Customer Reviews

66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God That Invites You into His Story

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I recently read the book 66 Love Letters from author and psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb. This is a literary departure from the other works that Dr. Crabb has written previously. This volume is "presented as a dialog between one man and God." (quote from book sleeve)

The structure is simple: each chapter covers one of the 66 books of the Bible and does so to personalize and cut through the scriptural stories to expose God's encompassing desire to have a relationship with mankind and to hone in on Jesus' role of redeeming us to himself.

I processed several thoughts and adjusted my goals for this book as I read along:

~ At first, I hoped that this would be a non-stop amazing journey through the themes of scripture but after a few chapters found myself hoping that the next chapter(s) would be better. This didn't happen and was rather frustrating.

~ I then decided to read each chapter as a distinct conversation. One book made up of 66 individual writings... much like the Bible itself. After making this jump, the stories came to life.

~ As I read along, I decided to read chapters along with my daily devotion time. For instance, as I read of Israel's conquests in the Bible book of Joshua, I took the opportunity to read the equivalent chapter in 66 Love Letters. The text was only 4 pages long and gave way to another layer of devotional thought to my daily reading.

If you are looking for a book to read from cover to cover, this will seem like a compilation of scattered stories. However, if you use 66 Love Letters as a companion to your daily Scripture readings (especially if you are reading through the Bible in a year), it is a rather enlightening study. As a pastor, I plan to keep this volume with my study materials and commentaries to aid in my sermon/lesson preparations.

Last, I did go to Dr. Crabb's website and noted that there is a study guide available. I did not request the free study guide but am hopeful that a companion read would be helpful to get the most from this (almost) 400 page volume.

You can read this review and others on my blog at [...]

This is a book written as a conversation between God and the author that takes you through each book of the Bible [66 love letters] explaining to you in the author's point of view what God is saying to us in each book. It is written in simple dialogue and you feel like you are sitting in on a conversation between Dr. Crabb and the Lord.

I enjoyed this book & it sparked a lot in my spirit, although I do not recommend it to anyone that hasn't read the Holy Bible themselves or a new believer. It isn't a book that you can sit down and read from cover to cover, I would recommend reading 1 love letter [chapter] per day and even pair it with your Bible so that you can know what the actual word of God says for each chapter. My overall impression of this book was a good one. My only concern would be a person reading it in place of the Bible or taking what Dr. Crabb said in his book as being truth spoken from God. It did encourage me to read my Bible in more detail with better understanding and as God is speaking directly to me.

Have you ever felt like you are reading through the Bible, but not really connecting with what it is saying? Have you ever felt like you read through a book in the Bible, and did not see how it fit into the big story of God's love and his grace? If you have, you need to know that you are not alone, and you need to know that Larry Crabb intends to help you have a whole new understanding of Scripture.

Many of us in church circles have heard people refer to the Bible as "God's love letter to us". Larry Crabb's book is entitled 66 Love Letters comes to Scripture with that worldview, and then spends each chapter sharing how each book of the Bible fits into the cosmic, global story of God's love for each one of us as individuals. He does this by formatting the book in the form of a conversation by letter between God and an anonymous believer struggling to understand God's Word.

This book was difficult for me to read or enjoy. I found this to be true for several reasons. First, I thought Crabb often played to lose with the meaning and narrative of Scripture as a whole. More than once, instead of engaging the text directly, Crabb makes some sort of figurative use of Scripture that I found questionable. Also, much of the book felt like I was a voyeur on someone's prayer life and personal spirituality. All writing is a little like this; however, with 66 Love Letters I often thought I was reading someone's personal stuff that should have been left between God and them. Finally, this book was a little bit too "touchy/feely" for me. By "touchy/feely" I mean that it seemed oversentimental and about trying to get me as a reader to feel something sentimental and affectionate. I often felt like the author was trying to manipulate my feelings by force of will. It just made me roll my eyes.

Nevertheless, I think for someone who is trying to fit all the different books in Scripture together, this might be a good resource. 66 Love Letters is helpful for seeing how God is at work throughout the Bible, and that his character and intentions for creation are unchanging. For some folks that are babies in the faith, this book might be a comfort. Thus, it is not a total loss.

I do not recommend anyone spending their hard-earned money for this book. If anyone wants to have the book, they can take it off my hands for the cost of shipping.

(I was given a complimentary copy of this book by Thomas Nelson publishers in order to read and review it.)

I am leading 20 women in an online reading of 66 Love Letters alongside of reading through the Bible in one year. 66 Love Letters is the best book I've ever read in stirring me to engage in honest self-examination because I see glimpses of the Love and Provision of a very Good, Holy God. Crabb offers four decades of working with people as a psychologist to invite us to so much more than what we are experiencing. We all battle the world, the flesh and the devil but I am seeing there is way more evil in me than I ever recognized. Crabb has exposed for me the evil in my "necessity, reasonableness, efficiency, even moral goodness." I have sobbed over my demandingness that God cooperate with my agenda. I am in the middle of cancer, foreclosure, job loss, insurance loss, betrayal, and am homeless---my husband and I are living with friends. I am desperate for truth---and at times more desperate for relief. But, in the midst of mitigating circumstances that should sideline me, Larry Crabb has invited me through 398 pages onto the dance floor to find a Love I know not. I'm not very good at the waltz but my Beautiful God has grabbed hold of my right arm (Psalm 63:8) and He is not letting go of me---and it's all right here in these 66 Love Letters. With every book of 66 Love Letters, this author gives me hope not just by seismic exposure but by leading me to the One Who Loves me so! I am wrestling and learning from this book to live more concerned about "my unholiness than about my overwhelming pain"---and that has to be God! It's only a taste but I am a tad little more "privileged by the high calling of my Christ than unsettled by my pain." God will rouse Himself up to do His Work in you, a very Strange Work through 66 Love Letters (Isaiah 28:21). I would be beside myself on this journey if it weren't for God using this book in my life at this time. If you read one book this year, here it is. This author is a modern-day Ezekiel gripped in the Love of God, calling us to visit untouched places in our hearts, beckoning us to walk into a Door of Hope (Hosea 2:14)---66 Love Letters. Bev Brandon

This book has helped me and my family. We all have a copy. I am rereading the book for the 2nd time in a group setting. I feel this book has rooted me in the word of God and I will be reading it for years to come over and over again. I learn something new every time as I am a new creation every time I read it. It is like an onion and the layers are peeling away and I am able to see and learn more about our amazing God.

I was excited to read Dr. Crabb's book. As a romantic at heart, I loved the title and the cover, and I really wanted to just sit and immerse myself in the love of God. While I really enjoyed his introduction, I felt that the chapters didn't have much heart. They seemed a little glib, and I personally feel like you can't be glib when you're dealing with the life-changing gospel truth. The problem here is trying to tackle the entire Bible with a couple of pages given to each book. I think he probably accomplished what he was trying to do, but as an avid reader, I felt like it came off a little rehearsed, with not much fresh insight. This may be a good read for someone who knows nothing about the Bible, but for serious students of the Word, this book will leave you disappointed.

In his book "66 Love Letters", Dr. Larry Crabb sets out to read through each book of the Bible, searching in them for examples of how God is showing His love to us through the text. This is a great goal and one that I was interested to see the outcome of. While Dr. Crabb does indeed work his way through each book, I found his conversational style of presenting his findings to be bothersome and a bit contrived.

While I had hoped for a book that provided a brief, high level synopsis of the commone thread of God's Love that is found in each book of the Bible, I feel as if I was given the task of reading someone's creative writing assignment. To his credit, the author does provide a small sort of overview of how the theme of God's love does exist in each "letter", but it is often overshadowed by his tendency to be a bit dramatic in his dialogue. I can appreciate what he was attempting to do with this style of writing, but for me it just fell short of what I feel this book could have been if he had merely written in a standard presentation style.

I will admit that from the very outset, beginning with the Prologue, I did not think I would enjoy this book. As a matter of fact, if I hadn't agreed to write a review of this book for the company, I would have put it down shortly after picking it up. But I pressed on and finished reading a decent portion of the book, so that I could give it an informed review. Within the first few chapters, the reader is very familiar with what is to be the structure of the entire book, with each chapter having some personal "dialogue" between the author and God and the discovered threads of Love being sprinkled throughout that conversation.

I will not say that this book is poorly written, but I feel as if the actual messages found in the Bible are somewhat relegated to playing second fiddle to Dr. Crabb's ongoing personal story. I found some of the "conversation" to be a little disturbing, as God does not seem to be as interested in revealing His love to the author as He wants to make sure the author continues reading His Book through to the end. It is perhaps this ongoing theme throughout the book that turned me off most. It is fairly easy to see that the author is teasing his audience in each chapter, trying to force them to reading the entire book in order to get "the message".

I find it hard to believe that this book would be useful as a teaching aid, let alone as a stand alone study, as the author suggests at the beginning. In fact, it is suggested that a small group read through and discuss one chapter of this book a week for their study time. That would mean that a group of people would be using this "study guide" for well over a year, which I do not feel is justified by the content, warranted by the style and appropriate for any such endeavor. This leads me to think that perhaps the author too highlyof his own work and places too much importance on it.

Overall, I was not impressed, challenged or even enjoying the content of this book. Perhaps it will be well received by others, but I can't ever see myself recommending or reading this work ever again.

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.

I have read favorable reviews on Larry Crabb in the past so I though I would take a chance with this book. The title intrigued me and I was not disappointed. What if you treated each book of the Bible as a love letter? Wouldn't you want to read a love letter from the start until the finish? I was amazed at the application that I was able to draw from reading this book and the Bible at the same time. There will be those that cannot get past the author having conversations as if he were God, but the author's conversations were backed with Biblical principles. I have already recommended this book to a handful of people. Nice read!

In this book I found Dr. Crabb's approach and style of writing to be unique and easy to read and follow. His approach to explaining God's message through each book of the Bible was stimulating to my study. The conversational approach might have been limited but it still was a refreshing approach to each book of the Bible. I also found nuggets that were relevant to the current situations of mankind giving credibility to my own observations about how there is a difference in what God wants us to know and how we interpret what he says. This book will be a great asset to my study library. I have recommended "66 Love Letters" to many of my friends.