We’ve had four weeks to focus on the unSEEN life. Take a few minutes to review each day and make sure you understand the key concepts from each week. More importantly, may you and I commit to grow our unSEEN lives for the glory and honor of God!

Do something!

It could be easy to get overwhelmed by our unSEEN lives. Each aspect of the spiritual harvest could consume a person, and yet somehow we’re supposed to be thinking about planting while we are examining fruit while we are cultivating the soil while we are preparing for next spring while we are harvesting fruit etc… etc…

What’s a person to do?

 It takes “u” to build “commUnity”

I first saw this sign on a billboard advertising a community credit union here in our fine city. It’s clever. It’s memorable. Most of all…

It’s true.

What drives your unSEEN life?

As we’ve been talking the last three weeks, each of us has an unSEEN life that determines the course our lives will take. It’s the unSEEN life that will be the primary factor in the fruitfulness of our lives. But as we saw yesterday, it’s not enough to produce fruit once…a strong unSEEN life is one that is constantly preparing the soil for the next harvest.

I spent three years of college in the state of Iowa. Prior to my time there, I had no idea what real farming was like. I had no concept of what it was like to have to cultivate a crop of thousands and thousands of acres. In my mind it was pretty basic: Plant in the spring, then harvest in the fall. Repeat.

Then I met some real farmers, men whose livelihood depended on what the soil produced.

unSEEN—Day #21

The unSEEN life has many rewards. 

unSEEN—Day #20

Every once in awhile I ask my wife if she can park the car in the driveway so that I can transform the garage into the man cave. When she agrees the projector comes out, the screen, the xbox, surround sound, plush chairs—the man cave! Games. Movies. Soda. Fun. Plugs going everywhere. Since I don’t have 10 outlets in my garage I plug the electrical cords into the wall socket.  It’s all good until a circuit is blown. Party’s over.

I am so thankful that God never gets over loaded with our prayers or our lives. When we are plugged into Him we are plugging into the infinite. We can never wear Him down. We can never overwhelm Him. He is eternal and His power is endless. 

unSEEN—Day #19

 ⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

unSEEN—Day #18

"I’ve always believed in numbers. In the equations and logics that lead to reason; but after a lifetime of such pursuits I ask, what truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back, and I have made the most important discovery of my career… the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found."

A quote from the movie A Beautiful Mind

unSEEN—Day #17

John 15:6-8 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

unSEEN—Day #16

Today will be an incredibly short Tenth Dot and tomorrow will be a longer one. All will be well balanced!

John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

unSEEN—Day #15

unSEEN—Day #14

One thought today as we move forward with unSEEN: focus.

Our focus changes the course of our life. What we focus on consumes our time, our thoughts and determines our future. Today I want to encourage you to filter every thought through this one word. Focus. When you are at church—what are you focussing on? When you eat lunch with your family—what are you focusing on? When you watch the game—what’s your focus?

unSEEN—Day #13

I did youth ministry in the local church for ten years before stepping out to do a traveling/speaking ministry. I used to close every youth group by saying, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine," I would progressively get louder and louder, "according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations," everyone joined in by this point shouting the last part  "forever and ever! Amen." No matter how soft or loud we say these words they empower us to live up to our full potential. It’s a great reminder that God is at work in huge ways in our life. 

May God do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine today.

unSEEN—Day #12

Take time this morning to pray that God will speak directly to you.

Don’t rush just pray.

unSEEN—Day #11

Life is full of interesting twists and turns. Unexpected meetings. Surprise—baby! Timely inheritance, tragic death. Divorce. Dads at war. Rekindling love. Everyday we give our all to God but there are no guarantees of what pleasures or pains await us. Storms are part of life. It’s a way for God to shape us and form us. It’s a way for Him to see what we are made of. Will we be able to make it through the storms of life? Over the course of the next three days we are going to look at a prayer that can change our lives forever. Prayer changes history. This prayer will prepare you for all of life’s battles. This prayer will strengthen you for the difficult days. It will give you the power to grasp the depth of God’s love. It will teach you to get deeply rooted so that you can ready for anything that comes your way! 

WARNING: If you read this prayer it will do nothing! Prayer is meant to be our heart crying out to God’s heart. If you do not pray this, live this and let this prayer exude from your very pores then it will be in vain! Take time to pray this prayer with everything in you. Forget it’s familiarity. Pray this as if your life depended on it.

unSEEN—Day #10

unSEEN—Day #9

Day and Night

The day I got dropped off at college and hugged my parents goodbye, tears ran down face. Not cowboy-Eastwood-tears, these were sobs of leaving home. Nine days later those tears were gone forever. Yes, I met a girl. She was 17 years old with an amazing story and heart for God. Before her freshman year she spent three months in Mexico building houses for the poor. I was a follower of Christ at that time but I am pretty sure I spent the summer playing Donkey Kong or something equally trivial. Yet, this young lady had this passion for Christ that inspired me, moved me and showed me love in action. Everything about her was fascinating to me. I started spending a lot of time with her. We would have breakfast together and sometimes lunch. Before I knew it we were having all our meals together and probably a few snacks. We would talk about family, love, and living for God. I just couldn’t get enough of her. Four short years later I married that wonderful lady. 

Isn’t our relationship with God supposed to be a love relationship? Isn’t He supposed to be the one we dwell on, daydream about, and love with everything in us?

Life has two roads

I love to run. Dirty roads. Mountain air. Heart-racing. Sun rising. It’s a wonderful combination of adventure. Recently, on one of my runs I came to a fork in the road. One—a familiar road. The other had a sign—’No Outlet’. If you know me at all, you know which road I took! I didn’t even slow down. I traveled down the abandoned road. Life has two roads. One of adventure, purpose, pain and dancing—the life of the faithful. This is the one that makes our heart pound in our chest. It’s one that can only be lived by us because it is an original life. It’s the original life that God designed specifically for you. It’s the one that we are afraid to go down because there are so many unknowns. The other more familiar path is predictable, it’s safe, and it’s the life of the faithless person.

Two roads. One faithful. One faithless.

Two roads. One leads to an original life designed just for you. One predictable and forgettable.

Two roads. One life. Which will you choose?

unSEEN—Day #7

Waiting for the Harvest

Probably the hardest part of gardening for people like me is waiting. A few years ago I helped my wife plant some bulbs in the front yard and I wanted to water them and see them flower by morning. It’s not like I think they should grow and flower the same day, I’m more than happy to wait til’ morning.

But no luck.

unSEEN—Day #6

Good & Bad soil: Part 4

Fast soil conversion

Apparently hard, rocky, shallow & weedy soil has been a problem for Christians for a long time:

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil — Hebrews 5:11-14

unSEEN—Day #5

Good & Bad soil: Part 3

Worldliness

The final soil sample Jesus tells us about is weedy. Look at how He describes what happens to the seed when it enters this patch of earth:

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Jesus makes it plain: This weedy soil is the person whose life is burdened down by the temporary things of this world. These are people who are living for today, living for wealth and though the seed is strong and takes root they give more attention to the weeds and the seed loses out. It gets choked. It produces no fruit.

unSEEN—Day #4

Good & Bad soil: Part 2

Shallowness

The second soil sample was rocky. Less hardened than the path but still not much better. Look what Jesus says about this soil:

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away — Matthew 13:20-21

The seeds that fell into our second soil sample were able to take root, but not deeply. Jesus says these seeds sprouted quickly but didn’t last because when hard times came there was no root to sustain the flower. The seed could grow, but purging this soil was too much work for the farmer so the fruit of the seed died out.

unSEEN—Day #3

Good & Bad soil: Part 1

Faithlessness

Unless you’ve worked with plants, done some gardening or are just weird and like to read up on the finer qualities of dirt, you — like me — probably wouldn’t know the differences between good and bad soil. Apart from the obvious things like nuclear waste being buried in the dirt and it’s glowing green, most of us couldn’t tell you which of two piles of earth was better.

Over the next three TD’s we want to get into the dirt and try to bring to life what Jesus taught about that which made good soil and what Jesus taught about that which made bad soil. On each of the next three chapters we’ll contrast the bad soil with the good.

unSEEN—Day #2

It’s all about the soil

“It’s all in the soil” Salvador said to me, “it’s all in the soil”. It was an answer to a question I asked this nurseryman about why the plants at this company my mom worked for were so much better than plants I’d seen from other companies. Without hesitating Salvador told me it was all about the soil.

My next question received just as quick a reply:  “Can’t tell you that”; I wanted to know what was in the soil that set them apart. The ingredients of their soil is top secret. Literally less than five people in the entire company know everything that is in the soil and they would forfeit just about everything they hold near and dear if they revealed the soil’s contents. Salvador couldn’t tell me because he didn’t know. That company’s whole well being is tied up to the soil and there cannot be an loose ends, leaks or worse — selling of the company’s secret.

You see…it’s all about the soil.

unSEEN—Day #1

Introduction

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away,

yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us 

an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,

since what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being RENEWED day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

-2 Corinthians 4:16-18