Preface/Chapter 1

Reading the Preface and Chapter 1 got me really excited to begin this book. I wanted to keep reading! but I'm glad we're doing (at most) a chapter a week, because they are jam-packed full of information. It's incredible how naive we all are when it comes to heaven and it's glory. Astonishing and sad.

PREFACE/INTRO
The first question for the Preface guide asks what we're looking forward
to in our study of the book and the place Heaven. I think it's also a good way to start this blog. I'm honestly eager to learn more about Heaven than I know. I'll be the first to admit my version of Heaven was always the fairy-tale image of angels and wings and feasting and celebration and harps and praise/worship. I just figured I'd love it for eternity. I do love it now, afterall. But words said to me at the visitations grew my hunger for a better understanding of where dad is, what he's doing, whether/not I'll recognize him when I get there...it was too unsettling to think I would have no idea who he was and what was, therefore, so exciting about you and your family all going to heaven if I didn't know they were there anyway.
Question 7 in the preface struck me as well. I had read the chapter first (oops?) and was inspired by the story of Florence Chadwick. But it made me wonder, how often do we get so focused and distracted on the here and now that we forget to keep our eyes on the goal? When we lose sight of what we are working toward, the present can become almost unbearable.

CHAPTER 1
Two questions stuck out to me here...4 and 5...Heaven can so easily fall off our radar screens because we either a, don't know much about it, or b, our version is not very exciting. So why would we continue to focus on something that is not in our grasp? We instead begin to focus on the aspect of death itself...in light of this twisted view of heaven, death seems depressing. And of course we are not going to keep our focus there!
After reading Revelation 13:6, my response was, well, "wow". We all know Satan is a liar. We also know he is great at using US to deceive ourselves. But the thought that he literally blasphemes heaven and is jealous that we can go when he was kicked out? Satan is jealous of us!!

I love Randy Alcorn's view on xix..."God uses suffering and impending death to unfasten us from this earth and to set our mind on what lies beyond. I've lost people close to me. (Actually, i haven't lost them, because i know where they are--rather, I've lost contact with them.)" What a great way to frame it :)

As I tend to ramble on in things like this, I'll digress my section of conversation with one of my favorite parts so far, "No matter how tough life gets, if you can see the shore and draw your strength from Christ, you'll make it"

Intro to Blog

And so we begin the study of Randy Alcorn's Heaven in attempts to further explore what Scripture says Heaven really is all about. I'm beginning the blog for now, but anyone can begin each chapter that week. And if you don't have a Bible on you for the study guide, or don't own one at all, biblegateway.com is a great reference for any translation. Or you can download an App if you have a phone that does so for free or up to $1.99. Let's begin our journey :)