Touching Heaven

"Every human is guaranteed a forever; it's just a matter of where "forever" will be spent."

Scripture says, "People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27-28). The ungodly, the rebellious "will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:46 NASB).

"There are no ordinary people," C.S. Lewis reminded us; everyone we see, meet or know is an immortal being, destined to live our eternity in Satan's realm or God's." I've heard Reinhard Bonnke say, "The border to eternity runs parallel to this life and is just one step away. It may be crossed over any time by anybody." The question is" What are we going to do with that? We have a choice to make.

"Depending on which side of eternity's question you take, death is either dreadful or desirable; the greatest loss or the consummate gain. Charles Spurgeon preached, "Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory." No one can anticipate advantage, benefit, profit in death - except for the Christian. If we don't live for Christ, dying means hell."(pg 110).

In his latest book, Touching Heaven: A Cardiologist's Encounters with Death and Living Proof of an Afterlife, Dr. Chauncey Crandall shares his many years of witnessing healing, loss of life including his own teenage son, and resurrections of many of his patients that he now prays for all of his patients as part of his practice and God has come through and shown him so much, he can no longer deny that God is real, and heaven is an eternal realm that goes beyond our senses. He has observed that when people are dying, they either register frightful reactions, including shock, torment or despair...or they reveal peaceful reactions such as calm and restfulness. There is almost never a middle ground - it is one extreme or the other, regardless of their symptoms or medication. He shares some of these first hand accounts that help him confirm that heaven does exist for those who believe in Jesus and hell awaits those who don't.

I received Touching Heaven by Dr. Chauncey Crandall compliments of Faith Words, a division of Hachette Book Groups for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of the book, in exchange for my fair and unbiased personal opinion. What I love are the stories of what he experienced as well as those of his patients, all coupled around what the Bible says about heaven, God and what believers can experience in their faith through Christ. There are scriptures referenced throughout to back up the claims of what he or his patients observed as well as Bible verses to conclude each chapter. I have no doubt that what he has seen and witness is true and look forward to the day when I too, step into my eternal life in heaven one day. This is a true testimony of the power of faith and what a life with Jesus awaits those who breathe our life. It also gives hope to those dealing with their own grief and loss until we are reunited one day in our eternal home. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

For more information about Touching Heaven, Dr. Chauncey Crandall or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Touching Heaven: A Cardiologist's Encounters with Death and Living Proof of an Afterlife by Dr. Chauncey Crandall

You can find Dr. Chauncey Crandall on Facebook to stay up to date with all his latest books.

To read more reviews on Touching Heaven, please visit Hachette Book Group's website.

The First Phone Call From Heaven

The Week It Happened...

On the day the world received its first phone call from heaven, Tess Rafferty was unwrapping a box of tea bags.

Drrrnnn!

She ignored the ring and dug her nails into the plastic.

Drrrnnn!

She clawed her forefinger through the bumpy part on the side.

Drrrnnn!

Finally, she made a rip, then peeled off the wrapping and scrunched it in her palm. She knew the phone would go the answering machine if she didn't grab it before one more -

Drrrnnn -

"Hello?"

Too late.

"Ach, this thing," she mumbled. She heard the machine click on her kitchen counter as it played her outgoing message.

"Hi, it's Tess. Leave your name and number. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, thanks."

A small beep sounded. Tess heard static. And then.

"It's Mom...I need to tell you something."

Tess stopped breathing. The receiver fell from her fingers.

Her mother died four years ago.

In the latest novel from best selling author Mitch Albom, The First Phone Call From Heaven, he was more has created a longing in the heart for so many who wish for just one more phone call or a way to talk to those who have died. Only it isn't just Tess who is getting the phone calls, it is others in the small town of Coldwater, Michigan. Those once lost in their grief are finding comfort in the short simple phone calls conveying that everything is perfect and that those loved ones are calling from heaven and they want everyone to know about it.

Amy Penn was hoping to finally get the one big break all reporters long for and when she gets the assignment to investigate the phone calls from dead people coming to those residents only in the town of Coldwater, Amy wonders if she is being sent on a wild goose chase because if she fails, the station doesn't have to worry about what the ratings will do. No one knows who she is anyway. But will Amy find more than she truly ever bargained for? Is this God's way of leading her down a much different path then she ever dreamed possible?

You'll have to pick up this book to find out. If you've read Mitch Albom's other books, The Five People You Meet in Heaven or Tuesdays With Morrie, then you will definitely WANT this one. It's guaranteed to keep you wondering long after you finish the final page. In my opinion, this one hands down gets a 5 out of 5 stars. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This was a self purchase and being a huge book lover, I had to read this one. What a great Christmas gift!

For more information about The First Phone Call From Heaven, Mitch Albom or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom

You can find Mitch Albom on Facebook to stay up to date with all his latest novels.

Waking Up in Heaven

"My name is Crystal McVea, and in 2009 I died and went to heaven.

"How is that for an icebreaker?

"I am sharing that story with you, in this book. I knew God's plan for me was to share what happened with as many people as I could. Now, are there people out there who will think I'm a fraud, or a religious nut, or crazy? I'm sure there are. The truth is, I know my story is hard for some people to believe. I know what I went through is beyond the realm of what we can experience on Earth. But I also know that this book deals with the biggest and most important question of them all: Does God exist? Is there a heaven? What is God's plan for us? Why are we even here?

"I certainly don't pretend to have all the answers. In fact, I still have plenty of questions. Nor am I claiming to be anyone special. But what happened to me did happen, and now I know - after a lifetime of not knowing - that God does exist. He gloriously, beautifully, wonderfully does exist.

"And since God told me to share my whole story, that is what I'm doing - even though much of my story is painful and not always pretty. You will learn as you get deeper into this book that for most of my life I lived with terrible shame and horrible secrets. For the longest time I hated myself and believed I was worthless, and as a result made so many bad choices.

"But it's important to realize who I was in order to understand who I became. Some of what I describe about my time in heaven may be familiar to you from other accounts of people dying and coming back - the quality of the light, the shimmering entranceway, the presence of angels - but some of it probably isn't. Everything I describe is absolutely, 100 percent how I remember it - that has always been my one and only rule for sharing my testimony. Nothing is embellished or exaggerated even the tiniest bit. What I describe is what I experienced, nothing more or less.

"What I can say is that the things God showed me were simply astonishing in their power and impact, and now the reality of God's presence bursts forth from my heart every day. The truth is, I was more alive in those nine minutes than I have ever been in all my years on this Earth. I can only hope that through my descriptions, however inadequate they may be, you will feel even a fraction of the power and the impact and the absolute glory of what I experienced." (pg 4-5).

In the book, Waking Up In Heaven, author Crystal McVea shares her experience not only of her incredible nine minutes in heaven standing alongside God, but also the testimony of her entire life before and after that moment. It is painful to know and read how her childhood was and how often times, these things go on right next door and we never know it's going on. The people we may interact with may have stories similar to Crystals but we can never know unless we are willing to get to know them more and have them peel back the layers of shame and pain to reveal the person they really are on the inside. The book toggles back and forth between the moments of Crystal's experience in Heaven with chronologically walking with her from her childhood to the present through the chapters.

I received Waking Up In Heaven by Crystal McVea and Alex Tresniowski compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publisher for my honest review and received no monetary compensation for a favorable review. I was excited to read this book because it's not just another book about a person's experience of dealing with a life after death encounter, but also incorporates a memoir of Crystal's life. It's not always easy to hear stories that aren't the happily ever after fairy tales, but then again, most our us have stories in our own closets we aren't willing to let anyone see. I applaud Crystal for taking the step to share her life story as well as her after life story with readers. The time she shares of her heavenly experience is one I have always imagined it would be. Difficult to capture in words that pale in their description in human terms and one is which I look forward to sharing in one day. I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone who questions if God exists and what Heaven will be like!

For more information about Waking Up In Heaven, Crystal McVea or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

Waking Up In Heaven by Crystal McVea

Video clip of Crystal McVea's testimony.

Room of Marvels

Once in a while you find a really great novel to read. One that changes your perspective on how you view this life, but the way we walk through it. Then there is the aspect of just what happens when we die. Do we see our loved ones again? How can we possibly grasp the wonders of what awaits us in heaven one day? How do we cope with the grief and loss of a loved one while we have to walk the rest of the journey through this life without them?

I think James Bryan Smith did an exceptional job at not only explaining the concepts of what Heaven may in fact look like, but more important explaining why despite all our faithful acts of kindness here on Earth and our prayers, that sometimes God takes people from us anyway. Doesn't seem like a caring God after all does it?

In the novel, Room of Marvels, Tim Hudson, a well known author of Christian Living books,  is a man who is struggling to find purpose in life and a reason to keep his faith in God after the multiple losses of first his only daughter, his best friend and then his mother. These all happened over the course of a couple years and even though Tim still has his wife and son, he struggles with coping with these losses. Despite all the good things he believes he has done, he still wonders how God can take people like his daughter when she had only yet to begin her life. How some days it's a miracle just for him to take a breath. How will he ever be able to move forward in his grief and retain what little faith in God remains.

Tim checks in to St. Stephans Episcopal Monastery for five days in attempt to find some answers to deal with his loss. When he meets with his assigned spiritual director, Brother Taylor during his stay he finds the questions he asks him about his purpose for coming to the monastery a bit challenging. He wants to know what is going on with Tim's relationship with God, and it brings to the surface the anger Tim is feeling about God taking away his loved ones before their time. Tim tells Brother Taylor that despite the fact he writes books telling people how good God, how they should turn their lives over to God, how merciful, just and fair God is, he doesn't believe it anymore.

The advice that Brother Taylor shares with Tim probes deep into the places of his heart and cause him to rethink his losses. He advises him to search his heart and spend some time in silence and wait for God to share some insights into his question of faith. When Tim heads back to his room and before he falls asleep, he asks God to speak to Him, to send him an angel, and then as he sleeps he dreams of being transported to a place on a train. Tim's dream takes him to Heaven where he sees what impact his life has had on the people he interacted with during the time he has been on Earth. He gets an opportunity to renew his faith by learning things from his childhood and even seeing how his life impacted people he had never met. The most impactful lesson I took away from Tim's encounter was dealing with our loss of those we love.

As Tim is talking with Jack and is struggling with the deaths of his loved one and his anger at God, and Jack tells him, "the pain you are feeling is the pain of loss. Your heart is crying out to have them back. This may sound harsh, but think about this Tim, because it is part of our healing. What sort of friend or father or child would you be if you thought so much about your affliction and so much less about their happiness? When we cry, 'Come back,' it is all for our own sake. We never stop to consider whether their return, if it were possible, would be good for them. We want them back in order to restore our happiness. But in truth, we could not wish for anything worse for them. Having once gone through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have their dying to do all over again."

Tim realized that a large part of his grief was really selfish. He wanted them to come back, to walk through the door and resume their lives, to let him have just one more day with them. He realized that his desire was for his own happiness and not theirs.

I received this book through my own purchase because I love books like The Five People You Meet in Heaven or Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. This is the perfect book for someone who has recently experienced a loss and is struggling with their grief and in moving forward in dealing with life without them. I found even though I have experienced a loss, it wasn't like the loss of someone I was close to. This book for me, gave me a different perspective on the impacts we make in the lives of people by the smallest thing we do. It teaches us that we can't earn our way into God's grace and mercy by the things we do or struggle to live a perfect life. This is truly a life changing book for those times in your life when you question if there is something more to the life you're living. It's inspirational, its a healing balm to a grieving and hurting heart and one I can see talking about and rereading many times as I need a solid pick me up in my own walk of faith. I would rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars and would high recommend that EVERYONE read this one! It really will change your life!!

For more information about Room of Marvels, James Bryan Smith, and where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the link below:

Room of Marvels by James Bryan Smith

After You Die

"Who's Got A Ticket?

Remember those ticket machines you see at bakeries and ice cream shops? The sign that says TAKE A NUMBER, and when you come in, you grab that little ticket and stand around, trying to find something to do, until the clerk calls out your number. You hand the guy your ticket, give him your order, and then all in a rush you're done and out of there.

Well, the moment you were born, you grabbed a ticket. And no matter how you spend your time kicking around in this world, finding something to do, at some point you're gonna have to give up that ticket. You're done, and you're out of here.

Bam.

Just like that.

You see, it doesn't matter if you're a hero to your grandson. It doesn't matter if you're a boy who beat cancer as a baby, a grandmother who cooked unbelievable lasagna, or even the famous golden boy of the political world. You are going to die. And you don't know when.

As they say in the movies, "Nobody gets out of here alive." (pg 4-5)

The question is, what do you believe happens after you die? Is there a heaven and a hell? Is there life after death? Is there a God? Are these second chances after we die? Do we have a soul, and what does it look like? What qualifies a person to get into a heaven? What does Jesus have to do with it all?



In his latest book, Frank Santora, fills readers in with the most amazing analogies that you can't help but understand the meaning to everything he discusses in After You Die. He begins the book with analyzing if there is life after death and what happens to our bodies when we die. Unlike most people believe, humans are not machines. We can not simply be restarted like a car when we stop running. No amount of food, water and oxygen, the three vital things all humans need to survive will help once we are dead. So what really happens?

As close to end time events as I believe we are, this book is a compelling read to anyone who wants to know what happens when we stop breathing. Contrary to popular opinion we only have two choices of where we end up when we die, heaven or hell. There is no in between place, and hell is not where you will spend time partying it up with all your friends. No one should ever want to wind up there. So what can you do to make sure you don't? You will have to pick up a copy of this book to find out more, but a great place to start is in church asking Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Savior, then you will want to make sure you spend your time learning more about God, heaven and where you will be spending an eternity, cause it's going to be amazing for those of us that will be going. Do you know where you will be going after this life ends? I would encourage you to not wait if you don't know. You're ticket may be up before you know it!

I received After You Die by Frank Santora compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers for my honest review and have to say this is one of the best books that explains things in such a great way, everyone can understand. It even contains some points that atheists will often argue against such as Big Bang versus Intelligent Design. Like I stated earlier, the stories and analogies that Frank Santora uses makes this a useful tool that anyone can relate to no matter how young or old you are. I rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars and think that every single person should pick up a copy of this book, especially those that wonder what happens after we die! It's a compelling look into our futures!

For more information on After You Die, Frank Santora or where you can pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

After You Die: Unveiling the Mysteries of Heaven by Frank Santora

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Howard Books; Original edition (September 4, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141659731X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416597315

You can also visit Frank Santora on Facebook by clicking here.

The True Heaven - Review and Giveaway

Ever really wonder what heaven will be like? We will all come to the end of our lives at some point and only two choices will remain where we will go from there, either heaven or hell depending on your beliefs. But what do we really know about heaven and where do we gain that information from?
The people who die and return with glimpses of what the afterlife holds for us or do we look to God's Word, the Bible to see what His promises are?

Joe Beam and Lee Wilson took an extensive study into the Bible to look at what The True Heaven really looks like. Are they Bible scholars? By no means. Just a couple of guys trying to understand scripture and put it into effect in our lives. Do they have all the answers? Obviously not. They aren't shy about sharing their views, but they admit that they are just that - their views. Their goal in writing this book isn't to get you to agree with everything; it is to get you to think. Feel free to disagree, to ask your own questions. Their hope is that groups of Christians - or anyone interested in what happens after human death - will use this book as a starter for Bible study, discussion and lively debate. I personally think they have done an outstanding job!



In their book, The True Heaven: Not What You Thought, Better Than You Expected that tackle with scriptures such questions as "What happens when we die?" "Will we have bodies in heaven?" Are the dead aware of what is happening on earth now?" "Will we keep our memories in heaven?" "Do animals go to heaven?" and so much more.

I guess the biggest question and one that Joe and Lee addressed in the book was the fear that all we would be doing in heaven was sitting around singing worship songs for an eternity. That might be enough to scare some people who don't appreciate some worship songs. Imagine doing that FOREVER, yet is that really what God intends for us when we get there? You'd be surprised at just what the Bible reveals God's plans were and what he intends to do to restore those plans. I found great comfort in digging along with them through scripture and seeing God's voice speak to me through His Word, about being reunited with our loved ones and wondering just how we will spend our eternity. Will we eat real food? Will we have supernatural powers? Will we know everything once we get to heaven? What happens after we die, do we go straight to heaven, remain in a deep sleep or does judgement immediately await us?

I think this is a fantastic book to research things on your own through a personal study or even better as a small group study. They include some amazing study and group discussions in this book and I could see working through this book in a study a chapter at a time. The best part is that there is a real place that God has created for His believers for when we die and I, for one, am happy to know what it might be like according to God's word when I get there.

I received The True Heaven by Joe Beam and Lee Wilson compliments of Lee Wilson, himself for my honest review. I think this book puts to rest some of those deep fears we all have that after this life on earth, what happens next. It provides hope to those who are grieving the loss of babies and small children that didn't get to know about Jesus, and for me, what happens to my pets when they die. This book is about hope for something so much more. It's encouraging and shows us that God does really love us as much as we want to believe and that there will be a better plan for us, once this life ends. I rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars in my personal opinion and think it's a great place to begin a personal study on your own to find out what God has to say about it all.

For more information about The True Heaven, the authors, Joe Beam and Lee Wilson, and where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:

The True Heaven: Not What You Thought, Better Than You Expected by Joe Beam and Lee Wilson

You can also learn more from their Facebook page, by clicking here.

To order your copy from Amazon, please click here.

Thanks to the generosity of Lee Wilson, he has provide me with a giveaway copy of this book for one lucky follower of my blog. Here are you details.

1. Be a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart.

2. Be a resident of the US or have a US shipping address. Please No P.O. Boxes.

3. Leave a comment below telling me what question you want answered the most, along with your email address. You can use the words (at) and (dot) instead of the symbols.

4. Share this review with your friends, family, Facebook followers, bloggers, you name it. I think this makes for a great gift and a witnessing tool as well.

The giveaway will end on July 10th and I will notify the winner via email and post their information on my Facebook page, Reviews From The Heart.