What Happens When We Meet Christ?
What happens when we meet Christ? For John Newton it meant the end of working in the slave trade on a slave ship. The slave triangle took textiles, guns and munitions from England to the West Coast of Africa, then barter for slaves, filling their holds in deplorable conditions to the West Indies in the Caribbean. The slaves would be bartered for tobacco, sugar, rum and other commodities that would be carried back to England in the same ships.
Africans were torn from their families, many died of diseases on the ships. All that was familiar was ripped from them and they were treated as property.
When John gave his heart to the Lord Jesus, he became an Anglican pastor in England and wrote his experience in that hymn that we love so well, “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 met and became friends William Wilberforce who himself had been converted to Christ while in his 20's. God called him to serve in the Parliament to try to change England’s laws to end this slave trade. Their friendship was a great encouragement to Wilberforce to work for some 20 years to have the Slave Trade Act to become law and another 25 years to have the slave trade abolished.
What happens when we meet Christ? Let me list a few of the benefits. We find out about God’s great love, we receive forgiveness of our sins, we become children of God, we have the power to live a new life, we receive strength for each day, we are made part of God’s family, the church and we are called to mission.
Have you given your heart to Christ? What are you waiting for?
For more information, go to our website, www.hillumc.org and click on the “How to Become a Christian” link.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” II Corinthians 5:17