Will North America be the New Third World? (A Canadian Perspective) Malachi 3:7 – “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them.  Return to Me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.  “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’.” Living in the land of plenty certainly has its benefits.  We are well clothed; well fed; we have a roof over our heads; our land is not afflicted by wars; our children are not afflicted or dying of starvation and of aids; and for the most part they have parents or family who provide for them.  Yet for all of this, we have are a destitute nation.  We are like Jeshurun and have grown fat and lazy (see Deuteronomy 32:15-18 a key scripture to this document.)  As a nation we take the goodness of the Lord for granted, we have turned from the spiritual foundations of our forefathers who established this land as ‘the dominion of the Lord’.  In America is proclaimed that God – the one true God – will have ‘dominion from sea to shining sea’, in Canada we proclaim and ask that ‘God keep our land glorious and free’.  This has been written into the foundation of our country.  The word of God has been etched in stone on the foundations of our government land and our governing city of Ottawa.  Yet this generation has denied the very proclamation of the land of Canada as the dominion of God. We have, as a nation, turned our backs on both the founding fathers of this land and on the Lord God Almighty.  In doing this, we have, as a nation chosen not to honour our fathers and our mothers and this choice will reap the consequences of our sin.  A foundational commandment has been established in the kingdom of God and has been given to us and yet we walk in direct disregard and disobedience to this established command to, ‘Honour your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you’.  As a nation, we have deceived and been deceived into believing that the wisdom and the ways of man can replace the form of God in our land.  We have become proud and arrogant and have chosen to believe that the benefits of this land are rights which have been established by man not God.  We have chosen to institute false gods, false religions, false concepts and idolatrous lies those of which seek to destroy the very fabric of our land. Our false gods are resident in our homes; our governors (politicians); our businesses; our wealth; and our institutions in every aspect from government, to health, to education, to our courts and to our laws, and to our churches.  We have established and built our own gods based on the formation of our own perceptions of what is right and true.  In the process, we have denied truth.  In the process, we have denied that it is God who established us in this land.  It is the government of God which we are to bow before and serve – a government of righteousness, of truth, of mercy and compassion – a government which has been firmly established throughout the ages and which does not change nor does it grow old. In our zeal to rule both land and man we have thrown out, discarded, the government and rule of God.  We have seen the government of God as antiquated and have believed that man’s wisdom and humanity is better served than God.  We have set in place government programs and benefits to display ourselves as a righteous nation, as merciful and as compassionate, as peacemakers.  In all of this we have created our own truth and have denied God.  We have built for ourselves our golden calves.  We have taken the wealth of our land, our benefits, and we have created worthless idols.  Rather than being willing recipients and proper stewards of what the Lord has given us in the ‘land of opportunity’; rather than taking what we have and establishing the kingdom of God through our actions, our words, our deeds, we have turned the responsibility for righteousness over to our created governments.  Rather than doing, ourselves, what is right we have neglected our responsibility we each have as individuals to do what is right and just and true before God and in so doing we have built our sacred cows. We have allowed false religions to thrive in our land – a land committed to God.  We have neglected the matters of truth and of mercy in doing this.  We have indoctrinated into the worship of many other nations.  We have believed the lie that mercy and compassion is shown in our humanity by permitting everyone to worship whichever god they perceive.  We have not seen that true mercy and compassion called out from the cross, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’.  We have humanized Godly concepts of mercy and compassion and have allowed for the proliferation of many false gods in our land. We have introduced false concepts and beliefs that have superseded the law of God in our land in the form of new concepts and laws in our land which are foreign to God’s written law.  Some of these would include the legitimacy of same sex unions, to the freedom of choice allowing the aborting of unborn babies; to the stamp of approval and absolution of our marriages and of our divorces; to the public education of our children resulting in government control of what is taught and thought thereby introducing and indoctrinating our children in secular humanism.  The rule of our land has been turned over to both judges and politicians appointed by man who form new laws, rules and regulations in direct contradiction to eternal truth.  Even our churches have fallen victim to these falsehoods wherein our church institutions strive for the government benefit of tax relief and recognition while neglecting, in large part, the greater lasting aspects of Godly benefit to all who are in need regardless of tax incentives and personal re cognition.  Even in our church institutions we play at rendering unto God what is God’s in order to appease Caesar.  We have lost sight of that, which is holy, that which is to be set apart unto God.  We have chosen to be rewarded in the here and now through tax reform, government control, and personal and public recognition rather than giving freely of our thoughts, our hearts, our minds and our pocketbook.  We dole out begrudgingly that which may be of credit to us and thereby are receipted and receive our earthly reward, our recompense.  We build ‘spiritual’ houses (churches) of brick, stone and wood while neglecting the tent of the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, (2 Corinthians 5:1  ‘For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ).  Instead we have rebuilt the temple where ‘ministry’ happens rather than a place of indwelling where God’s glory goes forth to the lost, to the broken, to the needy, to the orphan, to the widow.  We have become a dwelling place of all kinds of evil and every type of crawling creature, creatures which haunt death.  We can no longer see the differentiation of the poison that prevails in our land and in the hearts and minds of man.  (Romans 1:22-32)  We call good of that which is not good and we prevail upon God in our times of dire need.  (Isaiah 5:20)  As a nation, our government even forbids the public naming of God the Father and of Jesus Christ His son thereby denying the dwelling, resting place of His Holy Spirit.  We have become a dwelling place of every kind of evil and have denied God what was rightfully committed to Him. Unless we change our ways and fully turn to God, each one of us, first, without judging the other, our land will be taken from us and our children will be destroyed for the lack of the knowledge of God.  We will become as a third world country, a land of have-nots.  We are perilously close to the edge even now.  We are severely lacking in judgment and in discipline in our employment; in our education; in our governments and in our pursuit of God.  It has become so easy for us to succeed that we have bought into the lie that we need do nothing, or at the very least be marginalized in our efforts and we will receive our comfort.  We have lost out on a work ethic of ‘in everything you do, do it as unto the Lord’ (Colossians 3:23-25)  and have instead accepted the idolatrous lie that ‘everything you do, do it as unto yourself that you might succeed’.  Nations who know not the God of our fathers work diligently from sunrise to sunset and beyond.  Nations who follow false gods and false religions honour and respect the laws of their gods even though they are without the mercy, compassion, truth and love of God – even though they are hard, unjust and untrue and frequently inflict pain and suffering on many.  Yet in this land where we have the privilege of worshipping a kind, gracious, compassionate, forgiving and loving God but we dishonour and neglect Him even though He is the One who established us here in this land. There is a final call to right ourselves and to return to God that He may return to us.  (Mal. 3:7)  His return is close at hand.  Would we not rather return to Him before He comes in judgment upon all of the land and its inhabitants?  Can we not see the blood stained land of that which Christ has claimed for us?  Can we not see our dire need for a Saviour?  Have we, in fact, become so fat and sleek that we believe we no longer need God or that a passing homage is sufficient?  Wake up and strengthen what remains – that God would turn from His wrath and give us peace.  Must one wait for judgment or may we turn now and be saved?  Time awaits no man, prepare now that your Father who dwells in heaven will see the good that you do and will turn and give you rest. A great and mighty war afflicts us unless we turn and repent.  The battle is for your soul, the battle is for the hearts, mind and soul of your children, the battle is for the nation.  Let us not wait until we have seen utter defeat in the hearts and minds of the people and of the land but let us prepare now.  Our God is a merciful God and does not treat us as our sins deserve.  He will relent upon those who cast themselves into His will.  Pray. Note to the reader: Yesterday morning as I reflected on the Lord I kept hearing, “Return to me and I will return to you”.  It is from this call that this transcript has been written.  As I have transcribed this perspective I was led to seek out portions of it within the context of scripture, some of which I have noted.  I would strongly recommend that you read and pray through both the written perspective and the corresponding scripture noted within and below.  You would be benefited to read through the scriptures rather than even this perspective.  I would also encourage you, as the Holy Spirit prompts you to seek out other scripture as you have read this narrative.  I pray that you would ‘go and do good in the land your God has given you’.   Deborah – November 23, 2005 Scripture: Malachi 3:7 Malachi 3:1-6 Deuteronomy 32:15-18 Deuteronomy 32:10-47 2 Corinthians 5:1 Romans 1:22-32 Isaiah 5:20 Colossians 3:23-25 Revelation 3:2-4 Deuteronomy 4:25-31 Deuteronomy 8:1-18