Book Review: Jesus Calling Devotional Bible

If you're not familiar with Sarah Young's "Jesus Calling", I highly recommend it. It's a collection of many of her journal entries where she felt God was speaking directly to her. The words are presented to us in His voice, from His perspective, and contain wisdom which pertains to all of us.

As part of their Booksneeze program, Thomas Nelson recently sent me a copy (free for review purposes) of their new "Jesus Calling" devotional bible.It's the New King James translation, and the "devotional" portion is quite extensive, and very well done. A friend saw it at my house the other day and called it a "bible plus", an appropriate description, if you ask me.

A "devotional" bible can sound like a great idea, but result in something not so great. Bookstore shelves are full of devotional bibles which consist of the personal opinions of authors, or which seem to be a blatant attempt to capitalize on the popularity of some recent book, movie, or popular author. It appears that some were dreamed up by someone in the Marketing department rather than an attempt at truly benefiting the reader. ("The Toy Story 3 Devotional Bible": it's only a matter of time.)

The "Jesus Calling" bible, however, does not fall into such traps. The "plus" part of this "bible plus" is very well done. It supplements the surrounding Scripture, rather than trying to drown it out. For example, at the end of Job, the devotional calls to mind Romans 8:28, reminding us that God will cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him. How many bibles or commentaries have the good sense to tie Job with Romans 8:28? How many preachers do that?

If you are in the market for a new bible, I recommend this one.

Comments

Jeff Williams said…

Helpful review- now I'm interested. Thanks James!

October 12, 2011 at 2:58 PM

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