Last week, I wrote that Hans, a friend of ours, entered the presence of the Lord whom he loved. On Saturday, many attended a service of celebration of his life. It was a wonderful time where family and friends shared memories of Hans. We sang hymns of praise to the Lord and rejoiced in His great love. After the service, Karen and I met some people whom we hadn’t seen for many years. It was like a foretaste of Heaven. As John Newton wrote many years ago:
According to one post on the Internet – https://www.learnreligions.com/amazing-grace-701274 – “Once the captain of a slave ship, Newton converted to Christianity after an encounter with God in a violent storm at sea. The change in Newton’s life was radical. Not only did he become an evangelical minister for the Church of England, but he also fought slavery as a social justice activist. Newton inspired and encouraged William Wilberforce (1759-1833), a British member of Parliament who fought to abolish slave trading in England.
Newton’s mother, a Christian, taught him the Bible as a young boy. But when Newton was seven years old, his mother died from tuberculosis. At 11, he left school and began taking voyages with his father, a merchant navy captain. He spent his teen years at sea until he was forced to join the Royal Navy in 1744. As a young rebel, he eventually deserted the Royal Navy and was discharged to a slave trading ship.
Newton lived as an arrogant sinner until 1747, when his ship was caught in a fierce storm and he finally surrendered to God. After his conversion, he eventually left the sea and became an ordained Anglican minister at the age of 39. Newton’s ministry was inspired and influenced by John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. In 1779, together with the poet William Cowper, Newton published 280 of his hymns in the popular Olney Hymns. “Amazing Grace” was part of the collection.
Until he died at the age of 82, Newton never stopped wondering at the grace of God that had saved an ‘old African blasphemer.’ Not long before his death, Newton preached in a loud voice, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!”
As we remember the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus this weekend, may we marvel at God’s amazing grace for sinners such as you and me.
Scripture for the weekend: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8 (NASB)
Thought for the weekend: “Christianity is not merely a program of conduct; it is the power of a new life.” – Benjamin B. Warfield
Steve