CSB Chronological Day-By-Day Bible review – my ideal daily reading Bible!

Happy Wednesday, friends, and welcome to a post that I’ve been wanting to share for a couple of months now. It’s the beginning of the year, and for some of us, that means yet another attempt to read through the Bible. There are tons of Bibles and reading plans out there, but only one fits my ideal for a no-pressure, no-guilt, read-at-your-own-pace Bible. Here’s my review of the CSB Day-By-Day Chronological Bible, and why I think it is absolutely perfect for those of us who want to read the Bible consistently, but don’t always keep up with the other formats available. Hope you enjoy!

Why other daily reading Bibles just don’t work

One of the biggest goals that many believers set each year is to read through the entire Bible. Some of us read cover to cover, some read Old and New Testament passages at the same time. My personal favorite format is the chronological plan, which puts many of the Old Testament passages, including some Psalms, in context with historical events that were happening at the same time.

I completed a read-through-the-Bible plan for the first time in 2018, after several failed attempts, and I was super glad that I did. Reading chronologically helped me out a lot, and I gained a newfound appreciation for the prophets and even books like Deuteronomy. So, after taking a year off, I decided to try again in 2020. I asked for and received this NLT Chronological Expressions Bible for Christmas and set out into the new year, enjoying the wide margins and occasional decorations that the Bible offered.

Other events of 2020 notwithstanding, I eventually fell behind in the NLT Bible and ended up putting it on the shelf for months and even years at a time. Here’s what didn’t work for me about this and other chronological/daily reading Bibles:

• This was one of the only chronological reading Bibles I found that had wide margins, but the illustrations often took up all of the space I wanted to use for notes!
• After putting it down for extended periods of time, the dates included were no longer relevant. I ended up feeling constantly behind, and had to cover up the dates so that I didn’t have to see them, which lost me even more note-taking space.
• NLT, while it is a good reading translation, isn’t exactly ideal for study. While it is good to read multiple translations, I would’ve preferred a more word-for-word option for studying.

So around the middle of this past year, I was using my NLT Chronological Expressions Bible, and getting good things from my time in the Word. But I still wished that there was an option that would fit my needs better. Enter… the CSB Chronological Day-By-Day Bible!

why the CSB Chronological Day-By-Day Bible is so much better

You guys, this Bible is so cool I have many good things to say, and I promise it isn’t a sponsored situation or anything like that, I’m just super happy that they’ve finally made this a thing!

The CSB Chronological Day-by-Day Bible has everything that I wanted from my NLT Bible, plus more that I didn’t even think of. Here are some of my favorite features of this Bible:

• It’s organized into weeks and days, a lot like other daily reading Bibles, but without any dates! So you can start and stop at any time throughout the year without feeling like you’ve fallen behind! I started my reading at the end of December : )
• The publishers have organized the chronological reading plan into Acts and Scenes that help you see the Bible as one big, cohesive story
• Every week and day has a short intro with application questions, which help you both keep the original context in mind AND apply it to real, real life
• The text is single-column with a margin that’s just a little bit smaller than the standard journaling Bible, and the paper is decent; some of my pens have shadowed, but I don’t think any have bled through so far
• And the CSB translation is described as one of “optimal equivalence,” which to me is a good middle ground. It’s comfortable for the average reader, not too formal, while still remaining faithful to the original text. This makes it a good translation for daily reading and study.

Look inside my CSB reading Bible

I’m using this Bible for daily reading on weekdays, with the weekends reserved for my personal interest studies (usually Illustrated Faith kits) and the sermon series. I have really enjoyed highlighting the different themes I want to trace in Scripture with washi tape along the edges of the pages; my Bible is already so colorful! In addition, I’m loving the fact that I can take things as slow or as fast as I want, reserving a few days after I finish each book to go back, review, and digest what I’ve read. Here’s a look at some of the first pages of the Bible:

I’m looking forward to continue to use this Bible, and even re-writing some of the notes I took in my NLT Bible to re-digest what I learned all the way back in 2020. (By the way, this is one of my biggest tips to really apply what you learn from the Word! Read this post to find out more : ).

Conclusion

I’m so glad that this Bible exists! It’s really been a long time coming. Hopefully you’ve gotten some idea of how the CSB Chronological Day-by-Day Bible works much better for me than any other daily reading Bible I’ve found to date, and how it might work for you too.

Are you reading through the Bible this year? What plan are you using? I’d love to know!

Happy reading!