Near Death Experiences, continued

 This will be further thoughts about Near Death Experiences (NDEs), introduced in my previous post, and what awaits each and every one of us.

 Be forewarned: reading some of the things expressed by some of the NDErs in the book, may trigger a few intense emotions, some joyful and others, perhaps very sad.

 I hadn’t been all that aware of NDEs until about a year ago, as described in my previous post. And then it was just an amazing revelation of what they are, and what they mean!

 Each of us was created, by God, with an eternal soul/spirit, that occupies our earthly body for a few decades. The real person of who we are is based on our God-created spirit, not necessarily the human body. But our soul/spirit lives on forever.

 Many of the experiences shared in the book Imagine The God Of Heaven by John Burke, are just overwhelmingly inspirational. As I read through it, I often will just read a few pages and then consider the impact of NDEs on so many people in such an incredible way. I have to put the book down, consider what I have read and have a few joyful and emotional moments thanking and praising God.

People from so many walks of life, be it professional engineers, university professors, medical specialists, doctors and others, have shared what they experienced. Also from so many different religious backgrounds around the world, including Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and atheists. The majority have a commonality in what they experienced. Even a wide range of ages, from 4-year-olds to senior citizens, have shared. For many years, people were hesitant to share, especially those in a highly regarded professional occupation, as they thought people might think they were crazy, and had so much credibility to lose, and certainly no financial gain either. But when more and more experiences came to light, it was amazing how many people have had an NDE and the commonality of what they experienced.

In this day and age when sharing information is so much easier than it was decades ago, I think it is relevant that they are being shared for so many people to know about. Also Burke was initially an agnostic, but once he was introduced to the topic, researched so many NDEs, well over 1000 and growing, he became aware of God’s love and compassion for you and me, His creations. Burke was also averse to public speaking, but eventually he was led to speak on the topic numerous times, to many tens of thousands. He gave up his career in engineering, and became a pastor.

As a result, Burke’s book, as well as various others who had researched the topic over the years which includes the likes of Lee Strobel, Steve Miller, Pim van Lommel and others, have made this topic known world-wide. The results are that it enables people to have a better understanding of how much God loves each and everyone of us, and desires to have an eternal, loving relationship with us in the incredible beauty of His heavenly realm, which makes even the most beautiful aspects of what we see on earth, pale by comparison. And it is all free, since the price for our sins was paid for by Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross. We all have free will, to accept God’s love or reject it. For anyone rejecting it, the eternal results are not pleasant. Some of those who had an NDE saw what it was like for those who did not accept God’s free gift.

I have read and re-read this book, being so joyfully uplifted by what is written. I have underlined many statements, even entire paragraphs, highlighting so many fantastic things that the NDEs have described which go waaaay beyond our comprehension. As they often say, the human language cannot begin to adequately describe the beauty, the love, and the compassion that they were overwhelmed with.

Here are just a very few things that I have highlighted in my copy:

-everything good in life, all that we love, comes from our Maker and flows from Him.

-the more you realize that God is the source of all love and the love you’ve always longed for is ultimately found in God, the more you will want to seek him and trust in him in faith.

-you and I were created for a unique relationship with God.

-every human being has a soul that lives on after death, in a world overseen by a God of Light and Love

-NDEs are God’s gift to our globally connected world, as widespread evidence of God’s reality and his great love for people of all nations.

-a Muslim stated after meeting God in an NDE “I thought doing good religious work in Islam would get me there, to heaven, but it never happened. I found all I was looking for in Jesus.

-a person who was the victim of sexual abuse as a young child was shown by God in her NDE that “the men who raped me were held hostage by a powerful demon and just as much a victim of evil as I had been, and he wanted all of us set free”.

-an Imam had an NDE, was dead for over twelve hours, and had an incredible experience initially experiencing the demonic world where demons were torturing him when all of a sudden, someone else entered the room and the demons fled. He realized that God was there, had some communication with Him, and then returned to his body, only to discover that since he had been dead for so long, they were preparing him for entombment. When he jumped up and started shouting that he had met Jesus, the Muslims that were there fled! This person eventually became a Christian pastor.

-another NDEr stated that “God’s love for me was intensely personal. I sensed that I was known and loved even before I was born into this world, and his love was unconditional”.

-God is working through you and me to bring light to this dark world.

-even the grass and flowers were singing praises to God 

This next photo is one of my all-time favourite ones I have taken. It is a closeup of an endangered orchid, and it is only known in Canada at Rondeau. It is very small, seldom getting more than 10-12 cm in height, and often being less than 6 cm. It has a peculiar flowering strategy, with each flower bud developing to a certain point, and the flowering being triggered by a significant drop in night-time temperature. It will open on the second morning following that temperature drop, and will only flower for a single day. It may be a week or more before the weather conditions trigger the next flower bud to open. On very rare occasions, a plant may have three flowers open at the same time! Most of the flowers are white, but later in the season, some may be magenta in colour. This photo shows two developing buds and a single flower, which is looking upwards and singing praises to its creator! 

Nodding Pogonia

More things I have highlighted:

 -the only thing that can keep us out of heaven is our pride. God gives us free will to choose to accept or reject Him. The results of accepting Him or rejecting Him in the after-life are quite the opposite!

-people who on earth are not inclined to worship or praise God can’t help but do so in heaven, and wish they could do so forever

-you live in the Spirit when you make it a habit to go through your day, moment by moment, inviting the Holy Spirit into every thought, every decision, every action

-God is crazy in love with you and prayer is simply communication with the one who loves you most!

-God knows all of our deepest desires, and enjoys meeting them—in heaven but also on earth.

There are just so, so many things described in this book, that the few that I have featured above, are just a taste, and really don’t do the overall message justice. In fact almost the whole book could be underlined to really portray the message that God inspired John Burke to write about. I find great joy in re-reading this book, as it is so full of God’s love and messages for each person.

There is absolutely no question that by God bringing the topic of NDEs to my attention in the last year, has been an overwhelmingly wonderful thing, and has caused me to think much of the blessings I have had in my life, and what awaits me. I have spent a lot of time missing my sweetheart Marie, of course, but am also so thankful that God rescued her from the evil that she was a victim of and being influenced by. She was an absolute treasure and gift from God in so many ways and I continue to thank and praise Him for Marie.

Marie and I in 1979

 

Marie in 2010

For anyone who has an appreciation for nature and the beauty of God’s creations, from the descriptions given by many who have had an NDE, even the most beautiful places will pale in comparison to the heavenly realm. And for birders who are pursuing a big list of birds here on earth, I will await my time in heaven where I will have an eternity to explore and experience God’s incredible perfect world which will portray His magnificent and diverse creation forever.

This leads me to share a fairly recent song on UCB radio by TobyMac, called Heaven On My Mind. I have had many, many thoughts about heaven these days, and what Marie is experiencing and what I will eventually! Here is the link.

 

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