Review: Compass Study Bible

My first ever review!

A while ago I was asked to write a review about Thomas Nelson’s new Compass Study Bible. (Check it out here or here.) This Bible is written in the relatively new "The Voice" translation and has several unique features. Before I tell you about them, let me say, I REALLY like this Bible and the way it is put together.

Okay, so here are some of the features (and what I thought of them):

The Fourth Candle: Anticipating Peace

For the final week of Advent, we are anticipating peace.

It doesn't escape my notice that peace is the focus of the fourth and final week of Advent. I think it's quite appropriate to take THE most hectic week of the year and make its focus peace. Even as we run around, doing all the last minute things that seem to magically come up in the last few days before Christmas, we are to remember that Jesus came to the earth as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

The Third Candle: Anticipating Joy

This week, we anticipate joy.

When the Son of Man came to this world, he brought with him joy. The angels knew it. When the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, the angel told them, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11). After that, the whole host of angels began to sing!

The Second Candle: Anticipating Love

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love Divine,

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and Angels gave the sign.

-Christina Rossetti

This week, we are anticipating love.

The promise of the Christ-child, coming to the earth, was a promise filled with love. Jeremiah tells Israel that the Lord has loved them with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). In that same chapter, Jeremiah tells them of the new covenant that God will establish with his people. God was saying, I have loved you always, and from my love and mercy, we will establish a covenant.

The First Candle: Anticipating Hope

This week, we are anticipating hope.

In the time of King Uzziah, Israel was a wicked place. The people had turned from the laws of their God, and were participating in every idolatrous religious practice of the nations around them. But in the midst of all this, a man called Isaiah received a prophecy from the Lord,

“There will come a time in the last days when the mountain where the Eternal’s house stands will become the highest, most magnificent – grander than any of the mountains around it. All the nations of the world will run there, wanting to see it, feel it, fully experience it. Many people of all languages, colors, and creeds will come.” (Isaiah 2:2-3, The Voice).

Anticipating Christ

One of my absolute favourite times of the year is Advent. Not just Christmas itself, but the four weeks leading up to it that the liturgical church celebrates as Advent. There's something in me that just loves the idea of eagerly anticipating and celebrating the birth of our Saviour.

Each week, a candle is lit, and each candle signifies a word that is the focus of that week: hope, love, joy, peace. (A fifth candle is lit on Christmas day to represent Christ, and the light that he brings to the world.) We sings songs that tell of the coming of the Christ-child, and read some of the greatest passages in the Bible: prophecies of the Messiah coming to earth, that were spoken hundreds of years before his birth.