The Underhill side porch kick ball crew
Hello!
Due to time restraints, I don’t read many books. So when I do read, I am more interested in reading the Scriptures. However, I have recently been reading a book – 2 years now. The title is The Rest of the Gospel. There has only been a few books to have made that much impact on my way of thinking, the Bible being the main one. The Rest of the Gospel is probably near the top of the list. The truths are not so much new to me as the application has taken me to new places beyond knowledge. Along with teaching you who you are in Christ, to apply the truths in this way has taught me fundamentals of resting in Christ. Thus, The REST of the Gospel.
The Life of Christ is within those who believe, and also the REST is within. Christians have an extreme amount of opportunity inside of them. Taking the time to dig out what Christ has really done for me has changed my life.
2 Corinthians 4:18, “…we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” In this verse I see a line. Above the line is the unseen, the eternal. Below the line is the temporal, the things I see. There is of course no visible line, but there are two realms coexisting at the same time. They are going on in the midst of each other.
We as believers in the God of the Bible live both above and below the line. In Christ we have the blessed privilege of looking through the seen (below the line) into the unseen (above the line). We can therefore have some of God’s eternal perspective while we are also here in the seen around us. REST only lies in the unseen, eternal realm. True Life only lies there. This REST we can have below the line is only revealed by the Spirit to us.
So I can take any situation, person or myself and come to the point where I say I live by what God says about things in my life. Each time I can ask God, Lord, what are you going to do with this? What do you want me to learn?
Christ as my Life answers all of the questions for me. As I begin to apply this truth, I realize there is no separation. I live in union. I cease striving to get close to God by way of programs, plans or other ways. In learning to realize God and I are one, I can take any situation and see it is for my good that it was brought into my life. God is using everything to bring me to see Him, to say oh God, to reach out to Him whether I perceive the situation as good or evil. I get to the point where I can say Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus while in this circumstance. I have to come to know You are my Life.Sometimes I hurt, but I realize my Lord is for me teaching me through every experience. Besides coming to know Christ as my Savior, this REST would be the next revelation I want to pass on to my children and especially my grandchildren. Who, by the way are all doing well.
Grandchildren
Cora, now 13, can still be found with a book in her hand anywhere she goes. I asked her once how she can read with all the noise. She said you know where I live, always people talking and the dog, Scout. Rick and I are hoping Cora gets to attend her first youth camp on the Hill in January.
Prudence, now 9, is in dance and choir at school. Recently we went to hear her Christmas Choir Concert. Watching and listening to Pru reminded me how much I love choral. I hope she continues down the music road.
Theodore, now 8, remains a young man loving life. At the community Christmas parade he surprised us while revealing a big change. He removed his sock cap to show us he had his long hair cut off! We were all extremely surprised. He looks great, and does no matter the hair style. As Theodore sat with his new hair cut beside Jensen to watch the Christmas parade, some would say the cousins reminded them of Kyle and Adam sitting there. Indeed, Kyle and Adam did the same thing on these curbs many times as boys.
Jensen and Theodore at the Christmas Parade
Jensen, now 7, is becoming an excellent reader and mathematician. While recently riding in the truck with Rick, he asked his Papa to ask him some easy, medium and hard math problems to figure out. Rick began with simple plus or minus equations. After getting all of the simple and medium (3 part) questions right, Rick soon found Jensen capable of 4 part story problems! Jensen finally missed an answer, but still got 6 of the 7 story problems correct.
It seems we are always on life changing experiences
Rick has recently left his full-time sign building job and shifted back to working with Kim and the staff at the Hill. He is working as the Head of Operations, and is of course loving every minute of it. This also allows him some margin to mentor and counsel more people.
I recently shifted back to my former family practice clinic in the inner city of Evansville, IN. I am able to work with some of my favorite providers, giving good nursing care alongside of them to the inner city.
May 2026 find you each well and growing in your awareness of Jesus. There is no other life to live for.
Love you all. Be a lover of His soul.
Donna
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I believe God appeared in the body we knew as Jesus. Jesus lived among us. He was proven to be God by the Spirit. He was preached among the nations and was believed on in the world. I believe Jesus is God. I believe Jesus conquered death and was taken up to glory. I believe He is coming back again, and I believe His Spirit gives us power.
It has been almost two years since we wrote you in a newsletter, although many of you regularly communicate with us through card and emails. Thank you for the encouragement of your prayers and gifts of many kinds. They do matter now and forever.
Why have we allowed nearly two years to pass? Well, it seemed there was so much happening so fast that we needed to stay focused on what was being placed before us in order to keep up. I apologize, I would have loved to have written sooner.
It continues to be my hobby and pastime to read and think on Jesus. The more of His life and my own earthly life I experience the fewer questions I require an answer for. I know Jesus is the only door to God. I have entered in. He is safe because He lives eternally. Therefore, I am safe. I have found Jesus to be the only answer I need to be sure about.
Mentoring and Counseling
Not that you need to notice, but Donna and I have celebrated two wedding anniversaries since we last wrote. I am proud to be her husband. For the 43rd anniversary we took a day off of work, spent it running errands, eating in a local restaurant for lunch and watching a murder mystery that night on PBS. It was very sweet as I see it, but uneventful by some measures.
The 44th anniversary was rather eventful. God tickled both of our spirits in Colorado Springs to affirm a calling on our lives. He did a similar thing the first time we went there in 1992, too. Let me briefly explain what happened this time around as best I can from this side of the veil, 1 Corinthians 13:12.
On Sunday, October 5th, our Colorado Springs friends, Brad and Kris, took us to church with them. Little did Donna and I know that this was to be an ordination service for the Senior Pastor of New Life Church. As the service was organizing to start, my spirit began to respond to the Spirit as we stood in the lobby. That is not uncommon when the Spirit is making Himself known to people. Inside the sanctuary the experience continued with incredible worship songs about Jesus, most of which I had never heard.
At the end of the service, I stepped into the aisle away from others to get some space to gather my emotions. Donna soon walked up to me. She was as I, holding back emotion. She said to me through gentle tears, “God has called you to do this (love people) in Kentucky, too (just as we witnessed with this pastor here today).” I looked at her and agreed through tears of my own. We embraced and held one another close and tightly. For several minutes we celebrated and affirmed God being with us while hundreds of people filed by and into the lobby. The experience with God at New Life was a highlight of a spiritually affirming 10-day trip.
The Grand Canyon
On Monday, October 6, Donna and I drove to Williams, AZ, about one hour south of the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Our 13 hour drive took us through Colorado, New Mexico and into Arizona. Of course, we saw a very different way of living than we have in the Midwest. The desert, like any climate, presses you into what it allows.
Wednesday was our day to take the Grand Canyon Railway out of Williams to the Grand Canyon. We spent most of the day at the southwest rim of the Canyon. We loved the experience even more than the visit we had to the southeast portion of the canyon the day before. During our lunch, I told Donna these two days at the Canyon had been emotional for me. A few times I had looked away from the canyon to check my emotions. Yes, I understand in one sense it is just a big hole. It is 18 miles across, one mile deep and well over 100 miles long rim to rim. But the canyon has a personality. It reflects a Person to me. It really does. There is no reasonable explanation known for it other than God. I would be foolish to believe otherwise based upon what I heard from park employees and read while visiting there.
More about the Calling confirmed at New Life Church in Colorado (and affirmed once again)
In May of 2025 I wrote in my journal, “something is happening to me. It is so far hard to put into words. As you become more aware of God you sacrifice the present and you for the future and others. I am decisively valuing experiences and things differently. With regards to pulling to myself what pleases me in the present, I am becoming most likely to exchange it for what now feels like a higher ground of the future and others.”
Summer Camp 2025 at the Hill in Hardin, KY was July 13-19. I went there to serve alongside many of the coolest people you will ever meet and who continue to be leading there each summer for about 30 years now. Even with the familiarity, there are always some wonderful surprises. The Spirit of God came upon us in a most unusual expression this summer. For example, perhaps 30 or more students responded to God at one time on Friday night by spending an hour or more on their faces before Him as the rest of us sang. Many of the students accepted Christ that night with more to follow when they got home!
Kim Warren did talk privately with me before I left Camp to tell me she needed operational help at the Hill. I asked her if she had a description of the person she had in mind. She said someone like me. I told her I wasn’t her guy. I already had a plan in the works. Others were on board. My plan was to flip my roles from full-time sign builder and part-time discipleship/mentor in May 2026.
It was only a matter of hours before the Lord let me know it was important that Donna and I hear Kim out. I called Kim and invited her to our Indiana home to talk about what her ideas. Donna and I were willing to help Kim think through and find the answer to the need, and even be part of the solution. Kim came to see us on July 25th and 26th.
In short, Donna, Kim and I had several face to face discussions this fall. Donna and I decide to accept Kim’s request to help her by sharing the load to lead the ministry. The focus for me is the daily operations, with responsibilities for Donna and I to collaborate with Kim about her big ideas as well. While Donna and I are not moving to Hardin, our increased involvement has in part allowed Kim to regain some margin to focus beyond the daily operations at the Hill.
One of the sweetest things to me about this season as the Hill is that a big part of what I get to do is what Bob and I dreamed about in 2005. He and I never got to implement our plans because Bob entered into the writing the God’s Heart Series of books, and I was one of his closest comrades in the adventure. Our plans to have young adults live on the Hill to be discipled would have to wait. We talked longingly about every year. Little did Bob or I know I would be grafted into that opportunity 18 years later!
The end of a very cool season
To be more involved at the Hill brought to the end an incredible season of employment for me at Husk Signs. Husk Signs builds $300 signs, and $300,000 signs. I have been a part of hundreds of signs during my time working there. Those in my circle, and not employed at Husk Signs, have often enjoyed the stories of my adventures managing, building and installing signs.
Sign building at Husk Signs has sometimes been an adventure of epic proportions – no exaggeration. On a recent Saturday, September 27th, we installed one of the coolest signs of any sign builder’s days. It is a neon guitar that is approximately 18×8’, and weighs around 2,000lbs.
The sign will stand for decades as a reminder to me of how the Lord loves me so to give me such great people and opportunities to work with. It’s nuts, but when I look back at my life to date my life is marked with gifts like these, James 1:17.
The beginning of a very cool season
The changes Donna and I made in my employment have allowed me to begin doing some things now with Seed 4 Life that I was putting off until May 2026.
For example, because several of my daytime hours have opened up, I am now meeting with some men one on one who could only meet during the day. I am now able to meet individually, often weekly, with more than ten men of various ages. It is very cool to me to be able to do that now.
Some things that have caught my eye about Jesus in recent days
The theology of Jesus
The theology of Jesus is simple but is inexhaustible. He said He had been with God, that He was sent from God. He said He came to us with a message from God, the good news of the kingdom of God is being offered among men. He said trusting to Him is the only way to enter God’s kingdom. He said He was returning to God. Before leaving He said He will come back to the earth.
His theology is stated over and over again, and again in many ways.
Christian Character; Virtue
How we live is an increasing weight to me. Jesus never dismisses God’s interest in our behavior, while also not allowing behavior to be understood as the door to God. He tells the religious leaders and the people even when you make the smallest of gifts the behavior is to be connected to the love God has for you and the recipient. In other words God is interested in you distinguishing and separating (justice, Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42) what you do as being connected to His love, His love being a unique present tense expression of what He wants for you and the person in your path.
Jesus taught those in Christ have been made into New Creations (2 Corinthians 5:17, etc.) so we can experience (know) Him, John 17:3. Jesus said our New Creation experience in Christ also gives us a responsibility before mankind in this life. If so, what does the Person of God want us to place before others with our lives? Is it good works? No. Hang in here with me. But let us order our thinking.
Matthew 5:16 is one of my life verses. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Now I did that from memory, and I just looked it up. It is the KJV version, so you know it has been with me since my youth. I stopped memorizing from the KJV in the early ‘80s.) To summarize the verse, I have taught it is teaching the believer to Burn Baby Burn! So back to my question leading to virtue.
Is there something the Person of God want us to place before others through our lives?
Is it good works? No. He wants for us to be bearers of the Light (John 8:12) to the world. That happens by the Spirit as we push and pull one another to Christ and to Christ-like expressions, Hebrews 10:19-25, Philippians 2:13-15.
Knowing that God wants to express the Light (His life) through those who believe makes Haggai’s dusty old request to the exiles returning from Babylon more than reasonable, which is to attach how you live to God’s holiness! Haggai teaches that your holiness cannot make another person holy because it is God who makes people holy by faith. But, Haggai wants you to reconsider that your unholiness can have a terrible effect on those near you. Haggai’s point is that it is a reasonable, submissive and modest request (from God) for the believer to attach how they live to who they are! Our choices to live unholy can introduce evil into the lives of another, Haggai 2:10-19.
Unholy is the opposite of who we are in Christ, Ephesians 1:4, Colossians 1:22; 3:12.
It is easy to become a Christian when set alongside learning how to be a Christian
A young man’s observations to me was that many people are of strong character. He said that challenged his understanding or previous conclusion that one must be a follower of Christ to be a person of strong character. This led him to be open to other belief systems as also good and right. His observation is right if all Jesus is offering is a virtuous life. But that is not the offer in Christ.
Jesus is offering the only way to have a relationship with the God of the Universe, which when lived out leads to a person of strong character based on something other than what seems right to a man in the moment. It is the offer and securing of the relationship with the Lord God that distinguishes the Way of Jesus. It is only Christian virtue that can happen as you front-load your decisions, your life, with purposeful interest in Jesus. He presently informs your life exclusively from the Spirit’s point of view. Responding with favor to the Spirit of God is what it means to bear the light!
To leave the earth and others better than you found them is one thing, and can serve many well. But it is not the same thing as living informed by the Spirit of the One true God. Neither your circumstances, nor what you think best, nor the consequences of choosing or not choosing, nor being spontaneous to do what seems like the next right thing to do can rule Christian character. Rather the Spirit is transforming our living by the renewing of our minds. Through purposeful interest in Jesus we keep growing up in our thinking, becoming more aware of God. We will not be content with thinking or a faith which only gives us personal hope, but we will add the motivation found only in the present love God spiritually expresses to us and others, Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 13:11-13.
Do I find Jesus then to be about virtue or rules?
Jesus is about virtue, Christian character based upon His love, Luke 11:37-54. He modeled, taught and emphasized how you live is habit-forming, even character forming – virtuous, Mark 10:17-22.
In Mark 10 a young ruler had a valid question in any day. He directs his question to Jesus. What shall I do (now) to inherit…Mark 10:17? Give me a list (what) and tell me how to do it.
The way the young ruler responded to the answer Jesus gave reveals a motive behind the ruler’s question. The man walked away, revealing his question to be more about him having a happy life than it is about the what and how of living by faith. That is the difference, works based foremost upon seeking a happy life or living by the Spirit. Jesus gave one answer to cover both parts of the question. Here is the what and the how. Come follow Me (Mark 10:21), the One putting God first, Mark 12:28-31. Jesus wasn’t asking for a vow of poverty, but for an inner detachment towards anything except Father God.
Is life in Christ more about a happy life or living by faith leading to a virtuous life?
Over the summer I asked our two sons, Kyle and Adam, to help me think through an opportunity I had before me. They brought meaningful observations and questions to light during our conversation. I was so glad for their input, more than any I would receive. At one point Adam asked, “Dad, do you want to do this,” meaning will you enjoy doing this at this season of life? “Yes, but there are two things to consider here,” beginning my reply. “In 1984 I began to make some decisions based upon what I thought God wanted for my life rather than what I wanted. Today happens to be a time where the two (what I believe God wants and what I want) overlap.”
God will make you a different expression as you look intently at and for Him at work in your day. You will notbe focused on what you lack, for we all lack. Rather you will look outward to God to be informed of what is true.
Christian character is not about achieving a moral bar of living. It is not a set of rules for us to follow. Virtue isn’t foremost about your happiness either, although happiness and want are informed by a well-placed faith. Example from above: “Dad, do you want to do this.”
Mark 10 is punctuated with three examples of how people often seek personal happiness over the what and how of God. To start with your happiness becomes habitual and character forming in the hurtful way Jesus and Haggai spoke of. Looking more at Mark 10 you will find; I want sex, Mark 10:2-12. I want money, Mark 10:17-22. I want power, Mark 10:35-45.
Additionally, Mark 10 provides the only answer you need to be sure about, Mark 10:13-16. Look to and obey Jesus if you want to experience the Lord God now. He will often push you to live beyond what you can see or feel.
When you’ve made a thousand small choices by the direction of the Holy Spirit, requiring effort and concentration to do so, there will come a day when the what and how of faith is very familiar. That happens because along the way the Spirit is informing you in order that you will be aware of Jesus in your space, 1 Corinthians 6:17, 20.
The life of Jesus on the earth looked like courage, self-control, sound judgment and determination. He did not foremost choose these attributes, but the Spirit built these virtues into the ordinary things of Jesus’ life. The Spirit seeks the same for us.
Seed 4 Life
The ministry at Seed 4 Life is to make ourselves available to be with people. We offer to help others recognize God in everyday life. We’d like to think God uses us to introduce a new rhythm to their life; a newness they can count on because the Lord God is to be counted on according to the Way of Jesus. We are with people on a regular basis. Once a week, twice a month, during the day or evening, or on weekends. These conversations (most always one on one) are part of our lives, just as are being a spouse, a parent, a grandparent, a child, a friend and an employee. It is all holy ground.
Should you want to get in touch, below are many ways to reach us. Donna and I will be glad you did.
Biblical Counseling and Discipleship
In February of 2020, Rick completed his training to incorporate Biblical Counseling into how we at Seed 4 Life disciple others. Dan Sullivan and Troy Smith, both Seed 4 Life Board members, have also completed the training. You can learn more about the process at seed4life.net
Life is seldom a highlight real, but we set our minds on what is of good report. We make it our aim to submit and depend upon the life found only in Christ Jesus. Thank you for encouraging our hearts. Some of you do so with regular notes through the mail, while some come from hours (and states) away to spend a few days, and others from across town to spend the evening. Our lives are richer by the fragrance of Christ with and in you. May Donna and I be the same for you.
SOME PRAYER NEEDS:
- For the two of us to have wisdom and favor to be a help to all others
- Discernment as we, along with the ministry board, seek the Lord Jesus
- Provisions to continue Seed 4 Life
- And a host of other unknowns (unknown to us, but not to the Lord God)
JESUS
NO OTHER NAME
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Seed 4 Life • PO Box 54 • Boonville, Indiana • 47601
Underhill Home • 299 West Tennyson Road • Boonville, Indiana • 47601
rick@seed4life.net • 812-319-4907 • donna@seed4life.net • 812-453-6377