Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally known for his television series Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. In his autobiography, he wrote about an overwhelming religious experience he had while visiting a beautiful church.

"My whole being," Clark wrote, "was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before." Unfortunately, the "flood of grace," as he described it, created a problem for him. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change. His family might think he had lost his mind. Or perhaps the intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So he concluded, "I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course."

What a tragedy! If only he had responded to that grace-granted glimpse of another world! If only he had allowed it to turn his attention away from this world and toward Jesus! Then he would have become a part of that invisible world, which is not an illusion but a glorious reality.

God can enable any of us to change, no matter how deeply embedded we may be in this world. The miracle of the new birth (John 3:5-7) will take place when we say yes to the stirring of God's grace in our souls.

   — Vernon C. Grounds