The aroma of our lives

Back in March, the youth group leader of the church I attend asked a question that caught me off guard, but is an important one none-the-less.
“Does God have a sense of smell?”
In Genesis 8:20-21 we read that after the Flood, Noah built an alter, and praised the Lord by burning a sacrifice on it. In verse 21, we are told that God the pleasing aroma of the sacrifice.
Throughout the Old Testament, we read that when someone whose heart was right burned a sacrifice before the Lord; He smelled it, and was pleased.
God smells the aroma of your life as well.

2 Corinthians 2:15 says, “For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

What kid of smell are you giving off?
Is your aroma pleasing to the Lord?

2 Corinthians 5:17- “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Ephesians 5:1- “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”

If you have accepted Christ as your personal Savior, then you are a new creation, and you are called to become an imitator of Christ.
Your aroma needs to be pleasing to the Lord. Your actions, appearance, choices, and thoughts need to imitate that of Christ’s.

Ephesians 5:2- “…live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Your life becomes a sweet smelling fragrance when you live you life in love instead of bitterness. Christ chose you to be a shining light to the world. Are you representing Christ well?

Forgive and Move On

Recently a friend of mine walked away from the Lord. This person stopped coming to church, and stopped answering anyone’s emails from church.
A few of my friends and I began to wonder if Anonymous was alright. This happened back in November.
Well, a few days ago I received an email from Anonymous. In that email, Anonymous told me how much they hated me, how I need to leave them alone, and how ugly I was.
I’d be lying if I said that Anonymous’ words didn’t hurt me, but it was the words they didn’t say that hurt more. What I mean by that is that I read the unwritten words between the lines. The words that say, “I’ve walked away from God, I don’t care what He says, and I want to do whatever I feel like doing!”
Well, later on that night I was praying to God and asking Him what I should do concerning Anonymous’ words. These are some verses that came to mind….

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” – 1 John 4:7, 11, 19-21

I need to love Anonymous just as God loves us. I also need to continue to pray for them too.
A few days later, I had another friend say that they would probably beat up Anonymous because of the emails that I received.
I told them if I took to heart every mean and cruel word ever said to me; I’d be a very bitter person.
You see, God wants us to forgive and pray for those who do and say cruel things to us.
Ask yourself, what would Jesus do?
Did Jesus get mad and hit back when the guards slapped and beat Him before He was crucified? No!
Did Jesus hold a grudge against the Pharisees when they spread lies about Him?
No!
What did He do? He forgave and prayed for them.
Now that love!
Jesus never said the Christian walk was going to be easy. In fact, He said that the world would persecute us because they persecuted Him. John 15:20b- “…If they persecute Me, they will persecute you also…”We as true believers in Christ need to forgive and move on when people hurt us and say cruel things to us just like Jesus did.
That’s love.

Love Our Enemies

Some of you are probably wondering, “Why on Earth would I want to even consider loving my enemies?” Well, the answer is simple. Because Jesus has commanded us too! That’s right, Jesus, our Lord and Savior has told all of His followers to love our enemies.
In Matthew 5:44 Jesus tells us to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”Not only does Jesus tell us to love our enemies, He also tells us to do three other things. We’re told to bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who use and persecute us.
Now this is something that hits close to home for me. Recently, I’ve been having trouble with one of my friends, in fact she hates me. I’m still not sure what caused her to hate me, and I had been really struggling with this. Then one day as I read this passage in Matthew everything came into focus. Even though *Misty* (not her real name) still hates me I need to do good to her, pray for her, love her, and bless her. It’s hard I’ll admit, but I know that it’s what Jesus would want me to do.
If we as Christians continue to hate our enemies what does that do for our testimony? It harms it more than helping it. People won’t want to listen to what you have to say if you go around hating you enemies because they won’t see any difference in your life compared to the way everyone else lives. We as Christians should be known for our love.