You.

Don'T you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. One Corinthians, chapter five, verse six yeast is the leavening agent used in baking bread. When yeast is mixed with flour, sugar, salt, butter and water, it produces a chemical reaction that converts sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. This is what makes bread dough rise and become airy and fluffy. A little bit of yeast is all it takes because that little bit of yeast multiplies and spreads throughout the dough very quickly. An entire ball of dough is affected by that little bit of yeast. Yeast in bread dough is a good thing, but the Bible almost always uses yeast to illustrate what happens when we allow sin into our lives. Instead of being a good thing, it is actually a very bad thing. One sin quickly multiplies into more sins and contaminates our whole life in the same way that a little bit of yeast affects the entire ball of dough. This was, in fact, Paul's point in his letter to the Corinthians. Sin that is tolerated, ignored and overlooked will, like yeast, spread to affect in a negative way everything else in our life or in the church. So sin must be exposed and dealt with. We cannot run the risk of ruining our lives by ignoring sin any more than we can run the risk of ignoring cancer in our body. So what can we do about sin? It is too simplistic to say just say no to sin. The Bible is clear about the fact that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But forgiveness can be found in the death of Jesus, who by his death paid the penalty for our sin and canceled its effect on our eternity. We gain forgiveness and cleansing through faith and baptism into Christ. But once cleansed and forgiven, we have the responsibility of steering clear of sin. As Jesus told the sinful woman in John eight, go now and leave your life of sin. A little bit of yeast is all it takes to affect the entire ball of dough. And a little bit of sin in our life or in the church is all it takes to affect in a negative way both our present and our future. We simply cannot ignore sin and have everything else turn out well.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected] have a great day and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.