“Thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.” 2 Cor. 2:14-15
Heavenly Father, we join the Apostle Paul, on this Sunday, offering a robust and reveling shout of joy, “Thank God!” What a liberating vision, sensory-filled calling, and incomparable privilege you have given us. What is a Christian? What is a Church? What is the Gospel?
It’s really not all that complicated; but it is way more glorious that we usually think. The Gospel is your mercy-mission to grace-conquer a people for yourself who will increasingly smell like Jesus to you, and the world. May is be so, Father.
You have rescued us from our little pageants of self-absorption and carnivals of emptiness, and have made us joyful captives in your parade of grace. It’s a “triumphal procession” which is processing through all the places we live, love, and labor.
We’re not called to fix anybody, fret over everything, or fear the obstacles. We are called to increasingly be astonished with the beauty and bounty of Jesus, and offer the “sweet perfume” of the Gospel, all the way Home. Signed, sealed, and delivered, we are yours, Father. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ peerless and heart-captivating name.
