Smells

Have you ever been outside a bbq place when they were cooking their pork? How bout driving around Cleveland when the Mars factory is making their chocolate? We commonly use terms of smell to judge things. Whats that smell like? that smells good or that smells gross. The common person comes into contact with (and remembers) over 50 thousand smells! But its only the overwhemlming things that really stand out.

On my way to work this morning I smelt a freshly dead skunk. I know you've come across those before! You smell it a half mile before you ever see it and by the time you get up on it your eyes are watering because of the stentch. My husband tells me of a time his father and a friend went hunting and ran over a skunk in their Jeep. They were sprayed full-force and apparently backed over it to see what they hit and got a second spray. Brent tells me that they burnt the clothes they were wearing, the shoes, everything in the Jeep, tore out the carpets and replaced the seats and it still stunk so badly they sold it to a junk yard.

This sense is a bodily thing that pictures a spiritual fact too. Some things make a spiritual stench or fragrence. We have talked about it before in our cell group - people that spout anger and frusteration and sadness all the time end up oppressed by demons that force more anger and frusteration and sadness onto them. Sometimes you go into a place and your almost stifled by the "stench" of the demons in the place. I remember my sister talking about going to New Orleans and struggling with the sheer amount of demonic presence due to the witchcraft and other stuff in the area. Most of you have had similar experiences at one point or another.

It works the same way in reverse as well. Certain people put off a fragrence of love and peace and you'll see how people - specifically young children - are attracted to these people and are comfortable with them. My son, Judah, for instance - loves to be around Darien. He just coos and cah's and laughs and is happy as can be around her.

Think about it. What kind of fragrences (or stenches) are you releasing? What are you drawn to and why do you think that is? What smells do you stop and pay attention to?