Come to the Table: Food, Fellowship, and a Celebration of God's Bounty

By Benita Long, Susan Wilson, Ann Mitchell and 2 more

A cookbook with a focus on entertaining family and friends, featuring photographs of table settings and meals, as well inspirational quotes and Scriptures.

God intends for us, as sacred life travelers, to celebrate and enjoy His bounty. Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor for it is the gift of God.

This celebration of life was intended by God to be a way of life now and as preparation for a future event in which as followers of Christ, all are invited to participate. God intends for us to enjoy his blessings in abundance.

Come to the Table is a threefold feast. For the mind, there are thought-provoking quotations from great poets and thinkers. For the spirit, stunning photographs and inspirational Scriptures transport you to another realm. For the body, there are hearty and delectable recipes.

Inside the collection, you’ll find soothing dishes for the soul including . . .

• Parmesan Grits Casserole,
• Grilled Lemon Chicken,
• Cheddar Squash Strata,
• Lamb Kabobs and much more!

Throughout Come to the Table, very few people appear. This is our personal way of inviting you to claim each setting as your own.

“That the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water” [Joel 3:18].

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781418586447

Benita Long

Benita Long is a lifelong resident of Augusta, Georgia. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College and did graduate studies at the University of South Carolina. She works as an independent research assistant.

Book preview

The Path of Celebration | Table of Contents

An Invitation, A Welcome, and A Challenge

Our Friends Greet You | 3 John 14

The First Meal of the Day

It Is Pleasant for the Eyes to Behold the Sun | Ecclesiastes 11:7

Parties, Picnics, and Lunch in a Basket

I Heard Your Voice in the Garden | Genesis 3:10

Dinner on the Grounds

Eat There and Rejoice Before the Lord Your God | Deuteronomy 27:7

Four Small Group Dinners

House to House, They Ate Their Food with Gladness | Acts 2:46

Family Gatherings

Joy and Gladness, a Feast and a Holiday | Esther 8:17

Seafood Selections

And the Fish of the Sea Will Explain to You | Job 12:8

Small Morsels

That You May Refresh Your Hearts | Genesis 18:5

Magnificent Table Prayers

What Thanks Can We Render to God | 1 Thessalonians 3:9

A Valediction by Steve Wingfield

Grace Be With You | Colossians 4:18

Acknowledgments

Not That We Are Sufficient of Ourselves | 2 Corinthians 3:5

Index

Survey in a Book | Joshua 18:9

Our Friends Greet You

[3 John 14]

An Invitation, A Welcome, and A Challenge

Please, dear reader, join us at the table. We are ready and set to celebrate. We invite you to move through these pages, where celebration is presented as a living thankfulness. It is not confined to holidays, holy days, or even to days of special blessing. We are invited and called to celebrate, every day, the munificent, temporal gifts of God. Joyous living has the power to transform the journey of life into sacred travel, which, by definition is pilgrimage. Life as such in no way diminishes the traditional spiritual disciplines, but enhances them. To assist you in this process, we have a Path of Celebration, one that will drip with abundance [Psalm 65:11]. Its goal is to offer visual inspiration for a joy-filled life. The paths they have not known of Isaiah [42:16] belong to God’s heaven. Our Path is of His earth. It celebrates the Lord’s bountiful gift of daily nourishment. More than a gift, it was and is, a generous endowment. How we receive it and offer it to others is important to God. The appeal is universal, the possibilities immense. A voice from the fourth century, that of Gregory of Nyssa, tells us that the sacred is everywhere. Look for something on every page. In addition to innovative ideas for preparing and serving food, our Path of Celebration includes thoughts and reflections for your spiritual nourishment. You may choose to simply peruse these pages, or you may decide to become an active participant. In A.D. 1106, the Russian Abbot Daniel made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Upon his return, he concluded that in many ways, reading about such travel was as beneficial as the journey itself. Our word for journey comes from the French jour, meaning day. We hope that in your own personal journey you will find the promised joy of each day, and that as for all true pilgrims, your path and your goal will merge.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

[Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, 1749–1832]

Throughout Come To The Table, Food, Fellowship, and a Celebration of God’s Bounty, you will notice that very few people appear. This is our personal way of inviting you to claim each setting as your own. In like manner the beautiful plates are often pictured before any food is placed on them. This provides us all with a vivid reminder that more important than what is served is the grace with which it is prepared and offered. We are indeed the beneficiaries of God’s promise of prosperity and peace, That the mountains shall drip with new wine, The hills shall flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water [Joel 3:18]. Doesn’t this just make you want to celebrate!

I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

[Ecclesiastes 3:12]

It Is Pleasant for the Eyes

to Behold the Sun

[Ecclesiastes 11:7]

The First Meal of the Day

How do you break the fast of night? Is the first nourishment of your day physical or is it spiritual? Are your earliest hours hurried and hectic or more leisurely? Whatever your routine, morning is a time for fresh sustenance from the earth, and for renewed thinking as well. The reflections in this section center around the nature of morning. Using the Bible as a lens [Marcus Borg], they shed new light on this beautiful time of day. What did God mean when He called the light Day [Genesis 1:5]?

Throughout the Bible, morning is imagined in many ways. In Genesis 3:8 it is the cool of day and in I Samuel 9:26 it is the dawning. In more human imagery, Job 41:18 calls it the eyelids and Solomon describes it as the time that day breathes. On his deathbed, King David prays for a king like the light of the morning [2 Samuel 23:4]. In the New Testament, Paul uses the image of morning as an opportunity for Christians to put on the armor of light [Romans 13:12].

In like manner, this imagery has often tethered poets to the Bible. We hope that you will enjoy hearing their combined voices. The pages of this section are to entice you! Receive your first meal of the day with gladness. Recall often the words of the poet Henry David Thoreau: Renew thyself completely each day, do it again, and again, and forever again.

Yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

[2 Corinthians 4:16]

Oh Lord, with each returning morn

Thine image to our hearts is born.

Oh may we ever clearly see

Our Savior and our God in Thee.

O joyful be the passing day

With thoughts as clear as morning’s ray

With faith like noontide shining bright

Our souls unshadowed by the night.

[Ambrose of Milan, c. 340–397]

The First Meal of the Day

Italian Sausage Strata | 13

Orange Cranberry Bread | 14

Parmesan Grits Casserole | 17

Marian’s Brunch Apricots | 18

Creamed Chicken on Cornbread |