A Little Adds A Lot
I remember as a kid learning how to use salt. I thought I loved how it tasted until I realized it brings out the flavor in food – it’s not really a food at all. A little salt is good and when it’s put into food that is cooking, it changes the entire dish. If too much salt is added, it can ruin the food.
Jesus told a “cooking parable” but the parable had a kingdom lesson in it. Check this out….
33 Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”
34 Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. 35 This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet:
“I will speak to you in parables.
I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:33-35 NLT)
Yeast is an interesting ingredient in baking. Yeast works by serving as one of the leavening agents in the process of fermentation, which is essential in the making of bread. When yeast ferments the sugars available from the flour and/or from added sugar, the carbon dioxide gas cannot escape because the dough is elastic and stretchable. As a result of this expanding gas, the dough inflates, or rises.
Yeast changes everything about the flour it is mixed with. I don’t think it was accidental that Jesus compared the effect of His Kingdom upon the world to the small amount of yeast that affects the whole batch of dough.
I want the Kingdom of Heaven in me.
I want the Kingdom of Heaven to permeate every area of my life.
I don’t want to just be a Christ follower on a certain day of the week. I want to follow Him all the time. As I follow Jesus, I want Him to use me to influence others for His Kingdom. I want others to know the peace that He brings. I want others to know the Hope that He brings with Him.
I do believe that a little faith goes a long way. I want my faith to keep growing and expanding as I walk with Him and get to know Him at a deeper, more personal level.
Pressing On!
Dwayne