“Amazing Grace”

This week my daughter related a story to me that brought me a laugh. As she was driving, she heard her three-year-old daughter Caitlin saying, “In your happiness, in your madness, in your gladness, in your sadness, in your fearedness, God is with you. God is with you in all your nesses. She may only be three, but she has that right. No matter what state our emotions are in or what circumstances we find ourselves, God is with us. He is with us in all our nesses.

You may be feeling lonely and abandoned, angry and hurt, fearful and afraid, or maybe excited and happy, but God is with us in all our emotions. He made us and knows what we are like. The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to Timothy, gave thanks to God for his marvelous grace. He was thankful that God chose him though he was an unworthy blasphemer who persecuted Christians. Paul says, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14).

Are you aware of how much God’s grace has been abundantly poured out on your life? Paul had been a hard, arrogant, murderer who was obsessed with hunting down and persecuting Christians. Though he had once been the hunter, God had hunted him down, saved him, and called him to be his apostle to the Gentiles. When Paul thought about this, he was lost in the wonder of God’s amazing grace.

You may be familiar with the song “Amazing Grace,” but are you familiar with the author? His name is John Newton. He was born in London on July 24, 1725. He grew up the son of a merchant captain, so he learned the seas. Later, he was drafted into military service, but John’s depraved nature surfaced, and eventually he wound up on a slave ship, ultimately becoming a captain of his own ship. He treated people in a deplorable manner and lived as a reprobate. He had been abused, so he abused others.

He had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child; he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his “great deliverance.” He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.

For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he subjected his will to a higher power.^[1]

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed! (`Amazing Grace,’  John Newton, 1779)

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[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus, Crossway Books, Wheaton IL, 2005, p. 519.

“Master Weaver”

God is the master weaver of all the events of our lives. He uses all things in his celestial designs. When Paul wrote these words to the Romans, he had that thought in mind: “ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). We have such disdain for the bad things that happen, but we often forget that God is not limited in his masterpiece by our mistakes or the sins of others if we surrender to his will. He uses all things and works them out for the good, according to his design.

When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, some thought that Paul had suffered a setback, but the Apostle saw it differently: “As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly” (Philippians 1:13-14). If Rome thought they were going to curtail this new sect by arresting Paul, they were dead wrong. Paul wrote his best letters from prison, and he inspired others by his fearless faith.

My family and I traveled from Buenos Aires to the Province of Tucuman in Argentina to make our home there many years ago. It was a trip of over 700 miles. We were driving a pickup that was pulling a trailer loaded with many of our possession, and among them were all of our major appliances. Just twenty miles before we reached our destination, a truck loaded with sugar cane pulled out in front of us which caused me to swerve to keep from hitting him. This resulted in the trailer coming unhitched and careening into a canal with about five feet of water. It was a discouraging sight to see all of our things in that canal in the water.

Some of our things had fallen out on the ground, and people were taking them. There sat all of our appliances in the canal. What do we do now? A generous family we had never met came out and invited Marilyn and our two small children to come into their house while I went looking for some means of getting us out of the ditch. I found a farmer with a tractor and was finally able to get the trailer out of the canal, and we were able to be on our way once again. The appliances had been damaged along with the pickup and trailer. It was extremely frustrating. However, years later we could look back and see that God opened incredible doors to meeting people as we sought help in repairing the pickup and all the damaged goods. There were people to whom we were able to share the gospel. In fact, some people came to know the Lord through that accident. Truly, he is the Master Weaver.