Have you ever read the Bible only to come away confused? Learn the meaning of each of the 66 books of the Bible and how each one is a love letter to God’s people.
After working with people as a psychologist for four decades, author Larry Crabb invites you to explore the Bible in a new way. He offers a fresh, relational look at Scripture through intimate discussions with God. Told through a series of "conversations" between himself and God, Larry wrestles through what God intends us to understand in each of the 66 books of the Bible. Each book tells a story that is a part of a larger one of God and how He loves His people.
Perfect for a small group, bible study, or used as a daily devotional, Larry asks deeply honest questions such
“God, what is it you wanted me to see in Obadiah?” “And what’s up with Leviticus? Is there anything there for me?” “This one verse in Galatians has always frustrated me. Why is that?” “The way you wrote Revelation makes it difficult to understand—why didn’t you just describe what will happen in a straightforward way?”Listen to the story of God unfold through these chapters, and you’ll find not only His redeeming love, but His plan and provision designed especially for you. Though life may not be going according to your plan, God has another one, far better than you can imagine. From Genesis to Revelation, experience His invitation to get you dancing with joy.
Larry Crabb is a well-known Christian psychologist, conference and seminar speaker, Bible teacher, and author of more than 25 books—including his most recent, When God’s Ways Make No Sense and two Gold Medallion award-winners Inside Out and Understanding People. He is also the founder/director of NewWay Ministries & most recently his "legacy ministry", LargerStory.com. In addition to various other speaking and teaching opportunities, Crabb offers a week-long School of Spiritual Direction held each year here at The Cove and the Glen Eyrie in CO. He currently is scholar-in-residence at Colorado Christian University. Larry and his wife of 50 years, Rachael, reside near Charlotte, N.C.
Last fall, I had a conversation with my Mom, who is both a strong Christian and a licensed marriage and family therapist. I told her how I was battling many things on many fronts: grief and pain on one front, weariness at a crazy unsustainable schedule on another, and to top it off, an ongoing crisis of faith (I have since learned the more useful and hopeful term “deconstruction”). She has always been a faithful reader of the Bible, and I have always struggled. I’ve struggled to do much of anything regularly, but even moreso with reading the Bible; in contrast, she’s one of the praying-est moms I know, with her own prayer closet “war room” (before that was even a movie). I mentioned that the Bible had kind of “dried up” for me; that even though I was still a Christian I had not been able to “get anything” from the Bible because I was in the middle of re-thinking all the ways I’d read it before, or how it had been used in ways I now questioned.
In what has always been her signature move, she gave me a book.
I will admit that I was skeptical at first. Since I was/am in the midst of a deconstruction of this particular Evangelical way of reading the Bible, I was uncertain that an Evangelical book purporting to contain “the message” of each biblical book would be helpful for me at all. Some of the problems I’ve had with the Evangelical/literalist reading of the Bible have been (a) the genocidal and familial violence and immorality described, condoned, and even sometimes commanded by God in the OT, specifically in Genesis through Judges; and (b) the condoning of certain practices such as slavery in BOTH the OT and NT. While I knew this book wasn’t going to dive into the details of many particular stories, I was curious how some of these themes would be taken. Would it quote chapter and verse and decide that THAT was what “the point” of those particular books were? Would it rub me the wrong way? Would its 1st-person voicing of God come across as more hyper-prophetic “thus-saith-the-Lord” stuff, or would it actually have something useful to share with me?
I previewed the book cautiously, turning first to the chapter on Judges, where we see tons of immorality and violence being repeatedly described, condoned, and even attributed to God’s chosen ones. Then, I turned to Philemon, a short Pauline epistle that was often used to condone that slavery was not inherently bad, and was literally used to justify things like the Fugitive Slave Act in 19th century America.
I was pleasantly surprised by the portions on these books. It was refreshing to see that his interpretation of Judges was not in trying to explain away the weird and violent periods of a nascent Israelite nation, but that the early Israelites got the whole idea of obedience and blessings wrong, just as we still do too much today. They equated their prosperity with his blessing, and only “repented” when their prosperity was taken away. There is a “deeper problem” in us, which makes our own comfort and happiness a higher priority than a right relationship with God and each other. His take on Philemon was not about slavery but about mercy and justice, influenced by Martin Luther’s exposition (“we are all of us Onesimi!”) that we have all wronged our master and need an intermediary (in this case, Paul) to return to Him. I was intrigued with Crabb’s approach, and I decided to give it a chance. When I got to the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and several others, certain messages of faith and hope really jumped out to me. I don’t think I would have had the same reactions (at this moment in my life) from reading the biblical texts themselves. This approach back toward scripture reading was the right thing for me at this time. Overall, I’m glad I read it, even if not everything spoke to me with equal strength.
This will be a helpful book for some, though it may not connect to everyone. It’s quite long for a “devotional,” but that is how I used it, and I think how it is best used. You may get tired of its style after a while, but I applaud the effort. I have seen comments from some reviewers that even seemed offended at his use of voicing God in the 1st person, but honestly I did not have much of a problem with it. There were a few triggers for me where our differing theologies showed up, such when “God” overtly says things like “I wrote this book to say…” Part of what my own faith journey has included has been letting go of this “God wrote the Bible” attitude that, in my opinion, takes away from what the Bible really is and what its writers were saying to and about God.
I think the Bible should start conversations, both between ourselves as human beings, and with God through prayer and meditation. This second one has been harder for me lately, and so the format of this book actually helped facilitate that a bit more. Crabb’s “conversations” with God in this book still reflect great study of each book: weeks and weeks of commentaries, sermons, books, etc. – but not for the purpose of “teaching” (which is more what I expected), but merely for conversing with God. Through the conversations, I was able to tell many places where my own struggles matched the author’s, and plenty of other places where we weren’t necessarily struggling with the same thing. He is at times brutally honest with his own struggles, selfishness, whininess, entitlement, pride, self-loathing, and frustration. I think most American Christians struggle with these things, if we’re really honest, even if it doesn’t look the same for all of us at all times. It was a very good model of being honest and open with God, like the Psalmists, or Habbakkuk, or Job, or – honestly, so much of the Bible models this kind of struggling conversation. If you’ve never really gotten down and dirty with how you really feel about God and the Bible, I encourage you just to do it. Don’t worry, he’s not going to smite you for it.
Don’t mistake this book for a systematic theology, or even really a biblical commentary. The message we hear in this book is the one that Crabb heard when he talked through the Bible with God. I definitely feel that God meets us wherever we are. If I had tried to write a book this way (or even just kept a devotional journal), mine would look different from Crabb’s, and different from yours, etc. And that’s OK. In fact, I would argue it’s exactly what the Bible is.
He has a one-year plan that would have you reading each chapter plus its relevant Bible text in one year. I finished in about 5-6 months because I didn’t read most of the biblical texts along with it. While I would suggest making your own plan for reading (or at least referencing) the relevant books of the Bible along with each entry, you could also read this as a reference itself – a way to apply whatever book of the Bible you’re reading.
I will say that I was sometimes briefly turned off by his writing style. Not, as I’ve already said, by the voicing of God, but just by his running metaphors and flowery, poetic languages. And there’s 400 pages of that. He repeatedly uses the metaphors of the “dance” and the “party” and the “song,” which are sometimes quite nice, but which by the end have become a little overused. There were other things, however, that really helped see things in a useful way – framing a lot of our own struggles as version of selfishness and entitlement helped me see how some of those things have crept in. I have observed at other times that nearly all sins are actually versions of selfishness, rather than God’s character of selflessness. And Crabb’s descriptions of “relational sin” was a fairly new concept that was pretty useful coming from a counselor. Much of our trouble with other people and with God comes in the form of relating badly. When we relate to others in selfless love, we see its life-giving nature.
Here are a few nuggets I pulled from the summary chapter that had periodically jumped out at me (the most memorable are in bold): “You’ll know My plan is working when you realize you’re beginning to hate your selfishness more than your unhappiness.” (Judges) “You should be surprised by blessings. Instead, you’re stunned by judgment.” (Judges) “Great people are people who love greatly.” (1 Kings) “Real trust develops in the dark.” (2 Chronicles) “You are not in control of either getting or keeping the blessings you desire.” (Job) “When nothing makes sense and you wonder if I even exist…bring your honest questions to Me. With others who struggle and cry and laugh, bring all of yourself to Me, always.” (Psalms) “Doing right doesn’t always make things go right.” (Ecclesiastes) “You will not return to the days of naïve innocence…Life will become difficult. Dreams will shatter. I call you to imagine what lies further ahead. A new kind of happiness is coming.” (Daniel) “Real worship generates real change.” (Amos) “I will never cooperate with your desire to protect yourself from enemies you refuse to love.” (Jonah) “Don’t make the mistake of so many whose desire for happiness becomes a demand…Don’t live to feel full. Life from the truth to a fullness that you will one day fully enjoy.” (Colossians) “Grace is not for beautiful people. They see no need of it.” (Titus) “You must remember that you have wronged Me more than others have wronged you. Deal with them as I deal with You.” (Philemon) ”You taste the reality of real life every time you love others for My sake and theirs.” (1 John) “My Son lived the real life I call you to live, divine energy visible in common humanity…Is divine love energizing your attitude and the words you say?” (2 & 3 John)
The note from 1 John reminds me of the most truthful line from the musical Les Miserables: “To love another person is to see the face of God!”
This book isn’t perfect, or perfect for everyone, but in the end, I’m glad I read it. It helped me work back toward devotions with the Bible (still on the way), and its tone was full of truth and encouragement. It reminded me of several truths: 1. Life is not all about me. 2. I too often think it is. 3. Learning to love rightly is learning who God is, and vice versa. 4. The Bible may be ancient, but even an ancient conversation with an infinite God can bring wisdom for today. 5. Listen to your mom. She knows what’s best.
I wish this book had been done more like "Conversations With Larry About the Bible" instead of him pretending to be God. That made me more than a little uncomfortable ~ especially when he presupposes we can't understand the Bible for ourselves ~ and can't make sense of it without him telling us what it means. That worries me.
Especially with the ... tone some of his examples and passages take. I am all for helping people relate to the Bible and giving them personal stories and examples they can understand and are relevant to their life. I don't pretend to be God though.
I have a hard time with many of the speeches that Dr. Crabb presents as from God and that prevented me from enjoying what was a good concept. The book was also well written.
Disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book courtesy of Thomas Nelson.
If this book were presented as a conversation with Dr. Larry Crabb, rather than a conversation with God, I would probably have given it a 4, perhaps even 5 star review. I enjoy reading biblical interpretation from various perspectives and sources, and I certainly would have been interested in reading Crabb's personal thoughts and observations on each of the 66 books of the bible. And if nothing else, such a project deserves respect if only for its scope and ambition.
However as it is, the book takes the form of a series of imaginary conversations between God Himself and a faithful human who is trying to make sense of scripture. This means, necessarily, that for the sake of the format, Crabb puts his thoughts and interpretations of each biblical text into quotation marks and makes them come out of the mouth of the Almighty. To say the very least, this made me...uncomfortable. While I cannot fault a religious leader for having his own very strong opinions on the meaning of scripture, I can and DO fault him for literally putting words into the mouth of God!
I was especially disappointed at how little light was shed on the more troublesome texts of the bible given the number of pages spent interpreting them. For instance, I recently finished reading the book of Joshua and was troubled, trying to make sense of the tribal warfare and extreme violence contained in those pages. I hoped this book would give me some keen insights as to what place those events might take in the biblical "big picture." I was shocked to read that Crabb, as God, says that what we are to gain from Joshua is that our worst enemies are, as Oprah might say, "inside ourselves." But that's ridiculous! Every Jewish and Christian source I have ever read regards Joshua as a book of history. Whether one takes it literally or as a biased but basically truthful account or a completely reconstructed inaccurate history, it is a history, not an allegory for some kind of postmodern self-help process! If Crabb had said this as Crabb, I would have fervently disagreed, but had respect for his opinion. Since he says it as the character of GOD, it's just simply outrageous.
I wish I could give this book a stronger recommendation, because I adore book-by-book biblical commentaries and am always on the look-out for good ones to read and recommend. But sadly, this book was a real disappointment.
This book gave me new perspective on God’s larger story and my heart. This will definitely be my new recommendation to anyone in or coming out of a hard season, or really anyone up for it. Sometimes the narrative can be a bit much, but I walked away with so much truth and personal reflection on real life that I say it is worth it!
“What is needed today is not a new gospel, but alive men and women who can restate the Gospel of the Son of God in terms that will reach the heart of our problems”
Some nice thoughts on the Bible, but the way he wrote the book as part journal, part response as God was very off-putting. I would have enjoyed this better if it was titled "Dr. Larry Crabb's Thoughts on How to See Jesus in Each Book of the Bible", which also would have cut the book in half by removing the weird back and forth narrative
This is one of the most unique books and profound books I have come across. I loved it! I am so happy I won this book in a giveaway because I found myself underlining something in just about every chapter. It is like a summary and commentary on the Bible but is written in such a way that held my attention and made me eager to read more. The writing is incredible because the whole book is written as a conversation between God and a man about each of the books of the Bible. So often, the man is asking the same questions I have about the different books. Through “God’s” part of the conversation, the author shows how all the books come together to point to Jesus and God’s plan to get people to His “big party (heaven).”
I took my time reading this one since I own it, and because there is so much to comprehend and chew on. It is very thought provoking and will be treasured as a great reference book in my library. I plan to re-read the chapters that relate to the book of the Bible I am currently reading. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in spiritual things or who has questions concerning things in the Bible.
Crabb that takes you through each book of the Bible giving his opinion as to what message he believes God is trying to get across in each book. It is written as a conversation between God and the author. He uses first person for both. There are seven parts representing different sections of the Bible.
Crabb questions God a lot (Crabb calls it whining). He asks of God about many things that some Christian don’t dare ask. But these are questions many do ask. Crabb gives his understanding in the answers. This is not the Bible, it is the conclusions of a man who loves God and has sought Him diligently for many years.
I relate well to Crabb we both have a different view of God in our later years (more trinitarian based). Reading this t book with the Bible helps us see God in a more personal way. It won’t answer all questions, may leave you with more but it provoke you to study, and that is a good thing.
66 Love Letters by Dr. Larry Crabb was given to me by the publisher Thomas Nelson, by way of BookSneeze to read and give a review by way of my blog.
As I started reading this book, I had a very hard time getting into it. It was hard for to read it as a conversation between God and Dr. Crabb. While it isn't unusual to have a conversation with God, I just thought to myself that I wouldn't necessarily ask the same questions.
I also thought this book was extremely long. It took me a lot longer to read than what I thought it would. That may be because at times, I found myself not agreeing with what Dr. Crabb said he felt like God was telling him.
While I can understand why Dr. Crabb wrote the book, it isn't one that I would recommend to others.
One of my absolute favorites that I keep beside my bible when I need someone to support my feelings toward the confusion I may encounter when approaching scripture. This book brings God and man together in an in depth conversation with each of the books of the bible. Talk about being real with the maker of our universe, this book sets out for you questions, concerns, and real emotions with no holding back as if God himself was answering us in the here and now. The author uses dialogue between man and God that you only wish you had the guts to say to our King. I cherish this book and encourage anyone to read this to not only learn that it is okay to question God but that a true prayer is really only an open and honest talk with our maker.
This is the second book that I have read by Crabb. I acknowledged, prior to reading this book, that suffering is a part of the Christian life. But Crabb stretched my thinking and made me wonder if it is not a much bigger part than I previously thought. This is where the book really challenged me and also, at times, disheartened me. Still, I think Crabb presents some valuable thoughts that need to be heard in the church today.
Though I'm in process of reading this book I can't help but review it now. I've been reading the bible, listening to sermons from it and had discussions about its contents for years but this book with it's warmth, emotional depth and conversational tone between the author and God is like a cold drink of water in the middle of the desert. Guaranteed to be on my top ten forever!
Larry Crabb does what he condemns modern Christians for: "I'm troubled by how fond we've become of receiving visions and hearing prophetic words, what we assume are direct communications from God that bypass the Bible." Um, Larry, that is EXACTLY what YOU do in this book! It's Crabb's claim that he exclusively hears God's voice in breaking down each book of the Bible into simple summaries. Namely, Crabb claims to have gotten a special vision from God of what the Bible really means and he prints the prophetic words in this book. He actually brags about how his 66 paragraph summary of the Bible at the end of the book is so unique that no one has done it before. And makes sure to tell us what a great psychologist he is. The whole book comes across as a self-proclaimed man of humility who wants us to focus only on God then doing the opposite by bragging about the special interpretation God has given him as an expert, even printing God's words in first person.
While there are some good points made (especially the reminders that God doesn't promise conflict-free happiness in this life and that suffering in this life should be expected the closer we get to seeing heaven in the afterlife), the problem is that Crabb's filtering of scripture is at times so off-base that he takes minor books of the Bible and has them saying something they don't say. His four-sentence summary of Leviticus includes: "Getting to think right and love well is the toughest part of My plan." Huh? Part of his Philemon paragraph states: "In your efforts to relate well, to dance in love, you will kick the shins of others, and others will step heavily on your toes." This nonsense is supposed to be God talking in modern language?
The way the book is structured is a mess, difficult to read because almost everything has quotation marks around it or indentations but half the time we don't know who is talking! Crabb talks to God with self-focused questions ("God, what are you saying to me in your first love letter Genesis?"), then God talks to him ("What I want you to hear is this: You've made a mess but I've got a plan!"), then Larry interprets what God really says in a short summary that may have nothing to do with the book of the Bible he is focused on ( "Never underestimate My ability to clean up the mess and to bring everyone to Our party who wants to come"). Every chapter is like this, where it's all about Crabb's idea of God's party where we will dance--not really about us and scripture. It's disappointing that a man who is trying to help people focus on Christ instead uses this odd letter structure to focus on himself and his awkward questions and answers.
Some will hesitate to call Crabb on the hypocrisy of reinterpreting God's words and often putting words in God's mouth that can't be found in scripture, but Larry is doing the very thing he condemns modern Christians for. If anything he takes it a step beyond what others do by claiming to uniquely hear God's words outside of scripture and distorting what some books of the Bible say through a very modern filter that ignores history.
It's also a very negative book at times, with Crabb having God tell us how dumb or selfish we are ("you're a slow learner") and how far off we are from His ideal of simply focusing on the story of Christ. Maybe Crabb doesn't understand that God is much bigger than just the Bible--scripture alone does not contain the story of Christ, a story that continues today through believers and the church. And the story of Christ is not the only thing scripture is about, so to limit the whole Bible to one story will keep Christians from gleaning wisdom from many other stories that are there for purposes beyond merely focusing on Christ. This simplistic, pretentious concept ends up being a gimmick that a longtime author uses to sell more books instead of adding true depth to scripture or God's true word.
With all of the individual Bible quotes floating around it can be easy to forget that the 66 books of the Bible tell a cohesive story. Author Larry Crabb has crafted a narrative to help us see the scripture as 66 love letters to us from God. It is the kind of book you digest slowly. I would suggest that if you are following a program to read the Bible through in a year that you also spend time in each corresponding letter in this book at the same time. I've been using an app called YouVersion this year. Each day's reading contains an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, and verses from Psalms or Proverbs. A devotional is included that ties them all together -- every time.
Every verse in the holy scriptures is God-breathed and intentional. God has had a plan in place that transcends time. As Larry Crabb notes in his summary for the book, So God's story goes something like this: connection, wickedness, estrangement, judgment, reconciliation. His people will ultimately party with Him. What is the chief end of man? Asks the Westminster Shorter Catechism. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever is the answer. Amen.
This is outstanding. Through the 66 books of the Bible (love letters), Crabb traces God's story and His love for us throughout. Crabb uses the format of dialogue between God and himself where Crabb is never afraid to ask the hard questions or to confront his doubts and frustrations. If you haven't read the Bible, but would like to know more about how it all fits together, or if you're curious about the stories it tells, this would be a great starting point. Again, on a personal level, I was challenged over and over again in my Christian walk, as I was earlier in Inside Out and Shattered Dreams; both by this same author. Highly recommended, but not a quick read.
This is a tough one to rate.....for content, I could easily give it 5+ stars. Part of me wants to tell every believer I know about this book and encourage them to read it. But it comes with one huge caveat: I did not like the format. I can see why the author chose it, but I found it incredibly disturbing how he spoke as God, and it often took me out of the message of the book and made me very uncomfortable. I think he could have written the same book, all in his own words (and much shorter) and gotten across the same message. Again, his interpretation of what the Bible’s message to us is, is incredible. Foundational. I just wish he’d gone about it a different way.
This book is life changing. I read it four times. It will change the way you read the Bible! Larry Crabb is honest, raw and asks the hard questions as he converses with God about each book of the Bible. Not only is it informative and fascinating, it provides the one of the best discussions about suffering, and motivates the reader to read the Bible from cover to cover. It should have won the golden Christian Book Award and should be mandatory reading for Seminary students. It's that important!
I'm just honestly shocked that he writes it in a dialogue. With that he basically says that whatever he interprets is right. I don't know if it just me but I just can't get over it that he pretends to know what god is saying all the time and puts it in definitive words with no room for the author's mistakes. The interpretation itself I find mostly logical, but the way he puts it I just don't think is right.
This book has given me deeper insightful into every book of the Bible than anything else I've studied. Reading Larry's chapter before and after reading each book of the Bible has been like sitting at the feet of Christ as Mary did when Jesus visited her house. I'm so thankful for the gifts God gave Larry Crab and for his dedication to share his deep understanding of scripture. I will continue to study this book as a companion to my Bible for the rest of my life.
This is a good companion to reading the bible. I wish the length of this book's chapters matched (in ratio) the length of the bible chapters. Ex: Isaiah's part in this book should not be close to John 3 or Jude's length. The "conversation with God" view starts to get a little tedious in a "Really? How do you know that's how God would respond" kind of way. I did relate to the feelings the author was experiencing so that was helpful.
In my top 5 must read books as a Christian!!!! This has opened up my eyes to so much and given me a new love for His Word. I can't wait to start my yearly Bible reading having this information to guide me. I am excited and overwhelmed by His love and His love letters to me. HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book!!!!
4.5 Stars. This is a very good book to read to understand each book of the Bible. Some people might not like the 'conversation with God' style of writing, but I found that it helped. I found great insights that helped me understand God's Word more - highly recommended read.
Very long and at times did not make sense. One caveat is you need a very extensive knowledge of the bible and what each book contains or you will be very lost in my opinion.