ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230118
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: The Back Pew
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
If there's one lesson I've learned over the last seven years on the religion beat, it is that people are passionate about their faith.
Still, I never expected more than 300 of you to submit nominations of your favorite sacred verses. I mean, It's not like we offered you fame or fortune.
As the responses came pouring in, it quickly became obvious that you wanted to share your verses - and the personal stories that accompanied them - because you believed, you hoped, you prayed they would be helpful to someone else.
In more than two decades in journalism, I have faced few assignments more difficult than narrowing down these responses to fit the amount of space we have.
The stories that we printed at length elsewhere in this section were among the most moving, most touching, most compelling that we received.
But there were at least 100 others that might just as easily have been selected.
In today's Back Pew column, I'm going to summarize as many of those others as space allows.
* * *
Susan Layne of Bedford wrote about how she was moved as a teen-ager by Catherine Marshall's book about her minister husband, "A Man Called Peter." In recent years, Layne said, she had to come to terms with the death of a friend from AIDS. The dying man's sister expressed surprise that Layne, "a Christian," was so supportive. "I wish I had responded that part of the reason why I was there for him was because I am a Christian."
Bill Flarsheim of Daleville pointed to Deuteronomy 30:11-20 as a concise summary of the Jewish covenant with God - and "the basis for much of my personal relationship with God." The passage includes God's command to "choose life" from the world he prepared for human beings.
A young adulthood entangled in drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuous sex, vandalism, shoplifting and an abortion for "what this society calls a convenience" was turned around for Libbie McCutcheon of Roanoke in 1987. At a church service, she "became a new creature in Christ" after hearing Ephesians 2:8: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - this is not from yourselves it is the gift of God."
Deborah Milton, 44, recently became disabled, losing her job, her home, many belongings and her beloved horses. She's been through bankruptcy and is now receiving disability benefits and attempting to rebuild her life. She takes comfort in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which begins, "For everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."
Isaiah was the single most popular book of the Bible among our readers, with a dozen different passages cited by 26 respondents. Paula Hawthorne believes that "If God had not been in that car with my son, and if his loving arms had not been so protective, I would have lost" her 17-year-old in a severe auto accident several years ago. She always sent her son off to his cross-country meets with a verse of Scripture from Isaiah 40:29-31, which includes the promise that "they who wait upon the Lord shall run and not be weary."
Isaiah 53:5 - which reads in part, "by his bruises we are healed," - foretold a miracle for Brenda Stowers of Roanoke. Earlier this year her 26-year-old son, Richard, was critically hurt in an auto accident that crushed him physically and threatened brain damage. Now, seven months later, his healing continues with no brain damage. "He has dedicated his life to Christ and lives for the Lord now. He is our miracle."
Five years after first being diagnosed with cancer, Betty P. Martin of Salem is still battling the disease. She also finds comfort in Isaiah. From chapter 43, verse 2: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you."
For Virginia Del. Creigh Deeds of Warm Springs, Isaiah 1:17 provides "a simple, but complete statement of God's intention for human relationships." The verse commands God's followers to "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." The verse "justifies an active role for our government to `encourage the oppressed.' There are many situations in government service where swift decisions must be made and compromise is inevitable. In such a world, the words of the prophet Isaiah give me great strength, and great comfort."
After coming through a series of physical and emotional traumas that would have defeated many, Barbara J. Overstreet of Salem says she's "happier than I've ever been." Part of her support came from Jeremiah 29:11 in which God is promising deliverance to the captive Israelites: "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."
That verse helped Dianne Vaught of Roanoke get through the loss of a 15-year job with "no severance pay, no vacation pay, and no thanks. Middle-aged and suffering from multiple sclerosis, I knew that alone I could not survive." Her mother's support reminded her of that verse in Jeremiah.
That passage is also a source of comfort and meaning for Virginia Tech student Angela Wood. "Many times in my own life, when relationships end, when I am unsure what direction to take in my graduate studies, it has been more than comforting to know that God, the maker of the universe, has plans for me and my life. And these plans are more than standard, generic plans. This is very humbling to me, when I think that God Himself wants me to have hope and has a future planned for me that only I can fulfill."
Long a favorite of smarty-pants Sunday school boys who wanted an easy way out of memorizing a Bible verse is John 11:35 - "Jesus wept." The shortest verse in the Bible means something more than that for Geraldine Plunkett of Roanoke. "When life gets tough, it is not enough to remember that `God is love.' I need to know that he feels what I feel - whatever that feeling may be - and weeps with me as Jesus wept with Mary and Martha."
Violet P. Gray of Roanoke sat beside the bed of her comatose husband for a month before his death in the fall of 1995. Though he apparently did not recognize her or know she was there, Gray read each day from her husband's favorite scriptures. Those included the beginning of John 14: "Let not your heart be troubled."
In John 15:13, Jesus is quoted as saying, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." That verse was included on a plaque honoring Jewel Arrington's late husband on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Vinton First Aid Crew. "Ever humble and honest and willing to lend a helping hand, his life will always be associated with this verse."
When she was a freshman in college, Nancy M. Hubbard of Covington chose a favorite verse in Philippians 4:13. "Now a senior citizen," the passage continues to give her strength: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Living through the death of her mother, coping with a chronic illness, and surviving the death of her "perfect" husband, this "is my favorite Bible verse because I know it actually works."
That same passage provided the strength to start a new life for Anissa R. Hancock Banks of Roanoke. After her marriage to her childhood sweetheart fell apart, she wondered, "God, what have I done to deserve this?" Even when she "wasn't sure I wanted to go on living," that verse "gave me comfort and assured me that I would get through the difficulties because God loves me."
H.D. Riddleberger of Goodview survived a heart attack that damaged 50 percent of his heart and placed him on permanent total disability. Then he was struck by colon cancer. A year ago, "my doctors said there was nothing more they could do for me medically, but they could give me morphine for my pain. My only hope any more is in my Lord Jesus who died for my sins and my healing." Riddleberger cited a series of verses from throughout the Bible from Exodus 15:26 - "I am the Lord who heals you" - to 1 Peter 2:24 - "by his [Christ's] wounds you have been healed."
At age 42 Aileen C. Pandapas of Roanoke was diagnosed with breast cancer. "As I hung up the phone [after getting the doctor's report], God's gift to me was a spirit of peace and JOY. I picked up my tambourine and began to sing and to dance around our living room." Her verse is from Psalm 118: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." She has faced other physical problems in the seven years since then, but there is "no residual" cancer following a modified radical mastectomy. "Jesus Christ is my healer. He merged prayer and medicine into a Miracle with my name on it!''
Psalm 139 was cited by a couple of readers: "O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away." Ronald L. Sutherland found strength in the passage in his child's illness. "I believe the most frightening thing for me would be to think that God was, at any given time, unavailable or unaware of our grief. Our child was diagnosed with an incurable, progressive disease a few years ago, and since then I have searched the Scriptures for comfort and, yes, even the wisdom to understand the `why' of it all. I may never understand this side of heaven, but [this verse] brings comfort in my deepest despair."
Like many of us, Tom Atkins of Troutville finds the demands of career, family, church and "day-to-day life seem to use up every spare moment of the day." He finds Psalm 46:16 - "Be still and know that I am God" - to be increasingly important. He has it posted on the walls of his offices in Richmond and Troutville, taped inside his briefcase, and as a "screen-saver" on his laptop computer.
Some years ago, Thelma B. Evans of Roanoke "stood beside the hospital bed watching my child fight for her life." It was there she realized she must - as her parents taught her - "believe in God and have faith." And she remembered her favorite verse, an excerpt from Romans 8:31: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" "My prayers and my faith brought my baby back from the darkness."
A familiar verse to many in this season is Isaiah 9:6-7: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." But though Christians generally view this as a prophecy about Jesus, not everyone does.
Shireen Parsons, formerly of Riner, said Baha'is everywhere "believe this refers to Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i faith, who proclaimed that He is the Promised One of all ages, come to establish the everlasting peace promised the Bible."
Finally, 7-year-old Rachel Banks and her mother, Dr. Evelyn R. Banks of Troutville, submitted their favorite verses together in one e-mail message.
Rachel likes Psalm 91:11-12: "For He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Before she heard this Bible verse, Rachel "did not believe God really used angels and that it was something made up. [now] She says this verse helps her sleep better."
Mom Evelyn Banks wrote that her "life verse" is Psalm 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." "I first realized its significance when trying to make a decision about applying to medical school. I realized then and still do that if I delight in the Lord, my desires will be His desires and they will come about."
LENGTH: Long : 181 linesby CNB