The City Between

Reasnor - population 190!

On the road from Pella to Newton lies the City Between.  It is the "city" of Reasnor.  In fact, it says it on one sign - Reasnor City Limits.  




But this welcome sign admits that there are only 190 residents.

Towns like Reasnor are often forgotten.  It's too small to have its own high school.  It doesn't show up on the weather-maps of the TV stations from Des Moines.   There are no bustling subdivisions on the town's north side.  Instead, here's what you find just outside the city limits:

The "Suburbs" of Reasnor

I often pass through Reasnor as I travel from my home in Pella to the prison in Newton.  When I'm with Rose or other volunteers, we discuss the ministry or share stories.  When I'm driving alone, I listen to music, think and pray.  God is always working on me and sometimes he does his best work on the way.  This is God's good work of transformation.  We never graduate from God's school.

Jesus did some of his best work on the way in cities-between.  In Luke 9:51, we read - When the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.

On the way to Jerusalem and the Cross, Jesus encountered a city-between, a place along the way.  Luke describes it this way: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it.  A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.  (Luke 19:1-2)  

Some of us know the rest of the story from Sunday School days. Not only a tax collector but also vertically-challenged, Zacchaeus scaled a tree to see ...  Jesus.  But he didn't just see Jesus but also heard Jesus call to Come Down!  Come down from that tree, Zacchaeus because we're going to dine together at your house today.  Almost immediately Zacchaeus promised to change his ways, committing to give back the money he had stolen in his multiple white-collar crimes against his fellow citizens.

Great change happened in that city-between.  Jesus stopped along the way ~ SALVATION came to Zacchaeus' household. At last Jesus made this incredible statement that some say is the main theme of Luke's Gospel - For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.  (Luke 19:10)

May that also be true of New Life Prison Church - May we have Christ's compassion for the lost, bringing the God's Good News to incarcerated men by the power of the Holy Spirit!

written by Pastor Rick on the 3rd Wednesday in March.