Counseling Through Your Bible Handbook

“For anyone feeling overwhelmed in helping a friend or family member through abuse, an addiction or any other challenging problem, now you can feel much more confident. The
Counseling Through Your Bible Handbook
is a handy, practical and, best of all, biblical guide that will lead you to God’s solutions. It’s about time!”

—D
R
. W
OODROW
K
ROLL
,
President, Back to the Bible International

“June’s
Handbook
includes everything of importance to me for counseling. It emphasizes the sufficiency of Scripture, the pre-eminence of Christ, and it is a treasury of practical help to those in distress.”

—L
EE
L
E
F
EBRE
,
President, Exchanged Life Ministries, Denver, Colorado

“June Hunt has been addressing the root issues for hurting hearts for as long as I have known her. God has given her an insightful sensitivity not only to identifying human problems but also to uncovering biblical solutions. She has done it for me more than once! All who have hurting hearts or who minister to wounded spirits need this resource, which is efficiently arranged and ready to provide answers and tools for healing. No human resource has more ‘hope for the heart’!”

—D
R
. D
OROTHY
K
ELLEY
P
ATTERSON
,
Professor of Theology in Women’s Studies,
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX

“The
Counseling Through Your Bible Handbook
provides a virtual lab in biblical counseling. Through practical application, June shows us how to use biblical truth to change minds, change hearts, and change lives in the power of the Spirit.”

—D
R
. M
ARK
L. B
AILEY
,
President, Dallas Theological Seminary

“You hold in your hands a treasury of biblical hope and practical help. While it won’t equip you to change people (that’s God job), it will help you handle the Word of Truth accurately and speak its timeless wisdom into the lives of others.”

—D
R
. T
IM
C
LINTON
,
President, American Association of Christian Counselors

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
^®
. NIV
^®
. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Verses marked
NKJV
are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked
ESV
are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked
NASB
are taken from the New American Standard Bible
^®
, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (
www.Lockman.org
)

Verses marked
NRSV
are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Italicized text in Scripture quotations indicates author’s emphasis.

Cover by Garborg Design Works, Savage, Minnesota

Cover photo © Chris Garborg

COUNSELING THROUGH YOUR BIBLE HANDBOOK
Copyright © 2008 by Hope for the Heart, Inc.
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hunt, June.

Counseling through your Bible handbook / June Hunt.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-7369-2181-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-7369-2818-2 (Deluxe)

1. Pastoral counseling—Handbooks, manuals,
etc.
2. Bible—Psychology—Handbooks, manuals,
etc.

I. Title.

BV4012.2H8335 2008

253.5—dc22

2007044121

All rights reserved
. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / DP-SK / 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

Periodically I’ve felt like that proverbial ox in the ditch…stuck and unable to free myself. I’ve had times when I needed a helping hand to pull me out. For over 30 years I’ve been part of a uniquely fun and fascinating group of friends who have faithfully met with each other…cared for each other…prayed for each other.

Thank you, TMMC…

— Randy and Lana Dodgen

— Tom and Rita Smith

— Precious prayer partner Eleanor Briley

…for the times you have pulled me up with your strong hands. Your friendship reminds me of Ecclesiastes 4:9-10: “Two are better than one…If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”

As I look back on the beginnings of this
Handbook
, I see a tiny path—a footpath so small that it wasn’t on anyone’s map except God’s. It was 1989 and I was leading conferences and Bible studies. People were asking question after question about problems in their lives, wanting biblical answers. But where would I take them? The Bible isn’t organized topically…so I began searching the Scriptures, piecing together topical guidance.

As I felt my way along this uncharted path, a host of hardworking, talented, and persevering sojourners came alongside me—the staff of Hope for the Heart. Together, we designed our
Biblical Counseling Keys
on 100 topics. For this
Counseling Handbook
, we have distilled 50 of them down into chapters.

With a heart of deepest respect and gratitude, I especially acknowledge the following for their contribution:

From the beginning:

— Beth Stapleton and June Page, who, in the early days, researched and poured their lives into the
Biblical Counseling Keys
, and

— Kay Deakins, who for years has “kept the ox out of the ditch.”

For this
Handbook:

— Elizabeth Gaston and Angie White, who took turns guiding this project along a twisting path

— Jill Prohaska, Carolyn White, Mary Peppers, Barbara Spruill, and Ginger Swann, whose editorial input was indispensable at every turn

— Connie Steindorf, Jeanne Sloan, Laura Lyn Benoit, Karen Williams, and Bea Garner, who painstakingly keyed and proofed countless drafts along the journey

— Titus O’Bryant, whose diligent research will keep the mud from flying

— Steve Miller of Harvest House, whose patient leadership ensured we arrived at our destination with 50 chapters to help even the most road-weary traveler, and

— Above all, the Shepherd of my soul, who—even when I’ve strayed—has put me back on the path (sometimes the same path again and again), and has kept me on the road of inner freedom and fulfillment—the Road to Transformation.

Acknowledgments

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: