Meet my Bibles

Hey BlogFam,

So today, I want to talk about my Bibles and like give you a Bible buying guide of sorts.

Every time I want to buy a Bible, I check for reviews online and we hardly see reviews from Nigeria so I mostly check on Amazon and all other Bible websites, then bloggers/influencers who are gifted Bibles to be reviewed and I just feel like let’s even have something from Nigeria.

I’m going to just put some of my Bibles on display and talk about them including where you can buy them, my reviews, recommendations, how much I bought them and just generally what I think about them.

Note that I am not being paid to do this, just that a lot of people have asked this question and I thought to do justice to it.

So, welcome to my world of Bibles!

These are all not all of my Bibles, These are the ones that I’m using at the moment.

l’d start with;

1. NLT Illustrated Study Bible

This is almost my favorite Bible, for now. I heard about it from Heather Lindsey, and when I found it at Laterna about a year ago (July 2019) at ₦11,000, I had to buy it.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it and the only issue I see with this Bible, which Heather Lindsey also mentioned is that it has a potential for it to divide. The Publishers really need to look into that because it’s easy for a page to actually disappear, infact a page of mine is out already, and not just like it tore, it came out from the root.

So there’s a problem with their packaging but otherwise the Bible is great.

It’s a study Bible meaning that it gives you the history, the context, sometimes the Greek or Hebrew word, which is super amazing. I completely recommend the NLT Illustrated Study Bible.

My friend Ope bought it and she can testify.

NLT is also my favorite Bible version ever. So I’m here for it.

2. KJV Word Study Bible

So the KJV word study Bible is one of my recent buys and I’m absolutely in love with it!

It’s called a word study Bible because it’s not like a verse study, It just picks out some words and then gives you the roots Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic meaning that explains it. It’s an amazing Bible for anyone looking to go deeper in the study of the word. I bought it at Laterna at ₦7,000 and I have really enjoyed studying with it.

Also the thing about greek and Hebrew word is that there’s such context to it and there’s certain meaning that you cannot miss it, and it happens is so much that it enters deep deep. So I really recommend it for anyone looking to go deeper.

It’s also KJV, meaning it’s really deep, and you’d love it because it explains words really well and according to them, it has 1700 words that they explained in Hebrew/Greek/ Aramaic.

Just amazing! I happily recommend it!

P.S

A word study Bible is different from a study Bible because it picks out some individual words and does a study on them as opposed to the entire verse which is what you get with your regular study Bible.

So if you buy this as a Bible, you would still need a study Bible. If you buy a Study Bible and you want to go deeper, you can now get a Word Study Bible. If you’re looking for the real original depth you might need to get a study bible and a word study Bible. Grab a concordance and you are ready for a FEAST

This is almost like having your Strongs Concordance within a Bible. Of course, it doesn’t cover all the words. But it covers some keywords. So if you don’t want to go about with your Strongs Concordance, which is really big, you can just take the word study Bible and you’d have a rich experience also, especially if you’re taking a trip.

I mentioned it in my last post here that I saw it on Onyi’s status and had to find it.

DEAR LEADER, PURIFY THOSE MOTIVES AND SHINE THAT LIGHT BRIGHT

At first we found it for over ₦20,000 until God opened a special door and we saw it for just around ₦7,000. So if you’re going to buy, hurry and buy at Laterna.

3 My Parallel Bible

I bought this about the same time I bought my NLT Illustrated Bible. I love it because at a glance you can look at four different versions.

They are also different parallels of this bible and some have other versions.

So if you want something that has a combination of other versions you can buy another type, but I wanted this particular one because NLT is my favorite, I love the message and I love NKJV when I want to be deep but cannot really stand KJV. And NIV, of course is everybody’s favourite right?

4. HCSB Note-taking Bible

This was also something I discovered thanks to Onyi’s status that I talked about in this post.

DEAR LEADER, PURIFY THOSE MOTIVES AND SHINE THAT LIGHT BRIGHT

I love to write and journal. So realizing that Journal Bibles were a thing really blew me away. So I started to search and I found this one.

There are several others, but I personally like this one because I had seen the reviews online and they were really amazing plus it was really cheap, less than ₦4,000.

And you can see that for note-taking of journal bibles, you’re just better off having colored pens and all that. That’s why mine is so colorful, you can quickly take your notes in it.

I also feel like it’s a great Bible to take to church so you can take your notes there, then come home and expand on it in your Journal. So it’s really a great one and I recommend it!

Note that the lines for note-taking are not that big, so if you have big handwriting or you cannot make your writing small then this may not really work for you. Otherwise, it’s a perfect Bible and I certainly love the HCSB translation because it’s so close to NKJV, has a contemporary feel to it.

5. NLT Pocket Bible

Buying this was a win on so many levels and I happily recommend it with all of my heart.

I bought it at Laterna for about ₦5,000 in Dec 2019. It’s a small cute Bible and I love it because I could easily take it to church.

I don’t fancy reading Bible on phone IN CHURCH so this is like my mobile Bible, I can read on the go but as you can see the prints are really tiny, but hey I don’t mind.

When church resumes now though, I’d most likely be taking my note-taking/ journal Bible because I love it better and I can take notes in them.

6. The MacArthur Bible

McArthur Study Bible, I bought this on a Monday, 5th May 2008 at Encomia Bible Place in Ibadan. I can’t remember how much exactly but It’s the Best study bible I have, right there with NLT. It brings such depth to the word of God.

I really really recommended the MacArthur Study Bible. In fact if you were to ask me which Bible to buy First, I would say The MacArthur study Bible (but I’d also tell you the Joyce Meyer Bible and the NLT illustrated and the word study, buy all four!!!)

But really the MacArthur study Bible is so good. I can’t do a comprehensive Bible study without picking it up. I got it a long time ago as a student and have since been enjoying it!

7. Joyce Meyer Everyday Life Bible

This is one of my best Bible for obvious reasons. Joyce Meyer is my G Mama for life, and she’s just really grounded me in the faith, she’s one of the first people I ever listened to and just really been connected to her for the longest of time. It was only right that I bought her Bible.

I used to have to two Joyce Meyer Bibles. This was my very first one, bought it on Thursday, 22nd October 2009 from Foodco in Ibadan.

And I can never forget how much I got It because it was super expensive, it was ₦4,400 (and this was 11 years ago o), but I wanted it, so I saved up and bought it.

I wouldn’t call it a study Bible. I think I just want to call it a Joyce Meyer Bible because it’s full of personal stories from her life that would really help the scriptures come to life. Come on. She’s been in the faith and Ministry for such a long time and I like such a testimony plus she can actually tell stories from my life.

With this one, don’t expect any serious bible history, though she gives a few historical context. I love her introduction to every book, she gives us a bit of a history about it and tells you what to expect in the book.

She asks and answers questions but I think what I love the most about the Bible would be the stories that she shares. She calls them the every day life articles and there are so many other fun things in this Bible.

It’s so amazing! And incase you’d like to buy, it’s available at Laterna within the range of ₦10,000 to ₦12,000

Then I bought the second one in 2016 straight from Joyce Meyer’s conference in America. A friend of mine who had gone helped me buy it. It’s called the fashion edition and was new at the time.

Dollar rate was also very high at time that when we converted the cost it was around ₦26,000 – that is my most expensive Bible ever!

It actually now available at Laterna for about ₦21,000. So if you’re interested; you can get it there.

I recently wanted to buy the Joyce Meyer bible for my mentees (more on my mentees later), but we couldn’t find it. It was so scarce, all we were seeing was the fashion edition, and I wasn’t going to buy the fashion edition as a gift.

The funny thing is that since I got that fashion edition, I have been keeping it as a monument in my house. I’ll just look at it admiringly. I don’t think I used it a lot, never wrote my name on it even. I just loved looking at it. Lol

So sometime last year, I think August, I just realized that hey, let me give it as a covenant gift to my best friend, Funto Ibuoye. So I gave it to her.

So this Bible basically makes us realize that we are together forever. It shows our heart and commitment to our friendship.

Should you buy the Joyce Meyer Bible? Of course, you should definitely buy it! It’s the best Bible in the world.

I know I’ve said best so many times, but hey, I’m talking about my Gmama here.

I have talked a lot about Joyce Meyer Bible on my blog, read more here;

5 REASONS WHY YOU NEED THE JOYCE MEYER STUDY BIBLE

8. HCSB Study Bible for Women

This Bible is so amazing. In fact, what makes it super amazing is how affordable it is. I think that the Holman Publishing Company deliberately makes their Bibles affordable because their bibles are so good yet so cheap.

So I remember we were looking for Bibles for my mentees who I have promised Bibles. The last set of mentees I mentored at TFS Academy. Get more details about the mentoring here

YAY, THE FAB SISTERSHIP MENTORING ACADEMY IS OPEN!!!

And you can read of one of their testimony here

MEET THE FAB MENTEES… VICTORIA BOLARINWA’S JOURNEY

So when we didn’t find the Joyce Meyer Bibles we needed, we decided to look for other bibles and then this came up.

I was at first shocked when my E.A told me how much it was, which was about 5,000. I’m like “how can a study Bible be so cheap? Was it going to be good?” So I went online to look for reviews and I was blown away by what I saw

And when finally ordered the Bibles & they were delivered, I was even more blown away by the size, the quality and how good it is!

First of all, the Bible is not even plain white, the pages are in shades and Hues of teal and white. It’s a proper Study Bible. It’s a study Bible but it’s also a women character study bible.

So yes, it talks about the various verses which is what you get with the regular study bible by but also picks out women, every woman in the Bible and gives us a history of the woman.

If you’re on a budget, this is the Bible to buy. We bought it at Bible Wonderland this month (May 2020), but I have since told so many people about it, most of which have also bought and I think It will mostly likely be sold out at Bible Wonderland already.

9. (In)courage Devotional Bible

So if you ever see it anywhere, GRAB YOUR COPY! It is highly recommended!

Incourage devotional Bible was another wonder that we found when we’re looking for Bibles for my mentees. It was recommended when the HSCB didn’t have enough numbers to cover my mentees.

The quality is so good and it is beautiful. It’s not a study Bible. It’s a devotional Bible, meaning that even though they give you some study on some Bible characters. It mostly has devotionals.

And guess what? It was even cheaper. It was actually ₦3000 naira. I think because of how I raved it, everybody in my life has bought this Bible. It’s so good and also the same size with my Joyce Meyer Bible.

The devotionals are personal stories of various women authors right within the Bible Pages. And they’re so colorful, so beautiful, plus it’s the CSB version which is like an upgrade of the HCSB.

The Holman Publishing company again, like I said, just want to make Bibles affordable because their bibles are too high quality to cost this little.

For my mentees, we finally got the InCourage and Holman Study Bible for women

So again, if you’re on a budget and you need a colorful beautiful feminine Bible. I’ll definitely encourage the (in)courage devotional Bible (see what I did there encourage (in)courage😊)

These are all my Bibles currently on my table. I have more but these are the one I’m feeling this season. I hope this helps your Bible buying guide and encourages you to get into the word.

If we will fight the enemy, it is important that we have the right tools and the sword of the spirit is the word of God, so we need to be strategic in the way we’re fighting our battles.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Colosians 3: 16 KJV

We can’t just come into the battlefield naked and empty and it’s ok to be extra about studying the word of God.

In fact, I am going to leave you with this Nia Cerise’s video where she talks about when people say you’re doing too much

*A MUST WATCH* You are doing too much

There she talks about how people in the world, for example, go to the gym and train every single day to do all kinds of things to build biceps and get the body of their dreams, people who are workaholics work around the clock, people who are really into their academics, sometimes take drugs to stay awake studying so they can get certain grades.

So why can’t we be like that about studying the word of God? Why can’t we have 10 Bibles, 20 Bibles and that’s not reserved for pastor, cause I am certainly not a pastor, I’m just someone who loves the word of God and I want to be able to have various study Bible experiences.

Also to study my Bible, I check out a lot of online resources. I go with;

Christianity.com

Biblehub.com

Biblestudytools.com

Crosswalk.com

Desiringgod.com

Charismamag.com

All of these just really help me have a really rich study experiences so that when the Devil comes for me. Guess what? I’m full of the word and I can FIGHT TO WIN

So, do you have any Bible that you really love? Let me know and if have any other questions about my bibles, ask away!

I am guessing by now, you already figured out that Laterna and Bible Wonderland are my go to place to get bibles. These are their numbers;

Laterna: 08033014462

Bible Wonderland: 08105682182

Penultimately, IS THERE ANY BIBLE I STILL WANT? Yesss

I need the KJV Word Study Bible Publishers (Thomas Nelson) to do a part 2, cause they are so many words that are missing in the current one.

But, of course I get it. It has only 1700 words and Bible supposedly has 1.7 million words, but I’d really love to see that.

I would also love to have a study Journal Bible where there’s a study and then you can also journal, it’s going to be really big but I think that we can manage it.

Another Bible I’d like to have is the full Passion translation version of the Bible, right now we have only the New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs and songs of Solomon. So, I can’t wait for the full one and will definitely buy as soon as it is out.

Finally, to make your bible study experience richer and fuller, get a beautiful Journal and other materials.

I always have my lovely lovely journals, colored pens, highlighters (are also very important ) – they make everything look colourful and you stay energetic studying the word.

A combination of all these just makes you feel like you’re really interacting with the word and Jesus, so you can truly enjoy your word feast.

Cheers to feasting on the word, guys!