Putting Your Past In Its Place

Lives grind to a halt when people don’t know how to relate to their past. Some believe “the past is nothing” and attempt to suppress the brokenness again and again. Others miss out on renewal and change by making the past more important than their present and future. Neither approach moves people toward healing or hope. Pastor and biblical counselor Stephen Viars introduces a third way to view one’s personal history—by exploring the role of the past as God intended. Using Scripture to lead readers forward, Viars provides practical measures to understand the important place “the past” is given in Scripture replace guilt and despair with forgiveness and hope turn failures into stepping stones for growth This motivating, compassionate resource is for anyone ready to review and release the past so that God can transform their behaviors, relationships, and their ability to hope in a future.

Instead of an Anxious Parent, Become a Praying Parent Any Christian mother and father, or grandmother and grandfather, desires what is spiritually best for their children. However, knowing how to pray for them can often be as challenging as knowing what to pray. Without proper guidance, our prayers are prone to become dry, repetitive lists of requests. With the help of Dr. Erwin Lutzer, you can learn how your best, loving intentions can become enriching, effective intercessions for your children or grandchildren. Trade your lists of requests for Scripturally-based prayers that will immerse you in God’s promises and will. In A Practical Guide for Praying Parents, Dr. Lutzer addresses: -How to pray when children have hardened hearts -How to pray for children who have become wayward prodigals -How to become a prayer warrior who prays in the face of spiritual warfare This small guide will help you pray scriptural prayers that both bring you closer to God and bless your children. You’ll also find daily Biblical prayers crafted by Dr. Lutzer himself to help you begin your prayer journey. With your love for your children, your desire to help, and Dr. Lutzer’s guidance, your prayers can become effective ministry in the lives of those you care for the most.

Shares uplifting advice about the virtues of forgiveness, offering strategic and biblically based advice on how to achieve peace and personal fulfillment by letting go of past wrongs.

See Yourself Through God’s Eyes Who are you? You carry your answer to that question around your home, community, workplace, and church. But how does your self-image compare to God’s perfect understanding of you? In Do You Believe What God Says About You?, pastor and Christian counselor Stephen Viars encourages you to trade misgivings about your identity for the Bible’s life-changing affirmations of who you were made to be. You will let go of the painful thoughts and feelings that accompany a broken self-image develop positive habits for your mind and body that empower you to daily put God’s truths about your worth into practice grow in your love for Jesus as you realize how His death, burial, and resurrection have eternally changed who you are able to be Perfect for personal use or group study, and an ideal resource for biblical counselors, this book offers 31 chapters that feature inspiring insights, practical illustrations, helpful journaling questions, and guided prayers that will help you define your identity as God does.

Putting Jesus in His Place is designed to introduce Christians to the wealth of biblical teaching on the deity of Christ and give them the confidence to share the truth about Jesus with others.

If believers are not careful, church can be reduced to a mere social club. Barbara and Gina demonstrate how to find a cherished friendship through the process of discipleship. They have often observed, when women come to a new church, they seem to be on an endless search to “find a friend” so they can “feel” a part or “feel” connected. Often this leaves them discontent in their search. A more biblical and satisfying way is by developing discipleship relationships in the body of Christ. Who Needs a Friend When You Can Make a Disciple? defines and highlights some practical “how-tos” to help women implement biblical ways to practice and sustain discipleship relationships. Barbara and Gina’s aim in sharing their personal story is to show women the impact discipleship can have on their spiritual growth as they find a cherished friend.

Alcoholism. Child Abuse. Divorce. Gluttony. Abortion. Homosexuality. Sexual Addictions. Is there a place to begin again? No one can go back to the starting line in the race of life. What's done, is done. But we are not tied to our past mistakes. By following God's instructions and allowing Him to salve our wounds, we can be freed from the weight of guilt, regret, and bitter heartache. In Putting Your Past Behind You, Dr. Lutzer explains what the Bible says about God's role in the process of separating hurting and discouraged people from their pasts. Come to understand that your trial, addiction, or injustice is not uncommon to man. You aren't facing your hurt alone. God is faithfully standing ready to help, and He almost always uses His people to share in His work of restoration and healing. Many others have struggled with the pain you are feeling. And many have traveled beyond the pain to become blessed servants of Christ. Others have put a past just like yours behind them; so can you.

Putting on Christ is a roadmap of our heroic journey to Spiritual Rebirth, also referenced in the holy writ as "the gate" that leads to eternal life. This gate is the First Comforter which is received and initiated through a "baptism of fire" and manifestation of the Lord's Spirit. The Savior said, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able" (Luke 13:24). For the true seeker and truth seeker, Putting On Christ may prove a valuable guide for the journey along this straight and narrow path which leads to obtaining the knowledge of God on the level as if we had seen Him. When we receive this knowledge, we will have been healed and cleansed by Christ Himself of our sins, vices, and spiritual wounds . This knowledge then opens the door to "obtain all other things pertaining to life and godliness" (Lectures On Faith 7:18). Putting On Christ includes the stories of nine people who were born of the Spirit or born of God in our latter day-six of whom are personally known to me. These nine have obtained the same knowledge-even the perfect knowledge as to God's reality. This experiential knowledge obtained is on par with many who have entered God's Presence through a near-death experience. In either scenario, one can never be the same thereafter. Each will have received "a mighty change" or conversion of the heart towards God. This same knowledge is available to all who have come under heavenly contract with God through the ordinances by proper authority. The Lectures on Faith teach that "whatsoever constitutes the salvation of one will constitute the salvation of every creature which will be saved" (Lectures on Faith, 7:9). Jesus said to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Being born of the Spirit is much more than receiving the Father's promise through "confirmation" after being baptized by water. There is a broken-hearted covenant and cry of the soul we must each make in the depths of repentance, performed in complete surrender, having a committed willingness to do His will in all things thereafter. Once these and other conditions are met, the fulfillment of the Father's promise can then be made experientially "real" for us in our lives-unto the praise and glory of God. This is when we transition from the knowledge about God to the actual, perfect knowledge of God. Indeed, this is salvation. The path is real and He is coming. Waste no time. -Steven Anthony Bishop LDS Author