Our sense of smell is amazing. Think about the things you really love to smell; a flower, fresh baked cookies, a summer rainstorm. Now think of some things that you really would love to avoid smelling. I will not give you a list of things. I am sure you can think of some pretty gross things you have smelled in your lifetime.
Recently I have been reading through the Old Testament and began reading Leviticus. As I read through the first few chapters of Leviticus one phrase keeps coming up. You see the first seven chapters of Leviticus basically give the regulations on what and how to offer your sacrifice. It explains how you are to carry out the various offerings, but what I find the most intruiging is a phrase that is repeated over and over. After explaing how to do the different sacrifices it says when you put the offering on the altar and burn it you get, "an aroma pleasing to the Lord." You see they would burn their offering on the altar and the smoke and aroma of the offering would rise to the heavens. It is a beautiful picture.
What strikes me as interesting is, even though we do not bring a bull to church and slaughter it and burn it on an altar, we still bring offerings to him. We give him our time, talent, treasure, as well as our lives. When we bring an offering to God, whether it be money, volutneer time for at church, serving people in your neigborhood, or whatever it may be, our attitude is important.
Is the aroma of your offering pleasing to God? It is not so much about the gift, it is about your heart. Is the aroma of your heart pleasing to him? Are you volunteering your time because you care about people and about God, or just because someone bugged you enough to final agree?
Reading through the first few books of Leviticus has challanged me to look at my attitude and ask this question: Is what I am giving to God, my offerings, my time, my life, is it a pleasing aroma? Maybe God is calling you to ask some of the same questions? When you give to God is the offering a pleasing aroma to him?
