As he read the Bible and discussed what he was learning with his friends, he discovered his need for Christ. Eventually, he says, Jesus saved him “by grace through faith.” While visiting a thrift store not long after his conversion, Jack discovered the book Gods at War by Kyle Idleman. The person at the thrift store who recommended the book believed in it so much she gave it to him free of charge. The book helps Christians deal with 21st century idolatry so they can grow in their walk with Jesus. The book showed Jack the underlying nature of the different kinds of sins that impact people and how idolatry was at the heart of all of them.
“Usually, whenever you read the term idols you think of golden calves and things like that. You think it’s something from a long time ago,” Jack says. “But the book pointed me to different places in Scripture and how those idols are here today. If I were to read those places of scripture on my own, without the references from the book, then I wouldn’t be looking at it from that perspective. But because it was referenced from the perspective of the book and of idolatry, then I get to see it from a better lens so the Lord can use it to grow me to resemble more of Jesus Christ.”
So what would Jack tell the person who gifted him that book?
“I would say to her, and all the other people who gave me books —thank you, because you’ve helped me in my walk to resemble Jesus Christ so that I can do my best to uphold the image of God so that I can point others to him.”