Stepping Through Open Doors

The apostle Paul wrote about doors that had been opened to Him to preach the gospel, and we can be attuned to God's Spirit as He provides opportunities to minister, to be a light for the Lord. In 1st Corinthians 16, we read:
8 But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost.
9 For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
10 Now if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear; for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.

You get a sense of the orchestration of God's plan in the growth of the early church - Paul refers here to a "great and effective door."  He also mentioned the work of Timothy, who was a close colleague of Paul.  Through the work of dedicated individuals, God spread His message and established the church.

Today, God is continuing to use willing servants to minister His love and truth, to follow the Great Commission and share the message of the gospel.  And, there are pockets of unprecedented spiritual activity, as willing participants are stepping boldly through open doors and experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit as He changes lives.

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It is important that we are sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, as He opens doors in order to minister the love and truth of Christ. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 2:
12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
There are regular developments in the ongoing story of the alteration of the relationship between the United States and Cuba.  It was reported a few months ago that President Obama announced his desire for a more normal relationship with Cuba. This past weekend, the President met with Raul Castro, the brother of long-time Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Now comes the announcement yesterday that, according to Fox News,

President Obama intends to remove Cuba from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism, the White House said Tuesday.

The president took the formal step of submitting to Congress the requisite report and certifications indicating the administration’s intent to rescind Cuba’s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation.

The Republican-controlled Congress has 45 days to vote on supporting or blocking the decision to remove Cuba from the list.

The year was 1968.  The family of a pastor serving a 12-year sentence as a political prisoner in Cuba relocated to my hometown, sponsored by the church in which I grew up.  One of the sons went to my high school and graduated the same year I did.

Just 3 years ago, that young man, Othoniel Valdes, returned to Cuba for the first time.  Othoniel, or Otto, is a church planter with the Tampa Bay Baptist Association.  According to a story on the Florida Baptist Witness website, he travelled to Cuba with a team of Floridians to train pastors and lay leaders in the western part of the nation, the first time a LifeWay Christian Resources team had offered training in Havana. The report says that he was pleased to find Baptist work in Cuba thriving, saying, “Baptist churches are very strong, aggressive and evangelistic. It was impressive."

I found an old Baptist Press article which had been scanned online from 1977.  Otto's father, Benjamin, was quoted as saying:

"Castro is indifferent to the church," Valdez insisted , "If the church doesn't hurt his interest he won't hurt the church. If the church reaches Christ, Castro will not hurt the church." The obligation of the church is not political, Valdez contends, "but to preach the gospel."

The President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Ronnie Floyd, traveled to Cuba recently.  He reports rapid church growth.  From a story on the Baptist Press website, we can read:

I believe spiritual awakening is when the Lord's presence and power comes upon a section, region, or even an entire country, resulting in an unusual number of people coming to Christ, the church growing, and churches being planted exponentially. Historically, there are even times when the culture is affected dramatically.

Let me tell you the story of what God has done and is doing in Cuba today. In 1960, there were 210 Cuban Baptist churches. In 1990, there were 238 churches. There was a growth of 28 churches in 30 years.

THEN GOD came in power, resulting in a supernatural demonstration of His glory through His church. What happened?

From 1990 through 1993, Cuban Baptists planted 28 churches. In three years, they were able to do what had previously taken 30 years.

In 1992, Cuban Baptists implored a Cuban government official for permission to build new churches to accommodate the growing crowds flooding the churches. The government official asked them, "What is it with you Baptists and your buildings? Can't you pray in your houses?" So, they did. God used this to explode the work of the Gospel across Cuba.

Now, Floyd reports, there are over 8,700 Baptist churches in Cuba - some are convention-recognized churches, others are missions churches, and the overwhelming majority are house churches.

Floyd refers to Kurt Urbanek's book, Cuba's Great Awakening.  In a WORLD article by J.C. Derrick, Urbanek, who is with the SBC's International Mission Board, is quoted as saying that during the last 24 years, the Cuban population has gone from .5 percent evangelical to more than 10 percent evangelical.  Derrick reports that there are more than 19,000 churches operated by Baptists and Assemblies of God, who quotes Urbanek: "Having been a missionary in Cuba for 18 years, I’ve never seen any place in the world where God is moving like Cuba."  And, it's not merely limited to missions efforts by Baptists or Assemblies members...various ministry organizations are involved in that nation.

Now Derrick reports that some evangelicals had expressed concern that the changes in relations "could squelch Cuba's church-planting movement, which is surpassed only by China and two different movements in India." He related, "The worry I heard from several missions leaders is that what happened in Romania or the former Soviet Union could repeat in Cuba—meaning the West shows up in all its glory and 'destroys the church.'"

But Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, is hopeful, saying, "I pray this decision will serve as a catalytic step in unleashing the followers of Jesus to be the church both inside and outside of the island nation.”

There are three words to take away from these reports today:

First of all, I want us think about the word, fervent.  A report on the International Mission Board website says:

Baptists in Cuba are known for their heartfelt worship, deep knowledge of Scripture and zeal for evangelism. But most of all, they’re known as “a people on their knees," says an IMB missionary who has worked closely with them.

”Prayer is fundamental,” says Cuban Baptist leader Daniel González, pastor of Santo Suarez Baptist Church (formerly called "McCall Baptist Church") in Havana. “It’s the beginning, the middle and the end.”

Prayer - "the beginning, the middle, and the end."  And, certainly we can see the results - and not limited to Baptist or Assemblies of God believers.  We can examine our own prayer lives and see if we have a sense of fervency, of unbridled dedication, to see God move.

Another word is opened.  Thinking about what the elder Pastor Valdes(z) said, coupled with what the Baptist leaders were told when they wanted to build churches, there was certainly an opportunity. The house churches apparently became a central focus of the growth.  Believers, with open hearts, continued to seize opportunities and walk through open doors to plant churches and win people to Christ.

Final word today: awakened.  So many people talk about awakening today.  I think we recognize that people need to hear the gospel.  And, the decline of our culture has become so marked that God's people need to sense the trouble that we are in and pray for the power and presence of God to be manifested.  We can pray, we can become sensitive to the Holy Spirit's direction, and we can have a heart to see God lifted up in unprecedented ways as we devote ourselves to Him.