letters and sweet fragrance

was doing my morning quiet time when i came across this passage which really struck me. [lolx.. to wait till the next snippets of life to share it is too long, so yea here it is]

2 Corinthians 3:1-3
-are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

our lives are to be like letters from God whereby everyone can read and understand. God's life is to be inscripted in our very lives so that His very life and His very nature can be imparted to everyone through us, His ultimate instruments.

Is our lives like letters today; letters which are easy to read and understand? or is it so complicated that no one can seem to comprehend?
Is God having alot of difficulty portraying His Life through us? if so, how can He ever use us?

He can only use us until and unless our lives is one with His, when our lives no longer contradicts His nature but in order to live our lives like that in such a total alignment with His, we have to so surrender our lives to God, to allow Him to come and do as He please.

whatever that is preventing us from coming closer to Him, He will tear down, smite it and destroy it, no matter how precious it is to us and how it will crush us when it is gone. whatever that is building our relationship with Him, He will keep it, perserve it and mantain it no matter how much it pains us and even if we hate it.

but this process takes a serious long time. it might take an entire lifetime for God to achieve somthing so great in our lives. so are we willing to let go and let God have His way or are we gonna just keep struggling with Him? the more we struggle, argue and fight God, the longer it's gonna take.

now you know why God takes a serious long time to change a man's heart? why He had to allow His very chosen people to walked in the wilderness for 40 years? it took God 40 years to change the hearts of His people, to soften their hearts but even so, ONLY TWO out of so many were totally transformed [Caleb and Joshua].

if we actually move back a little to 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, we find that it is talking about the same thing but only in a different manner.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16
...and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

we very well know that we can't run away from smell. there's always a process called diffusion when smell is involved. we can't run away from the smell from perfume or from a rotten egg. everyone will know if someone is using perfume. smell can be easily distinguished.

so now i ask again, is our lives like sweet aroma to God? or do our lives stinks? can everyone smell the sweet fragrance of Christ in us? or do they run away from us everytime we get near beacuse there is absolutely no aroma of Christ in us, only a really horrible rotten smell?

how are we representing Christ our ever living God today? how are we reflecting His image and nature? are people reading and smelling Christ in us? are they coming into a knowledge of Christ through us?

here is the test to see whether we are representing God accurately....

know that good and bad can never go together. holy and unholy cannot be mixed. so everytime after we mingle with people, are they convicted of their sins even when no one mention it to them? do people feel uncomfortable being with us because everytime when they are near us, they can't hide, they are stripped down to bare nakedness, all their sins are exposed without us even realising it? we don't have to point out their sins, just by being there and mixing with them, they feel exposed, they can never remain the same after talking to us.

something had happened in their Spirit.

when is the last time someone feels uneasy around you and never wants to be near you? Is our God living in us that real to a point where people around us who are living in sin feels uncomfortable everytime we get near or talk to them about random stuff because the Life of God in us is constantly exposing all of their sins?

or is our God who dwells in us so dead and powerless that even the worst of people who talks to us don't feel His utmost awemose power convicting them of sin?

Our Lord Jesus Christ caused many people to repent and be convicted of their sinful nature just by being with people because of the Life of the Father that is in Him. Jesus constantly portrays the very nature of God with utmost accuracy every moment of His life.

it's never easy living like that. it takes a long process to achieve this state but are we willing? are we ready to go through all that God has installed for us just so that His Life can be shown on our faces?

We have to let go of EVERY SINGLE thing and yeild 100% to Him not 99%. We need to come back to that correct alignment with His and make our lives right before Him. We can't do this on our own but God can bring us to that level with His strength and grace and mercy. He can work miracles in our lives. He can make our paths straight again only and only if we are willing and desperate enough...