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But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
I want to talk with you about extending the aroma of Christ. This is the will of God. We are to live in such a way that wherever we go that the Lord is able to manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him. And as we go to places far and near we are a fragrance of Christ to God. Just what does that mean?
Scientists tell us that smells and our memories are intimately woven together. Certian ordors bring back vivid memories. I remember the first time I smelled a sweet shrub. Some people call it a sweet olive. My dad and I had gone to the house of a man named Joe to get our lawn mower repaired. Joe had a sweet shrub in his yard. My dad walked over and pulled off several of the blossoms and dropped them in my shirt pocket. He put another handful in the truck, and it seemed like the truck smelled of sweet shrub blossoms for weeks. To this day, whenever I catch the odor of a sweet shrub, my mind goes back to that moment with my dad. The memory becomes clear.
When Jesus died on the cross Paul said that the sacrifice of his life was a pleasing aroma to God. But Paul also makes it clear that when we live a life surrendered to Christ that you and I become a fragrance of Christ to God. A life so surrendered spreads an aroma that brings before God the vivid memory of the cross.
We have many lives so surrendered in our church. I think of those who have committed their lives to spread the aroma of Christ in the nation of Romania. They have broken the alabaster box of their life in order to pour that precious oil on the feet of their Savior. And when they love the little impoverished gypsy children who roam the street--when they pour out their tears for a young mother who has never heard of Jesus--when they give a pair of glasses to an old woman who has not been able to thread her needle for thirty years--and place in her hand a Bible which she has never owned or read--the aroma of their sacrifice rises heavenward and brings before God the vivid memory of the cross.
They are a aroma of Christ to God!
Therefore Paul cried, "Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place!"
But that aroma cannot be made manifest without surrender and sacrifice.
Unashamedly I am asking you to consider a sacrifice of your own to help 11 people spread the aroma of Christ in the nation of Romania. Mary's alabaster box had to be broken to release the sweet aroma that still bears witness to her love for Christ.
Often I am chided for not asking for your help when it is needed. Now I am asking! I am asking not only for myself but for those others who God has called to go and pour out their lives in an effort to manifest the aroma of Christ in the nation of Romania. "For we are a fragrance of Christ to God..." That is true of all those who have chosen to be a people...
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