction is strikingly infused with a confidence that God will speak through this book to the reader. The whole book is full of Scripture – though it is almost never quoted ‘chapter and verse’ – and there are also snatches of hymns, poems, anecdotes, and colourful turns of phrase. There is a fair bit of Christian jargon and unexplained allusions, though it’s hardly the worse for that: it breathes a freshness, and Geoff’s inimitable style.
I suspect the book might work best for an older person with some Christian background – maybe a churchgoer; but it might equally pique the curiosity of a younger person listening to an ‘affectionate grandfather’. Just occasionally Geoff inconsistently slips into addressing believers, and indeed there is much in it to encourage God’s people. It would be a good book to read, savour, and then pass on to an unconverted friend. The odd infelicity of language or awkward phrase is easily overlooked.
All in all, an unusual and useful evangelistic tool.
Phil Heaps
Highbury, London
