9/365 2020 Give me some miracle bread...

Way back in the last century, when my kids were home, I made "Miracle Bread" bread. The friend who gave me the recipe named it that because it was the only yeast bread recipe she'd found that never failed to rise and make wonderful loaves to feed her family.

I found the same to be true.
After some experience, I got brave and experimented. I discovered I could use the dough for more than "french bread". Pizza rolls were possible, all it took was dividing the dough into 10-12 small balls, rolling them out and layering pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese before rolling the dough up. Bread sticks were made by dividing the dough into smaller portions as well. My favorite, other than the original french bread, hot out of the oven lathered in butter and peanut butter, was cinnamon roll bread sticks. Same steps as the pizza rolls but the layers were butter and cinnamon sugar before rolling and drizzling with a powder sugar glaze after they baked. With extra glaze to dip in. 

Miracle bread was a hit with everyone I ever served it to, regardless of the form it took.

Why all this talk about bread?
Because this morning in Luke 13 I read about a woman who added a little leaven to three measures of flour and how the leaven spread until all the flour was leavened. If you look at this recipe you can see that 2 Tablespoons of dry yeast is enough to impact/change more than 6 cups of flour. Without the yeast (leaven) or with yeast that isn't fresh, the bread would not be what it is supposed to be. It would be flat and, I imagine, stiff and tasteless. It wouldn't be good for much except the trash can.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like leaven.
Those of us who are Jesus followers are citizens of that Kingdom. We are His representatives, His ambassadors, the ones who are supposed to be impacting the world. 

When a loaf of yeast bread is baking, the aroma is one of the most appealing scents I've ever had the pleasure of smelling. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I want to be that kind of sweet aroma to the people around me. When you add yeast to flour, you don't see the yeast, but the yeast makes a difference. I don't want or need to call attention to myself, I simply need and long to be who Jesus calls me to be. If I do that well, slowly, the Holy Spirit at work through me, will cause the Kingdom of God to spread, affecting change that will not occur if I keep myself separate from rather than engaging in the lives around me. 

Am I saying that I want to immerse myself in the world, be absorbed by it? No! A thousands times, no. I want to immerse myself in Jesus and allow His Spirit to seep out of me into the world around me. That is where the power for change comes from. 

His kingdom come, His will be done. In all ways, always.

I may need to get some yeast and do some baking this weekend...

"Then Jesus declared, 'I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry; and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.' " John 6:35

Part of Jesus' prayer to God the Father for His disciples:
"My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. " John 17:15-18