by God's grace

We are working at working in some hymn singing into our family table time these days and have begun with a hymn that our kids are familiar with Amazing Grace, written by John Newton.

Did you know that John Newton wrote a few more stanza's and did not actually write the fourth stanza we usually sing. Here's the three stanzas that most of us are unfamiliar with . . .

The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.

These are great verses, too. I will teach them to my kids and vote that we start singing them in church. What say you?

Anyway, that's not where I was really going with this post. In looking up the original stanzas, Susie stumbled on to yet another great quote by Newton.

I am not what I ought to be...
I am not even what I hope to be...
But by the grace of God
I am certainly not what I was

Amen, Amen, Amen!