Does this hallowed ‘h’ word send shivers down your spine? Do you cringe or roll your eyes at the sound or appearance of holiness? Does it sound like a life free of fun, enjoyment and worldly satisfaction? Is it a threat to your #YOLO resolution of living your best life now? 

Friend, I  don’t know what you fear losing whenever you hear that word or what you wish to continually indulge in but I assure you, holiness is not hell but heaven itself. 

Saint Augustine in his autobiography, Confessions, writes about how he wanted to give up a life of concupiscence and prayed to God that the evil desires be gone from him but secretly hoped that God will not answer his prayer as he still wanted more of his ‘toys’ (a term he uses to refer to the many women he slept with). 

When he finally experiences freedom from the entanglement of sin, he writes, “what I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to part with. For Thou didst cast them forth from me, Thou true and highest sweetness. Thou castest them forth, and for them enteredst in Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood…” 

When that life of sin he feared to part with came to an end, God entered his life and he began to experience pleasures which the very best sexual experiences could never come near. He got an invaluable reward – God Himself. 

Ponder these words of Charles Wesley: 

Holiness is happiness. Holiness is not for the faint hearted nor weak. It is for the exclusive few the Lord has ordained to walk this path. Meditate on Isaiah 35, especially the last 3 verses. 

After Christ, the greatest gift God ever gave to mankind is the law. The law that is good for us. The law that keeps us from sin and error. 

“A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable.”- Charles Spurgeon. 

This writer knows and understands the depths of misery that come from little sins. Those little foxes that corrupt the vine but most lethally, disrupt your communion with God – with a heightened risk of complete destruction if not dealt with. 

So friend, holiness is not hell nor a certain physical appearance of long skirts, covered hair, religion and walking head down (ask the Pharisees) but is a condition of heart necessary for seeing God in heaven for “without holiness no man shall see God”- Hebrews 12:14. 

Choose to walk the Highway of holiness despite the counter movement of this fleeting world and its unstable ways. Nothing has changed in holiness since it began but we sleep with one trend of the world tonight and yet another arises in the morning. 

In those plain paths of holiness are righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost which is the true Kingdom of God

Romans 14:17

Remember, eternity is a must. Our eternal habitation is a choice – heaven or hell. If you desire the former h, the criteria is holiness or go home!