Good morning!
Text: 2 Corinthians 1-3; Psalm 112
There is a lot in these passages! A powerful supernatural reality for us all is captured in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16;
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
To the people around us, if we are living for Jesus, we smell. To some, we smell like a breeze, the fresh cut grass, flowers, the sweet smell of a baby’s head – life! To the rest, we smell like death – a rotting mouse, the dump, nasty, rotting things. This is reality. As we live and love people for Jesus, a bunch of them won’t like us one single bit. To them, we are stinky. They will reject us, hate us even. But – what they need most is the life we have in Christ. So we can never let our need to be accepted and liked to diminish our aroma. I once attended a men’s retreat where the all-male praise band called themselves “The Aromatics.” Let us all smell like Jesus!
in Him, Mike