×

Warning

JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 557

Daily Devotion

Leaven of the Kingdom

Created: Monday, 23 April 2018 06:31
Hits: 1060
LUKE 13:20-21 ---
 
This is an illustration that Jesus took from His own home. In those days, bread was baked at home. Leaven was a little piece of dough that had been kept from the last baking and had fermented. Leaven is regularly used in Jewish thought for influence, usually for bad influence, because the Jews identified fermentation with putrefaction. Jesus had seen Mary put a little bit of leaven in the dough, and had seen the whole character of the dough change, because of it. "That," He said, "is how my kingdom comes." There are two interpretations of this parable.
 
(1st) the kingdom of heaven starts from the smallest beginnings. The leaven was very small, but it changed the whole character of the dough. The kingdom of Heaven starts from the dedicated lives of individual men, and women. In the place where we work or live we may be the only professing Christians; if that is so, it is our job to be the leaven of the kingdom there. The kingdom of Heaven works unseen from the inside. We do not see the leaven working, but all the time it is fulfilling its function. The kingdom is on the way. As long as the leaven was outside the dough it was powerless to help; it had to get right inside. We will never change people from the outside. It is the task of Christianity to make new men, and new women; once they are created a new world will follow. That is why the church is the most important Body in the world; it is the factory where men and women of God are produced. The power of the kingdom comes from outside. The dough has no power to change itself. Neither have we. To change life, we need a power outside, and beyond us. We need the Master of life, and He is forever waiting to give us the secret of victorious living.
 
The (2nd) interpretation of this parable insists that so far from working unseen, the work of leaven is manifest to all because it turns the dough into a seething mass. On this basis, the leaven stands for the disturbing power of Christianity. In Thessalonica, it was said of the Christians, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also" (Acts 17:6). Real Christianity is the most revolutionary thing in the world; it works revolution in the individual life, and in society. The kingdom of Heaven is the leaven that fills a person at one, and the same time with the peace of God, and with the divine discontent that will not rest until the evils of earth are swept away by the revolutionizing power of God.
 
Life Application: Did this happen to You? Did you have a revolutionizing change by the power of God? After 60 years in the ministry, this has been the most exciting-watching the power of God change lives.
 
Praise/Prayer: Dear Father, thank You for sending Jesus into the world to demonstrate the power of God in changing lives. What a miracle it has been in seeing lives completely changed by the love of God that is manifested in people becoming new. How great is Your love! Amen!
 
 

Who We Are | Contact Us

Please type your full name.
Invalid email address.
Invalid Input

Follow Us on Social Media