Does thinking about Heaven fill you with joy and excitement? How much thought do you give to Heaven? How often do you and your church and your family talk about it? We’re told how to get to Heaven, and that it’s a better destination than Hell, but unfortunately, we’re taught remarkably little about Heaven itself. (If you lack a passion for Heaven, I can almost guarantee it’s because you have a weak, deficient, and distorted theology of it.)
If you’d like to study more in the coming year about our eternal home, start with these articles:
Our Best Life Yet to Come: The New Earth, Our Eternal Home
Let Go of Lies About Heaven: Eight Myths Many Believe
Here are some videos and messages about Heaven:
The New Earth: Our Hope of “God With Us”
16 Questions about Heaven and the New Earth
My Heaven-related books include:
The Promise of the New Earth (combines teaching on Heaven with beautiful photography, in a gift book format)
50 Days of Heaven (daily devotional on Heaven)
Heaven (comprehensive book on the topic)
We Shall See God (contains segments from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons on Heaven, and my own added devotional thoughts)
Heaven for Kids (intended for ages 8-12, though we’ve heard of church groups using it as a basis for an adult study!)
Here are my top five recommendations of books by others on Heaven.
Finally, these are some questions to stimulate thinking about Heaven:
- Who will be in Heaven? Can we be sure we’re going there?
- Where do you think your beliefs about Heaven originated (God’s Word, church, popular culture)? If your view of eternity has changed at all, where has your new understanding come from?
- Why should we care about what Heaven will be like, as long as we know we’ll be with Jesus?
- What do you think it will be like to see Jesus face to face? What will our relationship with God be like?
- Have you ever worried that Heaven will be boring? Based on what you’ve read in this book, what will we do there? Work? Rest? Play?
- What are the differences between the present Heaven Christians go to when we die, and the future Heaven (the New Earth), where we will live forever?
- What excites you most about living on the New Earth?
- Do you believe animals will be on the New Earth?
- Do you feel like you’re missing out on something here and now? What missed opportunities are you looking forward to experiencing in Heaven?
- Will you be recognized as the same person in Heaven, and be with those you know and love?
- Who do you most look forward to meeting and talking with in Heaven?
Those of us who know Jesus will forever glorify God as live on the New Earth, beholding God’s wonders in the magnificence of His new creation. Seeing God’s face, we will spend the coming ages learning more and more of His grace and kindness.
I can hardly wait!
