The Weather Network

Make PA Shopper
my money
saving homepage

Toggle Menu

What We Can Learn From History

Pastor Dave Webster

Freedom Was Purchased With Blood

The first to promise freedom was our Lord Jesus Christ.  He declared to a religious crowd that they did not understand or even experience true freedom.  He told them: “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”(John 8:32). verse 36:“If the Son therefore shall make you free you shall be free indeed” Jesus was declaring here to these people who knew nothing about his purpose for coming to earth, about which they would learn at a later date.  It is possible the famed Saul of Tarsus heard some of these claims from Jesus, the Son of God, but did not believe them at the time. The principles of spiritual or soul freedom taught by Christ was taught later by Saul, known in days to come as the Great Apostle Paul. Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-2: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Paul, now converted from a dead religious life to a new life in Christ, was declaring the principles of soul freedom from sin: Romans 6:4: Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  Romans 6:12: Let not sin therefore reign in your moral body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.  Romans 6:18: Being therefore made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Romans 6:22: But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. In this Romans letter, Paul is declaring what Christ had said years before that “If the Son therefore make you free you shall be free indeed.” This freedom is soul freedom from sin.  Every man, woman and child is born with a nature that is sinful and selfish. When Jesus, the Son of God, makes you free there is a new ability to live free from sin controlling a person’s life. However, for this to happen there was the price of blood and the individual benefiting from it must have faith in the Word of God and believe.  I did this when I was 21 years old.    

Read more...

Freedom Is a Gift We Need To Protect

The subject of freedom is on the mind of everyone who is at all engaged in what is going on in our country at the moment. Freedom is a precious gift we have enjoyed in Canada,  we have all taken it for granted but his gift we all enjoy actually comes with a great price paid by those in generations before us. The 2022 Trucker Convoy is stirring our nation to a level of patriotism and unity not witnessed in decades and their mission is freedom for Canadians again.  It is also very obvious our mainstream news sources are totally against the event with the false news narratives they continue to spew day after day.  While we do have freedom of speech and freedom of the press in this country, it seems it is only free as long as it supports the political agenda of the liberal and left governments.  However, this is understandable when CBC is almost totally funded by the government as a crown corporation.  The other news outlets like Global and CTV are also spinning a narrative, all singing the same song--that the protest is comprised of radicals and minority fringe groups.  It is impossible unless you are wilfully blind to see this event as “fringe.”  It is probably the most powerful, well-supported event ever carried out in Canada that has support from coast to coast. The protesters are patriotic Canadians who finally said enough is enough lets do something about it.   

Read more...

Understanding Freedom

What is freedom?  We hear so much about freedom today, but few Canadians really understand what freedom is.  There is national freedom and spiritual freedom.  I will try to give some clarity to aspects of freedom. 

Read more...

Overcoming Fear in Times of Crisis

I recently heard a speech by former Prime Minister Steven Harper and he made this statement that he is very concerned for the future economy of Canada if we continue to proceed on this present path of manufacturing money to keep our economy afloat.  The Liberal government has used the Covid pandemic to justify several very dangerous policies and even laws that threaten the future of our nation.  It will not make much difference for the older generation other than the stress that all of this causes but the next generation will feel the real brunt of what has been implemented now.  

Read more...

Revival Can Save A Nation

Revival is real event that has happened over and over throughout history.  It has preserved the church through 2000 years.  History has revealed revival can come during horrible dark times and in times of peace and blessing.  The one I am most familiar with is the revival in Saskatoon in 1971 that I will save for another article.  This article “Revival Can Save a Nation” is written by Al Whittinghill.  It does an excellent job of describing how a spiritual revival can save a nation. He references America but the same principles are true for Canada or any other nation.  It starts with you and the personal choices for or against Christ before it is too late. 

Before reading this article, please read the following Scripture verses:

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance” (Psa. 33:12).

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

“Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command thee this day” (Deut. 8:11).

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:17).

“Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver” (Psa. 50:22).

For hundreds of years historians and scholars have carefully studied and evaluated the factors that have caused the decline and death of great empires. Their careful conclusions are readily available to those who really want to know them. Scholars like Edward Gibbon, who wrote the classic “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” and Arnold Toynbee, who wrote “A Study of History,” have set forth in great clarity and detail that twenty-one of the last great empires on earth all showed the same common signs of decline just before they dissolved and disappeared from world history. This simply cannot be refuted by any honest person!

History is littered with the remains of once great empires, each one having had their turn at the very helm of the world, rising so high, yet today they are only a memory. Will this be true of America and Canada? Many historians have catalogued the “commonalities of calamity” or “the pathology of death” for human societies, and the diagnosis is alarming! Nations do not really die; they dissolve, a slow process of erosion. They self-destruct due to disintegration caused by dangers lurking within. Let us list those common symptoms of the end, “harbingers of death” shared by all twenty-one of the last great extinct societies:

The Social Symptoms: 1. An increase in lawlessness and the promotion of the wrong people. 2. A loss of economic discipline and self-restraint; greed. 3. Rising government taxes and regulations, and a growing bureaucracy. 4. A decline in the relevance and quality of education.

The Cultural Symptoms: 1. An increase in materialism and selfish luxury. 2. The weakening of the foundational principles that built the nation and made it great. 3. Policies based on feelings and not moral discipline. 4. A loss of respect for established authority.

The Spiritual Symptoms: 1. A rise in immorality and perversion. 2. The lure of alien gods and the exaltation of man. 3. A decline in the value placed on human life as evidenced by abortion, brutality, loss of natural affection, and lack of care for the elderly.

Nations ready to die are plagued by lawlessness, economic insolvency, loss of values, self-centeredness and the breakdown of social order. Peace and order become impossible to maintain despite a deluge of “new laws” to stem the flood. The Barbarians then come and infiltrate, and the nation cannot resist. It loses its moral fiber and the will to sacrifice is no longer present. There are well-worn paths to disaster, and these are stark warnings to any nation. They are absolute reminders not to make the fatal movement away from God as Lord of all. The old expression, “No man loves his alarm clock!” is appropriate here.

A nation that has forgotten God has no chance! The nation that does not fear Him has forgotten Him. The reason that history repeats itself is that most people do not listen the first time! Someone has said, “The future cannot be seen clearly without the past.” (See Job 8:8-13; Eccl. 1:9-10.) It was Aristotle who first said, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” The lessons of history are meant to lead us to the Lord of history. It is really His story, and it practically shouts at us that every individual and nation is accountable to Him. History will end at the feet of our Risen Lord.

God repeatedly warns a nation and pleads with that nation, before He removes it, but history shows that nations seldom listen! The great hope is that God will send a mighty move of His Spirit in the nation and revive it to blessing and a right relationship to Him. In America, and Canada true revival will not come by simply becoming aware of our great need for it. It will not come even if we are successful in pointing out all our present grievous sin and error. It will not come because of multiplied meetings to encourage us, and to make us want revival; even sing about it.

Revival will come only in God’s sovereign grace when the people of God recover God’s revelation of who He is. We must have fresh revelation of God through His Word – Jesus Christ the Lord. Inherent in this revelation will come the glorious realization of who He wants His people to be. Then, the people of God must choose to authentically respond to Him in such a way as to allow Him to clear up the discrepancies and contradictions. Submitted to Him, the Church will once again become “salt and light.”

Friends, in our day we seem to have lost sight of who God is. And because we don’t see His holiness, there is no fear of God. Because we don’t see our unholiness there is little brokenness. Because we don’t see His forgiveness there is no joy. Because we don’t see His plan we sense a lack of purpose.

Let each of us realize today – America and Canada are in grave danger and is repeating the mistakes of nations long gone. In fact, we are outdoing them in their error! And the fact that we have had so much blessing and Truth from God only makes us more accountable to Him. It is time to fall before HIM in fresh repentance and faith!

If true revival comes it will make the Church a bull’s eye for the world, not just a blessing. Attacks will come from the world outside and from the worldly inside the Church. But God will own His Church in manifest power, and there will be fresh demonstration of Resurrection Life in His Body. She will worship the Lord “in the beauty of His holiness” (Psa. 29:2), and the Gospel will go forth in power! Just imagine what the Church would be like if our wonderful Lord had His way! Oh, we need an epidemic of the Glory of God! It is time for the Church of the Lord Jesus to heed the Scriptures afresh! We must deal with the real issues of the heart – the ones that have kept us from heavenly intimacy with God and passion for our Lord.

The world is waiting to see the New Testament Church, clothed with power from on High and brimming over with the joy of Resurrection Life. Revival in the Church! It is the only hope for our nation and the world. Isn’t it true – the Church cannot have a message for the heart of the world until the Lord has the heart of the Church? The Church must be ignited by the Lord, or we will be ignored by the world! God loves a Church aflame; He cannot abide the lukewarm. It is time to seek the Lord, to let the Holy Spirit burn the promises of Second Chronicles 7:14 into our very being. “Lord, send revival, and let it begin in me!”

Used by permission of Al Whittinghill. 


I would like to invite you to connect with our Live Stream services at 11:00 am and 6:00 pm each Sunday at www.pabaptist.ca If you would like your own Bible to study please contact us and we will mail you one for free.  

 

The content of this article is solely the personal opinions of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Prince Albert Shopper.