Product Description

Too often, our study of the Bible focuses on searching for specific information or some formula that will solve our pressing needs of the moment. But what if we approached the Bible differently, and instead of transforming the text to meet our needs, allowed it to transform us?

That's exactly the idea behind Life with God, Richard J. Foster's much-anticipated book on the Bible. Foster, bestselling author of Celebration of Discipline and general editor of The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible, claims that God has superintended the writing of Scripture so that it serves as the most reliable guide for Christian spiritual formation. According to Foster, the Bible is all about human life "with God." As we read Scripture, we should consider how exactly God is with us in each story and allow ourselves to be spiritually transformed. By opening our whole selves—mind, body, spirit, thoughts, behavior, and will—to the page before us, we begin to grasp all the Bible has to teach about prayer, obedience, compassion, virtue, and grace and apply it to our everyday lives to achieve a deeper relationship with God.

With a wealth of examples and simple yet crucial insights, Life with God is an indispensable guide to approaching the Bible through the lens of Christian spiritual formation, revealing that reading the Bible for interior transformation is a far different endeavor than reading the Bible for historical knowledge, literary appreciation, or religious instruction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8344 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Released on: 2008-05-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Foster (Celebration of Discipline) has built a career exploring foundational spiritual practices like fasting, prayer, study and worship. Here he zeroes in on Bible study to help Christians grow in their faith. Although Bible study is nothing if not a well-trod topic, Foster breathes new life into it by drawing on ancient resources: he is especially interested in the age-old practice of lectio divina, sacred reading that requires the attention of both mind and heart. Foster cautions several times that lectio divina is neither a magical solution to problems nor an approach that bypasses the living God by treating the Scriptures as a sort of Ouija board. He warns that the Bible is also not an owner's manual for successful living or even moral living; we shouldn't read it merely to serve our own needs. Rather, lectio divina offers an invitation to enter the Bible as a story (or a complex group of stories) and enter its river of life. As usual, Foster's work is not for those readers who are seeking quick answers or a behavioral checklist of what the Bible says they should do. Rather, it is a deep reflective guide to spiritual rumination and growth. (Apr. 22)
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From the Back Cover
Richard Foster expounds on his introduction to the successful Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible and his concept of the “with-God life,” showing how all of Scripture is unified around the theme of how to have a vibrant and dynamic life with God. For Foster, the with-God life concept allows the “river of life that flows through the Bible into the thirsty wastelands of the human soul.” Breaking up history into fifteen epochs that reveal the unfolding of God’s plan for seeking out a relationship to us, Foster sees the Bible as “the loving heart of God made visible and plain” to us. The with-God life “is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is solid, serene, simple, radiant. It takes no time, though it permeates all of our time.” Readers will discover a whole new way to read Scripture, making it much more a doorway to a lifestyle to master rather than merely knowledge to understand.

About the Author

Richard J. Foster is the author of several bestselling books, including Celebration of Discipline, Streams of Living Water, and Prayer, which was Christianity Today's Book of the Year and the winner of the Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. He is the founder of RenovarÉ, an intrachurch movement committed to the renewal of the Church in all her multifaceted expressions, and the editor of The RenovarÉ Spiritual Formation Bible.

Customer Reviews

Reading the Bible for Transformation
Richard Foster has provided us with yet another treasure. I found this book an encouraging guide to the reading of the Scriptures. Foster invites his readers to enter the world of the Bible and find a God who is intimately and personally involved with his creation. This God has invited us into relationship, and Foster directs his reader how they might be transformed by this relationship through the reading of the Bible. A common refrain in Foster's account is that God is continually found in the Scriptures as being with his people, yet God asks us, "Are you with me?" God is present with us. Foster challenges us to learn how to pay attention.

The book includes instruction on how to read the Bible with the heart, the mind, and within the context of the community. Foster, drawing from the work of Dallas Willard, wants to encourage his readers to take up the reading of the Bible in a way that one's character is transformed. He believes that the Bible, by God's grace, can help us to be disciplined people who "do the right thing at the right time for the right reason." Foster's final section instructs the reader on how they might be disciplined in relationships, discover freedom in Christ, and walk by God's grace.

This book is a good read with a number of examples drawn from Foster's experience and his extensive readings from classic devotional works. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to further refine their approach to reading the Bible.