Without Holiness.

Without Holiness.

The bible calls men and women to salvation, but what we do with that salvation determines our eternity. The bible says 14 "Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." (Hebrews 12:14 | NIV) To see the Lord in eternity, we must be willing to see Him now, but the problem is that we don't understand what holiness is. We are too frightened to be the people that God created us to be because we value the comforts of this life now, so we are unwilling to take our Christian lives to the perfection that is needed to be ready to meet God. We don't believe that we can fully experience God on earth, so we delay seeking Him, or find ways to justify our sin. Society can restrict Christians from having the desire and the faith that is needed to be holy, and others are content with a positional holiness that comes from justification by faith.

The doctrine of being right with God, which is justification by faith, can make you feel that there is no need to go to church, to be satisfied with a dry faith and no real experience of God's presence or personal holiness. When we buy into the lukewarm culture of laziness, we feel disconnected from God's presence. This is not good because we need to live in his presence, in order to die in his presence, and our culture is not helping. However we do not need to blame our culture, we need to go straight to the Lord. The church has it's ways of facilitating this, but we need to know how to stay in God's presence, not just visit Him now and then!

In order to do this, we have to have faith, and ask God for forgiveness for coming short of his glory. We should never take this for granted, because God is watching and His presence was always meant to comfort us not scare us. We all need to ask for God's forgiveness for sinning against his presence, and ask for his mercy to allow us to live with his presence here on earth, and then of course in Heaven for all eternity. If you don't know what I am talking about, pray for God's forgiveness for all your sins. The reason why God wants us not just saved, but to live in his glory is because that is what Heaven will be, and that is what humanity was created for. God doesn't want us entering His presence naked. We have to cloth ourselves here and now, with the right behaviour and attitudes that will carry over into the new heavens and the new earth. To be sidetracked would be very bad, because we although saved, would not enjoy the pure bliss of holiness that is Heaven. God help us all! This is Mike.

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