{"id":631,"date":"2014-06-16T00:35:11","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T04:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/?p=631"},"modified":"2014-09-08T07:15:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T21:15:12","slug":"the-sweet-smell-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/2014\/06\/16\/the-sweet-smell-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sweet Smell of Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Are there certain foods you taste, or songs you hear, or smells you smell that instantly take you back to an earlier time and place?\u00a0 You know those small aerosol cans of deodorant\/body spray that you can buy in stores?\u00a0 You can get them here in Papua New Guinea as well.\u00a0 They smell really good, but the smells associated with them here in the village is that of a decaying corpse.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nA few days ago, I was in the village because of the death of a 29 year old woman.\u00a0 She had died early that morning and everything was in process for the preparation of her funeral.\u00a0 A coffin was being made, woman were weeping, pigs were being captured.\u00a0 She was to buried the next day, but in this hot and humid tropical environment decay starts very quickly.\u00a0 To mask the pungent smells, one of the essential items for any funeral is aerosol cans of body spray.\u00a0 Many will be used over the course of a 24 hour period and often the odors emanating from the deceased are pleasant rather than repulsive.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThough the smells of this death were much like any of the other dozens I have been to here in the village over the last 10 years, this funeral was much different.\u00a0 We have had Patpatar Christians die, but the funerals here in the village have never been led by a Christian who presented the truth of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 The message has always been a mix of beliefs, traditions, quotes, and assurances of a good afterlife no matter who had died.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nBut this time, for 40 minutes a clear Gospel message was presented by the brother of the woman who had died.\u00a0 He was given the opportunity to lead his sister\u2019s funeral and jumped at the opportunity to tell others the truth about the way to heaven.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t mask the message or mix the message.\u00a0 I sat and praised God silently as he stood strong on God\u2019s Word and pleaded for other\u2019s to listen and understand.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nIn the days to follow several people have been going to talk to him.\u00a0 \u201cI have never heard that kind of talk before.\u201d \u201cCould you explain to me again what you were saying.\u201d \u201cYour talk did not have confusion like the talk we usually hear.\u201d \u201cI want to ask you some questions about \u2018the way\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 These are some of the comments that have started some good conversations.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nYou see for a believer in Christ, death is not a dreaded end, not a confusing passage, but rather a sweet smelling victory to be savored for eternity. \u201cDeath has been swallowed up in victory.\u00a0 Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?…But thanks be to God! He give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nPray with us as the message continues to go out.\u00a0 Pray that many others would be able to know the sweet smell of death\u2026not from an aerosol can, but from victory through Jesus.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nAaron<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are there certain foods you taste, or songs you hear, or smells you smell that instantly take you back to an earlier time and place?\u00a0 You know those small aerosol cans of deodorant\/body spray that you can buy in stores?\u00a0 You can get them here in Papua New Guinea as well.\u00a0 They smell really good, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24695,3430],"tags":[300,2592,2337,400],"class_list":{"0":"post-631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-24695","7":"category-news-article","8":"tag-death","9":"tag-patpatar","10":"tag-smells","11":"tag-testimony","12":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/aaron-luse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}