I Serve A Savior: A 12-Day Devotional By Josh TurnerSample

The River (of Happiness)

*An excerpt from Man Stuff, p.166

“Based on [God’s] promise, we wait for the new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will dwell.” 2 Peter 3:13

One of my very favorite books is 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. When I first got a copy, I read it in a day. The book is the author’s real-life account of spending an hour and a half in heaven after a semitruck crushed his car and he died. One of the first and most dramatic things Don noticed in heaven was the music. He said there was beautiful singing unlike anything he had ever heard on earth. I like that description.

The Bible talks of a new heaven and a new earth. I don’t believe heaven will be the stereotypical angels playing harps while reclining on clouds while the rest of us walk around in white robes. No, I think heaven will be a world similar to the one we are living in now, but it will be, as the old preacher said, “the land of no mores” – no more pain, no more suffering, no more futility. Heaven will be full of love and goodness and truth, everything that God is and is about.

I believe that’s something definitely worth looking forward to. It’ll be like what Adam and Eve had before they gave in to Satan’s temptation and sinned. Eden was a beautiful place of beginnings, and I believe heaven will be an equally beautiful place of new beginnings for those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. 

For Reflection: "The River (of Happiness)" - Live From Gaither Studios