Head-dibs

More Poetry from the bookshelf

How Can There Be Both Mercy and A Hell? The distinction between a game and a puzzle is that while a game produces winners and losers, puzzles are centered on a solution. C.S. Lewis debates the doctrine of universalism (“all will be saved”) along the same lines of this distinction: is personal eschatology to be regarded as a puzzle or a game? If a game, then why is the winner detestable? If a puzzle, then why the doctrine at all? Which is more tolerable: dismiss the doctrine of hell because it is disagreeable; or, allow the wicked person to enter heaven against his will and remain as he is? Does God send people to hell, or is it their sin? This is the difference between world religions and biblical doctrine. Hell is inflicted because men prefer darkness to light. Hell is not a sentence, but a fact of being. Punishment is just because righteousness, not vindictiveness, stands behind it. A man satisfied with evil will not be satisfied with righteousness. “Pain plants the flag o...

Looking at Heaven - FOXNews.com Posted using ShareThis

"I see no faults in the Church, and therefore let me resurrected with the Saints, whether I ascend to heaven or descend to hell, or go to any other place. And if we go to hell, we will turn the devils out of doors and made a heaven of it." Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 316.

William Monteguhe Dyke was a young man who became blind at the young age of ten. Despite the handicap, he grew to be a very smart, witty, and handsome young man. While attending graduate school in England, William met the daughter of an English admiral and they were soon engaged. Though having never seen her, William loved her very much. Just before the wedding at the insistence of the admiral, William submitted to special treatment for his loss of sight. Hoping against hope, William wanted the gauze from his eyes cut during the ceremony. He wanted the first thing he ever saw to be his wife’s face. As she came down the aisle during the wedding, Williams’ father started unwinding the gauze from around his head and eyes--still not knowing if the operation would be a success. With the unwrapping of the last circumference, William looked into the face of his new bride for the first time. “You are more beautiful than I ever imagined,” he said. Though we have never seen Jesus, it will b...

Summer camp is on many people’s minds this time of year, and I am certain each person has a few special memories of their own camp experiences. The first camp I remember has an extra special memory with me: we slept in old Army tents and the smell made a lasting impression that revisits, but only under certain conditions. Each summer camp has the standard activities: swimming, crafts, games, archery, Bible lessons, horseback riding, midnight pillow fights, etc.. There was not a single bug in our Texas camps (each was married and had a large family) we were constantly drenching ourselves with a fresh cloak of "Off, even after taking showers to wash off the sweat and dirt before lining up for dinner. How appetizing! The Campfire sessions were most memorable. There were those camp songs--songs that seem to stay with camps and are never sung again in life. It never occurred to me then that all the people living on the lake were hearing the gospel from 10 year olds every night from Jun...

“I do not go to heaven to be advanced but to give honor to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high or low seat there, but to live and please and glorify God . . . My heaven is to please God and glorify Him, and give all to Him, and to be wholly devoted to His glory." (David Brainard, 1718 - 1747)

How can those who reject a loving God enjoy heaven?

My Bible reading today caused me to consider a very serious, sobering thought about heaven, which was this: there’s going to be a lot of people there. Think about that for a minute . . . a lot of people. Who are those people? The Bible tells us those in heaven are those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! That’s who they are, people from whom all blemish and spot of sin has been removed! But who are those people on this side of heaven? They are the tax-collectors, the Zaccheus’s of our locale. They are the stinky, the dirty, the poor whom perhaps we have told to sit “over there,” out of the way, where we can’t smell them or look at them. We prefer to associate with people who draw crowds, not with those who chase crowds away. We like beautiful people. The truth of the matter is: heaven is going to be populated by people who don’t fit our preferences. Heaven is going to be filled with people God loves—without our consent. “Sunday Morning Worship” has become the most segregated hour of al...