Before (Or After) You Go See Heaven is For Real

The Heaven is For Real book, and many other like it, have been wildly popular of late. Now it's been made into a movie. Who isn't intrigued by this kind of thing?



So, what do you think?

Does "dangerous" come to mind? I just showed our kids the trailer and asked them what they thought. Then I showed them the following clip by David Platt. I would highly recommend watching this before (or after) you go see the movie.



Satan doesn't just carry out his schemes by scaring you and shaking his pitchfork in your face.

What if he could incite a best selling evangelical (!) book such that Christians were more emotionally satisfied and impressed with the words of a 4 year old on the subject of heaven than with the Word of God? Might our defenses be down as he peddles his false ideas inside and outside the church? Surely we'd be more likely to buy from a cute little 4 year old. It couldn't hurt, right?

"And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14). We dare not be unaware of his schemes (Eph 6:11; 2 Cor 2:11).

HT: JT

Together For The Gospel Media Resources

If you'd like to experience some of the same messages we experienced last week at the T4G conference, you can go here and browse around. The media resources from past conferences are available there as well.

If you want some suggestions on where to start, I'd recommend you not miss the messages by Matt Chandler, David Platt, and Kevin DeYoung.

There were also panel discussions on a variety of topics. It looks like they are still at work making those available, but you can find them here.

At the beginning of a number of sessions, they showed a video testimony. I found them very moving and encouraging. Here are a few of them:







You can find the rest of those testimonies here.

Together For The Gospel

As I mentioned on Sunday, our missionaries on home assignment Neil Prentice and Dwight Singer, pastoral resident Alex Kirk, Pastor Tyler, and me are headed to Louisville tomorrow morning for this conference. We'll be joined by a few thousand pastors, missionaries, and other church leaders who share the confident conviction that the gospel is "the power of God for salvation."

I'm sure it will prove to be a great time of learning and personal challenge. Please pray for us to "meekly receive the Word." Pray for our conversations and discussions. Pray that we would "stir one another up to love and good works." Pray for the speakers. Pray that this conference would bear fruit in our ministry as we return, and that it would bear fruit in the thousands of other places where the conference attendees will return at the end of the week. Pray also for the wives and children we will miss while we are away.

After the conference is over, the media will be available on the site so you can listen to any and all of what we heard, for free. You can find media resources from past conferences here.

What Happens When We Don't Pray?

What happens when we don’t pray? At least these 5 things:

1) You have not.

James 4:2 … You do not have, because you do not ask.

2) You enter into unnecessary temptation – in a weak condition.

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

3) You are empty of joy where you could be full.

John 16:24 … Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

4) You can do nothing (at least in the sense of bearing real spiritual fruit).

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

5) You labor and seek your own protection in vain.

Psalm 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. ² It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Just 5 (of who knows how many) reasons to listen to Jesus when he says we "ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1).