HEAVEN HELP US
“Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps. 116:15).
One of the definitions for “precious” is “costly.” It cost God something when one
of his children dies, not only when someone dies too early, but also because
God sees the pain and sorrow of those who have lost a loved one. God knows how sorrow
feels. Most Christians believe in heaven, but
how many of us are totally convinced we’re going, and have confidence in how wonderful
it will be? My Dream of Heaven,
written by Rebecca Springer is the most beautiful, heart-warming testimony to
what is on the other side of death. Even the first few pages will bring tears
of joy and hope from deep within you, and
it will change you forever.
Reading this small and humble book, written so
many years ago, is an experience no serious Christian should miss. I can’t tell
you how many times the images I recall from this book have helped me in times
of grief. Here’s just a little bit from the first few pages:
Note: This was
written in 1898, so you need to
get used to the old English, but I think you’ll see that the meaning is
clear.
“Let me in the beginning reassert what I have heretofore
stated: that I have never claimed that this strange experience is either a
revelation or an inspiration. It came to me during a period of great physical
suffering and prostration, and I have always considered it as sent in
compensation for that suffering. Be this as it may, it has been a great comfort
and help . . . . Thus I can but think, if any meaning can be
attached to this strange vision, that it is simply a lesson in a general way of
what we may expect and hope for when we reach the thither shore.”
--- Rebecca Ruter Springer
And another passage from the author’s preface:
“The pages of
this little volume contain no fancy sketch, written to while away an idle hour;
but are the true, though greatly
condensed, record of an experience during days when life hung in the
balance between Time and Eternity, with the scales dipping decidedly toward the Eternity side.
I am painfully
aware of the fact that I can never paint for others the scenes as they appeared
to me during those wonderful days. If I can only
dimly show the close linking of the two lives—the mortal with the divine—as they
then appeared to me, I may be able to partly tear the veil from the death we so
dread and show it to be only an open door into a new and beautiful phase of the
life we now live.”
The Bible tells us that when we believe God
raised Jesus from the dead and we accept Him as Lord, we get born again of
spiritual seed, and it is incorruptible. “Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23).
And 1 Peter 1:3-4 tells us: God has “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you.”
I urge you to please read My
Dream of Heaven. I feel strongly about this because I don’t want anyone
to ever worry about dying.
Love, Carolyn
