My Foreword to Steve Viars’ Putting Your Past in Its Place

Pastor Steve Viars has devoted his life and ministry to helping others to change—biblically. You hold in your hands the result of his lifelong ministry—Pastor Viars’ Opus.

It’s an opus well worth reading and applying. Whether you’re struggling with the process of change related to past suffering or to past sin, Putting Your Past in Its Place provides the seasoned, compassionate, pastoral, hope-filled, biblical wisdom you need.

Christians who attempt to address the crucial topic of the past tend toward extremes. Not Steve. He carefully avoids the “past is nothing” and “the past is everything” mindsets. He scripturally avoids the “truth only” or “love only” approach. Instead, like the Apostle Paul, he offers you both the Scriptures and his own soul (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

Steve is a master communicator, having honed the skill of relating God’s truth to people’s lives through decades as a pastor and biblical counselor. Those skills are on display throughout Putting Your Past in Its Place. It provides a comprehensive practical theology of the past that reads like a real-life narrative. Because it is real life—our lives as we deal daily with our past. His creative illustrations, engaging stories, personal examples, weaving in of “Jill’s story,” questions for personal reflection and group discussion, and his “real life testimonials” in the appendix material all result in the most reader-friendly counseling book you’ll ever find.

While I highly recommend Putting Your Past in Its Place to “the person in the pew,” I’m also convinced that it will be a theory-altering, practice-changing book for pastors and biblical counselors. Steve models the sufficiency of Scripture for everyday life like no one I have read. Pastors and counselors can learn from Steve not only how to help their parishioners and counselees to deal with the past, but even more, how to view and use the Scriptures to develop a theology and methodology for dealing with any life issue.

I’ve known Steve since we were both in elementary school. Given the intensity of his ministry responsibilities, I’ve wondered how he lives such a joy-filled, hopeful life. I’ve pondered how he maintains such healthy relationships. Now I know the rest of the story. Steve keeps his accounts current with God. He practices what he teaches in Putting Your Past in Its Place. If you want to find God and experience the joy, hope, and love that He offers in Christ, then practice what Steve teaches in Putting Your Past in Its Place.

—Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of RPM Ministries, Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, Author of God’s Healing for Life’s Losses