Confessions Of A Pastor
Most people have a better plan for their next vacation than they do for eternity.
Five Misconceptions About Heaven:
1. It's only sort of real...
2. It's boring...if church is boring than heaven must be really boring.
3. What you read about in the Bible is mostly metaphor...
4. You can't know that much about heaven...
5. I would be more interested in heaven if someone came back from the dead and told me about it.
This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do knowthat I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 NLT
Near death experiences show common conditions & characteristics:
* clinical death
* third person vantage point
* dark tunnel
* bright light
* welcoming committee
* city of light
* being of light
* threshold
* return to earth
But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 1 Corinthians 15:35-37 NLT
It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NLT
What you believe about heaven changes the way you live on earth.