We have been working on this stretch of jungle for three and a half years now and though we have seen God do incredible things, we are still swinging like we just began. I never want that to stop. I hope and pray that no matter how long God tarries that we will still think and work with the fresh intensity and raw zeal of a start-up work. We are still planting this church and always will be.

The moment you begin to sit around talking about how far you have come and maintaining the status quo, not only do you stop moving forward but the jungle actually begins to close in on you. You have to fight to maintain the hunger and drive that comes from just starting out. There is a slowness and a deadness that comes from thinking like an institution. No matter how long you have been at it, grab your machete and start hacking like you just started!

A text-msg question about getting high that I answered @ Skull Church.

When I met with the mayor of Kalispell, before this project began, and asked how she would have us spend the 3,000 hours one of the immediate things she asked for us to focus on was graffiti removal. As a result that has been an area that we have thrown a lot of energy at. We have prayed that people would see our “good works and give glory to our Father in Heaven” (Matthew 5:16) But this past week one of our teams, that was serving in this way, attracted the wrong kind of attention. One of the local newspapers runs a section, called the Law Roundup, where they report all police activity from the day before. (One of the quirky things about living in a small town) It is usually pretty humorous to read. Here is what was written about the RTC team:

Police investigated a complaint that youths were spray-painting the bridge at Underpass Hill. It turned out that the young people were performing a good deed by removing the graffiti Tuesday evening.

You can learn more about Rock this City, watch videos where you can meet some of the RTC stars and even participate and log your hours (no matter where you live) here.

Early this morning, Jennie and I received a wonderful gift from the Lord and her name is Daisy Grace! Weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz, she arrived at 4:41 this morning. She is healthy, awesome and, like her sisters, she waited until I was done preaching for the weekend to show up! Thank you in advance for your prayers, praising God for a safe arrival, for her and Jennie!

As crazy as that seems, do you realize that your entire life is a lot like that brief period of lunacy between the warning light coming on and my friends car coming sputtering to a stop. James says that “life is a vapor,” and he means that it will be over before you know it. No matter how old or young you are, the gas light is on and you are riding on fumes. It could go on for a long time or you could be dead by the end of the week. The harsh truth is, none of us are guaranteed anything beyond today.

The goal then should be to make this brief life count, but how do you do that?

Robert Murray McCheyne, an awesome Scottish preacher, used to regularly say “Live so as to be missed.” He died before his thirtieth birthday in 1843 and yet because of his laser-like focus on eternity and his infectious passion for lost people, he is still impacting people today, myself included, through his writings and his example. He lived so as to be missed.

2 Chronicles 21:20 describes someone who did just the opposite. It says, “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. No one was sorry when he died. They buried him in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery.”

When you read about Jehoram you find out that he became king in Judah during the days of the divided kingdom, to wipe out the competition he murdered his own brothers. He married a daughter of the phenomenally wicked King Ahab, who ruled in Israel, and Jehoram led his people into the worship of idols. Finally, the prophet Elijah wrote him a letter letting him know that he was going to get an intestinal disease that would cause his bowels to fall out of his body. He died in agony. No one cared.

What a vivid contrast. I think that we all want our lives to count, to be missed and we’d definitely rather not have our bowels fall out! But what are you doing about that today? You must remember that you are writing your epitaph each day as you live your life. If the fumes ran out today and you died, would you be missed? Are you making your brief life count for eternity? It’s been well said, ‘Only one life, will soon be past, and only what’s done for Christ will last.’ May God fill you with His Spirit and give you the tenacity and the power to focus on Him, like a heat-seeking missile, that you might live to make Jesus famous in this world while you still have time.

Daniel 12:3 Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever.

When he arrives at the prophet’s home he is surprised and disgusted that the man of God doesn’t treat him like a VIP, he doesn’t even talk to him at all! He simply sends a message telling Naaman that if he were to dip 7x in the muddy Jordan river he would be healed. In the same way that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Cor 1:18) Naaman thinks this plan is the stupidest thing he has ever heard, and he almost leaves. In the end he humbles himself and does what he was told. As a result, Naaman’s leprosy was healed and his heart was transformed. He became a God-fearer and we can look forward to meeting him in heaven.

As riveting as the entire story is, to me the most exciting detail is the part played by the servant who referred him to Elisha in the first place. We don’t know her name or anything about her except that she was an Israelite that had been kidnapped and forced to live as a slave in Naaman’s house. Only two verses are given to her in the entire Bible (II Kings 5:2,3) and yet she was used powerfully by God in the healing and conversion of her influential master. How differently Naaman’s story would have gone had she not piped up. She certainly had every reason to NOT tell him about what God could do if he would make the trip to Israel. When raiding bands took slaves they often killed the men. She potentially saw her father murdered before being dragged off to live as a slave. In spite of this, she was filled with compassion and spoke spoke up in love.

We all need to realize the important role we have in the work of evangelism as we do something as simple as inviting people to a church service, an outreach or telling them about an online webcast they can watch where they will hear the gospel presented. Evangelist Greg Laurie, who has preached to over 4 million people in crusades says that says 85 percent of those who come forward at the invitation to follow Christ were brought by a friend. Opportunities to speak up are all around us and we never know what ginormous things God could do through our smallest act of faith.

History might remember the healing of Naaman as one of the miracles that God did through Elisha’s ministry, but in the Lord’s eyes this young chick was an equally important part of the process. In the end, both the one who sets and the one who spikes will receive equal spiritual rewards (1 Cor. 3:6). So look for an opportunity to be used by God today!

I believe that one of the greatest things you can do to protect your vision is to employ strategic silence until the opportune time. You see this in scripture. When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem with a vision to rebuild the walls he said nothing for three days. He didn’t even tell the people who were going to do the work until the time was right. (Nehemiah 2:11,16) It would have been easy to let it slip, but he didn’t want any neigh-sayers to put their own spin on it as they broadcasted the news. He wouldn’t forfeit the right to be the one to impart the vision to the people himself.

When God revealed to Mary that she was raising the Messiah it would have been easy to respond to that annoying mom who had a “my kid is on the honor roll at Nazareth elementary” bumper sticker with a nonchalant, that’s nice. Oh and did I mention that my kid is ‘destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel?’ But she didn’t. Luke 2:51 specifically says she, “kept all these things in her heart.” She protected the vision of what God was going to do with strategic silence for a period of time.

If you want to know what can happen when you share your dreams too early, look no further than Joseph. Over a bowl of fruit-loops one morning he casually mentioned to his family that they were all going to bow down and worship him one day. Joseph was sharing exactly what God had revealed to him, and it would come to pass exactly as he saw it, but his family wasn’t too keen on the idea at the time. Sharing the dream so early on lead to some rocky days for young Joseph as his brothers took steps to keep it from coming to pass and that is what can happen when you don’t protect the vision with silence early on.

Looking back on my life, I can think of times where I let dreams out of my heart too early or with the wrong people and got discouraged as a result. It’s easy to do. You want affirmation. In fear you desire to hear from others that you aren’t crazy, that they think it will work, that you should ‘totally go for it.’ And because “in the multitude of counselors there is safety” you seek out feedback. Be careful. To all but the eye of faith a God-sized vision looks impossible. The eye of the flesh will see the problems, the reasons why it won’t work, those who have tried it before. And you can easily end up bailing on your calling because some hater told you that there is no way you can kill a goliath with a sling-shot. It just can’t be done. And they are right, you can’t. But God can.

Check this out, Psalm 115:3 says, “Our god is in Heaven, He does as He wishes.” If God wants to do the impossible in your life–that’s exactly what He will do. Nothing is too hard for him. I’m not saying you shouldn’t seek out godly counsel, before you take action, you should. But when you do make sure it’s from those with gutsy faith who won’t just see all the reasons why it won’t work. Seek out advice from people who have taken risks that God has blessed.

To use a coffee illustration, there might be a season where you need to just keep things brewing before you push the plunger down and pour it out. There are dreams in my heart, I believe God is going to do in my life and ministry one day, that only a select group of individuals are privy to and there are other ones that no one knows about but my wife. If I said them out loud in public I would probably scare myself right now. I am protecting them with silence until the time is right. Protect the vision God has given you!

“There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish… it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter.

God has knit our hearts together and we have become great friends. My favorite thing about him is his intense passion for the gospel. Pedro is one of the most high-energy people that I have ever met, and he focuses all of that energy, like a laser, on reaching lost people for Christ. If you have heard him preach you know what I am talking about. But if you ever went out to eat with him you would see it there too–because he would be just as passionate sharing the gospel with a person he just met in the lobby of the restaurant.

His teaching show can be heard each weekday morning on Fresh Life Radio at 10am. Make sure to join us at Skull Church tomorrow night, either in person or through the webcast, but also pray about who God would have you invite or email a link to.

At it’s core skull church is all about one thing and only one thing, the gospel. It is a platform to amplify what happened at the place of the skull, where Jesus died on the cross, for the sins of the world. We are aggressively targeting a lost generation with the good news. And in the last year, through this ministry, we have seen 440 people make professions of faith in Jesus Christ. That is what skull church is all about. The people who have had their hearts rocked by Christ, the lives that have been changed. And we are sure that God has done even more than we are aware of as the messages have sounded forth on the radio, internet, and podcasts all over the country and beyond. If I have learned anything in the 8 years I have been preaching it’s this, God’s Word does not return void.

To celebrate properly we released a new shirt (it will be available to buy online later today here) showed a brand new version of the introduction video that sets the tone for each service (shown below) and had a proper birthday party at the Lab after the service. In all we went through some sixteen square feet of cake (topped with the skull church logo) and the coffee flowed like wine. I was unable to go to sleep until 3am as proof of this!

The highlight for me was hearing from different people after the service who have given their lives to the Lord in the past year and wanted to say how thankful they are for skull church. Those kind of stories are like spiritual rocket fuel. They intensify my resolve to preach the gospel and reach the lost. After all, time is short, life will be over soon and Jesus is coming back! It’s time to rise up so that those who are stranded in sin might find life and liberty in Christ.

Reflecting on the past is fun and it is special to pause and appreciate what has been–but now it’s onward and upward. I truly believe that skull church’s best days are still to come and I can’t wait to see what God has for us in this next year of ministry.