Why I love Bible study software

Today I (finally) got started on studying for the first week in our six-month study of the Book of John for Sunday School.

I also remembered why I love having Bible Study software.  You see, John 1:1-18 is very complex. I would need a lot (I mean a lot) of space to hold all the books I would need.

But technology is indeed wonderful.

The above image is my desk, all set up to study.

But so you can see what I've got going on, I'm going to list every resource open and ready to use:

Holman Christian Standard Bible

New International Standard Bible (2011)

New American Standard Bible (1995)

King James Version

Greek New Testament (SBL)

Hebrew Old Testament (BHS)

Greek Septuagint

Analytical Greek New Testament

Pillar New Testament Commentary on John by D.A. Carson

Faithlife Study Bible

Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament

Apologetics Study Bible

The Beloved Disciples Memoirs and Letters by Bob Utley

The Bible Exposition Commentary

Matthew Henry's Unabridged Commentary

Jammieson, Fauset, and Brown's Commentary on the Bible

Jesus and the Gospels by Craig Blomberg

Gray and Adams Bible Commentary on Matthew-Acts

Introduction to the New Testament by D.A. Carson and Douglas Moo

A Word Study software that analyzes each word and provides how and where it is used.

That image shows 20 resources open and ready to study.  Yeah, I like Bible study software :)

The Kosher Diaries - End

At last, the time of my following the Kosher laws has come to an end.

Yesterday was far too busy for me to write a blog post, so I'll put here both yesterday and today's posts.

Day 10 

The Dawn of the Final Day.  I ate a bowl of cereal, had a burrito, and drank a chocolate shake.

But lunch is where everything changes.  Yes, I stopped it short.  Here's the story.

     On Wednesday, I had some big issues.  One big one was that my wife's phone, which she has only had for 2 weeks, got milk all over it.  We tried for a few days to put it in rice, but it was shot.

     Fast forward to Saturday.  I took off some work to go to the Apple Store.  Given circumstances regarding next week, I really don't have time to do it except on Saturday.  When we got to the Apple Store, they set us an appointment for over an hour later.  Did I mention that we were starving? Also, this is a mall, and malls don't really have Kosher places to eat.  So we went to the place that I wanted to have my first non-Kosher food: Chick-Fil-A.

Meat.  And Cheese.  In the same meal.  Who would think of it?

So with that bite of wonderful chickeny goodness, my days of Kosher observation came to a tasty end.

From about 7pm Wednesday, July 31, to about 12:15 Saturday, August 10, I had no non-Kosher food.  

My Observations 

     Food is more important than we give it credit for.  We're humans.  Not only am I American, but I'm a Southern Baptist.  Therefore, I love to eat.  But until this time, food has never been too much in my thoughts.  I am far more grateful to God for food now than I ever have been.  Especially now that I can eat whatever I want.  

     Planning meals is easier than I thought.  Before we began this, we ate out a lot.  We've tried cooking at home, but it's pretty hit and miss.  Some weeks are much worse than others.  But for over a week, fast food was essentially off the table.  I had my meals planned out for 10 days.  I hope to do more planning in the future.  Especially now that I don't have to scour the supermarket for the Kosher version.

     Eating together is essential.  We, in our house, eat together.  90%+ of the time we eat the same food.  But since only I was going Kosher, my wife had to think up different things.  We'd end up eating different things at different times.  It was sad.  I feel for those families who never eat together.  It is a gift that is worth working for.

Exception!?

     Yes, if one wants to be technical, I did make one exception.  During my time under the Kosher laws, I willingly consumed one non-Kosher food.  If that disqualifies me in your eyes, then so be it.  But what I drank, I drank not for pleasure, but in sacred reverence.  I used non-Kosher Communion juice.

    I am aware that this blog may float around on the interwebs for some time, and there exists the possibility that a Jew blindly searching 'Kosher' (or somebody in general unfamiliar with Christian practice) may stumble onto this.  For this reason I will explain what I'm talking about here.

     On the night before His death, The Lord Jesus observed the Passover Seder with His disciples.  During the Seder, Jesus spoke of the unleavened bread and the wine as a physical example of the price He would soon pay.  The bread is His body, broken for us.  His blood is the blood of the New Covenant (See Jeremiah 31), shed for many for the remission of sins.  Jesus instituted a ritual meal, observed often, to remind Christians in a tangible sense of the what happened on the Cross.  So we eat unleavened bread and drink wine (or grape juice) to symbolize His body and blood. 

     We as a family observe this ritual, called Communion or The Lord's Supper, every Sunday night, at the end of the Sabbath.  In fact, about as soon as I am done with writing this blog post we will observe Communion.  But considering that what I drank was not meant for pleasure, but rather as merely a symbol of the gift of God, it doesn't concern me that I drank non-Kosher Communion juice.

So what have I eaten now?

    Well, since it is the Sabbath, we haven't made food today.  But I ate chicken sliders at White Castle (one of them with bacon).  And later I went to Sonic and had a banana and bacon shake.  Yes, it was delicious.

And with that, I shall the close the book on this time of observing the Kosher laws.  It's been a good time, but I'm glad to eat with the grace of God behind me.

The Kosher Diaries - Day 9

I'm at the final stretch.  Tomorrow will be my last day under Kosher laws.  I am both very excited and, well, very excited.  Even though Kosher has sort of become the new normal, I'm ready to go back to the real normal.  As the song says, "It's Friday, but Sunday is coming!"

Breakfast - Two chocolate shakes (one of them with 30g of protein), and a bowl of cereal.  After a whole day with no dairy, I was glad to get some milk in me.  

Lunch - Broccoli cheddar bake.  I had it about a week ago, but it was good enough to get again.

Dinner - Grilled cheese sandwiches.  Not only was my wife willing to make them for me, she also made Kosher marinara sauce!

Oh boy, I'm tired.  And I'm hungry.  I want non-Kosher food right now.  But I just have to make it until Sunday.

In the interest of full disclosure, I may possibly end it at about 7 pm tomorrow.  I don't think I will, but my wife and I talked about going to Red Robin then.  It jut be then, though.  Even though Thurdsday was my first day going Kosher, I actually ate nothing after 7 pm Wednesday night.  So technically, if I stop it after 7 tomorrow, I'll still have done the 10 days.  Again, I don't think I will, but the possibility does remain open.

The Kosher Diaries - Days 7 and 8

This is essentially two blog posts in one.  Last night was so exhausting, for multiple reasons, that I just didn't have the energy to write.

August 7 

This day, foodwise, wasn't too bad.  It felt more "normal" than any other day yet.

Breakfast - Chocolate shake.  Simple.  It turned out not to be enough.  An energy bar helped round out this meal a couple hours later.

Lunch - After the previous day's Mac n Cheese debacle, I felt I deserved some of the real stuff.  Thankfully, Walmart sells frozen Mac n Cheese that turns out to be Kosher.  It tasted shockingly similar to Kraft's version.  I still prefer the non-Kosher kind, but this was a winner nonetheless.

Dinner - Bacon cheese fries.  What?  You say that bacon isn't Kosher?  True, but this is the "other exception" I alluded to all the way back in Day 1.  French fried potatoes loaded with melted cheese and Bacon Salt!  It was really good, and even better when I added ketchup to the mix.  However adding ketchup drowned out the bacon taste, so I just left that out of the rest of the meal.

August 8

Now today was an interesting day.  On Monday I had meat for the first time since going Kosher.  Today, I chose to eat meat all day.  That's right, I have not had any dairy products all day.  It's really weird to have such a reverse of the normal day.  I'm used to chocolate shakes, strawberry milk, protein bars, and all that good stuff.  But today I eschewed all that, and enjoyed plenty of meat.

Breakfast - Hot dogs.  Was some good stuff.

Lunch - Being off today, we went to the Kosher deli that was closed on Sunday.  I had my heart set on eating a chicken sandwich, but one of the servers comes up to me and offers some freshly sliced pastrami.  I have not had much pastrami before, but I can tell you that that was the best pastrami I've ever had.  It was so nice to have a sandwich, fries, and a soda.  Yet still be Kosher.  

Dinner - At the deli I decided to buy some turkey salami, and grilled up some sandwiches with lettuce and (pareve) barbecue sauce.  It would've been good, except the bread I used was absolutely disgusting.  I ended up just eating the salami by itself.  That salami, like the pastrami, was the best I'd ever had.

So now my teeth are brushed, I've stopped eating meat, and I'm ready to wake up tomorrow and enjoy all the dairy I didn't have today.

The Kosher Diaries - Day 6

Today seemed like it was back to normal (for being Kosher, atl east).  Yesterday I had to wake up and restrain myself even more so that I could eat meat.  Today I woke up and drank milk like I usually do, went through the day like I usually do.  After five days of doingthis, honestly it sort of seems like the new normal.  Of course I am excited to be done with Kashrut (the Kosher laws), but it really kind of feels like this is just the way things are.

Breakfast - Chocolate shake and a baked ziti meal.  I am so thankful for these convenient meals you can buy at Walmart or Dierberg's.  Saved my bum on more than one occasion.

Lunch - Plans got changed, but I ended up eating another convenient meal, this time chili with rice and cornbread.  For being a frozen meal, it was shockingly good.  Boy I miss chili with hamburger, and shredded cheese on it.  But such is life.

Dinner - This one was sad.  I had been looking forward to this meal as one of my most exciting ones planned.  But it just . . . wasn't great.  I found a Kosher boxed Mac n Cheese meal.  So my wife made Kraft Easy Mac, and I made . . . this.

The one that looks very unappetizing is Kosher.

It was soupy.  And odd.  I had to add Bacon Salt just to finish it.  Obviously it isnt something I'd ever have again.  It was one of my biggest temptations to quit, watching my wife eat her tasty meal while I had Noodles n' Porridge.

But at least the day is over, and I can look forward to Day 7 :)

The Kosher Diaries - Day 5

Today was fantastic!  

Breakfast - HOT DOGS!  The first meat I've had since Wednesday night.  It was so good to have meat, and it gave me an awesome strength boost for work.

Lunch - MORE HOT DOGS!  Taken together with breakfast , the hot dogs gave me over 50g of protein, which worked out really well.

Dinner - NOT HOT DOGS!  Immediately after lunch I went to the bathroom, flossed, brushed, and mouthwashed my teeth, and started a 6 hour timer before I could have dairy again.  When I finally could, I had some strawberry milk and spaghetti.  The spaghetti was just okay, but it'll do :)

So why was today so wonderful?  Was it because work was awesome?  No.  Was it because I had hot dogs?  Yes, but only a small part.

Today was awesome because we found out the gender of our child today, and we're having a son!!!

I am so excited about this.  I'm gonna have a little boy!

Also exciting is that I'm officially halfway through this experiment of going Kosher.  As nice and different as it is, Sunday can't come soon enough.  

The Kosher Diaries - Day 4

Today has been quite the day. As far as rest goes it was quite restful, but mentally and emotionally I feel very exhausted. I don't need to deal with things that are not within the scope of this post, but essentially there is something I had planned on happening, but it doesn't look like it will. But I'm learning to be thankful and content with that. Part of that process being spurred by watching Madame Blueberry from Veggietales (yes, even people who earn degrees in Bible can be helped greatly by kids movies).

Anyway, for the topic of this blog post, I was greatly excited to go to Creve Coeur, enjoy the nice parks, and go to the Jewish Community Center. I didn't even know the place existed. They had a fast food restaurant. A Kosher fast-food restaurant. I had soda for the first time in days. It was weird having a PB&J with fries and soda, but hey, it's Kosher food I didn't have to buy.

So here's the rundown of my meals, since that's become kind of a pattern here:

Breakfast - As mentioned yesterday, we made pancakes. They didn't turn out well. We suspect it may be because we used regular white vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar we always use (since that vinegar isn't Kosher).

Lunch - We planned for meatless nachos, but that was just a failure. So I went out and bought a Kosher pizza. It was nice, and was the first cheese I've had since Wednesday that wasn't cheddar.

Dinner - The aforementioned fast food. (Shown below)

What I'm really excited about is tomorrow. I've brushed my teeth, flossed them, and I've stopped eating dairy foods. Why? Because tomorrow morning I'M HAVING HOT DOGS! I haven't had meat since Wednesday, and we bought Hebrew National hot dogs for just this occasion. Needless to say it won't be for just one meal.

So tomorrow will be a very exciting day, and not just because of the hot dogs ;) 

The Kosher Diaries - Day 3

I was greatly surprised by how often I was full today.  Granted, I ate a lot of protein, but it was still quite a surprise.  I'm starting to miss fast food.  I looked online to see if there was anything I could eat at a fast food restaurant, but alas, unless the restauarant is a Kosher restaurant, no deal. 

Breakfast - Some nasty spinach and tofu wrap.  It was barely passable, and I couldn't bring myself to eat all of it.  At least I had a chocolate protein shake to go with it.

Lunch - Baked beans and a (different) chocolate protein shake.  I couldn't believe that this shake had 30g of protein in it!  After that and the baked beans, I almost felt like I was going to throw up I was so full.

Dinner - Brinner!  Everyone loves breakfast for dinner. 

A healthy and balanced Kosher brinner. (battery not included.)

Its past 10 pm as I write this, and I am exhausted.  But its for good reason. Tomorrow is the Sabbath (and no, we aren't doing that just because of this Kosher experiment.  We actually observe the Sabbath and the Lord's Supper every Sunday).  Because tomorrow is the Sabbath, and we refrain from working, that means that our Saturday nights are extremely busy and exhausting.  We clean up everything and make the house ready for a day of rest.  

Today though, we did something different.  We made pancake batter so that we can have pancakes tomorrow without the effort!  All the pans and everything are out, and we can enjoy some Kosher pancakes!

Tomorrow will be a good day, and Monday will be even better ;)

The Kosher Diaries - Day 2

Today has been interesting.  It's been two days since I've had meat.  I miss it.  And hunger has been constant (for the most part).  But today hasn't been too bad.  The real problem is that, unlike yesterday, today I actually had to go to work.  At 6 am.  Without much food to go on.

Breakfast - Pizza Poptarts.  Yeah, you read that right.  Go ahead, reread it.  Yep, Pizza Poptarts.  I don't know what I was more excited about when I found these at Dierberg's: the fact that its Kosher, or the fact that somebody had the genius to put pizza into a toaster pastry.  It was tasty, too.

Lunch - Broccoli Cheddar Bake.  Just a cheesy pasta with broccoli.  Nothing special, but after half of a work shift I certainly looked forward to it.

Dinner - I made salad with ranch dressing.  You'd think that that would be simple.  You'd be wrong.  In order to make the lettuce ready to eat, you have to thoroughly inspect with vegetable wash every square centimeter of every leaf of lettuce (both sides).  It took me 35 minutes to make salad.

Salad shouldn't take this long.

However, my wife was very nice.  You see, our Sunday School had a get-together, and we needed to bring a dessert.  My wife kindly ensured that her dish was made to Kosher standards, so I could enjoy it as well.  If that's not enough, she also made me Kosher cheese sticks!

So Day 2 has been quite the success.  I suppose it's onward to Day 3!

The Kosher Diaries - Day 1

'One thing I have learned pretty much immediately is just how little we need to eat.  That said, hunger has been a constant feeling today.  However, it is certainly bearable.' - 3:40 pm

My meals:

Breakfast - Chocolate protein shake, toast w/grape jelly, and Cheerios.

Lunch - Fruit Salad, toast w/peanut butter, chocolate milk 

Dinner - Cheese pizza, chocolate milk ,  banana cream pie snack packs 

That's a Kosher cheese pizza :)

My cheese pizza reveals my one exception to the "no substitute" rule.  Here is something you may not know about me: I love bacon.  So on my cheese pizza I added Bacon Salt to some of it, a Kosher seasoning made by Jews who didn't keep Kosher, but then gave up their non-Kosher ways.  Loving bacon, they desired to make a Kosher seasoning that tastes like it.  I'd say they did a pretty good job.  But I intend to use that seasoning sparingly.  I only have one other recipe planned that uses it.

So, how was my first day going Kosher?  Actually, not that bad.  Did I miss meat?  Oh yes. But I can understand how livable this lifestyle can be.  That said, I am so thankful for not having to eat Kosher (even if I'm currently forgoing that right).

Btw, that fruit salad took over 20 minutes to prepare.  Every individual fruit had to be washed in vegetable wash.  Crazy.