Smelled Up - Martin Wiles

Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke! Daniel 3:27 NLT

The smell clung to me like a too-snug shirt.

 

I love a campfire—and evidently, many others do too when they camp. I’ve seen people build campfires at campgrounds in the middle of July when the temperatures soared into the nineties and the humidity approached one hundred percent. Something about camping just isn’t complete without a glowing—and for some, a roaring—campfire.

 

But one thing I don’t care for is the smell. I’ve cooked on a campfire, roasted marshmallows around one, lounged around one for enjoyment, and hovered near one for heat. Regardless of my purpose, the result was the same: smoke smell. When camping, I don’t always bathe every night, so that means getting in my tent smelling like smoke—and smelling the smoke all night. For some reason, the odor keeps me awake. Bathing, or dousing myself with cologne, is the only way to diminish the odor.

 

My wife and I have a favorite restaurant in town that leaves us smelling almost the same as a campfire. No matter how my clothes smell when I enter—and regardless of what I eat—they reek of smoke when I leave. No wearing them a second time. Straight to the dirty clothes they go. Some things just cling.

 

Not so with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Through trickery by some who didn’t like the three Hebrews, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, threw them into a fiery furnace. But he didn’t watch them disintegrate. Instead, he saw a fourth Man in the fire with them, and he saw them all walking around. When he called for the three to come out, they did—and without the smell of smoke or a singed hair on their bodies.

 

God wants His children to smell, too. Not a repulsive smell—although it sometimes works out that way—but a pleasant aroma. He wants the smell of holiness. This doesn’t mean we walk around acting emotional or weird. Holiness carries the idea of separation—from all things that displease God, from all things that keep Him from accomplishing His purpose in our life, and from all things that destroy our ability to live life as He planned.

 

Our smell can repulse or invite. When we smell of love, kindness, joy, peace, patience, forgiveness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness, people will want to know why we don’t smell like what they are accustomed to smelling in the world. They’ll be astounded—like the king was—and they’ll want to worship the same God as we do.

 

What can you do to smell a little better?

 

Father, may my smell lure others to Your love. 

Tweetable: How do you smell to others? 

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Smelling Good - Martin Wiles

So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son. Genesis 27:27 NLT

The smell took me back.

 

Until my wife came along, I had used bar soap. She was a liquid soap user, so I also adopted the liquid soap craze. But for many years, bar soap was the norm. Liquid soaps were not mass-produced for domestic use until the 1980s when Minnetonka Corporation of Minnesota released its Softsoap. That sounded about right when I researched it. I sure don’t remember using liquid soap when I was growing up.

 

Not long ago, while visiting the local grocery store for some items, I walked to the pharmacy department. Sure enough, they sat on the shelf as I remembered—three bars of Ivory soap, packaged together. I picked them up and ran them beneath my nose.

 

The smell took me back. Back to a time when I was a young boy taking baths instead of showers. Back to the time when I stayed with my grandparents in Orangeburg and in Vance, South Carolina. I would run the bath water, jump in, wet the washrag, and look for the bar of soap. Ivory soap, of course. This was the cleanest smelling and very useful because it floated.

 

No matter how clean I was, the water soon turned dingy when I sat in it. Finding a bar of soap proved difficult. I remember running my hand beneath my body and around the bottom of the tub, trying to find the soap. But not if it was Ivory. Since it floated, I could quickly locate it. When I finished my bath—no matter how dirty or clean I had been when I started—I smelled clean.

 

As I ran those three bars of soap beneath my nose that day in the grocery store, I remembered those days. I bought the soap and began using it again. I also put bars in soap dishes and placed one in our bathrooms and kitchen. When I washed my hands, I could inhale the smell again.

 

Amazing what smells can do. For Isaac, it identified his son—or so he thought. Prior to his death, when the time came for him to give his final blessing to his firstborn, he told Esau to kill some wild game, prepare it, and bring it to him. He would eat it and bless him.

 

But Jacob, the younger brother and a trickster, dressed as his brother, prepared game, and took it to his father. Blindness initially confused Isaac, but the smell of the outdoors convinced him it was Esau—although we know better from reading this story of deception.

 

With spiritual living, smell is also important. Whether I smell clean because I just bathed with Ivory soap or whether I smell raunchy because I just helped give shots to hogs in a muddy, smelly pen isn’t the issue. I can smell foul physically but good spiritually.

 

Actions, words, and attitudes determine our spiritual smell. And when they align with God’s Word, people smell a wonderful aroma from us. We might not be in style with clothes or have the latest and greatest play toys, but others will get a good smell from being around us. Not with their noses, mind you, but with their eyes and ears. They will smell Jesus. And after all, that’s what Jesus said his followers were supposed to do: smell good.

 

What are some ways you can smell better to others?

 

Father, may my aroma draw others to you. 

Tweetable: How do you smell to others? 

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A Clean House - Martin Wiles

So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. 1 Peter 2:1-3 MSG

Every evening, my wife performs her ritual.

My wife and I aren’t the clean freaks we once were. Age, along with aches and pains, have altered the cleaning habits we once had. Before age took its toll, we cleaned all of our antique furniture with lemon oil every week. Now, I dust twice a month—and with a feather duster.

But some things haven’t changed—especially how my wife feels about vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms. Every night, after the grandboys leave and it’s just us in the house, she performs her nightly routine.

First, if she has cooked the evening meal, she cleans the kitchen. Stove and counters wiped down. Dishes placed in the dishwasher. Coffee prepared for the next morning. Trash taken out.

Second, the vacuum she bought that vacuums rugs, carpet, and floors—all without changing a setting—comes out. This takes care of the vacuuming and sweeping at the same time. Weekly—or more depending on the weather—she mops. 

Finally, the bathrooms get wiped down. Boys dominate my wife’s life—me, two grandboys, and one male child she keeps. Males are not known for extreme cleanliness in the bathrooms.

Only when my wife’s routine is finished does she sit in her recliner and enjoy what’s left of the evening. Which might include selling on Facebook or helping me grade papers. She’s a fan of the old adage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

I suppose Peter was also. In the paraphrase of the above verses, he tells believers to clean house—but not of dirt as my wife does. He says we should clean out malice, pretense, envy, and hurtful talk. In their place, we should radiate God’s kindness.

My wife also replaces what she takes away. Plug-in air fresheners replace the bad odors dirty bathrooms, soiled diapers, and stinky clothes can leave behind. Pinesol takes away dirt from the floor, and the vacuum sucks away the dust and dirt from the rugs and carpet.

Some things just don’t belong in a clean house—and some things don’t belong in the temple of our bodies because God’s Spirit dwells there. Whatever does not encourage and uplift others needs to be cleansed away. So do things that don’t fit who we are as God’s children. When we replace the dirt with kindness, we become better people, and others we encounter are enriched as well.

Jesus cleaned out sinful situations and replaced them with the cleanliness of kindness. You can too.

Tweetable: Are you keeping a clean house? 

Prayer: Father, give us the courage to keep our houses clean so the working of Your Spirit will not be quenched.

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Changing the Atmosphere - Martin Wiles

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16 NLT

A little smell goes a long way.

Atomizers have been popular since the age of perfume making in ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, and the Middle East. Although various bottle styles now hold perfume and other elements, the first modern atomizers appeared in the mid-1850s and were used by apothecaries to spray throat medicines.

In the late 1870s, atomizers were displayed by the major perfumer makers at the Paris Exposition Universalle. These bottles became a popular method for ladies to apply perfume. By the 1920s and 1930s, women could share their perfume with anyone they met. The smell permeated whatever room the lady entered, wafting by the nostrils of everyone she encountered.

God’s grace is similar, yet even more potent. According to John, it’s abundant and from it blessings—one after another—flow to everyone who confronts it.

God places no limit on His grace. The Bible’s most popular verse says God loves the entire world, not just a select few. Neither does God want anyone to perish but rather for all to share in His saving grace.

As a recipient of God’s grace, I can change the atmosphere of my world by disseminating His grace to others. By sharing the story of God’s love, I squirt little drops of His grace to everyone I come across—at work, at home, on the internet, through my writing. Opportunities to spread grace through the air abound. And since God’s grace is limitless, my efforts to share it should be also.

The grace God gives is unconditional—as should my grace squirts to others be. For God’s grace to make a difference in my eternity, I must confess my sins and accept His forgiveness, but even if I don’t God still gives me His common grace in various forms.

God’s grace is excessive. He doesn’t like small dollops. He wants me to give the same measure to others. Big acts of love and service on a consistent basis throughout my lifetime. Not acts that necessarily take a lot of money or gain the attention of others, but acts that change people’s atmospheres.

And sometimes that only takes a hug, an encouraging word, or a seat beside them.

Don’t just soak up God’s grace. Channel it to others and change their atmosphere.

Tweetable: Are you changing the atmosphere?

Prayer: Father, thank You for giving us Your grace. May we perfume others with it daily. 

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Taste and See - Martin Wiles

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Psalm 34:8 NLT

I smelled, but I didn’t want to taste.

A recent bout with the flu made me remember how much I detested cough medicine. I wondered why pharmaceutical companies couldn’t make a cough medicine that’s pleasant to the palate. That’s why I go for the capsule or tablet when they’re available.

I’ve always been a smeller. Mom often said, “Just taste it.” I repeated the statement with my children. Why we have the tendency to smell before we taste I’m not quite sure. But if something smelled offensive, I wasn’t about to taste it—unless I was forced to. Things like rutabagas, collards, turnips, and fish. Things so offensive that the smell wafts through a house and infiltrates every piece of furniture and clothing. Things so offensive that some choose to cook them outside. But Mom made me taste them, and amazingly I liked them. My smell had deceived me. I learned that smell and taste aren’t always equal.

The psalmist challenged people to taste and see how good God was. Granted, tasting a person seems a little weird. In fact, tasting a person could fall into the category of cannibalism. Jesus said something similar when He established the Lord’s Supper and told the disciples that drinking the wine was equal to drinking His blood and that eating the bread was the same as eating His body. The very reason why early Christians were accused of cannibalism.

Jesus never meant for believers to participate in cannibalistic behavior. We can’t; God is spirit. Yet, we can ingest Him into our lives. I taste and see how good God is when I acknowledge my sinfulness and turn to Christ for assistance. But that’s just the beginning of tasting the goodness of God. Sin may appear to taste good, but forgiveness tastes better.

I continue to taste the goodness of God through prayer, Bible study and meditation, and experience. Praying to God fills me when life gets tough, when I face difficult decisions, and when I need comfort. Meditating on God’s Word fills me by reminding me of God’s promises. And experience fills me as I remember how good God has been in the past and how He promises to be good in the future.

Some food may taste just as it smells, but God always smells and tastes good. Give Him a try.

Tweetable: Have you tasted God's goodness?

Prayer: Father, we acknowledge Your goodness in the pleasant and in the unpleasant times. 

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