TRUE-LIFE ACCOUNTS OF HEAVEN

The dream, aspiration and intense longing of every born-again Christian is to be in the presence of God, worshiping Him in adoration, with the angels flying around heaven's glorious throne - forever to sing God's praise. Many loved ones have gone before us, and if the Lord tarries, many more will go. Though it is beyond the grasp of our finite mind to describe the beauty and glory of heaven, as it is beyond description, we rest assured in the fact that one day it will be our home, however unworthy we may be.

During the past one week I have been fascinated by two reports on ABC News. One report gives an account of Don Piper, a Baptist pastor from Texas who is also the author of the best-selling book "90 Minutes in Heaven" and the other report is about a boy in coma, went to heaven and spoke with God.

Reproduced below is the two stories as reported by ABC News:

In Coma, Boy Goes to Heaven and Speaks to God

By BOB WOODRUFF, ROXANNA SHERWOOD and ERIC JOHNSON

For a parent, it was unthinkable and terrifying -- a simple split lip that suddenly erupted into a disfiguring, life-threatening infection in a sweet-faced 5-year-old boy. But while Jake Finkbonner's mother and father spent days fearing their son would die, Jake at one point found himself experiencing something he said was beautiful.

"I was in heaven and I spoke to God," the boy, now 11, said.

It began when Jake, who lives with his family in Ferndale, Wash., was playing basketball and hit his lip. Within a day, his face swelled so much he was unrecognizable.

"The swelling didn't go down. I got really sick. They took me to the hospital. Things weren't going so well," Jake remembered.

Doctors determined that Jake had been infected with a rare, flesh-eating bacteria -- necrotizing fasciitis -- that had entered the cut on Jake's face and spread like wildfire, literally eating away at his face.

"It was the most excruciating thing for a parent to have to listen to that everything just kept getting worse and worse and it was just one grim day after the next," said Jake's mother, Elsa.

For two months, doctors at Children's Hospital in Seattle kept Jake in a coma as they worked aggressively to beat the odds and save his life.

 "They were just doing everything they could to stop it but at that point we knew as parents we knew that his life was in the balance," Jake's father, Donny Finkbonner said.

While Jake lay in his hospital bed, his parents, who are Catholic, prayed by his side. Jake, meanwhile, says he was able to speak to God directly.

Jake said that, at one point, his body felt so light that he could almost "lift off." It was then, he said, that he had a vision.

"I was able to look down at the hospital. I saw my family. And then I went back to the house where I saw my family," he said. "The only thing is, I didn't see myself."

After he woke up, he shared his experience with his mother.

"I remember him just laying there in the bedroom in the hospital bed and he sat straight up and said 'I've been raised,'" Elsa Finkbonner remembered. "And I said, 'Where?' and he said, 'To heaven.'"

Jake said he spoke to God, who sat in a high chair and was very tall.

"He wasn't the size of a normal person," he said.

Jake said he also saw deceased relatives -- his uncle and his great-grandmother -- as well as angels.

He said he was enjoying himself so much that he asked God if he could stay, "but he said that my family needed me and everybody else down here -- and he sent me down here and he sent me back down."

For the past five years, Jake has been through dozens of surgeries to repair the damage to his face. His progress has been almost as impressive as his survival. His experience is being investigated as a true medical miracle by The Vatican.

"To us, it's always been a miracle whether the church recognizes it's a miracle or not," Donny Finkbonner said. "It's not up to us, but in our hearts, we know that Jake is a miracle. We've seen it with our own eyes."

Jake said that these days, he sometimes finds himself thinking about heaven before he goes to bed. He has advice for others facing life-threatening illnesses.

"Don't be scared at all," he said. "Either way, it will be a good way. If you go to heaven, you'll be in a better place -- if you live, you'll be back with your family."

Read the orginal ABC News here

Describing Heaven: Pastor, Pronounced Dead, Says He Was There

By BOB WOODRUFF, ROXANNA SHERWOOD and ERIC JOHNSON

Don Piper says he remembers music that was "beyond spectacular" and aromas he'd never smelled before. His grandfather was there to greet him warmly, as dozens of others who had died in years past stood before him in front of a magnificent gate.

Piper, an ordained Baptist minister, insists it was no dream: He visited heaven, he said, and chronicled his experience in the New York Times bestseller, "90 Minutes in Heaven."

"It was the most real thing that ever happened to me," he said.

Piper's ethereal trip, he said, began on a bridge in rural Texas in 1989. There, a truck plowed into Piper's car, leaving him with horrific injuries.

"(The) steering wheel impaled me in the chest and then the car's roof collapsed on my head so there's just no way you could survive this accident," he said.

Piper said his heart stopped pumping and paramedics declared him dead. He was without a pulse, he said, for 90 minutes before coming back to life.

But before he rejoined the living, Piper said he communed with the dead.

"I took my last breath here in the car and I took my first breath there at the gates," he said.

There were lights reflecting off the gates, which looked like they were "pulsating with life," he said.

"That's because in heaven there is no artificial light, God illuminates it with his glory," he said.

In front of the gate stood his grandfather, welcoming him "home," he said.

"I was heartbroken when he died," he said. "Now I'm at the gates of heaven (and) he's the first person to greet me."

Piper, who was ordained in 1985, said he could not have imagined what he saw in heaven.

"You know, if I was having a dream about it, this wouldn't be in it," he said. "Some of these people who met me at the gates, I haven't thought of in decades."

As Piper's body remained trapped in the car, the wreckage caught the attention of a couple driving by. As Dick Onarecker and his wife pulled up to the scene, they were told that Piper was dead. Onarecker decided to pray over Piper's body anyway.

"The Lord just impressed on me very emphatically very urgently that I was to pray for him," Onarecker, who died in 1996, said in an interview before his death.

Piper said he regained consciousness and heard Onarecker singing "We Have a Friend in Jesus." Soon, he joined him in song.

"He's singing, and, and I'm singing, and I'm thinking to myself, 'What happened here?'" Piper remembered.

Piper was alive, but he would face a long recovery. He endured dozens of surgeries to fix his bones and had to learn how to walk again.

"I knew I was not going to be the same physically, because of apparently how badly I was injured. But I also know what I've seen," Piper said.

He believes he was sent back to spread a special message: "Heaven is a real place."

Piper has spread that message with his book, which has sold 4 million copies. But even with all his success here on Earth, he said he looks forward to returning to those magnificient gates.

"It's not that I mind being here, I'm actually very excited to be here," he said, but "this doesn't seem real to me now, because I know how temporal and fleeting it is.

"I know it happened in my very soul, my very being," he said. "It is now my reality. And so I can't wait to go back there."

Read the original ABC News here

THE FATHER'S SACRIFICE

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's pastor slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening.

In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak. 

"A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast," he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to the shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized." 

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. 

The aged minister continued with his story, "grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the life line. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a christian and he also knew that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves."

"As the father yelled out, 'I love you, son!' he threw out the life line to his son's friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered." 

By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister's mouth. 

"The father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without jesus... Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son's friend. 

How great is the love of God that he should do the same for us. Our Heavenly Father sacrificed his only begotten son that we could be saved. I urge you to accept his offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line he is throwing out to you in this service." 

With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. The pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an invitation at the end. However, no one responded to the appeal. 

Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's side. "That was a nice story," politely stated one of the boys. "But I don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a christian." 

"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face. He once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn't very realistic, is it? 

But I'm standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for god to give up his son for me. You see - I was that father and your pastor is my son's friend."

INSPIRING CHUCK SWINDOLL QUOTES

Charles Rozell "Chuck" Swindoll (born October 18, 1934) is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, currently headquartered in Plano, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more than 2,000 stations around the world in 15 languages. He is currently the senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church, in Frisco, Texas.

Here's a collection of some of the best quotes attributed to this great man of God:

Alleged "impossibilities" are opportunities for our capacities to be stretched.

The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

When I think of vision, I have in mind the ability to see above and beyond the majority.

When you have vision it affects your attitude. Your attitude is optimistic rather than pessimistic.

The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

The swift wind of compromise is a lot more devastating than the sudden jolt of misfortune.

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

You want to mess up the minds of your children? Here's how - guaranteed! Rear them in a legalistic, tight context of external religion, where performance is more important than reality. Fake your faith. Sneak around and pretend your spirituality . Train your children to do the same. Embrace a long list of do's and don'ts publicly but hypocritically practice them privately... yet never own up to the fact that its hypocrisy. Act one way but live another. And you can count on it - emotional and spiritual damage will occur.

Encouragement is awesome. It (can) actually change the course of another person's day, week, or life.

The beautiful thing about this adventure called faith is that we can count on Him never to lead us astray.

A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living.

I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun.

When God is involved, anything can happen. Be open. Stay that way. God has a beautiful way of bringing good vibrations out of broken chords.

The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it, or until the time is right, or until you know how to do it is one of the greatest burglars of joy. Be deliberate, but once you've made up your mind-jump in.

Few things are more infectious than a godly lifestyle. The people you rub shoulders with everyday need that kind of challenge. Not prudish. Not preachy. Just cracker jack clean living. Just honest to goodness, bone - deep, non-hypocritical integrity.

Laughter is the most beautiful and beneficial therapy God ever granted humanity.

The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it's a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.

Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.

If we want the advantages of love, then we must be willing to take the risks of love. And that requires vulnerability. Of course, we can refuse this path and trod another one devoid of openness. But the toll on such a road is extremely high.

A teardrop on earth summons the King of heaven.

If you're running a 26-mile marathon, remember that every mile is run one step at a time. If you are writing a book, do it one page at a time. If you're trying to master a new language, try it one word at a time. There are 365 days in the average year. Divide any project by 365 and you'll find that no job is all that intimidating.

If you are having difficulty loving or relating to an individual, take him to God. Bother the Lord with this person. Don't you be bothered with him - leave him at the throne.

In place of our exhaustion and spiritual fatigue, God will give us rest. All He asks is that we come to Him...that we spend a while thinking about Him, meditating on Him, talking to Him, listening in silence, occupying ourselves with Him - totally and thoroughly lost in the hiding place of His presence.

When intimidated by who's sitting in the audience, we should remember the King of Kings is also here, and it's his message.

The world's smallest package is a man wrapped up in himself.

More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers. It was commitment that thinned the ranks.

To be used of God. Is there anything more encouraging, more fulfilling? Perhaps not, but there is something more basic: to meet with God. To linger in His presence, to shut out the noise of the city and, in quietness, give Him the praise He deserves. Before we engage ourselves in His work, let's meet Him in His Word... in prayer... in worship.

When you suffer and lose, that does not mean you are being disobedient to God. In fact, it might mean you're right in the centre of His will. The path of obedience is often marked by times of suffering and loss.

In vain I have searched the Bible, looking for examples of early believers whose lives were marked by rigidity, predictability, inhibition, dullness, and caution. Fortunately, grim, frowning, joyless saints in Scriptures are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, the examples I find are of adventurous, risk-taking, enthusiastic, and authentic believers whose joy was contagious even in times of full trial. Their vision was broad even when death drew near. Rules were few and changes were welcome. The contrast between then and now is staggering.

Emmanuel. God with us. He who resided in Heaven, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, willingly descended into our world. He breathed our air, felt our pain, knew our sorrows, and died for our sins. He didn't come to frighten us, but to show us the way to warmth and safety.

A saying I heard years ago: 'It doesn't matter what you do. Just do something, even if it's wrong!' That's the most stupid counsel I've ever heard. Never do what's wrong! Do nothing until it's right. Then do it with all your might. That's wise counsel.

THE EMPTY CHAIR

A man's daughter had asked the local pastor to come and pray with her father. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The priest assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

"I guess you were expecting me," he said.

"No, who are you?"

"I'm the new associate at your local church," the pastor replied.

"When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up."

"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?"

Puzzled, the pastor shut the door.

"I've never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man.

"But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head.."

"I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, 'Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here's what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I'll be with you always.' Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you're doing with me right now."

"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."

The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon.

"Did he seem to die in peace?" he asked.

"Yes, when I left the house around two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange, In fact, beyond strange-kinda weird.

Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the bed."

DON'T STOP GOING TO CHURCH

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited.



The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent.

The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and “dead as a doornail.” Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.”

Keep on glowing in your life.

HINDU FUNDAMENTALIST DISRUPT PRAYER MEETING, THEN POLICE ARREST THE PASTOR - IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA

Police in Karnataka detained two Protestant ministers and 10 other Christians after some Hindu radicals disrupted a prayer meeting on Aug. 15 in Mandya district.


The Global Council of Indian Christians said the two ministers belonged to the Campus Crusade for Christ and the ministers spent Independence Day in prison.


The Christians were conducting a prayer service on the national holiday, when some 30 radical Hindus barged into the room shouting slogans.


Rather than arresting the Hindus, the police charged the Protestant leaders for alleged violations of the law that restricts religious conversions.


Police soon released the 10 Christian laymen, but kept the ministers in custody.


Karnataka state witnessed more than 200 attacks on Christians ever since the pro-Hindu BJP came to power in 2008.


Christian leaders say government make no effort to restrain Hindu zealots from violence.


SOURCE: Cathnews India/catholicculture.org 
 

MARTYRED FOR CHRIST

Pastor Artur Suleimanov, 49, was shot by unidentified gunmen recently while leaving Hosanna Christian Church in Dagestan on July 15.

Suleimanov was a Russian pastor who founded the biggest Protestant church in the Northern Caucasus region. The church has 1,000 members, 80 percent of whom were previously Muslim.

He was murdered recently after a media report said he deserved to die for converting too many Muslims.

Dagestan, located in the Caucasus mountains, is home to 2.6 million people, 91 percent of which are Muslim. Missionaries from outside Dagestan had not matched Suleimanov’s success, who was a native of the region.

Because the country borders Chechnya, it is often caught in the crossfire of a longstanding conflict between Russia and Chechen Sunni Islam separatists leading to many civilian deaths.

Further adding to tensions is the regular crackdown of the Russian government on Wahhabis Sunni Islam separatists. Muslims dislike Russian Orthodoxy because it is considered a Russian faith. Christian minorities are also persecuted.

Suleimanov leaves behind his wife Zina and five children.

Source: The Underground