Live Second: 365 Ways to Put Jesus First is a daily devotional that will allow you to focus on submitting to God’s will. Written by Doug Bender and published by Thomas Nelson, Inc., the book contains, as the title suggests, 365 daily devotions. If you are familiar with the I Am Second movement, then this devotional will take you through familiar ground.
At the beginning of each week, you are presented with a video from the I Am Second series along with a passage of Scripture for you to read and reflect upon. This is followed by a series of questions designed to have you think about the story in the video and the Scripture. For each of the following six days, you will be presented with another passage of Scripture to coincide with this week’s theme, along with a short devotional. Each devotional also contains a short prayer for you to pray to bring you closer to God.
This book is meant to be read daily in short bursts; it is not meant to be devoured in just a couple of days. By following the devotionals each day, you will find yourself focusing on God first and yourself second. That is what the I Am Second movement is all about. Ordinary people who have discovered that they are second and have decided to put God first in their lives.
Obviously for the purpose of this book review I did not read all 365 devotions. I did take the time to complete one full week of devotions, along with the accompanying video and Scripture readings. After using the book for a week, there are several things that I really like about this devotional series.
Quick Access to I Am Second Videos
The copy of the book that I was using for this review was the Kindle version. And since I was reading the book with my Kindle iOS app on my iPhone and iPad, this made it very convenient to view the accompanying videos. One click on the video link took me straight to the video on my phone. This allowed no excuses for not taking advantage of the videos, my favorite part of the devotions. I should also note that the printed book also contains the QR Code for the video. A quick scan with your mobile device should allow you to view the video without typing in the URL. I thought that this was a nice touch to the book.
These devotions should also make for a good small group study as well. By watching the videos and reading the Scripture, small groups should then be able to interact with each other discussing the weekly topic.
Sharing Your Second Life Online
As well as sharing these devotions with a group of friends, Live Second makes it easy to discuss these devotions with the rest of the world using social media. Each devotion contains a hashtag to be used on Twitter. For those of you who may not be familiar with hashtags, they are the words or groups of letters at the end of a tweet that are preceded by a #. This allows tweets to be grouped into subjects that allow for easy searching. By tweeting #IAS followed by the entry title, you can share your thoughts with others around the world.
Social media is such a big part of our lives today that it makes good sense to take advantage of this technology to help you get the most out of this devotional. A quick search of Twitter of some of these hashtags brings up numerous people around the world that are studying and “tweeting” their thoughts about the same devotions you are reading.
A Recommended Devotional
Overall, I feel that this is a very good devotional for those that would like to make God the focus of their daily lives. The videos are inspirational and the Scripture readings are short and easy to digest in just a couple of minutes. By focusing on these devotions each day for the entire year, you will move much closer to making God first in your life. I would recommend this devotion book as a good daily reader. And, if you have not taken the time to read the original I Am Second book, now would be a good time to do so and familiarize yourself with the entire program. It really is great movement.
I give Live Second: 365 Ways to Put Jesus First 4 out of 5 stars. A great little devotion book.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”