The Fire of the Word - (Renovare Resources) by Chris Webb (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Too often we study biblical texts without believing that God truly inhabits this book. In these pages Chris Webb shows how reading the Bible with the right approach 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.

Review Quotes

"The Fire of the Word is a marvel and a joy. How thrilling to welcome this fresh, new voice to the field of Christian spirituality. 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."

"The Fire of the Word is an inspiring call to read Scripture as a means of encountering God personally. One by one Chris removes obstacles in our view of God, of Scripture and of oursevels that stand in the way of a transforming relationship with our Bible. The book provides valuable assistance in reading our Bible wholeheartedly: with attention, imagination, reason, emotion and intention. I followed with delight his stories of childhood foolishness, art history, alcoholic friendships and more as this book empowered me to listen to the voice of God through Scripture."

"The Fire of the Word makes you want to discover the God of the Bible all over again. Chris Webb dares us to open up the pages of Scripture and enter a new place of intimacy and passion. Each chapter gives practical steps for deeply refreshing discovery to become a life-transforming habit."

"A huge abyss yawns between how much we know (or don't) about the Bible and how thoroughly we live it. Getting across that abyss is a major challenge to the Christian community. Christopher Webb wrote this book to serve as a kind of suspension bridge from knowing the Bible to living the Bible. He does it by telling stories of the people who live it, by living it himself and by using language that is energetically alive. Walk across this bridge and experience the sheer livability of the Bible."

"Beautifully written and firmly grounded in the breadth of our Christian tradition, every page is permeated with Chris's love for Scripture and the God of Scripture. If you engage even a fraction of the approaches to Scripture he describes here, your relationship with Scripture will be transformed!"

"Chris Webb is a man of prayer, action and commitment, fueled always by his love of God. His warm, welcoming new text captures the high beauty of his Colorado dwelling place with his simple dwelling in Christ. Evoking world images from the green spaces of his own Welsh homeland to the dry wilderness of Jesus's own journey, he pours out his love of all Christ's people on the planet, teaching and encouraging us all the while. Here is a new, engaging master of the spiritual life."

"Evangelicals often peer over the fences of other traditions, seeking to learn time-tested patterns of the Christian spiritual life. Like those who precede us, we want to open ourselves up to the presence of God--the love of God, the grace of God, the person of God. In practical and authentic ways, The Fire of the Word brings together many such ancient gems and invites us specifically and practically into life-giving connection with God in the Bible. A top recommendation to all who seek a deeper, more life-shaping experience in the Scripture."

"I would commend this book for the challenge it has made to me to think about how I read the bible."

"Once in a great while a book points me directly to God, like the arrow of a compass that points to the true north. The Fire of the Word was exactly that for me. I found myself focused Godward with each passing page as the Spirit ravished my heart, increasing my longing to be with the eternal Word that finds its way to my heart through ink and paper in the Bible. After reading this well-written, honest, funny and wise book, the sacred Scriptures--which I can at times take for granted--are more sacred to me than ever."

About the Author

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.

Richard J. Foster (D.Th.P., Fuller Theological Seminary) is founder of Renovaré in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of many books, including Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, which has sold over two million copies worldwide, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World, and coauthor (with Gayle Beebe) of Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion.