https://odb.org/2024/10/07/bibles-in-the-back-seat
I learnt about Open Doors nearly forty years ago, a year or two after I accepted Christ. At that time, I was attending a Methodist outreach in my small town of Pasir Puteh in the East Coast state of Kelantan. This outreach work was started by a group of outstation Christian teachers, and the amazing thing was that the Methodist church actually sent a fresh seminary graduate to pastor the work full-time. Later, the outreach moved to the neighbouring Trengganu town of Jerteh, and the work that was established 40 years ago stands tall today as the Jerteh Chinese Methodist Church, catering to the needs of local Christians in the small town of Jerteh.
Open Doors was an organisation that had left a deep and lasting impression on me, and I distinctly remember them for the work they did for the underground church in closed countries, especially for the house church in China. I would think the availability of the bible is less of an issue nowadays with the proliferation of bible apps on the Internet and mobile phones. I do recall that in those days, believers in closed countries would rejoice in having just a few pages of Scripture, which they treasure like gold, quickly committing to memory all that was written! It was both astonishing and outstanding!
The foundation to organisations such as Open Doors is Scripture like Zechariah 4:6 NIV –
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
It is not by might nor power but by the Spirit of God that countless bibles could cross borders through numerous volunteers who brought along a few when they visited such closed countries. The network ensured that the bibles reached the right people, but it is by the power of God that people who were checking at the borders were blinded or turned the other way. A reverse indeed of Jesus opening the eyes of the blind to see!
If we face seemingly impossible situations in our lives, don’t give up hope. The LORD our God is able to work things out for us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Not by might or by power, but by the Spirit of God indeed! Trust and put our hopes in Him. He is a God of miracles and the supernatural! May He part our Red Sea as we commit our paths and future to Him! Amen!
Ronnie's Thoughts 