[Sosthenes]

As far as Bibles go, I would probably invest in the Hebrew Greek Study Bible by Spiros Zodhiates because word meanings are very important in the study of God's word. My pastor friend bought an archaeological study Bible and they are all well good. I do think that the Life Application Study Bible may be a good Bible but it is very expensive. The problem is that when I go to Bible studies, people are reading the notes from these Bibles instead of studying the Bible itself or looking things up themselves.

If you don't have money, you can use the online Blue Letter Bible or a Strong's Concordance. The Red Letter Edition of Strong's Concordance will show you a range of how a word is used. I have a very expensive Greek dictionary but learning an ancient language can be difficult so you may want to stick to "Word Studies in the Greek New Testament", 4 volumes by Kenneth Wuest and the cheapest place to get it is probably CBD.

I would stay away from "The Message" because it really is and can be proven that it is a New Age Bible and an example would be Romans 15:13 calls God a god of green hope and a life giving "energy" This sort of study fills up several websites.

"I think it's partly our sin. One of the Devil's finest pieces of work is getting people to spend three nights a week in Bible studies."-Eugene Peterson
I will tell you where I quoted this from once I'm allowed to post URLs.