The Glory of Heaven: Inspiring True Stories and Answers to Common Questions
By Betty Malz
5/5
()
About this ebook
Miraculous stories of people visiting heaven abound--but what do those stories mean for you? And what do they tell us about this bright and glorious place? With warmth and insight, beloved author Betty Malz explores the wonders we will encounter in our final destination. Using Scripture and drawing from personal, firsthand experiences, she helps you answer questions such as:
· Will I recognize and reunite with my loved ones?
· Where is heaven located?
· What kind of body will I have?
· Will I be free from grief, pain and loneliness?
· What will we do up there all that time?
When the things of this world get you down, let these pages turn your eyes to heaven and the Father who is waiting for you there. Experience a taste of the sweet joy you will encounter when you, too, walk through those glorious gates.
Betty Malz
Betty Malz (1929–2012) was the author of ten books, including My Glimpse of Eternity, which has sold more than 750,000 copies. Following her death experience, Betty spent the next 53 years sharing her testimony through writing and speaking, always with great joy and a deep love for Jesus.
Read more from Betty Malz
My Glimpse of Eternity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels by My Side: Stories and Glimpses of These Heavenly Helpers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Glory of Heaven
Related ebooks
Touched by Heaven: Inspiring True Stories of One Woman's Encounters with Jesus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Glimpse of Glory: My Journey to Heaven and Back Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heaven is Amazing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnter the Holy Spirit, Exit Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Descending Angels" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuardian Angels by My Side: True Stories of Angelic Encounters and Divine Interventions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Morning I Saw Heaven: A Glimpse into God‘s Glory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels Are for Real: Inspiring, True Stories and Biblical Answers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Encountering Angels: True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives Every Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heavens Glimpses of Your Eternal Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeaven Is a Breath Away: An Unexpected Journey to Heaven and Back Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mommy, Mommy, I Went to Heaven: I Went to Heaven and Saw Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlimpses Of Heaven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngels, Miracles, and Heavenly Encounters: Real-Life Stories of Supernatural Events Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Secret of the Stairs: Your Quest for Intimacy With Abba Father Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDying to Meet Jesus: How Encountering Heaven Changed My Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heaven: A Journey to Paradise and the Heavenly City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Second Chance at Heaven: My Surprising Journey Through Hell, Heaven, and Back to Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heaven is Amazing!: A Composition of 34 Eyewitness Testimonies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Supernatural Guide to Understanding Angels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5His Forever: Stories of Real People Finding Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heaven Sightings: Angels, Miracles, and Glimpses of the Afterlife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGatekeepers of the Temple Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAppointments with Heaven: The True Story of a Country Doctor's Healing Encounters with the Hereafter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the Glory Road with God and His Angels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngels are Here Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVisits to Heaven and Back: Are They Real? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Christianity For You
Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Less Fret, More Faith: An 11-Week Action Plan to Overcome Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (updated with two new chapters) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Holy Bible (World English Bible, Easy Navigation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NIV, Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Glory of Heaven
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The Glory of Heaven - Betty Malz
Cole
1
Unrealistic Realities
It is not always easy to believe in something we cannot see. But unseen does not mean nonexistent. Scientists are ever searching the unexplored; children are born with a love for magic tricks; the middle aged chase rainbows; the elderly hope to avoid the unavoidable—death. Every human has an inborn yearning for the permanent, something lasting, eternal. It is the unexplainable hope of heaven. And that is the essence of faith.
Still, few things try our ability to believe in the unseeable the way heaven does. Heaven is the promise of all that is grand and glorious. It is the fulfillment of every dream. It is the place of everlasting joyful communion with our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we cannot see it. We can hardly even imagine it. How can we know for certain, down deep in our hearts, that it is the most wonderful place in all of creation, and that we as believers in Jesus Christ are headed there?
We learn about heaven most of all, naturally, from Scripture. The revelation given to John, for instance, gives us fascinating insight into the beautiful city, the New Jerusalem, and many events that will take place there. References throughout the Bible point to our ultimate destination and the lovely dwelling place of God.
We can learn in a corollary way about heaven from believers who had near-death experiences and recovered with vivid recollections of what they saw there—although we have to exercise great caution and discernment about what we hear, always checking it against Scripture as our final authority.
I have enjoyed talking about heaven ever since my own experience with death, which I wrote about in My Glimpse of Eternity. After suffering a ruptured appendix eleven days before surgery—followed by gangrene, pneumonia, a bowel block, collapsed veins and a coma—my heart finally stopped beating. Medical personnel removed the life-support system, covered me with a sheet and called my husband and parents.
I knew nothing of the happenings around my physical body during the next 28 minutes, for I felt as if I had gotten onto a roller coaster at Disney World. At the high point of the ride, the height of exhilaration, my body lurched with anticipation, and the only way I can describe what happened is to say that I was launched from this planet to another place. I was suddenly walking in a meadow of waving green grass among flowers of colors I had never seen before. I had arrived in the countryside of heaven. It was as real as Africa or America or any other earthly landscape we can walk upon.
I have never felt such belonging. Heaven is a reality! An unseeable, unsearchable reality—but reality nonetheless! Think about it. Many things that seem unrealistic are reality. We cannot see oxygen, but it is a reality.
Our friend Clyde Miller, who pastors a church in Cincinnati, preached a sermon on unrealistic realities such as those in the following list. These are things we have never seen, but would not deny are real. They are unseen, but they assuredly exist:
The most real realities are the things of heaven. These shall endure while eternities roll. How important it is to set our minds and affections on the things above, not on the things that are on earth
(Colossians 3:2)!
I chatted with a woman in the Tampa airport recently. She saw me reading my New Testament and remarked, I’m a religious illiterate. For years I thought Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife! But I know,
she added more seriously, that there’s something after this life. I have never seen love, but I know it’s real. I know there is a God, though I’ve never touched Him.
Dr. Richard Eby, who recorded his heavenly
experiences in his popular book Caught Up into Paradise, described his initial reaction at seeing heaven this way:
I felt suddenly at home. I was instantly no longer in a strange world as earth had seemed so often of late, but in Paradise, personally prepared for my arrival. I didn’t need my glasses to see ten inches or ten miles. . . . I had no memory of earth or the fact that I had plunged from an upper balcony . . . head first, with a thud onto the cement below . . . and was [dead on arrival] at the hospital. In a twinkling of an eye, as quick as a wink or a blink, my mind and body were renewed exquisitely beyond imagination.
I gasped with glee at God and His handiwork everywhere in everything. I was home at last. What a joy! There was no pain, just a presence of peace. I looked at myself in a translucent flowing gown, pure white. . . . I viewed the forests . . . and the valley floors were gorgeous, with four-petaled flowers on stems two feet tall with real gold at the centers. . . .
I looked for my wife. In the distance I heard her call, Richard, Richard!
The lights went out and I was on the fourth floor of the hospital.
Dr. Petti Wagner said that in her experience, even though I seemed to be walking on billowing white ether, there was firmness under my feet as I moved. . . . I felt twenty again, uninhibited. . . . Human words cannot express the flood of emotions and sensations.
Personally, I have often wondered why God allowed me, a born-again newspaper columnist born near Toad Hop, Indiana, former resident of North Dakota, now living in Florida, a second chance at life. I have never been to the Holy Land, but I think He may appoint me as a tour guide in the New Jerusalem since I have been there!
In fact, I have no idea why He allowed me to undergo the experience I did. Nevertheless, I believe that He has commissioned me and other representatives of the resurrection
who have glimpsed the splendors of heaven to tell what is to come. We should look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal
(2 Corinthians 4:18). And the things that are eternal can be seen in this life only with the eyes of faith.
Remorse looks back; fear looks around; but faith looks up. When feelings fail, faith prevails. Our ultimate faith, of course, rests in Jesus Christ, who died on our behalf, rose again and is in heaven now preparing a place for us. We know it is true because He said so:
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:2–3
Job is a good example of faith in action. He was a respected and mature man. God said, Consider him.
When Job lost his possessions, his children and his health, he knew what it cost to hold on to faith. Even his wife suggested that he curse God and die so she could be freed from her misery. (What a miserable helpmeet
!)
But Job persisted. He waited patiently in the gap between the things he understood and the things he did not understand. God did not reward him for suffering, but for holding on when he had no answers.
Where is the place of understanding?
Job asked. It is hidden from the eyes of all living. . . . God understands its way; and He knows its place. For He . . . sees everything under the heavens
(Job 28:20–21, 23–24).
And in this oldest book in the Bible, our friend Job—with neither New Testament nor Christian books to draw from—nevertheless declared: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end his will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God" (Job 19:25–26, NIV, emphasis added).
We, too, must refuse to let things we do not understand rob us of what we believe. We must hold on to the hope of heaven and know that its unspeakable glories await us.
You might have a head start in claiming this hope if you have had a loved one die. That experience seems to give us a personal connection or investment there.
An old minister friend of ours lives with his wife near the Wabash River. He said they used to sit each morning with cups of coffee and remark casually about happenings on the other side of that river. Then their last daughter got married and moved with her husband to that other side. Now they love to look out over the river because people they love live there.
He said that it was the same with his feelings about heaven. He used to preach funerals with some detachment. After three of his children died, however, he suddenly took great interest in heaven in anticipation of the time he will go there to join them.
To reach heaven ourselves we must first die, of course, and that can be a frightening thought. We will talk about death more in the next chapter, but let’s just say here that death is one of those realities that we can understand only in part because we have witnessed it, but have not experienced it. Yet with faith we can believe that death is the open door to the best of life—the infinite.
I have a hard time trying to picture that word infinite. A Princeton scientist, for example, says that the atom cannot be completely broken down. It is infinite, endless energy. Another scientist says he believes in an immortal soul because science has proved that nothing can disintegrate into nothingness, so we ourselves must be immortal.
Assuming this is true, that we will live forever—which, of course, is what the Bible teaches—can create hunger in believers for that eternal dwelling place. Reading the Bible can heighten our hope in the unseen reality of heaven. Realizing that Jesus lives there and we will walk in communion with Him is enough to burst our hearts with joy!
Do you have needs here? They will be met in heaven. Does your heart long for peace? reconciliation? truth? justice? All our longings will be fulfilled there in the light of Jesus’ love.
In fact, there are many longings that can be met only in the reality of heaven. I will never forget the enormous sense of total fulfillment I felt as I walked along in that countryside toward the light of the city. The happiness I had enjoyed on earth compared to the happiness I felt in heaven was like comparing a forty-watt lightbulb to the sun.
I once interviewed a famous writer. When our conversation moved to the topic of fulfillment he confessed, I should be the happiest man alive. I have a good wife, five good children, darling grandchildren and a contract for my next book. But I have restlessness deep inside me.
I know that feeling,
I told him. During the most important times of my life—on my wedding day, when my children were born, when I played my best organ recital, wrote my best column, lived my most shining hour—I had a corner of melancholy in the hidden recess of my soul that was still not quite satisfied.
During my death experience, while I was walking up that hill toward those gates, which were pearl as