Heaven

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The preacher said she had gone to heaven. As a young boy I didn't know much about heaven. I hardly knew any Scripture. I was young and ignorant of many things. Not stupid. Just ignorant. What little I did know about heaven led me to believe it was a good place. If anybody got to go there I thought it should be my mother.

After years of preaching I still don't know a lot about heaven, but I know a lot more than I did when I was eleven. I preached a lot about heaven during my ministry and I officiated at many funerals. Sometimes I preached two or three funerals a week. There were months when I would have at least one funeral every week. And then, thankfully, there would be weeks and months when I wouldn't have to walk that lonely trail of tears. But over the years I preached hundreds of funerals and talked a lot about heaven.

One of my favorite books about heaven (next to the Bible, of course) is big book with a simple title, Heaven by Randy Alcorn. Stu Weber said, "Other than the Bible itself, this may well be the single most life-changing book you'll ever read."

Tonight, Barbara Walters will have a two hour special about heaven. I have seen the names of a few of her guests. It will surprise me if some of them know anything at all about heaven---and I really mean anything. But in two hours she will talk to many people. It will be interesting to see what people are thinking about heaven. It is good that the topic is being discussed on national television.

Brother Lemmons was a great preacher and editor of a religous paper. He was preaching about heaven. Every few minutes, after talking about heaven, he would say, "I want to go there. Don't you?" I have never forgotten his words. Yes, brother Lemmons, I want to go there!