In our day, when the Holy Bible is quite readily available, in multiple translations, just in the English, it is disturbing to observe that the overall trend regarding reading any books is on the decline.  Even though the Holy Bible still has the status of being the “best seller of all time” it also likely holds a distinction of being the most neglected book.  Therefore people in general only know what they pick up in bits and pieces through bits of sermons which they might not really be paying attention to or quotations, especially the popular misquotes.  Therefore we really should not be surprised that there are so many ineffectual Christians as well as people who imagine themselves to be a Christian but have only had enough exposure so as to be inoculated against catching the real thing.

Those two groups occasionally find themselves annoyed by the spirit-filled, effectual, group of Christians; the second more so than the first but both tend to seek out the failures of the sanctified ones, or effectual Christians, in order to exploit them to make themselves feel better about their less=than-optimal level of spiritual living.  But every one of us needs to be striving toward being more Christlike, as revealed in the Holy Bible, in order to be more properly equipped for residence in Heaven.

Ladies and gentlemen of the world; if you don’t like being in Church for a couple hours on a weekly basis, what makes you think you are going to like Heaven?

Only holy beings can handle residing in the habitation of the One True God who is the God of Father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who is a holy God and He expects His people to be holy like Him.  He cannot lie to Himself and call that which is unholy to be what it isn’t without making it be.  Now, if someone is content to live in the “I sin daily in thought word and deed” rut, they ain’t holy by any stretch of the imagination.  But they still need to be.

—Pastor Ward Clinton