In C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce why is there hard grass and undrinkable water?

Question from a reader:

I am reading The Great Divorce and am wondering if there is any significance to the "hard grass/undrinkable water" in his Heaven scene where the spirits are discussing their past. It is a bit odd, but I love Lewis and I am trying to keep an open mind. Where he was going with this – or was it purely imagination?

Answer from Randy Alcorn:

In The Great Divorce, Lewis sees everything in heaven (grass, rocks, trees, water, etc.) as “much solider than things in our country.” It’s all heavy and hard, like diamonds—the character ...

Randy’s advice on apologizing to the gay community

Note from Randy:

A good friend of mine, a very godly young woman, asked my feedback regarding a draft of a letter she wrote. It was written to homosexuals, and included an apology for the hateful attitudes of some evangelical Christians. Her heart was right and her words were good. Her letter is hers to publish if she wants to, so I am not printing it or quoting from it here. But it’s possible that my response to her letter could be helpful to some believers. Here it is:

What are your thoughts about book endorsements?

Question from a reader:

I’ve heard that some people write endorsements without carefully reading the books they endorse. What are your thoughts about this?

Endorsements and Book Reviews of Money, Possessions, & Eternity

Money, Possessions & Eternity is a book destined to impact generations. It is a classic study of what God wants us to know about handling money with eternity in mind. I heartily recommend it. 
–Howard Dayton, CEO, Crown Financial Ministries

Endorsements and Book Reviews of Prolife Answers to Prochoice Questions

"This book should be the desktop reference for every pastor, politician, and layman who needs the best researched answer for any question pertaining to the prolife issue. There's nothing better out there." 
- Gayle Atteberry, Executive Director, Oregon Right to Life 

Cultivating Your Marriage

This is wedding season and I'm sure a lot of you will be going to weddings over the next few months. If you're married, be sure to use this opportunity to think in terms of cultivating and preserving your marriage. If you're not married, do what you can to support the sanctity of marriage and uphold the importance of this sacred gift and trust God has imparted to humanity.

Nanci and I will be celebrating our 36th anniversary this year. We thank God for His faithfulness and are profoundly grateful that we are each other’s best ...

Can We Be Good Without God?

It’s been fascinating to watch the very vocal and prolific new atheists, such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, make a case for objective morality. The phrase “objective morality” is a way of indicating that some behaviors are right (truth telling, kindness, tolerance) and some behaviors are wrong (rape, murder, racism) — for real. Morality is not just a matter of personal preference and choice (akin to liking peanuts better than almonds), but rather laws that are real and true and binding no matter what one thinks about them or whether one chooses to follow them ...

Can’t You See That I’m Busy?

There was work to be done. After all, when Jesus came, the twelve came with Him. The house needed to be swept. Food would have to be prepared and the table set. Twenty-six extra feet would require washing. Bedding, too, must be arranged, as traveling dinner guests always spend the night. If I don’t do it, she may have thought, it won’t get done.

Seven Ways To Pray For Your Missionaries

1. Pray for open doors.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned (Colossians 4:2-3, NASB).

2. Pray for boldness in witness.

“And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19, NASB).

3. Pray ...

What Not To Wear

First and foremost, your clothing ought to be becoming, fitting to, and consistent with your character as a child of God. But it also ought to be becoming to your body type, becoming to your femininity, becoming to your husband, becoming to the other clothes you are wearing, and becoming to the occasion and place you intend to wear it.