I am a reader; always have been.  In fact, I am a speed reader, so I do a lot of reading, I just don’t spend a lot of time doing it!

I love books of all kinds, and now that I have a Kindle, it’s just way too easy to painlessly grab books left and right from Amazon.  Instant gratification like crazy!  The books I’m about to review actually aren’t available on Kindle, but after hearing about them from my mom and sister, I had to have them!  I ordered the paperbacks here off of Amazon, and it was SO worth the one week wait.

If you haven’t read the previous post about what led me to obtain these books, please check it out!  If you already have, then read on!

The book I read is called Revealing Heaven-An Eyewitness Account. There are actually three books in the series.  I have only read the first two.  You need to read the first one in order to better understand the following book, which goes into greater depth.  (I liked the first one, but the second one was even better!   I’m looking forward to number three.)

The books are made up of various different accounts of one woman’s visits to Heaven.  She has been taken to Heaven numerous times over a period of years.  She is just a regular praying “church lady!”  The Holy Spirit shows her different areas of Heaven, people who have passed on, and reveals mysteries about God.

Here is why I recommend the books:

First and foremost, Kat is a Christian.  She believes that Jesus Christ  is the Son of God and that He came to Earth and died to pay the price for our sin.  She shares the story of the cross of Christ and invites unbelievers put their faith and trust in Jesus.

Second, the revelations line up with the scriptures.  In fact, they shed greater light on the meaning of scripture.  When it comes to prophecy and spiritual teachings, my litmus test is always: does is line up with scripture?  These books blew my litmus test out of the water.  The mysteries of the scriptures made so much sense after reading this!  I realize that I often over-complicate scriptures! The Bible is a lot more straight-forward and simple than Christians make it!  It says what it means, and means what it says.

The accounts are simple and easy to understand.  I have read my share of revelatory spiritual books. However, I have never, ever read a book that so clearly and simply answered my questions about Heaven. For example, if you are wondering whether pets go to Heaven, yes, they do! The author strives to speak very plainly and non-allegorically about her experiences.

The stories are backed up with testimonials from other people.  If you know who Jesus is, but don’t believe that He was the Son of God or that there is such a thing as Heaven or Hell, then probably nothing will “prove” anything to you.  You need faith first.  However, for those of you who do believe, and just like a little reassurance, the book is chocked full of testimonials.  The author visits heaven and is allowed to observe the lives of those who have passed on, often people whom she has never met.  She then shares those observations with loved ones who remain on the Earth.  Over and over, the loved ones testify to the legitimacy of her observations.

For what it is worth, Kat’s accounts of what happens when you die lines up with the stories of people who have had death or near death experiences.  In fact, the “bright light” people often refer to starts makes a lot more sense once you understand how people pass from Earth to Heaven.

It flies in the face of “Heaven is boring and Hell is one big party.”  NO.  Hell is not one big party.  It sucks, and that is an understatement.  It is designed to torture humans for eternity.  Heaven, however, is where the party is at.  Think of everything you love about Earth.  Okay, no magnify it by infinity.  Do you like to cook?  Do you love to watch movies?  Do you like to decorate and shop? HEAVEN HAS IT ALL!  In fact, Earth is just a mere shadow of what Heaven is.  If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you will not be sitting on a wooden pew in one big, eternal church service.  You will be playing sports, cooking, starring in movies,  going to amusement parks, and relaxing in your mansion (everyone has one).  In your perfect body, of course!  In Heaven, these activities are all done as worship to God.  At the same time, there are also special worship events in the Throne Room, spontaneous singing, and dancing as worship to God.  (And of course personal one-on-one time with Jesus!)

The FAQ at the end of the book rocks!  Kat answers all kinds of questions that people have about Heaven.  If she does not know, she says so.

More than anything, this book is inspiring me to embrace my faith and start living my life on Earth with more purpose than ever before.  What I do here matters!   What you do here matters too!

I give this book five stars.  It is now #1 on my list of all-time favorite books.  If you have ever had questions about what God is like and if Heaven and Hell are real, you need to read this book!  There is hope for eternity!

 

 

 

 

I wanted to a little break here from the Mamarazzi project with a picture-less post!  I have one post left on that, but I really wanted to talk about a rockin’ book I just read called “Revealing Heaven-An Eyewitness Account” by Kat Kerr.  I like books of all kinds, but this one has bumped itself up on my list of favorite books to #1.

Before I review the books, I really need to talk about the significant event that led me to read them.  When you put your faith in Jesus, He takes even life’s greatest losses and makes something beautiful out of them.  That is what happened to me.

A couple months ago, I took an involuntary emotional roller coaster ride called “miscarriage.” Yes, I had a miscarriage.  It’s one of those things that I  thought only happened to “other people.”  When we found out we were pregnant, I was dancing around the house, already mentally re-arranging the nursery and shopping for a twin stroller.  I was envisioning gathering around our Christmas tree with a new little bundle!  I know, you’re probably thinking I’m crazy anyways getting excited over having two kids less than two years apart.  Well, I was!  We waited to have our first baby until we felt God’s timing to start our family.   We figured once we were in “baby mode” we’d just have them close together.   My sister and I are 18 months apart, and I wanted that kind of close sibling relationship for my kids.  We were probably even more excited about this pregnancy than our first, since we were enjoying parenthood and had conquered those new baby unknowns with our ten-month-old.  So, you can imagine our excitement when we got that positive pregnancy test!

I was only 5-6 weeks along, so though we hadn’t made an “official” announcement, we were already putting everything on hold and making plans for December.  I was super excited and leaking the news out to everyone!  One Friday morning, the roller coaster took a sharp plunge down when I realized that something just wasn’t right.  And, it wasn’t.  The thing that always happened to “other people” was happening to me; I was having a miscarriage.

What followed was a really weird week where David and I just wanted to pretend that nothing had happened.  It was really difficult to wrap our heads around the fact that we had been pregnant, and now we weren’t.  I started to ask myself all kinds of questions.  Do I have one baby on Earth and another in Heaven?  Should I name this baby, or am I being completely silly?  Should I be devastated?  And if I’m not, is there something wrong with me?

Mercifully, my mom and dad were scheduled to visit the following week.  I had a heart-to-heart with my mom where I admitted I was having a horrible time wrapping my head around this baby.  I believed in my heart that this baby had been real, but I still wasn’t connecting with what had just happened.   My mom said it was okay that I wasn’t devastated!  But, she suggested that we still commemorate the baby in some way.  She said that I did have a baby in Heaven and that I should name it.  Then, she told me about a book she had read about Heaven that covered in great detail what happens to babies who are miscarried or aborted.

When I read these books, I was blown away.  The books are eyewitness accounts of a real place called  Heaven by a woman named Kat Kerr who is taken to visit frequently.  The most meaningful parts to me were the descriptions of Heaven’s nurseries.  The babies are attended by special assigned angels.  They know who their parents and siblings are!  They grow very slowly, but when they get older, they sometimes live with other family members who are in Heaven.  When our baby is a little older, Heaven has a special ceremony where the baby will receive his or her name.  It’s a pretty big deal there!  The toddlers play and live in a specially dedicated area of Heaven.  If you have ever lost a baby, or a loved one, this book will be salve for your soul.

We named our baby Justice Christian.  (Both names can be for a boy or girl).  I chose Justice because it is an attribute of God.  One day, He will make every wrong thing that happened right again.  I also chose this name as a commemoration to babies who were terminated in the womb through abortion.  I believe that justice is coming for these babies!  Having lost my own baby reminds me to continue to pray that God’s justice would be done on Earth for the unborn.  Christian is a very special family name.  It was my Grandfather’s name.  He lives in Heaven now too.

For each one of my children, I choose a special scripture that I will read to them each year on their birthday.  I will also tell them about how they were born and what their name means.   This is Justice’s scripture.  It is a Hymn of Praise that speaks about how God created everything by His Word.  It talks about how much He loves justice and how he watches the people on Earth from his dwelling in Heaven.

Psalm 33

To commemorate our family member in Heaven, we got a ring with Justice’s name engraved on the inside.  I can wear it and always remember our baby!  When I arrive in Heaven, he or she will be waiting to see me, and we will celebrate his or her birthday and Christmas around the tree just like I imagined we would.  In a real house, with a real tree, and real angels!

The following post is a review of these two books.  Please, read it and then get the books for yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you getting tired of pictures of my kid yet?  My mom, MIL,  and grandma are loving this.

I really liked the outcome of today’s shoot!  We kept everything the same as the first time as far as camera settings, backdrop and time of day.

Today, I put on a little dress that my mother-in-law picked up at a boutique in Sausalito.  It was the perfect combo of texture and color that I was looking for!

I placed her on one of our new gray/brown adirondack chairs from World Market.  While my new yard is fabulous for grilling out, it’s NOT the punchy, texture-filled backdrop of my imaginings, but it did fine for today.

Today’s Focus:  The Focus.  No, seriously.  I worked on getting the focus on her face, instead of her shoulder, per se.  The majority of my pictures turned out with the proper focus this time.  Though lots of them, again, were of her looking away from the camera, the top of her head, and her eating leaves from the lawn (hence, the chair).

I tried to keep in mind to capture Michaiah’s personality!  I think these three did.   Now…if SHE WILL JUST KEEP THAT GOL-DARN HEADBAND ON!

Next time, will we venture off site?  Have a new prop?  We will see, when the Mamarazzi project continues!