Leaven

Made any good investments lately? These days, the standard of modern intelligence is measured by the amount of savvy one possesses, the efficacy with which it is applied, and the ability to splash about the resultant wealth in flamboyant display; Hip-Hop stars are the new gods. Your own Youtube channel is the portal to greatness! Unlimited power may be yours! The digital world of the Internet has become a most powerful agent for change we’ve probably ever seen. When Google is your oracle god of omniscience, it seems you can do anything. Welcome back to the Tower of Babel.

I marvel at the sheer, shameless audacity of this generation. Through social media, we see the domino effect of choices made in living color. The star of celebrity rises and falls like lightning. Once the avalanche of shared information begins to collate, even Titans of entrenched power go down. Though we’ve been told clearly, warned repeatedly and experienced graphically, we still insist on incubating the leaven of malice that ends only in destruction. There’s a reason we call them the Seven Deadly Sins; Greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, sloth and pride actually produce death! Scripture thoughtfully provides us with entire lists of dangerous behavior that kill life, joy, prosperity and everyday welfare (Galatians 5:19-21, Romans 1:28-32, 2 Tim 3:1-9). Amazingly, it also tells us what produces life, both temporal and eternal (Galatians 5:22-23, 2 Peter 1:3-4, Hebrews 10:21-23).

So, ask the salient question: “What is the motivating agent of your life? What is your leaven of choice”? Leaven is defined as a chemical agent producing change; a substance that causes something to rise, permeate, imbue or ferment. Figuratively, it represents a pervasive stimulus or effector that modifies or transforms through imperceptible interaction.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Cor 5:6-8 KJV

Paul uses the homey, domestic imagery of baking bread to capture, like time-lapse photography, the invisible, unfolding desire within us that reaches out and impacts our world. While the digital horizon may seem astronomical and slipping rapidly out of our control, in the end, we are still physical beings who inhabit only one space at any given moment. Therefore, it still matters what happens here on ground level. Who we are, viscerally, shapes our words, attitudes and environments. The Leaven we latch on to forms, molecule by molecule, the life around us.

Another parable spoke he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Matt 13:33 KJV

We have been completely and entirely changed into new creations the moment we accepted Christ. We could walk on water this very moment if we could simply grasp the revelation. We could soar like the birds, defy gravity, turn water into wine or multiply all kinds of things by simply commandeered the power of Christ at our command. When we invest in the Kingdom of God, the wealth, peace, and blessedness of Heaven spiritually enters the earth and transforms it. We become not only changed, but the agency of it, impacting not only our own internal landscape, but also enveloping biospheres. We are salt and light; a rising wave of righteousness that illumines dark haunts of shame, brokenness and bitterness. We are the irresistible force the world around us is waiting for so desperately. Despite our ignorance, we’re having an impact, so we’d better lean in and start taking it seriously. Instead of abdicating our voice and influence in the political or secular sphere, we need to step it up.

This weekend I attended a conference which was without question, one of the most intense I’ve ever experienced. Sponsored by the “Women On The Front Lines” organization, it featured major movers and godly influencers confronting governmental decisions slowly stripping away our rights and dignity as human beings and citizens of Canada. The issues of abortion, parental rights, human trafficking, the opiate crisis, rampant pornography and sexual identity are eroding the foundational authority of family, basic individual freedom and democracy at a terrifying pace. I’m still reeling from the shocking statistics and facts presented. We find ourselves facing these crisis points because as believers, we have not invested the time, energy and passion in defending the life of liberty Christ paid such an exorbitant price to obtain for us. We’ve let the voices and sub-groups of a very small percentage of the population dominate the law-making of the land, while we were asleep at the wheel, or clinging tenaciously to outmoded, religious methods of warfare. It’s time to get life and death serious. There is an entire army of fierce, Momma-Bear warriors arising who aren’t going to be hindered by traditional roles. They are fighting for the life of a new generation with the power of God as the wind in their wings. They are taking no prisoners; they are accepting no excuses. Unshackled from political correctness and the fear of man, they’re about to become the most dangerous force on the planet. Stale, soured old leaven has got to go.

Do we understand how much the little things matter? The accrued effect of kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control and love? The Holy Spirit is the most powerful, unrelenting transformer there is. For those filled with His presence, “Nothing shall be impossible for them” (Genesis 11:6).

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:17, 18

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