I grew up in church. I’ve been in church all my life. And although I have heard pastors mention Heaven from the pulpit, or describe a few of Heaven’s attributes, I have never actually heard a pastor preach an entire sermon on Heaven. Do you find that strange? I do!
Here’s the thing: as Christians, Heaven is our ultimate destiny. Theoretically, we should be excited about getting there. But think about places here on earth you’re excited to go. You feel that excitement because you’ve either been there before, or you know a lot about what you will experience. So doesn’t it stand to reason that we should learn as much as possible about the place where we will spend eternity? Why aren’t pastors crafting entire sermon series’ around Heaven? I don’t have an answer for that. But I have been intensely curious about Heaven, so when Family Christian Stores gave me the opportunity to review this book about Heaven, I jumped on it.
Remember Mitch Albom’s book, “Tuesdays With Morrie”? The author of this book, Gary Black, Jr. was a fan. And he soon found himself in a very similar situation.
Black was an associate of a man named Dallas Willard. They were working together on a project. At the time, Willard had cancer, but as they started their research on this particular project, Willard felt that he would survive the cancer. Ultimately, he figured out that this was not likely to happen. As they began to delve into the project on a day when Willard was feeling well, they were poking around his library to find materials for their project. Black saw a box labeled “Death and Immortality” and his question of “What’s that?” started a journey for them both.
See, Willard had extensively written and taught on many subjects, but the one subject that he had never really shared his thoughts about was eternity. Black started going through the box and found a treasure trove of notes, papers and writings on the subject. He proposed to Willard that they embark on another project – one about eternal life. And Willard agreed. And the book was born.
I am not going to get into all of the theological aspects of this book. It’s deep and complex; far more so than what could be discussed in a single blog post.
The gist of the book is that you have to intentionally prepare yourself for Heaven and Eternity. You prepare yourself by the way you live, what you focus on, and how you interact with others in this present world. This book is a guide to figuring out the very best ways to live to prepare to die. That may sound sobering or macabre, but for Christians, death is our hope! It’s simply our gateway to the eternal life that we will have in Christ.
The book explains some of the ideas that we have wrong, too.
I particularly loved the chapter on “Why We Exist”. It’s an age old question: what am I here for? This book outlines some really sound theology about why you’re here and what you should be doing with the life you’ve been given.
The book has ten great chapters and then some final thoughts. I will tell you this: it’s not a book that you can zip through or read quickly. There’s simply too much meat between the covers. And that’s a good thing. Read a little at a time and really let it sink in.
If you want to start intentionally preparing for the rest of your (eternal) life, this book is a must read. It’s available at Family Christian Stores here.
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