Amazing Grace!

Last week, we took a short break from the Book of Acts to look at a more "modern" witness - someone who finished the Christian race in the 19th Century! His name was John Newton - he was the guy that wrote the famous hymn "Amazing Grace". For those of you who have seen the film Amazing Grace, about the abolition of slavery in Britain, John Newton was also a mentor of William Wilberforce.

John Newton had a varied life, mostly centred around the sea for the first half of it - he eventually became a slave ship captain. One day, in his desperation during a very dangerous storm, this atheist cried out "Lord have mercy!" and he and his ship were delivered from the storm. John Newton was surprised at himself for having called out to God, but eventually he came to put his faith in God. It took him a while to realise that slavery was a bad thing though. He was to say later, that he didn't consider himself to be a true Christian until later, when he realised the true error of his ways.

John Newton eventually became a popular preacher of his time, urging people to turn away from just religion of traditions and really live out their faith in their lives. Letting God transform him, he eventually wrote about his old days of slave trading and supported the parliamentarian, Wilberforce, in his fight against slavery.

We were reminded from John Newton's life, that God sending Jesus to die for us was purely 'grace' - something we did not deserve and could never earn. We can never understand why God would have such mercy on us, but this grace should change the way we live altogether! Just like John Newton though, the work that God has to do in our hearts to make us more like Christ, will take a lifetime... let us all keep opening our hearts more and more to him, letting God change us.

Sometimes we think we know it all, and then we don't learn. Sometimes we soak in everything we are told and think it's all we need to know, but God wants our hearts! Believing in Jesus isn't about what we know, or how many songs we can sing, or how flowery our prayers are... it's about admitting that we are NOT good enough, haven't got a clue, and can do nothing to make us acceptable before God - we are totally at his mercy, and thankful that he is merciful...and we accept Jesus as the only person who can die for us, so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be accepted before God as his children...

Being a Christian isn't about getting the highest 'levels' in Bible knowledge, or about being able to remember how to pronounce "Stephen" properly in English.. :P It's all about grace. And this is the verse John Newton based the idea of Amazing Grace on:

Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am
I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this
far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken
about the future of the house of your servant. You have looked on me as though I
were the most exalted of men, O LORD God." [1 Chronicles
17:16-17]

Let us remember this as we approach Easter... Let's pray that God will renew our minds and our attitudes to make them us more and more like Jesus... and let's be thankful and celebrate the fact that, through Jesus, we have a way to be close to God :)