The Fire of the Word

The Bible has the astounding power to transform lives. The stories of people like Francis of Assisi, Antony of Egypt, Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. vividly demonstrate this. Why aren't more of us transformed by Scripture today?Too often we study biblical texts without believing that God truly inhabits this book. Scripture seeks to capture our minds, not merely educate them. In these pages Chris Webb explains that we can transform our Christian life by reading as lovers rather than as theorists. This is possible by coming to the text prayerfully, expectantly, in humility and empty-handed. When we open the Bible, it does not say to us, 'Listen: God is there!' Instead, the voice of the Spirit whispers through each line, 'Look: I am here.'Reading the Bible this way can reconfigure the habits of your heart, refresh your imagination and memory, reshape and redeem your emotions, realign your reality individually and communally for kingdom life, and take us beyond the Bible into a renewed way of life.Here is the work of today-which is also the work of the whole of life-to open your heart afresh to the living Word of God.

Chris Webb is president of Renovaré, a Christian spiritual formation ministry in the Denver area. In addition he is an Anglican priest and new monastic, who pastored in a variety of urban and rural churches in his native Wales. He has taught in seminaries and colleges and regularly speaks at retreats and conferences around the world.