THE PROMISE

In 1952, Florence Chadwick waded into the Pacific off Catalina Island, determined to swim the channel to the California coast. She was no amateur. She had already crossed the English Channel in both directions. But that morning the fog rolled in thick and cold, so thick she could barely make out the support boats beside her.

She swam for fifteen hours. More than once she asked to be pulled out, and each time her mother, riding alongside, told her she was close and could make it. Finally, spent in body and spirit, she quit. Only after she was hauled into the boat did she learn the shoreline was less than half a mile away.

Afterward, Chadwick explained that the fog had kept her from seeing the shore. She believed that if she could have seen it, she would have made it.

Friend, that’s the reason for this guide. Life has a way of rolling fog across the water. Grief does it. Sickness does it. Plain old weariness does it. And when we can’t see where we’re headed, we’re tempted to quit swimming. But for the believer, there is a shore. It’s Jesus himself, and the place he promised to prepare for us, where we’ll live with him forever. If we can learn to see that shore, even dimly, through the fog, it will steady us and strengthen us for the strokes we still have to swim.

For reflection

• What “fog” has made it hard for you to see your eternal home clearly?
• If you could see the shore more clearly, what difference would it make in the way you’re living this week?

Most of us carry questions about heaven that we rarely say out loud. Will it be boring? Is it even real? Can I know I’m going there? What about hell? We tuck those questions away, partly because we aren’t sure the Bible answers them and partly because we’ve never heard anyone try.

This guide is built around those questions. Each section takes one of them, opens the Scriptures that speak to it, and then hands the question back to you with a few things to ponder. You can read it straight through in an evening, or you can take it one question at a time over several weeks, alone or with a small group. Either way, keep your Bible open beside you. The goal isn’t for you to take my word for anything. The goal is for you to see for yourself what God has said about the home he is preparing for his people.

A word about sources. The notes behind this guide draw heavily on Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven, along with voices like C. S. Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, J. C. Ryle, and Charles Spurgeon. Where their thoughts are borrowed, they are credited. Where Scripture speaks, it gets the final word.

• Why Should I Think About Heaven at All? · Colossians 3:1–2
• Why Does Heaven Sound So Boring? · Philippians 1:23 · Revelation 21–22
• Hasn’t God Kept Heaven a Mystery? · 1 Corinthians 2:9–10 · Deuteronomy 29:29
• Is It Right to Imagine Heaven? · Genesis 2:7 · Revelation 22:1–5
• Doesn’t Everyone Go to Heaven? · Matthew 7:13–14 · Romans 3:23
• Is Hell Real, and Is It Loving to Talk About It? · Matthew 25:46 · Luke 16:19–31
• Can I Really Know I’m Going to Heaven? · 1 John 5:13 · Revelation 21:27
• What Do I Need to Know and Do? · 2 Corinthians 5:21 · Ephesians 2:8–9
• What If I Don’t Deserve to Be Forgiven? · Psalm 103:10, 12 · 1 John 1:9
• How Should I Live While I Wait? · Colossians 3:1–2 · John 16:33