Friday, April 16, 2010

It's Growing

I love to make homemade bread. The dough responding to my hands as I knead it reinforces the fact that it is a growing entity. In time, given the right conditions, the small ball becomes a large, inflated ball of dough. One of the things I always think about when making bread is the symbolic significance of yeast in the Bible.

Yeast represented something evil, something sinful. Each Passover, a spring religious celebration, was time to rid the house of all yeast. Symbolically the Jews were removing sin from their homes. Symbols only are worthwhile if we actually use them to make changes in our lives.

So what sin do I need to remove from my life? What sin is laying dormant ready to multiply as soon as the conditions are right? What sin am I feeding just as I moisten the yeast and feed it with sugar? What sin am I watching come to life like the yeast starts growing and foaming? What sin am I nurturing in a warm part of my heart just as I place the yeast bread in a warm place to raise and grow?

“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: … hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy;… and the like…” Galatians 5:19-21 NIV

Lord, give me the strength to clean the yeast of sin from my heart.

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