Yes! It’s time to wake up. Wake up to what is going on around us, if you haven’t already. Wake up to what it means for our own lives, and for our children and grandchildren if we don’t at the very least speak into their lives the truths of God’s Word.

By nature, I am a quiet homebody, getting well into my senior years. I would be perfectly content to live out the rest of my days reading, writing, playing my piano, and spending time with my family. If this were a few decades ago, I would perhaps be able to do that. But in 2024, we can no longer afford to do that. Too much is at stake. There can be no more sitting on the fence on the issues of our day — no more hiding our head in the sand, hoping things will change for the better if we ignore them.

We Have to Take a Stand

Maybe you don’t have a social media platform, pulpit, or YouTube channel. Maybe you have no real means of proclaiming or broadcasting the truth to hundreds or thousands of people.
But at the very least, know what you believe and why, and be able to defend it.

From Anonymity to the Spotlight

The past few years have removed me from my quiet complacency and put me into the conflict in several ways. I am still in the background, and not in the thick of things, but I am squarely in the company of others who have already suffered from taking action and speaking up against the ideologies and falsehoods that have penetrated even the Church today.

GraceLife

Three years ago, a good many of us found ourselves on the outside after a major, painful church split. I won’t go into details, but will only say that God has made it clear in the Scriptures, what qualifications a church leader must meet, or he should not be there. Many people were deeply hurt at that time, some of them my dearest friends. We have all found new church homes since then, and are happy.

For some of my family, we found GraceLife Church, which you may know, was very much in the news in early 2021. The lead teaching pastor, James Coates, was jailed for refusing to bend to government over-reach into Christ’s domain. By the time we began attending a year later, charges were still in place against Pastor James and against the church. All charges have since been dropped. The conflict was over, and did not affect my family directly.

But IS it over? Not the way our society is going. We as Christians are the enemy, the bigots, the haters, in the eyes of those around us. The stage is set… the ice is broken… the real enemy of our souls will find other ways of oppressing those who stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and His truth. Are you awake? Do you see this?

Alistair Begg

A month ago, it came to light that a dear man of God made a foolish mistake, and it caused quite a stir online that has not yet died out. Nor should it. I love Alistair Begg. He has had a big impact on my own spiritual life. As far as I know, he has stood firmly on the truth during his more than four decades of ministry. This is what is so troubling about the situation. His faux pas is not something that should cause us to throw him away like trash. He is not a heretic. But he seriously dropped the ball on this one, and I sincerely hope and pray he sees that one day, and makes things right.

This kind of thing is going to happen more an more often in the coming days. The issues and evils of our day will affect every one of us if it hasn’t already — friends, family members, our children — and we need to be prepared.

Again, I won’t go into detail about the situation with Alistair Begg. You probably already know what I am talking about. Whether you do or not, this video should shed light on why he is wrong, and how we should handle things like this.

Plebiscite

A week ago, we had a plebiscite in our town. A town of under 5000 people, but it has caused a furor here in town, on social media, and in the news — CBC, Global News, National Post, just to name a few.

The question was whether or not to pass a bylaw to a) ban the flying of any flag other than our national, provincial, and town flags, on the flagpoles on municipally owned property; b) keep crosswalks standard, and free of any decorations of any kind; and c) to remove the LGBTQ+ flag from the crosswalk that was painted last summer.

Vote NO! was the aggressive campaign of our new mayor and town council. Vote YES! was the only real Christian option.

This is far bigger than just the flags and the crosswalk, as is evident from the fallout after the vote. The result was close — 663 (Yes) to 639 (No). The town is sharply divided. There are a good many non-Christians who voted Yes, and sadly, I know of some Christians who voted No.

Let Your Light Shine

Friends, this is getting closer and closer to all of us. We cannot ignore it any more. Remember what Jesus said?

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” ~ Matthew 5:14-16

We are well beyond the notion that God will judge our society if we don’t change. We ARE under His judgment right now. He has removed some of His restraining power from our society, and people are getting what they want.

To loosely paraphrase Joshua (24:15), Choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of our present day, or the true and living God of the Scriptures.

Don’t buy into the ideologies of our day. Be absolutely and completely sold out to the Captain of your soul, your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.