Scripture Apps Made Easy

Biblical Applications for Today's Tough Times

Burgess

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781621894124
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Today's technology offers thousands of applications--apps--to solve problems and to enhance lives. Whether it's making major financial decisions or planning a dinner menu--there's an app for that! When it comes to dealing with life's inevitable difficulties, a pastoral visit and a prayer are helpful, but people of faith--and people in search of faith--need sacred assurance directly from God's Word. They need a Scripture app. While many books reference Scriptures for use in tough times, this book includes the Scriptures in an easily accessible format. It also provides commentary based on the author's decades of pastoral care experience to help apply the ancient words to contemporary situations. Pastors, counselors, chaplains, anyone who cares for others, and all of us who need care, here are Scripture apps made easy!

Preface

“Why doesn’t God talk to us like God talks to people in the Bible?” the child asked her mother. Though the answer may not satisfy the child, people of faith believe that God does speak to us—present tense—through Holy Scripture. This is not to say that God is limited to scripture, but the church has long held that God speaks most clearly through the ancient texts passed down to us by our Hebrew ancestors and the first-century Christian community. In addition, the Bible gives us the words to address God directly with our hopes and our hurts, our dreams and our fears. The purpose of this book is to make a precious few relevant texts readily accessible to you.

I have used the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) almost exclusively here. However, it was published just before the larger church became sensitive to the need for more inclusive language when referring to Holy God. Therefore, you will often find the word God in brackets [ ]. That is to signal that I have changed a male pronoun, normally he, to the word God, inasmuch as God is neither male nor female, but Spirit. In deference to the NRSV translators and to avoid repetition, I have not done this in every case, but often enough, I hope, that the reader will become accustomed to thinking of God without gender identification. You will also note that I have used several texts repeatedly, but not to worry, as none of these texts can be worn out.

Acknowledgments

I want to express my appreciation

• to the members and friends of Edgewood Presbyterian Church who have so graciously and openly allowed me to share their hurts and their hopes, their joys and their sorrows for more than twenty years;
  
• to those individuals who have given me permission to use their personal stories;
  
• to Walter Brueggemann, who first opened to me the depth and breadth of the book of Psalms and who, twenty years later, encouraged the publication of this collection of scriptures, which draws largely from “the prayer book of ancient Israel”;
  
• to my colleagues in ministry who have affirmed my use of scripture in pastoral care;
  
• to selected friends and associates who kindly read parts of the manuscript in its various stages of development and offered wise counsel; and
  
• to my faithful and loving wife, Melissa, who not only encouraged this project from the outset but also stepped up to serve as a wise and resourceful editor.
  

Introduction

The Bible Has an App for Cancer

“I didn’t know the Bible said anything about cancer,” the patient exclaimed. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was soon to begin that onerous regimen of radiation and chemotherapy. I had just read to her this excerpt from the book of Psalms:

Depart from me, all you [cancer cells],
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

(Ps 6:8)

Of course, the biblical text has “workers of evil” instead of “cancer cells,” but certainly a deadly cancer qualifies as a worker of evil. Here was a clear biblical application—a scripture app in today’s technical shorthand—for this woman’s medical crisis. For others of us, our crisis, our “cancer,” may be a painful memory that will not fade, a wound that will not heal, an illness that cannot be cured, a broken relationship that cannot be restored, a career that cannot be put back on track, an addiction that cannot be overcome. Whatever the source of the pain, I contend there is a scripture app for it. The biblical writers have provided us with stories, poems, and prayers that give us the words to express our anguish to God, and divine assurance that God is listening and that our ultimate rescue and redemption is assured.

The problem is, even the most devoted people of faith often have a very limited biblical repertoire—just a handful of psalms; the Beatitudes, perhaps; for weddings,
1 Corinthians 13; and for funerals, Psalm 23. As a pastor I have had access to the pastor’s edition of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Book of Common Worship, which offers a number of excerpts from scripture for use in pastoral care. I carry this handy resource with me whenever I make a pastoral call, be it in the home, hospital, or funeral home. But I have often found its small collection of verses too limiting. I have longed for a more extensive, though still convenient, resource—perhaps one that I could even put into the hands of parishioners and friends. This desire brought this project into being.

Of course, many devotional books and other resources cite book, chapter, and verse. But following the format of the Book of Common Worship, this book provides the text itself rather than a citation. With the text in hand, we have the words to report our hurts directly to Holy God.

When the cares of my heart are many,
[God’s] consolations cheer my soul.

(Ps 94:19)

To be sure, the topics listed here exhaust neither human dilemmas nor biblical resources. But these are among the most common issues in my life and in the lives of those I have sought to serve through more than twenty years of pastoral experience. Drawing on these experiences, I have provided brief commentary on each topic in the hopes of demonstrating just how relevant God’s Word can be in times of distress.

Finally, I want to offer a word about my theological perspective. In response to loss, people who mean well often tell us, “God has a plan,” or, “This happened to fulfill a divine purpose,” or, simply, “Everything happens for a reason.” Maybe so, but in my view, God does not play human beings like puppets. As I read scripture, the God of justice and mercy would never be the source of injustice or misery for God’s people. However, the Bible does assure us there is no situation out of which God cannot work good for God’s pe...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction: The Bible Has an App for Cancer