John Burke - Imagine Heaven Devotional: 100 Reflections to Bring Heaven to Your Life Today

S ince you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at Gods right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth (Col. 3:12 NLT). That is the purpose of this devotionalto help us truly set our minds on the magnificent promises of Heaven, so that it will change how we live today.

But Christians often have a very poor view of Heaven. Too many imagine Heaven far less pleasing than earth, and as a result, they live their lives for what is temporal rather than what is eternal. Our desire in writing this devotional is to help you live today with awareness and confidence of your lifes eternal value.

Heaven and near-death experiences (NDEs), where people died, were resuscitated, and claimed to have had a peek into the afterlife, have been a hot topic. Usually we are asked to just take a persons word for it. But Ive never been one to gullibly believe every story of seeing Heaven. As a result, it took thirty-five years to write Imagine Heaven . Over that time, I studied close to one thousand near-death accounts (there are millions out there).

The Gallup Poll estimates that one out of every twenty-five people have had a near-death experience. After studying or interviewing so many people who had NDEs, amazing commonalities appeared across storiesintriguing, detailed descriptions by doctors, professors, commercial airline pilots, children, people from other countriesall giving different angles to what started to look like a similar picture.

During that same thirty-five-year time frame, I went from a career in engineering to becoming a pastor, and the more I studied the Christian Scriptures, on my own and in seminary, the more intriguing and confusing reading about NDEs became. Intriguing because so many of them described the picture of the afterlife found in the Scriptures; confusing because individual interpretations of their experiences could wildly vary and even seem at odds with the Scriptures.

After studying enough near-death experiences, I started to see the difference between what the people reported experiencing and the interpretation they might give to that experience based on cultural background or worldview. While interpretations vary, when evaluated together, the core elements of their testimonies point to what the Scriptures say. In fact, the more I studied, the more I realized that the picture Scripture paints of the exhilarating life to come is the common experience that many NDErs (near-death experiencers) describe.

In the book Imagine Heaven , I put together the evidence for the validity of NDEs. I show why so many skeptical medical doctors became convinced the afterlife is real because of what NDErs reported while out of their physical bodies, but still in the room where their resuscitation took place. I also show how their experience of the doorway of Heaven correlates with the amazing picture of the life to come painted in the Bible.

Imagine Heaven uses the stories of NDErs to help us imagine what the Bible describes. We believe the Bible should be the authority and framework for understanding Heaven and interpreting NDEs. We encourage you to read Imagine Heaven for a better understanding of the bigger biblical framework surrounding these stories and for answers to many of the questions commonly asked.

The Imagine Heaven Devotional has been written for personal application of the biblical promises of Heaven, in hopes of bringing Heavens blessings to your life today. My wife, Kathy, has written one hundred inspirational daily reflections, filled with Gods truth and wisdom, to encourage you as you go through the challenges of life here on earth.

Kathy and I have served as partners in ministry together for twenty-nine years, beginning as college pastors, to missionaries overseas, to founding and serving in Gateway Church in Austin for the past two decades. She has contributed significantly to all the books Ive written. That is why Im so excited to have you hear directly from her. Kathy has amazing gifts of encouragement and teaching that breathe life into everyone she encounters. In these devotionals based on my research, you will experience that same life-giving inspiration, affirmation of your immense value to God, and daily hope for living. In this devotional, you will be inspired by stories included in Imagine Heaven along with new stories, all from the perspective of the promises of God in the Bible.