Throughout the Dough

Christmas time is approaching quickly! Because of that, I decided to bake some cookies for my co-workers. Now, my all-time favorite holiday cookie is gingerbread. I do not mean the hard crunchy kinds that are used to make houses (though those are fun to make). I mean the soft delicious kinds that make you feel as if you are in heaven when you are eating them. So what did I do today? I baked them! I have my own soft gingerbread cookie recipe that I use every year. It is my favorite recipe, and I am willing to bake them for just about anybody!

So anyway, as I was mixing my ingredients, I was thinking about this blog. I was sort of asking God, like what should I write about today? Maybe it was because I was mixing my sifted ingredients with my molasses mixture, but a couple of scriptures were brought to my mind.

Watching my dry ingredients work all through the wet ingredients to result in the cookie dough, I thought of the yeast parable:

Again, he asked, "What shall I compare the Kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough." – Luke 13: 20-21

Do you ever wonder sometimes why a recipe calls for such a small amount of something? Like, would it matter if you included it or not because it is such a small amount? Which, totally does matter, the result depends on not only the ingredients used but the amount as well. But in the beginning, it is questionable, like, “Why am I only adding a teaspoon?”

Yeast, though one might think is a minor ingredient, permeates the whole loaf. The kingdom of God is permeating. It’s growing! Soon, the whole world, the dough, will be changed. But I want to look at it from a slightly different angle. I want to view us, ourselves as the yeast, not the community of Christians as a whole, but individually. Because we are all on this walk with God. And, I don’t know about you, but I have changed and grown quite a bit with God by my side. You are a part of God’s kingdom.

You are mixing and permeating and growing the kingdom of God. You do this by loving the Lord your God, and loving others! In light of this though, what type of yeast is yours? Because not all yeast is pictured as good yeast in the Bible. In fact, in a lot of passages, yeast is the symbol of evil or uncleanness.

Take, Galatians 5 as an example. The text speaks about the freedom in Christ, calling Christians to faith, to run the good race, and refuting the Judaizer’s laws. In verse 7, Paul (the Author) writes to the churches in southern Galatia:

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. – Galatians 5:7-9

The Judaizes made the church in Galatia stumble. Like yeast affects dough, it only takes one wrong person to infect all the others. Though we may not be like the Judaizers, we need to watch how we speak, act, and watch what we believe as well. Are we following Jesus’ example? In our words, thoughts, and actions? Do non-Christians look at you and scoff? That’s not bad, it even states in scripture that if the world hates you, it hated Jesus first (John 15). But do you at least pique their curiosity? Do you make them stop and think, “Huh, what is it that makes them like that?” Curiosity and questions mark the start of something wonderful, as it shows interest. How is it you respond to non-Christians, especially if they are mean or mock you in any way?

We want the kingdom of God to grow, to get that dough double in size after all! But do not be the one to give Christians a bad name!

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Featured Image by Nadya Spetnitskaya on Unsplash