The Roadmap to Heaven

This will be my last post on the book, Heaven. Briefly, here's what the Bible says on how to get there:

1. God loves you and wants you to go heaven!

• The Lord...is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 
• In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation (payment) for our sins. 1 John 4:10

2. Jesus is the way to heaven.

• Don't be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father's house has room to spare. If that weren't the case, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I'm going. Thomas asked, "Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:1-6

• God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11b-12

3. You make the call.

• You decide--do you believe that Jesus died for you? If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

4. We can know for sure.

• God wants us to have assurance that we will be with Him when we die. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:9

5. What about the people we love?

• Many of us know friends and family who seem to be far from God. I'd say, tell them what the Bible says, and then pray. Show them God's love and forgiveness, and keep praying. The Lord saves people, we don't. And remember that there's a party in heaven over each sinner who repents! (Luke 15:7)

Again, if you'd like to be a part of a continuing discussion, contact me. Or if you just have questions about heaven, e-mail me, and if I don't know the answer to your question, I'll try to find it.


Jean

A Few More Books on Heaven

Paul Enns, author of a new book called Heaven Revealed, posted his top five books on the subject of heaven in the July issue of Christianity Today. They are:

Heaven, by Randy Alcorn; One Minute After You Die, by Erwin W. Lutzer; A Brief History of Heaven, by Alister E. McGrath; Heaven--Better By Far: Answers to Questions about the Believer's Final Hope, by J. Oswald Sanders; and The Biblical Doctrine of Heaven, by Wilbur M. Smith.

So, a few more ideas for your library.

You might be interested to know that a few of these authors were prompted to write about heaven after they had lost a spouse or loved one.

Anyway--happy reading. I'll post my next chapter discussion tomorrow, then I'm going to go underground with our Heaven book study. Let me know if you're interested in joining a group discussion via e-mail...or the Spotted Cow.

Jean

Setting Our Minds on Things Above

In Chapter Two, Alcorn quotes C.S. Lewis: Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all--except in so far as "Heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it.


I have to admit that much of my desire for heaven centers around seeing Annie again--and my mom and sister. But when Lewis says that "when the real want for heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it," that got me to thinking...what are some examples of the real want for heaven that we may experience every day, but don't recognize those wants as a desire for heaven?

For instance, what if everyone in your family got along all the time?
...you never had to weed again?
...your laundry was done--forever?
...you were geographically close to the people you love?
And what if everyone was safe, had enough to eat, was treated fairly and with justice, and always felt loved and cared for?

Do you ever wish that things were, well, perfect?

What difficult situations in our lives are also divine reminders for us to look up and look forward to heaven?

Jean

Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Colossians 3:1b-2

46 Days in Heaven

In discussing the book Heaven, by Randy Alcorn, I thought I'd do more frequent blog posts and just do one chapter at a time. There are 46 short chapters, so today, let's begin with this thought from Chapter 1:

"An overwhelming majority of Americans continue to believe that there is life after death and that heaven and hell exist," according to a Barna Research Group poll. But what people actually believe about Heaven and Hell varies widely. A Barna spokesman said, "They're cutting and pasting religious views from a variety of different sources--television, movies, conversations with their friends." The result is a highly subjective theology of the afterlife, disconnected from the biblical doctrine of Heaven.


Question: Do you believe there is a heaven and a hell? Why or why not?

Jean

PS. All respectful comments are welcome--don't be shy about asking questions. And if you believe in the Bible, try to include a Bible verse that supports your comment. Also, if you're reading Heaven along with us, and want to comment about something else in Chapter 1, feel free to do that.

Heaven Book Club

Flowers for Annie

It's been three months today since Annie went to heaven, so I thought it would be a good time to jump in and do that book club we've been talking about. Let's read and discuss Heaven, by Randy Alcorn. You can get a copy either through your library or on Amazon for the reasonable price of $13.97 plus shipping. Heaven is divided into three sections: Part I is "A Theology of Heaven," Part II is "Questions and Answers About Heaven," and Part III is "Living in Light of Heaven." Taking into account family reunions, weddings and vacations, I think we can get through the whole book this summer. It'll be a crunch.

There are 12 sections to the book--about 500 pages. It's a big one. Let's try to do 3 sections every 2 weeks. I'll post questions/discussion as often as possible, so we can get through this by the end of August.

Just to get our mental cogs moving, Alcorn points out in his introduction that "we all have a terminal disease called mortality." But no one seems to like to think about death, or life after death. Most of us have a tendency to have our feet planted firmly in this life of work, family issues, and meeting urgent, yet often not important, commitments. He also says that "God uses suffering and impending death to unfasten us from this earth." I would agree with that. Since Annie had her brain injury in 2007, and then died three months ago today, I have never been so anxious to leave this world and get home!

Bill actually gave me the book Heaven for Christmas in 2008. On the first page, he wrote:

Dear Jean, 

I thought it would be fun to plan our trip. 

Merry Christmas '08. 

Love, Bill

Now, I have to be honest--I have only read one chapter so far. One chapter in two and a half years. My excuse is that caring for Annie was pretty consuming, and didn't leave me a lot of time to read books. But I don't have that excuse anymore. And, most of you don't either. So, let me start with this first question, just to get us going until everyone gets their book and reads the first chapter. "Are you looking forward to Heaven--why or why not?"

Jean

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath." Psalm 39:4-5

Gardening in Heaven

I've read that after someone dies, a family member may leave their loved one's bedroom untouched, with their clothes in a pile on the floor just like they left them, their reading glasses on the table just like they left them or their stuff exactly as they were the day they died. I always thought this practice was a bit weird until I realized I did the same thing in our backyard with Annie's garden tools. Then it wasn't so weird.

When Annie got sick four years ago I left her little shovel and hand rake where she dropped them the last time she played with them under the slide in our backyard. After her brain injury, I always hoped she might play with them again, so I left them there in the chance that she would. But she never did. Most of you know that anytime she'd pick up a toy, she'd usually immediately throw it, and she certainly didn't want to dig the dirt in the garden with all her sensory aversions. So, the tools just laid there for the last four years. Bill's going to build a shed there soon, and the tools will be moved. I'll put them inside with some other things I've saved of hers.

My plan now is to garden with Annie in heaven. The Bible speaks of many different gardens, and God created gardens, so I'm thinking that this is not an unreasonable thing to hope for. The Bible opens with a scene in a garden, our salvation was secured after Jesus suffered in a garden, He was buried in a garden close to the place of His crucifixion, and the description of heaven at the end of the Bible has a garden. So Annie and I will garden in heaven--something else I'm looking forward to.

Jean

Questions

I have a few questions about heaven. Well, actually a lot of questions. The main one centers around prayer, and how to talk to God about Annie. You see, I still pray for Annie. I know, it's weird. But when I'm praying and go down the list of my kids and get to Annie, I'm not quite sure what's the right thing to say to God, and not praying for her seems somehow disrespectful or unkind. But what should I say? What should I ask for? It's not as if she needs anything, and she's not sick anymore...and most of the things I used to pray for her don't apply now.

Sometimes I wish there were more specifics in the Bible about the lines of communication between heaven and earth--I mean, besides between God and me. And I'm not just talking about what I might want to believe is true, but what is really true? (Check out this blog from Randy Alcorn about heaven, books about heaven, and why any near-death experience of heaven or beliefs about heaven need to be judged against the truth of God's Word.)

Getting back to my question, though--if God can hear me, (1 John 5:14), and Annie is with Him, (1 Thess. 4:17), if I ask Him to relay a message to her--will He? What is the conduit of communication between people on earth and people in heaven? Hebrews 12:1 says we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses--those who have gone to heaven--but does that mean that they watch us all the time? How interested are they in what is going on here when they've got better things to focus on in heaven? Does Annie think about me as much as I think about her?

I really don't know all the answers to those questions. But if God shares messages to people in heaven from people on earth, I want Him to tell her that I miss her and I love her and I can't wait to see her again. And I'm so thankful that she is healed and can talk again.

I just can't wait until Jesus comes so I can hug her and tell her those things myself.

Jean

"Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Rev. 22:20