Heaven: O for a Home With God

Great book! Our Sunday morning adult class is studying from this book. It is so full of encouragement and hope. I highly recommend it.

Nearly nine out of ten people in the United States say they believe in heaven, according to a recent ABC News poll. But, what exactly do people believe about heaven and what do they believe a person should do to get there? Contemporary beliefs about an afterlife and a place of reward are numerous and conflicting. Often they do not represent Bible truth.
In a recent book by Steve Klein and Jeff May (both members of the church and gospel preachers), the subject of heaven is given a thorough treatment from God’s word. Klein and May are not interested in modern beliefs, theories, and suppositions about heaven. They are interested in Bible truth. In Heaven: O For A Home With God, Klein and May open with a discussion of God’s home in heaven (Chapter 1) and who Jesus Christ is who prepares the way for us to go to heaven (Chapter 2). Several chapters follow that examine man and what he needs to do to be right with God, live right, and go to heaven (Chapters 3-8). Two chapters consider the help we get from heaven to live right while on earth and some hindrances that we need to overcome to get to heaven (Chapters 9-10). The final three chapters look at the Bible’s description of heaven and what the saved will do there with God (Chapters 11-13). In Chapter 11, the authors offer a good Bible exegesis of Revelation 21 as it relates to God’s people in heaven.
While there are many books on the market today covering the topic of heaven, this book by Klein and May is different. First, it is biblical and not full of fanciful imagination and speculation about the afterlife. You are getting God’s truth on the subject, not the opinions of two authors. Second, Klein and May lay down the Bible plan of salvation for man to go to heaven. They discuss both the reward (heaven) and the work necessary to get the reward. Discussion questions are also included at the end of each chapter. Klein and May have done a great service to believers. Their new book will encourage you and remind you of your ultimate goal in life – heaven!

We have been studying this workbook in the per-adult Bible class where I worship. This book is such an encouragement to me and gives me a longing for Home.
Great book and I recommend it to everyone!

Sometime around 1917, Thomas R. Sweatmon wrote a song about heaven, usually titled “Walking Alone at Eve,” the chorus of which begins, “O for a home with God, a place in His courts to rest.” Interestingly enough, religious surveys show that a majority of people still believe that there is an actual place called heaven. However, the old saying is that not everybody talking about heaven is going there. For years, gospel preachers have sought to remind us that heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. In Heaven: O For a Home with God, authors Steve Klein and Jeff May encourage us to want to go to heaven and then tell us, from the Scriptures, how to prepare to go there. Steve, whom I count as a personal friend, works as an evangelist with the Eastside Church of Christ in Athens, AL, and serves as a Bible instructor at Athens Bible School. Jeff, with whom I am not personally acquainted but who is known to me by the good reputation of his name, works as an evangelist with the Oakland Church of Christ in Athens.

This book is designed and intended for Bible study to help focus one’s thoughts on “the joy set before us” (cf. Hebrews 12:2). The thirteen chapters challenge the reader to see heaven from a Biblical viewpoint with copious observations and explanations from God’s word which are well illustrated by interesting, heart-warming stories. Each chapter also has discussion and thought questions. It would be profitable for Bible study classes in churches, small group Bible studies in homes, individual devotional studies, and even as part of a homeschool Bible study curriculum for teens. The study of heaven from a Biblical perspective is of eternal importance, and Steve and Jeff will jolt everyone into seeing heaven as a reality. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).

My good friend Bill Hall wrote in the foreword, “This book reminds us of the value of heaven as seen in all that God did in making it possible for us to be saved, cleansed, justified, and fitted for that abode. We are also reminded that while our hope is in God’s grace and love, we must take up our cross and follow our Lord if we are to find comfort and assurance in that hope.” And Jeff May said at the end of Chapter 13, “The aim of the pages we have written has only been to point you to the Scriptures on the grandest topic of all: Heaven! Our prayer is that you will think about Heaven and its Maker more each day, desire it and Him with all your heart, obey the gospel, and wait for the Master until He comes.” Christians can be encouraged and will benefit from this study, but the book may also be great in helping non-Christians come to Christ so that they can also have the hope of heaven.