Daily Manna from Heaven

by Dr. Harold Sala

“Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.” -Isaiah 3:24

The smell of Old Spice after-shave lotion will forever cause me to think of my father. No matter how many years have passed since Dad’s homegoing, I will always think of him whenever I encounter that fragrance. Now, in my case, being reminded of Dad isn’t unpleasant or painful. It’s a good memory. But had he been abusive or unkind, that fragrance would trigger negative thoughts.

So is it with those who encounter Christians. Interestingly enough, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians he alluded to them as a pleasant fragrance, the result of having encountered Jesus Christ. But he says that to those who reject the message, encountering Christians brings the stench of death, a powerful, emotional image.

No wonder Christianity is divisive! The fact is that many never get beyond their first perception of what Christianity is all about, having sensed in some Christians less than the fragrance of Jesus Christ. Immediately after this, Paul wrote that Christians “are a letter from Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2).

In 1955, a Dutchman who became known to the Christian world as Brother Andrew, loaded his little blue Volkswagen with Bibles and headed into Czechoslovakia at the time the little country was being torn apart by revolution. Today, Andrew is still doggedly at his mission of taking the Bible to those who have never seen or read it. Consequently, he is often invited to dialogue with those of different faiths. He responds by saying, “No, I don’t have an education for that and don’t really know how to do it.” Then he adds, “I am interested, however, in comparing the lives of the people of this book with the people of your book!” Quite a challenge, indeed!

How would you like to compare your life as a Christian who believes the Bible with the average Muslim who believes in the Koran?

Flowers are beautiful, and among my favorites are roses, but when flowers are beyond their peak and have withered and died, eventually the sweet fragrance turns to a stench that is repulsive. Nothing much smells worse than rotten flowers.

I confess that I am not always proud of the fragrance which comes from our side, a repelling stench which brings shame to the cause of Christ and gives the enemies of the cross grounds for saying, “Aha, see there! They aren’t any different from anyone else!” Yes, I know that the believer who has stumbled and fallen is but human, but I also know that the world remembers us not by our most noble, lofty deeds but by our most miserable failure, and by this we are judged in the eyes of the world.

A final thought. The reality of life is that you will not always cause people to say, “Being in your presence brings the fragrance of heaven!” To the contrary, it is well possible that your life will cause a negative reaction which you find hard to understand. But if they are repelled because of your connection with Jesus Christ, then rejoice! It’s their problem, not yours. The fragrance of your life brings the image of a Father whom they neither know nor love. This you cannot help, but be sure that your witness is unaffected, sincere, and untainted.

Here’s how Paul put it: “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life…. (2 Corinthians 2: 15-16).

May God help us to live up to our calling.

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by Dr. Harold Sala

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” -2 Corinthians 2:14-15

Certain smells trigger memories, no matter how many years have passed since that fragrance first made contact with your olfactory glands—a perfume that makes you think of a certain romance, the smell of an oven baking oatmeal cookies or fresh bread which will always make you think of your grandmother, or a stale, musty smell which reminds you of your first apartment. Certain odors trigger emotional responses, both positive and negative.

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul alluded to the Roman conquerors who came back victorious after their battles and paraded through streets of Rome or Pompeii leading their prisoners of warfare in chains, but he also mentioned the smell of incense which preceded the whole caravan of humanity and which probably was carried by a pagan priest leading the procession, who swung the incense pot back and forth. Anyone who ever witnessed such an event would always associate the fragrance of the incense which filled the air with the victory procession.

Paul wrote, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:14,15). But Paul is reminding these frail citizens of the Kingdom that it has been God who delivered them from the bondage which characterized their lives and has given them victory over their failures.

For a moment think with me of the moral character of those to whom Paul’s letter was addressed. Among them were immoral men and women who had violated their wedding vows, male prostitutes, con-artists and swindlers, thieves, slanderers, and drunks who never made it through a twelve-step program. And how do I know this?

These are some of the dark characters which Paul mentioned when he wrote to the Corinthians in his first letter. He said, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

What they had been pales in the light of what they became, their lives having forever been changed through an encounter with Jesus Christ. Then Paul pictures them as following Christ in a victory procession.

But what does this have to do with the aroma of incense which was associated with the Roman conquerors? Paul says that the redeemed—those whose lives have been snatched from the fire—have taken on a certain fragrance, a sweet fragrance to those who are being saved and a stench to those who are being lost. Paul referred to it as “the aroma of Christ.”

Paul’s comments explain the polarity which has confronted Christians for centuries. For some the fragrance of Christianity is welcomed. It’s associated with churches, hospitals, street ministries, feeding the homeless, caring for the outcasts of society. It’s what makes our world a better place in which to live. But for those who are opposed to its message, that fragrance associated with the Church is a reminder that these who call themselves Christians are opposed to much that they practice.

Jesus explained this, saying, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Some things never change, so when some individual—perhaps even someone you have never met—doesn’t much care for you, it may well be that the fragrance you are wearing, the touch of Jesus Christ on your life, brings a negative response in that person.

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by Dr. Harold Sala

“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” -Revelation 21:8

When someone consistently is dishonest or fabricates the truth, we refer to that person as a pathological liar, as though the problem is genetic. The term “pathological” brings the connotation of something which went wrong in a person’s brain—something which he could no more help than to be born with poor eyesight or to contract an infection which addles the brain. We hang a psychological term on someone, which relieves the individual of personal responsibility.

“It’s pathological,” we say. “He can’t help doing it.” Instead of labeling someone a pathological liar, it might be more descriptive if we called someone “a chronic liar.” You know some people become very, very good at distorting the truth, so good, in fact, that they really convince themselves of their fantasy. The “chronic liar” is in a different category from the professional liar—the occasional attorney, the car or real estate salesman, the stockbroker, or the astrologist who reads your tea leaves and tells your fortune.

The chronic liar (pathological, if you prefer) has made it so much his everyday lifestyle that he has a hard time perceiving reality and telling the truth. Now, here is the question: Is such a one doomed? Is he so biologically handicapped that he is destined to go through life confusing fact with fantasy, so insecure that he or she must always strive to impress you, even at the cost of distorting the truth?

Such a person needs shock treatment, and not the kind where doctors attach electrodes to your skull and pass high voltage through your cranium. He needs the kind of shock treatment whereby he realizes dishonesty is absolutely intolerable. Not only does God disdain it, but also he is destroying his credibility and his life in the process. The first step that a chronic liar must take to turn his lifestyle of dishonesty around is the firm realization that he or she has a problem—not an incurable one but a persistent, devastating one.

Step #1: Acknowledge your problem in all honesty.

That’s the first step. This may mean going public with the acknowledgement that you realize you have had a problem. For the alcoholic, there is no hope until he accepts the reality he is an alcoholic. “My name is John, and I am an alcoholic” someone says at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. But I have yet to hear of a group who will say, “My name is John, and I’m a chronic liar.”

Step #2: Ask God’s forgiveness and help. No, don’t appeal to a “higher power.”

Realize that God labels your disorder as sin. But the good news is that there is forgiveness for this problem, and with His forgiveness comes His help. Chronic dishonesty is not an irreversible malady, though it is a persistent one.

Step #3: Become accountable to someone who will ask the tough questions and keep you on target.

When you blow it, confess it and strive to clarify the misrepresentation. The New Testament says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Don’t take the attitude, “it’s OK for me to lie about this since I know God will forgive me anyway.”

That cheapens God’s grace. It’s the attitude Paul condemned when he wrote, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” and he answered his own question saying, “By no means” or “God forbid.”

Step #4: Keep accounts with God.

Take a notebook and each day review what happened the previous day—a kind of running spiritual diary and checklist.

If you believe that the record of God’s word is valid, that as Revelation 21:8 says, “all liars will have their place in the lake of fire,” then you need to simply tell the truth. It’s much safer.

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