Heaven 1 - 8th Nov

One of the best talks I heard at New Wine this year was on Heaven, given by John and Anne Coles. John had a heart attack earlier in the year, which had prompted him to start thinking about the life to come.

Although the Bible makes clear references to Heaven, a lot of us, myself included, have perhaps thought that, “Heaven is good, but I’ll find out the detail when I get there”. That is reinforced in a tacit way by the church, where there are few sermons preached on our expectations of Heaven. John and Anne challenged this approach with the analogy of a holiday brochure. We anticipate a forthcoming holiday by studying a brochure, find out details of the location, accommodation, climate and build up an expectation and longing for our break. In the same way we can do this for our life to come in Heaven – although how much more important than a holiday! Aren’t we missing out on one of our great encouragements in this life by failing to engage with a Biblically informed view of Heaven?

This is actually quite a big subject, more than can be covered in a Daily Devotional! It is the subject of the book “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. I will mention one or two details covered by John and Anne tomorrow.

Maybe consider today what your view of Heaven is.