My Utmost for His Highest is one of the most popular and oldest devotions available. The CSB Oswald Chambers Bible contains the full devotional for daily reading as well as commentary from other resources by Chambers. It’s available in several cover options. I’m reviewing the Legacy Edition in black goatskin. This is ISBN 9798384509240, printed in China.
Holman provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review.
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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
and many local Bible bookstores
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Table of Contents
- Specs
- Cover and Binding
- Paper
- Typography
- Footnotes
- Book Introductions
- Devotional and Study Material
- Concordance
- Maps
- Video Review
- Conclusion
Specs
- CSB
- Goatskin cover
- Leather edge-lined liner
- 3 ribbons
- Full My Utmost for His Highest devotional and reading plan
- Commentary from other select works by Oswald Chambers
- More than 30 topical articles placed throughout
- Book introductions with “Wisdom from Oswald Chambers”
- Two-column text format
- 9.25 point font
- Black-letter
- Concordance
- Full-color maps
- Overall size is 6.5 x 9.75 x 1.6 inches
- It weighs 2 lbs, 11 oz.
- Current price $85
Cover and Binding
The cover is a pebbly black goatskin. It’s highly flexible. It has a deep grain with perimeter stitching. Nothing is printed on the front or back. The spine has five raised hubs and text printed in copper.
The edge-lined liner is leather and includes a copper decorative line. The edge-lined tab is a touch stiff, but it stays open well. The block is sewn. It includes three double-sided 3/8″ ribbons in black, copper, and red. The overall size is 6.5 x 9.75 x 1.6 inches and it weighs 2 lbs, 11 oz.
Paper
The paper is a high-quality Bible paper. I’m not sure of the GSM, but it seems to be in the lower 30s. This paper is bright white and has no glare. It does have a slightly rough texture, making it easy to grab and turn. Show-through is minimal, but it does stand out behind the copper text. I don’t find this to be too distracting, though. The page edges are red under copper.
Typography
The CSB text is presented in a double-column, paragraph layout. It retains all of the CSB formatting including poetry in stanzas, lists as lists, personal letters indented, and OT quotes in bold. Footnotes are placed below the text in a copper color. The header shows the book and chapter in the outer margin, and the page number in the center- also printed in copper. Callouts appear within the text. Commentary appears at the bottom of the page. Chapter numbers are also in copper, while section headings are black in italics.
The typeface is a black-letter 9.25-point Bible Serif, designed by 2K/Denmark. It has around 8-10 words per line with enough white space that it’s easy to read. It’s printed with line-matching to reduce show-through. Poetry is divided well, so it looks great on the page. There are some poetic lines with two words because of the text wrapping to the next line. The wrapped lines are indented. The copper text is easy enough to read, but I wouldn’t mind if it were bolder.
Footnotes
The CSB footnotes appear at the bottom of the page. The font is around 7.5 and it has a lot of white space between the notes, making them stand out. They include literal renderings, Greek and Hebrew words with explanations, manuscript variations, and more. Unfortunately, it doesn’t identify the manuscripts.
Book Introductions
The book introductions take a page and include the circumstances of writing, contribution to the Bible, structure, and wisdom from Chambers. They include the book and page number of any quotes from Chambers. This is a nice way to combine Oswald Chambers’ writing with the rest of this devotional Bible.
Devotional and Study Material
There are several types of study material in the CSB Oswald Chambers Bible. As always, use them for research and do your own study.
Daily Reading Plan
The daily reading plan includes readings from My Utmost for His Highest, the OT, and the NT. I was hoping this would include My Utmost for His Highest and I’m grateful to see it is part of the daily reading. This is the most unique reading plan I’ve seen in a Bible, and the fact the full devotional is included (as you’ll see next) makes this an excellent Bible for a yearly read-through.
My Utmost for His Highest Devotional
In the front is the complete devotional My Utmost for His Highest. It’s the same as the book with each day’s devotion on its own page. It includes the date, title, verse, a short devotional, and more verses to read. This is one of my favorite devotionals and I like seeing it printed in the Bible itself. This is a great devotional because it’s short and to the point, and it’s easy to read and follow.
Commentary
The commentary is from other works by Oswald Chambers. The commentary covers one or two verses per page, and many pages don’t include commentary. Many prominent verses are missed. The comments are usually short and to the point. They include the name and page number of the resource they’re taken from.
Callouts
365 callouts from My Utmost for His Highest are placed throughout the Bible. They show the date, but not all correspond to the verses used for that date’s devotional. Some seem to be random. For example, Philippians 2 has a callout from October 3rd, but that devotional references Mark, Isaiah, and Ephesians. Fortunately, they don’t seem out of place, either. Others are placed at the verses the devotional gives as extra reading.
Topical Articles
It includes 30 topical articles written by Chambers on theological points. The articles are built using multiple resources. They range from 2-7 resources. The resources are identified with their page numbers at the end of each paragraph. This causes them to feel disjointed and somewhat random. Instead of an article, it feels more like a collection of thoughts. The information is excellent, though, since it is derived from Chambers’ writings. There is an index in the front, but it’s hard to find if you’re just turning pages.
Bibliography
The bibliography shows Chambers’ works from which the articles and commentary are derived.
Glossary
A Glossary of Terms is a little over one page and presents language and theological terms as understood by Oswald Chambers. It includes 17 terms. The information derives from Chambers’ writings.
Concordance
The concordance is the same as those used in other CSB study Bibles. It has 76 pages with 3 columns per page. It has lots of entries, includes character studies, and shows the part of speech where needed. This is an excellent concordance for study and sermon prep. Here are a few example entries with their number of references to help you compare:
- Christ – 35
- Christian – 2
- Faith – 34
- Faithful – 15
- Faithful Love – 8
- Faithfulness – 6
- Faithless – 1
- God – 77
- Goddess – 2
- God-Fearing – 1
- Godless – 1
- Godlessness – 2
- Godliness – 6
- Godly – 4
- Praise(N) – 8
- Praise(V) – 5
- Pray – 14
- Prayer – 6
Maps
It includes 8 full-color maps on thick matte paper. They’re printed in bold colors, they’re clean, have large areas without text, and are annotated well. The maps include distance, topography, mountain peaks, routes, cities, major roads, Scripture references, kingdoms, locations of events, dates, etc. One includes longitude and latitude, which would be nice to see on the rest of the maps. I find them easy to read and use.
Maps include:
- The Migration of Abraham
- The Route of the Exodus
- The Tribal Allotments of Israel
- The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
- Israel in the Time of Jesus
- The Ministry of Jesus Around the Sea of Galilee
- The Passion Week in Jerusalem
- Paul’s Missionary Journeys
Video Review
Conclusion
The CSB Oswald Chambers Bible is an excellent devotional Bible. It does have some commentary and articles, but the star of this show is the full version of My Utmost for His Highest, which is included in the front, within the reading plan, and as callouts throughout the text. This Bible is a must-have for any Oswald Chambers fan.
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This Bible is available at (includes some affiliate links)
Amazon
and many local Bible bookstores
_________________________________________________________
Holman provided this Bible in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions are my own.
For some reason, I can’t watch the videos on your website. It wants me to go to YouTube. I much prefer watching them here. Also, great looking Bible. I hope they do it in KJV.
Hi Jonathan. Thanks for letting me know. It works for me. I’m using Chrome. What browser are you using?
Thanks for the helpful review. I ordered a copy.