Customer Reviews

The Beautiful Fight: Surrendering to the Transforming Presence of God Every Day of Your Life

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Although this book has a common theme (our constant struggle for personal holiness), every page contains book-dropping principles that I wanted to stop and ponder at the implications for my life. Unlike so many popular Christian books that have only one or two great precepts surounded by a tremendous amount of page-filling fluff, "The Beautiful Fight" is substantive to the end. It will challenge new Christians in their faith and also awaken those believers who consider their faith to be strong, to shake off any further sluggishness. I am no "Oprah", but as a pastor, I am looking for ways that I can get our congregation to read it. Next month, I plan to lead our elders through a study of it together, using the questions for discussion and reflection that are found in the appendix at the end of the book.

I've been reading The Beautiful Fight in pieces every night. It is too good to read quickly. The book is packed with wisdom from numerous spiritual leaders of old, as well as the author's own compelling insights from his life and passion for running "the only race worth running" or in this case, fighting "the beautiful fight".

The author is well-studied, real and vulnerable. Everything in this book rings true and yet there are wonderful interpretations of scripture I've never come across before--even in my many years of practicing my faith. I suspect The Beautiful Fight will become a classic. It is deep but it also contains practical details that have already helped me make a few decisions and be more compassionate to a neighbor. When I finish reading it, I plan on rereading it!

This newest book from one of Evangelicalism's finest authors on spiritual formation, Gary Thomas, is excellent - one of the best books I've read this year. Thomas takes a fresh look at living a God-empowered life that is grounded in the doctrine of Christ's bodily ascension. Drawing on insights from Evangelical, Reformed, Orthodox, and Catholic traditions, Thomas shows how God's presence can change the way we use our eyes and ears, hands and feet, minds and hearts. The Beautiful Fight is a beautiful book about a beautiful spirituality of "full-bodied faith." I could barely put this book down and walked away freshly convicted, challenged, and encouraged. Having now read several of Thomas's books, I think this is my favorite to date. Treat yourself to a banquet of spiritual delights and get this book!

"Beautiful" and "fight," they're two words you don't see together often. Yet in Gary Thomas' latest book The Beautiful Fight they are strung together most excellently. Thomas, adjunct professor at Western Seminary and award winning author, is drawing his title from the Orthodox Fathers' reading of 2nd Timothy 4:7-8. This text, more commonly translated as "the good fight," is aptly illustrated by Thomas as something of furious beauty.

The Christian spiritual life is the common denominator throughout the three sections and16 chapters. Thomas does this by fusing together the genius and wisdom of biblical passages, church fathers (such as Clement of Alexandria and Athanasius), medieval mystics (Julian of Norwich), Puritan divines (John Flavel), along with contemporary voices like J.I. Packer, N.T. Wright, and John Piper. One thing, that's evident even at a glance, is that Thomas' thoughts on the Christian spiritual life aren't monochrome. He doesn't confine himself to the contemporary--a common error in American evangelicalism--neither does he stick to a particular theological tradition, nor one aspect of the Christian spiritual life. Instead Thomas, with a discerning ecumenism, shows that the essential witness of Christian spirituality is one of harmony. With this in mind, he writes, "Christian Spirituality is all about [...] our Creator and Lord taking ordinary people and making them potent instruments of God."

In Beautiful Fight Thomas answers the call which many Christians are longing for. That is, what does it mean to have an embodied and active faith. He does this by weaving in life-stories from his time at Regent College to his life as a husband and father. Because of his integration of life and thought the reader feels that the book is at least in part an invitation into a dialogue on, about and over the Christian spiritual life. And it's a conversation that is of the utmost importance; every where we turn, it seems, there is another front page article on `spirituality' or another book on the `spirituality of (fill in the blank).' In a world where everyone from Oprah to your local barista is a `spirituality' expert it is refreshing to hear a voice which articulates a Holy Spirit-uality. But if The Beautiful Fight is a cultural critique, it's also a critique of a lifeless orthodoxy; that's one thing that permeates every page--and it's one of the many things that will stick with you.

My heart beat with passion as I associated so clearly with Thomas' teaching in "The Beautiful Fight!" This is how Christians--new and seasoned--including me, need to see our life. With vulnerable examples from his own experiences to hit me between the eyes, I was reminded as I absorbed the teachings he illustrated, that it is a fight. We're in a battle to let go of "self" and allow the Spirit to work through us. Yet this battle, as he so compellingly teaches, is one entirely and wholeheartedly worthwhile, because it gives us "heavenly splashes of glory."

Though there are many books to choose from about spiritual growth, I wholeheartedly recommend this fresh new approach that will not leave you, the reader, feeling guilty--though convicted--but desirous of growing. The refreshing emphasis to "experience God" and listen to Him speak to our hearts is one the Church needs to hear. I wanted to skim and put up a hasty review but found my yellow marker was definitely needed for the new takes on scriptural truths. I agree with Gary Thomas, "What a joy to work with God instead of just for God, to see him operate in spite of us instead of because of us. Have you ever realized that God purposely sets up our lives to reveal his glory?" I'm thrilled to say, "Amen," to Thomas' explanation of "how exciting and fulfilling a life this is"! I will be quoting from and recommending this book when I, myself, speak to audiences!

This book gives a compelling and beautiful vision of what growth in holiness can look like in a person's life. If you are looking for a book which will call you out of a complacent or apathetic spiritual state and re-ignite your desire toward a more and more God-centered, sanctified and transformed life, this is the book for that. Read it slowly--I often just read 2-3 pages at a time and journalled my responses because I found it so challenging and full of wisdom and insight that was worth meditating over. The book is excellent. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that there were a handful of things I disagreed with (minor things), but that is no big deal. It is a book I would wholeheartedly recommend to any friend struggling with motivation to keep running the race toward knowing God more and living more and more in line with His will.

I really enjoyed this book. The book started off a little slow for me, but after two chapters I found it very engaging. The second section was particularly practical. It helped me to reconsider how I look at spiritual growth. To often my Christian life has been more talk than walk. This book encouraged me to live a more compelling life.

I haven't read the other reviews, but I know that I'm a dissenter on this one. I'm a very busy guy struggling to live the Christian life. After hearing Mr. Thomas interviewed on Moody and considering the title, I thought this would be a good read. However I was greatly disappointed.

There were no new insights...just musings...endless musings. No "a-ha" moments...or fresh perspectives that I could take and apply to my own life. I was completely bored. The only thing that kept me going was my process of pulling out the top ten key points from every book I read.

I gave it one last chance tonight and read all the chapter summaries hoping to come away with some new insights (and hoping to complete my top ten list). Again, nothing...Maybe it's just me, but I'm a voracious reader and rarely give a bad review.

Two wonderful books that I WOULD recommend in this genre: God Built by Steve Ferrar and Change Your Heart, Change Your Life by Gary Smalley. They both address the struggle men face trying to live out the Christian life.

Gary Thomas' Holy Available, previously titled The Beautiful Fight will both challenge and encourage you in your own personal life of faith. It challenged me to love as Jesus loved, to see others with His eyes, and to be His hands and feet to those He places around me. His principles often caused me to think and re-think my own perspective of the Christian life and more than once I found things that needed to be changed. I neither found it boring or the same old same old but rather packed with fresh insights and principles that could be applied to my life right now. I have given this book to several friends and recommended it to countless others. I'm certain you will want to read it through and then read it again slowly and then once again to grasp the fullness of the truth that Gary Thomas presents in this book. For me it has been life-changing.

An inspiring, challenging book that reminds us not to take our faith for granted. It offers new perspectives on some of the ruts we tend to fall into, yet keeps to the truth of the Word of God. It challenges us to be completely abandoned to the will of God and to fulfill his calling on our life. One of the best lines from the beginning of the book was that people don't remember you for what you don't do, they remember you for what you do. Christians we are called to action. Let this book encourage you on your journey of being used by God in the way that he created you for. See what God will do!