SUNSHINE COAST, AUSTRALIA (ANS) — Within a two day period the Lord invaded my life with the reality of who He is and reset my future. I had lived for 21 years, led by my mind and my heart; therefore, carousing from one drama to the next and practicing a form of discernment that was based on twisted logic and unsound reasoning. I had an awareness of a spiritual realm and had seen the supernatural in action; but my concept of God was at best vague; at worst deceived.

When I consider that one day, back in 1986, I was living life as normal; oblivious to God. Then, just two days later, every dream, plan and value changed and I could think of nothing more important than getting to know Him. He had made Himself known to me and in so doing had caused something inside of me to change. So profound and so sudden was the change that I know it was nothing my heart or mind could have hatched up.

International teacher and author, Ravi Zacharias (www.rzim.org) hits the nail on the head when he describes man as “lost and dead.” He explained, “Jesus did not come to make bad people good; He came to make DEAD people LIVE.”

One day I was lost and I was dead … the next I was found … something inside of me came alive!

John Newton, the famous reformed slave trader, preacher and hymn writer captured the elemental truths of transformation when he penned “Amazing Grace.”

I love this song. I can relate to it with every part of my being, knowing that once upon a time, I was wretched, lost and blind. I understand it, even though none of these are words I would have ever chosen to articulate my state. There is a truth that draws me; a truth that comforts me, purely and simply because it is accompanied by hope.

When Newton wrote about the drawings of God and salvation he said, “The beginning of this work is instantaneous. It is affected by a certain kind of light communicated to the soul, to which it was before an utter stranger.”

He went on to say, “The eyes of the understanding are opened and enlightened. The light at first afforded is weak and indistinct, like the morning dawn; but when it is once begun, it will certainly increase and spread …”

I find it interesting that the world wavers around the assumption that Christianity is something that can be privately adhered to without any impact on a person’s outside beliefs. This is especially true when it comes to politics; they imagine that Christians can adopt a form of Schizophrenia, believing one thing behind closed doors and something else in the public square.

They miss the point. A transformed life is a life that was once ensnared by the misery of insecurity, loneliness, fear, ignorance, selfishness, hopelessness… When such a life encounters the Lord of Heaven, it is introduced to freedom for the very first time.

To experience Christianity without experiencing the transforming power of God is like running on a treadmill at Gym while you watch a “scenic walk” DVD on the big screen. You get to appreciate the beauty from afar and may even want to travel someday, but you miss out on the wind in your hair, the fresh smell of spring and the sun on your face.

In our complicated modern culture so many try to keep God at bay by holding on to a list of questions that they deem to be unanswerable:

“If God exists, why is there evil in the world? If God is all powerful then why doesn’t He stop bad things from happening? If God is all-knowing then why did He let man become separated from Him?”

Newton understood the processes of Salvation. First, we encounter the light and as clichéd as it may sound, the light of God can permeate every wall and blockade that we have erected to protect ourselves from the lunacy of faith. Then God, in His power, introduces Himself to us. He does not immediately convict us of sin or wrong doing; as Newton says, these things “can only be understood by being contrasted with the holiness, majesty, goodness and truth of the God …” He shows us His heart as he melts ours and then starts us off on a journey of discovery.

God is in the habit of taking hold of the basest and most degenerate of men and turning them into amazing people who become intrinsically important in His purposes in the earth. He restores their lives, fills them with hope and purpose and positions them strategically for maximum impact.

I sincerely believe that He is a God of strategy who trains and positions His people to make a difference in every dark place in the earth.

In 1949, Andrew van der Bijl fought against Indonesian rebels whilst serving as a Commando in the Dutch East Indies. An injury landed him in hospital where he encountered the gospel through the love and kindness of the nursing sisters there. The Bible that his mother had given him before he left home had remained unopened and ignored until that day; from then on it became his constant companion.

Andrew, known around the world today by the pseudonym, Brother Andrew, experienced such an incredible transformation that his life focus changed. He is now in his eighties and for the bulk of the last 55 years has served God on the edge of danger, putting the needs of others ahead of his own safety.

After witnessing a “Parade of Triumph” at a 1957 Communist youth rally in Warsaw, Poland he thought for a brief time that believers behind the Iron curtain could not stand.

“They marched eight to a rank. Rank after rank, hundreds, thousands,” he said.

They “bristled with energy and determination” and seemed to be “an invincible force,” he said.

Dejectedly he had sat down and opened his Bible. A breeze whipped open the pages to Revelation 3:2, and he read, “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.”

His autobiography, “God’s Smuggler,” (written with John and Elizabeth Sherrill), recounts the many stories that followed this word. Thousands of desperate believers around the world have indeed been strengthened and equipped to endure. Brother Andrew’s life’s work, now known as an organization called “Open Doors,” is in 65 countries and has 27 International offices.

One man, one life, happily lost and unknowingly dead was touched by the love of God.

He was changed and never returned to his former ways of thinking and living. Instead he allowed God to lead him into the destiny that had been planned for him before he was born.

When the world understands the difference between life with and without God, it will also understand that a transformed life cannot be contained by society.

A transformed life is compelled from within to share the love and life of God with others so that they too can experience freedom.

The world ignores the lessons of history if they believe they can legislate religious freedom into a corner without consequence.

They underestimate the power of freedom’s song.

Indian-born Ravi Zacharias “lay,” as he says, “on a bed of suicide” when he encountered Jesus. At the age of 17 he had no desire to live.

When Jesus came to him, it was not, he says, “to make him a good person,” he came to give him LIFE.

Because, man without God is LOST and DEAD!

Bev Holmes-Brown lives on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia with her husband Arthur and two children.