Larry Crabb - 66 Love Letters. A Conversation with God That Invites You into His Story

PRAISE FOR 66 LOVE LETTERS

My longtime friend and colleague, Larry Crabb, has always had a way of getting to the heart of the matter in peoples lives and in the Bible too. He is a master at it, blessed by God in it. In this book he brings the story and message of the Bible, book by book, into the story of our lives. The books are many, but the story is one, and the life story of each of us fits into it. This is the story that explains our stories. Larry shows how that is true, and I personally thank him for it.

RICHARD E. AVERBECK
PROFESSOR, OLD TESTAMENT AND SEMITIC LANGUAGES,
TRINITY EVANGELICAL DIVINITY SCHOOL

From a counseling perspective, there is nothing more important than feeling that you are loved. In 66 Love Letters Dr. Larry Crabb not only points us to but also walks with us through an exploration of the only true source of pure, unconditional love: the love of God. A uniquely fresh approach to Scripture, you will find and experiencemaybe even for the first timethe amazing love story that is all about God and you.

DR. TIM CLINTON
PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN COUNSELORS

Larry Crabb holds that our storiesyours and mineare part of a bigger story: Gods. Walking us through the sixty-six books of the Bible, he invites us into the conversations we might have with God. Insightful. Helpful. Honest. Human. Pivotal. Larry pulls back the curtain on His Story and invites us to participate in the drama that is biblical life.

ELISA MORGAN
PUBLISHER, FULLFILL; AND AUTHOR, She Did What She Could

Larry Crabb carefully examines each of the sixty-six pieces of the biblical jigsaw puzzle and then fits them together, revealing a stunning picture of Gods grace. I think this might be his magnum opus. I know it is a must-read for anyone who doesnt see Gods love in every book of the Bible.

GARY W. MOON, PHD
VICE PRESIDENT, RICHMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY;
AND AUTHOR, Apprenticeship with Jesus

66 Love Letters

Also by Dr. Larry Crabb

SPIRITUAL GROWTH
BOOKS

Becoming a True Spiritual Community

Connecting

Finding God

God of My Father

Inside Out

Marriage Builder

Men & Women

Real Church

Shattered Dreams

Silence of Adam

SoulTalk

The PAPA Prayer

The Pressures Off

Understanding People

Understanding Who You Are

COUNSELING SERIES

Basic Principles of Biblical Counseling

Effective Biblical Counseling

Encouragement

AUDIO CDs

A Liberating Look at Gender

Chess Players or Poets

Christian Counseling and the NewWay

Experiencing the Trinity

Freedom Series

The Church I Want to Be Part Of

The Unique Value of Small Groups

To the Children

What Every Christian Counselor

Needs to Know

A Christian Response to Homosexuality

How Not to Become an Atheist

Soul Talk

To the Husbands

Unpacking but Never Solving

the Mystery of Prayer

DVD CURRICULUM

The SoulCare Experience

66 Love Letters

A CONVERSATION WITH GOD
THAT INVITES YOU INTO HIS STORY

DR . LARRY CRABB

2009 Larry Crabb

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ ThomasNelson.com.

Unless otherwise marked, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-8499-4687-5 (IE)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crabb, Lawrence J.
66 love letters : a conversation with God that invites you into His story / Larry Crabb.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8499-1966-4 (hardcover)
1. BibleMeditations. 2. BibleOutlines, syllabi, etc. I. Title.
BS491.5.C69 2010
242.5dc22

2009040819

Printed in the United States of America
09 10 11 12 13 RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my daughters-in-law,
Kimmie and Lesley,
whose hunger to know God through His Word
inspired me to write this book

We ask, Where does God fit into the story of my life?
when the real question is,
Where does my little life fall into the great story of Gods mission?
CHRISTOPHER J. H. WRIGHT

Contents

It normally takes me about twelve months to write a book. This one took three and a half years. If reading 66 Love Letters provides you with even a fraction of the benefit that writing it provided me, join me in thanking:

the Thomas Nelson publishing team. Youve put your hearts into this project.

the prayer team my wife, Rachael, organized to make sure I was prayed for every day as I read, studied, prayed, reflected, and wrote my way through each book of the Bible. Your prayers were felt. the more than three-thousand prayer partners across the world who receive Rachaels prayer initiative for NewWay Ministries.
You have prayed for everything we do, including writing this book. I am grateful.

the spiritual formation group I have been part of for five-plus years. Thanks for knowing me and still believing in me.

Andi, director of operations for NewWay Ministries. Your passion, ideas, and loyal love keep our ministry moving ahead. Youre in a class by yourself.

my family: Ken and Lesley, and Kep and Kimmie. You make parenting, in-law parenting, and grandparenting a sheer delight.

Special thanks to Kep, NewWay Ministries executive director, who also is my literary agent and typist. He actually wanted to transcribe my penned scribbles and offered a steady stream of rich encouragement and counsel.

Special thanks to Rachael, who deserves more credit than anyone (except Gods Spirit) for her intimate support, tested and proven patience, and sacrificial companionship in Gods call on our lives. Honey, youre an unmatched treasure!

Prologue:
Finding Your Place
in Gods Story

True Christianity is turning the possible into the actual.

James Houston

This book had its beginning in the early spring of 2006, at two oclock in the morning. Id gone to bed early the night before but couldnt sleep. So by one thirty, I gave up.

Without any sense of gratitude for being awake and alive, I climbed out of bed, grabbed my Bible more from instinct than desire, and stumbled downstairs to my favorite sulking spot, a comfortable chair in front of our gas log fireplace. I turned it on and sat down, feeling a mixture of three ounces anger for being awake when I wanted to be asleep and a half-ounce gratitude for the instant warmth from the fire that required no work on my part. The possibility of more gratitude was smothered by my sense that if I couldnt sleep, I at least deserved warm feet.