storiesatuni

[storiesatuni]

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds

The other day we met Paul for lunch. Paul is a student here and he was telling us about how he had been to the movie theatre with two of his friends. One of them loves to talk about philosophy and life’s deep questions. The other… not so much. Paul was sharing that he was confident in the word of God being powerful and transforming. But he felt as if he had reached a barrier. He asked “how do I go from explaining the gospel, to my friend actually having an experience of getting it, engaging with it? I am confident God’s word is powerful but maybe there is something I am missing”.

I was very happy to see that he did not abandon the power of the word but that he saw the need for something more. It was a time to wonder together what was missing. When asked, Paul confessed he needs to work on his impetus as he tends to stay on the world of ideas. He also explained he had not been praying much lately and that he wanted to regain some of this discipline. So he was challenged to pray for his friends more regularly. Together we remembered the role of the holy Spirit in convincing people. 

In my corner I smiled as Paul shared. I meditated how he was brushing the dawning of the realisation that  the message of the gospel needs to be incarnated and how that can be a powerful tool of proclamation. That when God wanted to save us, he didn’t just write the message in the sky. He came down to earth, lived with us, did things for us, empathised with our weaknesses, sorrows and joys, he experienced death and resurrection. God’s friendship was embodied when Jesus came to earth. He is on our side rooting for us. Like a lawyer or a saviour or a priest, who’s got our back in the worst case scenario. In fact these are some of the words that describe God in the new testament – lawyer, saviour, priest*.

Back in that café, I was thrilled to hear Paul speak, because it shone a glimpse of how God is up to something. Perhaps He is revealing to Paul that even though the Bible teaching is so important, incarnating it’s message can and should be a powerful way of communicating it - and that is Biblical too.

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

James chapter 2

Sometime after Jesus walked on earth, some of his first followers in ancient Antioch, modern day Turkey, started being called christians. At the time the term was pejorative, meant as scorn. Many of the followers of this Jesus, much like Christ himself, ended up killed by the mighty roman empire. Hence, christians, or little Christ’s. At least people in those times could see the resemblance between his followers and Christ himself.

Followers of Christ are still called christians nowadays, and thankfully without such kind of persecution in many parts of the world. 

Wouldn’t it be great to see christian university students being little Christ’s for their colleagues at university - a royal priesthood interceding for their friends, habile lawyers ready to give reason of the hope there is in them. Little Christ’s, incarnating the good news, shining the light of their faith through wonderful deeds that take them out of the comfort (and theory) zone - just like Jesus once did, getting out of the comfort of heaven for us?

Pray for Paul and christian students like him. That they may continue to be more and more little Christ’s to their friends at university, incarnating through their lives the good news they bear. 

Pray for Paul’s friends. That through this they may see the wonderful light to which Jesus is inviting them too - and may say yes to this invitation!

* 1John 2:1, Luke 2:11, Hebrews 4:14-16

[storiesatuni]

Can you give reason of the hope there is in you?

We met Daphne and Barnabas for coffee recently. She was telling us how this semester she is having a class on the subject “Christianity” and how her teacher, who knows a lot about different forms of living spirituality, seems to do a fruit salad out of all of them. She shared how she feels small in comparison to all this knowledge and wondered if she should leave. But, as she was thinking a bit more about it, she shared how she started thinking how this can actually be an opportunity to talk about what she did know - Jesus - with her class friends. As we had been having sessions to pray for friends and studying together about the need to not only follow Jesus but to go and call others to do the same, I was happy to see how Daphne was already having a go at it. One thing I like to ask students when I meet them is “how would you like to grow as a disciple and how could I help you with that?”. As I asked this question to Barnabas he said he would like to learn more about apologetics. Which was great because recently I’ve been secretly preparing a conversation group on apologetics for the students here based on the book more than a carpenter by Josh Mcdowell. We have met four times already and students are not only sharing of the questions they are faced with at university, but also receiving input from this little booklet that is small but great material. Here are some of the initial questions some students shared they were asked or would like to learn more about: · My msul1m friends ask me “why do you trust the Bible if it was modified across the years?” · (In germany, where I am from) Sex before marriage, yes or no? Do you believe in the gifts of Holy Spirit? What about gay marriage? · What is the difference between Jesus and M0hammad? Are they not both just prophets? · Religion is just a fairy tale to control people. (People are apathetic) · How can you prove the deity of Jesus? As we explored what they would say about these questions in articulation of their personal vision some students had some really interesting answers. Here is Ron’s reply to “why are you a Christian and not a Msul1m?” I believe in Jesus because in other religions it’s me doing things to reach out to God and with Jesus it’s Grace because God comes to earth to save you. Maybe that is why msul1ms are so strict.” (Ron is a student from Banglad3sh) Since then we have been exploring the thing that makes Jesus unique in comparison to other religious leaders and why He wasn’t just lying to be famous or a crazy dude saying that He was God himself. In the end of each study session, students are encouraged to go home and revise the arguments they could use to answer and, at the beginning of the next meeting, we have a recap session in which anyone can volunteer to try and recap without cheat sheets. But, if nobody had time, they will receive a handout and 5 min recap anyway, so they don’t feel ashamed of not doing homework and can still continue to confidently come regardless. Pray for students as they learn how to give reason of the hope there is in them.

[storiesatuni]

Scuba diving with your Bible

Practice makes perfect, so they say. 

Recently my co-worker and I have been meeting students for coffee and teaching them to study the Bible inductively and lead a study themselves. It has been amazing that two handful of students have accepted to do this in just about two weeks.

They have been learning how to ask questions to the text and, through it, observe what it says and what that means in deep dive into the Israeli, middle eastern and mediterranean culture of 2000 years ago.

What, when, who, why? What was happening? Where was this?

A good way of doing this, after introducing principles, is…just doing it. And so we just grabbed a text each week and prepared with them.

Students here are from all languages and nations with some nationals as well. And with that there are significant differences in the way each person approaches the text. Some will hear “bible study” and think they need to prepare a preaching. Others will religiously follow the proposed questions even if they no longer make sense because they were already discussed.

And even if you taught them, helped them prepare and hinted them for pitfalls, it takes time.

So, some students who thought it was a preaching and then seemed to get the need to ask questions, prepared questions and then still preached away.

But it’s okay. The fact is, theory is one thing. And it’s an important thing. But it’s when it drips into the cracks of daily life that it starts growing. Growth is a weird thing. More like a spiral staircase. Sometimes people go back and forth and it seems they are not moving towards the goal as much – especially if you can’t see yourself from the outside. Which is why it’s so important to meet with them and encourage them as well as giving them positive but directive feedback and needed tools.

So we did. As we met afterwards with some preachy students some said

 “I realise I need to ask more questions so that people can discover things for themselves (while interacting, instead of an awkward silence)”

Others are still so in love with doctrinal aspects of scripture that instead of it informing the practical applications that should flow into daily life, it ends up staying just there.

 16AllScripture is God-breathed and is useful forinstruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness

2 Timothy 3:16

 But the cool thing is, in conversation, they realise they struggle with this. One student said

“I need to work on that and on my empathice”

 So, together, we encourage one another, and sharpen each other.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

 Pray for student’s growth to happen and be guided by God.

[storiesatuni]

Then, the supernatural peace of God will guard our hearts

The student leadership just recently organised a Christmas dinner. The dinner involved making a small sketch of the Christmas story based on the historical records of the Bible on the Birth of Jesus - everyone had fun and then we attributed oscars (with prizes) for the categories team work, sticking to the text and creativity. The night carried on playing board games and having dessert as well as taking photos with some wonderful christmas props our student leaders prepared. After the sketches though and while sitting, one of our friends asked:

- So, what happened after Jesus rose again? Did he die? To which we explained he ascended to heaven. She said - So, how do you believe this? A student responded explaining how it was not just about historical facts but a personal relationship with God. And then she told her testimony - how she had been looking for comfort in booze, parties and many other things. Until one day she got tired of looking and phoned her brother, who was a christian, to ask what did he have that she didn't. Her brother took her to church and later she got into a personal relationship with Jesus though prayer. Our skeptical friend interrupted her and told the following:

-You know, the other day I went to university and was happy. But then something happened and I came home and just felt like yelling and crying. And then I decided to try and talk to God. And you know, I suddenly felt peaceful 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Letter to the Phillipians, chapter 4

[storiesatuni]

What you’re thirsty for, does it last?

We met Daniela* on the bus. You might have read about her before. She had come to church once or twice by invitation of a friend. But was very blunt with him saying she wasn’t interested in exploring the Bible A couple of weeks ago, after meeting a student for coffee, we met Daniela on the bus on the way back. We catched up and in a few minutes she said “can i ask something?” “sure” i said. 

“how do you study the bible? because I have one at home and I am curious!”

I explained a bit of the inductive study for the different types of accounts in the bible. And very quickly she added

“can I have your numbers? maybe we can meet to talk more.”

we exchanged numbers and last week we met again at a coffee shop. We had proposed to Daniela to do a study together and from there withdraw principles to study the Bible

Daniela came on time and was excited. She said she had read a devotional book called streams in the desert and was feeling “thirsty”.

So we decided to open John’s account of the life of Jesus and read about His encounter with woman at the well.

Daniela studied languages and literature so she quickly catched up with the analysis of the text. Some of her findings in our conversation included: “so, if the water wells up to eternal life, eternal life starts now.”

“Jesus talks about water of life and a food that they do not know. Maybe they are the same thing.”

After we finished, she said with a giggle “let me offer you some food. you offer the Spiritual food, I offer the physical one”

Pray for Daniela as she gets to know Jesus!

[storiesatuni]

Today we met a friend who wanted to ask us how to study the Bible. She said she read something and was feeling thirsty. We decided to explain by doing a Bible study on the woman by the well of John 4. I couldn't help noticing the decorations of the café we decided to try out, talked about new beginnings :)

[storiesatuni]

From Kung Fu to The Holy Spirit

Recently we met with Steven* again. Steven studies philosophy and, even though he is not a christian, he has assiduously been coming to church and group bible studies by invitation of a friend. He is very keen on meditating and debating biblical themes.  But talking about Jesus is hard. Conversations with him end up going way into philosophy areas we do not find easy to understand or talk about. Also, in  his country there are lots of different traditions and ancient superstitions that make a man like Jesus having claimed to be God somewhat difficult to grasp. Topping it all up, levels of English are different, so communicating ideas across culture, study areas and language becomes often a small miracle. 

Steven also practices kung fu, martial art he is very enthusiastic about it. So enthusiastic he volunteered to give a small demonstration to all the students in the group in one of our sports afternoons together. The other day he sent us a text saying “hey, would you like to come and play squash? We can study the bible and I can teach you about kung fu”. We smiled at the combination above and decided to pack to leave and make the most of the opportunity. On the way we prayed Steven would get to know Jesus and that God helped us by guiding the conversation and giving us the right words.

When we arrived at the campus we had lunch together while Steven explained the essentials of kung fu – breathing calmly, find a comfortable position to relax our body (i.e. sitting) and emptying our minds from any thoughts, that is, letting them pass through and not focusing in none, in order to achieve serenity. On later stages, he explains kung fu adds up the body movements of the marcial art, that should be harmonious. If we get really good at it, we can reach the level of thai-chi (advanced kung-fu practice). Proudly, he explained kung fu is a philosophy and how it has helped him a lot to deal with life, having serenity, and avoid stress. How he got up very early to practice. And this has led him to achieve the power to deal with life with wisdom.

By this time we had finished our sandwiches and got up to drink coffee in a coffee shop nearby and he asked us if we could study the Bible. “Sure” we said. As we got out the door I tried:

“You know, Jesus also talked about how we could have power to face lives challenges. The power of the Holy Spirit.”. I briefly explained how one time Jesus was sitting with his disciples having a meal and he told them he was going to leave them. They were of course shocked, they had spent three years living together. But Jesus told them this would even be better, He would come and live in their hearts and help them remember all the things He had taught them. Because without Him and His power, we cannot live according to his teachings.

We arrived and sat at the very windy coffee shop, while we opened our Bibles in a jerky way, the air flipping all the pages, holding packets of sugar that flew all over as we empty them into our mugs and awkwardly tried to keep our hair out of the way. But you know what? Even amid all this, something happened that never happened before - Steven was eager to listen.

So we opened our Bibles and showed him the episode where this happened (John’s gospel chapter 14:15-20) and them explained how the Spirit was the promise not only to them at that time but also to everyone that came to hear of Jesus in the centuries after, to help them and give wisdom and power and a sound mind to deal with every day life and its challenges (we then opened Acts 2:38-39; 2 Timothy 1:7).

We explained how Jesus also took much time alone in the early morning during his mission, to calm his spirit and talk to God, gathering wisdom for the next steps. We challenged Steven to ask for the Holy Spirit too during his early morning kung fu sessions.

At this point in time Steven stopped us and asked - “but how can we tell people that they need to believe in Jesus? People are so focused in money and success nowadays.”

It was also an opportunity to differentiate between our responsibility – telling others about Jesus and the invitation to obey His teaching and follow his way of life – and other people's responsibility to respond to what they have received. We also told him the story of the seed that falls on different types of soil and how Jesus explains that the seed of God's word will fall into the lives of people that will have different responses to it. For some, worries, richesses will get in the way, for others, they will receive it and do something with it. The only response we can control, is ours.

We payed our coffee and went to do some sports together. But I couldn't help but notice some things that made a big difference in our conversation with Steven. We had tried several approaches before – reading a book together, choosing a passage to study from the Bible. All conversations seemed to go far beyond what we could understand and not always about the topic proposed. This time, we had prepared a Bible study on the resurrection but decided to shift the course. After attentively listening to Steven, we found the longings of his heart were others at that moment. So we obey the Spirit's guidance and shared what He brought to our thinking about Steve’s needs.

What are your friends interested in talking about? Take some time to truly listen to them. What are the good news the Bible has to say about these topics they are interested in? What is The Spirit prompting you to share?

[storiesatuni]

Get some roots

Last week we gathered to have dinner with student friends. We had a challenge for them! And we shared it by studying a story Jesus once told the disciples.

The sower goes and sows God's word that falls into different types of soil. In some soils, the birds steal the seeds, in others the thorns smother it or rocks impair the seed's development. Yet, there is one, the good soil, in which the seed gains roots, grows and reproduces. These soils are compared to people that hear the word of God and then do something with it or not. They can let the devil rob it, or worries, richesses and persecution get in the way. Or they can use it to grow and produce more. Fruits normally contain one or more seeds. So in other words, those people are sharing God's word! So we challenged students to run an evangelistic event to share God's word at the campus. And gave some examples of how to do it with a video of things other students did to spread the word too.

We also spent quite some time discussing what makes us withstand persecution represented by the rocks. Some things that were mentioned were community, relationship with God through prayer and adding solid knowledge/good basis about faith and hard questions. When we were talking bout prayer one of the students said "i don't know how to pray", which initiated a very good sharing time. We shared how Jesus explained that during prayer we didn't have to use many complicated or fancy words, because God knows what we need before we ask (matthew 6:7-8), or when Jesus explained to the disciples what they should pray for using the Lord's prayer as guide, and how he prayed Himself in several circumstances (john chapter 17).

The student explained she simply wasn’t sure if the way she was praying was right. And we were able to explain that now she could be sure because she was following the life of Jesus on that too. Personally, I was very happy that this student was comfortable to share this with the group without fearing being judged. However, it personally got me thinking. It is the second student this month that shared not knowing how to pray. Both of them having had extensive contact with Christians and good teaching! So maybe we should include an explanation of how to pray on our gospel explanations? We probably focus more on the gospel outline or apologetics, perhaps providing an opportunity for the person to pray with us in the end. But by including a clear explanation of what prayer is we include the ability to “do it yourself” - which is useful for the continuation of the relationship of that person with God, or initiation of one if they later change their minds about not wanting it.

In any case, prayer does produce some good roots, characteristic of the good soil. Would you pray for students here to be good soils and share God's word at their campus? Would you pray for good soils in the hearts of people they share the word with?

[storiesatuni]

Honest questions #2

This week I was asked: “I don’t know if this is a stupid question but who is Jesus? is he a philosopher like Confucius, or an emperor..?”

She had never heard of him before where she comes from. I said it was not a stupid question at all and started explaining. That the most amazing thing about Jesus, and that makes him different from other religions is that He claimed to be  God!*

The student was open mouthed. I nodded, “I know! Somebody who said that would be a lunatic or liar right? But then [to prove that] he started healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, controlling nature and even rising people from the dead!* Of course the religious people of the time didn’t like it and killed Him. But then He rose again from the dead on the third day*. And then, lots of people who were once suspicious started telling everyone about what happened*. Which is interesting because, at the time you could die for it*. So, if you were to put your life on the line, you gotta be sure it was true right?”

She nodded with a smile and resumed thinking over this volume of new information. I could see a question popping out soon, so I paused. Then, she asked “but, if God exists, then why do bad things still happen in the world?”

“That is a brilliant question. Because that was precisely the problem Jesus came to solve. You see, when we choose to live for ourselves, and think we are to have no vertical responsibility (responsibility towards God) for it, we do selfish and hurtful stuff to others. Whether that is saying/doing hurtful things to our loved ones, or starting world wars. And if we are honest we all know that we do it. That moment when you really wanted to do the right thing but something in you lead you to still snap/do the wrong thing? That is what the Bible calls sin. It’s like a piece inbuilt in us.*”

She nodded and I added

“So that is what happened in the beginning. We decided to rebel against God and live like that*. But another amazing thing about Jesus is that He came so that we could trust Him as a savior from this consequences and from our death. He promised to put things right in the end, raise us from the dead* with a new body and in a place where there shall be no more pain, or tears, or disease!* In fact one of the first things that we will do when we get there is eating a big celebration meal for this, altogether!**”

We were having lunch together so at that time I asked if I could pray thanking God for the meal. But another of the students at the table said she was a recent christian and didn’t know how to pray. It was a good opportunity to explain that because of Jesus you can just talk to God like you would talk to a friend at the table in Jesus name. “ahah” they laughed “He wants to be buddies”. That is right, he wants to be your friend*.

Often times when we are asked “who is Jesus?” I sense we start going into a rant and explaining too much information to a person who is probably not familiar with many words we just used in our explanation. Don’t get me wrong, many of these things are important and good. But they can sometimes cloud the clarity with which Jesus claimed to be God himself, instead of presenting themselves as evidence that proves this affirmation is not complete insanity!

I am convinced what a person needs to be saved is Jesus. And although life is complex and the grand narrative of the Bible has much that can be said, I think there are many things that can be said that take the focus out of  Jesus. And as in any chess game, the opposite team might be really interested in getting us distracted to do so.

So two challenges. Keep asking what people think about God. Keep explaining what is unique about Jesus, and how do you know that, Him being God, is true. Be a good steward.  Use time and opportunities well. A trick for me to check if I am on track: If my explanation is not involving Jesus, then it’s time to redirect.

Did you get curious to read more? here are some of the episodes of the Bible I was recalling as I explained the life of Jesus* The book of Mark- how Jesus claimed to be God! and the things he did to prove it * gospel of John chapter 15 Jesus wants us to be friends with Him * book of Acts – testimonies of people who lived in the time of Jesus and proclaimed the good news of God coming to earth (and could die for it at that time/place). Examples, chapter 7, 16 etc * gospel of John chapter 17. Jesus gives the example of how we should pray as humans *book of revelation (in the bible) chapter 21 – a place of no more sorrow or pain

[storiesatuni]

Cultural differences & honest questions #1

Since I started the interaction experience, my days involve teaching students how to study the Bible, be open to what God might want to speak through it’s pages, and challenge them to be available to live it out loud (application). I do this through explaining how to lead inductive bible studies, challenging them to read at home and bring their own questions, or talking with them on the go.

So, on one of these on the go moments, students and I decided to go to have a picnic not far away. As we walked there, I was sharing with one of the students how I was reading this book* about the history of christianity and how I was learning more about the times of the great Roman empire. For example, did you know that the event that triggered the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem was the fact that some gentiles decided to sacrifice chickens in front of the temple? Chickens were considered impure animals by the Jews, which readily complained to the local Roman governors. When they found out that the governors wouldn’t do anything about it, they were very cross and a started a serious riot. It was so massive it took several armies sent from Rome to stop it, and eventually led to the destruction of the temple.

Anyway, at a given point in the conversation with this student, I was asked – “so Gabi, who was Caesar, and who was Pilate?”. I started to explain that Caesar was a Roman emperor, but I didn’t go much far, as the student readily and honestly asked “what is an emperor? Does the Roman empire still exist?”

Talking to my mom on the phone the other day I told her this amazing story about cultural differences. To which she said “well yeah, we are direct descendants of Roman occupation. Perhaps if we got asked about the history of Asia we wouldn’t know much.”.

Amazing. I love this!

*for those who want to know what book is it, look for “An almost infallible history of Christianity” by Nick Page

[storiesatuni]

How do you know when God is speaking? #1

I had to send my application form to do interaction that day. I wrapped up all the necessary envelopes and off I went to the post office. The application fee was almost 1/4 of my budget to live every month and I started thinking how was I to going to get to the end of that month. Oh well, God would provide. And what good time to put that into practice than one of these situations?

Arriving at the post office I waited on the line and was received by this kind gentleman that helped me sending the registered paperwork, but paused to say:

“I am afraid the UK is no longer receiving postal cheques”

“ok, can I send the respective amount via western union-type service?” “I am afraid not. Because you are sending it to an organization and via western union you can only send from people to people”

“Do you happen to know of other options that I could make use of?”

“well, only if you have an account in the barclays bank, which happens to have a branch in the UK too. Or else, I don’t really know”

“ok, thank you. Do you have a piece of paper?”

“sure.”

I quickly wrote a note that went a bit like

sorry, I wanted to send my payment with this envelope, but I was told the UK no longer accepts postal cheques. I will try some other options

So i got off the post office and, walking past some drops of rain, I started wondering what I would do next. I could try and send it via another friend in the UK.

So, as soon as I got home, I sent an email to my friend in the UK. She said she didn’t have cheques, but maybe her mom had. She would ask her when she got home. In the end it didn’t work, so I texted a second friend. She told me:

“sure Gabi. i can do that tomorrow morning”

“cool, i will transfer you also the amount”

half an hour later she texted again:

“hey, can I pay for it? I found my cheque book this week, after loosing it for several months. I think God was giving me a hint.”

“sure :)”