Music Hymn Amazing Grace Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church Orange http://lincolnavenueonline.com "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. T'was Grace that taught... my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear... the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares... we have already come. T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far... and Grace will lead us home. The Lord has promised good to me... His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be... as long as life endures. When we've been here ten thousand years... bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise... then when we've first begun. "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 (July 24, 1725 -- December 21, 1807) was an English slaveship master who converted to Christianity and continued as a slave ship master, but eventually became an Anglican clergyman. He is also well-known as the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. Newton was born in Wapping, London, the son of John Newton, a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service, and Elizabeth Newton (née Seatclife). His mother died of tuberculosis when he was a child. After two years at boarding school he went to sea with his father from 1736, and sailed with him on a total of six voyages until 1742. His father became governor of Fort York, Ontario, Canada, but was accidentally drowned in 1750. His father had planned to send him to take up a position at a sugar plantation in Jamaica but, on his way in 1743, he was pressed into naval service, and became a midshipman aboard the HMS Harwich. Having attempted to desert, Newton was recaptured, put in irons and reduced to the rank of a common seaman, and was destined for a long voyage to the East Indies when, as his ship was getting supplies for the journey at Madeira, he was exchanged and transferred to a merchant ship engaged in the African slave trade and bound for west Africa. [edit] Slave trader It was six months later that he sought to stay on the coast of Guinea, with the intention of making his fortune as a trader in the islands close to Sierra Leone but, instead, became a servant and found himself brutally used by his master, suffering starvation, illness and exposure. It was this period that Newton later remembered as the time he was "once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa." Eventually, his fortunes improved and he was found by a ship's captain who had been asked by Newton's father to look out for him on his next voyage. [edit] Conversion to Christianity Returning to England with him in 1748 aboard the Greyhound via the Atlantic triangle trade route, they encountered a severe storm, which threatened to overwhelm the ship. Newton awoke in the middle of the night and, as the vessel filled with water, prayed for God's mercy. It was this experience which he was later to mark as the point of his conversion to Christianity. Even while the ship limped home in need of repair, and with little in the way of provisions, Newton began to read the Bible and other religious literature and, by the time they reached Britain, he had mentally assented to the doctrines of Christianity. The date had been May 10, 1748, an anniversary he observed for the rest of his life. From that point on, he avoided religious taboos such as profanity, gambling, and drinking, but he continued to participate in the slave trade for the next several years. He would later say, however, that his true heart conversion did not happen until some time later ("I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word) till a considerable time afterwards."). Newton returned to Liverpool, England and, partly due to the influence of Joseph Manestay, a friend of his father's, obtained a position as first mate aboard a slave trading vessel, the Brownlow, bound for the West Indies via the coast of Guinea. During the first leg of this voyage, while in west Africa (1748-49), Newton saw for the first time the inadequacy of his new spiritual life and, suffering from the effects of a violent fever, threw himself totally on the mercy of God. He was later to claim that this experience was the true conversion and the turning point in his search for God, and that he knew for the first time a total peace Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church 1310 E Lincon Avenue Orange Ca 92865 Serving the real Orange County Ca. Orange Villa Park Yorba Linda Tustin Anaheim Hills Santa Ana Anaheim Placentia Huntington Beach Pastor Abel Galban Worship leader Lonnie Pyle Thank you for watching, we would love hear your comments.