I have had the wonderful opportunity of reading the book “Living Life In The Zone” by Kyle Rote Jr and Dr. Joe Pettigrew. The book is written as a 40 day spiritual game plan for men and discusses many topics including:

• How to know when you are “Living Life In The Zone”?
• Finding the zone in your relationship with your wife.
• Finding the zone in your relationship with your children.
• Finding the zone in your relationship with your friends.
• Finding the zone in your relationships at work.
• Finding the zone as you look to the future.

This book first caught my eye because it was specifically written for me. I like books that are aimed at not only making me a better person but also aimed for men specifically. I want to be a true man of God in every area of my life and this book brought forth several points that has pushed and prodded me to be even better.

This book would be a great book for married men and men with children as a good portion of the book deals with those situations. As a single guy, I think that the two sections of the book that talked about relationships with friends and climbing the ladder of success really spoke to me most.

I myself want to be everyone’s friend. This is sometimes an issue. The book explained clearly how this can be issue and who I should truly be close friends to based of scriptures from the Word of God. It really made me think about past friendships/relationships and current friendships/relationships and is prodding me to make some serious changes in that area.

The other section of the book that really spoke to me was “Climbing the ladder of success”. This chapter really mainly focused on keeping us level headed but it also talked about judging ourselves. The book shares the scripture 2 Corinthians 10:12 which tells us very bluntly to not compare ourselves to others. As men, we do this a lot. In reality, I have done it all my life but God is clearly saying “STOP”. We should be living our life not based on where others are in their life but based off where God wants us in ours.

While a majority of this book is written for married men I would still encourage single men to pick it up as a good read. It’s not a hard book to read and it relates a lot of the points to prominent figures in history including Reggie White, Michael Vick, David Green, etc.

Each chapter/day is between 5-10 pages so it doesn’t take much time to read. I encourage you to pick up the book and take 10-15 minutes out of your day each day to read a chapter and see what changes the book makes in your life.

Lies We Tell Ourselves ( by Greg Laurie) is awesome book that really cuts you deep but helps you to heal and become a better man or woman. When I first picked up the book, I though it was going to be about food. The cover shows a picture of a delicious piece of ice cream cake dripping with fudge, almonds and a couple cherries but after getting into the book I realized that this book is more than just a book about food. It’s about the lies we tell ourselves when we are tempted. No just tempted with food but also with sexual addictions, alcoholism, drugs, cursing, gluttony, etc.

Greg Laurie, the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California explains that we, even as Christians lie and are tempted to do things that we know are not right (imagine that … Gasp). We make up excuses in our mind make it alright but in reality it’s not and that’s just one of the tricks of the enemy.

This book really opened my eyes up a lot to temptation and how we are tempted. Pastor Greg really explains not only the tactics of the enemy but also how to overcome the enemy by the example of Jesus Christ.

The book is awesome in the fact that it’s a simple read but yet it goes into a lot of detail. Pastor Greg goes through the three noted temptations of Jesus in detail and explains the significance of each temptation. One personal thing I found out is that while the Bible only goes into detail about those three (3) temptations of Jesus, we can assume He was tempted more than that based on Luke 4:13 (msg) which reads “That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.” This to me says, the devil was defeated but wasn’t giving up. He was just going to stay in the bushes and wait for another opportunity. This blew my mind away.

Bottomline – temptation will always be there waiting … it’s what you do when you are faced with it that matters.

Like I said, this book is a very simple read. Someone who normally doesn’t read can finish this book in an hour or less and be blessed beyond measure. Pastor Greg has a great way of getting the point across and helping you learn and grow from what He has said.

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Even Pastors … it’s a small 120 page book that will change the way you see things forever!

Pub. Date: October 2006
Publisher: Gospel Light Publications
Format: Paperback, 128pp
ISBN-13: 9780830742752
ISBN: 0830742751

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