What's Your Story?
The Bible is the most transformational book we’ve encountered. How has it transformed you?
Everyone has a story. Now’s the time to tell yours. Send us your story here.
STEVE DAVIES' STORY:
Dazed and confused would best describe my formative childhood years. By the age of seven both my father and grandfather had died and my mother had remarried and to say my relationship with my new stepfather was strained would be an understatement. As a youngster I always believed in God but at home Christianity and church was irrelevant.
Up until the age of 15 I was always told that my father was killed in a car accident, their illusion was shattered when mum informed me that my dad had committed suicide. My reaction was one of anger and rebellion. Drugs, sex, and rock ’n roll became my anthem from that time on. By the time I was 17 I was experimenting with heroin, LSD and amphetamines not to mention drinking myself into a drunken stupor nightly, this tended to numb the pain.
Obviously this lifestyle brought its fair amount of attention from the police. To escape this I moved from Kingaroy (where I lived for three years) to Townsville where my uncle owned a hotel. Working in the pub had its advantages, cheep grog, lots of drugs and girls girls girls.
To this point in my life I can honestly say I had never heard the Gospel until one day I was wandering around the hotel and one of the cleaners was sitting at a desk reading a book - on closer inspection I realised it was a Bible she was reading. I asked her why she was reading this, she answered “God speaks to me through it”. From that point I avoided this ‘weirdo’. About a week later I had just woken up, got stoned and was watching TV (Humphery Bear) when Helen (the weirdo Christian cleaner) came into vacuum my room. After she had finished and was walking out she stopped and threw a small little book at me (a Bible) and said the words to the effect of “Read it”. She then left - no great discourses on what it means to be a Christian, or sin, etc, nothing but the book.
Sitting in my tiny room stoned out of my brain, Humphrey on the TV and a Bible in my hand - as a compulsive reader I decided I would have a quick flick through. Though as I began to read one of the Gospels, (Mark I think) Jesus was revealed to me, and the reality of what he said really made a lot of sense. The events leading up to the crucifixion of the Lord really stunned me and from that point on I knew there was something special about this Jesus.
I continued to read my Bible spasmodically over the next twelve months and moved to Brisbane all the while still being very involved in a lot of nasty things. But the word of God was really speaking to me. Then one day I finally surrendered to the Lord on my knees outside a tiny little church at three o’clock on a Monday morning. It took me about two more months to go to church but the Lord was in my heart and changing me daily.
On my first venture to church at 19, I went to this little Brethren chapel, Bethany Hall. On walking in the poor folks greeting people at the door almost fainted, I wasn’t your typical Christian but they loved and accepted me regardless. They really didn’t know what to do with me though. As I was very ignorant (childlike in faith) of Christianity, they put me into their Sunday School with all the kids.
While feeling loved at Bethany Hall there were no friends for me there, and at this point I was still hanging out with my mates from the pubs, which made it hard to walk with the Lord. Through no small miracle through God led me to COC Brisbane where there were some ‘on fire’ young guys who discipled me. During the next couple of years, I got married to Simone, my great wife who I met at new Christian classes, went to Bible College and had my first of 2 daughters.
The greatest miracle of all in this whole saga is that Jesus has been faithful and kept me over the past 12 years. Now I have come full circle, in that, I came to Jesus through the loving efforts of one dear Christian woman who had the courage to give a drugged out no hoper a copy of God’s Word. Now working with the Bible Society I can do the same and encourage others, such as you to believe in the ability of God’s mighty Word to change the human heart.