Pure Pleasure, by Gary Thomas

In February I had the opportunity to hear Gary Thomas at a marriage conference that was held at our church. I had never heard him speak and I had only read portions of his books. But I did follow him on Twitter. Does that count for anything? While speaking he referred to the book, “Pure Pleasure.” I couldn’t wait to go home and see if it was possible for me to review it. I could review it! I did review it! It did not disappoint.

The subtitle to this book is, “Why do Christians feel so bad about feeling good?” In typical Gary Thomas fashion he jumps right into answering that question in the very first chapter where he said, “We can build lives of true, lasting pleasure and so fortify ourselves against evil because evil has lost much of its allure—or we can try, with an iron will to “scare” ourselves away from evil while still, deep in our hearts, truly longing for it.” I wonder sometimes if we enjoyed our lives more if more people would come to Christ as a result of that rather than constantly condemning ourselves and others. Asking myself that question I moved on to chapter two where he says, “…our self-imposed misery doesn’t erase someone else’s misery; on the contrary, it may simply increase God’s displeasure.” I could go on and on with quotes from this book but I will let you answer your own questions by reading it.

This book is an easy read while some of the chapters are a little longer than others. It is not an easy book to read if you have a toddler and an infant. But while they are napping it is pretty easy to get a chapter in. I’m always a sucker for books that have discussion questions at the end. Of course, this one does. It could be quite effective in a small group setting for a six week study given you read one chapter a week.

Thank you to Zondervan publishing for allowing me to review a complimentary copy of this book.

To read a sample chapter of this book visit their website here.