Bible Study Resource Recommendations

This page gives suggestions for resources you can purchase or find online for your personal spiritual growth. While Colonial may not agree with everything in all of these resources, items in this list have been chosen because on the whole they can be of great value in better knowing and obeying God's Word. Colonial receives no money for any of these suggestions.

​These resources are broken down into the following categories:

• Bibles, Reading Plans, and Commentaries 
• Reference - tools such as dictionaries and guides that help with specific questions
• Devotionals - resources designed to be read in a few minutes a day to set your mind on spiritual things
• Personal Growth - full books designed to be read cover to cover that help you grow spiritually
• Digital Resources

Bibles, Reading Plans, and Commentaries

Bibles

• Study Bibles  (Ryrie Study Bible, MacArthur Study Bible) - These Bibles have notes on the author, background, and purpose of each book of the Bible, as well as notes giving insight into the meaning of the biblical text.
• Journaling Bibles - These Bibles have wide margins or blank pages inserted every other page to allow you to work through the Bible making notes in the margins and in the text itself. Sometimes having a Bible that is designed to be marked up can make it easier to mark it up, a habit that can be very helpful in studying God's Word. 
• Inductive Study Bible - Designed to help you learn to read carefully by observing the details of the text and helping you draw conclusions from those details and make applications.

Bible Reading Plans
Reading through the Bible in a year is a big goal and several plan to help you accomplish this are available. Here are a few plans that you can download and print online. Many digital resources also have Bible reading plans you can use (i.e., Bible Gateway, YouVersion, Logos).

• Navigator's Bible Reading Plan - A plan with 25 readings a month. Each day has a 4 readings, one from a gospel, one from another NT book, one from OT poetry (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Job), and one from another OT book.
• Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Bible Reading Plan - A well-loved but quite rigorous program. M'Cheyne takes the reader through the NT and Psalms twice in a year and the rest of the Bible once in a year. It was designed for both "secret" devotions (or private devotions) and family devotions, but many people do all the readings in one sitting or one in the morning and the other in the evening.
• Faith Baptist Bible College's Bible Reading Plan - this plan breaks the Scripture reading down into Old Testament, Poetry, and New Testament and works through the Bible in one year.
• Five Day Bible Reading Plan - This plan compresses the week's reading into five days, that way if you fall behind you can catch up or you can use the weekend for closer study of something you read during the week.

Commentaries

Matthew Henry’s Commentary *(Available for free online, both abridged and unabridged) - A commentary on the entire Bible by one of the most noted and influential Puritans.

Spurgeon’s Treasury of David (Available for free online) - Spurgeon's 3 volume commentary on the Psalms.

Bible Knowledge Commentary - a 2 volume set (Old Testament and New Testament) that works through every verse in the Bible.

Wiersbe’s Commentaries (NT) - Practical, devotional, yet expository study of every book of the New Testament. Wiersbe is particularly good at simply explaining the big ideas and structure of the New Testament books. 

The Bible Speaks Today - A commentary series that focuses on application and brining out the modern day relevance of the biblical passage.

MacArthur’s Commentaries (NT) - Strong expository explanations with a good balance of being thorough and being accessible. Based on the careful teaching ministry of John MacArthur who over the course of nearly 50 years preached through every verse of the New Testament.

Tyndale Series (Tyndale Old/New Testament Commentary Series) - Concise but thorough handling of the Bible. Some authors are better than others at being practical, and some authors have concerning views (i.e. on matters such as creation). 

IVP Bible Background Commentary​ - Gives pertinent historical and cultural background information section by section throughout the Old and New Testament (2 volumes)

Reference

​Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible - helpful basic resource that gives a lot of summaries and helpful information about the Bible.

New Bible Dictionary - a resource filled with articles on people, places, names, and other details from the Bible.

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible - a similar resource to the New Bible Dictionary, but fuller. 

New Dictionary of Biblical Theology - a more advanced resource, develops biblical themes (sacrifice, justification) by tracing them through the Old and New Testament. Also traces the major ideas of each book of the Bible.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (obsolete if you use a computer) - lists all the words in the King James version and where they appear. The enduring legacy of Strong's in the computer age is that he tagged all the Hebrew and Greek words, giving them numbers which are still used as a common reference point today (i.e., H342 is the Hebrew word 'eba, which means "enmity").

Devotionals

• Gospel Meditations Series by Church Works Media
• Our Daily Bread
• Daily devotionals by Paul Chappell
• Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotions
• New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp

Personal Growth

• Changed into His Image by Jim Berg
• God Is More Than Enough by Jim Berg
• Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul Tripp
• The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges
• True Community by Jerry Bridges
• Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes​
• The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace
• Set Apart by Kent Hughes
• ​Managing God's Money by Randy Alcorn
• Biographies of missionaries and other influential and godly Christians

Digital Resources

• YouVersion Bible App – Most popular Bible app. It includes a large number of reading plans and has an audio Bible for all the major English translations. 
• Biblegateway.org
• Blueletterbible.org
• Preceptaustin.org
• Logos (Basic – free//Fundamentals – $49.99)