I love Jesus.
I love real-life stories.
So I love this book that pulls them together, I Am Second: Real Stories. Changing Lives.
I’ve been watching the “I Am Second” videos awhile online. So when I saw the stories were being collected to print in a book, I grabbed it (well, I was gifted it for review by Thomas Nelson; thanks).
It tells first-hand of twenty changed lives and the details of how Jesus turned things around as they turned to Him, putting Him first instead of self (thus the title).
Some people I recognize (Josh Hamilton, Michael W. Smith, Bethany Hamilton, Sam Bradford, Brian “Head” Welch); some I don’t. But they all are interesting and important and relevant.
Particularly relevant to where I am. I’m co-teaching a teen girls’ class at my church and our theme is “Once upon a time.” As we look at stories of Jesus and women in the New Testament, we want each girl to see Jesus in her own story, and her story in Jesus. And to know that her story matters to Him, to her, and to us. I Am Second fleshes this out with modern-day examples.
These stories will also inspire you to seek Jesus in your story, too. He can take a mess of a life and transform it into a God-glorifying testimony. And He can take a seemingly ordinary life (is there such a thing?) and make it extraordinary, solely because He is in it.
At the end of each story chapter, you’ll find Quick Response codes. If you have a code scanner app on your smart phone, these QR codes will take you directly to the online video to watch/hear the story you just read (it’ll be the same exact story, fyi), plus 2 or 3 extra stories that are similar.
Whether or not you read the book though, go watch a video. Be encouraged.
Jesus is first. I am second.
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Have you watched an I Am Second video? Which one?
