Do You "Smell" Like Jesus?

There have been many times in the past couple months that I've wanted to post something, but I haven't gotten around to doing so. Tonight is another one of those "past couple months", yet I don't want to pass up this opportunity to share.

This past Sunday, my buddy Nick was in town and he preached at our church. When I say, "my buddy", I want you to understand what I mean by that. This guy, Nick "the Greek" Pirovolos, is the founder of Inside-Out Ministries, a prison ministry. And this guy knows what he's talking about; he's been there. If you read his book and then ever get a chance to meet him, or vice versa, you may not believe that it's the same guy. No joke. That's how awesome Jesus Christ is, and how He can change lives for the better. And, this guy, Nick "the Greek", is old enough to be my grandfather. And he's my buddy. I met him when I was in middle school, so I've known him for about 17 years or so. (Good gravy, that's a story there...) Nick's my brother in Christ, my friend, and definitely my buddy.

Okay, so now that you have a general understanding of who my buddy Nick is, I can continue.

Nick was in town Sunday, and preached at our church. I'm always so excited to see him, and this time was no exception. I only get to see him once or twice a year, so the few moments we get to say hi, give each other hugs, bug each other, and talk a bit are very precious. After each of these visits, I end up smelling like Nick.

Yeah, I know. You may be thinking something like, "What in the world...is that a good thing?" or "That's weird." And, yes, it is a good thing. Whatever cologne Nick uses smells really good (at least in my opinion), and after hugging him, the shoulder of my shirt smells like it and so does my hair--and I smell like Nick for the rest of the day. It makes me smile.

Well, yesterday I woke up and my hair still smelled a bit like Nick. It made me smile. My hair didn't need washing yesterday, and this morning when I woke up, I was amazed; I still smelled faintly like Nick. I smiled and said, "Lord, are You serious? I still smell like Nick."

Although I don't smell like Nick anymore (yeah, I washed my hair today), the thought still makes me smile. And the best part of this whole thing is what the Holy Spirit showed me.

See, when I spend time with Nick, I end up smelling like him--and if people get close enough to me at that point, they may know I've spent time with Nick. When we spend time with Christ, we end up "smelling" like Him--and people know we've been with Him.

And I know I want to "smell" like Christ all the time. I want people to know I've been with the King--like how Moses' face shone when he'd been with God back in Exodus (34:27-35). That "smell" or "glow" can fade, however, but I sure don't want it to disappear. Just because the "smell" fades, doesn't mean it's gone; it just means it's more difficult to detect. Sometimes this goes with living our day-to-day lives. We're Christ's, and we're talking with Him (praying) and hopefully reading at least a bit of His Word every day, yet we may not be spending quality time with Him. Kind of like how I know Nick is my buddy and I e-mail him or write him a letter every once in a while (and have called him once or twice), yet I don't get to spend much time with him.

There's a difference, though. Although I can pretty much choose how often I e-mail, write, or call my buddy Nick, I don't have much control over when I get to spend time with him. With Christ, however, I can choose when, where, and how long to spend time with Him--and whether it's out of habit, because I should, or because I want to. In other words, I can choose whether I spend time with Christ, or spend quality time with Him. And it doesn't have to be hours and hours. Sometimes just a few moments with Christ is enough to make me "smell" like Him for a week--like how just a few moments with Nick caused me to smell like him for a couple days.

One of the best compliments that my youth pastor has said that she's received is, "You reek of Jesus!" I want to "smell" like King Jesus all the time. And not faintly, either. I want people to know I've been with my King.

Do you "smell" like Jesus? Do you want to?

Steppin' in Dog Poop and You Feel Fine?

I'm hanging out with my aunt and uncle's dog Sadie while watching America's Got Talent. I just watched Aaralyn (6?) and Izzy (10?). I didn't see them in the auditions or in the Vegas round--I've only been watching AGT this season occasionally. Anyway, the song Aaralyn and Izzy performed tonight seemed fun (Aaralyn wrote it), and maybe even a bit funny, yet I think it's ridiculous. Okay, so ridiculous in this case has positive and negative connotations. Positive: it was ridiculous in that it was (at first) a kind of stupid, funny song--the funny type of ridiculous. Negative: it was ridiculous in that it was stupid and NOT funny. Here are the lyrics:

Me and Izzy playing outside
Steppin' in dog poop
And we feel fine (or something like that)

Sounds like a kid-type of song, right, which is where the funny part comes in. Yet how many kids, or people in general, play outside and purposely step in dog poop just because they can? Okay, so they may feel fine, but they stink.

And this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He showed me some things about this seemingly innocent kid song almost immediately after it was performed.

How many times do we play outside? Outside of God's Word, outside of His commands, outside of His will, outside of His covering? And we step in dog poop just because we can--we do things that aren't necessarily good for us to do, or that are NOT good for us to do, just because we can. We sin just because we can, and we feel fine. Of course we feel fine...sin is pleasurable for a season. We feel fine, and we STINK. When we play in crap, we're going to smell like crap. When we sin, we smell like sin to God. And just because we feel fine at the moment doesn't mean we're not going to have to deal with the crap on our shoe--the sin in our life. We'll either be proud of it and show it to everyone (sharing the stink), try to hide it (masking the smell unsuccessfully), try to throw it away (forgetting about the truth), or clean it up (going to Christ, admitting we sinned, and asking Him to take care of it).

Of course, when we step in dog poop one time, it's only going to stink for so long. Yet, when we keep stepping in that dog poop, we're going to continue to stink. As Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery, we need to "Go and sin no more."

My impromptu version of the song:

Me and my family
Playing inside
Seeking Christ's will
For we are His Bride

(What bride wants to stink for her bridegroom?)

It's Up to Us, Not Just Our Shepherds

I was cleaning a bit today and found this journal entry from some years ago:

In my Specific Methods in English textbook, Exploring and Teaching the Language Arts, something in the chapter we discussed last night really riles me. In chapter 10, there's a section called, "Back to the Basics". In this section, it talked about how people blame English teachers for people not speaking and writing using "proper" English.

This is what I wrote in the margin: "Why is everything always up to teachers? They get blamed for what people don't know, but since they have to teach people everything, what do they expect? If parents and other adults don't reinforce what teachers teach, well...there's only so much teachers can do..."

This reminds me of Pastor Jeff. As a pastor, there is only so much he can do in trying to teach us the Word and about God. We often expect pastors to tell us everything there is to know about the Bible and God, and we often blame them when we don't know as much as we think we should. If we expect pastors to teach us everything about God and His Word, then no wonder we don't know much. If we don't get into the Word ourselves to reinforce and memorize and hide in our hearts, then who are we to blame our pastors? We have to be active in learning the Word, not passive. 

Pastors are our shepherds, not our spoon-feeders. Shepherds lead and guide their sheep; they don't give them everything they want when they want it. Shepherds try to protect their sheep and care for their sheep, but the shepherd can't do much if his sheep choose not to eat or put one foot in front of the other to follow him. Yes, the shepherd may carry a sheep,   but on;y until that sheep can walk on its own. The shepherd can only carry one sheep at a time, and only for so long. The shepherd needs to rest, too. Yes, the shepherd would breathe for his sheep if he could, but that's not what God intended. God made sheep to do their part, as well.

So true.

Soul-y About Softball

Our prayer for this year's softball season:

"Lord Jesus, this is Your field. This is Your softball field, and these people are Your field. I don't know how ripe Your field is here, but You do, because they're Yours. Lord, this is Your game. Softball is Your game. Thank You for allowing us to play. Thank You for allowing us to do something we enjoy and for using it, and us, for Your Glory. I never dreamed I'd be playing softball, yet You prepared me to play my entire life. You've prepared us all to play--for such a time as this. King Jesus, we are Your team. Do with us as You see fit. We are Your Ambassadors. Holy Spirit, continue to help us act like and be Your Ambassadors on and off the field. Jesus, You've turned this softball field into more than just a softball field--it's a mission field. Lord, You've turned softball into more than just a game--it's a tool. And You've turned us into more than just softball players--we're missionaries, Your Ambassadors. Help us prepare how You want us to prepare. Holy Spirit fill us up and pour us out on that field. Every practice, every game. This is Your season, for You and Your Kingdom. In Jesus name, amen."

Good gravy...leads to prayer

Well, good gravy, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I enjoy writing and I enjoy posting on this blog. However, there are many times when I have something I'd like to post, but am either not able to post at that moment or I forget what I was going to post by the time I do have the opportunity. And that's the way it goes. I'd like to say I'll give myself a certain amount of time each week to post something of substance, but I'm not going to do that. There are many other things that require and deserve my attention more than this blog. Yet, there are some things that aren't quite as important, too.

This kind of reminds me of some of the things I've been thinking about prayer in the past few months. There are so many people and situations that we are encouraged to pray for. We're supposed to pray for our leaders (of every kind, and I have a lot of them); our family; our friends; our enemies; ourselves; our country; the world; those who don't know Christ; those who do; situations in general; specific needs; and the list goes on. I don't think I could even begin to pray for everyone and everything I'm "supposed to" each day even if that's the only thing I did. And Christ knows this.

When He says to "pray without ceasing", I think He wants us to be in constant communication with Him, not necessarily in "formal prayer". Praying is basically talking with Christ, anyway, and that is something I can do all day long. I do that, too. Jesus and I talk with each other all day. Some days it's little bits here and there, and more just hanging out with each other. Other days we talk a lot.

Yet each day it's definitely not enough. I could never talk with my King enough. And that's okay. It also means we'll never run out of things to talk about!

This is why I don't get discouraged about "not praying enough". As long as I keep talking with Christ, always knowing that we could talk more (and I could definitely listen more, ha!), then I shouldn't worry about it. It's if I'd choose to stop talking with Christ--that's when there'd be a problem. :)