Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of images from the Christ Church Choir in worship, singing … Sweet Aroma of Praise, prayerfully sing praises to God which becomes a sweet aroma to our Lord.
Highlight Passage: 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 [NKJV] …
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
… Paul knew that Christians living out their salvation, with the fruitfulness of Christ, would become a sweet aroma of praise for God.
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Highlight Context … 2 Corinthians 2:12-17 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul teaches about what we become to God when we live out His salvation in life … a sweet smelling aroma of His grace.
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Reference Passage #1 … Galatians 5: 22-23 [NKJV] …
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
… The fruit of the Spirit lived out in the life of any Christian becomes a sweet aroma of praise to God.
Reference Passage #2 … Ephesians 2:8-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK
… We have been released from the putrid smell of sin to live out our good works for God’s glory, which become His incense of praise and a sweet aroma for Him.
My Journal for Today: … Our Daily Bread author, Keila Ochoa, uses the Apostle Paul’s word picture to teach on how our Spirit-led lives become a sweet aroma of fruitfulness to our God. She wrote: Among the ancient Roman military elite, the greatest honor afforded a general was after a military triumph. The general of the victorious army would parade through the streets of Rome as crowds shouted their praise. [See attached photo] The aroma of the incense that burned on the altars in the pagan temples would waft over the city during this time of celebration.
In today’s reading, Paul uses this picture to describe the triumph we have as believers in Jesus Christ: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14). Paul understood that we spread the aroma of the knowledge of Christ to others.
As I listened to the linked song today, Sweet Aroma of Praise, and meditated on the Apostle Paul’s teaching in the Scriptures above, I had to ask myself if my life had become, or was becoming, the sweet smell of fruitfulness (see Gal. 5:22-23), overcoming the putrid stench of sin, in my life.
And I pray that today’s ODB brings us all to search deep in Paul’s imagery to see if our lives are a sweet-smelling aroma of the victory Christ won for us on the Cross.
My Prayer Today: O, Heavenly Father, … Lord, may my life become a sweet smelling incense of praise to Your favor … today and all days. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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