May 5, 2019 (Sunday)
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now and found,
‘Twas blind, but now I see.”
In the midst of a terrible storm at sea, John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace,” was lashed to the helm of a slave ship when he remembered Proverbs 1:24-31, and those verses seemed to confirm Newton in his despair: “When distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.”
John Newton had rejected his mother’s teachings and had led other sailors into unbelief. Certainly, he was beyond hope and beyond saving, even if the Scriptures were true. Yet, Newton’s thoughts began to turn to Christ.
That day at the helm, March 21, 1748, was a day Newton remembered ever after, for many years later, as an old man, Newton wrote in his diary of March 21, 1805: “I endeavor to observe the return of this day with humiliation, prayer, and praise.” Only God’s amazing grace could and would take a rude, profane, slave-trading sailor and transform him into a child of God. Newton never ceased to stand in awe of God’s work in his life.
in 1764, at the age of thirty-nine, John Newton began forty-three years of preaching the Gospel of Christ. He also wrote other well-known and beloved hymns.
Newton lived to be eighty-two years old and continued to preach and have an active ministry until beset by fading health in the last two or three years of his life. Even then, Newton never ceased to be amazed by God’s grace and told his friends, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now and found,
‘Twas blind, but now I see.”
In the midst of a terrible storm at sea, John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace,” was lashed to the helm of a slave ship when he remembered Proverbs 1:24-31, and those verses seemed to confirm Newton in his despair: “When distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.”
John Newton had rejected his mother’s teachings and had led other sailors into unbelief. Certainly, he was beyond hope and beyond saving, even if the Scriptures were true. Yet, Newton’s thoughts began to turn to Christ.
That day at the helm, March 21, 1748, was a day Newton remembered ever after, for many years later, as an old man, Newton wrote in his diary of March 21, 1805: “I endeavor to observe the return of this day with humiliation, prayer, and praise.” Only God’s amazing grace could and would take a rude, profane, slave-trading sailor and transform him into a child of God. Newton never ceased to stand in awe of God’s work in his life.
in 1764, at the age of thirty-nine, John Newton began forty-three years of preaching the Gospel of Christ. He also wrote other well-known and beloved hymns.
Newton lived to be eighty-two years old and continued to preach and have an active ministry until beset by fading health in the last two or three years of his life. Even then, Newton never ceased to be amazed by God’s grace and told his friends, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”