Cooking In My Jammies

COOKING IN MY JAMMIES

“Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Romans 12:1-2

I cook in my pajamas. It’s kind of an odd confession, but more often than not, it’s true. Decades ago, when I was in college, I worked at a Mexican restaurant. It was my job to serve up food from steam tables, for those who were picking up food from the takeout.

After working, it was inevitable that I would go home afterwards, wearing clear evidence of where I had been for the previous eight hours. Not only had my apron become spattered with stains, but my hair and clothing had taken on the smells of the food that had saturated the air.  

Upon arriving home, I would toss my work clothes into the laundry basket before I headed to the shower and bed. It always amazed me that when I would pick up the laundry basket in the morning...Oh, the smell! Unlike me, my clothing had not had the benefit of being washed before bedtime. It wasn’t until I no longer had the odors on me that I was able to detect truly how offensive my smell had become.  

I didn’t have to bathe in enchilada sauce or onions to take on their smells, merely being around them, their odors clung to me. The interesting thing is that with the onions, I could handle them for a thousand hours and they would never take on my scent.  It is always the other way around. The onions were more saturated with the scent of what they were made of than was I of mine.  And after having smelled the food for so many hours, my nose would become desensitized to the smell, until after I showered and washed myself clean.

Life is like that. Just being on this planet the tendency is to take on the odors—the habits and thought patterns of the people that we surround ourselves with.

“You were told that your foolish desires will destroy you and that you must give up your old way of life with all its bad habits. Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person.”

Ephesians 4:22-24a (CEV)

In other versions, the words “give up” are replaced with “cast off.”  Like throwing my smelly work clothes into the laundry basket, we are not to only let go our hold on our old, bad habits, but we are to cast them away, putting a distance between them and ourselves, lest we regain their scent.

Sin is pervasive. Alluring at first, it vies for our attention, allegiance and affection.  All the while, it’s once enticing aroma slowly changes into something repulsive that lingers on us, even when we walk away.  And the once sweet smell of soap and the fragrance of Christ we carried, becomes replaced with odors that will repel us when we are clean.

“Be in the world, but not of the world.” This phrase is not in the Bible, but the message is on target.  We don’t need to isolate ourselves from communicating with the world.  After all, the great commission is that we are to share the gospel to the four corners of the Earth. But we need to make sure the we are deeply saturated with the Word of God and are operating with wisdom and the mind of Christ, or we will come home smelling more like the world than our world is left with the lingering fragrance of Christ.  

“He (Christ) made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water. Christ did this, so he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws.” – Ephesians 5:26-27 CEV

We are made holy and the stench of the world is washed away by the water of His Word and by the blood of the Lamb.  Once clean, we take on the fragrance of Christ the same way we take on the odor of onions.  We take on the scent of Christ by spending time in His presence.

Father, along with my friend reading this, we come before You. We thank You that we have been washed clean from sin by the blood of Jesus.  But we recognize that being in the world, the ways of the world tend of cling to us. Wash our minds clean by the water of Your Word. As we are taught to pray in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-15), “Give us today our daily bread.” We ask for more of Jesus, our Bread of Life.  As we are filled with Him, we pray that our spirits will be strengthened to reject temptation and cast off more of our old ways, to make more room for Him within us. Anoint us with the oil of Your Spirit; fill us with the fragrance of Christ. We pray that the lingering scent left after every encounter would be the fragrance of Christ and not that of the world.  May the fragrance of He that is within us be greater than that of the world.

Change us to be as it says of us in Your Word, “For we are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ to God, which spreads among those who are being saved and those who are being lost.” – 2 Corinthians 2:15.  

Deliver us from our love affair with the things of this world. (1 John 2:15). Lord, we know that the fragrance of Christ is offensive to those who are perishing.  Strengthen us to put on Your whole armor, so we will not be pierced by the fiery darts of rejection that come for carrying His aroma (1 Peter 4:14).  And teach us to live lives of worship, that will be a sweet smelling savor, holy and acceptable to You. In Jesus Name ❤️

Dear Friend, I’m making chili this morning. Yep!  I’m cooking in my jammies. The house smells amazing, but you can be sure that I will be taking a shower before leaving the house.  What and who have you been spending time with?  After time together, do they take on the fragrance of Christ you carry, it do you smell more like them?  Pardon the question, but what do you smell like right now? Is it time for a shower? 💡

If you have been encouraged or challenged, please repost and further His kingdom!