I am sitting here by the Christmas tree, with a fire lit and a hot cup of coffee, reflecting on what I saw God do at skull church yesterday and I am making absolutely no attempt to wipe the grin off my face. I could never “get used” to taking part in something like that.

As always, singing all original songs that have been birthed in our church is always a joy and a treasure. And Gungor, the guest band, was out of control. We have been wanting to get them out for a long time and I have been hearing nothing but great things about their live performances. (if you don’t have any of their music go buy it here) They lived up to the hype and then some. Their music created an atmosphere of worship and expectation that was thick with beauty and texture. The only way I can describe the after party is to use a quotation from the Psalms, “deep calls unto deep at the roar of your waterfalls…” (Psalm 42:7)

The text we focused on was the verse that describes the only Christmas tree in the Bible. Galatians 3:13 says that Christ hung on the tree to redeem us from the curse of the law. Christmas is all about the tree that Jesus came to die on and we played “where’s waldo” finding clues about the cross scattered through out the scriptures. At the invitation we saw many respond to the gospel and commit their lives to Christ. And not just in person, we saw people register commitments to Christ online from 5 states and 3 countries!

Here is the December skull church lookbook.

Fast facts: Tonight at 7pm (MST) in downtown Kalispell, live everywhere on the web at skullchurch.com and broadcasting on fresh life radio (91.3 FM in the Flathead Valley and 107.1 & 88.9 FM in Billings).

Did you know? We have taken aggressive steps to improve our webcast so that MANY more people can stream it on computers and mobile devices without glitches or skipping. Invite someone to watch with you or post about it online! If you have sketchy internet or are still having trouble watching you can always listen to the audio-only feed on fresh life radio by pointing your iPhone or iPod touch’s browser to freshliferadio.com

Mark 7:24 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret.

Jesus had just had a super gnarly clash with his enemies who were constantly following him around and nitpicking his every move. They never did anything to help people but they had a lot to say about how he was doing it all wrong. That is usually how it goes. Those who do the least complain the most. And it gets draining after a while.

So he decided to get out of town for a little bit. He left Galilee, where he was well known, and crossed the border into Gentile territory. There is no way the messiah-police would be willing to follow him there…they would for sure get cooties from all the wicked sinners if they did. So he and his disciples would be able to get some rest and recharge their batteries.

That was the plan. But it didn’t turn out that way. He didn’t blend in very well. The text says, “he couldn’t keep his presence a secret.” Even though he was trying to keep a low profile he ended up attracting a bunch of attention when he healed a woman’s daughter after being there for a short time. He couldn’t help himself. It’s what he does. News quickly spread that Jesus had come into the home as the shockwaves of healing and change reverberated through the community.

Morale of the story: if Jesus has come into your house you won’t be able to keep it a secret. It will get out. You won’t be able to help it. That’s because he will never come into a home and leave things the same. He’s an applecart kicker over. A sin forgiver. A life-changer. A destiny re-router. Once inside your life his healing touch and out of control blessings will creep into every crevice of who you are and it will soon be visible on the outside. The kind of change he brings can’t be hidden for long. People will notice.

Take some time today to ask Christ to invade every nook and cranny of your being. Make sure he knows that your heart is his home and he can do whatever he wants in your life. Is there some area of your schedule or a relationship where you have been holding back? Give him an all access pass to your soul–no holds barred. But be prepared for others to notice, because word is going to get out.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

This weekend in the Clutch series we looked at the life of Peter. If being clutch is having the ability to perform well under pressure, Peter’s story started out with him being anything but clutch. It seems that every time he came to a crucial crossroads he choked. Whether trying to talk Jesus out of going to the cross, falling asleep during Jesus’ greatest moment of need or literally denying Christ 3x on the same night he swore he would die to defend Him; he proved himself to be a serial choke artist.

In the book of Acts, though, we see a completely different Peter than we witness in the gospels. He is bold instead of just brash, humble, more of a team player and most impressively he learned to keep a cool head when things heated up. Where before he pulled his sword out and chopped off an ear, later on he fearlessly unsheathed the sword of the spirit and 3,000 were saved. Early on he could be unnerved by the smallest servant girl but he went to the grave as fearless as a lion. He had become clutch.

It was a remarkable contrast and a testimony to the reality of the resurrection and the raw power of the Holy Spirit. I think that when these two things are neglected, perhaps more than any thing else, will drain us of the strength, energy and ability that are ours for the taking. If we are not daily emboldened by the wonder of Christ’s power over death and infused with His Spirit we will be sickly and anemic, and our performance will be pitiful.

As I covered Peter 1.0, the Peter we see perpetually stuck in struggle mode, and chronicled his list of failures I intentionally omitted something others might have included. I’m talking about the night where Jesus came to the disciples walking on the sea of Galilee and Peter got out of the boat and then after only a few steps he sank. I’ve heard people make a big deal about his failure to keep his eyes on Jesus and how he could had kept going had he not gotten distracted by the wind and the waves. That’s all true and a worthwhile thing to think about. But I personally don’t classify that episode as a fail. I think it belongs on his highlight reel not his blooper reel.

Yes he might have sunk, but let’s remember, he walked on water! None of the other disciples came close to drowning, but none of them had the guts to get out of the boat either. Ok, so he got in over his head and Jesus had to intervene, but back to my first point, HE WALKED ON WATER. It’s easy to criticize people who try big things because there will always be some amount failure when you are willing to get out of the boat. But a fail is not a fail when you fail taking steps of faith. It’s just par for the course and part of the experience.

Jesus said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4)

I love this verse. Jesus tells Peter to go fishing but first he has to push off from the shore. The nets they used wouldn’t work unless the water was deep. You couldn’t use them in shallow waters. The problem with deep water is that it’s unpredictable. Dangerous. Risky. Plus, you could potentially leave the safety of the shore and still come back empty handed. There’s no guarantee. Except this, if you don’t try you are guaranteed to not catch anything new.

That’s how it is in ministry. The shallow end of life is comfortable. It’s warm and cozy. Maintaining the status quo and enjoying the success you have already experienced is intoxicating. But you can’t let your nets down for another catch in the shallow end, you have to launch out into deeper waters. It would be nice if you could know in advance whether it will be fruitful. But it doesn’t work that way. You can either play it safe or potentially catch new fish. You can’t have both. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

These are the sorts of thoughts that flicker across my mind when my head hits the pillow at night. I am addicted to deeper waters. Tormented by tranquility. The thought of life passing by and freshlife having shifted into cruise control and playing it safe while there is a whole world out there to reach causes me to sit up in a cold sweat and panic.

I am so grateful that I get to serve God with a team that is as averse to the shallow end of life as I am. And this weekend it was a joy to watch months and months of intense prayer and effort come to fruition as we launched out into the deep once again and planted freshlife Billings. Believe me when I tell you that opening a campus 8 hours away, (Billings is the same driving distance from us as Seattle is) in a city you have never preached in before, came with more than just a few complications. I’ve never seen our staff or volunteers work harder as they have pursuing this dream of making Jesus famous in Billings.

In addition to the Billings team, the MOB and the support crew from the Whitefish, and the Kalispell campuses that were on hand to help, thirty-seven people attended the opening weekend. That’s more than twice as many as we had when we opened the doors to fresh life for the first time! We also saw someone come to Christ before Sunday morning. The MOB team was out inviting people and as they struck up a conversation with one individual they ended up giving their life to Christ on the spot. Amazing.

As I reflect on the excitement of the launch, the beautiful thing is that this wasn’t a one-off event. We get to do it again next week, and I believe the best is yet to come! There are seats to fill at the Billings West high school and there are people in that city that need Christ. It’s time to let the nets down…