I like the story (perhaps apocryphal?) of the open-air preacher who gathered a crowd by putting his hat on the side- walk and circling around it, pointing to it and shouting, "It's alive!" When at last he picked the hat up, there under it was his Bible, and the livingness of the Word of God was his first theme as he unfolded the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"This book aims to match that preacher's witness by exploring the true place, use, and benefit of the Bible-a topic on which I feel I can never say enough, let alone too much."