Gary Thomas - The Glorious Pursuit: Becoming Who God Created Us to Be

Eager, unsentimental, and down-to-earth , The Glorious Pursuit is a fine account of what it means to mature in Christ.

J. I. PACKER, author of Knowing God

When Gary Thomas embarked on his pursuit of the classical Christian virtues, he began a journey that benefited us all. He points us toward our own glorious pursuit and affords us this beguiling, provocative, and deeply satisfying book as our guide.

GEORGE GRANT, pastor of Parish Presbyterian Church

In a culture of pop religion and instant everythingincluding Christianitythis call for growth in the Christian life by pursuit of the classic Christian virtues is in itself a virtue. Gary Thomas has put believers in his debt by not only calling attention to the importance of the virtues but also describing them in everyday language and offering practical suggestions for growing in them. A valuable book.

GORDON D. FEE, professor emeritus of New Testament Studies at Regent College

If a deeper walk with God is your goal, then the glorious pursuit of an abundant Christian life is what you share with Gary Thomas. In this book, Gary helps you understand ancient, biblical, and God-centered virtues, bringing them to life, untainted yet contextualized appropriately for our modern age. Dive into this textbut keep your eyes wide open for the fullest possible exploration!

STEPHEN A. MACCHIA, founder and president of Leadership Transformations

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The Glorious Pursuit: Becoming Who God Created Us to Be

Copyright 1998, 2020 by Gary Thomas. All rights reserved.

Introduction to the new edition copyright 2020 by Gary Thomas. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers

NAVPRESS and the NavPress logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Ministries. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

The Team: Don Pape, Publisher; Elizabeth Schroll, Copy Editor; Lindsey Bergsma, Designer

Cover photograph of pottery copyright Alex Contell/Stocksy.com. All rights reserved.

Published in association with Alive Literary Agency, aliveliterary.com

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked BSB are taken from The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB. Copyright 2016, 2018 by Bible Hub. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked EHV are from the Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV) 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations from The Message are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

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ISBN 978-1-64158-284-1

ISBN 978-1-64158-286-5 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-64158-287-2 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-64158-285-8 (Apple)

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To my parents, E. J. and Geneva Thomas,
and my in-laws, Bill and Marilyn Ehli,
with tremendous gratitude and great respect.

WHILE VACATIONING IN COLORADO, my wife (Lisa) and I spent an early evening at the Iron Mountain Hot Springs. We heard a group of women in another pool discussing a surprising number of medical options to keep women looking young. What they did to their faces, injected into their bodies, paid to undergo treatments, and the effort they spent investigating and researching new options (This is what all the Kardashians are doing now, one woman opined) astonished us.

As we climbed into another pool, Lisa asked me if I wished she were more into that stuff. What were you thinking listening to them?

All I could think of was William Laws admonitionLaw was an eighteenth-century Anglican writer. Women and men should earnestly pursue humility, patience, generosity, faith, compassion, courage, kindness and forgiveness with the same intensity that those in the world pursue wealth, fame, worldly achievement, and physical beauty.

The deception is that looking like youre twenty-five when youre fifty, or fifty when youre seventy, is somehow worthy of more time and money and attention than growing in Christlikeness, whatever your age may be. But in all honesty, most of us as Christians can fall into seasons where we spend far more time and energy trying to look our best, lower our golf handicap, increase our social-media followers, lose weight, regrow hair, and increase the size of our financial investments far more than we think about growing in humility, surrender, discernment, and patience.

This, even though Scripture teaches us:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Linguistically, it is nearly impossible to define make every effort apart from an affirmation of human cooperation in spiritual growth. That understanding is buttressed in Romans 6:11-14 and Philippians 2:12-13, among other places.