Heaven of Hell... for eternity...???

I believe this, too--and that is the message that Jesus was wanting to get across in the story of The Good Shepherd who had 99 sheep safe in the fold but one little lamb lost out in the wild. The Good Shepherd didn't think, "Oh well! I have 99 sheep, and that's enough! I'm not wasting any more time on this troublesome lamb!" The sheep in the fold, likewise, didn't think, "Why are you wasting your time on that good-for-nothing delinquent of a lamb? You have all of us!" Instead, they waited for The Good Shepherd to bring home the little lost lamb and rejoiced with Him!!! As for references to hell you might find in scripture, this shows what it's like to alienate yourself from God. In a sense, the prodigal son ended up in hell. He went out and squandered his life until he reached the lowest point--and, then, he began to appreciate the good parts of being with his father, started missing those times, and even thought that it was too late to get them back again and he would have to settle just for having a kind of second-fiddle place on his dad's estate. He went back to see if he could even swing that--and was amazed when his dad restored him fully to what he had been and, then, even gave him a big welcome home party so he would know how glad his dad was to have him back!

I love those parables. They give such a vivid picture of God's love.