Also by Dr. Larry Crabb Audio CDs A Liberating Look at Gender Books Chess Players or Poets Becoming a True Spiritual Community Christian Counseling and the New Way Connecting Experiencing the Trinity Finding God Freedom Series God of My Father The Church I Want to Be Part Of Inside Out The Unique Value of Small Groups Marriage Builder To the Children Men & Women What Every Christian Counselor Real Church Needs to Know Shattered Dreams A Christian Response to Silence of Adam Homosexuality SoulTalk How Not to Become an Atheist The PAPA Prayer SoulTalk The Pressure’s Off To the Husbands Understanding People Unpacking but Never Solving Understanding Who You Are the Mystery of Prayer Spiritual Growth
Counseling Series Basic Principles of Biblical Counseling Effective Biblical Counseling Encouragement
dvd Curriculum The SoulCare Experience
© 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 means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except 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. 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. IS BN 978-0-8499-1966-4 (hardcover) 1. Bible—Meditations. 2. Bible—Outlines, syllabi, etc. I. Title. BS491.5.C69 2010 242’.5—dc22 2009040819 Printed in the United States of America 09 10 11 12 13 WC 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments Prologue: Finding Your Place in God’s Story How this Book Can Speak to You
Part One: A Fall, a Promise, and the Story Begins Love Letter One: Genesis I Have a Plan: You Are Invited to My Party Love Letter Two: Exodus You Must Know Me to Trust Me Love Letter Three: Leviticus Holiness Comes Before Happiness: Holiness Is Happiness Love Letter Four: Numbers Making You Holy Is Hard Work for Both of Us Love Letter Five: Deuteronomy You Fail Me, but I Never Fail You Part Two: History Gives Away the Plot Love Letter Six: Joshua Learn to Hate Sin More Than Suffering Love Letter Seven: Judges Sin Is in You, Lodged Deep Love Letter Eight: Ruth I Have the Cure Love Letter Nine: 1 Samuel The Cure Will Hurt Love Letter Ten: 2 Samuel The Cure Will Make You Great Love Letter Eleven: 1 Kings Do Not Make Solomon’s Mistake: Success Is Not Greatness Love Letter Twelve: 2 Kings Failure Is an Opportunity, Not a Defeat Love Letter Thirteen: 1 Chronicles Emptiness Now, Fullness Later; That Is a Promise Love Letter Fourteen: 2 Chronicles Real Trust Develops in the Dark Love Letter Fifteen: Ezra I Am Here: I Will Make You Holy and Whole
xiii xiv xxiii
1 2 7 10 14 18 23 24 28 33 37 42 47 52 57 63 68
Contents Love Letter Sixteen: Nehemiah Remember, Small Obedience Is a Great Work Love Letter Seventeen: Esther No One, No One, Can Thwart My Plan
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Part Three: Living in Mystery with Wisdom and Hope Love Letter Eighteen: Job To Rest in Hope, You Must Writhe in Pain Love Letter Nineteen: Psalms Ask Your Hardest Questions and Sing Your Loudest Praise Love Letter Twenty: Proverbs You Must Fear Me to Follow Me Love Letter Twenty-One: Ecclesiastes The Way Up Is the Way Down Love Letter Twenty-Two: Song of Songs 103 I Will Teach You How to Dance
83 85
Part Four: A Word to the Foolish Love Letter Twenty-Three: Isaiah Prepare to Be Slapped, Then Hugged Love Letter Twenty-Four: Jeremiah There Is Water in the Well Love Letter Twenty-Five: Lamentations Painful Thirst Creates Joyful Hope Love Letter Twenty-Six: Ezekiel Face Your Evil, Then See My Glory Love Letter Twenty-Seven: Daniel Your Life Is Off Course; My Plan Is Not Love Letter Twenty-Eight: Hosea Love Is Deeper Than Hate Love Letter Twenty-Nine: Joel Wake Up to Desire, Lose Hope in Yourself, and Pray Right for Life Love Letter Thirty: Amos Real Worship Produces Real Change Love Letter Thirty-One: Obadiah Celebrate! I Will Defeat Evil Love Letter Thirty-Two: Jonah Yield to My Plan; I Will Not Yield to Yours Love Letter Thirty-Three: Micah You Are Guilty! You Are Pardoned!
77
89 94 99
109 115 120 125 130 135 140 144 148 153 157 161
Contents Love Letter Thirty-Four: Nahum Your Relationships Will Work; I Will See to It Love Letter Thirty-Five: Habakkuk When Nothing Works, Wait! My Plan Is Good Love Letter Thirty-Six: Zephaniah Do Not Settle for Cosmetic Change; That Is Not My Plan Love Letter Thirty-Seven: Haggai I Have the Power; You Will Be Holy Love Letter Thirty-Eight: Zechariah Believe What You Cannot See Love Letter Thirty-Nine: Malachi Soon You Will See: The Light of the World Is Coming!
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Part Five: The Hero Takes Center Stage Love Letter Forty: Matthew Jesus Takes Over Love Letter Forty-One: Mark Jesus Will Take You Back Then Forward Love Letter Forty-Two: Luke Let Jesus Lead the Way Love Letter Forty-Three: John Heaven’s Reality Has Moved into Yours
193 200
Part Six: Clumsy People Take Dance Lessons Love Letter Forty-Four: Acts Tell the People the Full Message of this New Life Love Letter Forty-Five: Romans Think Hard and, at the Same Time, Let Your Imagination Soar Love Letter Forty-Six: 1 Corinthians I Never Give Up on My People; My Plan Will Succeed Love Letter Forty-Seven: 2 Corinthians You Will Be Immersed in Tears yet Filled with Deep Joy Love Letter Forty-Eight: Galatians Do Not Misunderstand Freedom: Your Fruitfulness Depends on It! Love Letter Forty-Nine: Ephesians The Power to Descend Will Lift You Up Love Letter Fifty: Philippians Give Me Everything, and You Will Lose Nothing Love Letter Fifty-One: Colossians Do Not Expect Today What I Have Promised for Tomorrow: Live in Hope!
229 230
169 173 177 182 187
211 217 223
236 243 248 254 261 266 272
Contents Love Letter Fifty-Two: 1 Thessalonians Turn! Serve! Wait! Love Letter Fifty-Three: 2 Thessalonians Let Then Interpret Now Love Letter Fifty-Four: 1 Timothy Guard the Truth: It Is Your Lifeline to Real Church Love Letter Fifty-Five: 2 Timothy A Soon-to-Die Saint Looks Back at Life—and Ahead to Life! Love Letter Fifty-Six: Titus How You Relate Makes My Story Attractive—or Not Love Letter Fifty-Seven: Philemon Real Life Changes Every Relationship Love Letter Fifty-Eight: Hebrews Believe! Wait! Love! Do Not Quit on My Son! Love Letter Fifty-Nine: James Save Your Soul by Living Well Love Letter Sixty: 1 Peter Soon! In a Little While. Soon! Love Letter Sixty-One: 2 Peter I Know How to Rescue My Children from Their Worst Problem Love Letter Sixty-Two: 1 John I Want You to Know the Real Truth About Who You Are Love Letter Sixty-Three: 2 John Watch Out! The Deepest Truth Is the Most Easily Missed Love Letter Sixty-Four: 3 John Release Love Before You Judge Sin in Another Love Letter Sixty-Five: Jude Keep Yourself in My Love as You Wait for My Party
277 283 289 295 301 307 312 320 326 333 339 345 352 357
Part Seven: The Promise Is Kept: Happiness Forever Love Letter Sixty-Six: Revelation Reign with the Lamb Now, and You Will Sing When the Lion Roars!
365 371
Epilogue: The Story Everyone Needs to Hear (in Sixty-Six Paragraphs) Sources Cited About the Author
380 395 399
How this Book Ca Your life is part of a larger story. Everything you do, from ordinary activities like waiting in long checkout lines to serious responsibilities like handling a family crisis, is part of that story. Everything that happens to you—wonderful things, terrible things, and everything in between—advances the plot.
The trick is to know the story, grasp its plot, and remember it every day.
The larger story I’m talking about is told accurately and fully in the Bible. And it requires all sixty-six books to tell the story. The better we understand what the Storyteller is telling us in each of the sixty-six chapters He wrote, the better we will know the story and be able to live it.
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66 Love Letters
an Speak to You.
The more deeply you understand and enter the story told in the Bible, the more you hear a story of love unmatched in all of history, in all literature and film. It portrays a kind of love that Shakespeare could not imagine, a pure love that Hollywood’s best imitation badly mangles. I am coming to see the sixty-six books of the Bible as sixty-six love letters God has written to us to tell us His story and to let us know how we can become a good part of it.
Let me invite you into the greatest love story ever told. 66 Love Letters
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Genesis
I have
Nothing works as it should anymore. But there is a capacity for beauty in your soul that I will restore. That’s a promise. I give you in this first love letter.
out My plan
a glimpse into how I will carry
I don’t want you to be afraid that things in your life will go wrong— they will—or that you will feel empty—you will. If you fear problems or emptiness, you will live for comfort and fulfillment. And that will just complicate the mess you’ve already made. Did you ever stop to ask why I made everything; why My Spirit, My Son, and I created the stars, moon, planets; and why We made paradise on earth? The three of Us were making preparations to throw a party, to invite others to a dance, to the dance We’ve been enjoying since before time began. But there were no ‘others’ to invite. So We decided to create people, human beings just like you whom We could enjoy as they enjoyed Us and all the beauty We had made.
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66 Love Letters
Love Letter One
a plan: you are invited to my party When you finish reading My first love letter to you, I want you to realize that I never underestimated how painfully you would struggle and suffer. But neither have I underestimated My ability to enter the mess you’ve made and the pain you feel and turn everything around.
I have a plan, a very good one, and it will move ahead to completion. Guaranteed! Trust Me.Why? Because I love you even
I can, and I will, make everything good again.
when you’re messing up badly. I love you in the middle of your pain even though I don’t relieve it as quickly as you wish. I am worthy of your trust, no matter what happens.You must live now in the tension between anguish and hope.
That’s what I want you to hear when you read Genesis.
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4
Ezra
I am here: I will
In the book of Ezra, I reveal more of how My plan is underway to release you so you can dance to My Spirit’s rhythm. In its first six chapters, I tell the story not of Ezra, but of Zerubbabel, whom I chose to lead fifty thousand people back to the land years before Ezra returned. Then in the last four chapters, I tell the story of Ezra—a student of the Scriptures—who led another few thousand Jews to Judah to remind everyone of My primary concern for holiness over prosperity or pleasure.
As you read this letter—better named Restoration to the Narrow Road—and as you imagine yourself reading it as a Jew living in the not-so-glorious post-exile days in the land of promise, hear this: it will again release tears of hope in you as I intended it to do in My people. As soon as My people were settled in the land of promise, they rebuilt
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66 Love Letters
Love Letter Fifteen
ll make you holy and whole
the altar, and they rebuilt it on the same site where the original altar had rested. The altar of sacrifice symbolizes ‘yieldedness’ to Me.
To return to the narrow road, you need only surrender your will to Mine. And as my beloved and for so long troubled servant John Bunyan described in Pilgrim’s Progress, you will take the broad, more comfortable road through ‘bypath meadow.’ But know this: I will not leave you there!
Draw courage from this history. I will strengthen you to fight the good fight and to finish well.You will make it to the party. There is always a way back from sin. Tears of hope will flow every time you experience My loving mercy when you fail. I still love you.
you. I have a plan.
I will not give up on
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6
Psalms
Ask your
The Psalms are not an anesthetic. They are not a cup of hot chocolate on a cold night. They are the prayers of someone lost in a dark wood, shivering in bitter cold, unable to stand in fierce wind. They are the praise that flows from that person’s heart when he abandons himself to Me for deliverance, when he trusts that My hand has grasped his and that I am leading him home, very slowly but very surely.
In the Psalms, I reveal what life is like for the person who lives in the storm with his eyes fixed on Me. As you read the Psalms, hear Me say this: Gather with other travelers on the narrow road, pilgrims who acknowledge their confusion and feel their fears. Then, together, live those questions in My Presence.
Face the hard questions that life requires you to ask.
Your tears will become the melody of a new song.Your darkness will become the window through which new light will appear.Your doubt will become new ground, solid ground, on which to stand.
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66 Love Letters
Love Letter Nineteen
hardest questions and sing your loudest praise
Your longing to feel your emptiness and ask your questions in My Presence, in the company of other authentic pilgrims, is good. That longing releases true worship and opens your ears to hear the music of heaven and to awkwardly but rhythmically begin to dance.
Expect your theological boxes to explode, to lose all false
hope in what My love will provide in this life. Expect your personal dreams to shatter, to lose all false confidence in what My power guarantees in this life. Meditate on each psalm, knowing that I am calling you to walk a road that, for long seasons, you will not enjoy. Then decide, again and again: either cling to Me as I AM or reshape Me into who you want Me to be. The stakes are high. Either you will find yourself in finding Me as I reveal Myself, or you will lose yourself in creating Me to fit your foolish expectations. Make the right choice.
I want you to sing a new song. 66 Love Letters
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John
Heaven’s realit
No single artist could capture the beauty of life as it was meant to be lived. I commissioned four specially chosen artists—each selected for his temperament and because of his circumstances—to paint four portraits of the only Person who ever fully lived. Together they sketched a beauty that is not in the eye of the beholder but is in the person of My Son, a beauty that a thousand portraits could never capture, a glory that though dimly visible now will one day fill the heavens and the earth. John, the dreamer, the poet, a man to whom I revealed the deepest truth about My Son, a truth that no one without My Spirit’s prompting could imagine—I chose this man to present the One who fully revealed what it means to live as I live, who revealed My heart, My nature, My love.
pause before a portrait Rembrandt could never paint. Notice that no miracle Jesus ever As you read John,
performed served His well-being, that no teaching He ever presented
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66 Love Letters
Love Letter Forty-Three
ty has moved into yours
was designed to win popularity, and that in no conversation in which He ever engaged did He maneuver things to His advantage, but always to Mine. My Son came to reveal all that He knew of Me that you could absorb or imagine. He came to ‘exegete’ Me—that’s the word in John 1:18 translated ‘made him known.’ It means to make visible what could be seen in no other way. Real life, the life that My Son and I and Our Spirit have always and will forever enjoy is the joy of loving. We give to each other. You bear Our image.Your deepest desire is to love as We love. Your deepest need is to be loved. I love you.Your need is met. You are now free to do what you most want to do, what I created you to do, to live life to the full, to love, to love Me and others as My Son did during His time on earth and still does.
Real life, the surprising route to joy, is within reach.
Prepare to live a new way.
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Philippian
Give me e
Know this as you read My letter. Paul’s life was not easy. Shortly after he met My Son, he was shown ‘how much he must suffer’ for Our cause (Acts 9:16). Paul suffered physically, and his consuming desire for genuine converts to become wise and passionate disciples was often frustrated.
is always difficult.
Suffering
He wrote Philippians as well as Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon from prison, under house arrest in Rome for the crime of preaching the good news of My plan. Like My Son, though to an infinitely lesser degree, Paul was a man of sorrows. And yet he sang in prison, first in Philippians ten years before he wrote this letter and again during his two years of house arrest in Rome. Philippians is a love letter to his closest friends wrapped up in a song of joy. Never assume, as many do, that the sorrows of this life, even the severest ones, are incompatible with the joy I give.
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66 Love Letters
ns
Love Letter Fifty
everything, and you will lose nothing From a heart relentlessly thirsty and filled with gratitude, Paul sang four messages of joy to the Christians at Philippi. My Spirit is singing them now to you. If you hear the music, you will be able to pour the literal life of My Son into the hearts of others. My fiftieth letter is helpfully divided into four chapters, each one a verse in the song of joy that I want you to hear and learn to sing.
To be content
These four messages reveal the secret of contentment. but rather to know that in My Son you have everything you need to live in rhythm with My Spirit in any circumstance of life. In emptiness and brokenness, changed by My Spirit into thirst and gratitude, you are able to complete, reveal, and delight My Son.
does not mean to feel content,
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12
Revelation
Reign with the lamb now, and
When My Son’s kingdom breaks into yours, expect a collision. When His way of relating confronts the world’s way of relating, all heaven and hell break loose. The side that appears to be losing is winning and will soon win, visibly and decisively. And the side that seems now to have the edge loses forever.
The battle is on, a battle to the death and to life.
You have been seeking Me for many years.You have heard Me speak to you in My first sixty-five letters.You are ready to read My final love letter to you. But don’t merely read. Look! See! Listen! Prepare to look at the reality of My kingdom as it’s coming right now into your life and into this world. Prepare to see My Son as you’ve never seen Him before. Prepare to listen as the story I tell reveals the movement of history that continually brings you to a crossroad where life- altering choices are required.
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on
Love Letter Sixty-Six
d you will sing when the lion roars I want you to do more than understand My story.
I want you to be caught up in it, My truth taken up into your life. Picturing reality in graphic images penetrates through, not around, your mind and into your imagination where true facts become living truth, experienced doctrine. Only then will My truth be taken up into your life.
My final letter has the power to stir your depths as they have not yet been stirred. There is more to reality than
meets the naked eye. Only when you are gripped by what is happening in the invisible world will you live well in the visible world. I wrote this letter to sustain you through hard times with a vibrant awareness of what My Son is doing right now and what He yet will do.
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