07/01/2026
As we celebrate Canada today, I want to remind you that we have so much to be grateful for here in our country. With such a vast land from sea to sea, the opportunities are endless. The richness and prosperity of what we have been blessed with is breathtaking as you consider all that we have available to us as a country. We truly do need to give thanks for our great country. As we celebrate Canada's 159th birthday today, I want to bring to mind something that has been highlighted to me by the Lord.
A Word for the church! (Ekklesia)
We the people of God love the church, we love our services, we love coming together to be encouraged by a Word each week, we cherish our times to gather and worship the Lord for what He does for us. We love our groups that come together to encourage each other and to make us strong. There is so much that we all love about the church, and rightfully so.
With that being said; I would like to share what I do believe is going to be an increasing responsibility for the church in the days ahead. It is much more than celebrating our country with a day off. There is a phrase from our national anthem that reverberated in my mind as I woke in the night last night.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
We are at a place right now where we the church, the Ekklesia are going to have to begin to focus more on what is going on around us in our country than perhaps we have done so in the past. It is time for the church, the body of Christ to begin to look beyond ourselves and what we think church is all about. The church is so much more than about us, about our services and our cherished activities. If God is going to keep our land glorious and free as we enjoy singing at our sporting events, then it is time for us to actually 'stand on guard' for our country, it is time for us to begin to align ourselves with the prayer of Jesus for our country, Your kingdom come on earth (in Canada) as it is in heaven. It is time for the body of Christ to gain a fresh mindset. We are at a crisis point right now. If we the Canadian church do not stand on guard for our country then we should not be surprised when the enemy comes in and destroys our country right before our eyes.
The question of course, is what does that look like? Most likely the answer to that question will probably look different from each person's perspective. While there may be many responses to this, I would suggest two things.
First: we must embrace a shift and realize the church is much more than about us, we must take on an agenda to do more than sing the song, the church must actually be about standing on guard for our county. We must engage the Canadian church with this responsibility. It has to be more than a few groups who will lobby our governments. Actually 2 Chronicles 7:14 makes that very clear.
Second; we need to engage as an Isaiah 56 House of Prayer & Worship to effect true change in our country. True change in our country will not come about from the House of Commons. The enemy will not back down because we have signed a petition, no matter how many signatures. We saw how petitions were actually hidden in the House as people campaigned against Bill C9. The war against our country has it source in a realm outside this world and we will only affect change when we take the battle there in prayer & worship. This is the responsibility of the church that we see given to us in Ephesians 3 by the apostle Paul.
This Canada Day I pray that while we are grateful, we will also be me much more mindful of the responsibility we have as the church. As we enjoy or Canada Day celebrations, let's be fully aware that if we want to continue these great days of celebration there are going to have to be men and women in the body of Christ who will take on the mantle and be standing on guard.
Happy Canada Day
