So growing up I have always heard that God if the ultimate potter...or in cooking terms bread maker and we were the bread. As I went through the process of ACTUALLY making bread (pizza dough to be precise) I thought MAYBE, just MAYBE He has called us to be Jr. bakers under his authority. I know, off the beaten path a little but here are my thoughts.
There is are a few base elements you MUST have and without one of them it doesn't work properly.
Flour, yeast, sugar, water, oil.
Wheat flour.... the basic main ingredient. We, Christians, are the flour...the true church of God. I am the main ingrediant in the making of bread for the hungry. NOW before you get all crunchy, I know it's not all about me so hear me out..
Without a true, obediant Christian yearning and longing to serve under God's devine authority how will we reach those who hunger for truth? I am not saying God can't, but I am saying He created us to not only worship Him in all things but to bring others to Him to do the same.
Yeast and sugar... now I know in some contexts it's been portrayed as a negative thing...but I found it as a good thing! Matthew 13:33 Message .."God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread- and waits while the dough rises.
Now ain't that something?!?! If we don't work (work being the key word here) the kingdom into our life it will never rise! WHOOOOW!
Now the sugar activates the yeast. I beg to say I have several different types of sugar or activators in my life. My sweet husband, my pastor, and some of my closest friends and family. Not only do they taste good to me but they help activate the things of the kingdom that need to be kneeded into me.
Water....Can we really live without it? No! The Holy Spirit is vital to our daily life and living as well as anything we hope to produce for God in the Kingdom( John 4:14). Without water in bread... can you even make bread?!?
You must have the Holy Spirit in truth through the Word of God DAILY or you will quickly become dehydrated. If you have no water in your dough....well then there is no dough just some flour.
Oil- The annointing or God's will on our lives....So what happens if you cook bread wihtout oil? I mean you can do it, but you will get a dry bread that will go stale very quickly because oil helps keeps it fresh and pliable and it also won't rise as well.
hmmmm So I can be bread and bring others in without an annointing or living up to the fullnes of His will for me? Sure you can, but do I really want to do that?!? Do I want to be dry bread? Do I want to go stale quickly? or flat? UMM NO! I want to KNOW and be IN His will! I want to make peoples mouths water so badly for God and His Kingdom that they can't wait to taste and see that He is good!
So there's all the ingrediants....that's the easy stuff!! NOW the REAL work begins! My dad always said anything worth having never comes easy and requires hard work. Well, there is no difference in God's kingdom.
I don't know if you have ever "worked bread" but it ain't easy....10 or more minutes of pushing, kneeding and pulling on this dough and it gets tiring. Your arms get fatigued and ache. You get tired and honestly it's a bit of a workout! BUT if you stop it never rises to the full potential the head baker has intended for you to make.
How many of us are tired? Fatigued? BUT still know that God has so much more to "activate" in us for us to rise to HIS potential (not just our potential we see)! This is when looking ahead and knowing the finished product is worth all the aches, pains, and fatigue it takes to get there.
After the kneeding process of combining all the elements until they are so intermeshed they cannot be seperated, then and only then do you rest. Rest in very importants in the process. This is where you get to grow and rise to the full potential of Gods plan for you. Somtimes the hardest thing for us to do it rest, but there is always a time to work and a time to rest. If you don't rest you don't get to rise.
Baking, WOW! Ok so I'm not sure what I think of this process. I mean who likes fire!?!
Well come to think of it, I do! I want to be the one that walks through the fire unharmed and not even the smell of ash on me, like Shadrach, Meshach , and Abednigo did! I want to come out of the fire fresh and smelling like something that fills the whole room with desire to eat and be filled.
So, what is the point? I mean it ALL sounds good in theory but if you don't see the end and the reason for it....why bother?! I want to not only be the bread, but I want to help make the bread and activate in others to feed the hungry of this world.
The only things that will ever really satify you is the bread of Life. Life in Christ and His kingdom. Life that without Him isn't even worth living. I want to go through all the kneeding I need done, make sure I have every ingredient in me meshed together to where it can never be disolved apart from each other so that I can rise to be what God wants me to be, BUT ULTIMATELY to bring other into the kingdom and feed them Him so that they then can not only be satified and see that He is good, but also start to the baking process in themsleves to reach others and feed them as well.
Good Baking my friends~
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