Tuesday, August 2, 2011 Amazing Grace is for Wretches Amazing
Grace is one of the most popular songs in the English-speaking
language. Written by John Newton and published in 1779, it
remains a treasured part of Christianity. Of course, it can be
interpreted in many ways and means something different to
everyone. Newton, being the author, wrote it as a lonely, foul-
mouthed sailor participating in the slave trade, who suddenly
received his calling from God. He spent most of his life at sea
and prided himself on the fact that he could produce such
profanity that no one had even heard of at the time. He lived a
dangerous life, having near death experiences far too often.
After one night at sea during a rigorous storm, he shouted, “If
this will not do, then Lord, have mercy upon us!” This was the
first time that he reached out to God to protect him, and it
left him pondering. For the next eleven hours he steered the
ship, contemplating what he had said and how God and
Christianity had come into his life at that v