I've used this Scripture before but the Lord led me back to it again. I have been stirred this week as I hear of different circumstances within our community, state and nation. I'm going to be very bold this week, so please do not take offense to anything, that is not my intention. Visualize this as if a coach of a sports team called a time out, got the team in a huddle in order to stir them and snap them out of their slump. This is a challenge to The Church.

The church has been called to be a giant in the land but the giant is sleeping. There seems to be no sense of responsibility and no sense of urgency amongst the majority of believers. We are more concerned about our programs and what this one is doing wrong and that one is doing different. While we are doing this we can't even see that people are hurting, people are dying and going to hell, people are hopeless, broken, defeated. When will the sleeping giant wake up? We need an awakening but the awakening needs to start in The Church, in the believers. Selfishness, jealousy, and a spirit of competition need to be washed away. It's about the kingdom, it's about people. My wife and I are kingdom people, you could put us in the middle of Antarctica and we would have as much passion about the kingdom and reaching people as we do here or anywhere else.

new MPA policy, a student and-or parent or guardian may notify the school administrator or athletic administrator that the student has a consistent gender identity different than the birth-assigned gender or the gender listed on the student's registration records and desires to participate in activities in a manner consistent with the student's gender identity" (courtesy of Bangor Daily News). Last year an article was released stating Maine was the least religious state in the nation. I just read another up to date, recent article in a Christian magazine that doesn't just reach Maine it reaches the nation. Here is what the article says: "New England is generally America's least biblically minded region." These types of things should be stirring up some anger in us to do something.

We, The Church, are spiritually fat enough, let's do something! I'm tired of playing church, I'm tired of going through the motions, it's time to break out from the walls and have more focus on the outside than on the inside. It's time to stop storming the gates of heaven looking for answers, we have our answers, it's time to storm the gates of hell and take back what the enemy has stolen. He's stealing our children, our families, our communities. WAKE UP SLEEPING GIANT! I heard a minister make this statement recently and I loved it. All of the spiritual armor we were given was given to protect us from the front, we don't have any armor to cover our back. We weren't meant to be attacked by the enemy from behind, we were meant to meet the enemy face on!

I've included this song by Eddie James this week.

 You need to listen to it. It's time believers. Part of the song says "what we have, is not working, what we're doing, is not changing anything." Church, what we have is not working, what we're doing is not changing anything. We need a sever infusion of the Holy Spirit, we are in desperate need of awakening and it needs to start with us. You may not agree that what we have is not working and what we're doing is not changing anything but you need to step back and evaluate and be honest with yourself. It's time to do things differently than we've ever done it. Our churches, our youth groups, our other ministries don't need normal, we need different. It's time for people to hear the message of love and grace. Put away your list of rules and regulations, the law died on the cross with Jesus, quit trying to revive it. Our state and our nation is where it's at because we, as Christians, have laid down and let things happen. It's time for the sleeping giant to awake.