SELF rising meal

when i travel through the aisles of a grocery store, cruising down the cereal isle, then back up the pickle and bean isle picking up speed in order to get closer to the ice cream cooler, the glimpse of the sacks of flour, in particular the Martha White section takes my mind back to the days of my childhood, yes riding in the front seat without a seatbelt listening to the Grand Ol Opry.

I can remember listening to the smooth talking announcer setting up the next portion of the show. Typically it was the legendary Roy Acuff anchoring the Martha white portion of the show singing the Wabash Cannonball. The crowd would erupt with applause, whistles and cheers and for the life of me at the time i couldnt understand.

But as i fast forward to my 48 year old goggles, the thought of the SELF rising meal takes me to a place where we see a people, a remnant of souls scurrying about to leave and experience freedom from their generation after generation being held in captivity and FINALLY when the WORD comes that they can go……go they did…… hard to imagine the immediate flood of emotions when something (freedom) you spoke about having, but not ever really believing you would taste it. But taste they did and in their hurry to leave, they were instructed to leave out an ingredient in their bread that normally helped it rise, leaven. (Exodus) Check out the definition of leaven from the free dictionary.com

n. 1. An agent, such as yeast, that causes batter or dough to rise, especially by fermentation. 2. An element, influence, or agent that works subtly to lighten, enliven, or modify a whole. tr.v. leav·ened, leav·en·ing, leav·ens 1. To add a rising agent to. 2. To cause to rise, especially by fermentation. 3. To pervade with a lightening, enlivening, or modifying influence. Ol Martha White is on to something here! Look she added the agent, she added the influencing matter to enliven the dough so we wouldn’t have to do this ourSELF. Wonder if Martha was a believer in Jesus Christ? Wonder if she knew that it was Jesus rising HimSELF through her when she said yes to HIM, that gave her the idea to add the agent that would cause the dough to rise? wonder if the people around Martha felt and experienced her enlivened spirit, a spirit that had a positive, loving influence on those that came through her kitchen?  I dont know for sure about Martha’s faith or if Martha White was or is a real person. I do know that Christ rose so we wouldnt have to be SELF risen. he rose so that we can live Christ RISEn lives, lives that influence people in our homes, RISEn lives that can help modify a whole in our places of work and enliven a community by how we serve our RISEn Savior Thankful to be meeting more and more people who already are loving/operating in the Christ RISEn mode and those desirous to start! love em up!