Today's episode will start in just five minutes, but first I want to share my heart behind my

brand new children's book, The Royal and You.

When I was a kid, I dreaded the thought of heaven. I would have never admitted that of course to my parents or my pastor, but that was the honest truth and that fear followed me well into my 20s.

Yes, I loved Jesus more than anything,

but from what I could tell,

being with Jesus in heaven meant giving up all the other things that I and Jesus

loved on earth, like work, mountains and just really good meals with friends.

Eventually, thanks to Dr. Randy Alcorn

and T Wright and others, God opened my eyes

to see that almost everything I had been taught about

heaven and Sunday school as a kid was either a half truth or in some rare cases just a full-blown lie. But man did God use the

biblical truth to set me free. While I used to view heaven with confusion, boredom, and fear,

today I find myself constantly daydreaming about heaven and the new earth with biblical clarity, excitement and hope,

something you probably know full well if you've listened to enough episodes of the Mir Christians

podcast. I wrote the Royal in you to help my kids in yours experience the true biblical hope of eternity way before I and maybe you did.

So I've teamed up with Jonathan Voss, the world-class illustrator that I worked with on my first picture book

the Creator and you and John and I have teamed up to try to communicate the life

changing biblical truths about heaven and the new earth

the kids in a really concise and epic and beautiful and inspiring way. Truths like, as I write in the book, Jesus said he won't stay in the clouds way up there

he'll bring heaven to earth and he'll live with us here see revelation 21 1 through 5 and contrary to our caricature of

heaven is an endless hill song concert Jesus wants you to rule with him to explore and fill the kingdom of heaven with him.

See revelation 225.

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