Read My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life Online

Authors: Marvin J. Besteman,Lorilee Craker

Tags: #Near-death experiences—Religious aspects—Christianity, #BIO018000, #BIO026000, #Heaven—Christianity, #Marvin J.Besteman (1934–2012)

My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life (3 page)

BOOK: My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life
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Just as the pastor began to clear his throat to bring the dismal sharing time to a close, a young African-American man seated in a side pew, several rows from everyone else, stood up.

“I have a message,” he said in a clear, strong voice that rang out like a bell. The young man was wearing a green T-shirt with three crosses on it. With deep conviction, he began to read from Hebrews 12, starting in verse 22:

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect. (vv. 22–23 NIV’84)

The man with the crosses on his shirt continued to read the passage, with perfect clarity and a resounding, authoritative tone. Janet’s family stared at him; they had never laid eyes on him before and they were fairly sure Janet hadn’t either. The pastor and head elder began to trade glances with each other. With over thirty years in ministry together, they could just about read each other’s minds.
Who is this guy? Let’s check him out when the service is over
. They nodded at each other in understanding as the man’s voice got even more booming and decisive as he got to the last verses in the chapter:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for
our “God is a consuming fire.”
(vv. 28–29 NIV’84)

The young man was almost shouting as he delivered the last words of the passage, “Our God is a consuming fire.” He closed his Bible and quietly took his seat as the stunned members of the congregation gawked at him. Was he a friend of Janet’s? If so, he wasn’t sitting with the handful of co-workers and other acquaintances. Several curious attendees made a mental note to meet the mysterious man after the service was done, and they turned their attention to the front and the pastor’s sermon.

But when the service ended, and Millie and her tiny family trooped down the aisle to the church foyer, with the other attendees following suit, the young man was nowhere to be seen. Had he slipped out sometime during the pastor’s sermon? The head elder, seated up on the stage at the front of the church, had been keeping a close eye on the man. He never saw him leave. In fact, no one remembered seeing the man leave, even though at least a dozen people had a clear view of him from across the church.

It was strange, but then again, Madison Square Church is situated in the inner city, and they have had their share of odd visitors come in off the street over the years. Besides, there was Janet’s family to comfort, and a funeral lunch to partake of. Most people forgot about it for the time being, but not the pastor or the head elder.

Both of them knew very well that this stranger was unlike any they had ever received in all their years of ministry. He was clearly sober, tidy (if oddly dressed for a funeral), and completely in command of his speech and delivery. It was as if he had a message to deliver, a message on behalf of someone else.

“Our God is a consuming fire.”

How bold and commanding his voice had been as he read those words from Hebrews 12! The pastor stole away to a quiet room and opened his Bible to Hebrews 12, rereading the passage the visitor had delivered so compellingly. What an unlikely message to be delivered at a funeral, especially for a funeral of one as meek and mild as Janet. Yet somehow, the pastor and everyone gathered there felt the fiery missive was oddly fitting. The takeaway seemed to be that Janet may have lived a quiet life, nearly unnoticeable to all but a few loved ones, yet she believed in the God of “consuming fire,” and was with him now in heaven. Her choice, to believe in this God, had been brash and daring—everything she seemed not to be—and it meant that Janet had now joined “thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.”

Speaking of angels, the pastor’s suspicion was growing. How had their eagle-eyed head elder, who never missed a single thing, missed the young man’s leaving the sanctuary? For that matter, how had
everyone
missed his leaving?

The pastor read every word of the Hebrews passage carefully, praying for wisdom to receive the message in the way God had intended. He came to where the young man had stopped, and instead of ending there, he decided to keep reading, hoping to gain some context for the passage.

A chill ran up his spine as the pastor took in the very next passage following the stranger’s reading: “Keep on loving each other as brothers.
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it
” (Heb. 13:1–2 NIV’84).

Though there was no proof this stranger was an angel (there never is, by the way), the pastor felt a wave of gratitude wash over him. He felt sure that he and the small crowd of mourners at the funeral had entertained an angel without knowing it. They had been reminded by this heavenly messenger in no uncertain terms of God’s overwhelming, all-consuming holiness.

And no one who attended the humble funeral of lonely, unimportant Janet ever thought about her in the same way again, nor did they forget that they had been visited by an angel in a green T-shirt.

“My Name Is Otis”

Janet’s angel was on a mission to deliver a message from God, but some of the angel stories people have told me revolve around other purposes. Just as God used angels to supply water for Hagar’s thirsty little boy, a cake baked on coals for a hungry Elijah as he hid in the wilderness, and sustenance for Jesus after his temptation, angels are all around us, helping us in often very practical ways. Jamie’s story features a hands-on angel called Otis, who couldn’t be more down-to-earth.

Jamie is a bubbly young mother from Texas, and she shared three stories of how she believes God had sent angels to watch over and rescue her and her loved ones.

When I was little, I was traveling with my grandparents on a camping trip, when we had some car trouble. My granddad pulled the camper over and looked under the hood of the truck to see what was going on. A man stopped his car and offered to help. He and Granddad looked under the hood together and worked on the engine for quite a while, chatting as they worked. When Granddad followed the man to get something out of the trunk of the man’s car, Granddad noticed some fishing gear in there and asked him about it. The man said he and his brothers were fishermen. It seemed odd, because we were nowhere near a body of water big enough to fish commercially.

My grandmother is Southern, and Southern ladies write thank-you notes for all occasions. She tried to get him to write down his address for her so she could send him a thank-you note. The man politely refused. Grandma and Granddad offered to pay him, but he wouldn’t accept a thing or give them any information. “At least let us take you out to eat,” Grandpa begged him, but the stranger just smiled and said that wasn’t necessary, that he was glad to help them. “My name is Otis,” he said, when my grandparents asked for his name (Grandma was probably hoping for a last name so she could look him up and send that darn thank-you card anyway!). But he didn’t give a last name and they didn’t want to push him. Otis followed us in his car, a good bit out of his way, to a dealership where he knew we could get fixed up. He waved to us as he drove on by, and we never saw him again.

Agents of Rescue

Like the mysterious “fourth man” who rescued Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the blazing furnace in Daniel 3, angels are sent out to liberate us from grave danger. King Nebuchadnezzar and his astonished entourage actually saw the rescuing angel, who looked like “a son of the gods” (v. 25), standing in the fire, cool as can be, with the trio of men the king had supposed he had sent to their deaths. But so often, we don’t see anyone at all, as the angels who save us from harm are invisible, or maybe just manifested as a flash of light. This was true in Jamie’s other stories, the first of which happened to a friend of hers, and the second hit her very close to home.

Missy’s Story

“A friend’s dad always specifically prayed for his children’s protection every time they left the house. On this occasion, he prayed for Missy to be safe on the road before a particular trip. She was driving behind an 18-wheeler, and she saw a flash of light. Her car suddenly died, stopping right in the middle of the road and she watched as the semitruck pulled away from her, swerving wildly as it had had a tire blowout! She knew if her car had not stopped right there at that specific spot on the road, there would have been no way she could have avoided colliding with the semi. There was nothing wrong with the car, before or after it died, and it started right up again as if nothing had happened. She believes her dad’s prayers were answered and an angel protected her that day.”

Zackary’s Story

“Last summer we were at a benefit golf tournament and our one-year-old son, Zackary, was run over by a 700-pound golf cart, driven by an 8-year-old with no adult supervising him. I didn’t see it happen as I had turned my back for just a few seconds and was talking to someone. I heard screaming and turned around to see my baby boy under the golf cart. My heart stopped, of course. I have never been more terrified in my life. Someone called 911 and a bunch of men tried to pull him from underneath the cart. When they finally pulled him out, I frantically checked him out, and to my profound relief Zackary only had a few light abrasions on his neck and cheek, and a small scrape on his head. Later, the medics and doctors couldn’t believe he had not been seriously injured or killed. One of them said to me that there was just no explanation for it other than an angel had put himself between my baby and the golf cart and saved him.”

———

Just for good measure, and because I want you to go away from this chapter with your eyes wide open to the possibility of angels working in our midst, I want to share two more tales, passed on to me by others full of wonder at what they had experienced.

Sharon’s Story

“My girlfriend and I were at a work-related conference in Philadelphia and we went into the city one night for dinner. We didn’t realize how late it was getting, and when we finally paid our bill and went out to our rental car, the parking lot was deserted except for one other car across the lot.

“Two guys were standing over by the car, watching us intently, and it seemed to me, in a predatory way. I had a creepy feeling about them and the whole situation. I felt so vulnerable at that moment. Suddenly, the two guys were joined by about eight other men, wearing white robes, who surrounded the two men and their car. My friend and I jumped in our car and locked the doors, watching in amazement as the two men abruptly drove off the lot. We blinked and the men in robes had vanished.”

Gordy’s Story

“I work as a custodian at an inner-city Christian school, a job I have been blessed to have for years. The children and their joy and laughter make it all worthwhile; they even have a ‘Mr. Gordy Day’ every year where everyone wears a funny T-shirt like the ones I like to wear.

“I live not too far from the school, and my neighbors also know they can count on me for help with fixing things. One day, I was up in the branches of a neighbor’s tree, trying to help him trim a huge dead limb before it fell off and hurt someone. The crotch of the tree was about twenty feet off the ground, and the branch was about twenty-five feet off the ground.

“There was a rope between my neighbor and me (he was standing on the ground). I told him to pull west, but he pulled north, which made me lose my footing and I began to fall.

“As I was falling, I saw a post down below and I knew I had to avoid it or else be impaled by it. I twisted to avoid the post, and landed on a cement riser between the sidewalk and the grass. My pelvis made full contact with the riser, and I knew it was busted. I got up and hobbled two steps before I collapsed.

“As I lay on the ground, in horrible pain, my primary thought was sadness, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to work for a while and I love being around those kids. Then I saw an African-American woman around forty years of age cross the street and come toward me. ‘I’m going to pray for you,’ she said, kneeling beside me and laying her hands on me. She prayed a very simple, short prayer for peace and healing in my body, and then she was gone. I had never seen her before, and I knew almost everyone in the neighborhood.

“Later on, after rehabilitation in the hospital and at home, I asked around the community and no one knew who this woman might be. I wanted to thank her so badly. What really convinced me she was an angel was the way my older body healed. My doctor kept asking me if I had lingering pain, and I kept telling him no, not really. He finally told me that almost everyone who had this type of pelvic ring injury experienced chronic pain afterward, and he couldn’t believe I was fine. I truly believe that this woman was one of God’s angels, ministering to me as I lay broken in pieces on the sidewalk. This experience taught me you have to be open to God’s work, because it’s all around us.”

A Brush of Angels’ Wings

Janet’s angel delivered a message from God. “Otis” and the African-American woman cared for God’s children in their moments of need. And angels on rescue missions delivered Missy and Zackary from terrible harm or even death.

My two angels cared for me at a most critical hour, comforting me with their gentleness and strength.

This bears repeating: they didn’t have wings, even though they flew me to heaven. Still, winged beings do play a part in this story, as I’ll explain in a little bit.

In the Bible, some angels, especially the cherubim and seraphim, are represented as winged in several passages, including Exodus 25:20: “The cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be” (KJV).

These verses in Isaiah talk about both the throne I saw in heaven and the winged angels:

BOOK: My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life
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