ESV Journaling Bible (A Review)

I purchased an ESV Journaling Bible this past week.  I confess, I am an ESV apologist.  I preach out of the ESV exclusively — and I am thankful that many of our congregation now have a copy of the ESV.  I hope within the next year we will replace our King James Version pew Bibles with the ESV Pew Bibles, but we shall see.

I noticed the ESV had recently release a Journaling Bible.  At the ESV website, they describe the Journaling Bible as “a unique format with wide margins and ruled lines designed for writing prayers, observations, sermon notes, and personal reflections. It also includes a one-year Bible reading plan.

• Size: 6.25″ x 7.25″
• 7.5-point type
• Words of Christ in black
• Ribbon marker
• Wide margin with nearly 2 inches of ruled writing space
• No center-column reference system
• Not thumb-indexed.”

What encouraged me to purchase this is the 2″ of ruled writing space.

Although I do not feel having this area ruled is necessary, it is such a big help to have the space.  I preached from this edition this past Wednesday and was able to write down the basic thoughts of my sermon in expanded form.  What a huge help this is!

If you have trouble with small print, don’t buy this!  I’d wait and see if they will put it in a version with a larger font. 7.5-point type is exceedingly tiny.   Since I’m 34, Lord willing I will have good, strong eyesight for quite a while.

Another item I like about this is that the words of Christ are in black.  Having Christ’s words in red gives the notion that all the words in black are important, but the words of Christ are more important that the rest.  Yet, the Spirit inspired it all (2 Timothy 3:16) and it is all equally the Word of God.  We must pay special attention to all of it!

I see myself writing in this edition frequently in my studies, then buying another when I have filled up this one.  My desire is for my children and grandchildren to pull out this edition and see what their dad/granddad considered with each passage he read.