What is that? You know...that smell...my nose is picking up a hormonic frequency that is either including me or excluding me via my olfactory organs which send a signal immediately to my brain for consideration. It could be a sharp stench that repulsed me or a savory smell that draws me. My nasal receptors are wired for memory protection as well as memory comfort. While I was young my mind began cataloging events not just by sight and sound, but by smell. Some of the most vivid memories (good and bad) were created around a certain smell.
Can there be a smell that reminds us of triumph? Can there be a smell that hosts conflict and brings prideful remorse?
2 Corinthians 2:14 -17 - "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ."
Triumph...what a word! {In Christ, triumph is a little different than most of us would think - since we walk in victory, the triumph of Christ brings humble peace to those who receive Him, with humility it disrupts those in the valley of decision, and it humbles and terrifies those that stand in rejection.}
Immediately the day greets us (give it few moments) with reminders of how we are out-of-sync with the "in" people that feel they have the corner of the market in knowledge and beauty. Anyone that doesn't carry the same verbs and vibe is immediately written out of the inner circle. It seems there is a pride to own a certain number of friends and to keep a number of outcasts at bay for differentiation. Many of us are outcasts that love the outcast(of course we will pick the outcasts that we want to own as friends and keep a few "in" people at a distance so that we can claim that we are somewhat normal).
In the midst of our daily interactions with all kinds of people, we have to pull away every once and awhile and check our body odors to see if that could be the cause of our invisibility. We then stop and take a breathe to catch a Scent of Heaven to realize a powerful truth... Jesus came out of invisibility and offered the miraculous only to remain in ambiguity by those who thought they had it together. He keeps us together, we do not have it together.
Men that portend to have self sufficiency will potentially curse their lives with a death scent that moves people away from them instead of toward them. In their time of true need no one will believe that they have a need. Not being able to admit that we "need" is a debilitating disease that eventually chokes us with a prideful paralysis that will not allow us to receive help even "if and when" we truly need it.
According to the Scripture above -- WE STINK -- Face it!! And count on it by faith .. Huh? Through God's saving grace, those who have received Him give of a vertical and horizontal sweet smell. That smell of Christ in us "the Hope of Gory" thrills our God and our brothers and sisters with the memory reminder of the Peace that passes understanding; but that same sweet smell discomfits and reminds the Christ rejector of his or her disconnect. To the believer the triumphant smell is sweet, to the unbeliever it reeks road kill.
OK - Sweet Smelling, Church Triumphant - Let's move forward with sincerity, speaking the words "in Christ" to point as many as possible to that extravagant eternal love relationship with Jesus Christ.
What is that smell in your life?
Is it Jesus?
HLFA,
Jeff