God inhab­its the Bible. It has the astound­ing pow­er to shape and reshape lives. The sto­ries of peo­ple like Fran­cis of Assisi, Antony of Egypt, Mar­tin Luther, and Mar­tin Luther King Jr. vivid­ly demon­strate this.

So why are more of us not being trans­formed by Scrip­ture today?

Many of us sim­ply need to learn to read Scrip­ture in a whole new way. In these pages Chris Webb encour­ages us to trans­form our Chris­t­ian life by read­ing as lovers rather than as the­o­rists — allow­ing the Bible to utter­ly cap­ti­vate both our minds and our hearts. He shows us how we can learn to read Scrip­ture afresh, as a book infused with the liv­ing pres­ence of God. We will dis­cov­er how our read­ing will realign our real­i­ty indi­vid­u­al­ly and com­mu­nal­ly, tak­ing us beyond the pages into a renewed way of life.

When we open the Bible, it does not point into the far dis­tance and say to us, ​“God is there!” Instead the Spir­it draws near and whis­pers through each line, ​“Look: I am here.” Come, dis­cov­er a read­ing of Scrip­ture that opens our hearts to the liv­ing Word of God.

“Christo­pher Webb has accom­plished what few have suc­ceed­ed in doing: he has giv­en us coura­geous open­ings onto what a life hid with Christ in God can be like. As I read this book, I felt the words on the page call­ing out to me, invit­ing me into a deep­er, fuller way of liv­ing … a way of liv­ing that is joy­ful­ly cre­ative and soul-expand­ing. I com­mend to you The Fire of the Word.… It is a book which will both teach and delight. Tolle, lege — take, and read.” — from the fore­word by Richard J. Foster

2011