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Weekly Greeting: Sunday 30 August
Submitted by Brian Smith on Thu, 2009-08-27 16:49
Dear Friends
It is impossible to think of Grace without thinking of the famous hymn written by John Newton "AMAZING GRACE". A hymn based on the scripture: Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? ...You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O Lord God (1 Chronicles 17:16b) as the background and adding his perspective about his own conversion while on his slave ship, the Greyhound, in 1748.
In his journal, he reflects that in the midst of the storm, having done everything possible to save the ship and its crew, believing the end was near, he writes...."I said, almost without any meaning, "if this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us!" I was instantly struck with my own words, and as Jesus said once, "What hast thou to do with peace, so it directly occurred, What mercy can there be for me? I concluded at first; that my sins were too great to be forgiven. When I saw beyond all probability, there was still hope of respite, and heard about six in the evening that the ship was freed from water, there arose a gleam of hope; I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favour: I began to pray. I could not utter the prayer of faith: I could not draw near to a reconciled God, and call him Father. My prayer was like the cry of the ravens, which yet the Lord does not disdain to hear.
I now began to think of that Jesus whom I had so often derided: I recollected the particulars of His life, and of His death:- a death for sins not his own, but, as I remembered, for the sake of those who in their distress should put their trust in Him. When we came into port, our very last victuals were boiling in the pot; and before we had been there two hours, the wind, which seemed to have been providentially restrained till we were in a place of safety, began to blow with great violence; so that, if we had continued at sea that night in our shattered enfeebled condition, we must, in all human appearance, have gone to the bottom.
About this time I began to know that there is a God that hears and answers prayer." John Newton
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