Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation

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 Renovare 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.

Richard J. Foster is the author of several bestselling books, including Celebration of Discipline, Streams of Living Water, Life with God, 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 Renovare, an organization and a movement committed to the renewal of the church of Jesus Christ in all its multifaceted expressions, and the editor of The Life with God Bible.

"For some time now Richard Foster has been teaching us how to live with a living God. Those of us who would follow Jesus, must inculcate and practice the disciplines required for discipleship. Who better points us toward the discipline life than Richard Foster? This is a transforming, radiant book." -- Will Willimon, Bishop, the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and author of Conversations with Barth about Preaching (Abingdon, 2007) "Richard Foster awakens us to God's continued desire to commune with us despite the deafness of our sin-blunted ears. From long experience, he shows how the dynamic use of the spiritual disciplines can open our ears to God's voice. A book to read slowly." -- David Neff, Editor in Chief, Christianity Today "Alluring warmth, empathetic breadth, and twenty-twenty perceptiveness, mild on sin but firm on grace, have together become the hallmark of the Renovare books. This pathway into the "with-God life" is a worthy addition to the study." -- J.I. Packer, Professor of Theology, Regent College and author of Knowing God. Foster is a reliable, compelling guide for a life in which God is a defining agent. The news from Foster is good indeed: God is with us! -- Walter Brueggemann, Emeritus Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary "A deep reflective guide to spiritual rumination and growth." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) You hold in your hands a very wise book written for anyone who craves a deep, palpable connection to God. If you want to discover new ways of entering the Bible, and letting it enter you, you will find no better guide than Richard Foster. -- Lauren F. Winner, Duke Divinity School, author of Girl Meets God