Tag Archives: Amazing Grace

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — He Found Me

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Read: Luke 19:1-10

Bible in a Year: Psalms 54-56; Romans 3

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. —Luke 19:10

The film Amazing Grace was set in the late 1700s. It tells the story of William Wilberforce, a politician who was driven by his faith in Christ to commit his money and energy to abolishing the slave trade in England. In one scene, Wilberforce’s butler finds him praying. The butler asks, “You found God, Sir?” Wilberforce responds, “I think He found me.”

The Bible pictures humanity as wayward and wandering sheep. It says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isa. 53:6). In fact, this wayward condition is so deeply rooted in us that the apostle Paul said: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside” (Rom. 3:10-12). That is why Jesus came. We would never seek Him, so He came seeking us. Jesus declared His mission with the words, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Wilberforce was exactly right. Jesus came to find us, for we could never have found Him if left to ourselves. It is a clear expression of the Creator’s love for His lost creation that He pursues us and desires to make us His own. —Bill Crowder

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. John Newton

Once lost, now found. Eternally thankful!

INSIGHT: Jesus’ description of His mission to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) is pictured beautifully in His trilogy of parables in Luke 15. He begins in verses 3-7, describing a shepherd who pursues the one lost sheep. The theme continues in verses 8-10 with a woman searching diligently for a lost coin. The trilogy finds its apex in the parable of the prodigal son in verses 11-32. Two common threads run through these three parables. The first is the passion and determination of the seeker—a picture of God’s great love for us. The second is the absolute joy and celebration every time the lost is found. What a marvelous expression of God’s loving pursuit of us.

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Letting Go of the Past

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Charles Stanley

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

John Newton worked in one of the vilest businesses of his day—slave trading. But later, after receiving Jesus as his Savior, he penned the now familiar words to “Amazing Grace” as well as these lines: “In evil long I took delight / Unawed by shame or fear / Till a new object met my sight / And stopped my wild career.” Faith in Christ separated Newton from his dark past. The hope of a bright future is also ours if we accept God’s offer of new life.

No sin is so great that God will not forgive. Certainly some sins wreak havoc on our life as the consequences are played out. We will have to deal with whatever fallout our wrong choices bring, but we don’t have to live with guilt and shame. And when there are repercussions, we don’t have to face them alone.

First, we must accept responsibility for our sin. Confession and repentance mean we must drop our guilt burden at the foot of the cross. Only when we are willing to lay aside the sin and its accompanying shame can we take the second step—accepting forgiveness. We could never do enough to earn God’s pardon, so He freely offers mercy to anyone who will receive it. Christ’s death at Calvary bought every person a life free from the weight and wages of sin, but each individual must accept that salvation gift for him- or herself.

Our newfound liberty is maintained by taking a final step: believing we have a new life in Christ. If we will face our sin, accept forgiveness, and look toward the future, we cannot be weighed down by wrongs of the past.

 

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Amazing Grace

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Our Daily Bread

Ephesians 2:1-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith. —Ephesians 2:8

Pressed into service in the Royal Navy, John Newton was dismissed for insubordination and turned to a career trafficking in slaves. Notorious for cursing and blasphemy, Newton served on a slave ship during the cruelest days of trans-Atlantic slavery, finally working his way up to captain.

A dramatic conversion on the high seas set him on the path to grace. He always felt a sense of undeservedness for his new life. He became a rousing evangelical preacher and eventually a leader in the abolitionist movement. Newton appeared before Parliament, giving irrefutable eyewitness testimony to the horror and immorality of the slave trade. We also know him as the author of the lyrics of perhaps the best-loved hymn of all time, “Amazing Grace.”

Newton described any good in himself as an outworking of God’s grace. In doing so, he stands with these great heroes—a murderer and adulterer (King David), a coward (the apostle Peter), and a persecutor of Christians (the apostle Paul).

This same grace is available to all who call upon God, for “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). —Philip Yancey

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. —Newton

Lives rooted in God’s unchanging grace can never be uprooted.

Bible in a year: Isaiah 7-8; Ephesians 2

Insight

Here in Ephesians 2, Paul contrasts a person’s life before being saved by the grace of God to life after salvation by grace through faith. The first contrast is in verse 1: We were once “dead in trespasses” but have been made alive. Another contrast is in our behavior. We once “walked according to the course of this world” (v.2). Now, as believers, we walk according to good works prepared by God (v.10).