Post by rapha777 on Feb 8, 2006 5:23:41 GMT -5
When I lived in Canada I saw some shocking things in the Spirit. Recently I came across the following article which gives some reasons for judgment there.
A Storm Warning for Canada by Lee Brady
The Canadian church is facing a sobering spiritual battle. We need to stand with our brothers and sisters to the north.
The headline in a Canadian newspaper caught my eye this past weekend while I was in Vancouver. It said bluntly: “OUT WITH GOD.”
The page-one story was about Anglican minister Michael Forshaw, a gaunt-faced man who is 64 but who looks much older. He suffers from AIDS and recently learned that the Canadian health agency will allow him to try an experimental drug. He is part of a movement of Canadian Anglicans who want to convince their nation that God approves of homosexuality.
Forshaw told a reporter that he believes God is present in all creation, in all people, and “even in the sex act,” by which he meant the kind of sex he has with men.
“I tried to live a celibate life,” Forshaw told Vancouver’s Xtra West newspaper, “but I needed the warmth of a human body.”
With people like Forshaw in authority in Canada’s church, it’s not surprising that the spiritual climate of the nation is stormy. In Toronto and Vancouver, gay activists are pulling lots of political strings. Gay marriage was legalized last July. Recently the age of sexual consent was lowered to 14—thus allowing adults to prey on young teens without any legal repercussions.
Canada is a nation under siege. And even the weather is doing strange things. Last weekend while I was in Vancouver, unusually high winds and rain knocked out power and triggered floods on Feb. 4. Forecasters dubbed it the Super Bowl Storm.
Alistair Petrie, the Canadian minister who shared the pulpit with me this weekend, says every Canadian province has had bizarre environmental events in the last few years. He calls these events “God’s wake-up calls.”
I hope Canada is listening.
Many Canadians have become champions of a strange philosophy of religious “tolerance” that embraces all world religions—except, of course, biblical Christianity. At one major mainline seminary, leaders ruled that all religions lead to God—and any student who believes that Christianity is exclusive in its truth isn’t allowed to proselytize.
Anybody who speaks out for morality or traditional marriage in the media or public debate is branded as homophobic. And when the new Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, dared to mention God during his swearing-in ceremony, there was an outcry from liberals who don’t even want innocuous religious platitudes uttered in public.
Canada faces a serious crisis. A charismatic prophet recently told a group of pastors in Vancouver that he believes a serious earthquake will rock the city.
Hopefully this story does not have to end in disaster. I have hope that in the midst of this gathering gloom God will arouse a sleeping church.
I spoke in Vancouver last Sunday from 1 Samuel 30, a passage that tells how the Amalekite armies invaded David’s camp at Ziklag and kidnapped all of his army’s women, children and possessions. It was probably the lowest point in David’s life—not only because of the huge loss but also because his own men blamed him for the misfortune.
But the Bible tells us that David “found strength in the Lord his God” (v. 6, NIV). David then asked the Lord if he should pursue the enemy, and God answered: “‘Pursue them.’…’You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue’” (v. 8).
In one of the most dramatic turning points in biblical history, a ragtag army that was once discouraged and defeated raced to the battle line and watched God overthrow their invaders. And the Bible tells us that David not only recovered all the families that had been taken, but also his men took the Amalekites’ plunder.
I believe God’s promise to David applies to the struggle in Canada—as well as to our own spiritual crisis here in the United States. When God’s people rise up out of their discouragement and lay hold of the hope of revival—no matter how dark the sky has become, how loud the winds howl and how outnumbered we feel—God’s word to us is the same: “You will certainly overtake them.”
I’m not a Canadian, but I owe my Christian brethren up north my solidarity. You can demonstrate yours by praying that the Canadian church will heed the signs of the times and run to meet this challenge with faith and courage.
A Storm Warning for Canada by Lee Brady
The Canadian church is facing a sobering spiritual battle. We need to stand with our brothers and sisters to the north.
The headline in a Canadian newspaper caught my eye this past weekend while I was in Vancouver. It said bluntly: “OUT WITH GOD.”
The page-one story was about Anglican minister Michael Forshaw, a gaunt-faced man who is 64 but who looks much older. He suffers from AIDS and recently learned that the Canadian health agency will allow him to try an experimental drug. He is part of a movement of Canadian Anglicans who want to convince their nation that God approves of homosexuality.
Forshaw told a reporter that he believes God is present in all creation, in all people, and “even in the sex act,” by which he meant the kind of sex he has with men.
“I tried to live a celibate life,” Forshaw told Vancouver’s Xtra West newspaper, “but I needed the warmth of a human body.”
With people like Forshaw in authority in Canada’s church, it’s not surprising that the spiritual climate of the nation is stormy. In Toronto and Vancouver, gay activists are pulling lots of political strings. Gay marriage was legalized last July. Recently the age of sexual consent was lowered to 14—thus allowing adults to prey on young teens without any legal repercussions.
Canada is a nation under siege. And even the weather is doing strange things. Last weekend while I was in Vancouver, unusually high winds and rain knocked out power and triggered floods on Feb. 4. Forecasters dubbed it the Super Bowl Storm.
Alistair Petrie, the Canadian minister who shared the pulpit with me this weekend, says every Canadian province has had bizarre environmental events in the last few years. He calls these events “God’s wake-up calls.”
I hope Canada is listening.
Many Canadians have become champions of a strange philosophy of religious “tolerance” that embraces all world religions—except, of course, biblical Christianity. At one major mainline seminary, leaders ruled that all religions lead to God—and any student who believes that Christianity is exclusive in its truth isn’t allowed to proselytize.
Anybody who speaks out for morality or traditional marriage in the media or public debate is branded as homophobic. And when the new Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, dared to mention God during his swearing-in ceremony, there was an outcry from liberals who don’t even want innocuous religious platitudes uttered in public.
Canada faces a serious crisis. A charismatic prophet recently told a group of pastors in Vancouver that he believes a serious earthquake will rock the city.
Hopefully this story does not have to end in disaster. I have hope that in the midst of this gathering gloom God will arouse a sleeping church.
I spoke in Vancouver last Sunday from 1 Samuel 30, a passage that tells how the Amalekite armies invaded David’s camp at Ziklag and kidnapped all of his army’s women, children and possessions. It was probably the lowest point in David’s life—not only because of the huge loss but also because his own men blamed him for the misfortune.
But the Bible tells us that David “found strength in the Lord his God” (v. 6, NIV). David then asked the Lord if he should pursue the enemy, and God answered: “‘Pursue them.’…’You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue’” (v. 8).
In one of the most dramatic turning points in biblical history, a ragtag army that was once discouraged and defeated raced to the battle line and watched God overthrow their invaders. And the Bible tells us that David not only recovered all the families that had been taken, but also his men took the Amalekites’ plunder.
I believe God’s promise to David applies to the struggle in Canada—as well as to our own spiritual crisis here in the United States. When God’s people rise up out of their discouragement and lay hold of the hope of revival—no matter how dark the sky has become, how loud the winds howl and how outnumbered we feel—God’s word to us is the same: “You will certainly overtake them.”
I’m not a Canadian, but I owe my Christian brethren up north my solidarity. You can demonstrate yours by praying that the Canadian church will heed the signs of the times and run to meet this challenge with faith and courage.
