Open doors and plastic chairs
Thats it. That’s all they need, well if I’m being very honest they don’t even need the plastic chairs that you look at and wonder if when you sit in it it’s going to fall into pieces and you to the floor.
Open doors. That’s what people need.
To be welcomed
Wanted, desired, cared for, loved
When something is open that means there is space to fill. How many times do we see open spaces and cease to fill them?
Doors aren’t meant to stay closed, they were meant to open (hence the hedges on it)
How many times do we see doors open and hesitate to walk through them?
You can take these questions as deep as you want but that’s not the reason I said it.
I had a revelation from Jesus about this when I took a picture of these open doors and plastic chairs at a church in a small indigenous community in the jungle of Costa Rica.
He reminded me that a church is meant to be a meeting place for all of his people, believer and non-believer. Doors are meant to be walked through and chairs to be sat in. Have we open the doors that are far away? Rusted with broken pieces? Ones that don’t have a door knob? Or even the close ones that are locked and forgotten?
We are called to be the open doors. To become a place where people feel welcomed. There are people across the world that can’t even imagine a door like this, let alone a chair for them. I want to call myself and all believers to pray for more doors to open. For communities, unreached and reached, internationally and nationally. That we can create a space where people seek something everlasting and can receive it abundantly.
There is a flip side to this.
When I asked the questions about seeing open doors and spaces, I was challenged to notice when do I pass up the opportunity to step into an open space and bring the presence of God.
Our base host here in Costa Rica said something to us while we were at sports ministry. He said “you can’t always ask them to come to you, you stop asking them, they are already here so go to them, meet them where they are.” This hit me so hard, in a good way. As now being a young missionary, I was only seeing where I would be the one asking questions, seeking them to come to me because I wanted to share what I have. Instead it should be the other way around. I should be greeting and meeting them to share what I have, that’s what I came to do isn’t it? Share the gospel, share the love of Christ. Jesus gathered people so he could be in their midst and show the power of Christ. The Great Commission doesn’t say “they will come to you and you will make disciples” it says “GO therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19, ESV) He said go to them! Bring the good news to them! Bring my love to them!
I am reminded that we are all called in some way or another but the goal is the same. We are called to spread the kingdom, and we don’t have to do it alone! He’s with us start to finish.
I hope this encourages you to seek those open doors and plastic chairs, but first and most importantly the Father:)
