.
.Fresh
Beginnings - Amazing Grace
..
by
Rob Clarke
John
Newton was just 18 when he was captured and
press ganged into the Royal Navy. Like many
young men forced to work on the ships he hated
life in the Navy and attempted to run away while
in port. He was caught, stripped to the waist,
tied to a grate and flogged in front of the
ship’s crew.
Newton eventually recovered and managed to
transfer to another Navy ship but again ran into
problems. He did not get on with the ship crew
and they abandoned him into the hands of a cruel
slave trader off West Africa where he was badly
mistreated.
Newton eventually escaped but having been
hardened by his experiences and knowing little
else but the life at sea, he joined the slave
trade.
Newton had a wake up call off the west coast of
Ireland when his ship hit a big storm and almost
sank. He woke in the middle of the night to find
the ship filling with water. He prayed for
perhaps the first time in his life. The cargo
shifted and stopped up the hole and amazingly
the ship survived. Newton later wrote that this
experience marked the beginning of a change in
his heart. He began to think about his life more
critically. He began to read the bible.
In his spare time Newton studied Greek and
Hebrew and eventually became a church minister.
More than most people, he had a very real sense
of his own guilt, his own wrong doing, and more
than most he had an awareness of the tremendous
unstinting generosity of God.
Reflecting
on his life, Newton sought to capture the
goodness of God in a hymn. “Amazing grace, How
sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”
The hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ was first sung on New
Year's Day in 1773. It remained in obscurity for
about eighty years but finally came to the
attention of the wider public.
The story
of Newton’s life and the words of this hymn
remind us that with God there is always the
opportunity for a fresh beginning.
This
article was originally published in Life Blog,
(c) July 2015 Spirit
Radio, Ireland. Used with permission.
 Rob Clarke
is the CEO for Spirit
Radio, a national Christian radio
station for Ireland online and also on am
and fm. Originally from New Zealand, Rob
moved to Dublin in 1987 and has worked
extensively in Christian leadership and is
a regular conference speaker. Rob and his
wife Anne are members of Nazareth
Community in Dublin. They have six
children.
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