Inside Out

by John Richard Collier

This is a true story of a police officer who overcame a battered and abused childhood. His success as a police officer brought him recognition from the state police, and he was often assigned to personally protect and guard the governor of the state of Indiana. As a police officer his world changed. The anger and hatred he carried for his father eventually changed the outward person he was. The rage that eventually surfaced took him on a self-destructive path of failure and tragedy. His life shattered as he became the person he hated most. It is a life-changing story of how Christ saved him from death, and how his life became transformed. It is the story of a miracle. John Collier was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has undergraduate degrees from Grand Valley State University in Criminal Justice and Davenport University in Network Engineering. John and his wife Lorie live in the Grand Rapids area. Today John is Worship Leader at Crossfire Ministries in Rockford, Michigan where he and Lorie serve together.

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2007

Reviews

[Valerie Caraotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This moving memoir will parade you from the ashes of despair to the pinnacle of Christ's restorative work as John Richard Collier traces the steps of his life that few have ever climbed. A child of divorced parents where he would witness beatings his father gave to his mother, it was not long before he would begin acts of juvenile delinquency, robbing stores and running away from home.

His dream of becoming a police officer at age 12 would come to fruition and throughout his career as a state trooper he rarely had contact with his father. In a series of events Collier would become dissatisfied with his job and begin drinking and using drugs. This book will candidly reveal the crimes he would commit that led him behind bars for a number of years. In deep introspection he shares the following about his dad: "All my life I kept telling myself I would never be like my dad, and now as I sat in a cell with no hope and no future, I had become what I hated most. I had become my father."

While in prison you will discover the individuals that were instrumental in leading him to make a decision for Christ including born-again inmates. A praying mother would also speak to him for years about giving his heart to the Lord. With so much detail in this book I really want to state that the result of his conversion was the beginning of glorious things the Lord would do to and through his life. The mends made with his father was very moving as he led him to the Lord in his final year and was a reconciliation you do not want to miss. Out of one committed life other family members would also come to know the Lord.

This true story teaches us all that no one is beyond the grasp of saving grace. John, I am sure, has barely begun in the comparison of how the Lord will use him in years to come.