Truly being made in His image and likeness we have been given hearts, as He has. We often forget that the Lords' heart can either be blessed or grieved. His having a heart is something that He doesn't turn off at will. No doubt after an eternity in glory we may all but forget those that are bound in Hell. And we know the Lord will forget our sins never more to be remembered. But I wonder if the Lord's heart will always remember those that exist apart from Him?! And should He retain them in His knowledge will the Lord's heart forever be grieved?! TR I heard someone say the worse part of hell wont be the awful smell, the heat, the crying and moaning, the feeling of always being thirsty but the fact that God is not there. Yet before the cross ... those in hades were able to see and communicate with the believers in the waiting compartment called Abraham’s bosom. You have the rich man communicating with “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” And Abraham replying “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” Then he is pleading with Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his 5 brothers so they do not end up with him. But Abraham’s response was they have Moses and prophets (the Scriptures to read). So it looks like those in hades did see a temporary paradise side from a distance at one time and then after Jesus died and rose again ... He opened up heaven for those O.T. Saints. So my guess now hades is total darkness? This passage is interesting too ... Was Jesus preaching/informing the fallen angels that left their first estate the work on the cross is now finished and their efforts to try to ruin the whole human race before the flood was not successful. Its hard to imagine God’s heart in knowing more people will end up in hell vs heaven. Matt 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Maybe we will understand it all better in our glorified bodies how the Lord feels and perhaps He wont remember the unsaved any more ... just like He promises to His sheep when we confess our sins, He remembers them no more. Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Well said Geri7 TR Something I was reminded of last night during our church's Christmas program: God's enormous ability to love. John 3:16 talks of God loving his creation so much that he chose to send his son to die for our sin, but 1 John says that God IS love! I believe that it is his (God the Father) being love itself that allows him to not be crushed by the enormity our sin (although it does say that Jesus was crushed for our sin - Isaiah 53:5). I'm not sure I explained that well, but it's the best I can do to explain what I am saying. Another story they shared last night was of three religious men talking about all the similarities between their different religions. Two of the men were recognizing that their religions had so many similarities and when the third man spoke up, he said, "So what you are saying is that God is sitting at the top of a great mountain and all the world religions are down at the bottom. We are all going up the mountain, but on different paths." Both men got excited that this third man seemed to understand what they were saying, but then he added, "But Christianity is different in that God loved us and realized our sin would never let us get up the mountain, so he took human form and came down the mountain to us and died for our sin and showed us the way to God." Let's keep encouraging each other as we all hang in there! Great illustration and picture showing we need to pray for one another! :good: Yes, God IS love ... He provided the way with the eternal free gift and offers it to everyone. He doesn’t force himself on people ... He gives everyone free will to accept His generous pardon and free gift of eternal life or to reject Him. I believe at the Great White Throne judgement the lost will be shown every opportunity that they had to accept and when they said no or just put it off making a decision.
I Peter 3:18-19 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
