CREEDE HINSHAW: Overwhelmed by the choices of God’s Word

I received my latest catalogue recently from Christianbook.com, a well-known, reliable seller of books and religious supplies. This company was known by its former name, Christian Book Distributors, for decades, eventually waving the white flag regarding the confusion caused by their acronym CBD, which is almost universally associated with medical marijuana. It was easier to change their name than to keep explaining why the health the bookseller promoted was unassociated with hemp.

It had been a while since I last thumbed my way through a real, 64-page catalogue. The most amazing finding was that 33 pages of the catalogue were devoted entirely to the sale of Bibles.

Bible sales are ever popular, and the purchase of a Bible can be more than a little overwhelming. But I was unprepared for the surfeit of choices and dizzying “sub-choices.” For instance, the New Living Translation Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition comes in 38 variations such as hardcover, clothbound, soft-leather look, genuine leather, personal size, black-letter edition (while supplies last), red-letter edition, and large-print, red-letter edition, all in various colors and covers. That’s just one Bible on page 10.

A prospective buyer can find a Life Application Study Bible, an English Standard Version Reformation Study Bible, a Quest Study Bible, an NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible, an NKJV Full-Color Study Bible, Bibles affixed with the names of various pastors and Christian superstars living and dead (Charles F. Stanley, Tony Evans, David Jeremiah, McArthur, Holman, Scofield, Joyce Meyer, Finnis Dake), Hebrew-Greek Bibles and even The Jesus Bible. I assumed this one would contain only the Hebrew Scriptures since that would have been Jesus’ Bible, but no, it is an entire 66-book Bible promising the reader will “encounter the living Christ in every book” and containing “compelling essays” by well-known evangelical writers.

Now that I’m back in the pulpit for a while, should I purchase the $250 goatskin leather black ESV Preaching Bible? Tempting, but I’m not sure how the “extra-wide margins” and “high-quality paper” would improve my craft.

I was overwhelmed, to say the least. No wonder it is difficult for the average person to make a Bible choice. By the time I had neared the 30th page of Bibles, I was feeling a little queasy. Just in time, my eyes fell upon a page that offered an ESV Single-Column Journaling Bible (12 sub-choices including genuine cowhide leather, brown with flap and strap) so I could record and analyze my feelings with a Gel Bible Highlighter set available on page 32 and a book magnifier in case I ordered the small-print edition.

Prior to making that purchase, my eyes fell upon the NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible (6 sub-choices), which promised to be “more than just trendy” and containing hundreds of line art, ready-to-color verses. I couldn’t take any more. Reading the Bible is never out of style, but, in disagreement with the coloring book blurb, that particular offering is trendy, trendy, trendy for between $34.99 and $59.99, crayons not included.