R&R #4: Christians Stink

"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." 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a

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Christians smell. There's just no getting around it. The image that Paul adopts in this passage is one of a triumphant Roman general. After a successful campaign a Roman general would return in triumph, riding a magnificent, golden chariot, and leading trains of soldiers and captured slaves behind him. Priests would burn incense and waft the smoke as they marched, causing the stench to rise over the whole procession.

The smell was a sign of victory for some and a cause for rejoicing! For others, it was the smell of defeat, of being utterly vanquished by the general and his army. This is the way that Christians are in the world. To those who are elect of God, we smell like life and victory. To the reprobate, we smell like death and they recoil in our presence. Here's the thing, though, both people are smelling the same thing. We should not produce one smoke around Christians and another around those outside the Church. Both people should smell the same scent coming from us. It's the way that they perceive the scent that should be different.

Here's another point: it doesn't do any good to try and cover up your stench. How often have we tried to mask our Christian musk with the perfumes of worldliness! We do not wish to smell so foul to those outside of Christ's Church, so we tone down our witness, we try and fashion ourselves after the ungodly, hoping that they won't notice us. Maybe we do this for understandable motives, imagining ourselves like a stealth unit in camouflage. They will never smell us coming and then...SURPRISE! GOSPEL!

It doesn't work. Trying to cover up your stench will be like spraying some perfume into a tomb to the reprobate. They can still smell you, trust me. All you will do is diminish your beautiful smell of life for the elect. Do not deprive the Church of your sweet fragrance.

Refusal: I refuse to mask the scent of Christ in my life for the sake of not offending the walking dead. I refuse to deprive the Church of God of the fragrance of my life. 

Resolution: I resolve that I will let the odor of my life in Christ waft everywhere I go. I will adorn the incense of Christ in my life with good works, praying that God will use my fragrance to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere. My life's odor will announce the victorious procession of Jesus Christ, proclaiming his triumph over death. 

R&R #3: Muddy Miracles

"Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him." -John 2:6-11

"One of his disciples,Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” -John 6:8-14

"Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing." -John 9:6-7

Have you noticed how natural the supernatural miracles of Christ look? Think about it: Changing water into wine? Feeding more than five thousand people with some bread and fish? Rubbing a guy's eyes with mud and telling him to take a bath? Why does Jesus sound like some backwoods, spiritual huckster? How about some fancy stuff, Jesus? Some spiritual stuff?

Because materialistic philosophy dominates our culture, we have a tendency to separate the material/immaterial, spiritual/physical, natural/supernatural in a way that the Scriptures never do. So I read about Jesus covering a blind man's eyes in mud and telling the man to go wash in some water. I read that the blind man comes back seeing and my mind immediately jumps to the conclusion that something happened in between, something more spiritual than mud and water. The Bible never says anything like that happened. The Holy Spirit works on this man to heal his blindness, of eyes and heart (the man worships Jesus at the end of the chapter). The Holy Spirit does all of this by working through some mud and water. 

Refusal: I refuse to see my world through blind, materialistic eyes. I will not see anything as being "just matter", as if there was no God. I refuse to believe the lie that God only works in the gooey core of my heart or in extravagant, external displays of power. 

Resolution: I resolve that I will view all things; the dirt that I tread upon, the water I wash in, the food that I eat, and the people I meet, as being intimately connected to the supernatural. The God who is spirit took on flesh and gave sight to the blind using mud and water. 

R&R #2: And of His Kingdom There Will Be No End

"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever!" Revelation 11:15

"Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." Revelation 5:9-10

Do you believe these things? Has the kingdom of the world really become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ? Maybe you can trust that Christ has made us a kingdom and priests to God in a personal, private, spiritual way, but will we reign on the earth, a seemingly public affair? That's a pretty bold statement to believe. 

The devil and the world tell us that Christianity is on the way out. The Church is a tired old institution that has nothing positive to say to the modern world. Sometimes, even Christians get sucked into this mindset. We begin to view our world through the devil's lenses. We think that we are a dwindling flame, ready to go out, increasingly irrelevant in a modern world. Maybe we begin to justify this thought with quasi-Biblical ideas about Christ's imminent return: "Circle the wagons, boys! We've nothing more to do here. Just wait for the Boss to come back".

The deceptions of Satan and the kingdom of darkness know no end. Christ has promised that the Church will conquer and reign and not even the gates of hell can prevail against her. There is more work to be done, more battles to be won, more land to conquer.

Refusal: I refuse to let the world dictate the relevancy of the Church. I refuse to let the kingdom of darkness confound the conquest of the kingdom of Christ.

Resolution: I resolve that, no matter what the surrounding situation looks like, I will hold firm to God's promise that the Church will prevail; that she will "spread abroad to the right and to the left, and her offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities". For Almighty God always keeps His promises.

R&R #1: Guilty Nights With My Savior

(So this will be the first installation in a new series of posts I hope to do entitled "R&R: Refuse and Resolve". Basically, if you are familiar with Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions, it will look similar to that. I am not as intelligent or theologically brilliant or charismatic as Edwards, nor will I try to be. These posts will mostly consist of experiences that I have had in the Christian faith which I think it likely others have had as well. So, here goes. Let me know if this blesses you at all. I pray it does so I am not just wasting time.)

I am a man with a guilty conscience. In my 22 years on this earth I have done many things that have hurt others, myself, and offended the Almighty. I have hurt people with selfish actions and uncaring words. There are many people I can think of off the top of my head whom I have wronged in one way or another. In short: I am a sinner.

Many of my nights are spent lying awake in my bed, dwelling on all of the wrong I have done. Friends I have hurt; family I have hurt; words I have spoken and things I have done to others. Things I have said and done to people that I can never take back and never apologize for enough. People that I have wronged who have left my life and who I will likely never see again, their only recollection of me being a memory of hurt feelings.

In this state of mind, I often turn to Isaiah 53, a common Scripture reading during Holy Week.

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:4-6

All the sin I have ever committed; all of the hurt that I have caused, has been laid on Christ. He has borne it all so that I could be forgiven. If you are a sinner with a guilty conscience like mine, I implore you to repent and believe in Christ. He has died for sinners like you and I.

Refusal: I refuse to be kept awake at night by the whispers of my guilty conscience and the knowledge of my own sin. 

Resolve: I resolve that if I am kept awake by anything at night, it will be dwelling upon the love of my Savior, his crucifixion, and on his resurrection from the dead. It is through him that I have received new life.

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2