An Instructive Moment about God's Kingdom (Luke 13:10-21)

A mustard seed. Something so tiny becoming something so large. Do you know that it took 725-760 mustard seeds to weigh a gram (28 grams equal one ounce)? Can you now envision better just how small that is? Yet, within weeks it becomes the largest of all garden plants. It reaches a height of 12-15 feet in a few weeks.

What a contrast of the insignificant, even enigmatic beginning of God's kingdom, embodied in the presence of Jesus, to the greatness of the end result which will be established at His Second Coming when it will surpass all the earth's kindgoms in power and glory!


Do we think we are insignificant? Do we feel like we have no purpose? That God can't use us? I'm telling you that we do have importance to God. If a person doesn't know Him personally, then He is accutely aware of your need. But, for those of us who do know Him, He has great things planned for us. You and me. Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that would walk in them." We are God's workmanship (work of art, masterpiece). Our salvation is something only God can do. It is His powerful, creative work in us. If God considers us His works of art, we dare not treat ourselves or others with disrespect or as inferior work.

From the mustard seed, Christ moves on to the parable of the yeast in the dough. I love how Gire describes it, "It starts with a little lump of grace hidden within us. And slowly, silently, it permeates our life, lifts it, transforms it." He goes on, "It worked that way for a tax collector in the temple courtyard. And for a prostitute on the street corner. And for this bent-over woman in the synagogue."

To be honest, I don't know if I have ever pondered this parable in this light. So often I have heard of the yeast likened to sin...which can insiduously work in the same way in one's life; slowly, silently, permeating our life. For me to ponder on this in the reverse was quite refreshing.

I like how Gire pointed out that Jesus didn't set out to make a "political" agenda but was content to "plant the tiniest of seeds in the unlikeliest soil, to hide a lump of grace in the life of a nobody." Ladies, those "nobodies" are now somebodies as in you and me.

I cannot think that just because I stay home and don't work outside of my home, I cannot have an impact on the world around me. I most assuredly can. Every single person I come in contact with I can share Christ with them. Verbally? Sometimes, but more often than not it will be in my actions, a smile, a helping hand, a listening ear. The grace which God poured out in me should be like pouring tea into a cup and letting it overflow. It should spill out all around me, touching each person I come in contact with. It may not seem like much. I know when I met Christ personally, November 6, 1972 at 11:30 at night, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be where I am today, be the person He has fashioned me into, having shared Him with countless people...some of whom I won't know about until I go home to heaven. All because of a little bit of grace.... Can any good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46) Only the very BEST!!!!