My Favorite Bible Study Books

Books for Topical Studies:

• Thompson Chain Reference Study Bible: in leather or in hard cover. This is my favorite topical study bible because they have a phenomenal chain reference system that is uniquely theirs. It uses scripture to interpret scripture, instead of injecting man's interpretations into the study notes. They also have a great treasury of study aids by topic in the back. LOVE this bible!
• Ready Reference for Growing Christians: Facts & Scriptures on 100 Biblical Subjects by Paul Sain
• The Christian's Attitude (52 lessons), by Bobby K. Thompson. (to order, call: (813) 723-9183)

Books for Evidence Studies:

• For those wishing to study evidences, I highly recommend the book In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood, by Walt Brown, Ph.D. God has given us plenty of evidence of His existence and the legitimacy of His word, and if that's what you're wanting to learn more about, then this book is for you. From a scientific standpoint, it is to the point... deep but totally understandable. If you're intimidated by science, don't be intimidated to get this book... the author does a great job at staying to the point and making it plain to the average person.
• You can also download some Evidences Class Material from 84th St, and look around on this website: God and Science .

Chronological Bible:

• The Daily Bible makes a great daily reading Bible. You can't use this as your main Bible since it's in chronological order, and you can't just zip to a certain passage. BUT, it is a VERY good companion Bible to have. Even though it's an NIV (which I'm not a big fan of), this has been a very enjoyable read, and I'm going through it for a second time. I like reading chronologically, and the little helps are well-written and to the point, in gray boxes so as to differentiate from the Bible text. I am not big on having lots of "extra" boxes of man-written material in my bible, but they do a good job of providing a little extra explanation here and there to make for a nice reading. It also helps guide you as you may be jumping from one book to the next to smooth the transition. I highly recommend this Bible and think it's a very enjoyable way to read the Bible in a year, with the chronological twist.

Books for Word Studies:
Find out what words God chose to use in the original language, and what they mean. (You don't need to know Hebrew or Greek in order to use this!)  

1. Key Word Study Bible, with Strong's #s -This Bible will underline key words and link them to a Strong's number. You can look the number up in the back of this book or in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible for a short definition. You can also look that number up in Vine's Expository Dictionary for a more in-depth description of the word & how it was used in Bible times. I use the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible from AMG Publishers. I found it at Mardel's for $50, but Amazon sells it for $32, with free shipping.
2. The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible - This book includes a comprehensive Bible concordance for word-and-verse reference, as well as a dictionary of Hebrew and Greek words. You can find them everywhere! The newest version retails for $40, you can purchase on Amazon for under $30. 
3.  Vine's Expository Dictionary, Keyed to Strongs - This book allows you to "study the meaning of biblical words in the original language- without spending years learning Greek or Hebrew. It gives an in depth description of Hebrew and Greek words, which you can access by their Strong's number or their English equivalents. I use Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. It combines Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament words with Unger & White's Expository Dictionary for the Old Testament. See it here on Amazon or Here, where I found it sold the cheapest.