{"id":26476,"date":"2019-09-20T03:30:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T10:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=26476"},"modified":"2019-09-19T16:38:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T23:38:57","slug":"september-20-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2019\/09\/20\/september-20-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"September 20, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cFor we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?\u201d\u00a0<\/em>2 Corinthians 2: 15-16<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Aromas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a beautiful stream near my house where I love to walk. Oh, the aroma that wafts from that delightful place! Every time I go there, it takes me back in time to my childhood and the wonderful fun I had \u201cdown at the creek.\u201d There\u2019s just something about that mingling of smells; the water, willows and sun-scorched blackberries all combine to produce an intoxicating fragrance.<\/p>\n

As a child growing up in the mountains, it was considered a glorious summer day, when neighborhood kids and I could spend hours at the creek, wading and looking for turtles, frogs, and orange-bellied salamanders (or water-dogs as we called them). We sometimes pretended to be the first Native Americans, gathering pine nuts and making \u201cdishes\u201d to hold them from the red clay deposits along the creek banks. It\u2019s funny how so many details come flooding back, just by one whiff from a stream today.<\/p>\n

The Lord knows all about the power of aromas. He gave us a keen sense of smell, for which I\u2019m thankful (most of the time). I can\u2019t say I\u2019m quite as thrilled though, when the neighborhood skunk makes his rounds and sprays his scent under our open bedroom window in the middle of the night. Not.<\/em><\/p>\n

To the Lord, love has an aroma all its own as His Spirit flows through us. \u201cAnd walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Ephesians 5: 2). Haven\u2019t you met other believers who exude this special fragrance? It\u2019s almost tangible, the way warm honey tastes on fresh baked bread\u2014you just want to stand a little closer, in hopes it\u2019ll rub off on you! I want to be like that, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

As 2 Corinthians says, \u201cwe are to God the fragrance of Christ\u201d\u00a0<\/em>and \u201cthe aroma of life leading to life.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>But that same aroma is perceived by the unsaved as \u201cdeath leading to death.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>I don\u2019t know about you, but that calls to mind a few \u201cnot so lovely things\u201d we found as kids on the creek bank. Eeewww. That explains some of the experiences I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve all had with the unsaved. Not everyone is going to like<\/em>us\u2014count on it. But true \u201cGod-love\u201d can be irresistible to those searching for truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Lord, help us get out of the way and let You \u201clove through us\u201d, exuding Your sweet fragrance to all we meet. Show us the things in our hearts that keep us from loving the way You do\u2014freely, openly, vulnerable, and accepting of others. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-6T2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26479,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476\/revisions\/26479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}