Despite what you may or may not have read in our bulletin for this week (error mine), Chris Tomlin did not co-author Amazing Grace. He did reimagine the song with the help of Louie Giglio to create My Chains Are Gone. We won’t be singing that version this week. Instead, we will rediscover the original version to its original tune together. We have discussed the story of John Newton in the past. He authored this song in the mid 18th century, writing it to herald his moment of “great deliverance” – a time at sea where all seemed lost.

What strikes me most about John Newton is his story. It’s human. It’s flawed and full of the need for God’s grace, just like mine. To sing these old songs and to preserve their original melodies at times can be a valuable excercise in worship. We remember that these song writers were men and women with problems. We sing the same words and these familiar tunes (in this case, most people agree that the melody stemmed from old slave spirituals, likely to have been sung on the slave ship that Newton captained), and we apply our own lives to them. As you offer your voice with the bride of Christ this week, put yourself in the hymn writer’s shoes. Have you ever had a moment of “great deliverance”? Would you have written it differently?