My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life by Besteman Marvin J. & Craker Lorilee

Author:Besteman, Marvin J. & Craker, Lorilee [Besteman, Marvin J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Near-death experiences—Religious aspects—Christianity, BIO018000, BIO026000, Heaven—Christianity, Marvin J.Besteman (1934–2012)
ISBN: 9781441240101
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2012-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

6

The Book of Life

When I got inside the massive doorway into heaven, there was an area I can best describe as an inner gate. It was like the ones we read about in Scripture, like the ancient gates that still exist in some parts of the world that have been inhabited for many centuries.

As my eyes swept from the left to the right, I saw a long stone shelf that extended about ten to twelve feet in either direction before sort of fading away in a kind of haze or mist. Piled on top of this shelf or table made of stones were books upon books upon books, stacked up three to four books high, all along the surface both left and right.

The stones were rugged and simple. They weren’t fancy in any way; rather, they were roughly cut and completely unpolished. It was almost like they fell off the side of a hill and someone said, “Leave them there.” I’m quite sure this bench of rocks was, well, rock solid, immovable, able to bear tons of weight. Yet it had a look of loose stones piled one on top of the other, natural and of-the-earth.

In fact, when Ruth and I took a cruise to Turkey, Greece, and Italy, the kind of gray ash stone we saw all over the Bible lands reminded me of the stones in heaven.

If you’ve ever been to that beautiful area of the world, you know exactly what I mean. When we traveled there in 2009, I was struck by how rocky and uneven the paths are. When you walk, you have to watch every step—it’s so bumpy. On a day trip to Ephesus, the place where Paul sent the book of Ephesians, I stumbled once and fell flat on my face. I thought I had broken my nose.

Not that I’m complaining, because as earthly trips go, this one was wonderful (though we did almost lose Ruth in the Vatican, but that’s a story for another day).

On the trip, I kept thinking about the letters delivered to the Romans, the Thessalonians, the Ephesians, etc.—letters written by the apostle Paul, transported by faithful servants, and then read in those very places in which I was walking. Were the letters read aloud to lots of people in coliseums? Or passed from believer to believer? Being in the Bible lands was so inspiring, in more ways than one.

I must confess, I couldn’t help but notice Greece had the most beautiful women I had ever seen. Ruth had to hold me back a little bit. I may have been seventy-five, bald, and falling on my face, but I wasn’t blind!

Back to heaven and the shelf in that inner sanctum, made of those coarse, jagged stones I saw all over the place in the Bible lands. The shelf was about three feet high, about up to my waist. The books stacked on top of it were about as thick as the Grand Rapids phone book, about two and a half inches.

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