Banquet With The King: Love is What Matters

God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
Do you obey God's commandments?
Holy Family Shrine at Gretna, Nebraska

Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him. Therefore, you must obey all these commands, decrees, and regulations I am giving you today. Deuteronomy 7:9-11

Meditate. Consider God’s love.

Whether I am in Nazareth, Jerusalem, or out in the countryside working with Joseph on some stone building project, I think about my Father God. Listening to the Rabbis teach at the Temple in Jerusalem over Passover, I deduced that the greatest aspect of our God is His Love. One scripture that they quoted in their teaching and debate on this aspect of God is from Deuteronomy as part of the instructions that God gave Moses for the Israelites before they went into the Promised Land. He was telling them that He loves them…a lot…and wants them to love Him. They can show their love by keeping—obeying—His commandments. That is still important today. Things don’t change with God. It has been over a thousand years since Joshua brought the Hebrew people into the Promised Land, and God is still the same. He won’t be changing in the next thousands of years either. He still loves and wants to be loved. As Moses wrote, he provided a warning and promise of the importance of keeping God’s commandments.

If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the LORD your God will keep his covenant of unfailing love with you, as he promised with an oath to your ancestors. Deuteronomy 7:12

God is specific. He lets people know just what He expects of them…and in turn what He promises to do for them. I like that about my God. No guesswork. That is just how I want to be when I grow up. Specific, loving, merciful, and understanding. It is love that matters, and that shows in all other traits.

Prayer – Lord God, as I consider how Jesus, as a boy, viewed scripture and You, Father God, I am compelled to want to be like Jesus—obedient. May my devotion to You continue to grow and give me the courage to follow just what You expect.

Verse of Salvation ~ My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations. All distant lands will look to me and wait in hope for my powerful arm. Look up to the skies above, and gaze down on the earth below. For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing. The people of the earth will die like flies, but my salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never end! Isaiah 51:5-6

Friday’s Feast at the King’s Table

What did Jesus eat as a boy? Pre-teens and teenagers can put away a lot of food! Have you ever noticed that? A couple of my granddaughters just moved from the kids’ menu to the big people's regular menu at restaurants. Big difference in cost—but they manage to clean up their plates and look for anything that someone else isn’t going to eat!

What did Jesus eat as a boy? Would Nazareth have restaurants? Likely not. His family prepared their food at home, not relying on going to local restaurants even for special occasions. Everyone made their own bread, and Korb speculates in his book, Life in Year One, that sharing meals with others was common. Recall the story of a man asking his friend for bread in Luke 11? It may have been a pita-type bread, not loaves of bread like we are used to eating. Pita Bread can be made with baking powder or yeast. Here is a yeast version.

Pita Bread

1 package of yeast, or quick-rising yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2-3 cups all-purpose flour (for gluten-free, use 1/2 c coconut flour and 1 1/2 cups rice flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Allow yeast to rise for 10-15 minutes. Combine 2 cups of flour and the salt in a large bowl, and add the yeast water in the center of the flour. Then, slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, adding more flour if necessary. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes until it is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic.

Coat a large bowl with oil and place the dough in bowl, turning the dough over so it is all coated.
Put the bowl in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on a floured surface. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven and baking sheet to 500 deg F with the oven rack at the very bottom. Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into 3-6 inch circles, about 1/4 inch thick, or smaller and thicker, if desired. Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes.

Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and gently push down the puff. If you don’t eat it immediately, which is the best way to enjoy it, then place the bread in paper bags to keep it soft. These pitas can be stored for a week at room temperature or up to a month in the freezer. Use freezer bags when freezing.

Serve with hummus or stuff the pita with cooked or raw vegetables and a little sliced cooked fish or chicken. Enjoy and think about Jesus eating pita bread with His family and with the disciples.

Recipe from June 15, 2012, Banquet With The King blog.

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.

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