Loving Perfume

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. —ROMANS 5: 5– 8

I had given up watching the news. It was too discouraging. I have gotten drawn back in the last few days. Nothing much has changed. I am reminded of that Dione Warwick song, “What the World Needs Now.” With all the violence, murder, hate on television, it’s clear most of the world has forgotten how to love. They have even forgotten what it is.

Probably saddest of all is that many Christians have forgotten. We have manufactured a loveless gospel. Our testimony seems to be law based. Our message seems to be get right or go to hell. Somehow we are shocked that the world is not listening. We have forgotten that our Lord did not tell us that the world would know us by the uprightness of our walk or the fanaticism of our faith.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35. As the world falls deeper and deeper in a swirl of hate, Christians who display the kind of love that can only have been poured into them by the Holy Spirit, will become a brighter and brighter light to Christ. 

For these people , the love of God has become the supreme fact of life, because nothing can separate them from it. Nothing can take it away. It is greater and more potent than all the problems of the world, and it would wash these problems away like a springtime rain if enough of us were willing to let it happen through us. Jeremiah, David (2006-03-07). Captured by Grace: No One Is Beyond the Reach of a Loving God (p. 94). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Those in Christ should give off a sweet essence that is so unmistakably heavenly that it can’t be missed.

Real Christians have that essence about them. If you can’t smell it on their breath, you can at least hear it in their words, feel it in their attitudes. The love of God seems to permeate their spirit, so that there is always enough love to spare. Jeremiah, David (2006-03-07). Captured by Grace: No One Is Beyond the Reach of a Loving God (p. 94). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Give yourself the sniff test. Do you pass?