John Vandervelde - Program Director
The other day I was at our local grocery store here in Eagle River buying the weekly load of food for my family. As I wandered through the aisles, filling the cart and checking off items from the list, my phone rang. It was my wife, Kari, and she had forgotten to include something on the list. She was planning on making pizza and needed yeast for the dough. I added to the list some packets of yeast, the kind suited for use in a bread machine. I think I had only seen yeast maybe once or twice before in my life. It took me a little bit to find it in the store, but eventually I did. As I picked up the little packets of "Red Star" yeast, I was amazed at how small and light they were. I shook the packets and could hear and feel the tiniest bit of powdery substance inside. Knowing how important yeast is in the process of baking, I marveled at how something so small could be so important. I thought about how useless the dough would be for the pizza if it didn't have yeast worked through it.Jesus talks about yeast in the Bible. In Matthew 13:33, he tells a parable, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." If you look through Bible commentary books on this verse, there are several interpretations given trying to explain what Jesus meant. Truly, there are multiple layers of teaching going on here in this parable. One of those layers is Christ teaching us about the truth of the Gospel being like yeast that is worked into our hearts, our lives, our communities, and our world. This yeast causes change and, ultimately, causes growth.
At HoneyRock, our goal is to have the truth of the Gospel and the principles of the Kingdom of God worked in, like yeast, throughout the entire ministry. Truth is not just the foundation that the ministry is built on; it's more than that. Teaching and living the truth in all our programs, everyday, is what were aiming for. We know that when the truth of the Gospel and the principles of the Kingdom of God are worked through our programs, like yeast in the dough, they will cause growth and change in peoples' lives, change in their communities, and change in the world.
In a world that screams to our young people that there is no absolute truth, HoneyRock stands against this current. We stand for truth. There is absolute truth, and it is found in the Bible which tells the true story of a God who created us and loves us. A God who loved us so much that He provided for us His only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of Heaven, and His life and teachings show us how to live our lives as agents of this Kingdom. Through His death and resurrection, He makes reconciliation with God possible, and provides life, hope, healing, and transformation to broken people, broken communities, a broken world, and a broken universe. Finally, as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, Christ's death on the cross and resurrection from the grave provide eternal life in heaven for all those who believe in Him.
Today and forever, this is the truth we're standing for, and we stand with millions of others all over the globe. Thank you for standing with us.
-Pictures from Saturday's HoneyRock Round-Up will be up soon on our Facebook Page and here on the Blog.