The Exceptional Life: 8 Powerful Steps to Experiencing God’s Best for You By Stephen Arterburn Book Review

The Exceptional Life teaches readers eight powerful steps that will radically change their life. The book includes what you must give up in order to have the life you have always wanted. The eight things we must give up are guilt, resentment, fear, anger, instant gratification, helplessness, isolation, and addiction. It also includes what will enrich your life when you give that thing up. For example, if you give up guilt you will receive your hope back. We don’t have to hold on to our past failures and mistakes. We are to accept God’s forgiveness. Another step is giving up fear in our lives. We have to remember that God will protect us no matter what we may go through. If we give up fear we will receive trust back into our lives.

Each chapter is divided into five sections: what we need to give up, how the thing hinders us from living fully, how to give it up, what we will gain if we give it up, how our life will change. Each chapter has discussion questions to assist you in your journey to your exceptional life.  

One of my favorite quotes was:

“We like what we like, and we do what we do. Once we’re in any kind of behavioral pattern, getting out can be a true challenge.” Page 171

I would recommend this book to teenagers and adults who are struggling with how to live their lives. If things are holding you back from living your life this book will help you to become free.  One of the chapters helped me immensely to stop hiding from the world. I saw that I was living and staying in my comfort zone. I realized that I have to give up isolation in order to get back to living in a community with friends. I have to get to the bottom line of why I choose to hide from the world. The past has held me back and I had to choose to stand back up and start living again. If I stay on the sidelines protecting myself, my whole life, I will miss a great life. I started walling myself in and would stay away from people who hurt me. I believed that everyone else would treat me the same way that they did. We don’t to live in fear of getting hurt because God will always be there to put us back together. This book helped me to see I need to live in fellowship with others. God will protect me and he will never let me down. This book is a wonderful book to help you break free from your past. It can help you to stop past behaviors and it will change your life into an exceptional life. Say goodbye to the old you and say hello to the new you. If you will put these eight life changing steps into your daily life you will start seeing changes in your life like never before.

“I received this book free from the publisher through the Bethany House Publishers book review bloggers program.”

Read Chapter One:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61473712/The-Exceptional-Life

If you would like to purchase a copy of The Exceptional Life check out Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Exceptional-Life-Powerful-Steps-Experiencing/dp/0764204254/

Healing Is A Choice: Ten Decisions That Will Transform Your Life and Ten Lies That Can Prevent You From Making Them By Stephen Arterburn Book Review

In Healing Is A Choice, Stephen Arterburn teaches readers the process of healing the pain you have endured during your life. No one escapes this life without having to heal from their past. The things we go through will only make us stronger. Stephen was married to his wife for twenty years. One day she told him she wanted to get a divorce. He was deeply upset and he didn't know how the Christian community would react. This book is not just about his divorce he shared many stories and examples of healing your own personal hurts.This book will walk readers into making choices that will heal their souls. He explored ten decisions that will change your life and bring in the healing we so desperately need and want. He also revealed lies that can hinder the process of healing.






Here are some examples of the ten decisions we have to make to heal and ten lies we must resist.




Some of the ten decisions we can make are choosing to connect with people who will support and be there for us. We tend to want to put invisible walls up to protect ourselves from ever being hurt again. But that only ends up making us hurt longer and we won't heal. Another choice is feeling our lives where we can become whole again. Another choice is forgive the person who hurt us and forgiving ourselves. Holding on to the past and anger will not help us to heal and to be whole. Another choice is to take healthy risks to enjoy your life and live it to the fullest. A life changing choice is to persevere. Suicide is never the answer to life's problem. We have to make the difficult decision to never give up and to keep living our lives.




Some of the ten lies we must resist is believing that there is no hope to this life. I might as well give up and get depressed. This one is important to stay away from! God made us and we are here for a reason. We don't need to commit suicide to escape the trials of life. Another lie we must resist is time will heal us just keep living and eventually you will be whole. We must take time to heal the pain in our souls. Another choice we have to stay away from is putting up walls to protect us from anymore pain in our lives. Another choice we have to resist is believing we can't serve God while going through our pain.






Healing Is A Choice has a wonderful workout that is included in the revised and updated edition. You are encouraged to journal and answer the questions at the end of the chapters. This will help you to reinforce the knowledge you have learned. The book is quite long but it's worth reading and if it heals your life like it helped heal mine it will be worth the time and effort!  






I would recommend Healing Is A Choice to everyone! If you are struggling with forgiving others and are needing healing in your life pick up this book! The process of healing can be long but if you stick with trying to get well by using these steps it will help you immensely. The pain we have to endure will only make us withdrawn and hide. But there is a better way to live. The healed life is a life of freedom of our past and pain. We can heal our future and become free! Holding on to hurt destroys our relationships but we must connect with others and not wall them out. Life without losing doesn't exist, we all are going to be hurt and let down. We have to stand back up and try again! This book taught me to get well by making the correct choices. I had to reject the lies of Satan. He doesn't want me to get healed. But I can make the decision to go through my pain and come out on the other side stronger than before!








Stephen Arterburn also has a radio show called New Life Live. He help listeners through his radio program. If you need any help or need assist please call 1-800-NEW-LIFE.






Check out http://newlife.com/ for addition resources and information.

“I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program.”

If you would like to purchase a copy of Healing Is A Choice check out Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0785232435/