Sunday, July 01, 2007

God keep our land glorious and free!



We were worshipping at the Bowen Island Community Church this morning. The church has a very small congregation (including us and the pastor = 17 people) cuz most of their members are out of town on vacation. The worship was really simple and short (within one hour with Holy Communion), yet the the sermon stroked our hearts. (And bonus for me, we get to sing Doxology!!!!)

The sermon was about Canada Day, the scripture is 1Kings, about King Solomon asking God for wisdom to rule the land of Israel.

I didn't know it's Canada's 140th birthday today! The pastor told us how it all started...at year 1867...

A group of politicians were gathering together, in many meetings, they discussed how they should dealt with the situation. There were ethnic concerns (French, English, Native), land ownership concerns, financial concerns, taxes and welfare concerns, and many many more people's concerns. Like we do today, when there are concerns, we meet and meet and talk about it. They had dragged on for many months, everyone had spoken about their thoughts, and thought about many "wise" ideas, but nothing seemed to work the best for this great big piece of land.

One morning, one of the politicians was doing his morning devotion, and this was what he read (in KJV, which was their common translation back then):

Psalm 72:8
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

Suddenly, he was so touched by God's word, how can they use human wisdom to rule this piece of land without God's help?

So he shared his devotion with his peers, after some more disscussion, they've all agreed on a plan, to unify this nation and called it "The Dominion of Canada", as noted in the scripture, "dominion".

And they've also agreed upon a lengthy policy, on how to rule this land, it started with:

CONSTITUTION ACT, 1867 - PART I
CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

"Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law..."

And it goes on for pages and pages of policies...

Back then, they only had 4 provinces, and they never imagined one day God will really bless this land like His scriptures said, "from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth"! How great is our Lord????!!!!!

Let's pray together for this great piece of land we call home:

Our dear Lord, God, our Father, may Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. May we remember that this piece of land is called upon unity in Your name; and when we sing, "God keep our land, glorious and free", may we have the courage to speak up and the persistance to pray. May you keep blessing us, "the true north strong and free", not for our sake, but for the sake of your name and glory, until we see you face to face, AMEN!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Cannis,
Good sharing! I also found the same information on Canada Day when I attended a worshop at VCAC summer camp. The official full name of Canada is "The Dominian of Canada". Now, we should say "God bless Canada" as well :)

Too bad that the political correctness suppressing the real meaning of the foundation of Canada.