Bill C-9 Has Passed: Why We Keep Praying Anyway

I've got hard news, friends. We prayed it wouldn't happen. It happened. Bill C-9 is law.

Since 1970, Canadian law said a man couldn't be convicted of hate speech for expressing, in good faith, an opinion based on his belief in a religious text. That was the shield over your pulpit. Fifty-six years it stood there. It's gone now.

Here's what that means in the real world. Almost anybody can file a complaint against a pastor, a preacher, or you for saying something they've decided is hate speech — and it doesn't matter one bit if it came straight off the page of your Bible. There's no longer a protection written into the law for sincerely held religious belief. I have no doubt some preachers are going to end up in prison over this. And a whole lot of others are just going to get scared and start preaching the parts of the Bible that the government is comfortable with us saying out loud. And, of course, that line will continue to move. 

How Bill C-9 Affects Pastors and the Church

This doesn't stop at the pulpit.

Congregations all over this country are watching their own leaders now, wondering where the man up front actually stands. Is he holding the Word, or is he bending? That question is going to force some hard decisions in churches everywhere. It already has.

We prayed before this passed. We're going to keep praying now. Pray for boldness in our leaders. Pray for backbone. Pray for men and women who'll stand on God's Word no matter what it costs them.

And I'll be honest with you — I don't see how this doesn't put more strain on things, especially out here in Alberta, where we're already sitting close to the edge on the separation talk. This kind of pressure could be the shove that sends things further than anybody's expecting.

The media will tell you this is nothing. Don't be fooled. This is a turning point for Canada.

Where We Actually Stand as Christians in Canada

God is still on the throne. That hasn't wobbled once.

Jesus said that before He comes back it would look like the days of Noah and the days of Sodom — people eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, going right along like nothing was coming. And Sodom was ugly. Sin right out in the open, nobody blushing about any of it. Sexual perversion in the streets. 

We're not Sodom yet, but things are heading that way. People are going places they've got no business going–including washrooms and change rooms. Now we're being told which parts of God's Word we're allowed to preach. It's getting uglier.

You get to decide what you do with that. Will you stand with the Lord? Will you stand on His Word? Or will you bow when it starts costing you something?

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

I pray the same over yours.

Hope in the Hard Times: Praying for Revival

Thank you to every one of you who pray, contend, call on the Lord, and stand in the gap. Not one prayer was wasted.

Keep praying. Keep believing. Canada will be saved.

And read your history — the darkest seasons are exactly when revival tends to break out. I'm not sitting here hoping for bad news. But when something like this lands, a strange kind of hope rises up in me, and here's why. What I want isn't better policy. I'd take it, but that's not what I'm after.

I want revival. I want Canada turned upside down for Jesus Christ.

Maybe this is the shaking this nation needs to get people looking up and saying yes to Him in a bigger way than they ever would have on a comfortable day.

Stay Alert: Bill C-22

One more for your prayer list. Bill C-22 would hand the government a lot more access to your private information online. It's already through the House of Commons, and it's sitting in the Senate right now, waiting.

That's why I'm bringing it to you today instead of next spring. This one isn't finished yet. There's still something to pray into.

We pray for our leaders even in this. God bless them. God help them. But where this is all heading ought to bring us to our knees.

Stay joyful. Stay alert. These are serious days, and I want you standing firm in them.

I love you. God bless you. We'll see you soon.