My Testimony and the Fragrance of God's Grace this Sunday...

There is nothing quite like the smell of something pleasant to the nose. I love the smell of fresh baked goodies. Regardless of how much I am trying to watch what I eat, if I come in and smell Amy Lynn baking, it is "game over." :-) Most of you know I have a really nice rose garden that consists of 51 gorgeous plants that produce the loveliest red, white, yellow, pink, and purple roses. I know - I know - I don't seem like a rose gardening kind of guy. Listen, I am just weird. I ride a Harley Davidson, love bass fishing, and have a rose garden. "Go figure." Amy Lynn calls me her Renaissance man. :-) At any rate, my roses are exploding and you would not believe the aroma. You can actually smell them across the yard. They are a lot of work but worth it for the fragrance they offer and the smiles they bring across people's faces when I give fresh cut roses!

Likewise, there is nothing quite as bad as the smell of something that turns one's stomach. I have never liked the smell of spoiled milk. When I was kid, I came running into the house on a hot steamy day and I am not proud to say, grabbed the milk jug and "chugged" the creamy white liquid straight from the gallon. The milk had turned sour and I have never forgotten the experience! It was awful.

The apostle Paul rightly understood this love/hate relationship we have with differing smells and so he spoke of the fragrance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is like a feast to the senses and so at one point, the Word of the Lord says,

"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 perishing. To the one we are the smell of death, to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the Word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men and women sent from God! (2 Corinthians 2:14 - 17)

This Sunday at newhope church I believe we will have that fragrance of Christ Paul mentions above. In both Worship Celebrations, we will wrap up The Shack series and I will be sharing my personal testimony and how God's grace is in and through and all over my "shack." We will then celebrate Holy Communion together as the aroma of bread and wine rise to the nostrils of God and we all sense the "fragrance" of the knowledge of Him!


Most of you know I have this spot in the woods where I go to be with God, pray, read, and sometimes sing. (Pray for the birds - they don't like my singing and who can blame them :-)) Just today, while in the woods, I started smelling cedar. The smell was strong. I looked to the ground and there beside my feet was a little cedar tree that had been snapped in half from my stepping. Now follow me here - that snapped cedar tree was, for me, a tangible sign of grace as I am coming to understand it. There at me feet, in my world, during my quiet time, God's creation was helping me understand what Steven Curtis Chapman has called, "The fragrance of the broken."

As you come this weekend, or watch/listen to my testimony via the Internet, make no mistake about it, you are coming NOT to hear anything of any significance from a mere man. In fact, my story is nothing more than a really bad sinner being saved by some really sweet smelling grace. It is a story of the fragrance of the broken.

As you come, let me encourage you to open your senses to the spiritual. We talk often about "eyes of faith." This weekend, come with noses of faith! My hunch is that you will smell a peculiar fragrance. A fragrance, if you will, of broken humanity receiving the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ!

It's a sweet fragrance of the redeemed and I hope we can share it together!