Come Down, Lord!

The following sermon was preached on February 14.  The previous week I had been charged for gathering God's people for worship.  I would later be charged for gathering that week as well.  Since that time I have been charged four more times. Seems like a waste doesn't it? I face a maximum of 6 years in prison (and $600,000 in fines). Seems like a terrible waste...   Was it?

  I do not know Wyatt Graham, and until recently I had never heard of him. That is probably simply because I have never followed TGC.  More recently I have taken an interest in him because of his position on covid.  He represents the other side and I am one that likes to know what the other side is thinking.   Here I would like to respond to his recent article titled Our Views of the Virus Affects Our View of Persecution .  It is a gracious article, but the author is saying what he and others and TGC Canada have been saying for a while: that what James Coates, Jacob Reaume, Tim Stephens, Michael Thiessen, Aaron Rock, myself and others have experienced isn’t persecution.    The problem begins with the premise.  Graham says “If I view the pandemic as severely harming society and if I see restrictions as preventing that harm, then fining someone for breaking health regulations generally makes sense.”  He adds, “On the other hand, if ...

  “While all things are quiet and comfortable, we live by sense rather than faith. But the worth of a soldier is never known in times of peace.” James Coates is a pastor in Edmonton Alberta arrested and currently in prison for gathering his congregation for worship.   James' wife shared the following:  "James has been in isolation in a cell block since yesterday morning.  His hearing didn't go very well.  The Crown went for the jugular.  The JP say he didn't want to detain him, he wasn't interested in making a martyr of him.  He could walk if he just sets aside his God-given pastoral duties but he can't do that .  He has a hearing today to set a court date for his charges.  It's very possible that they will remand him until his court case.  The Crown has called him a danger to the health and safety of Albertans.  May God have mercy on our nation.  I read to my children the work the Lord is doing in peoples [lives] through...

  * If I could live anywhere I would choose a place like this, somewhere among the meadows and wildflowers of the Swiss Alps.  Ever since I first read Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John   and  Heidi by Johanna Spyri , I have thought that that life was about as good as it gets this side of heaven.   But I have learned with Paul "in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content."  And I have discovered that there is a heaven on earth more beautiful and more satisfying than anything this world can afford.  That 'heaven' is far more wondrous than any of the sights or scenes which these eyes can see.  The heaven of which I speak is the favour of God.  It is the nearness of the Saviour whose lovingkindness is better than life, and under whose wings the saints rejoice.  That heaven is the joy of being in the fire with One like the Son of God.   If I had a cabin and a home in the Alps I would be afraid of losing it. ...

“My soul is among lions.” Psalm 57:4 Some of you cannot say this and you ought to be very thankful that you are not obliged to do so. Happy are you young people who have godly parents and who dwell in Christian families. You ought to grow like the flowers in a conservatory, where killing frosts and biting blasts are unknown. You live under very favorable circumstances. Your soul, I might almost say, is among angels, for you dwell where God is worshipped, where family prayer is not forgotten, where you can have a kindly guidance in the hour of difficulty and comfort in the time of trial. You dwell where angels come and go and God Himself deigns to dwell. Happy young people to be in such circumstances! How grateful and how holy you ought to be! I want all who dwell where everything helps them, to recollect the many gracious ones who dwell where everything hinders them. You who live near the Beautiful Gate of the temple must not forget the many who are sighing in the tents of Kedar. If...