Sweet true story about one man’s visit to heaven. Listened to on audio. I didn’t need reassurance about the great beyond, I’m a believer. I was more impressed with how this man lived and all his great relationships. Side note: looked up his obituary (he’s dead now, btw and that’s not a spoiler - he lived 6 years after his first near death experience). Interesting life, he was loved and he loved- what more is there this side of heaven?

Inspiring

I lost my 25 year old nephew in November, and this is the third book on NDEs I’ve read since his passing. It gives me comfort to know where he is, and that I will see him again one day.

I've read a few books now on NDE's (near death experiences) and other heaven related matters and this was my least favourite.

While I'm very hesitant to be judgemental to an author who claims to have such an experience, I struggled with the way that some of the messages were conveyed. I grew increasingly weary of the constant reference to him being a hard-headed Dutchman. I can understand his pride in being a Dutchman (especially considering my surname literally being Hollands), but there must've been about 10 references to it in the book. Once was funny, twice was definitely enough, but it kept going on and on.

I also don't know why you would almost brag about being hard-headed if you are trying to convince others of your (literally) heavenly experience. If I had such an experience, I'd probably make the book a lot less about me and more about the experience.

Perhaps it was the writing style that didn't do it for me, but I didn't get as much out of it as I anticipated. Imagine Heaven by John Burke and Heaven by Randy Alcorn, in my opinion, is vastly superior to this book. For some though, this may just be the book to inspire them to investigate these mysteries further.

I was a bit skeptical with this book in the beginning, but the level of detail the author was able to bring to the sights and sounds of being at Heavens door was very compelling. he did a good job of relating directly to scipture to substantiate the prophesy of what Heaven is to be like when we arrive at our due time. It was also emphasized that he didn't experience every single thing we read in scripture and that all of his experiences could not even be described with the knowledge we have here on earth.

Also, the deciption of St Peter with all the positive and negative moments in his life that made him inot the "Rock" often mentioned in the New Testament was very compelling. Peter felt the unbelievable pain of denying his Savior three times. I haven't had the exact same situation, but I've denied Christ in different ways through my actions in my life. Personally, I find it easier to relate to apostles than Christ because they obviously didn't do everything perfect either, but we still have the same promise of salvation when we accept Christ in our hearts.

One of the take aways from this book for me was "Who will be there to greet you at Heaven's Gate"? It is a very thought provoking question and one I will be thinking and praying about for as long as I am still here.

Overall rating is that I would definitely recommend this book to others that are interested on what to expect when we get to Heaven and finally see our HOME!

The only words that come to mind are wow, impeccable, brilliant, and astounding. Other then that my brain can't seem to process anything else. So I was just taking a bath while reading this book and as I came out of the bath I was crying like a baby. Marvin Besteman's story is truly amazing. Now I am a person who has rarely been to church I have been baptized but I have never dedicated my life to Christ. After reading Marv's story I now know I need to offer my life to the Lord. I encourage anyone and everyone to read this. I want to just by 100,000 copies of this book and pass them out to people in my town. Marv's goal was to pass on his story and experience with Christ and I also want to pass his story on as a story of hope and faith. All I ask is for you to read this novel and to invest yourself into it and find The Lord not just in the Bible but in yourself.