changed my life | The Pressure's Off: There's a New Way to Live

This book was very very helpful to me. | The Pressure's Off: There's a New Way to Live | Larry Crabb

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	• The Pressure's Off: There's a New Way to Live Larry Crabb WaterBrook Press, 2004 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great workbook for a great book!

I've read many of Larry Crabb's books, and they are even better when he writes a workbook to go along with it!

changed my life

This is without question the most powerful book I have ever read. I think I have read it at least a dozen times, and underlined in at least 5 different color highlighters and 4 or more ink colors. It exposes the self serving motives behind all my attempts at spirituality and unveils the greatest satisfaction that is available to me as a believer, the joy that I have overlooked in all my attempts to make life work. I will never be the same again...all my energy wasted on shallow pursuits that dissolve in the face of the greater hope.

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This book was very very helpful to me.

This is not an academic book on theology or counseling. In it, Crabb provides a rather transparent look into his own journey through an important transformation process in an attempt to help us grasp what he found out. He explains how we can insidiously come to the point of thinking we are following, and even serving God when we are really attempting to manipulate God. Sounds like a simple concept to intellectually grasp, but I found the varied and personable ways Larry communicates were necessary for me to fully process what he was talking about so I came to really see how much pressure I have put myself under, and perhaps why some things have not worked out the way I thought they should. Larry's admonitions remind me of Jesus' critique of the Ephesian church: "But this you have abandoned, your first love." Since I feel God used this book to shift the way I hold my life in a very positive way, I recommend it to all.

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Mind and Life changing, worth the read

"The Pressure's Off," by Larry Crabb is the most significant book I've read related to my spiritual life and emotional healing in the past 20 years. I recommend this book for finally getting a correct perspective on God's plan and presence in our personal lives. This one book substitutes for a combination of numerous counseling or discipleship books. In addition, unlike the other books, Crabb's book will lead a person away from a self-analysis focus that goes deeper into the self toward an understanding of God's work and presence in and around us.

Not a new way, just God's old way

Too much psychologizing or mystifying of the great and mysterious yet rational and explainable relationship between man and God. Its not a NEW way, its God's old way.

On p. 42, Crabb says we need "one-on-one or small-group conversations where our lives are laid open in the presence of a person gifted to discern the workings of our inner life". Hunh? We need less talking to human beings and more talking to the one High Priest, Jesus Christ Himself. We need no human confessor. I totally disagree with that statement.

Finally, in chapter 6 he gets into Scripture, and it becomes clear, as I had suspected, that what he is calling the Old Way vs. the New Way is really living under grace instead of the Law. Nothing new about that. Not that its easy, mind you, and he makes good points in this chapter, but why act like its some new mysterious thing?

His language and writing style really make me distrust this book, even though I did end up agreeing with him except where noted above. He is correct that most Christians prefer the blessings of God rather than the presence of God, and that our real prayer should be to know Him better, not get better blessings. This is a crucial and non-trivial distinction, so Crabb's words need to be said.

Just wish he didn't sell it in such an off-putting way.

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There are two basic approaches to life?two pathways. One creates pressure, the other provides freedom.

In the Old Way of life, as best-selling author, psychologist, and spiritual director Larry Crabb describes it, ?you have decided that what you most want out of life is within your reach, and you are doing whatever you believe it takes to get it.? But in the New Way of life, ?you have realized that what you most want is beyond your reach, and you are trusting God for the satisfaction you seek. You want Him. Nothing less, not even His blessings, will do.?

The Old Way?the way most Christians define life and pursue fulfillment?is fundamentally wrong and harmful. It leaves us tired, in bondage, and feeling distant from God. But the New Way brings true freedom and refreshment as we tap into the power to draw closer to God in a personal way.

?We can?t always make life work. But we can always draw near to God. There is a different way to approach our problems. There is a NEW WAY to live.? ?Larry Crabb

From the Hardcover edition.

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