Both of our boys, Gregory and David, were very involved in sports from the time they could play T-ball in pre-school. As they grew older and got into junior high foul odors began to abound. Nothing like the rank smell of soccer socks and basketball shorts. Thankfully the laundry room was just off of their room. Washing could be and was done frequently.
But still… There was this ONE time when I just could not get rid of an obnoxious smell! Everytime, I would walk near their room or into their room, there was a horrible odor! I would investigate, trying to find the source of the foul odor, but to no avail. This lasted for days.
One day while the kids were at school I cleaned the boys room thoroughly. They normally did their own cleaning on the weekend, but I thought it might be good for me to do it myself. I stripped the beds, straightened the room, vacuumed, mopped, dusted, sanitized and more! When I was done with my meticulous scrubbing I felt pretty good. It seemed that I had accomplished my task. No bad smell! Everything was clean and smelled clean.
Until later that evening, after supper, I walked into their room and the smell had returned. What!!
The next day when the boys left for school I was determined to get back to it. Surely there was a dead animal in a corner, a cabinet, under a bed, SOMEWHERE!! But when I walked in, the smell was… well, just gone.
One may have thought my imagination had gotten the better of me. Certainly I was a little bonkers, but thankfully by the end of that day the source of the awful smell was found.
It had simply been a rotten egg! Yes, a rotten egg! Another junior high kid (emphasis here on junior high) had stashed a boiled egg in David’s backpack when David was not looking. The egg had been there for days, maybe weeks! On this day, David had found the egg during practice. And the perpetrator who had placed it in the backpack was present to own up to his horrible joke. I never thought for a moment to look in a backpack. I guess you could say the yoke was on us!!
It is true that no one likes a foul smell. And certainly, God does not either.
God loves a sweet smell. The sacrifice that Christ made on the cross is said to be a fragrant, sweet smell to our heavenly Father.
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:2
We are to walk in that kind of fragrant love for the lost. Through sacrificial love, we too can be a sweet smell to our heavenly Father.
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: 2 Corinthians 2:15
In fact, God has given us the victory to be sweet-smelling Christians wherever we go! (vs 14).
Not everyone will enjoy the aroma of the soul-conscious Christian. To some who reject the Gospel, it may be the smell of death.
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 1 John 3:13
But to those who receive it, the sweet smell of life.
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? 2 Corinthians 2:16
God, Himself is our sufficiency, that is adequate power according to Webster’s 1828 Online Dictionary.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 2 Corinthians 3:5
God alone can empower us to walk sacrificially in this fragrant love for the lost.
Loser Bible Study Series Theme Verse:
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35
Lose from the Greek word “Apollymi” means to destroy fully. It is translated perish in 2 Corinthians 2:15, our verse for today.
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