Friday 4/18/14
My wife and I were able to go see the movie “Heaven Is For Real” on the day of it’s release this past Wednesday and, personally speaking, I liked it even better than “God’s Not Dead” which was a great movie in it’s own right. The thought that struck me as the movie ended, which I shared with my wife as we walked out of the theater, was this: Why is it that we, as Christians, all believe in Heaven, yet we need to see something extra to reinforce or strengthen our faith regarding it? I confess that’s exactly what the movie did for me. Actually, I felt slightly embarrassed that the movie boosted my faith like it did and I told myself, “Did you not know already that all through the Bible many prophets spoke about Heaven, Jesus included? Then, I remembered the bible account when Jesus, praying out loud and looking toward Heaven, said “Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice from Heaven said, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Some in the crowd who heard the voice thought it was thunder and others thought it was an angel who had spoken to Him. Jesus turned to His Disciples and said:“This voice was for your benefit, not mine.” (John 12:30) I took those words as for me and immediately thanked the Lord for reminding me that I was no different than His followers of that day, that we all need to see or hear something extraordinary from time to time to fortify our faith. Though we are God’s children, there’s still a little bit of Thomas in us.
Unlike most other faith based movies, there were no scenes in this one which are inconsistent with the scriptures. Oh, there were some things in it regarding Heaven that one can say are not in the Bible but by the same token, neither is there anything in the Bible that says these things could not be.
I heartily endorse this wonderful movie and encourage you to go see it. I believe it will thrill you and bolster your faith like it did ours because Heaven is our hope, our prize, our promise, and more importantly, it is for real. In the end, however, let us not forget that we believe in Heaven mostly because Jesus and the Bible spoke about it’s reality.
Memory Verse for the week: (1 John 2:25) And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
