Joe,
            Great to hear from you.  What a blessed time I have had reading and studying the word because of this discussion you have help create.  I love the scripture you used to show that when all the fight, all the effort, all the sweat and tears are over, the trib. is over, the 1000 year reign of Christ is over, the judgment seat is over, heaven and earth is destroyed, then the New Jerusalem descends, our new home and the new rulership headquarters of God and Jesus Christ.  At that time there will be no need of the sun or moon for the glory of God did light it and the Lamb is the lamp of it.  I can hardly wait, no more grey areas!!!! 
             But until that time, it just isn't so.  To think that heaven is only a place of pure indulgence or complacency is a complete disrespect for the scriptures.  To also think that there are no tears in heaven is also disrespectful. (John wept in Rev. 5:4, the beheaded saints in Rev. 6:10 all cried with a load voice and I imagine if the parable of the wedding feast were inserted into Rev. 19 you would also see tears from the one astonished that he wasn't dressed in the right clothes for the reception and consequently was bound and thrown out. )  In Rev. 21:4, the same passage that speaks of the New Jerusalem coming down from the heavens, it says after that happens, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death (separation), neither, sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."  Is it a mistake that God does not do away with these things until after His complete plan for this world has been fulfilled and set aside as completed.  I think not, and to ignore the placement that God has put this statement in scripture would be equally unwise.  This is why so many of the New Testament scriptures exhorts us to go one with the walk of faith.  Colossians expresses it so well in 1:9-14  "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his well in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;  Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light.....
           Likewise there are consequences of Not heeding this advise, (after all, God didn't allow these verses to be in scripture just to fill up space because He had a quota fill)  which results in the overcomer and non overcomers of Rev. as well as the faithful vs unfaithful servants or the dressed vs inappropriately dressed Friend of the wedding feast.  Is there to be no judgment passed onto those individuals.  Of course there are judgments or there wouldn't be a need for the judgment seat of Christ. 
           If you would look at where the reference of outer darkness occurs, you will see it in conjunction with the Kingdom of Heaven.  There is also absolutely no reference that infers it is an eternal condition.  Matter of fact, if you can grasp the fact that were talking about Christian judgment here, you will see that there is an end of that punishment when God does away with separation (death) in Rev 21.  Praise the Lord!  That time of separation during the 1000 year reign of Christ and the subsequent time it takes to complete the judgment seat as well as see the heavens and earth destroyed with the "birth "of the New Jerusalem, this separation comes to an end and a new age with God starts for mankind.  Old things will have passed away and all things will have become new.  There is a principle that I have learned to watch for and see repeated over and over again in scripture.  IT is Heb. 10:9... He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second;  May God complete that work in me and to all others that are open to His leading in this matter.