Week 41 - Opportunity And Opposition
“For the present, I’m staying right here in Ephesus. A huge door of opportunity for good work has opened up here. (There is also mushrooming opposition.)” (1 Corinthians 16:9, The Message)
How wonderful it would be if every opportunity for ministry comes without a hindrance. However, the truth of the matter is that in every open door, one finds a “resisting hinge.” In every opportunity, one finds opposition.
The Apostle Paul wrote a lengthy letter (1 Corinthians) to the church in Corinth. Paul had founded the church and was now writing to correct them on some issues relating to Christian living. He was writing from Ephesus and he hoped to visit them soon. At the end of his letter (in 16:9), he explained why he intended to stay on for a while longer in Ephesus: On the one hand, “a huge door of opportunity for good work [had] opened up” for him while on the other hand, “there [was] also mushrooming opposition.” In a sense, these two sentences describe Paul’s lifelong labour as a Christian missionary. A chapter before, in 15:32, he described graphically the opposition he was facing, “I fought wild beasts in Ephesus.” Not literally, of course, or else he would not have lived to write the letter!
In every open door, one finds a ‘resisting hinge.’
Recently Dr Aung, the president of Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (MEGST) spoke at our Bible College chapel. At the end of his sermon, a student asked, “What kind of persecution do you face in your country?” In his reply, Dr Aung recounted how one day a Buddhist monk from a nearby temple dropped by his house looking for trouble. Dr Aung and his wife invited him in, served him refreshments and spoke kindly to him. The monk was taken aback and instead of causing trouble, he confessed that he was contemplating suicide. Later, he became a Christian and is now the dean of students in MEGST. Dr Aung’s house has been burnt down three times and although he was invited to teach in a US seminary, he would rather serve in his own country in spite of the opposition for he believes there is opportunity to train Christian leaders in Myanmar.
Recently, in the Carmel Weekly editorial, our missionary Yee Xian wrote about the opportunity and opposition in the new work that he and his wife Salmah are doing in Kalimantan, having been there for only three months. He reported that “September proved to be a very encouraging month with growth and new developments” and that he had taken “the bold step of launching TeenSparks.” TeenSparks, being evangelistic in nature, “has started off well.” English class for Secondary school students “continue to enjoy good attendance… I have been invited to preach… every second week of the month,” he wrote.
However, he also revealed that there was opposition, one of which is spiritual warfare. The house they rented is “not clean… [but] spooky” at night. One day, they destroyed a Chinese brush/nail wrapped in a 1,000 Rupiah note and hanging from the top of the main door. Also destroyed were two bowls used for offering. That night, his wife Salmah fell ill. Yee Xian admitted that he was “rather stretched” and requested prayer for “the Lord’s protection, good health, wisdom, patience and perseverance.” He also requested prayer that they “will not have any problems from the community or the authority” and “for a long-term visa for (them).” Let us uphold Yee Xian and others in the mission field in prayer, that God may continue to open doors of opportunity for service and grant them wisdom to deal with opposition.
The experiences of Paul, Dr Aung and Yee Xian go to show that while God opens doors, Satan seeks to close them. Paul says we “wrestle… against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (
To be allowed to work in God’s Vineyard reflects His goodness.