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Are you doing your part? (Luke 13:18-21) November 26, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Acts 19-20

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:18-21
Jesus (explaining): Do you want to understand the kingdom of God? Do you want Me to tell you what it’s like? It’s like a single mustard seed that someone took and planted in his garden. That tiny seed grew and became a tree so large that the birds could fly in and make their nests in its branches.
Do you want Me to tell you what the kingdom of God is like? It’s like some yeast which a woman hid within a huge quantity of flour; soon the whole batch of dough was rising.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

We don’t talk about heaven and the kingdom in our churches much these days. We hear a lot of sermons about ethics and moral values. We hear a lot of sermons about how we should behave and how we should improve our relationships with each other. We hear a lot of sermons about the state of the world today and how we should work to improve the nature of things around us. We hear a lot of sermons about the latest topic in the news and how it affects us spiritually and how to guard against it. But we don’t hear many sermons anymore about heaven or hell.

So it’s good to stop and think about Jesus’ words today and just ponder what He says about heaven and the kingdom of God. Most of the time when we think about heaven we think about the way it looks, the streets of gold, the mansions being built for us, the brilliance of the light, the music sung by choirs of angels, the indescribable beauty of the place we hope to spend eternity. But these words give us a very different picture of the kingdom of God. It doesn’t talk about the beauty or streets or even the kind of people who will populate heaven. Jesus gives a different description for us to think about and the description involves us.

He says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or some yeast, so what does that mean to us? We are getting to know more about yeast as more people begin to enjoy baking as a hobby. We still do more purchasing of baked goods than actually baking today, but the hobby is growing and you can find lots of people who bake bread, rolls, cookies, pies and cakes, etc. And in a lot of those things that need a dough in their preparation, they also need yeast to make the dough rise. So many today understand yeast, but not nearly as many as did in Jesus’ day.

Not so many understand Jesus’ comparison of the mustard seed with the kingdom of heaven because most of us haven’t seen the results of planting mustard seeds. Around the area where Jesus spoke, mustard plants grew wild and in fact were sometimes considered a nuisance plant. Just that tiny seed the size of a pin head grew into a bush fifteen to twenty feet tall, tree size with branches sturdy enough to hold birds’ nests.

So we aren’t quite so familiar with these illustrations today. The point I think Jesus wants to get across is that the kingdom of heaven, like that mustard seed starts small, but grows as we let God work through us and spread the good news He gives us. Others hear His word and accept Him as Lord and the kingdom grows more. Those share the message and the kingdom continues to expand. Then like those mustard seeds that grow into tree-sized bushes, they produce more seeds that are scattered across the land and more mustard plants take root and grow. The kingdom expands throughout the area as we let God use us and work through us to do His will.

Or the kingdom is like yeast when we let God work through us. He places us in a community to do His will in that community and like yeast, the good things we do for others spreads throughout the community. Others see us and watch the transformation in our lives because of His spirit in us. They hear the message He has for them and His resurrection power changes them, too. The good news spreads throughout the community and cannot be stopped just as yeast spreads throughout the dough when it is kneaded. And what does the yeast do to the dough? It makes the dough double or triple or quadruple in size, just as the good news causes God’s kingdom to expand exponentially through those that hear it.

Today Jesus might use one of those room fresheners you plug into the wall as an illustration. The odor starts at the wall when you plug it in, but soon the smell reaches every corner of the room. Or maybe he would like the kingdom to the foam insulation that goes in the walls of new homes. A five gallon canister of liquid is shot into the space between the walls of the house and that small five gallon canister is enough as it expands to fill all the outer walls of an average house with foam.

Whatever example Jesus or you might use to explain the growth of God’s kingdom, it still in part depends on one Christian, transformed by the power of God’s spirit in you, sharing the good news of what He has done with another person. Then that person sharing with one more and so on until the kingdom continues to grow at an exponential rate.

Are you doing your part to grow the kingdom?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Beware the yeast and leaven (Mark 8:15-21) August 6, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – John 3-4

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Mark 8:15-19
Jesus: Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about and discussed it among themselves.
Some Disciples: What?
Other Disciples: He’s saying this because we have run out of bread.
Jesus (overhearing them): Why are you focusing on bread? Don’t you see yet? Don’t you understand? You have eyes—why don’t you see? You have ears—why don’t you hear? Are you so hard-hearted?
Don’t you remember when I broke the five rounds of flatbread among the 5,000? Tell Me, how many baskets of scraps were left over?
Disciples: Twelve.
Jesus: And how many were left when I fed the 4,000 with seven rounds?
Disciples: Seven.
Jesus: And still you don’t understand?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Yeast and leaven. It spreads through the dough so quickly and thoroughly. In baking, it is such wonderful stuff. It makes tiny little air pockets in the dough so it makes it puff up and makes bread and cakes light and fluffy. Whoever discovered you could use leavening agents in baking did a great service for the world because it makes baked goods taste so good. But then again, maybe it was also part of our downfall since we have a tendency to eat too much of those tasty treats and it adds to the obesity of our generation. I digress, back to the story.

The disciples thought Jesus was talking about bread. He wasn’t. He was thinking about His recent encounter with those snakes, the Pharisees. He was thinking about they way they refused to listen and believe God even when they saw the evidence right in front of them of His hand at work. They wanted one more sign, one more proof, one more miracle, one more something. They were never satisfied because they wanted to be the center of attention, not God.

That’s want Jesus was talking about with the disciples that day. The Pharisees’ brand of religion put this selfish thought upper most in everyone’s mind. Put my way first. Put my rules first. Put my thoughts above everything else. It doesn’t matter what God wants. My way is more important. Self takes precedence. So when the Pharisees encountered Jesus and He challenged their structure and their way of life. They couldn’t handle it. When He disagreed with their emphasis on the petty things of life that they held as most important, they called Him an instrument of Satan.

The biggest problem, though, is Jesus saw their philosophy and their influence had the same influence in the world as yeast or leaven in bread. Once it gets into action, it is so difficult to stop it. It spreads and is hard to stop. People pick p on it and spread it and share it because Satan pulls this veil over our eyes. We like Adam and all of his offspring after him have this selfish seed in us that wants to believe Satan instead of God. We want to satisfy this selfish drive instead of giving ourselves to the God who made us.

And Herod was just as bad. His problem was not just hiding behind a religious veil saying he was a Jewish king, but then living the life of a Roman. He indulged in all the vices of the pagan world around him, but said he lived as one of God’s chosen people. The duel citizenship he thought he could live only showed how far away from God he really was. Yet many followed him thinking it was okay to live his same lifestyle since he was king.

Do we do the same thing today? Does the story fit us in this generation? I’m afraid so. Whether we want to talk about the Hollywood celebrities so many emulate, or the sports figures that pocket millions in salary but find themselves on the wrong side of the law, or politicians that think themselves above the law, or any number of other segments that we tend to focus on, there are those that spread leaven in our society. They plant seeds of evil, lifestyles that run contrary to the life God wants us to live. Yet we flock to them thinking it’s okay to follow their pattern of life. It’s not.

Look around, though, and you’ll find people wearing the same style clothes, styling their hair the same, using their same speech patterns. We fall into the trap of letting these leavening agents of sin slip into our lives, sometimes without even thinking about it. Jesus warns us, “Beware of the yeast, the leaven.” I don’t think He would use the terms Pharisee or Herod today. But instead He would point to those figures of authority we tend to blindly follow that will lead us to our destruction if we are not carefully discerning whether they are following God or self.

How can we tell? Know God’s word. If they act in a way that is not in concert with His word, beware. God does not contradict Himself. Beware the yeast and leaven. It spreads before you know it.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

To make bread you need the right yeast (Matthew 16:6) April 13, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 42-44

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 16:6, 8-11
Jesus: Be careful; avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Jesus: You men of little faith, do you really think that I care which baker you patronize? After spending so much time with Me, do you still not understand what I mean? So you showed up without bread; why talk about it? 9-10 Don’t you remember that we fed 5,000 men with five rounds of flatbread? Don’t you remember that we fed 4,000 men with seven rounds of bread? Don’t you remember what excess, what abundance there was—how many broken pieces and crusts you collected after everyone had eaten and was sated? 11 So when I speak about leaven, I am not talking about what we will eat for dinner. I say again, avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Reading so much about bread in the Bible the last several months, I started experimenting with making bread myself. I’ve done a little bit of baking off and on since I retired. It’s something I enjoy, but probably not enough to make it a real hobby. But I’ve come to understand it a little. And because I was a chemistry major in college, I get interested in the why baking soda or baking power is needed in a recipe. How does yeast work or what difference does it make when you add vinegar and soda in a red velvet cake.

I know, it’s a little weird, but that’s just who I am. All of us have a weird streak in us somewhere and that’s part of mine. So when Jesus tell the disciples to be careful and avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You have to understand a little about leavening to know what He’s talking about.

The problem today, we don’t do much baking at home, except as a hobby like me. Most of us go to the store and buy our bread or get a cake mix that just needs water and a couple of eggs and we’re done. We don’t know what else has gone into that mix to make it rise for that perfect, bouncy, delicious, moist texture. We just stir, bake and eat.

So here’s a little lesson on leavening. First, leavening doesn’t have to be yeast, although in Jesus’ day it usually was. The yeast or other biological consumed simple and complex sugars to form carbon dioxide which forms bubbles in the dough making it rise. But leavening is any number of substances that introduces air into dough or batter to make it lighter or softer. We think of yeast most often, but it can be anything for dough that causes fermentation or produces air from a biological reaction, yeast, beer, ginger beer, kefir to name a few.

There are also chemicals that leaven or create that air we’re looking for in baking, like baking soda and baking powders. These chemicals combine with acids like sour milk, buttermilk, or vinegar and cause the resulting compound to foam creating the bubbles the dough or batter needs to rise.

Bakers also use mechanical leavening like creaming butter and sugar together. The sugar crystals break into the lipid structure of the butter and when heated the crystals break down and leave behind very tiny bubbles in their place. Now we also use steam to create the effect or nitrogen or a number of other discoveries since yeast was first used in baking, but all have the same effect. The chemical or biological process introduces air into the dough or batter, softens it and makes it rise. The gluten or other proteins in the dough or batter hold the structure tight enough to prevent the bubbles from escaping and so the dough transforms into the baked goods we enjoy.

Okay, so now you’ve had a lesson in baking. What does that have to do with what Jesus wants us to know?

I’ve baked enough now, that I’ve made the mistake of using the wrong leavener in what I was making. I’ve used baking powder instead of baking soda. I’ve used regular milk instead of sour milk. I’ve used the wrong stuff enough to know that when you do, you definitely don’t get the results you’re looking for. And once it’s in there, you can’t take it out. It goes through the whole batter and you can’t remove it. Period. The whole batch is ruined and goes into the trash.

That’s what Jesus warns His disciples. If they let the false teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees invade them, they can’t get it out of them. It permeates and fills them. It’s as hard to remove those teachings as it is to remove leaven from bread. It infects the whole of a person. So Jesus warns them. Be careful about who you listen to. Be careful about what you let into the windows of your soul. Be careful about the studies you undertake. Those things have an affect on you that you cannot just forget.

Can God help you recover from false teaching and help you walk the path He wants you to take? Yes. But talk to recovering alcoholics. It takes very little to push them back over the edge. Talk to recovery drug addicts. They don’t want pain killers for fear they will be trapped once again in the vicious circle that pulled them into the death trap they were in before. All those things linger in our physical frame and our minds trapped in this mortal body, these vessels of clay. We can’t get rid of the consequences of letting the garbage in. Just try to convince a terrorist his cause is wrong. You won’t get very far for the same reasons.

We must keep up our guard. Jesus says using this metaphor of leaven. When you understand the chemistry behind this tiny bit of biological or chemical compound and what it can do to a large batch of dough, you understand just how dangerous the wrong kind of leaven can be. If you make a loaf of bread you want the right yeast.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Heaven is like yeast (Matthew 13:33) March 27, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 48-50

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 13:33
Jesus: Imagine a woman preparing a loaf of bread. The kingdom of heaven is like the leaven she folds into her dough. She kneads and kneads until the leaven is worked into all the dough.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Bread making in this part of the world has become a hobby instead of a part of everyday life as it was in Jesus’ day. In fact, a century ago, bread making was part of everyday life in most American households. It’s still a lot cheaper to make bread than to buy bread if you have the inclination and time. About 15¢ worth of material and a couple of hours and you can have a loaf of bread. Or you can even make it easy on yourself and throw all the stuff in a bread maker and four hours later you have a loaf of bread.

But most people in this country, buy their bread today. Bread making is more a hobby than a necessity. We rely on bakers to make our bread for us. So many of us don’t know much about leavening or what it takes to make that yeast bubble and foam and cause bread to have all those little holes inside. But that’s exactly what yeast does. Yeast is a live usually single-celled organism in the fungus family that uses carbohydrates to produces carbon dioxide. It’s this carbon dioxide trapped in the bread that makes the holes. The gluten in the flour holds the fibers in the flour together so those holes can stay in the shape of tiny bubbles.

If you don’t let the yeast activate and eat up some of those carbohydrates before putting the dough in the oven, the yeast gets too hot too fast and the dough won’t rise as much as you want. If you let the dough rise too long, the dough collapses on itself because the gluten isn’t strong enough to support the large bubbles the yeast creates and like bubbles you blow with bubble gum, they reach a point they can’t sustain themselves and burst. So, again, the dough collapses and you have flat bread.

So how do you avoid these problems? The like Jesus says in comparing heaven to yeast, the woman kneads the dough and the yeast spreads through the bread. It rises for a couple of hours and then the woman kneads it one more time to let it rise a second time. This second rise gives the yeast more even rise capacity so that the race horse bubbles which had their heyday now don’t ruin the loaf and the real work horses that will stand up to the heat can take over.

So Jesus says heaven is like that yeast. There is an initial phase of real excitement. A huge bubble of growth that everyone sees happen fast. But life happens and those, like the seed sown in rocky and thorny soil fall away. They don’t stand up to the pressure of the world and succumb to the temptations Satan throws at them instead of living the life God has planned for them. The pressures of the world crush the fast growing, flash in the pan believers, just like the first kneading crushes the bubbles in the first rise of the dough.

Jesus also says yeast spreads through the dough and heaven is like that. If you look at a loaf of bread, there are tiny holes in every slice, top to bottom, end to end. It shows that the yeast has traveled to every part of the dough. Just so, God’s kingdom spreads to every part of the world. Once yeast is put into the mixture of flour, water, salt, and sugar, the other basic ingredients for a loaf of bread, you can’t take it out and you can’t keep it from spreading through the whole loaf. It goes everywhere in the mixture. God’s word and His kingdom is like that. Once His word broke out into the world, there was no stopping it.

Satan has tried in every way He knows how to stop God’s word from reaching people. He tried banning it with government laws. He tried persecution. He tried ridicule of God’s followers. He tried scientific enlightenment. Satan even tried nailing God’s Son to a cross. None of it worked. God’s word spreads whenever and wherever people of faith go.

Bread making also takes work. Perhaps Jesus used the metaphor to remind us that being part of God’s heaven doesn’t mean we sit around and do nothing. God made us originally to tend His creation and worship Him. Building His kingdom means work. If you want to be lazy, you won’t be part of His kingdom. He gave us a day for rest, but only one day out of seven, not six out of seven. He expects us to use what He’s give us and be productive in building His kingdom. Yeast, to be effective, must be worked into the dough. We must get our hands sticky and covered in dough if we are to make that perfect loaf of bread. And we must get our hands dirty and sticky and covered in the kingdom issues if we are to build His kingdom.

Are you ready to smell that good homemade loaf of bread? How about the growing kingdom of God? Then it’s time to get to work!

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.