I was asked this question today and my answer was the brand new ESV MacArthur Study Bible that just came out last week. The ESV is a great recent "essentially literal" translation and it is now coupled with the excellent study notes of Bible teacher John MacArthur. You can get it in hardcover, but I have to recommend a genuine leather, better yet, calfskin edition. If this is to be your main Bible (which I think it should be), then you may as well get it in a leather binding.

There are other study Bibles that are good like the ESV Study Bible or the Life Application Study Bible, and I have most of them. But if I can only recommend one, it has to be the ESV MacArthur Study Bible. You can't beat it.

To research it a bit more, there's an entire web site devoted to this study Bible. You can even download a pdf of Romans to review. Check it out here: http://www.esvmacarthurstudybible.com/

You can order both leather editions from my online book referral service (linked to Amazon) below. You not only get a 37% discount, but you can also select free shipping. You cannot get it for less anywhere. Here's the links:

* Premium Calfskin Edition
* Genuine Leather Edition

[The following is by Jim Eliff and was published on the Answers in Genesis web site.]

Let’s face it—sometimes your family doesn’t get much out of the Sunday sermon. But with a little work, dads can greatly improve the family’s listening experience.

Try these hearing aids: Get more sleep. The Sunday service is not for sleeping; the night before is. This requires planning, especially for young people, who like to use Saturday night as an opportunity to stay up as late as possible.

Sit closer. Almost without exception, the best listeners are in front. There are some valid reasons to be in the back, but it will usually impede your listening.

Look at the speaker. Even younger children can be taught to listen with their eyes.

Minimize distractions. If you must, find a better place to sit. If your children are the problem, “divide and conquer” by asking a relative or friend to sit with you. And don’t permit the Sunday shuffle to the restroom.

Use your Bibles. It is difficult to follow the pastor’s line of thought without seeing the Bible text before you. Teach the family to read it, underline it, and insert marginal comments.

Take notes. Your family’s notes may be imperfect, but they help the sluggish mind. Your younger children can draw what they hear.

Ask questions. With your children at your side, go up to the pastor for clarity. “Pastor, I did not understand the meaning of ‘sanctification.’ Would you help me understand?”

Talk it over. While sitting around the dinner table, just before Sunday dessert, briefly summarize the message and enthusiastically apply it to the family. The child who is the most engaged gets extra dessert. You might even have the children bring their notes to the table for the discussion.

Dad, you must do all you can to keep your family listening. Years of the “wandering mind syndrome” will leave you and your family spiritually destitute.

Jesus said, “Take heed how you hear. For whoever has [understanding], to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Luke 8:18, NKJV).

When it comes to Sunday sermons, no one is too young for hearing aids. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:9, NKJV).

Your meditation on God’s Word will never cease to pay rich dividends of joy, wisdom, peace, maturity, and fellowship with God and others. God’s Word will become a source of life and the world, the flesh, and the Devil will look more and more like the dead ends that they are. You will begin to learn to feed your faith on God’s Word in general. You will see the true meaning of verses like John 4:13-14, "Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ " Remember, Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). Knowledge of Scripture is knowledge of Christ.

During a Q & A at the end of Pastor Jay Wegter’s time with us, I asked Jay what how he practically meditates on Scripture. He mentioned color-coding themes in his Bible. I was delighted to hear this as I also have used color coding for many years. Here’s the way I do it. I use an 8-color mechanical pencil from Pentel (to order one online go to http://www.frontlinemin.org/bookstore.asp and click on "Bibles." You’ll see it listed first at the best price you can find). The colored pencil is better than ink because it won’t bleed through the thin Bible paper. Then I highlight verses according to the following colors which I just made up myself: Red (salvation, redemption, repentance), green (prophecy), light blue (commands, Christian living, doctrine), royal blue (eternity, heaven, millennium), brown (sin, judgment, curse), orange (golden promises), yellow (miscellaneous). Jay also mentioned writing down cross references in his Bible. I encourage you write in your Bible as well. Use the empty spaces in the front or page to jot down outlines or summaries that you want to remember and reflect upon.

Along with writing down your observations and responses to your meditation on Scripture, make an effort to see the infinitely surpassing value of believing God’s Word rather than the fleeting and vain promises of sin. As John Piper said, "Faith is also being confident that His way is better than sin. His will is more wise. His help is more sure. His promises more precious. And His reward more satisfying." When you train yourself to think this way, you will have spiritual power to live in holiness.

Cost/Benefit Analysis. Here’s one way you can do this: Jay Wegter suggests that we "systematically build a case for obedience and a case against disobedience with an exhaustive list of benefits for the former and negatives of the latter." Take some time to write lists like this down in your journal. Yes, it will be a fight to make the time and to discipline your mind to think through this, but the rewards are immeasurable. Your heart will follow what your mind chooses to dwell on. The benefits of obedience will begin to look far better than the supposed benefits of disobedience and you will begin to find the desire to obey welling up in you. There is a cost/benefit or pleasure/pain dimension to all of the choices we make. What we need is wisdom to choose that which will lead to the greatest benefit or pleasure regardless of the cost or pain involved.

Points to Ponder. Begin writing down a list somewhere that you can turn to again and again (a journal, for example) of summary points of spiritual truth that help you think biblically about your spiritual life. Every time you hear or think of a concise way of stating a biblical truth that can help you think and live biblically, write it down in your list. A beginning list of examples will be included in my next blog post.

A Suggested Text for Meditation.Begin practicing meditation on Colossians 3:1-17. The opening four verses are crucial and pave the way for the practical commands which follow. Begin with serious, personal reflection on the first four verses which can be outlined this way (This outline is from Jay Wegter, "Christ Our Life," available online at: http://www.frontlinemin.org/christlife.asp):

I. Our life in Christ is to be pondered (vv. 1-2)
II. Our life in Christ is presently hidden (v. 3)
III. Our life in Christ is to be revealed (v. 4)

If you were the Devil, what would be one of your main strategies to counteract Christians today? I suggest that one of them would be to distract them from serious interaction with the Word of God by filling their minds with the things of this world.

In his book, Pathways to Power, a book written in the early 1950s, Dr. Merrill Unger wrote: "Meditation upon God’s Word is fast becoming a lost art among many Christian people. This holy exercise of pondering over the Word, chewing it as an animal chews its cud to get its sweetness and nutritive virtue into the heart and life, takes time, which ill fits into the speed of our modern age. Today most Christians’ devotions are too hurried, their lives too rushed."

If that was true in the early fifties, how much more is it true today—fifty years later in an age that has become even busier, more entertainment and activity-oriented, materialistic, and consumer-minded. Unger goes on to say: "But holiness and hurry never did suit well together. Prayer and preoccupation have always been strange bed-fellows. A head knowledge of the Word may perhaps be consonant with the scurry of the age, but not a deep heart experience of its preciousness. A deep knowledge of spiritual things can only come by the way of unhurried reflection upon God’s truth and by prayer."

Speaking of Satan and his activity, someone has said "our adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds." What we need is a time for quiet, stillness, and solitude for the purpose of meditating on the Word of God. Everything in your life will resist this. It will require firm resolve to become a truly spiritual person; resolve to think deeply about God’s truth in order to live it more consistently. Our thoughts, whether they are in harmony with God’s Word or not, will determine the way we live.

Consider these words from the Psalms:

* Psalm 19:14, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

* Psalm 104:34, Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord.

From these verses it is clear that our meditation can be unacceptable and displeasing to the Lord. Therefore, we must take care to ensure that the meditations of our hearts are right before God. The only way we can do this is by patient reading, reflection, and response to the Word of God.

The Bible instructs us to make it a habit to meditate on the Word of God:

* Joshua 1:8, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

* Psalm 1:2, But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.

* Psalm 4:4, Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.

What is Biblical Meditation? Meditation in the Bible means reflective thinking on biblical truth so that God is able to speak to us through Scripture and through the thoughts that come to mind as we are reflecting on the Word, but that must also be filtered by the Word. The Word of God is central to biblical meditation, but sadly we too often neglect it to our peril. Irving Jensen wrote in How to Profit from Reading the Bible, "An unread Bible is like food that is refused, an unopened love letter, a buried sword, a road map not studied, a gold mine not worked."

The goal of Christian meditation is to internalize and personalize the Scripture so that its truth can affect how we think, our attitudes, how we live, and all our actions. This doesn’t come easy or natural to anyone. We must work at it. As we’re told in Proverbs 2:1-5: My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.

My friend and upcoming seminar speaker at FBC, Jay Wegter, has estimated that 95% of God’s people do not really make it their practice to meditate upon Scripture.　 Theologian J.I. Packer gives the following definition of meditation: to apply to oneself what one knows about the works, ways, wonders, and will of God.　 If 95% of God’s people neglect to do this, then it’s no wonder why so many Christians are floundering in their walk of faith rather than flourishing.

In the upcoming articles I will elaborate how to meditate on Scripture and the role of faith in the sanctification process. We must have regular interaction with God’s Word in order to fuel our faith in God’s promises. Our faith in God’s promises is the key to growth in practical sanctification.

Are you feeling spiritually dry? Do you long for greater Christlikeness in your character and conduct? Then dive into God’s Word. The Bible is an ocean of spiritual riches. God wants to meet you there in the pages of the Bible. Take a few minutes at the beginning of each day to find some precious insight in God’s Word to think on throughout the day. The cost of neglecting God’s Word is far greater than any time and effort you might put into it. Think about that for a minute!