self-banishment

God does not send people to hell for not believing in Him or for any other reason. God doesn’t send people to hell at all. Rather, people choose go one of two ways - heaven or hell. Hell is simply the place that is absent of God, void of God and all His goodness. I don’t believe that God desires anyone to be there or punishes anyone for not believing in Him. I believe that we are given free will to choose our path and the path that leads to hell is the life that we’ve chosen to walk away from Him, to be void of Him in our lives.

Hell is the place that is absent of God.

Heaven is God in all His glory.

(source)

I’ve got a friend who has always found it difficult to believe in God because she doesn’t see how a loving, caring god could send people to hell. I think this excerpt is one of the more well-put viewpoints on the matter.

I believe that if you are a follower of God, if you know Him and serve Him, if you attempt to align your walk with the path He has set out before you, and if you give yourself, sins and all, to Him to be forgiven and washed clean, you will spend eternity in Heaven.

God doesn’t banish anyone to hell. One does that all on his own by choosing to live his own life, separate from God.

The choice is yours. No one else can make it for you.

shadow of death

i survived
the darkest night

and as long as you love me,
i won’t stop fighting.

how could i have made it through without your help and guidance?
surely i would not have.

i think i may need you again.
hopefully it’s not too much to ask.

sure we spend a lot of time together, but when do we talk? certainly not often. or at least not often enough.

i hope that someday we’ll get to the point where we can talk to each other without it ending up as a fight. we haven’t had much luck with that lately.

to my love : you are the stars

tonight, i became a martian.

and i’ve come to decide that you are the stars.
not a single, marvelous star, but the whole starry host.

you reached down through the universe and plucked me from my sad, sorry existence, and showed me the light and life beyond all this. beyond the muck and dirt and earth. out into the sky. up. out. around. surrounding.

sometimes it takes the eyes of a martian child — new eyes, watching the world from a different perspective, taking everything in for the first time — to realize what you’ve got and who you are trying to be.

i want you.
i want to know that you want me.
i do know.
but show me.

---

since i know that you’re reading this, darling, why don’t you start up your own blog and let your feelings out. one that no one knows about but me, so that we can share instead of hiding so many parts of ourselves from each other. i know that you love me. i know that you want me. so show me that. show me what you’ve learned. this is a challenge.