I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean that God can put peoples lives back together, then I would say yes, that is true. God is in the business of putting peoples lives back together again. A good example is Joh Newton. I used to think America's favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace" was a bit overdone: "... that saved a wretch like me." Really now!
But the author was a wretch, a moral pariah. While a new believer around 1750, John Newton had commanded an English slave ship.
You know what that meant. Ships would make the first leg of their voyage from England nearly empty until they would anchor off the African coast. There tribal chiefs would deliver to the Europeans stockades full of men and women, captured in raids and wars against other tribes. Buyers would select the finest specimens, which would be bartered for weapons, ammunition, metal, liquor, trinkets, and cloth. Then the captives would be loaded aboard, packed for sailing. They were chained below decks to prevent suicides, laid side by side to save space, row after row, one after another, until the vessel was laden with as many as 600 units of human cargo.
Captains sought a fast voyage across the Atlantic's infamous "middle passage," hoping to preserve as much as their cargo as possible, yet mortality sometimes ran 20% or higher. When an outbreak of smallpox or dysentery occurred, the stricken were cast overboard. Once they arrived in the New World, blacks were traded for sugar and molasses to manufacture rum, which the ships would carry to England for the final leg of their "triangle trade." Then off to Africa for yet another round. John Newton transported more than a few shiploads of the 6 million African slaves brought to the Americas in the 18th century.
At sea by the age of eleven, he was forced to enlist on a British man-of-war seven years later. Recaptured after desertion, the disgraced sailor was exchanged to the crew of a slave ship bound for Africa.
It was a book he found on board--Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ--which sowed the seeds of his conversion. John Newton was a notorious sinner.
As a matter of fact, he was willing to give people a prize if they could think of some way,
some sin that he had as yet not committed. So here he is; it’s 1748, and he’s on a ship
called the Greyhound. A tremendous storm comes up. They were being battered, and it’s
almost certain they’re going to go under. And Newton says to the captain, “If God does not
have mercy on us, we’re going to go under.” And the captain is shook, because here’s this
hardened, swearing, hard-drinking, slave-driving person saying, “If God doesn’t have mercy
on us, then what?”
So, all of the men were trying to man the pumps to keep the vessel afloat. Newton had a Bible his mother had given him, and on the ship he read these words. Now, just think of the
context. This is actually from the book of Proverbs, but he’s reading this, “If you had responded
to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts
known to you. But because you have rejected me when I called, and no one gave heed
when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my
rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you–when
calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind” [Prov.
1:23-27].
He’s scared to death. Eventually, as we might guess, the storm subsided and the sailors
were spared. But, Newton began to read the Bible. He said, “I needed someone to stand between me and a holy God who must
punish my sins and blasphemies. I needed an Almighty Savior who would step in and take away my sins. I saw that Christ took my punishment so that I might be pardoned.” Little
wonder he wrote, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Later he was promoted to captain of a slave ship. Commanding a slave vessel seems like a strange place to find a new Christian. But at last the inhuman aspects of the business began to pall on him, and he left the sea for good.
While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At 82, Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour." No wonder he understood so well grace--the completely undeserved mercy and favor of God.
Newton's tombstone reads, "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." But a far greater testimony outlives Newton in the most famous of the hundreds of hymns he wrote:
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.
'Twas 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,
I have already come.
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
Newton is only one example of God picking up the pieces of a persons life and putting them together again. There's millions of examples.
2007-02-20 05:25:59
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answer #2
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answered by upsman 5
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