Heaven is For Real; So is Hell

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
John 14: 1-3

     Todd Burpo, the boy whose heavenly experience is recorded in the book, "Heaven is for Real", is one of many who have had such an encounter and told their story to others.

     In her book, "My Glimpse of Eternity", Betty Malz was clinically dead for approximately twenty-five minutes. During that time, her guardian angel lead her through vibrant fields of living color to a place of complete love and everlasting peace. There have been several other very descriptive accounts that I have read and I am grateful for their glimpses into what I already know to be true. Jesus told me he is preparing a place and He is the only way to get there. It is not a figment of imagination, nor is it a mental state; it is a real place.

     In the New Testament, Jesus spoke more often of hell than he did of heaven, calling it a place of weeping, gnashing of teeth and eternal punishment. In his parable of the rich man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16: 19-31,  both men die. Lazarus is carried to heaven by the angels, but the rich man went to hell, where he was in torment. He longed for Lazarus to be returned to earth so he could warn his brothers of this very real place, but he was told: "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (Luke 16:31)

     Jesus himself rose from the dead. His body was never found. He showed himself to hundreds of eye witnesses and dispatched his disciples to go into the world and share this wonderful news. All of them died as martyrs with the name of Jesus on their lips.

     God has told us about creation, man's fall from grace, Jesus' death and resurrection, eternal life in heaven or eternal torment in hell.

     Are you listening?