I have been doing a lot of study and teaching on the subject of Heaven over the past several weeks and this is the number 1 book that I have read on the topic, after the Bible. I started with Randy Alcorn’s book entitled “Heaven” and after reading quotes from this one, I decided to read through this one. I highly recommend this book. If you are going to read one book of the subject of Heaven, pick this one up.
I have 31 pages of notes, quotes, and highlights from this one and I will share a few of these with you here.
“I once heard a pastor make a startling confession: “Whenever I think about heaven, it makes me depressed. I’d rather just cease to exist when I die.”
This is sad but the fact is a lot of people feel this way and it is simply because we have not read, studied, and understood what God has told us about our eternal home as Christians.
“When Jesus said to us, “I am going there [to heaven] to prepare a place for you…. I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3), he spoke as a groom to his bride-to-be. These are words of love and romance. How would any bride who loves her husband-to-be respond to them? She’d be thrilled. Not a single day would go by, not a single hour, in which the bride wouldn’t anticipate joining her beloved in that place he prepared for her to live with him forever. Like a brides dreams of sharing a home with her groom, our love for heaven should be overflowing and contagious, just as our love for God should be (Revelation 19:7). Our passion for God and our passion for heaven should be inseparable. The more I learn about God, the more excited I get about heaven. The more I learn about heaven, the more excited I get about God.”
“The greatest weakness of the western church today is arguably our failure to think of the long tomorrow—to take seriously the reality that heaven is our home. Out of this springs our love affair with this world and our failure to live now in light of eternity.”
“The best part of heaven is that we’ll be with our bridegroom, Jesus. Second best? We’ll be with our family and friends who know God. That’s why, when Christian loved ones die, God tells us not to grieve like those who have no hope, but to comfort and encourage each other by anticipating the ultimate family reunion” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
“Eating, talking, and laughing together make a house a home. In heaven we’ll have feasts together (Matthew 8:11). In fact, “the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples…the best of meats and the finest of wines” (Isaiah 25:6). Considering who’s doing the cooking, how good do you think that meal will be?”
This is a great book to encourage you. If you have always wondered what Heaven is going to be like, now you can use this book as a guide through what God has told us about our eternal home.
Ronnie