Making bread

My wife Reneé and I started baking bread from scratch this week. Now we had several reasons that we wanted to do this that are not important but in the process we began to learn several biblical principles. Reneé started talking about it and it has really got me to thinking.

What is bread? Bread is a basic staple food of life that gives us nourishment and sustenance. This nourishment and sustenance is something that we all need.

Most of us are familiar with what Jesus said in ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. (John 6:48, New King James Version)

But when we make bread from scratch there are even more spiritual symbolisms that we must consider. First lets think of the ingredients there are only 4 basic ingredients in bread.

1- flour- the flour is us. It comes in all different flavors and colors just like we do. But in the end flour is flour.

2-yeast- the yeast is the Holy Spirit. This is what does the work in us and the bread. It is the action of the yeast that raises up the bread just as it is the action of the Holy Spirit that raises us up.

3-salt- salt is a flavoring we use in life.
¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
(Matthew 5:13, New King James Version)

4-water- 1 Peter 3:21 says-water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now when you make bread you dip flour into the water that is full of yeast and salt and a new thing emerges dough. Now when you are baptized you get dipped into water and the Holy Spirit is activated in you and you are a new thing that emerges from the water. You are now dough.

But just as it is with you this is not the end of making bread. Now you must let the dough be still for 2 hours. You can't do anything to speed this up you must let the yeast do its work. How many times have we all wanted something right away from God only to find out we must be still and let the Holy Spirit do its work.

Now the dough has to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Again we are asked to be still and wait on the Lord.

Now you have to shape and work the dough. How many times have we thought we were perfect just the way we are only to find out God wants to reshape us and work us into a new form.

Now the dough has to sit again for an hour on the counter. Again we are asked to be still and wait on the Lord. We must be patient.

Now the dough is put into the oven and baked for 40 minutes. How many times in our lives do we feel like we are put into the fire. James 1:2-4 says Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. You see when we are facing the fire of our lives that is the testing of our faith and the perseverance. Now the dough is tested by the fire of the oven and only when it has finished its work is the dough mature and complete and it becomes bread.

Now of course when we eat the bread we get nourished for a time but our bodies need us to make more bread every day to continue this nourishment.

We also know that Jesus is the bread of life when we take of Him our spirit gets nourished forever.

But we also know that we must continue to walk with Him each and every day so that the Holy Spirit can work in us, so that we can be changed and reshaped, so that we can learn to be still and wait on the Lord, and so that we can face the fire of adversity and become something new. This is something if we choose we will do for the rest of our lives. So is baking bread!

Lord thank you for all the bread in my life both the physical and the spiritual. Amen

Our first loaf...