First Flare Request Friday in Siouxland!

We are in Sioux City!!!!

It is pretty surreal. We left here six years ago for adventure. We have returned for adventure. We love adventure.  

I feel like I have been riding a roller coaster for weeks. In reality it is like we have been riding the tea cups. The roller coaster awaits. 

Yesterday, upon arriving in Sioux City, we had to make an essential stop. We had to go to a place that is REASON ENOUGH to move to Sioux City, a place that resembles heaven. A place that is one of my favorite places on Planet Earth. I am in love with this place.

This place is La Juanita's. The burritos there are absolute proof heaven and God exist, and they intersect with Earth. I have started a love poem to La Juanita's. I am dead serious about this...this place is amazing.  

I wasn't expecting to make it there for a while, but we needed food, and were driving right by, and my wife is awesome and suggested it. I gathered my emotions together, and went inside. After ordering, I was waiting for my food and just soaking up the goodness of being there, when in walked a guy I hadn't seen since we moved out of Sioux City six years ago.  

This guy is one of the reasons we moved back to Sioux City. I knew him through our time in student ministry, and he is a young adult who can't seem to "get out". He has had an incredibly rough life, and has searched for God for a long time. When we thought and prayed about moving to Sioux City, this guy was one of the people who came to mind and who we prayed for. And he was the guy who walked into La Juanita's yesterday, moments after I did, in the middle of a Thursday afternoon. I asked him how things were going, exchanged numbers, and hugged him a bit too tightly.

Coincidence? 

I. 

Think. 

NOT.

This was one of those many moments demonstrating the presence of God in the middle of our story. This is one of those moments when I feel the weight and need for the gospel to spread hope like fire in this community. It was a small meeting with a big impact in my heart and mind. 

This flare request is for my friend. That he and the TENS OF THOUSANDS of folks like him would find hope and help and identity in the family of God. That he would know he is seen, heard, known, loved and accepted by a God who loves this city and its people.

Keep the flares coming! Thanks for being on this journey with us!

Other News:
Last night we had our first community group time, and it was great. We shared a great meal together, made some plans for moving forward, got into the Scripture, and prayed. I love the people partnering with us and am so excited to see what God will do through this group of people committed to sharing the love of God with the community of Siouxland. 

The Title to Everything

What is God's?

"The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains," (Psalm 24.1; I Corinthians 10.26)

Are there things that are not God's?

"The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains," 

So just "christian" things?

"The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains," 

The Great Naked Flying Babies Debate

Is heaven there and then?

The streets of gold.  
The crystal sea.  
Togas. 
Endless singing.
And naked flying babies.  

Is this what heaven will be?

In the Scripture there are many images, pictures, and symbolism used to describe heaven. The most prevalent image is that of a city. A kingdom. A community where everything is as it should be. It is a place where the words "Your kingdom come, Your will be done," are not just a prayer but reality.  

When we think, talk, and dream about heaven, we probably most often are thinking about the then and there. Our ticket to somewhere when we die. Jesus seems way more preoccupied with the here and now. With our words and actions, with our relationships and our work. With how we treat each other and all the things we have been given.  

Throughout both testaments there are persistent rumors that, at some point, God will have his way with the cosmos. Patriarchs and prophets constantly call out and search out heaven. The wanderers are looking for a home, finding none to suit them fully. The prophets call out the kingdom of God...telling God's people they are not God's people, telling God's city that it is not God's city. But God insists that someway, someday, He will have His way. He will get the city and the people and the world He has been dreaming of since before there was a world.  

At the end of the story, in a wild ride of a book, John relates his visions of the end (or the end of the beginning). In the book of Revelation, God has His way, with everything. The city of God is described in rich detail, and Jesus is making everything new. Then there's this interesting, profound detail that we will dive into a little more on Wednesday:

Revelation 21

23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;

  
There is more to heaven than naked flying babies. Apparently the glory and the honor of the nations aren't just swallowed up by the fires of God's judgment? Apparently the stuff of the here and now matters a lot more than I used to think.  

Does the glory and honor of Siouxland, of Bangor, of whatever land you come from come into the kingdom of God someday? What does that mean for the here and now?

If you want to check out the message from yesterday centering on this (and many other) passages, you can do that here.