The Fragrance of Christ

By Barb Tousley

Barb Tousley is a charter member of Community Church and one of the featured blog writers for Peak Reflections. Barb has a heart for discipleship and posts messages that help us cultivate spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.

Have you ever noticed how a certain fragrance can trigger memories of a particular event or experience in your life? The sweet, warm fragrance of Easter lilies stirs my heart that way.

In the church of my childhood, the Maundy Thursday evening service was a somber remembrance of Jesus' last supper with His disciples…the foot washing, the serving of the bread and the wine, the heart-rending prayer in Gethsemane, and Jesus' arrest. As each Scripture was read, one candle after another was extinguished.

Finally, the "Christ candle" was carried out, and we exited the dark sanctuary in silence. The Good Friday community worship immersed us in the horror of the crucifixion. And then… Easter Sunday morning! All ages joined the triumphant procession, as the "Christ candle" was carried back into a sanctuary now flooded with light, and countless Easter lilies were placed around the altar by families of the church. The unforgettable fragrance of those lilies dimmed the agony of the previous days, and wakened us to "a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 1:3).

We can savor the sweet fragrance of rejoicing in our resurrected Lord (in memory or in present reality), or we can be that sweet fragrance to a world desperate for hope. "Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and through us, spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ” (II Corinthians 2:14-15).

A young missionary, preparing to go to China, embarked on her first day in language school. She entered the classroom and took her seat, brimming with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Conversation ceased as the teacher entered. She uttered no word of greeting, but slowly and silently walked up and down the aisles, and then left as she had come. The students were stunned. But a few minutes later, she returned and addressed the class. "As I walked around this classroom a few moments ago, did you notice anything special about me?" Her students were hesitant to reply, until one courageous young lady spoke up: "I did notice that you were wearing a lovely fragrance."

"Exactly!" the teacher replied. "And so it will be when you set out to share the Gospel with people in another land. It is your life lived out before them that will bless them with the fragrance of Christ, long before you are able to speak one word in their language about faith in Jesus."

The fragrance of our Christian faith, lived out before a watching world (including those of our own household) will speak volumes about the transforming power of a life "hid with Christ in God."

From the pen of Mother Teresa: “Dear Jesus, Help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go. Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine...."

I Love Ruthie

By Barb Tousley

Barb Tousley is a charter member of Community Church and one of the featured blog writers for Peak Reflections. Barb has a heart for discipleship and posts messages that help us cultivate spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.

“I Love Ruthie,” proclaims the title page of a children's picture book in the MPCC Library. After examining anew the many-faceted love story recounted in the Old Testament book of Ruth, I must echo those sentiments.

Whenever we delve into scripture, we must ascend three steps to truth:

(1) What does it say? (2) What does it mean? and (3) What does it mean to me, in the context of my life?

And so it is with this rare and beautiful account of a bereft widow; her lovely, loyal daughter-in-law; and a godly, generous kinsman. As I curled up by the fire and immersed myself in the familiar tale of a remarkable young woman, God (Who knows me better than anyone else) refused to let me simply relax and enjoy. Instead, as He so often does, my Heavenly Father set me squarely on Step 3 (above), and presented me with four inescapable challenges straight out of the sweet story of Ruth. Perhaps you will join me and find yourself challenged, as well.

But first, some background: the family of Elimelech and Naomi, devout Jews, fled famine in Bethlehem to seek sustenance in idolatrous Moab. During their tenure there, both sons married Moabite wives. Tragedy befell the sons and all three women were widowed. When news reached them that the famine had ended in Bethlehem, Naomi decided to return home. Though she released her daughters-in-law to return to their families, Ruth made a determined choice: "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God!" (Ruth 2:16.)

Challenge #1: Ruth was a Moabite, raised in the prejudices of her idolatrous nation. What did she experience during her years in Naomi's household that planted in her heart the desire to follow the one true God? What treasure did she glimpse that made her willing to leave behind all she had ever known? Does my household witness to the richness of the Christian life in a way that gives those who live here and those who are just passing through the desire to know my Savior? Does my life, lived out before them, speak of the Holy Spirit within me?

Challenge #2: During the difficult journey back to Bethlehem and the abject poverty the two women faced there, Ruth’s selfless words must have been a constant source of strength and encouragement to the aging Naomi. Words are powerful. Words matter. Words can build up or destroy. How often have I missed the opportunity to be the voice of encouragement to someone whose life touches mine, even for a few moments?...a hard-working waitress…a discouraged student…an elderly widow facing loneliness and ill-health…a single Mom recovering from betrayal and facing the urgent necessity to provide for her family? Words can be instruments of blessing.

Challenge #3: Ruth wrapped her heart around a new faith in the God of Israel. This faith fueled her stubborn loyalty to her mother-in-law, sustained her persistent courage in the face of difficulties, humbled her before the kindly Boaz, and found her obedient to Naomi’s instructions – instructions that amounted to a proposal of marriage! Loyalty. Courage. Humility. Obedience. Has my faith of many years maintained intensity like this? Or have the comforts of its sustenance allowed the distractions of everyday life to blur my single-minded focus on the presence and power and purposes of God?

Challenge #4: “And they all lived happily ever after.” Doesn’t every love story end this way? But in the love story recounted in Ruth, this is only the beginning. The marriage of Boaz and Ruth fills Naomi’s life with richness once again when Ruth gives birth to a son, Obed. Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, the ancestor of “Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” (Matthew 1:16.) Could Ruth possibly have foreseen how God’s purposes would be worked out through her in generations to come? We can never see the ultimate result of a life surrendered to God. Will God find me willing, in spite of a vision limited to the here-and-now, to live day-by-day in obedience to His word and His will? And to trust that He is working His purpose out – a purpose I may never live to see?

Oh, yes – “I Love Ruthie!” The small part of Ruth’s life preserved in scripture provides enough challenge to last a lifetime!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - From an Alabaster Flask

by Barb Tousley

His name was David Gonzales. He was one of my tutoring projects at the Rio Grande Children's Home during our first year of serving with RVICS (Roving Volunteers in Christ's Service). Through him, God wrote a memorable lesson in the textbook of my heart.

David had been found living in the corner of a hallway in a Reynosa tenement house, where his older sister was trying desperately to care for him. They were now comfortable and cared for in one of the cottages at the children's home. Though his house mother sent him off each morning clean and shining, rested and fed, and ready for the school day -- by the time he reached school his shirt tail was out, his hair was a tangled mop, and his smudged face showed he was ready for a fight at the slightest provocation. But the thing I noticed most about David was the constant look of defeat in his eyes. I was assigned to work with him on spelling and math skills, but, truly, according to "David's Law," EVERY area of school and life brought failure.

Valentine's Day was approaching, and the senior class came up with a fantastic idea for a money-maker to help raise funds for their senior class trip: The house mothers would help them bake giant, heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies to be sold and delivered, with some romantic message, on Valentine's Day. (The ingredients were donated by a local bakery.)

Senior boys ordered them for their sweethearts, classes for their teachers, and those "push-overs," the RVICS men, for their wives.

On Valentine's Day, excitement was high, as the gigantic cookies were delivered -- each one with a romantic poem or song, performed by the senior deliverer. I was helping in the 3rd grade classroom when a senior girl slipped in the door with cookies to deliver. The children giggled with excitement, as she sang their song and delivered the cookie THEY had bought for their beloved teacher. Then, unbelievably, she placed the second cookie on David's desk, with a quiet little poem. At first, he was afraid to look at it. Every eye in the room was on him. He inspected the wrapping carefully to be sure it really had HIS name on it. He looked up at me with a question in his eyes -- but I was not the one who had sent this lovely surprise. He lifted the cookie slightly, and pulled out a small slip of paper, then motioned for me to come and see.

As I leaned over his desk, he whispered, "It's from my sister! My sister sent me a Valentine cookie....." and the defeated eyes were shining.

When the children gave their puppet show for the Kindergartners that afternoon, though David's paper mache puppet was rather shapeless and the paint had run, he spoke much more confidently than before, and his head was up, rather than down, with his chin in its usual position on his chest. And he didn't get ALL the words on his spelling test right, but he missed only a few. But, miracle of miracles, when the recess bell rang, and the children started out the door, I heard a sound that will warm my heart forever -- a sound I had never heard in the weeks I had worked with David. I heard David Gonzales LAUGHING.

It was such a little thing -- just a chocolate chip cookie. But his sister's loving surprise had shattered the wall of defeat that bound him. It had touched him -- transformed him. All the discouraging circumstances of his life had faded in the light of that wonderful love.

The Gospel writers tell the story of a woman who entered the place where Jesus was, carrying an alabaster flask of very expensive perfume. She broke it and, in an extravagant gesture of love, poured it on Jesus' head. Though the disciples rebuked her for such waste, Jesus did not rebuke her. He simply said, "She did what she could." I can't help but believe that the fragrance of her gift followed him all the way to the cross.

Mark 14: 6-8 - She has done a beautiful thing to me.... She did what she could.

David's sister "did what she could," and it changed a small boy's day, and, perhaps, his life. God has given each of us an alabaster flask, filled with the precious perfume of simple kindness. If we but ask God to open our eyes to every opportunity, we too can touch another's heart in a life-changing way. Our Lord reminds us that, "...whatever you do for one of the least of these ... you do for Me (Matthew 25:40)."

So -- take up your alabaster flask, break it, pour it out, and bless someone's day, whether your flask contains a costly perfume, an encouraging word, or just a chocolate chip cookie.

"Behold, what manner of love..."

By Barb Tousley

Barb Tousley is a charter member of Community Church and one of the featured blog writers for Peak Reflections. Barb has a heart for discipleship and will be posting messages that help us cultivate spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.

There exist in our lives those startling moments of truth that shape all the moments of life that follow. The moment when God first wrote on my heart the very personal message of the cross was one of those.

I was sixteen years old. Our youth fellowship group was meeting in the basement of the First Congregational Church of Dearborn. Some unexpected visitors had caused a shortage of chairs. Since the male members of the group were totally engrossed in a highly competitive ping-pong match, I slipped upstairs to retrieve the chairs that were always stowed at the back of the sanctuary. Our church was located on a busy city corner, so the outside streetlights made it unnecessary to turn on the sanctuary lights.

As I crossed the room, something caught my eye – it was the brass cross on the altar. A light from some unknown source filtered in through the window and was reflected in the cross… and it seemed to be almost on fire. The sight drew me apart from the noise downstairs, the city sounds outside, and the urgency of my ‘chair mission’. I sat down in a back-row pew… and was filled with a quiet presence I had never before experienced. In that breathless moment, the Lord spoke to my heart, and that brass cross became more than just an altar decoration, more than the familiar symbol of my religion.

In that moment the cross became a very PERSONAL manifestation of God's great love for ME. My heart reeled with the conviction that the blood shed on the cross, for masses of believers through the ages, was also shed just for ME. Jesus' suffering, His humiliation, His separation from God in that awful moment when in His agony He cried, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"…it was all in payment for MY sin. At the sight of that cross, it all became clear: "Behold, what manner of love…"

It was many years before I fully responded to the truth of God's sacrificial love – to take up MY cross and follow Him. As a child I memorized those words from John 3:16 that have only grown richer with time: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In adulthood, God took me by the hand and moved me to answer an altar call that acknowledged Christ's sacrifice for ME, and shaped my response to the conviction that "I am not my own. I was bought with a price." (I Corinthians 6:19).

What other response could we offer in return for such love as this, but a life lived for Him?

Our Ever-Present God

By Barb Tousley

Melanoma! Just the sinister sound of the word struck an unexpected chord of fear in my heart The pathology report, following the removal of a small, persistently-bleeding growth on my leg, confirmed our worst fears। Further surgery was scheduled, treatment options discussed, and the dim prognosis presented with startling honestly by a caring surgeon

The days that followed were a blur of "business as usual" in our public school teaching duties and church commitments, and sleepless nights of tears and prayers. As I lay in my husband's arms during one of those troubled nights, borrowing from his strength and praying for wisdom and courage, I was suddenly WASHED by a powerful surge of peace that filled me, and surrounded me, and lifted me. And those beautiful words from Isaiah, that I had often heard John sing, sang to me then in the darkness: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee..."* GOD'S PRESENCE -- steadfast and sure. The months that followed brought the blessings of healing and restoration, and, more important, a new understanding of a God who is forever with us and within us.

As my years increase, I find myself attending more funerals than weddings. And, invariably, the bereaved family chooses "In the Garden," as a much-loved hymn for the service:

"And He walks with me,
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own..."*

It is, perhaps, an echo of the human heart, seeking GOD'S PRESENCE in a very personal way.

BUT WHERE DO I FIND HIM?

...We can look for the fingerprints of God IN HIS CREATION. Psalm 19 proclaims, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." In the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every bush aflame with God.
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pick blackberries."*

...HIS WORD records the love story between God and man: our running away, God's pursuit and redemption. Every small journey into that ageless volume lands us squarely in HIS PRESENCE, so that we might know Him better.

...We can find Him IN THE STUFF (AND PEOPLE) OF DAILY LIVING. When God is our focus, there is no division between sacred and secular. At any moment you can be standing on holy ground -- in HIS PRESENCE. Acknowledge His presence throughout your day: Give Him your waking thoughts, your waiting thoughts, your whispering thoughts, your waning thoughts....and you will find Him.

...Finally, IN PRAYER we enjoy the priceless privilege of meeting with Almighty God "one-on-one." We can pour out our hearts, as to no other; and we can listen. In George Bernard Shaw's play, St. Joan, one of Joan's captors asks condescendingly why the voice of God doesn't speak to him as it does to her. Her simple reply: "He speaks to you all the time. You just fail to listen."

The promise of HIS PRESENCE will ride the crest of joy in times of celebration, and be your strength and courage in the darkness. "If with all your hearts you truly seek Me, you shall ever surely find Me. Thus saith the Lord."

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LINKS:
Isaiah 26:3-4 (KJV)

IN THE GARDEN, by C. Austin Miles
I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses..

He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me within my heart is ringing.

I'd stay in the garden with Him, though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go -- through the voice of woe -- His voice to me is calling.

AND HE WALKS WITH ME, AND HE TALKS WITH ME,
AND HE TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.
AND THE JOY WE SHARE, AS WE TARRY THERE,
NONE OTHER HAS EVERY KNOWN.

Psalm 19:1-4 (KJV)

"Give Him your waking thoughts," etc. - - thoughts from Max Lucado.
An excellent book, JUST LIKE JESUS.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
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BARB TOUSLEY is a charter member of MPCC, having been a part of all its 28 years of growing pains. She sings in the choir, coordinates the annual Christmas Collage, works in the library, serves on the Connections Team, and together with husband John (the choir director), leads a small group. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Barb is a retired elementary teacher. Most important, she has been John's wife for 54years, mother of three, grandmother of five, and great-grandmother of two remarkable little boys.