Heaven is....

Heaven is a prepared place, and they who go to heaven must be a prepared people. Our hearts must be in tune for the employments of heaven, or else heaven itself would be a miserable abode. Our minds must be in harmony with those of the inhabitants of heaven, or else the society of heaven would soon be intolerable to us…What could you possibly do in heaven if you got there with a heart loving sin? To which of all the saints would you speak? By whose side would you sit down? Surely, the angels of God would make no sweet music to the heart of him who cannot bear saints upon earth and never praised the Lamb for redeeming love! Surely, the company of patriarchs, and apostles, and prophets would be no joy to that man who will not read his Bible now and does not care to know what apostles and prophets wrote. Oh, no! No! There can be no happiness in heaven, if we get there with an impenitent heart…
J. C. Ryle

Holiness is not a request of God but a command.
Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

"Nothing should have a more powerful effect upon a saint's spirit than to consider his blissful estate in heaven as being the reward of all his conflicts here on earth. This sword should cut the very sinews of temptation and behead those lusts which defy whole troops of other arguments. How can sin co-exist with the hope of such glory? It is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christian's sight, and he forgets his hope of that glorious place, that begins to set up some idol as Israel set up the calf and worshipped it in the absence of Moses. Only let heaven come into view, and the Christian's heart will be well warmed with thoughts of it. You may as soon pursuade a king to throw down his royal diadem and wallow in the mud with his robes on, as convince a saint to sin when his heart is filled the expectation of heaven's glory.

Sin is a devil's work, not a saint's. The saint waits every hour for the summons that will call him to stand with angels and glorified saints before the throne of God. How this should cheer and sustain his heart when the fight is the hottest and the bullets fly thickest! If he must go through fire and water to reach it, what is that discomfort compared to the eternal comfort of heaven? Keeping the joy of heaven always before you will help you run your race with patience. It will help you endure your short scuffles with temptation and affliction. What is more, it will make you reckon also that these afflictions 'are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us' (Romans 8:18)"

William Gurnall