Putting Your Past in Its Place: Moving Forward in Freedom and Forgiveness Paperback – February 1, 2011

Putting Your Past in Its Place, Moving Forward in Freedom and Forgivenessby Stephen Viars (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2011) 247 pp., paper $14.99Pastor and biblical counselor Stephen Viars has written a useful work concerning dealing with our past. He believes there are two extremes: Believing our past is nothing and believing it is everything (p. 17). In order to get a good handle on our past, and respond to it biblically, Viars suggest four buckets, around which he develops his book (p. 69).Bucket #1 – The innocent past where you responded well. In chapter six, (the best chapter in the book, this reviewer believes) the author titles this response as authentic suffering. He calls on his readers to face the innocent past honestly, biblically, hopefully, and missionally.Bucket #2 – The innocent past when you responded poorly requires humble analysis to determine if reaction to the sin of others against ourselves was/is biblical.Bucket #3 – This moves to our personal past guilt, in this case when we have responded well and look back with joyful remembrance.Bucket #4 – This reverses course and deals with past guilt to which we poorly responded. What is needed at this point is honest self-confrontation.For those struggling with the past they will find this book of value. Each chapter concludes with questions for personal reflection as well as group discussion. This adds to the usefulness of the volume, especially for counseling purposes.Reviewed by Gary E. Gilley, Pastor-teacher at Southern View Chapel

This is an excellent book that helps walk through the biblical process of dealing with both your innocent and guilty past. As a biblical counselor and director of a women's discipleship residence, I am always praying for and searching for effective resources to help women heal from their pasta and move forward in the abundant life Christ died for them to have here on earth and for eternity. This book lays out the biblical concepts of healing in a very thorough yet straight-forward manner. The book does have a little fluff that I would prefer weren't there, but over all, it's a great resource. I will be pairing this with Leaving Yesterday Behind by William Hines as I counsel hurting, broken women seeking transformation in the future.

This book will help you do exactly what the title says, if you are willing to adhere to the truths the author explains, which means to know that God is faithful now and forever.

This very helpful book is accessible to the average reader. Viars does not try to overwhelm you with big theological words and concepts , yet the book is very Bible centered and saturated. I found it very helpful personally and will use it to help others overcome their past and how they reacted to it.

Mr. Viars does a wonderful job breaking down the past into much easier to work through segments- helping others to work through where they're stuck and move forward toward peace. The best part of this book is the way he underlines God's Word as the ultimate life help. God gave us the principles to work out our lives (past, present, and future) in ways that are pleasing to Him and Mr. Viars lays those out in an easy to understand form while showing us how to recover from times we chose not to follow God's Word.

This book is probably the best book I've read in 2016. Viars has a gifted way of communicating and his points are very insightful and practical. He talks about 4 types of our personal history and how to process each kind. He gives excellent biblical counsel concerning life's hard times - past and future and how to process them both so that we are pleasing to God. I lost my first copy after I finished the book and ordered a second copy because I don't want to be without it. I will refer to it in counseling and in my personal life often. I wish I could give the book a higher rating than 5 stars! Thank you, Dr. Viars, for sharing your wisdom with us.

Stephen Viars book was extremely helpful in dealing with guilt and despair over past issues. He stated that some people either believe that their past is nothing or that their past is everything. There are so many people that are caught in their past. They are living in the pain of shame of things that they have done or shame of things done to them. Some people handle their past very well. Others handle their past very poorly. This book helps people move to true forgiveness and real freedom in their lives. I highly recommend this study

Woah, this book is wonderful. The author is great at communicating deep truths in a simple way. Making it easy to understand the importance of your past and the benefit of processing it biblically. This book contains essential truths that all Christians should familiarize themselves with if they desire to walk joyfully with God and those around them.