Banquet With The King: Let’s Eat

Prayer – Lord, we focus on food—day and night. I want to refocus on to thinking, preparing, and eating Your food—Your very words. Guide my heart that I would feast wisely today…and every day.

Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. Romans 14:15-23 NKJV (Underlined for emphasis.)

Meditate. Read God’s word and listen to what He is saying.

Does what you eat or drink get in the way of your witness to others? This focus scripture for today from Romans 14 is interesting in The Message Bible.

God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness’ sake. It’s what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you’ll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you. Romans 14:17-18 The Message.

Feed yourself God's Word.

I appreciate the way Paul’s teaching is paraphrased in The Message. Our job or task is to serve Christ by serving others around us. I think sometimes we get sidetracked and focus on ourselves and our stomachs. When is the next Potluck? Then we consider how we can help others. Does that remind you of the airline warning at the beginning of flights? In case of emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. Likewise, we should feed ourselves—God’s word—before we feed others. It’s not a matter of the food you put into your stomach, but the spiritual food you put into your heart, mind, and soul.

Let’s eat God’s food…and share it with others on a regular basis.

Verse of Salvation ~ So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47 NKJV

Friday’s Feast at the King’s Table

Food for thought. We eat to live and live to eat. That’s been a generally unspoken motto for our family for years. Well—I have spoken it out loud a bunch of times especially when thinking about recipes for this blog over the past twelve years. It is my husband’s driving force throughout each day. What’s for…breakfast, lunch, supper…snacks? He loves to shop—so he’s been doing most of the grocery shopping the last few years. I’m a bit of a homebody—but I do love to cook. Baking has been a passion—over the last fifty years, but just too many carbs, so I very infrequently actually bake anything. Ah, for some nice peanut butter cookies like my maternal grandmother used to make…or some fresh German kuchen that my paternal grandmother frequently baked. I can just smell those baked good just thinking about them.

What kitchen fragrances triggers your memories? Since it is Groundhog's Day...are you reliving those memories over and over?

Peanut Butter Cookies

½ cup shortening – use butter or oil

½ cup peanut butter – crunchy or smooth

½ cup cane sugar

½ cup brown sugar

½ tsp vanilla

1 egg

1¼ cups flour

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Mix butters, sugar, egg and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients. Cover and chill about an hour.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Dip fork in flour and make a crisscross pattern on each cookie. Bake 10-12 minutes until set, but not hard. Yields about 3 dozen cookies. Enjoy!

All scripture quoted from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted.

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.

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Banquet With The King

Friday, February 2, 2024

Let’s Eat

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