FreshBread - Raven Ministries June 2007
This first prose article is by a dear friend, Allison Allen. Some of you out there have things roaming around in your hearts that could be shared as well, so send them on over! (Please make them as short as these are, however.)
We are living at a juncture of history that will reveal us as sons and daughters of the Living God (Romans 8), or bitter, angry people who have tried to use the Name of God as their own. We can be goats or sheep, it's our choice. Frankly, I'm allergic to the goat pen. They make me sneeze.They make God say "I never knew you." This issue of Freshbread is a checkup. A place of meditation for all of us to ask the Lord some personal questions about ourselves and His desires for us. Love, faye
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The Elements 6/20/07 by Allison Allen
God, was there more to the bread and wine of communion than we see? Was it not only a symbol of Your body and blood but rather, of Your entire life??
The process of bread making consists of adding a few ingredients and mixing. 1 man, 1 woman a dash of salt....was the salt the fact that You were perceived as a 'bastard' child? A little salt in the wounds of the Pharisees? Is the saying "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" actually talking about hypocrisy in the church? Is that why during Passover they were to have 'unleavened' bread - to be clean from the hypocrisies of life? To quit being a Pharisee?
Once the ingredients are mixed we knead the bread - were those Your younger years? The knocks You took growing up? The heartache You must have endured as You watched people and knew it wasn't Your time to show them the Way? How many times were You kneaded??
Then the resting period - when the dough rises for the first time. Was that Your call to the ministry, when Your fame spread throughout the land? The time of sweet relationship not only with your Father but with Your followers?
Once the dough has risen we punch it down to rise again. Is that Your betrayal? You taking the judgment for all mankind? The rising again on the third day?
Then once the bread is baked (the furnace of affliction and suffering for us?) we serve and eat. But are we really serving you? Are we really partaking of who You really are? Or are we like so many -- taking the 'crust' off the bread before eating?
The wine goes through a pressing (or stomping of feet) and fermenting time - again Your betrayal - Your beatings? To be poured out for consumption. Is that not just Your Blood but also the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? For us to consume and be made drunk from Your presence? So when You turned the water into wine at the marriage supper was that a symbolism for our lives? We are plain 'unflavored' people and You come and turn us into something to be tasted, shared and enjoyed? How many of us are really that way? And if we are sharing are we the "Thunderbird" variety or a fine vintage wine? And is it our own trials or fermentation that makes us one or the other, or just what we do with them? God make me a fine wine and not a drunk's cheap choice....
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The Vineyard by Faye Higbee
"God make me a fine wine, and not a drunk's cheap choice." That is a profound prayer, if you think about it. The difference between fine wine and cheap wine is not so much the production process, but the QUALITY OF THE GRAPE ITSELF. Fine wines are made from grapes that have been specially grown in just the right soils and masterfully pruned until the fruit is perfect for the vinification process. Great care over many years of hard work is required by an excellent vintner to grow high quality wine grapes.
Several years ago I had a vision of a long white fence covered with vines. The fence ran along the pathway of life, a fairly narrow dirt road.The vines were covered with big, shiny apples! As the people around me walked by the apples, they grabbed them off the vine, took huge bites out of them and threw the fruit away to rot alongside the road. It was a violent scene and it disturbed me deeply. The Lord spoke something at that moment that sank deep into my spirit: "My people are to bear grapes for wine. Apples do not grow on vines, and they were seen of men to be destroyed. Bear the correct fruit. Become the fruit that is pressed into New Wine." Do you see the Body of Christ in that picture? And where are each of us individually?
In Luke 13:8 Jesus told the parable of the vineyard in which there was planted a tree that bore no fruit. He was going to cut the tree down, but the keeper of the vineyard begged Him not to do so. He promised that he would work with the tree and fertilize it to see if it would snap out of its death mode and bear fruit. Just after that, an older woman who had been sick for 18 years came to the synagogue. Jesus healed her. She was a woman who had borne no fruit for a very long time. But He took the time and compassion to touch her life and set her free. And it made the Pharisees livid!
A Pharisee is someone who lives in the letter of the law rather than the liberty of Christ. They complain about helping others or wear any help they might deign to give as a badge of honor. Pharisees don't repent for being cold and hard, they complain about everyone because they believe they know everything, and have judged the others as beneath them. They have their personal doctrines and opinions down to a science, but they have no real love of God or people in their hearts. They want to be seen of men, but not bow in humility before God. Pride is their garment. They are not grapes fit to be "fine wine." When they are pressed, they give off a most obnoxious flavor.
Jesus is our example. He allowed Himself to be pressed, destroyed, broken, and even torn from the Father so that we would receive relationship to God, a place in the Vine. Can we not at least allow Him to change our lives so that our "pressing" will yield the sweet flavors of Christ; and the wine we give to others will be fresh and new?
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