This Really Stinks!

Look at these flowers. Are they beautiful, or what?!

Alright, if I'm being honest, they're not all that beautiful. But they're not terrible either. In fact, I'd call them "nice to have around", or "normal", or "acceptable", perhaps I'd even call them "better than average".

Scott got me these flowers two weeks ago. They've had a good run, but that black spot right there in the center of that one in front, the wilting, the browning, and the fading of colors? All signs of death. And the smell! I know you can't smell them, but this morning as I walked into the kitchen, the smell was the first thing that hit me --and not in a good way. Funny, two weeks ago, a beautiful fragrance filled the room. But today? The dreadful smell of death.

People can be the same way. We can look pretty good on the outside. Not terrible. Maybe even nice to have around, normal, acceptable, or better than average. We can appear to have it all together. Sure, we might have our divots and scratches. That doesn't mean we can't add something colorful to the landscape. But take a good whiff. Are you rotting from the inside out? Is your beauty only skin deep? It may seem harsh, but without Jesus, that is death you smell.

As a child, I learned the lyrics of a song that accompanied Child Evangelism Fellowship's Wordless Book, a tool used all over the world to share the gospel message:

My heart was dark with sin until the Savior came in.
His precious blood I know has washed me white as snow.
And in God's Word I'm told I'll walk the street of gold.
To grow in Christ every day, I read my Bible and pray.

New life God gave to me--life abundant and free.

He wants this new life to grow--the Bible tells me so.
Loving and trusting and praying, witnessing and obeying,
I'll grow in knowledge and grace until I see His face.

It's hard for us to think of our hearts being so wicked, so deceitful, dark with sin, but the Bible tells us that is the case. We might think we're kind and compassionate, giving and forgiving, well behaved and self-controlled, but even King David, a man after God's own heart, knew his judgment could not be trusted. He asked God to search his heart, to point out any way in which he was not living as a man of God. 

As a Christian, my heart has been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. God looks at me through the righteousness of Jesus; I am acceptable before Him and my punishment for sin, past, present, future has been served. But there are things that still affect my soul, my human nature. There are temptations that come to me from the world, from Satan and his minions, and my own humanity; if I fail to resist them, the new life and the good works God has given me to do can begin to show signs of decay. My salvation is secure, my identity is in Christ, but the choices I make or the way I conduct myself won't reflect that. Like David, I still need the Holy Spirit of God to do those regular checks. God, is there something taking root in my life that should not be? Is there something that's going to corrupt my relationship with You or with others? 

If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, if you haven't taken the time to search out, in the pages of the Bible, who He is and what He's done for all of us, I urge you to do that today. If you have been following Him, but have maybe started to feel a little lukewarm, or just haven't asked Him to examine your motives and your behavior lately, I urge you to do that. Looks can be deceiving. Without Jesus, we are not okay --it's that simple. In fact, if we're not obeying Jesus, no matter how we look, we're just stinkin' up the place.