Truth Seekers Newsletter
September 2, 2007: If It Smells Bad, Don't Eat It!
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We have peeked into the windows of the body (the eyes and the ears) in the past couple of weeks. Today, we peek into another window, the nose. The nose is located just over the major doorway of the body, the mouth.
Why Is Your Nose Located Above Your Mouth?
While our nose serves several functions, one of them is smell. When Jennifer was in college, she had a refrigerator magnet that showed some foxes surrounding a skunk. The caption read, "If it smells bad, don't eat it!" This is good advice for life!
God has designed our faces in such a way that whatever goes into our mouth has to pass under our nose. If we missed looking at the date of that milk that is three weeks past the sell date, the smell of sour milk might tip us off, before we put it in our mouths.
The Smell Test in the Body of Christ
We need to be on the alert for things that don't smell or seem right. As gatekeepers of the Body, we want to be sure that what goes into the Body is authorized by God to go there.
Sometimes we know right away that we are in the presence of something that has no business in the Body. Other times we miss it and allow it to get into the Body. Once the Body has detected an intruder, it will act to purify it or at least disarm it, so it cannot harm the Body. The more we learn the scents of something rotten, the more times we will stop it at the door.
Does a Person Have a Smell?
Well, perhaps if they have not taken a bath in awhile! But what about in a good way? Sometimes a person wears a certain type of perfume or aftershave and we come to associate that smell with them. Smell is a great way to reinforce memory.
In Genesis 27:27, Isaac, who could not see well, identified his son by his smell.
I Remember That Smell!
God created the brain in a very unique way in relation to smell and memory. The part of the brain that has to do with memory shares a common part with the part of the brain that helps us process smells. That is why, for example, a person might smell chocolate chip cookies baking and immediately remember what it was like to walk into their mother's kitchen when they were a child and she was baking chocolate chip cookies.
God made use of this unique design in the old testament, when He gave His People very detailed instructions about how they were to prepare sacrifices. Incense was a crucial part of the religious ceremonies. It served as a marker. Whenever the people smelled the smell of incense, they would automatically remember God's sacrifice. It would be imprinted into their very brains!
Frankincense was liberally used and its aroma was very distinct. Where else did we hear of frankincense in the Bible? It was one of the gifts of the wise men to Jesus. It is interesting that it had been used throughout the Old Testament in ceremonies of sacrifice and now it was being given to the One, Who fulfilled all those ceremonies and was the ultimate Sacrifice. Talk about coming full circle!
Does God Like a Good Smell?
After Noah came out of the ark, he prepared a sacrifice to God. What did God think of this sacrifice? Read Genesis 8:21. Do you think it was just the good smell that God loved or was it more than that? God loved the act of obedience it represented.
Can God Smell You?
In the Body of Christ, God wants us, not only to look like Him and sound like Him, He wants us to be identified as having His Smell. Read 2nd Corinthians 2:15. "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."
Could We Have A Bad Smell?
Unfortunately so. 2nd Corinthians 2:16 tells us that there can also be a smell of death. Once life has left a body, it rapidly begins to smell bad. The body is created to be constantly renewing itself. Even as you read this, skin is being sloughed off our bodies and replaced. We were designed to eat and excrete regularly, exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide every few seconds, etc. We were not designed to get something wonderful today and then live on it for the rest of our lives.
When we try to hold on to yesterday and refuse to let it go in favor of tomorrow, what we had, as wonderful as it was, will begin to spoil. When God's people were in the desert, some of them tried to hang on to the manna given them, even after God had shown that He would supply more. What happened? It spoiled and smelled bad!
Take an inventory of your life. Are there things that God wanted you to turn loose of, but you have held on to them? Pack rattery, of which I am convicted, originates from the thought, "I better hold on to this. I might need it tomorrow (and what if God does not give me another?)."
The height of God living is to live like the body is demonstrating … things don't come TO us … they come THROUGH us. When we look at our possessions, we should realize that they are not really ours. They are God's Things, of which we are stewards. Imagine the renewed flow within the Body of Christ, if we looked at our stuff with the thought, "I wonder Who God wants me to deliver this to"!
Stay tuned for part two of this lesson. We're passing the nose and we are on our way into the mouth. There is a whole lot of shakin' going on there! Hang on for the ride!
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