All of Canada is rightly proud of introducing ice hockey to the world. The sport has become so popular around the globe that we no longer dominate the world championships as we once did. Still, despite our limited population, canada proudly competes against all comers...from the giant USSR hockey power to the huge & rich sports-mad USA.
I guess you could say Canadians are in love with winter sports. We invent them, we love them We're crazy for curling, for example, and do well in the winter Olympics for our size.
We invented 5 pin bowling, hockey, basketball, and other winter sports past- times, to get us through the months that snow & cold prevents other outdoor activities.
Did you know that the inventor of basketball, Dr James Naismith, was also a Canadian. We are proud of him too, although we've focused too much on hockey to compete in "Hoops" too.
These days we are rightly proud of Canada's hoops star, repeat NBA "Most Valuable Player" Steve Nash. Even folks who don't follow basketball at all feel some sense of pride in our polite & humble (ordinary sized) countryman celebrity.
"Nash did something that had never been done before" points out Rev. Mark MacKnight, in his 50-day devotional guide "The Coach in your Corner". His wisdom is linked at.PAOC COACH WEB SITE.
(see red button below)
This inspired a great series of recent annointed spiritual, sports parable sermons by Rev Rob Elka at Evangel Pentecostal Tabernacle in Dresden, Ont. They are at...COACH IN YOUR CORNER Sermons
(see the Blue button below)
When elected MVP Nash broke with protocol and invited his whole team to the podium to share the glory. "He recognized that his success was not a solo effort...", said Rev MacKnight.
"The same is true of the body of Christ (the church). It is never about one person, ne member. Any success is because of the incredible interdepenence of gifts," he remarks.
We are the body of Christ, and every part of the body has a part to play, even if we can only help by praying.
Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker proudly holds a copy of the nation's brand new "Bill of Rights", Aug 4, 1960
Historic photo from 1965 when the new Red & White maple leaf flag was approved by the Canadian parliament, just two years before Canada's giant 1967 "100th Anniversary' celebration.
Canada's southern neighbour, the USA, is known calls itself
"One Nation
Under God"
Below is the flag of Canada, representing a "Dominion" from sea ... to sea ... to sea.
Canada reaches from "the world's longest undefended border", on the 49th parallel, in the south (and the Great Lakes), up to the Arctic Ocean at the top of the world; and from the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern seaboard, to the mighty Pacific on the west coast.
"Dominion" is a carefully chosen word, from the holy bible, reflecting God's dominion over us. May we always be led by Him!
Our national anthem, "Oh Canada", prays...
"God keep our land glorious and free".
Evangel's Tim Janess (below) ministers through Christian musical group "One Hundred Fold". They lead song service at Evangel often, when not busy elsewhere. Their web site is lined above their photograph. v
"Evangel Pentecostal Tabernacle exists to love God and His people, make disciples, gather in worship, and experience His presence and power, and to proclaim Jesus, in Dresden, and around the world."
-- Pastor Rob Elka --
Rev. Rob Elka
The Church is the one institution that exists for those outside it.
Evangel Pentecostal Tabernacle Special "Canada Day Weekend" Sermon
"God keep our land Glorious and Free"
The Church has a Mission to seek and save all who are lost in sin. We believe the 'Church' is the Body of Christ and consists of the people who, throughout time, have accepted God's offer of redemption (regardless of religious denomination) through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ.
In "Province House", just outside The Confederation Room, where Canada was created, are the words.., "Providence being their guide, they built better than they knew". Oh that His providence should guide our hands, to build better than we know!
Samuel Leonard Tilley 's political life was closely linked to his religious beliefs.
He was one of the "Fathers of Confederation". In fact, he's the one who found the word "dominion" in Psalm 72: 8 and he suggested the new country be called the DOMINION of Canada.
A Sunday-school teacher and lifelong temperance advocate, he was one of the so-called "Smashers", a political group that tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce prohibition to New Brunswick in the 1850s.
Tilley also had strong interests in railway development and encouraged the colony of New Brunswickers to accept a Confederation creating Canada.
Samuel Leonard Tilley
Canada Day
Thanks
for visiting our web site
COME AGAIN SOON!
-- Mike Pilecki,
Webmaster of Evangel Tabernacle
An added note from the webmaster...
As I write this, it is July the 4th, America's version of Canada Day. This matters to a Canadian man like me who is married to a US citizen. Our son lays claim to both countries... "the two greatest nations on earth"!
I want to quote American writer Walter A. McDougall, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and co-chair of FPRI's Center for the Study of America and the West. He is also a Pulitzer prizewinning historian and author of the just released "FREEDOM JUST AROUND THE CORNER: A NEW AMERICAN HISTORY".
He wrote this passage in Nation With The Soul Of A Church...
"The spiritual qualities of public rhetoric in American politics, courtrooms, churches, schools, and patriotic fetes used to be so pervasive, familiar, and unobjectionable that we citizens just took it for granted (until the advent of litigious atheists).
The national motto is "In God We Trust." Our Pledge says we're a nation "under God." Our Congress and Supreme Court pray at the start of sessions."
"Presidents of all parties and persuasions have made ritual supplications that the United States might be blessed with divine protection. The last stanza of "America" begins "Our father's God to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing" and ends by naming "great God," not George III, "our King." The last stanza of the "Star Spangled Banner" asks our "heaven rescued land" to "praise the Power that has made and preserved us a Nation." "America the Beautiful" asks that "God shed His grace on thee."
Most Americans, even today, would likely agree with Boston Puritans John Winthrop, John Adams, and Jonathan Mayhew, Princeton Presbyterian Jonathan Witherspoon and his disciple James Madison, Virginian Anglican (and Freemason) George Washington, and Deists Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin that Americans are "called unto liberty" (a phrase from Paul's epistle to the Galatians)--that we are a new chosen people and ours a new promised land, and that our mission is to bestow liberty on all mankind, by example if not exertion. To be sure, the majority of Americans always found it easy to identify the God who watches over America."
You can read the full test at this web site... >
God bless the nation, and the people of
the United States of America. .
in God we trust.
in God we trust.
One Nation UnderGOD
This page was last updated: April 20, 2008
The very name of our nation came under the direction of a godly man inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley(photo above left), Premier of New Brunswick and one of the Fathers of Confederation, rose each morning to start his day with prayer and Scripture reading.
As the 33 fathers of cnfederation gathered in Charlottetown to discuss and draft the terms of the British North American Act, there are were many suggestions on what to call this new “United Canada.” That morning, as Tilley read from Psalm 72:8, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth,” he became so convinced that Canada should be a nation under God, that when he came down to the Conference session, he presented the inspired “Dominion of Canada.”
The other Fathers readily agreed and accepted. Today, The following words hang in the corridor near the confederation Chamber in Province House: “In the hearts of the delegates who assembled in this room on September 1, 1864, was born the Dominion of Canada. Providence being their guide they builded better then they knew.”
Canada’s coat of arms, adopted in 1921, stands upon the Latin phrase “A Mari Usque Ad Mare,” which when translated means “from sea to sea” a reference to Psalms 72:8.
Before the fall of 1983, July 1 was called “Dominion Day” which was a recognition of the sovereignty of God. On October 27, 1982 the Canadian Parliament changed the name to “Canada Day.”
Maybe that is very symbolic of what is happening to our nation. We no longer desire for God to have dominion over our land. Many in Canada have rejected the rule of God over this great country.
However, I believe there is still a remnant of those who desire to see a move of God’s Spirit from sea to sea. Like David they say, “Let Canada be a place where we set up a sanctuary for the Almighty to dwell. O Lord, enter that sanctuary and show your power in our land.”
Listen to the testimonies of some of the early explorers that came to this land.
In 1533, Jacques Cartiersailed up the St. Lawrence River to Montréal. To commemorate the founding of Montréal, Cartier wrote in his diary “…we all kneeled down in the company of the Indians and with our hands raised toward heaven yielded our thanks to God.”
The “Father of New France,” Samuel de Champlain, wrote in his diary about the natives, “…(the aborigines are) living without God and without religion…I thereupon concluded in my private judgement that I should be committing a great sin if I did not make it my business to devise some means of bringing them to the knowledge of God.”
David Thompson, explorer and statesman, developed maps from his surveys between 1784 and 1812. Thompson’s words give the reason he endured the physical hardship of exploration “so that these physically impenetrable barriers may be traversed and the Gospel be spread.”
The heart of many of the early explorers was to spread the good news of Jesus Christ far and wide until the whole known world had oppourtunity to know Him.
Oh to have political leaders like William Howlandwho ran for Mayor of Toronto in 1886. During his campaign, Howland would urge voters, "Let us keep the city,
a God-fearing city, and I would rather
see it thus than the greatest and richest city in the continent". He won and became Toronto's 25th Mayor. (see his web site) >
...
There was another man who had a deep yearning for his homeland, and its people.
Furthermore, he had an unquenchable thirst for the presence of God to be among them. Listen to his vow, “I will not go home; I will not let myself rest. I will not let my eyes sleep nor close my eyelids in slumber until I find a place to build a house for the LORD, a sanctuary for the Mighty One of Israel.” Psalm 132:3-5
David had a burning desire to build the Temple.
Let the search begin!
When he became king he built a beautiful palace, but he was troubled that the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence among his people, remained in a tent. This so bothered David that he couldn’t rest until the situation was corrected.
Over the years the whereabouts of the Ark had almost become unknown.
Listen to verse 6, “We heard that the Ark was in Ephrathah; then we found it in the distant country of Jaar.”
If I could paraphrase that it would go something like this, “Rumour had it that the Ark was down the road a piece, a fair journey away. We didn’t know its exact location but fortunately we tracked it down in a nearby forest.”
Sounds like a kind of blatant disregard for something that represented the presence and power of God amongst His people. I wonder if the same disregard for God’s presence and power, His dominion, has not occurred in the nation of Canada.
The sad fact of the matter is it has happened among those who should know better.
Just as the Israelites had known God’s presence and power, so has the church.
Somewhere along the line, it seems some of us have grown accustomed to living without this enabling presence and power.
Once upon a time, as a nation we recognized the soveriegnty of Almighty God, but now we desire to rule ourselves.
Don’t you think it is time we search for the Ark once more?
Shouldn’t our hearts burn within us as David’s did to see the “Mighty One” set up His sanctuary among us once more?
David’s concern was with the glory of the Lord and with the blessedness of His presence. He had victory over his enemies on every front, his kingdom was secure, and his palace magnificent but He knew that wasn’t enough.
The scripture tells us that David danced like a crazy man when the Ark was brought back to Jerusalem.
He knew that without the presence and power of God they would be lost regardless of whatever victories they won or what they pocessed.
Our concern needs to be for the glory of the Lord and the blessedness of His presence.
Have we become so blessed as a country and church that we have left behind the only thing that really matters?
Do we even know where to find it?
God promises that He will be found, and grace us with His power and presence, when we search for Him with all our hearts.
Let the search begin!
David never did get to build the Temple. He was disqualified by the fact that he had shed so much blood. However, his son Solomon was able to carry out the desire of his father’s heart.
Even though David did not build the Temple he made preparations for Solomon to do so.
He brought in the stone, iron, bronze, and cedar that would be required, and inspired his son to build the Temple.
Maybe we will never see that mighty move of God that our hearts long for ... and maybe we will ... but even if we don’t, let’s lay the groundwork so that the next generation will.
Let us sow in prayer, diligently follow the Word of God, and live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let verse 8 be the cry of our hearts, “Arise, O Lord, and enter your sanctuary, along with the Ark, the symbol of your power.”
Even our education system had Christian roots.
Bishop John Strachan, a leader who helped form our public education system, stated that “the church must continue to play a central role in education. You cannot divorce religion from education because schools will inevitably reflect the philosophical and religious or (irreligious) biases of those who direct them.”
Egerton Ryerson, father of public education in Canada, …clearly said that the Ontario school system was to be a “Christian public school system.”
Many of our greatest Canadian universities were founded as denominational seminaries to educate future church leaders:
-King’s College in Nova Scotia, now know as Dalhousie University, was founded by the Anglicans.
-Queen’s University, founded by the Roman Catholic Church, and Canada’s first bilingual University.
-McMaster University, was founded by the Baptists.
-The University of Windsor, nearest large university to Dresden was founded by the Roman Catholic Church and used to be called Assumption.
-Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Kitchener, Ont. used to be Waterloo Lutheran Univ., but when the Lutherans lost control the school kept the initials WLU when it's name was changed.
The Ontario Public School Act of 1896 stated that “It shall be the duty of every teacher of a public school to teach diligently and faithfully all of the subjects in the public school course of study… to encourage [his] pupils in the pursuit of learning; to include, by precept and example, respect for religion and the principles of Christian morality…”
Think about these two historical documents...
The Canadian Bill of Rights begins with, “The Parliament of Canada, affirming that the Canadian Nation is founded upon principles that acknowledge the supremacy of God…”
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins with, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of the law.”
It is recognized that our nation was founded upon Christian principles and the supremecy of God!
Unfortunately, some of our fellow Canadians, and many of our political leaders, are content to leave such values in the past.
My purpose this morning is not to criticize those in parliament, our education system, or the judges of our land.
My desire is for the Church of Jesus Christ to be revived from sea to sea in this nation that no man, woman, or child could doubt that God does indeed have dominion in our land.
Lord God set up your sanctuary in Canada once more. We want to build a house for you here!
Robert Stanley Weir, (1856 – 1926) was a Montreal, Quebec judge and poet, most famous for writing the lyrics to O Canada, which says "God keep our land glorious and free".
Consider the words of this, the most famous poem by Stanley Weir, written in 1908, and later modified to became our national anthem.
Before I read the words of the touching end of "Oh Canada", I need to warn you, if these words sound unfamiliar to you, even patriotic Canadians often don't know the stiring last stanza... (sung to the tune "Oh Canada")...
"Ruler supreme,
who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion
within thy loving care;
Help us to find, O God, in thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.
God keep our land,
glorious and free..."
1) Arise O Lord and enter the sanctuary of my heart.
“…the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands.” Acts 7:48 First of all, God’s presence and power needs to be seen in individual Christians. We can’t get along without Him! We can’t go on with life as normal because life is not normal, for the believer, when the glory of the Lord and the blessedness of His presence are not an everyday reality. “Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thankgiving I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.”
2) Arise O Lord and enter the sanctuary of this church.
What are we as a church without the presence and power of Almighty God? We become a mere social club, a gathering of story-tellers that reminisce of days gone by. Spirit of God find a resting place at EPT and show your power here!
3) Arise O Lord and enter the sanctuary of Canada.
