Heaven Change Everything

Heaven Changes Everything: Living Every Day with Eternity in Mind by Todd and Sonia Burpo is a devotional that builds on the story of Todd Burpos’s bestseller Heaven is for Real, which details the Burpos’ son Colton’s experiences during a near death experience.  There are 42 entries which are written by one or both of the Burpos that follow the same format.  Each chapter opens with a brief excerpt from Heaven is For Real, followed by a narrative that builds on the principles of the excerpt or discusses events that have happened since the publication of the first book, a thought to contemplate and finally a Bible verse linked to the devotional’s main point.  The topics covered vary from serving, grieving, the afterlife, evangelism, prayer and many more.

As I read though this devotional, I found that it would be what most would expect from a devotional reader with brief chapters that can be mulled over.  I believe that this offering would be of interest to two audiences.  First, fans of Heaven is For Real will likely enjoy this text since the Burpos expand on stories within the original book and share stories from their life about what has happened since.  The second audience is those who are wrestling with grieving.  Having lost a child to heaven, and have him returned they speak of loss in a different way than others that did not walk through journey.  Additionally, as a pastor and his wife they have seen and helped others in their periods of loss.  Overall Heaven Changes Everything is a typical devotional that fans of Heaven is For Real will likely pick up to enlarge the story of the Burpo family. 

Review Copy Provided by Thomas Nelson

Hell is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) by Brian Jones

Brian Jones in Hell is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) discusses his voyage of self-discovery that the Hell of the Bible is real and how it has impacted his life.  Jones examines why he personally failed to hold to a personal belief in heaven and why as group Christian by in large do not believe in a real hell.  The then details how a real belief in the doctrine of hell has impacted his ministry and moved him to become very serious about salvation and helping others to avoid an eternity in hell.  Finally, he provide his readers practical advice and guidance to leading non-believers to a saving faith in Jesus, and thus helping them to avoid an eternity of wrath. 

Overall this text led to mixed reactions from me.  First, realizing that I have failed to understand my own beliefs more fully on heaven and hell I have found the recent literary conversation about heaven a timely and interesting one.  And this book definitely falls into that conversation, and provides a different view point of once you believe in hell this is how you can behave.  And I found his evangelism advice helpful, useful and realistic especially as one who sees this area as a weak spot.  And I love his explanation of a Christian as an foreign ambassador living amongst unbelievers.  But there were also misses for me.  He discusses uncovering how Bible study led him to discover the truth of hell for himself.  I would have loved for him to walk his readers from fully through this process.  Additionally, he discusses God’s wrath, but in my mind never fully answers the question of why God is wrathful.  Finally, Jones who clearly is a compassionate man describes himself and statements as a way that can only be seen as harsh and unkind.  These comes especially in the first half of the book where the second half better draws out Jones’ personality.  Overall I was hoping for a fuller discussion of the doctrine of hell than was provided in a book which is really a call for evangelism.    

Review Copy Provided by The B&B Media Group, Inc. 

We Shall See God: Charles Spurgeon’s Classic Devotional Thoughts on Heaven by Randy Alcorn

Randy Alcorn in We Shall See God collects fifty experts from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons on the topic of heaven. Alcorn has selected from Spurgeon’s vast treasury of sermons excerpts that show Spurgeon’s thoughts on heaven and the importance of Jesus in a theology of the afterlife. After every two to five page Spurgeon excerpt, Alcorn provides commentary on Spurgeon’s thoughts and helps provide linkages to the modern day. Alcorn for his modern reader additionally edited each section to meet modern conventional grammar, often resulting in rearranging large paragraphs into smaller chunks. Alcorn along with the excerpts provides biographical information on Spurgeon for readers unfamiliar with his life and ministry.

For the purposes of this review, I want to focus primarily on Spurgeon’s thoughts. Though Alcorn’s commentary is helpful and helps readers get to the point of sermons written in the language of the 19th century. Spurgeon overall paints a picture of heaven that is exciting, better than one can expect and adventurist. Spurgeon chaffs at those who view heaven as a boring uninteresting existence that humans would not want to spend an eternity in. Instead heaven is a place of rest and sabbath where believers will finally know Jesus in a personal manner. The saved will live in heaven as kings, redeemed by the work of Christ. In heaven there will be no place for sin, but there will be room for laughter and joy. Spurgeon believed that believers would retain their personal identities and friendships, deeper than we could have in the old earth, in the restored creation. This is a devotional book and the cheery and exciting picture that Spurgeon paints of heaven is highly encouraging. On a side note there have been a lot of discussion about heaven and what does it mean to be an Universalist. Spurgeon makes clear that he believes that he believes that there will be more in heaven than those that are lost to hell, an existence without God. Alcorn states his belief that Spurgeon is not an Universalist in anyway, as Jesus is the key to salvation. But it does lead to questions about what does it mean to be an Universalist and the importance to provide each other grace in this debate. In my opinion, we are currently experiencing an vigorous theological debate amongst believers about heaven. In short, it’s nice to see where we have been already to help us determine where we are going.

Review Copy Provided by Tyndale House Publishers