Editors who work for small publishers often get to do other kinds of publishing duties! This week, I find myself "hosting" a blog tour for one of our awesome DHP authors, Dan Schaeffer. We just released his wonderful book, A Better Country: Preparing for Heaven. So, dear readers, you are the beneficiaries of my inexperience: I'm trying the whole blog tour thing out on you before I send this out to the blogosphere at large! (Whoever said that being an editor is boring? And that all we do is read all day?)
BLOG TOUR!
Dan Schaeffer, author of A Better Country: Preparing for Heaven, will be visiting my blog on July 31, 2008. Please help me out by posting any questions or comments you may have on heaven. Let's have an interesting blogosphere conversation--ask the questions about heaven that you have always wanted to ask! I will randomly choose two of you commenters to receive a free copy of this excellent new release from Discovery House Publishers. Employees of Discovery House Publishers may not enter (but you can post your questions). Please submit any question you may have on heaven, and Dan will be responding to your comments on July 31, 2008. Remember: two of you will win free copies of this book--and it's a really good one!
THE BOOK
What picture comes to mind when you think about heaven? Most of us have heard that heaven is a wonderful place and everyone wants to go there, but we don’t know much else about it. Maybe you’ve decided, like author Dan Schaeffer once did, that there is little that can be known about heaven in this life, so there really isn’t much point speculating.
He observes: “I think if the truth were known, many Christians are at best ambivalent, or at worst afraid, of heaven—or at least of the vision they have in their minds . . . We’re far more attached to earth than we think. This may partly explain why it can be so hard to get Christians to think beyond this earthly life to greater spiritual realities.”
And yet, Schaeffer reminds us, there is a restless yearning in our hearts that moments of pleasure cannot long quench and sorrow only intensifies. And that desire has been planted by God Himself—a universal “longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). In these pages you will discover the thing you’ve always wanted; the world you’ve longed for; the life you were meant to live; the goal you were meant to pursue—in a word, heaven.
Based on biblical evidence, Schaeffer’s insights about our heavenly desire, the heavenly location, the heavenly life, and heavenly preparation, show us that God wants that “better country” to be the passion and purpose of our present life. As we understand what heaven will truly be like, our priorities will shift and we will no longer live for this life alone.
THE AUTHOR
Dan Schaeffer pastors Shoreline Community Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is an award-winning writer whose articles have appeared in Reader's Digest and A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul. His books include In Search of the Real Spirit of Christmas, When Faith and Decisions Collide, and Defining Moments.
