God promises that as Israel repents they would be influential like the popular trees of Lebanon.
“His splendour will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.” (Hosea 14 v 6)
I love fragrance, don’t you? Fragrance isn’t just a sweet smell it is a reminder of a person, a time in your life well-spent and a magnet for new experiences.
I went into a church building a few years ago and it hit me as I walked in, the smell. It was that damp, stale odour of a building that perhaps hadn’t been opened for years, except they had just met the day before. They had got used to the smell. I said to the Pastor, “What’s that smell?” he said, “What smell?” You wouldn’t dream of leaving your home without first washing, would you? You would never go to a friend’s house stinking to high heaven because you couldn’t be bothered to have a wash that day, would you? The problem is people who don’t wash get used to their own smell. Their stinky, pongy, stained smell becomes to them au naturel. Everyone needs someone who will say ‘My friend, I love you so much I need to tell you, you stink.’ Think of the fragrant offering in relation to the Old Testament system. When a sacrifice was offered on an altar, the odour of the burning meat went up to heaven and the god to whom the sacrifice was offered was supposed to feast upon that odour. In the Jewish Synagogues they too used this system and a sacrifice which had the odour of a fragrance was especially pleasing and acceptable to God. It spoke ofthe sacrifice that Jesus gave. Love is fragrant. Fragrant love is influential. A building may have a stale smell and that can be fixed but what of the smell of the Church’s heart? Do they love each other? Do they love their community? There are smells in churches that should never be there. Is there bickering? Divisions and fall-outs? I wonder how many people would say they got hurt by Church? Everyone needs a friend to say, ‘my friend you stink, stop it, tone it down, shut your mouth.’ So climb down from the high horse. Humble yourselves. Lay your life down. Pay the price. Where is the sacrifice gone from the Church? Let’s love and love loud. I was in 2 churches yesterday who have been influencing their communities, one of them for many years and the other a church plant. In both cases their influence comes because of their love, their sacrifice, their fragrance. Think on this when you put some perfume/after shave on today.
Missions Paul 