John 20:22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

Take in a deep breath thru your nose. What do you smell? Take in a deep breath thru your mouth. What do you smell? There is a great difference between the two. You can still smell by breathing in thru your mouth but that is coincidental and not intentional.

Now take a deep breath thru your spirit. What sense do you use now? Surely it is not smell. Yesterday I spoke about the atmosphere within a church body. When you are within that church body and you take in a breath, the spirit takes in the atmosphere of attitude. Your spirit should tell you if something is unpleasant within the body spiritually. As with any odor, check first to make sure it is not you that reeks.

We can get use to bad attitudes much the same way to get used to bad odors. That is a function of the human condition. The Holy Spirit does not forget the stench of bad attitude. So it is now within your realm of awareness because of the Holy Spirit. What are you to do?

Report your awareness to the head of the church. No, not your elders or pastor, your Lord. Prayer should always be your first instinct. If it is not, be aware that it should be your first instinct. Your new nature as a creation in Christ should be growing in that direction. Take that into consideration before you do anything else.

The Lord will tell you what to do next. Respond to His leading. Do it in a proper manner. There are ways to do things that are orderly and proper. If you cannot see that, return to step one, pray for guidance.

John 8:10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

If you are not familiar with the woman caught in adultery and Jesus saving her from being stoned, please read John chapter 8. It has been taught many times. I have heard it many times. There is one thing that seems to slip thru the cracks in those teachings however.

Jesus changed the atmosphere before the woman was saved.

What is the atmosphere in your church? Do you see sin in others and are concerned for their salvation or does their sin change your ability to forgive? I dare say when people see sin in others, that sin was not committed against them. Those accusers in John 8:10 were not sinned against.

They did however have something in common with many people who see sin. There is the fear that if they do not punish sin they will be seen as approving of it. That is a real problem in our modern churches. How do we deal with the pride of sin being flaunted in our midst?

First we must recognize that we were convicted of our own sins first and turned and walked away from them in an atmosphere of repentance. That was not done in an atmosphere of condemnation. Nor is it done in an atmosphere of approval. Conviction of sin comes from the power of the Holy Spirit preparing a heart to receive the gospel. The stone in the hand of the accusers was judgement.

Jesus, the head of this body, changed the atmosphere first. He did so that condemnation is not the reason for repentance but rather Holy Spirit conviction.