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The only love someone might ever receive is from us as the Children of God.
Many times we rush through life without showing the love and shining the
light that Jesus commanded each believer to freely bestow upon others. We
are called to be God's hands and feet on this earth to show His love to
everyone we come into contact with. When the love of God is manifested
toward others through our positive acts of love, they will not see us, but
rather God working through our surrendered vessels. (Matthew 10:7-8)
I hope you enjoy this story that shows how our acts of love and kindness
can be shown in many different ways. If you know someone who is
discouraged, let this story be the catalyst and inspiration for your
intervention in showing the Love of God. You will be following God's
commandment in loving your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 19:19)
THE FRAGRANCE OF LOVE
There's a magnet on my refrigerator door with a picture of a little girl
holding a long-stemmed rose. Her eyes sparkle as if the aroma from the
rose is an absolute delight. On the back of the magnet a friend had written
a note to me: "May you be the sweet fragrance of Christ wherever you go."
-- 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
I hadn't thought of that magnet in months, until today. I'd been short-
tempered at work and had retreated into the restroom to cool down and to
repent. As I asked God to forgive me, He reminded me of the magnet and its
message.
Yet I wasn't sure I understood how to be that heavenly fragrance. The
essence of Christ is love, but what does love smell like?
"Why, it smells like sautéed onions, of course," popped into my mind. I
remembered the day that I first discovered that truth. I recalled sitting
on the bed. I was exhausted. Then the most heavenly aroma wafted upstairs,
tantalizing me. Sautéed onions. My husband was preparing dinner. "That's
the fragrance of love," I thought. Those sizzling onions spoke of my
husband's care and sacrifice for me. I knew that he was tired too, but out
of his love for me, he was fixing dinner. No roses, chocolate or perfume
ever smelled so sweet as those onions did on that day.
So I began to wonder about how many times the fragrance of love comes to
us, and is experienced by us, without ever being recognized. As I meditated
on this, a variety of scenes rushed through my mind, and with them, a
diversity of scents that carried the message, "I love you."
As a father comes in from the fields after working a 12-hour day to provide
for his family, love smells like sweat and fertilizer. Love is also the
powdery aroma of fresh-baked, homemade biscuits that a mother prepares
early in the morning for her family's breakfast.
It's the meaty aroma of chicken soup brought over by a friend who heard
that you were under the weather. Or it can be the faint odor of gasoline on
a stranger who stopped to help when you ran out of gas.
As we walk in the principles of God's Word, our lives manifest God's love
that draws people to the Savior.
Love has many expressions, many fragrances. But the fragrance of love that
is more costly than any other aroma or perfume was made one time, for all
time. It is the fragrance of Jesus' love poured out at the Cross for us.
I took out my Bible and read once again the Scripture verses cited on my
magnet: "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and
through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For 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?" (2 Corinthians 2:14-16, NKJV)
As I read the words of verse 15, "For we are to God the fragrance of
Christ...", I thought of how awesome it is that the Father looks down on
us and catches the aroma of Christ whispering that we belong to Him.
By Pat Banta Kreml
Read and meditate on these scriptures:
1 John 4:20-21 "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a
liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, That he
who loveth God love his brother also."
Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus declares "Ye are the light of the world. A city that
is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are
in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
1 John 4:7-11 "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God
toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that
we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."
Romans 13:10-14 "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is
the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high
time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast
off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us
walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the
lusts thereof."
All scriptures can be found in the King James Version.
Today's Selected Poem: THY WORD, OH LORD
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/inpoem147.htm
Today's Selected Testimony: A PRISONER FREED AT LAST
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/testimony87.htm
In Christ's Service,
Dwayne Savaya
Gods Work Ministry |
