Heaven's Lessons by Steve Sjogren

        

         There are quite a few stories that you will often hear about those who had died and came back again. But, often the focus of the story is what the person saw, heard and experienced during their time out of their body. Enter Steve Sjogren. Steve has been a Pastor, author and community leader for decades. Several years ago, Steve died on an operating table and came back again. And in his book, Heaven's Lessons, the emphasis is not as much on the experience he had, but on the lessons he learned from his encounter with death, eternity and who is on the other side.
         Heaven's Lessons tells the story of ten lessons that Steve learned after having his encounter with death. Ranging from God is big, to face your fear, each one emphasizes important truths that we may have been taught, but can become different in the light of eternity. They each give  us a fresh new look at principles that are important but often are neglected or not emphasized in our culture. But, the author also weaves bits and pieces of his own personal experience, both before and after his brush with death, into the pages of each chapter.
         The most particularly fascinating chapter to me was chapter eight, entitled. Get Over It. One of the things Steve Sjogren learned came after a visit to a therapist who helped him sort through the emotional issues he was encountering. He had a bad break with the church he had Pastored and had to resign later after he had already been through a great amount of trauma. But then his psychologist told him "Even though you had absolutely nothing to do with the accident...practically everyone in your organization is very angry with you because you have up-ended their lives." (page 104). This was something he had never considered and it helped him in the process of overcoming all that he had been through up until that point.
         While I expected to hear a little more about his after death experience based on the title of the book, I was nevertheless pleased at the contents of this fine work. This book was given to me complimentary as a part of the book review program for bloggers at www.booksneeze.com . I am glad that I read it. And I hope that you and I can learn from the lessons contained in it's pages that the spiritual world is more real than the natural world and we should live each day in the light of that reality, knowing that one day all of us will face the other side of the grave to behold our creator, in all of His glory.