John Newton and Thanksgiving
I received the below email from a friend of mine who leads a men's discipleship ministry out of Atlanta called the Jackson Institute. I was blessed reading and digesting it this Thanksgiving and thought I might pass it along to you.
John Musselmann of the Jackson Institute writes:
Dear Dick,
Twenty years ago, I was introduced to the writings of Frank W. Boreham by Ravi Zacharias. We had been sharing our appreciation for the works of G.K. Chesterton, C.S Lewis, and other eminent writers at a pastors' luncheon in Marietta, Georgia, when he asked me if I had ever read any of Boreham's books. "No," I said. "I have never heard of him."
As I left that conversation and the building that day, my curiosity had been peaked. I moved quickly to locate and purchase my first Boreham. Nancy Brown from The Book Mart (sadly, no longer in existence) in the Biltmore Plaza in Asheville, N.C. located my first four: A Bunch of Everlastings, A Casket of Cameos, Rubble and Roseleaves, and I Forgot to Say. My Boreham journey had begun and I have become the richer for reading some of his 47 books, especially his five books on the theme "Texts That Made History."
As we pause this Thanksgiving holiday to offer special thanks and praise to "our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens" (Abraham Lincoln), perhaps a reminder of God's grace from one of Boreham's gems on the life of John Newton would prompt each one of us to remember that we were enslaved to sin until He "made us alive together with Christ" (Eph. 2:5).
On the Wall Over Newton's Study Mantelpiece - Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.
A Bondman - Newton had been a slave trader and, for some time, had been a slave himself. Having lost his mother at the age of seven, he went to sea when he was eleven. During the next few years, his soul was seared "by the most revolting and barbarous of all human experiences." He became involved "in the unspeakable atrocities of the African slave trade. A bondman! A slave of slaves!"
Newton's Conversion - Newton's conversion "took place on the tenth of March, 1748, on board a ship that was threatening to founder in the grip of a storm. 'That tenth of March,' says Newton, 'is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day - March 10, 1748 - the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.' The storm was terrific: when the ship went plunging down into the trough of the seas few on board expected her to come up again. The hold was rapidly filling with water. As Newton hurried to his place at the pumps he said to the captain, 'If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us!' His own words startled him. 'Mercy!' he said to himself, in astonishment, 'mercy! mercy! What mercy can there be for me?'" He was 23 years old.
Newton's Impact - "Years afterward, when he entered the Christian ministry, John Newton began making history. He made it well. His hand is on the nation still. He changed the face of England. He began with the church...There is scarcely a land beneath the sun that has been unaffected by Newton's influence." "And, all the time, the text hung over the fireplace: Thou shalt remember! Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman! Thou shalt remember that the Lord thy God redeemed thee! "He never again forgot. He never could."
Newton's Own Epitaph - "He could not forget. And he was determined that nobody else should! In order that future generations might know that he was a bondman and had been redeemed, he wrote his own epitaph and expressly directed that this - this and no other - should be erected for him: JOHN NEWTON Clerk, Once an Infidel and Libertine, A Servant of Slaves in Africa, was by the Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Preserved, Restored, Pardoned, And Appointed to Preach the Faith he had so long laboured to destroy."
His Final Years - "'My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Saviour!' - that was John Newton's testimony." 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
Eternally grateful to God for His mercy and for your faithful partnership in the gospel, 770-518-7994
John Musselmann of the Jackson Institute writes:
Dear Dick,
Twenty years ago, I was introduced to the writings of Frank W. Boreham by Ravi Zacharias. We had been sharing our appreciation for the works of G.K. Chesterton, C.S Lewis, and other eminent writers at a pastors' luncheon in Marietta, Georgia, when he asked me if I had ever read any of Boreham's books. "No," I said. "I have never heard of him."
As I left that conversation and the building that day, my curiosity had been peaked. I moved quickly to locate and purchase my first Boreham. Nancy Brown from The Book Mart (sadly, no longer in existence) in the Biltmore Plaza in Asheville, N.C. located my first four: A Bunch of Everlastings, A Casket of Cameos, Rubble and Roseleaves, and I Forgot to Say. My Boreham journey had begun and I have become the richer for reading some of his 47 books, especially his five books on the theme "Texts That Made History."
As we pause this Thanksgiving holiday to offer special thanks and praise to "our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens" (Abraham Lincoln), perhaps a reminder of God's grace from one of Boreham's gems on the life of John Newton would prompt each one of us to remember that we were enslaved to sin until He "made us alive together with Christ" (Eph. 2:5).
On the Wall Over Newton's Study Mantelpiece - Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.
A Bondman - Newton had been a slave trader and, for some time, had been a slave himself. Having lost his mother at the age of seven, he went to sea when he was eleven. During the next few years, his soul was seared "by the most revolting and barbarous of all human experiences." He became involved "in the unspeakable atrocities of the African slave trade. A bondman! A slave of slaves!"
Newton's Conversion - Newton's conversion "took place on the tenth of March, 1748, on board a ship that was threatening to founder in the grip of a storm. 'That tenth of March,' says Newton, 'is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day - March 10, 1748 - the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.' The storm was terrific: when the ship went plunging down into the trough of the seas few on board expected her to come up again. The hold was rapidly filling with water. As Newton hurried to his place at the pumps he said to the captain, 'If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us!' His own words startled him. 'Mercy!' he said to himself, in astonishment, 'mercy! mercy! What mercy can there be for me?'" He was 23 years old.
Newton's Impact - "Years afterward, when he entered the Christian ministry, John Newton began making history. He made it well. His hand is on the nation still. He changed the face of England. He began with the church...There is scarcely a land beneath the sun that has been unaffected by Newton's influence." "And, all the time, the text hung over the fireplace: Thou shalt remember! Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman! Thou shalt remember that the Lord thy God redeemed thee! "He never again forgot. He never could."
Newton's Own Epitaph - "He could not forget. And he was determined that nobody else should! In order that future generations might know that he was a bondman and had been redeemed, he wrote his own epitaph and expressly directed that this - this and no other - should be erected for him: JOHN NEWTON Clerk, Once an Infidel and Libertine, A Servant of Slaves in Africa, was by the Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Preserved, Restored, Pardoned, And Appointed to Preach the Faith he had so long laboured to destroy."
His Final Years - "'My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Saviour!' - that was John Newton's testimony." 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
Eternally grateful to God for His mercy and for your faithful partnership in the gospel, 770-518-7994