Lacey is best known for The Word on the Street (originally published as The Street Bible), a vivid retelling of the Bible in modern street English which was honoured with the Book of the Year award in 2004 by the Christian Booksellers Convention in the UK. During the writing of the book in 2000, Rob was diagnosed a second time with advanced bladder cancer. He wrote the paraphrase of the book of Job while in the midst of agonising cancer treatments. Miraculously, in 2002, his cancer went into remission, but resurfaced late last year.