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Friday, October 17, 2014

The Kingdom of God - Leaven of the Heart

"And again He said, 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." - Luke 13:20-21

Last year I wrote a post about the importance of studying the Kingdom of God which you can read here. In the above parable from Jesus, we get a hint as to how the Kingdom of God works. Most of the people in Jesus' day were expecting the Kingdom of God to arrive in much the same way that earthly kingdoms did. They expected a kingdom that took over in force and conquered Rome in order to win their freedom. However that was no the God's plan. 

Jesus shows us here, in the example of yeast, that the Kingdom of God is much more subtle yet simultaneously more effective than they were expecting. Yeast is something that starts from the inside but works it's way through the entire dough. It is small and almost unnoticeable in itself but the effects are impossible to miss. Once yeast is mixed into a lump of dough there is no way to separate it again, there is no way to pull a piece of the dough off and not have it be affected by the yeast.

In the same way the Kingdom of God works from within, both in the case of the individual and of society. In the individual the Kingdom of God begins in the heart and works it's way to the actions, behaviors, and attitudes of the individual. At first you can not see anything different about the individual until you start to notice the effects of the Kingdom being inside him/her. Similarly in society the Kingdom starts with one individual and spreads to those around them until the entire society is affected. 

Let the Kingdom of God transform your heart today!

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