Snyder's Church NB
The Pastor's Desk Image

 
MARCH 11, 2026            
 
I ONCE WAS BLIND
 
Dear Snyder's Church Family and Friends,
 
This coming Sunday I expect to be preaching again after my illness, but Jeff is also being prepared.
We will sing "This Is The Day"; "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross"; "Nothing But The Blood" and other music selected for the service.
Jeff will share the Children's Moment and we will praise the Lord together. Plan to share the Lenten moments with us.
 
"Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!
 
I once was lost, but now I'm found; Was Blind, but now I see."
 
This plaintive spiritual song is a favorite among all of us. For those elderly and nursing home residents at chapel time, those for whom physical eyesight is waning and for whom spiritual sight is increasingly significant, I think that most of us believe it is a Negro spiritual, maybe because of the haunting melody.
 
Actually it was written by John Newton, who was part of the revival of the Church of England in the late eighteenth century. He was a self-educated man, who had gone to sea and at one time he had been the captain of a ship in the African slave trade.
 
After his conversion, he became an ordained minister in the Church of England, finally serving as rector of a church in London. It could well be that this personal testimony referred to his time of blindness to the awful exploitation and forced transport of the wretched slaves.
 
He was indeed a spiritual wretch, just as the slaves were physical wretches in the stinking hold of the ship. Through an amazing grace his eyes were opened and he could see clearly God's will for his life, and it was no to haul slaves.
 
This hymn is probably my favorite, and it gives me great peace and comfort each time I hear it and sing it.
May the same joy and peace be yours today.
Know that God loves you and so do we.
May you truly be blessed today and may you also truly be a blessing to others.
See you in Church this Sunday morning. 
Pastor Bill