The Great Canadian Wish List
The Great Canadian Wish List
CBC News has started a group on Facebook called “The Great Canadian Wish List” where anybody can make a wish for Canada, invite their friends to support it & then on July 1st, the top results will be reported about on CBC TV, CBC Radio, CBC Newsworld and online at cbc.ca/wish.
Their hope is to provoke discussion and the free expression of ideas and they have certainly succeeded, as the debates and arguments abound regarding several issues such as abortion, gay marriage, our nation’s spiritual condition and saving the environment. It has also evolved into a sort of competition for the top 2 spots on the list – pro-life vs. pro-choice.
We Are Not Our Own
As I browsed the pro-choice group, I think I was most bothered by their main image which portrays a female icon with the phrases, “My Mind, My Body, My Choice“, for herein lies the greatest deception of them all. I happen to be reading the book “Body By God” by Dr. Ben Lerner, which is a book designed to help you improve your body and health by applying principles found in both science and the Bible. The very title itself is a clear statement about our body – it’s by God – designed, created, and shaped by Him (see Genesis 1 and Psalm 139). As Dr. Lerner puts it, “No person can make another. The body is not by man; the body is by God”. Yet he continues to go even further by saying, “Your body is not your own! Your body is not only by God, it is for God, and it is God’s.” In other words, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his…” (Psalm 100:3) or as Paul states it, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
This deception that our bodies are our own, when truly they are God’s, is a terrible and destructive line of thinking that has invaded our society’s paradigm, yet not only with our bodies – we think this way about everything. We think our possessions are ours, our money is ours, our time is ours, our mind is ours – yet the Bible also says that “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1) Yet we are primarily selfish creatures looking out for #1 – ourselves – with little regard to how our decisions affect others or how they line up with God’s ways. David Sliker, an author and intercessory missionary at the International House of Prayer recently wrote a post on this very topic of humanism on his blog where he quoted Psalm 2:1-3, which says “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.‘” David goes on to expound this text and what that will look like in the coming days…
The result of this concerted effort to reject God and His Son will be the apex of humanism itself, or the exalting of man and his capacities and capabilities in a manner that is seemingly able to effect his own salvation without the interference of biblical morality or the “restraint” of the law of God. In the minds of the sinful man, “salvation” means the achievement of Utopian ideals related to perfection in society and perfection in man himself.
In the world’s eyes, legalizing abortion and gay marriage are a signpost to our progressive thinking, open-mindedness, tolerance and our rise to perfection as mankind, while holding to the moral values and guidelines as laid out for us in scripture is to actually regress. Considering how God feels about these subjects is simply not a part of their rationale, for it is primarily about what they want and what they feel they have the “right” to do. Somewhere along the line we came up with this twisted idea that we have the “right” to choose what to do with the lives that were never ours to begin with. The very breath in our lungs comes from God and it is He who has every right to ask us to live our lives according to His ways. And His ways are not bondage, as the world perceives them to be! His commands are not chains to be broken off! His commands were given to bring us abundant life, freedom and joy beyond anything we could imagine for all of eternity! He is not an angry God trying to take away our “fun” or force us into slavery to Him – He is a loving God who put rules in place as boundaries to protect us and keep us in a close relationship with Himself, since sin is what separates us from Him.
What We Truly Need
But I digress, for I have still yet to reach my main point. I’ll have you know that I did join “The Great Canadian Wish List” group and I supported the wishes of “Abolish Abortion in Canada”, “Spiritual Revival in our Nation”, and “Restore the Traditional Definition of Marriage”. I would probably also support many other noble wishes to end poverty and disease or save the environment, but the problem with most of these is that we are looking to ourselves for the solution instead of looking to God. I will always stand for protecting unborn children, but the fact is, that even if abortion was made illegal in Canada, it might change the behavior of men and women and save the lives of many babies, yet their hearts would remain the same. I am all for the changing of legislation in our country, but more than this, I long for a change in the hearts in our country. What good is behavioral alteration if the hearts of people still scream in rebellion against God and His ways? If they still have no regard for God, then we have gained nothing, for their souls are still lost. So taking that into consideration, the greatest wish for Canada needs to be for spiritual revival and for the hearts of people to return to the Lord God with weeping and repentance, for He truly longs to show them compassion and loving-kindness instead of judgment. (Joel 2:12-13) God is also the only one capable of bringing eternal restoration to the earth and He is the only one who is capable of ruling the people of the earth with justice.
What is our Response?
Consequently, the response that is most needed by the body of Christ today is to call out for the return of Jesus to the earth and for Him to bring speedy justice in answer to our unceasing prayers. (Luke 18:7-8) Let us fast and weep and mourn and call solemn assemblies (Joel 2:12-17) to cry out on behalf of our nation and our world and fill the bowls of prayer in heaven. (Rev. 5:8) Let us see His kingdom come and His will done by interceding for revival, appealing to the courts of heaven to affect change in the courts of the earth. I know it seems weak and it feels weak to simply pray when it feels like we should be signing petitions and making phone calls to politicians and marching down the street with signs, but I am becoming more and more convinced that in the “weakness” of prayer there is greater strength than we could ever imagine. For what would take us decades to try and change in our own strength, God could come and do in a moment!
