The Real Thing

Ephesians 4
¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Here is an excellent excerpt from a longer talk by David Platt regarding the book “heaven is for real” and other such books about trips to heaven and back. Given that the movie based upon the book is about to come out, I thought this would be a good time to show this to you.

Measure everything – everything – by the Word of God. And get yourself taught by pastor/teachers who have been given a job by God to prepare you for works of service, to keep you from spiritual gullibility, to help you speak truth lovingly so that you can grow up into Christ and be a part of a unified and supportive church  that is growing in maturity and love for each other. It is easier to just swallow everything that comes at us dressed up as biblical Christianity. But it is not nearly as good.