Spreading the Fragrance of Jesus.

October 24, 2021

This week we were able to attend the chapel service held here at CEF Headquarters. As I sat there listening to the speaker, I kept thinking, this is a message God intended just for me!

I have always been an introvert, believe it or not! Seriously. When I am not “doing” ministry, it is so much easier for me to go about in my own little world than reach out to others, even in greeting. Over 30 years with CEF has helped me reach out more, but not without great effort. My husband, on the other hand, can say an encouraging word to the stranger on the street or anywhere. He says he’s an introvert as well, but sometimes it is hard to believe him. It seems so easy for him. I know it’s not. Still, he is much better at it than I am.

As a result, I struggle with sharing Christ outside the “ministry” forgetting that ministry should be 24/7 and not limited to specific events. The desire is there, it always has been. I just feel inadequate for the job, especially when others share their “success” stories. Stepping out of my comfort zone has not produced much that I can see. Not only that, I can never think of something witty for the occasion till the opportunity is long gone by. Why didn’t I think of that at the moment of need?

Am I the only one who feels this way? Do you struggle with sharing your faith?

It’s not that I haven’t taken classes on how to do so, or written out my testimony. But my mind just goes blank when I am amongst strangers. Better just to smile and go on my merry way.

Someone once said, just go fishing. He explained it so: You happen to start up a conversation with someone then just “drop” something about God and see if they bite. This I have actually done many times. If the person doesn’t react the first time then there goes the bate into the water once again. Either the person was already a Christian or there was no catch. With little response, I have often asked, “why bother?” Just give me a club situation, Sunday school, VBS, camp, women’s meeting, or other such ministry.

Again, the desire is there. Therefore, when Moises Esteves, Executive Vice President of CEF, spoke on Steps for Spreading the Fragrance of Jesus, I was all ears. I took notes.

Because his message was such an encouragement to me, I asked him if I could share his outline in my blog. He handed me his notes!!! So, I would like to share with you what he shared with us. The outline and many of the thoughts I will share are from Moises with some of my own added it. May this be an encouragement to you as well.

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

So, what does the aroma, or fragrance of Christ look or smell like?

Gal 5:22-23 explains, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” Fruit like this only comes from the Spirit of God in us. Do people see these characteristics in our lives? In a world where there is so much turmoil and uncertainty, it is important, more than ever, to demonstrate these characteristics and thus be the aroma of Christ in a confused and godless world.

Unfortunately, many Christians have forgotten what is really important. In a time when the world needs to see more than ever the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, we have lost sight of God’s Sovereignty, the fact that HE is in TOTAL control of everything going on. Christians, the ones who should be different, are fighting over and weighed down by things that really don’t matter in God’s scheme of things. In stead of being lights and examples in this dark time, pointing the way to Christ, we are fighting and angry just like the rest of the world. We need to repent of this and become the fragrance God intended. The world needs Christ.

Romans 10:17 states, “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” In order for there to be faith, there has to be words of Christ shared. What will cause people to stop and listen is when we are being the aroma of Christ, demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit.

Our biggest enemy in being that aroma of Christ though, is fear.  I know it is for me. Fear of rejection, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of being misunderstood. It is interesting, we can be fearless about things we are passionate about but when it comes to talking about Christ, the enemy is quick to trigger fear in our hearts.

1 John 4:18 says, “…perfect love casts out fear…” Jesus’ amazing, perfect love should motivate us to give Him our fears and be the fragrance of Christ!

Here are some simple ways to help spread the aroma of Christ:

1. Be kind to people. We need to be kind even when people are rude and even mean. This can be really hard, especially for me. My first reaction is to “fight”. I have had to fight all my life to be noticed, to be heard, to be respected, or as a friend of mine put it, to be validated. But God calls us to show kindness. People are starved for kindness. I find, when I choose to demonstrate kindness in difficult situations, people most always respond positively and are even grateful.

2. Bring God into the conversation. Moises suggested a greeting such as: God bless you or Jesus loves you. If given the opportunity, I like to share something God did special that day, especially an answer to prayer. My landlady in Austria wasn’t a believer, and she really didn’t believe in prayer. She would say, “God never answered my prayer, so I stopped.” Thus, I would often share with her an answer to prayer to prove to her, God does answer prayer. We would get into conversations about “religion” but though she believed there was a God, she couldn’t believe in Jesus as being the Savior of the world.

More recently, after hearing this message in Chapel, I started saying, when I remembered, “God bless you, have a great day!” to the store cashiers. The first lady responded, “What?” and I repeated the greeting. She got a big smile and respond, “Thank you, God bless you” back. I found, in the last two days, many actually responded positively. A few ignored me altogether. Nonetheless, it’s a start. Perhaps, in the future, it will open a door to a deeper conversation. I won’t know if I don’t try.

3. Know your neighbors: God places you there for a reason. In Hawaii we knew some of our neighbors. They knew we were believers, but except for a conversation here and there, we didn’t really do anything with them. In Moses Lake we wanted to do things differently. Being introverts, we didn’t know how to go about it at first. Then I got the idea to revive an idea I started in Austria. Have a “White Elephant” Christmas party. Everyone who came brought a white elephant present, we played Christmas games, I read a Christmas story with the gospel included, and we ate the best Christmas pastries. It was great. Furthermore, it led to some very interesting conversations.

So, I made attractive invitations, and announced it as a White Elephant, Christmas party with potluck. That first Christmas three families came. We prayed before the meal, I read the Christmas story, and let the neighbors know in other ways we were believers. It opened the door to good conversations and more opportunities to get together. It wasn’t often, but we did make more of an effort to be there and get to know those around us. There were more who came the next Christmas. We continued the tradition till we sold the house.

Now we live in an RV and are often on the road. Creativity and opportunity will be needed.

4. Move toward meaningful conversations. I find this much harder to do. It is sometimes easy to go “fishing” as I explained earlier, but harder to be creative in getting people to go deeper. Perhaps it is because I have a hard time going “deeper” with most people. I am not a big talker. You don’t believe me. Seriously. It is so much easier sharing my struggles on paper, or in a blog, than verbally.

5. Pray for and with people. Moises stated, “It’s powerful to pray with unsaved people.”  Well, there have been times when I have told someone I would pray for them being careful to only make that promise if I was actually going to do so.  To, be honest, there have been a few times when I have felt the urge to ask, “can I pray for you right now?” but didn’t do it. I realize now I was ignoring the prompting of the Holy Spirit and thus, not being obedient to Him. A friend in Hawaii puts me to shame. She is ready to pray with anyone and everyone. She is spreading the fragrance of Christ in that way. When has it ever hurt to ask, “Can I pray for you right now?”

6. Eat together: It brings closeness. This is true. We have always enjoyed inviting people to our place for a meal, even in our RV. It does open up more opportunities for meaningful conversation.

7. Give out gospel resources: Be ready to sow seeds. We do this so much in ministry, you would think we did it all the time. Except for Halloween, we don’t. We have talked about it at times, but that is all it’s ever been, talk. It’s such an easy thing we could do…

8. Serve people. For someone who has had to fend for herself most of her life, it is hard to be attentive to the needs of others. If a need is pointed out to me, I can then do something, but to spot it myself. Tim, on the other hand, just needs to hear in a conversation that someone has a “fix-it” problem and he is quick to volunteer for the job if he is able. Just the other day (and this is only one of MANY examples) a friend mentioned her weed eater broke that day. Tim immediately volunteered to look at it. He had never fixed one before, but he was willing to try. That evening he actually had the thing fixed.

Prayer is the key here. I can start with praying for more awareness to the needs of those around me.

9. Do random acts of kindness. The first time I had the opportunity to do this, it was a bit scary. It was actually someone in need, now that I think of it. It was at the grocery store and the lady in front of me didn’t have enough money to pay for everything in her shopping cart. I told the cashier I would pay for the rest. The lady was so grateful. It was amazing. If you have never done something like this, try it sometime.

There are many different ways you can do random acts of kindness: An encouraging word to someone who looks down and out, being willing to go out of your way to help an elderly person with their groceries, taking soup to someone who is sick, mowing someone’s lawn and not charge them, pay for the meal of some stranger in the restaurant, and more. These acts are more often done in secret. God is the rewarder of those things done in secret.

10. Invite people to come to church. We have done this, without having any takers as yet.

11. When at church, make a point to greet strangers. Again, this gets me to step out of my comfort zone. It is really not easy for me to do. Then I remember how I have felt being the stranger in a church and no one came up to me to welcome me. That encourages me to take that step and reach out.

12. Do a Bible study. Since leaving Austria, I have not done this with non-believers. I could say the opportunity just hasn’t been there, but perhaps more honestly, I haven’t really tried. Now that is something to pray about.

If you struggle with sharing the aroma of Christ where God has you, don’t try all these points at once. Start with two or three and go from there. God has called us to “spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him” to the world around us. If we have no desire to do that, we need to ask ourselves, “am I truly a follower of Christ?”

Only two things last forever: God’s Word and people. Let me challenge you with the challenge Moises left us: Let us follow Jesus and spread the sweet aroma of Christ to people all around us. Let us do it in love and without fear.

Blessings,
Mari