From God to You

This book is my 'love it' pick of the day.  I "stumbled" upon it, (although I'm quite sure not by coincidence), when I was trying to choose the just right book to go with the new journal I gave to my husband for his birthday.  Larry Crabb is a well-known Christian psychologist and Bible teacher, and a favorite author of mine since my days in grad school for counseling.  He has written many powerful and truth-filled books including Inside-Out and Shattered Dreams.  Yet I believe this is one of his finest works.  I have picked it up a few times since I originally bought it, but really dug into it last night after spending some time in Zephaniah.

The book is set up in a way that each chapter is a "love letter" from God deciphering the message he is communicating to us through each of the 66 books in the Bible.  It's awesome.  Basically it depicts what it might look like if a person was having a very intimate conversation with God, asking Him to really explain what the Bible really says and how it relates to each of our personal stories.  Larry Crabb does such a great job of drawing you closer to the God who cares about you more than you could imagine by drawing you into the reading of His word.  Check out this book.  It will be difficult for you to put it or the Bible down.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the chapter on Zephaniah that portray the author's interpretation of what God is speaking to us through it:

"Surface change is often mistaken for deep change.  When the medication of exciting worship and inspiring preaching relieves the symptoms of sin, the need for the surgery of brokenness is no longer recognized.


If you greet My Son believing that instruction, discipline, and inspiration are enough to keep you on track, You will see Him as merely a religious cheerleader, not the holy Savior you desperately need."


"Only when surface revival where hearts remain unchanged is replaced by deep renewal, only when the judgment of death destroys the power of selfishness and opens the door to the resurrected power of love, only then will My plan become visible.


My thirty-sixth letter begins with My promise to sweep away everything and ends with My ironclad promise to bring My people home, to change their hearts so that I can look on them with delight, to pour into them the life of My Son.  What a day that will be!"