Asking God honest questions — the Suffering of Job

“Who is God? Does He matter? Does He care for us?”

These seemingly simple questions could be the most profound questions that students ever ask…

[Artwork by Fercho Vera, Ecuador]

I grew up in a family of pastors. God was part of our daily lives. I knew Him and had some powerful experiences with Him from childhood. But in my years as a university student, I experienced a crisis of faith during a time of personal suffering and loss.

One day, a friend I had invited to attend our Bible study said: “I don’t want to get close to God. I’m afraid of Him because of the way he treated Job in the Bible.” Lacking a concrete answer, I concluded that she did not know God at all. But I too had these very same questions: “Who is God? Does He matter? Does He care for me?”

The Book of Job feels like a book that requires its reader to have a pre-arranged appointment! My journey with Job intensified last year when I was invited by GBUCh, the Chilean student movement, to prepare three talks for their national student conference online.

I first read the book three times, praying that any prejudice and prior knowledge would not hinder the process of knowing God more deeply through this book. As I reread Job again (and again), I kept asking: “Where is God in the whole narrative? What is the author telling us about who He is?” I was still left with many questions, but also a sense of wonder and worship.

Mindful of the friend who had been scared off by God’s behavior in Job, I prepared talks focused on chapters 1, 19, 28 and 42, which I feel provide many jewels to treasure about the Divine character. We, the readers, are taken on a journey. First, we witness the declaration of who God is and his love for Job (Job 1), only to encounter the turmoil and discomfort of Job’s suffering, echoed in his anguished cry of lament (Job 19). Finally, these scenes climax with the beautiful image of God as redeemer, giver of life, and we are introduced to Him as the personification of wisdom (Job 28). In the end, though not without difficulties for Job or our own understanding of the text, we see a God who restores and brings new life (Job 42).

I have walked in suffering and in joy with staff and students from Chile, Ecuador, and, most recently, northern México, as we have made our way through Job. These journeys have brought students to moments of reconciliation with God. As one participant said:

“God surprised me… I discovered the spirituality of someone who loves God deeply, God the marvelous Creator, who deeply loves us despite all the suffering He allows in our lives. The Book of Job inspires me to a new level of relationship with God, a life of honest prayer and waiting…”

Ana Miriam Peralta, staff worker with COMPA and member of the Scripture Engagement global team.

Engaging with Scripture and God in a time of war

[A dear Ukrainian friend from our Scripture Engagement multipliers network shares some thoughts.
She is faithfully walking alongside students and staff, studying the Bible with them and together they are caring for refugees of the conflict.]

On a recent visit to my mother, we could not take our eyes off the flowering bushes and daffodils that God seemed to have scattered everywhere, bringing His light into the darkness. (photo by L.S.)

It was a good reminder that God’s light has already eradicated darkness, and that He continues to be at work in our world. It is this truth that we need to experience, in the reality of our everyday lives, in this country.

On February 24th, people in Kharkiv, Kyiv, and other cities and villages woke up to the sound of their homes being bombed. In the days and months since, many innocent people have suffered in unimaginable ways. Men, women, and children of all ages have been killed or made homeless. They carry the scars of innumerable horrors with them: housewives and soldiers alike.

Kyiv suburb (photo by M.M).

Five million people left their homes looking for safety. Hearing stories of destruction and brutal terror from the refugees arriving in Lviv, we experienced shock and anger. We wept and called out to God with so many questions.

Just before Easter I woke up with a sudden anxiety attack. I tried to fall asleep, but all my worries intensified – what if our house was bombed and we had to flee: where would we go? What if my sons and husband were called up to fight? What if people were murdered in our city? And what if peace does not come soon?

That day, I spent a long time in silence, speaking with God.

I reflected on the last conversation Jesus had with His disciples in John 13-14, when He announced that He was to leave them.

Reading the disciples’ questions, I could almost feel their panic.

For three years, they were together: eating, laughing, seeing the miracles of Jesus. They listened to His teachings, experienced His power, and then, suddenly, Jesus was going to leave them – alone.

Faced with the anxiety of being without their Master, Healer, Teacher, and Prophet, the disciples wondered how they would cope. So, they asked where He was going and if they could follow Him there. One might say that they too had an anxiety attack.

“Believe in God, believe also in Me”- Jesus responded (John 14:1, see also 14:11-12).

That morning, I could almost see Jesus holding my hand and hear His voice telling me: ‘No, you do not understand all this suffering around you, the brutality and destruction your people are experiencing, just believe Me, believe in Me”. I continue to see God graciously giving me peace in my mind and calming my troubled heart. He gives me strength to continue walking the path He has laid out for me. I do not know the end, I just trust Him.

Unlearning and learning with Paul

For most of us in the African context, prayer and prayerfulness are an indispensable part of our spirituality. We pray, and we look to God for everything, from medical care to employment and bank loans. Nothing is left for granted or to chance because mostly our systems do fail us!

Prayerful as we are, some of our prayers are very much worrying. Their content is foreign to the language and the attitude of the Bible. The same can be said of the posture of our prayers and the people who pray them. The motivation is often fear and the desire to manipulate everything spiritual to our advantage.

Here are some of Paul’s prayers we looked at in a recent journey with staff of ESWAFES, the movement in Eswatini:

1) Paul thanking God for his people (e.g. Romans 1:8-10, 1 Corinthians 1:4, Ephesians 1:16, Philippians 1:3-4, Colossians 1:3, etc).

2) Paul prayed for their wisdom and knowledge (e.g. Ephesians 1:17, Ephesians 1:18, Romans 15:13).

3) Paul asked people to pray for him (e.g. 2 Th 3:1-2, Phil 1:22) and a range of many other issues.

As we looked at Paul’s prayers in our studies, we saw a lot of both learning and unlearning to do. We need to unlearn a lot of practices with which prayer has become associated in our context, just like how in their context, the disciples needed pray differently to hypocrites and pagans (Matthew 6:5-8).

Here is some of the unlearning:

a) God is not an errand boy we send around as we wish through prayer.

b) Prayer is not a weapon we use to change God’s mind and do our bidding.

c) Prayer is bigger than our own self-centredness; it is not about us.

These were very difficult things to unlearn because they have been part of our prayer economy for as long as our salvation and that of our pioneers! Praise God there were a lot of vital lessons learnt from Paul’s prayers including the following:

(a) God’s priorities must become our priorities in prayer.

(b) God’s sovereignty over the affairs of men and his creation are the basis of our confidence in prayer.

As we think about prayer, I would like to invite all of us to look at some of the great prayers God’s people made in the Bible. Let us try to learn from them. Paul’s prayers are such a wonderful collection for Christians today!

Mukululi Ncube, ESWAFES Re-pioneering Staff and member of IFES Global Team on Scripture Engagement.

The Bible in my life

The Bible is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. It is healing for the soul; it is the breath of God himself. Through it, God challenges and comforts, rebukes and restores, exhorts and encourages. It is, in its entirety, God’s revelation of truth to us.

But the Bible can also be misused. That is why the great IFES discipline of inductive Bible study is important: learning to understand Scripture on its own terms; respecting the context and obeying the message, no matter how uncomfortable it may make us feel.

Bible study can also too easily become an abstract exercise. That is why I love that one of the core IFES values is not simply “the Bible”, but “Scripture Engagement”. All Bible study should not ultimately and primarily be about us, but about God, his character and his invitation to use this Holy Revelation to get to know him better.

When Darrell Johnson was interviewed at the 2015 World Assembly, he shared how, before he opened a passage to prepare for preaching, he would ask himself (referencing the Song of Solomon) “what does this passage tell me about him whom my heart loves?”. That should be the question for all of us when we open Scripture at any time, whether we are preachers or Bible study leaders or not.

Speaking personally, my journey with Scripture has gone through various stages. I was privileged to be taught it as an infant sitting at my parents’ feet and was fascinated by it as a listener; it was a bedtime story for me. In adolescence as I committed my life to Christ and read it regularly as a spiritual discipline, I saw it as a story to me; a set of exhortations to help me live well as a disciple.

Then as I grew in the faith, I realised it was a story about me; I saw more clearly my own shortcomings in the lives of its flawed heroes and marvelled at the sufficiency of Christ to cover all my sin. As I studied it more deeply in seminary and embarked on a preaching ministry, it became (not always for the best) a story from me; truths that I felt commissioned to pass on to others. Eventually I realised that these strands all needed to come together and, as I grasped more firmly the depth of God’s grace, they became a story growing within me. As I engage with Scripture, the Spirit who inspired those authors is the same Spirit who is convicting and changing me. That is a journey I am still on, and if I can, I want to bring others with me.

David Montgomery, IFES Europe Regional Secretary

Art & Word: A Creative Dialogue

Since 2016, CECE Ecuador has been looking for ways of intentionally promoting spaces and processes to create a dialogue between faith and art. These spaces have happened at national camps, Student Formación events and as an integral part of the Bible study resources that are used every semester on campus. The main goal is to establish a dialogue between a passage of Scripture and visual art, so that God’s Word becomes more real and changes students’ lives. This can happen by creating their own art as a response to the text or reflecting on someone else’s work of art. We noticed that it was important, and that many students needed this dialogue and to incorporate faith and art into their lives. We also realised that, for some people, visual elements are key when they engage with Scripture, as well as reading the text out loud.

We also aim to offer training in art and faith, to reflect God’s character as Creator and to place our art in God’s great story and the reconciliation of all of creation.

During the pandemic we organised several workshops and presented an online exhibition created by students, on a dialogue with Deuteronomy. Other workshops that we organised included themes such as the art of creating, artist’s vocation, justice and art, and a celebration of Advent by integrating elements of art and liturgy.

We also want to pique people’s curiosity and encourage conversations with students who are not Christians. We want to use art to create spaces where you can engage with the gospel, not only by hearing but also seeing. It has been great to see artists of different abilities taking part in this dialogue, and to see the impact it has had on their lives as a result of the dialogue between Scripture and their art.

Here are two examples of visual art created as a dialogue between two passages of Scripture in Acts and Deuteronomy. We are also giving you the link to our website (in Spanish), where you can learn more about this creative process with a theological approach, from the point of view of university students.

Artist: Kerly Cando

Title: La Verdadera Iglesia (The True Church)

Bible passage in the dialogue: Acts 10, during CECE’s National Camp in March 2021

Link: here

Artwork made by the students, presenting Jesus at the table with many people dressed in local cultural costumes, with children, and a person in a wheelchair

Artist: Juan Esteban Vásquez

Title: Tierra de Todos (Everyone’s Land)

Bible passage in the dialogue: Deuteronomy 23, after the Student Formación Event in September 2020

Link: here

Image with a black background, with points of light drawing: a starry sky, the silhouette of a woman, on the left some things thrown away, on the ground, and on the right the image of the interior of a temple

Ruth Tobar, Pastoral staff worker and member of the CECE Faith & Art Dialogue Team.

Refocusing through retreats

Two women staff workers in a pleasant environment, outdoors, with a guitar, singing, and with books on a table beside.

At the beginning of summer 2019 I had an opportunity to be part of the IFES European staff retreat. The timing was perfect for me, as I had started my three-month sabbatical around the same time. The retreat helped me walk into the sabbatical with a focus on Jesus, and already in a period of reflection on the previous few months.

Scripture Engagement has been really helpful to me in helping me learn new things. The retreat felt like a very safe space to reflect and engage, and as a learner at heart, I found numerous aspects of the retreat fascinating. Probably the most impactful thing for me was the balance of spending time in solitude with God, and with others in community. It was a healthy combination of meditating on the Word, prayer, and learning together.

After having this privilege, I wanted to share it with others. This kind of retreat was pivotal in my understanding of rest and reflection, so I decided to invite a friend of mine, who also works in ministry, to join me on our own four-day retreat in the Czech countryside. It has now become a tradition for us, and we have both since then introduced some other friends to retreats as well.

The crucial combination of solitude and community I experienced at the IFES European staff retreat was exactly what we wanted to recreate on our Czech retreats. Our pattern has been that after some discussion and prayers, we decide on a topic. Some of the topics we’ve had on our retreats include ‘Prayer’, ‘From mourning to dancing’, ‘Knowing I am loved’, and ‘Resilience in times of crisis’, among others. We always start our days with a Lectio Divina spent in a solitude time, then we share about our experience in scripture. Afternoons tend to be spent in some reflection (timeline, topical reflection), hikes or some manual labour.

These retreats have quickly become my preferred method of rest and vacation. It helps me with spiritual disciplines in my life, gives me more clarity about God‘s story in my life, and deepens my relationships with those who spend time on retreats with me. My friend Ráchel once said that she can‘t think of a better vacation as a ministry worker. I agree with her. I believe that as a ministry worker, I am at risk of spending my time with God only for the purpose of succeeding in said ministry, of slipping into business talk with God, rather than a deep relationship. I am at risk of going about my ministry by doing, rather than being. Retreats like these help me not to fall victim to these risks, but walk with God and carry out my ministry more meaningfully.

Eva Petržilková, UKH (IFES Czech Republic) staff worker

Leadership Transition

Being alive always includes change. In September 2021 Ricardo Borges took on the leadership of the IFES Scripture Engagement ministry from Sabine Kalthoff. Sabine will continue with IFES as Secretary for Spiritual Formation with 30% of her time, while putting the focus of her ministry on serving in a pastoral role at a local college. Ricardo and Sabine asked each other some questions regarding the upcoming transition.

Ricardo, what was one key experience of yours from the past four years as Associate Secretary for Scripture Engagement?

There were so many great experiences. One of them was seeing, in different parts of the globe, so many staff and students opening their Bibles to explore God’s Word in connection with the challenges of their context. It is indeed wonderful to experience that God’s Word is relevant to the whole of our lives.

Ricardo, what motivates you to continue in the global Scripture engagement ministry?

The fact that this is a global fellowship, with such a rich diversity of people, cultures, and different backgrounds. I look forward to seeing us grow in how these different perspectives help us to listen better to the Lord in the Scriptures. And to grow in our partnerships as we witness to the Lord in our different contexts.

Sabine, what is one precious memory from your past ten years as Secretary for Scripture Engagement?

Oh, there are so many that it’s hard to choose. One memory is from an IFES training consultation in Ghana. After I led a Bible study, a colleague from Nigeria came up to me and shared how God’s Word had spoken to him. I was filled with a deep sense of amazement – God’s Word speaks across cultures. I knew that before, but experiencing it was something different. It grew my trust and sense of wonder in God’s Word.

Sabine, what will your new role in IFES look like?

As Secretary for Spiritual Formation, my desire is to help staff flourish in their relationship with Jesus. In IFES, we are good at working hard. And then, we sometimes forget to make space for God to meet us, feed us, shape us – individually and as teams. My desire is to help create such spaces e.g., through leading Scripture engagement sessions with staff, shaping staff retreats and walking alongside individuals. (You can read more here.)

A Growing Vision

by Jacob Varghese, staff worker with UESI India

My journey with Scripture Engagement goes back to when I was a student. At that time, I entered into a personal relationship with Jesus as my Lord and saviour and started to connect deeply with God’s Word. Studying doctrine helped me see the Bible as the inspired Word of God and convinced me of the need to reflect on this Word. Simultaneously, I was introduced to the discipline of having a ‘quiet time’ and sincerely started practicing it. Doing this laid a good foundation for my faith.

However, I did not realize that I was only reading & reflecting on a few passages. I applied them to my life, but before long I was getting bored of reading the Bible. I continued to read in the Bible, but only as an exercise, just like physical exercise for my body. Slowly, I started withdrawing and having my quiet time only when it was convenient. Little did I know that even during that time my God was actively working within me and shaping me.

Taking A Break. As we travel, we take journey breaks in order to be refreshed. But for me, the break on my journey was breakdown. My staff colleagues and other students in the fellowship never realized the struggle I was going through. It was during this period that I met Rev. Koichi Ottawa (then IFES Regional Secretary for East Asia). He asked me very directly: “how is your journey with God?” I was taken by surprise, but I responded truthfully. Ottawa helped me to re-start my journey with God and his Word. I realized that Scripture engagement is not a duty or mere discipline, but that it is about the Lord walking at my side and speaking to me – there is fun, there are arguments, expressions of disappointment, joy and gratefulness. Scripture became the framework for my life.

A Renewed Vision. Through the IFES global ministry of Scripture Engagement, my vision was enlarged. I began to understand more deeply that engaging with Scripture is an ongoing journey in an active relationship with our Lord God. I recognized that Scripture is not only about what God has done for me, but that it also places me in God’s grand story.
Scripture engagement is so much more than techniques – it is an invitation to continue growing in our relationship with Jesus and his world. As I understood this more deeply, I recognized my responsibility to start building up lives centred around Scripture.

Sharing this vision with individuals and building them up as vision multipliers was the next step for me. I made a conscious decision that in my personal capacity, I would focus on individuals and small group training programs and not wait for the formation of large groups. My journey continues with the vision to see young people actively engaging with God, his Word and his world.

Experiencing Transformation

written by Daniel, a student from Timor Leste

How can we change our old ways of living to that of new ways? Our efforts will not be sufficient to defeat darkness. Even more so if we have memories that will not let us go until we die. I struggled with such memories that haunted me.

As I witnessed fellow friends deciding to follow God fully, I also felt inspired to do so. At the same time, I felt an inner hunger and emptiness; I felt like I was about to drown. One night, I began to desire reading the Word of God. As I walked down the street that night, I reached a crossroad, and I turned in the direction of a staff’s house. I asked him if we can study the Word together and he gladly accepted. Our journey of studying the whole of Luke’s Gospel took us around five months.

Throughout the study I was inspired by the character of Jesus and how people’s lives were changed after encountering him. I saw how Jesus restores dignity in people – like when he healed the blind. I also saw how these people were truly moved by what Jesus did to them. What made a strong impression on me is that Jesus came from above to live a simple life among others. He did not choose to live like a performing magician. I learned that the key to transformation in my life is to have FAITH in Jesus.

Reading Luke’s gospel changed my way of thinking. I understood that life is not just about knowing God in our head but also knowing him in our heart. I learned to open up my life for Jesus to fill me and shine his light in me. I also began to realize that it would be unfair to keep quiet about what the Holy Spirit had done in me.

I started to notice friends around me with the same hunger to read the Word; the topic of life and God kept popping up in our conversations and on social media. So we gladly decided to form a small Bible study group. I have seen changes in my friends – they have new values in life and see life differently than they did in their old ways of living.

As I know Christ more, Jesus is helping to sort through the baggage that I accumulated from my past by sweeping them under the carpet. It is a sweet and painful experience. Although it is a painful, I know Christ is with me and this process is necessary to live a righteous life. It is like an ongoing work in progress with Jesus until the day I meet him. I call this process: “transformation is not just about change but construction”.

testimony translated from Tetun language

Alan came to God

*Names changed due to sensitive location.

I want to share with you how I came to God. I wasn’t seeking him – he found me. He came to me at the most difficult time in my life. I got to a point when I wanted to take my own life.

It was unexpected. I was walking by my university, I saw this student handing out flyers. I went up to her, and in some way this person seemed to shine. After taking that flyer, I thought for a long time, and finally decided to go to that meeting. That evening the discussion was about truth, and it concluded with the thought, “the truth will set you free.” It just hit me.

“But to us, as staff, Alan seemed very suspect. He asked a lot of questions about who we are. But he also seemed to have a lot of genuine questions about the faith. We wondered if he was a spy, so we chose not to meet with him. We told him he could read the Bible if he wanted to find answers to his questions.

So he did! He downloaded the Bible onto his phone, and googled where best to start reading; he started with John’s gospel. It was his own reading of Scripture that let him to the decision to follow Christ.”

I went to the IFES staff l and said: “I want to know God, to know Jesus, and to grow in him”. God started to change everything in my life. My friends rejected me. When I read the Word of God, it led me to forgive my parents. They were amazed – and started to wonder why.

“We later found out that Alan’s father worked in the religious affairs department of the ‘KGB’ in our country, hence why he seemed so well-connected and inquisitive. Yet his interest was genuine; we started meeting with him for one-to-one Bible study.”

When my parents heard I was going to Bible studies, it was a shock for them. “We don’t need a son like that.” I wondered what to do; my father said “family or God: choose.” I began to gather my belongings.

Then my parents said: “Stay, we’ll drag you out of this”. I didn’t go to church for two weeks, I met with different people, with a Mullah, the took me to the mosque, and through all these contacts I understood that there is something in my heart, that salvation is in me, it was amazing. I started to abide in God’s Word, and I understood how much God loves me. I am thankful to God that there is this ministry through which I came to God.

“During this time we studied 1 Peter with Alan, about holding fast to Jesus in suffering. He said ‘I felt that this has been written just for me’. Alan was a final year student, and he said he didn’t want to do anything else in life except help others find Christ. He’s now joined our IFES movement as an intern, in another city where he can have more freedom from his parents, and his passion is to help others meet Jesus in his Word.”