I am presently reading Imagine Heaven for the second time. It is even a bigger blessing this time than it was on my first reading.
To date, this book has had 9,240 customer reviews with 95% being five-star and four-star reviews. I would guess that most of these reviews have come from Christians like me, who want to know more about heaven. As one man said, “If we don’t think rightly about heaven, we won’t think about it at all.”
The author presents over a hundred stories about various Near-Death Experiences and all are worth reading, but this one really grabbed my heart:
“Before her Near-Death Experience, the concept of God as a loving Father made no sense to Crystal. Why didn’t He protect her at age three when the sexual abuse began? Why did He let other men abuse her if He loved her? Why would He allow all the pain and suffering and chaos from her father leaving, an abusive stepfather, and a partying mother who left her with questionable company? By age nine, doubts about God’s love or existence had a stranglehold on her…” (Excerpt from Imagine Heaven)
Crystal gave her life to Jesus at nine years of age and was baptized. She stated, “I felt like my soul had been scrubbed.”
But sadly, the feeling didn’t last because the sexual abuse in her life continued. The shame, hurt, and anger felt like it was her identity. She blamed herself for the abuse she suffered.
A pregnancy. An abortion. Affairs with married men. A failed marriage. An unsuccessful suicide attempt.
At age thirty-three, Crystal went to the hospital for pancreatitis. Due to complications, she died for nine minutes and found herself in heaven.
“Crystal always assumed her experience of Heaven would be different. She had imagined herself asking God a barrage of questions… Crystal says,
“I wanted to know why He didn’t love me. Or why He let bad things happen. And yet, as I stood in front of Him in heaven and faced Him, I fell to my knees and raised my hands. The question I called out to Him was, ‘Why didn’t I do more for You?’ Because in an instant, He revealed His true self to me, which is love…” (Excerpt from Imagine Heaven)
You can read the details about the book and more excerpts here.
Hey, the book does not replace Scripture, but it does add light for our thinking on heaven. Burke does a thorough job of using the Bible to explain the various stories.
I recommend Imagine Heaven for everyone, even unbelievers.
The book is available as a Kindle book, hardback, paperback and an audio version.
Larry Who 