Family Conference Dec. 2011

Family Conference Dec. 2011

Tuesday 23 July 2013

John Newton From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken

  
Summary and Review of the first 84 pages of John Newton
 From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken

       It is remarkable that Jonathan Aitken’s biography of John Newton begins, in part with a note about the spiritual teachings that the latter’s mother Elizabeth laboured to instill into her son at an early age. She ensured that by the time young Newton was four years old, he could at least read. A pious woman, she introduced the word of God to her son ensuring he stored in his mind many “valuable pieces, chapters and portions of scripture, catechisms, hymns and poems.” Indeed and even though she died while Newton was only a little child, Elizabeth’s early teachings of the word of God to her son were to later have a great influence on the outcome of his life when it is considered that his father, Captain John Newton was an absentee father, a sea farer whose “frequent absences at sea” is much talked about in the book. It is noted, for example that when Elizabeth Newton died in 1732, her husband was away at sea and only returned home “in early 1733”, yet the scripture lessons young Newton learned at his mother’s knee were not  completely forgotten and these would become the foundation for his eventual conversion and subsequent Christian commitment.
       Captain Newton introduced his son to seafaring in the latter’s teenage, but the captain being of the view that his son was not suitable for a career at sea, found him employment with a family friend, one Joseph Manesty in one of the latter’s plantations in Jamaica but Newton never took up the job, he having gone for a visit at his mother’s cousin Elizabeth Catlett’s house where he met his cousin Polly Catlett with whom he fell deeply in love and decided to overstay the visit. It was during a second visit to the Catlett’s in Chatham that he was press-ganged (forcefully recruited) into the Royal Navy and placed abound HMS Harwich. He soon lost his captain’s favour after prolonging a day’s leave he had been granted to over ten days on account of Polly Catlett but things came to a head when he attempted to desert the navy, was caught flogged and degraded. Eventually he was discharged from the Navy through an exchange programme then allowable and onto a merchant ship, the Pegasus, a slave trading ship that would take him to Africa and into the slave trade, with its appalling brutality. By this time Newton was an ardent blasphemer and even though he survived several near death mishaps which he would later attribute to divine providence, he became increasingly steeped into sin.
       Starting his life in Africa as a land-based slave trader, Newton soon disagreed with his employer, Amos Clow and he soon found himself under severe punishment first after disagreeing with Mr. Clow’s African mistress, one PI and even more so after it was falsely alleged by one of Mr. Clow’s friends that Newton had stolen his employer’s property. When he contracted some tropical diseases in the absence of his employer who had then travelled inland from their base at the West coast of Africa, Newton was extensively mistreated by the his employer’s mistress who not only denied him medication and food, but also taunted him with unending abuses and insults. When his employer came back he believed PI’s side of the story against Newton’s and so the punishments were increased, for Newton, in this state of severe illness, was put in chains on the upper deck of a slave ship where he stayed through the cold of rain and the heat of the African sun, was starved, beaten, mocked some more and denied proper medication such that even his fellow African slaves pitied him. It is at this point that he wrote and smuggled out letters to his father, describing the horror of his plight in Africa. Newton felt hopeless, helpless and humiliated, with no end of his captivity in sight. By this time, Newton was about twenty one years of age.
       By God’s providence, Newton was subsequently offered employment by another slave trader who even gave him a share in the said trader’s “factory” so that he, Newton, also now owned and sold some slaves for personal profit besides his pay for the work he did for this new employer. Living as he pleased, with increased income and an unbridled lust for African slave women who he often raped, Newton began dabbling in witchcraft and blasphemed God even the more. Back home, however, his father had received the letters his son had written and managed to smuggle out while in captivity and so Captain Newton organized for a rescue mission of his son to be carried out by a captain of one of Joseph Manesty’s trading ships, the Greyhound. By the time the rescuers reached the younger Newton, he was so comfortable in this sinful lifestyle that it took persuasion and indeed a litany of concocted tales and lies to get him on board. Once on the ship, he took to heavy drinking and unending blasphemy and even later when he read a Christian classic that he found aboard the ship “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas Kempis, he was largely indifferent to it. Soon enough however, the Greyhound was hit by a huge and devastating storm that smashed a large section of its upper bow to smithereens and the crew laboured hard to keep her afloat with increasing desperation even as it was all too apparent that the all the ship’s food stores and supplies had been lost, not to mention that some of the crewmen got swept overboard to their deaths in the cold Atlantic. It was then and only then and after all hope seemed lost that Newton remarked “If this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us”
       This appears to have been the beginning of Newton’s conversion to faith for even his fellow crew members, convinced that his God-mocking profanities had brought down divine wrath upon the Greyhound increasingly started toying with the idea of throwing him overboard in a manner akin to the story of Jonah of the Bible. This beginning part of the book sets the stage, so that through the diverse and severe sufferings that Newton encountered, for his eventual conversion, we are taught that in our stubbornness, God may allow us to suffer that we may then look to Him for salvation. Indeed at the end of chapter ten of Jonathan Aitken’s book, and as the Greyhound to their amazement, eventually landed in Ireland, with a limp and quite miraculously, it was difficult for John Newton not to see the providences of God in his life. Yet in all this, I have seen that the grace of God which is mightier than human thought can comprehend or fathom never left Newton and this has encouraged me greatly and to the extent that I would recommend this book to all serious Christians who would want to look again at the grace of God in its exemplary work in the life of John Newton. I have, as well, learnt anew from this book the truism in Proverbs 22:6 that if we “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This God that his mother had long taught him about, and whose teachings had somehow remained at the back of Newton’s mind, is the one who rescued the Greyhound and her crew when all else appeared unhelpful.  It is at this point that John Newton stated “About this time I began to know that there is a God who hears and answers prayer”. It was the time of John Newton’s conversion. And his song ‘Amazing Grace how sweet the sound ‘ testifies to his conversion.


Review by Kennedy Owiti of Grace Baptist Church-Kisumu

Unveiling the ‘powers’ of Satan.

 Article by Pastor Sam Oluoch -  Grace Baptist Church-Kisumu, Kenya.

The Bible has a lot to say about the unseen world, so much so that we cannot afford to sit back and wish it away by a sweep of the hand. The following passages could not have their meaning if the unseen world was just a mere myth and scare craw to errant men: John 8:44, Revelation 12:4, Job 1:7,2:2, Romans 8:38,1Cor. 15:24-25, Eph. 1:21, 3:10, 6:12 and many more. Writing from African context, I do not have to labour much to prove the existence of the unseen world. Africa is not the only professor of the knowledge of this world; it has been proved that the world at large, in their beliefs and practices, in one way or another, approves the existence of the unseen world, especially the spirit world. The major player being the head of these demons, identified as the Devil (diabolos).Sometimes referred to as the adversary in the Bible.
Having pointed to the fact that the Devil and his agents the demons exists, we must ask ourselves what their duty in the spheres is. Chaos is their duty. Lies is their work (John 8:44) and causing fear and terror in people. In Africa, this is very much real as it can be seen from African worldview and the resulting epistemology and axiology. No doubt, the devil and his agents are powerful beings. But where do they get their power over humanity from? Under good scrutiny, one can argue convincingly that Satan has no power of his own; his power can be seen in two lights. One, is the ‘permitted power’, and secondly, the ‘opportunistic power’.
Permitted power:
From the book of Job cited above (1:6-12, 2:2-7), we see who actually wielded the power over Job’s life. It is God who permitted Satan to visit Job with his troubles (for good reason). Also, when we believe the story of creation in Genesis; we will see that this world actually does not belong to Satan, not even an inch of it. The entire world belongs to God and He controls all that goes on in it. No stranger enters in to God’s affairs in His Kingdom earth without Him knowing. God therefore places limits on the activities of this fallen angel, whom he created like any other creation, but rebelled (Revelation 12:4). Satan has no power of his own in this world of God, except that which is permitted him by God.
Opportunistic power:
In this I will spend more time because it is the core of this article. When I talk of ‘opportunistic power’ I put the blame squarely on you, man, and not Satan. Why? It is man that gives Satan food to feed on so as to continue with his disturbing activities on earth. Think of it. What was life like in the Garden of Eden before the fall? Yes, you are right. It was good! No family squabbles and no fear of ever so besetting evil we see on earth. Because of rebellion of man from God, man has become the work shop of Satan. Man gives him the medium of sin to thrive on and Satan seizing the opportunity sin affords in our lives maximizes his destructive activities.
Allow me to illustrate this. For a period of eleven years, I worked for the government of Kenya as an Agricultural officer and was deployed in Kano plains of Kenya to reclaim swamps for rice growing. Before you reclaim a swamp you have to do a reconnaissance survey, i.e. physically walk around the intended field (it does not matter how big it is or how deep the swamps are) and plan your work accordingly. This I dreaded. One, not only because of the deep swamps which we often slipped and plunged in to neck deep, but the huge water snakes that was a common sight and cases of them biting was ever so present. Now, if these farmers wanted to keep themselves off the snake bites the swamps had to be cleared, the reeds and water weeds done away with. The reverse had its deadly consequence because the fields remained not only breeding ground for the snakes but also feeding ground-hence giving the snakes the opportunity to harass the local people. The environment provided a good welcoming ground for these reptiles.
Secondly, let us bring in the dreaded HIV/AIDS in the picture. Medics will tell you that it is actually the opportunistic infections that end up killing HIV patients. They take the advantage of the opportunity afforded by the weakened immune system to bring down the sick person. If the immune system remained strong and healthy, there would be no room for opportunistic diseases.
This illustrates what I am saying about Satan and sin in man. He will continue to thrive in his activities in and around us so long as we provide the conducive ground, which is sin itself. So long as sin remains in one’s life, Satan will attach himself on to it and continue his activities in man.
This brings me to the important question. How can one be delivered from influence of Satan? Dear reader, this question cannot be answered by advising one to start attending exorcism meetings that goes on in the church next door. Neither can it be well addressed by flocking the so called deliverance meetings every Wednesday. No.
Like Apostle Paul, please allow me to digress a bit here. I have heard of reports praising the rate of church growth in Africa. If church growth is reported in terms of people walking into the church buildings then I half agree with the statistics. Kenya is said to be 80% or so Christians. Do not believe such statistics which do not have any biblical basis. Read about revival times in the USA and UK (I mean TRUE revival) and tell me what you see in people’s changed life. As I have said, church growth today is measured by the number of people walking into churches on Sunday and not those who have experienced true conversion. In Africa, I attribute the church influx to two things: First, is the confused unbiblical way of presenting the gospel of Christ and attached to it the claim for wealth and health. What does one expect of a poor continent when you tell them, do this and you will be rich and enjoy good health. The positive response will not be due to the ‘blood of the lamb that takes away the sin of the world’ reconciling sinners to God but the pursuit of the promised health and wealth. This is no gospel at all. Secondly, and closely linked to our topic of Satan and his powers, is the promises of deliverance and protection from the evil spirits that harass Africans. This sells in an animistic society like ours. People then ‘come to Christ’ not as sin bearer but as charm keeper who is able to protect them from ancestral curses and other things. We better be careful here, throngs of people walk in to these churches every Sunday  with no knowledge of Christ Jesus as the saviour hence have a comfortable ride to hell.
We must now address that dogging question. ‘How can one be kept safe from the powers of Satan?’ I draw your attention to Colossians 2:13-15 among many other passages. The fact of the matter is that before we are saved, we live in the Kingdom of Satan and serve him as our master. He rules unrepentant sinner. At the moment one gets saved, I mean, realises that he is a sinner before a holy God and he puts his trust on the righteousness of Christ alone to be saved from the anger of God, that person is transferred from the Kingdom of Satan to that of God (Colossians 1: 13-14, 21-22, Romans 6:15ff). He is no longer within the reach of Satan’s activities. The undisputed result of what Paul describes in Colossian 2:13-15 above is that victory over powers and authorities of darkness is found only in the death of Christ (Genesis 3:15). His death on the Cross and forgiveness of sinners who believe in Christ is the real defeat of Satan and his trickeries. The strong man is and can only be bound, and rendered useless through gospel preaching (Luke 11: 21-22) and acceptance of Christ as the Saviour. The human sinful living that gave Satan a medium to thrive on is shattered by salvation which is able to deal with the problem of sin in us. It is folly then to claim deliverance where there is no salvation. It is also folly to run around with Satan in the art of exorcism where the Gospel is not preached and accepted. Once sin is dealt with, the power of Satan to cling on it is removed.
Think of it, why Christ boldly claimed that ‘the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold of me’ (John 14:30). Well, he cannot feed on Christ who had no sin. But when he bore our sin to the Cross, surely the enemy tried hard to feed on him and even to the point of discouraging Christ not to face the Cross against the Father’s will. It is our sins that gave Satan medium to feed on Christ but not sin of Christ, He was sinless. To defeat Satan is to live a life free of sinful.
Conclusion
1.      So long as Africa (and other nations) continues to thrive in sin and reject the Saviour Jesus Christ, they will be a very easy target of the Devil and sin/evil will continue to multiply.
2.      We must reject health and wealth kind of Gospel; it is the devil’s trick to lull people to sin and to chase after the perishable of the world other than true eternal happiness while he still rules them.

3.      True Gospel of Jesus Christ and receiving him is the true exorcism (Luke 11:21-24).

SIN PAINS!

SIN PAINS!                                                                              Article by Pastor Sam Oluoch GBC-K
May I draw your attention to Psalm 38? This is one of the penitential Psalms (others being 32, 51, 102, 130 and 143). It deals with sin, in fact, with the weight of sin on a believer’s shoulder and gives us tips on how Christians should respond to sin when they happen to fall.
The Psalmist here (David) has fallen in to sin, it is not clear what it is but he becomes conscious of this and groans under the weight of it. He ‘suffocates’ under the umbrella of sin and this causes him not only physical pain but also psychological (vs. 1-4). This is aggravated by the fact that he awakes to the reality that it is against God that he has sinned and possible chastisement awaits him from the hand of the Holy God (vs. 1). This is striking when compared to Psalm 51:4 when he also says: ‘against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.’ Any sin committed is done against the laws of God. Men suffer from our sinfulness because we have disobeyed God. So, in as much as we directly sometimes sin against fellow men, eventually, we sin not against man but against God.
It is also enlightening to see that David takes full responsibility of his sin in verse 5 and 18. He is categorical that ‘my wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.’ Aha my. This sounds better than Adam’s ‘the woman you gave me.’ What I see here is that a regenerate person, born again through the second Adam (Christ Jesus), in as far as accepting responsibility of sin is concerned, is far much better than the first Adam. When you sin, it is you who has sinned. Yet many a times we hear excuses like: ‘oh it was my wife’s behaviour that led me to sin’, ‘oh it was the weather that made me…’ or even, ‘had it not been for my poverty, I would not have stolen the money.’ Sin properly repented of is sin acknowledged and faced without passing blames to external forces (See James 1: 13-15). Notice the phrase ‘by his own evil desires.’ This is emphatic that sin comes from inside you and you are responsible for it. How about Jesus saying that what goes in is not sin but what comes out of man. Sin cannot be shared, inside you is inside you. You cannot share a ‘stomach.’ of sin. Hence David here owns up to his own sin by saying ‘I’, ‘I am’, and ‘my’. Not ‘we’, ‘we are’, ‘our’. Once we start passing blames to others when we sin, it is impossible to deal with that sin properly. It is this owning up that pains one and makes him/her groan for forgiveness from God (Psalm 32:3-5). Pride will not allow one to do this.
David however brings another aspect of suffering in to the equation of sin’s torment. Possibility of friends and relatives deserting you (vs. 11) with some even taking advantage of the shame sin brings on you. Jesus experienced this when he carried our sins to the Cross and closer friends deserted Him and even denied any knowledge of Him. Socially he was rejected and abandoned by many due to our sin. Christ suffered this desertion. In Psalm 38:11 David suffered the same (He is known as a type of Christ in many ways). May I explain this rejection by friends and where the pain comes from?
Human beings are created to socialise. We are social beings and living around people derives some kind of completeness in man. When this is denied us, depression can occur and pain of neglect is felt. This is the essence of prison facilities where normally prisoners enjoy all that they need but not social life. Even Christians need this kind of socialization, not only with fellow Christians but general community. This is why apostle Peter counts it as persecution when the world looks at us as strange fellows because of our faith and cuts us off from their social life (1 Pet. 4:1-4). When brothers turn against brother, father against son because of the gospel, Christ says, do not worry for He will raise up greater brothers/sisters for you to socialise with as Christians and enjoy their company lest you be lonely, feel the pain and drop faith.
A good look at 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 9-13 also confirms the need for closer walk with others. Here, Apostle Paul commands that we should never associate with excommunicated sinners in a manner to give them warmth of fellowship as if they still have the right to enjoy the social life of community of believers. When this is denied a repentant sinner, the pain of being away from true brethren is expected to turn him to Christ in repentance. If the people of the world feel the pain of being locked away from social life with the rest, how much more a true Christian locked away from the community of believers. Surely, this should bring repentance.
In Psalm 38: 11 we therefore see the pain sin has brought David when his friends and companions are running away from him and even plans for his down fall. This surprises David greatly and leaves him with no words in his mouth (vs. 13-14).
A welcome friend.
Jesus was several times referred to as friend of sinners and tax collectors. Oh yes He was a friend of sinners and tax collectors, for such he came. David therefore runs to him. As the Psalm begun with merciful God in sight, it ends with the same hope. It is only Christ who can forgive the worst of sins (1 Tim 1:15-16) even when men have run away. He will in no way drive from him a man who is seriously repentant of his sin and appreciates that his own sin grieves God and must be let go. I am not talking here of superficial confession of sin but that which is expressed here by David. A true Christian understands the weight of sin and flees from it. When he repents, his heart’s desire is that he will never go back to it. He will not be like a dog that goes back to lick its own vomit or a swine who is washed clean and goes back to the dirty waters. One of the ways we can tell who a Christian is; is by the way they feel the weight of sin on them and the way they repent of it. ‘Have mercy on me a sinner’.

Amen.