We are the Aroma of Christ?

[princesa]

Usually I delete the Moments for Couples emails or put them away for later viewing but this morning I was feeling good so I decided to read it. It started with a verse:

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life” - (2 Corinthians 2:14-16a, NIV

For some reason, I found myself choked up when I read this. This is really beautiful and poetic. I felt like, gee, God really loves us human beings. We are His aroma?!? ...This truth about God loving us is blocked when we let negative news from the papers or television seep in through those little holes of doubt until it's what fills us up. Fear, instead of faith. Coincidentally, I read a pamphlet from Michael Youssuf yesterday that stated if we feed our minds with constant negative media, fear will stay in us, then he quoted a few scripture verses (i don't remember which ones) that showed Christ telling us our spirit isn't timid, we should live boldly etc..

Basically, Human Nature 101 is that we feel good when we read about happy things and feel sad borderline depressed when we read or hear about the heinous acts and atrocities of daily life. So, what do we do to level out these emotions? Stay grounded in scripture, maintain the faith? Just don't read those things. (if you don't read it you know it's there anyway). I find myself wondering what we'd be like without these "Emotions". Emotions are fleeting. They have nothing to do with Gods existence. What do they mean? Why are they here? Maybe it was Paul's thorn. Kidding, I know it wasn't, it feels like mine. However, God gave us these feelings. And us humans just love feeling love. As much love as we feel we are in bliss and want to stay that way and then the reverse is true because when we hurt, the pain is unbearable at times. These are gifts? I don't know. They just are. What do you do when you are feeling in love with God and for a moment you feel on an emotional high, a peaceful and rare moment when you feel your heart resting (for those with anxiety like myself) then all of a sudden a thought enters your head (that girl in the paper you read about that was beaten and left dead, she was 5) and then the moment ends, because that emotion beat out the other, thanks to that uninvited thought that popped in your head, and keeps popping in your head and interrupting your faith. Year after year. And it's not so much that this makes you doubt God is here,you still keep believing, but with heartbreak because you still can't be at peace with the world. That couldn't have been the kind of love Christ was talking about when He said to love God with all of your heart, mind,soul and strength.

And that's as far as I got in the article before it prompted me here, just the beginning scripture verse because it tugged at my heart strings with it's beautiful poetry.

[RBerman]

Great thoughts. The news media certainly feeds us a constant diet of fear and dissatisfaction with ourselves. Every commercial on TV tries to tell us that we are incomplete, but buying Product X will fulfill us. Every magazine cover offers us counsel on ways we can become the people we want to be. But ultimately, only God can fulfill our dreams, and change our dreams into the dreams we ought to have in the first place. That does make us into people who "smell" different to the unbelieving world.