JESUS SPEAKING
“To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” (Luke 13: 20-21.)
INSPIRED THOUGHTS
What is leaven? Leaven is microscopic organisms, sometimes known as yeast. The yeast produces small bubbles of carbon dioxide, which are kneaded throughout bread dough. When the bread is cooked the micro-organisms are killed, and the gas bubbles expand and give the bread it’s size and soft feel (unleavened bread is very flat and hard.) Cooking bread without a leavening agent was common in the first century, especially among the Jews who were forbidden to eat leavened bread during the Passover week. Jesus compared leaven to the Kingdom of God. What do they have in common? The kingdom of God is something that is hidden away inside of a person’s heart, just as leaven is hidden away (and cannot be seen) in an unheated loaf of bread. A tiny bit of leaven will eventually move through the loaf until it is completely saturated. Similarly, the kingdom of God often has a small beginning in the heart of the believer, but just a little bit of God’s kingdom is enough to eventually saturate the entire heart and life of the person who receives it. (Also, here, I believe Jesus is referring to the spread of the gospel outward from Jerusalem through the world; and indeed, the message has spread throughout the entire world.)
Today many people own an I-phones or an Apple Computer; they seem to be a part of the lives of millions, if not billions of people on the planet. It would be easy to think that this company had its beginning in a huge office building, backed by some of the most powerful investors on the planet. It would be easy to envision a national advertising campaign and literary buzz announcing the start of Apple Computers. This would be easy to imagine, but it would be incorrect. Apple Computers was started by two teenagers in a garage (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.) Steve’s dad had to clear out the garage so the boys had enough room to begin manufacturing their first personal computers. Something that two children began in a garage today spans the globe and affects the lives of billions of people.
Often times our understanding of faith is skewed. We believe that strong faith in the Lord is something that a person just has, and there is no way to get it. This is an unfortunate belief; faith is not necessarily something that explodes immediately in a person’s life (it can, but not always.) Faith in Christ, can have meager beginnings from which it may grow to affect every area of the believers life. Someone may start by professing a faith in Christ during a bible study, and before they know it, prayer has become a part of their daily life. Another person may be an avid fiction reader, but after accepting Christ, they may begin to make the bible their book of choice. Eventually, the love life, the business life, the personal life, the recreational life, and every area of their life may be taken over by the Spirit of God. God wants every area of our lives to be lived for Him. This can be a scary prospect for a lot of people, and this is why many often harden their hearts and refuse to allow God’s kingdom to even have a beginning in them. Those who do allow the kingdom of God in to their hearts are transformed from the inside out. Allow God to change you; allow Him to fill up every area of your life, and you will know peace, and you will know God. The areas we hold back from God, are the areas which cause us the most pain; so let him make your areas of struggle his areas of peace.
“Lord, we lift You up as an awesome and mighty God. We come before You today and we ask and pray that You would continue to grow within us; fill up our hearts and lives completely Lord. We ask You now to grow, and to enter in to the areas that we are holding back from You. Lord give us more of Your Spirit, more of Your Truth, and increase our faith. Consume our hearts, our minds, and our lives by the power of Your Holy Spirit. We love You Lord, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things, in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.” God bless all of you.
Jesus Speaks 