President Biden removes Cuba from terrorism list

President Joe Biden is removing Cuba from a US government list of state sponsors of terrorism. The move, along with other conciliatory actions, is reportedly being taken in the hope of securing the release of political prisoners on the island.

Unless you are from Cuba or know a Cuban, you perhaps did not know that Cuba has been on such a list. You perhaps do not particularly care now about its removal.

On the other hand, it has been my privilege to visit the island ten times over the years. I’d like to tell you about my love for Cuba and Cubans today because I believe my story is relevant to your story as well.

Baptizing a woman with only one leg

I began visiting Cuba twenty-five years ago when the Dallas church I was pastoring started a missions partnership there. Over the years, I have preached, taught, baptized, and otherwise served there numerous times. Pastors from Cuba in turn visited the church I pastored and have continued partnering with our ministry to this day.

My Daily Article is translated and distributed across Cuba every day. Some of my best friends live in Cuba. One of them is a pastor for whom I pray by name every day.

When our older son went through cancer surgery some years ago, this pastor’s church prayed for him. By this I mean, the entire congregation gathered at their sanctuary and interceded for God to heal him. I will never forget such generosity. (Our son is well today, by the way.)

My visits to Cuba took me closer to New Testament Christianity than I have experienced anywhere else on earth. The vibrancy, courage, and joy of the believers I have met there marked me deeply.

I will always remember a young woman I was privileged to baptize during a mass service in a shallow lake near the church. Because her husband carried her to me through the water, I could only see her head and shoulders. When I baptized her and handed her back to her husband, he lifted her out of the water in celebration. Then I saw that she had only one leg.

Life in Cuba is hard. Life with a disability is much harder. Life with a disability as a baptized Christian is much harder still.

But if you had heard her cries of “Hallelujah!” and seen the joy on her face, you would want her faith, whatever its cost.

Three ways to be Cuban Christians

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to go to Cuba to experience Cuban Christianity. But you do have to do what Cubans do to make their joy yours.

One: Live in this world for the world to come.

Christians in Cuba live in a nation whose government is vehemently opposed to their faith. Some face prison or worse for preaching the gospel. Their members are tracked and often penalized with the worst houses, schools, jobs, and military assignments. Believers there know that this world is not their home.

So should we. Peter exhorted us, “I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh” (1 Peter 2:11). The first phrase requires the second: when we know that this broken, fallen culture is not our home, we will not live as though it is. We will use the temporal for the eternal, the secular for the spiritual. We will live each day ready for the Day to come.

And one day we’ll be right.

Two: See those who persecute you as people who especially need your Lord.

Jesus taught us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). One reason is that such people especially need our love and intercession. The more they hate Christians, the more they need Christ.

One of the Cuban churches with whom we partnered built a new worship center to house their growing congregation. They had to wait through years of government delays, but they were finally able to finish the project. When they tore down their old building, they conserved every piece of lumber and every nail. Then they distributed them throughout their community to everyone in need, regardless of how those who received their generosity had treated them over the years.

As they gave away the materials, they prayed for those they served. And they advanced God’s kingdom through their kindness.

Three: Worship with contagious joy.

Worship services in Cuba can last several hours, as can times of prayer, Bible study, and worship in Cuban homes. Because they so often have “nowhere to look but up,” they go through their lives looking “up.” They live vertically in order to be able to live horizontally.

And their joy is so contagious that their houses of worship are packed, usually with people waiting outside to listen through the doors and open windows.

Their vitality is such a contrast with the decline in church membership and religiosity in the US, just ninety miles to their north. They illustrate Mother Teresa’s dictum, “You’ll never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”

“The saints going back to normal”

Whatever comes of governmental relations between the US and Cuba, you and I can decide today to draw closer to our sisters and brothers on this beautiful but beleaguered island. We can pray for God to strengthen them in the midst of persecution, for dire economic conditions to improve, and especially for Christians in Cuba to be emboldened and empowered as they stand for Christ.

As we pray for them, let’s pray for ourselves. Let’s ask God to help us join the spiritual awakening sweeping Cuba in these days. Let’s live in this world for the world to come, praying for those who oppose our Lord and worshiping him with contagious and empowering joy.

As we do, let us remember Vance Havner’s observation: “Revival is simply New Testament Christianity, the saints going back to normal.”

Will you go “back to normal” today?

NOTE: One practical way you can serve in Cuba is by supporting our partner ministry, Proclaim Cuba. Their website is a testament to God’s miraculous work in our world today.