God has used this hymn to catechize millions of people in the basics of the goodness of God’s grace. And the author, John Newton, personally knew the grace of God, and was driven by it. One of the reasons the hymn has had such staying power, is because of Newton’s incredible change of life, from being a miserable slave-trader, to a Gospel-focused pastor.

I encourage you to read (or listen to) John Piper’s analysis of Newton’s life called The Tough Roots of His Habitual Tenderness.

The song has been adapted to every conceivable musical style. In more recent days, contemporary Christian musician Chris Tomlin has added a moving chorus to the song, which has come to be known My Chains Are Gone. The version provided below by Tomlin includes this chorus.

Here are the best known verses:

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

T’was 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
We have already come
T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home

Some of the lesser known verses penned by Newton include:

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

Yea, 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 called me here below
Shall be forever mine

Tomlin’s chorus:

My chains are gone
I’ve been set free
My God my Savior
Has ransomed me
And like a flood
His mercy rains
Unending love
Amazing grace

One other popular verse the Newton did not write, which came through the African tradition, and which is usually sung today:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Then when we first begun

So we decided to move into an apartment (after all our credit is not happy right now!). Page and I both spent many years growing up in apartments, and so we both knew what to expect. God gave us the perfect spot! A four bedroom, spacious apartment, right in the middle of the action of our lives: close to family and jobs. And big enough to hold our growing family!

As I tell this story to folks, I get the feeling that people feel sorry for us, and many of our friends say things like, “Maybe one day you can get another house.” Though I appreciate the sentiment, to be honest, I’m not real sure I ever want another house! As a Christian, I am learning some of the incredible advantages to living in an apartment rather than a house.

This post is not to knock Christians who choose to buy a house, by the way. Obviously, there are advantages to owning one’s own home, including having enough space for hospitality. But the purpose of this post is to show that apartment living brings a set of advantages as well. And so the examination of these advantages begins.

Apartment living helps remind me that here and now, temporary structures are to be preferred. Heaven is for permanent structures.

Now, of course, I realize that brick houses are temporary and impermanent structures, just like apartments. But apartments have a more “tent-like” feel to them. Most people do not view an apartment as their final home. It reminds me a bit of Abraham’s situation as recorded in the book of Hebrews:

Hebrews 11:8-10 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith — for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

In other words, living in an apartment reminds me daily that the world is not as it should be. The permanence of God’s city is coming in the future, at the time of full restoration:

Revelation 21:1-3 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.”

This is the permanent city that God is building, without the help of the hands of men. It is in this city that I want my “house” to be.

Please do not take me wrong. I am not (emphatically) saying that if a Christian purchases a house, then he is not looking for this city. I am not saying that at all. What I am saying, is that apartment living is a daily, real-life reminder that we are living for the God who has designed the New Jerusalem, and not for any building on the earth as it stands now.

Apartment living saves me untold amounts of time not doing lawn care and basic maintenance work.

While living in “our”/the bank’s house, I spent thousands of hours and dollars mowing, weed-eating, trimming hedges, paying workers to cut trees, spraying for bugs, replacing A/C filters, repairing toilets, and the list goes on and on, as you well know. There were plenty of days when I could have used those hours to minister to someone in need, or prepare a sermon, but if I did not cut the grass our neighbors were going to burn our house down!

I am not a lazy person. I love to work, and I don’t mind physical work. But the sheer amount of upkeep to that house was highly distracting at times from the vocation I felt the Lord calling me to.

When we first moved into our apartment, I remember hearing a lovely sound. It was a leaf blower outside, getting louder and louder. I told Page, “I want to go out and give that guy a huge hug!” I was not kidding, even a little. Since living here, I have been able to maximize my family time and ministry time, saving lots of hours each week. I cannot stress how invaluable this has been for me.

Apartment living may not be a long-term investment like purchasing a house, but it also removes the risks involved in purchasing a house.

For our family, honesty is needed: we know very little about houses. So we bought a bad house, and took a serious economic risk. Sure, we felt like we were “saving” money, since we could later sell the house later and supposedly recoup our losses, but as it turned out, we ended up stuck in a bad house and the only way out was to ruin our credit.

In other words, our apartment does not function as a savings account, or a financial investment, as buying a house does, but neither does it bring the risk house buying brings, especially in an economy such as ours. I realize many people who read this are much smarter than I, and would only purchase houses that would be good long-term investments. And, I personally am not afraid to take risks in life, when need be. But in our case, this is one risk that hurt us bad once, and I’m not so sure I’ll be willing to take that risk again.

Sure, apartment living may not offer a tax advantage, but it does come at a cheaper monthly cost, and much less direct expense for upkeep. Some say that the tax break owning a home gives is well worth purchasing a home. And we did get the tax break (on mortgage interest), and it did help our returns. BUT, we are paying much less monthly for our apartment than we would for a house in this area (allowing us to live in a nicer area closer to school and jobs). And we do have the tax advantage of not directly having to pay property taxes. In other words, what we save each month on rent and no have to buy lawn mowers, gas for mowers, weed-eaters, etc., seem to balance our the potential tax savings of purchasing a house.

Of course, buying a good house and paying it off is a great long-term investment, and the tax benefits are real. And for some, that is definitely the way to go. But it is also important to point out that there are at least some financial advantages to apartment living.

Apartment living allows (sometimes) closer contact with neighbors, and opens up better opportunities to share and live the Gospel.

We have lived in our apartment for several months now, and have already gotten to know two office workers, two maintenance guys, and several neighbors. Our back door leads out to the pool where, this summer, I’m sure many of our neighbors will gather. Our kids (under careful supervision) will hopefully befriend other kids in the complex.

Some might say, “That is unsafe.” Well, of course we have to be careful, and protect our family and property, but wow, the opportunities to share Christ through relationships and conversations are enormous.

Living in a house, people often cut themselves off with space and fences. And I, too, am a fan of privacy. But if the reason why I am on the planet is to glorify God by receiving, understanding, enjoying, and spreading a passion for His glory, than I can’t think of a better place to live in order to do that.

Sure, the neighbors upstairs play their music a bit too loud. But the other day, I was bringing in a bag of groceries, and my loud-music neighbor held open the main front door for me with a smile and a “hi.” Loud music is a small price to pay for the potential of building a relationship through which the Gospel of Christ can flow!

Apartment living allows for the quick ability to relocate should God send.

I love our church, I love being a pastor, and I’m not looking to move anytime soon. But one of the advantages of apartment living is, if the Lord calls, we can quickly pull up the stakes and go where He leads. Again, I am not looking to do so at all. I love where God has us so much I could picture us here for the rest of our lives.

But on the other hand, so many people get deep into the house-purchasing process, only to sense the Lord calling them to the mission field. It then becomes a difficult process to attempt to sale the house. For some, it isn’t that hard to sell, but for others, it takes months and years. With an apartment, we sign one year leases at a time, that can be broken easily with the payment of a fee, if need be.

While we are waiting for the Lord’s return, and the permanence He will bring to our lives, it seems like a good idea not to sink roots to deep. Please don’t take this as me saying we should not sink roots at all. Again, I would love if this is the place God has our family long-term. We are putting roots down, in spite of living in an apartment. But those roots should not go so deep that if the Lord calls we can’t go. Remember, God called Abram out of his home of Ur. And indeed, He may call His people to a myriad of locations, and we need to be able to say “Here I am, Lord, send me.”

This post is not an attempt to persuade all Christians to rent apartments instead of buying houses. But it is an attempt to show some of the real advantages of apartment living for Christians, and to encourage people who choose to go this route.

Having just signed Noah up for his first season of Little League, reading this article brings a tear to my eye. I highly recommend it to you:

FIRST-PERSON: Pitchers and catchers report — will Dads?

It seem like most people are thrill-seekers of one kind or another. We all want our lives to have exciting moments.

Thoro Harris, who penned the words to All That Thrills My Soul Is Jesus, has really hit a nerve. Though Jesus Christ is a thrilling person, who does thrilling things, like saving sinners by dying on a cross and rising from the dead, we don’t usually think of Him as bringing excitement to life. But we need to learn to think otherwise. This song helps catechize God’s people in realizing that only Christ can truly thrill the soul.

I love this old hymn because it has a flavor of what John Piper has termed “Christian Hedonism.” Nobody thrills me like Christ! As Psalm 63:3 implies, “He is more than life to me.” I found next to nothing about the writer, Thoro Harris (1874-1955), other than he wrote many other hymns. Here the lyrics and a recording of a church singing the song together:

Who can cheer the heart like Jesus
By His presence all diving
True and tender, pure and precious
O, how blest to call Him mine

Chorus) All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see

Love of Christ so freely given
Grace of God beyond degree
Mercy higher than the heavens
Deeper than the deepest sea

What a wonderful redemption
Never can a mortal know
Ho my sin, though red like crimson
Can be whiter than the snow

Every need His hand supplying
Every good in Him I see
On His strength divine relying
He is all in all to me

By the crystal flowing river
With the ransomed I will sing
And forever and forever
Praise and glorify the King?

So for the next three Lord’s Day messages, I am going to attempt, in a small and finite way, to lead the folks at Rock Mtn to reflect upon, enjoy, receive, and spread the glory of God. The major points for the first sermon:

• The Bible is essentially the story of how God glorifies Himself.
• Everything that happens in human history, then, is a manifestation of some aspect of the glory of God.
• The glory of God is the absolute moral standard that defines our behavior as good or bad.
• Salvation is the movement of a person from being a secular, man-glorifyer to being a holy, God-glorifyer.

One of my major objectives in these messages is to discuss the difference between the innate glory of God in Himself, and the glory of God as received by a second party (namely, us).

The innate glory of God is that glory which belongs to God in His being. That is, it is Him! He is majestic, splendid, awesome in holiness, and an endless trillion other wondrous realities that our feeble language can’t begin to truly get at! (read Psalm 19)

Let me illustrate. I love Paul Simon, the singer / songwriter. He has written some great classic songs, like Bridge Over Troubled Water, You Can Call Me Al, Graceland, and Sound of Silence. All well crafted songs. He has a measure of innate glory. That is, Simon was endowed with certain gifts and talents, including lyrical and musical composition. These gifts are simply part of his being, or his innate glory (so to speak). The innate glory of God is like that – it is simply who He is.

But there is another way of understanding the glory of a person. The sunshine has innate glory just like Paul Simon does, but that glory shines. That is, the brilliance of the sun emanates off the surface of the sun and proceeds forth. And the beams of glory find other objects (like people). We then, as the son shines on us, have the opportunity to enjoy the glory of the son.

Paul Simon also shines this way. He has a measure of innate glory, but he has taken this and put it into the form of “beams,” like concerts, CDs, DVD’s, and radio waves. These become vehicles through which Simon’s glory is communicated to other beings. And so the glory of Paul Simon can be received, understood, and enjoyed by others, to a greater or lesser degree. We cannot add or subtract from the innate glory of Paul (it simply is what it is), but we can magnify his shining glory better or worse.

God’s glory is the same. His innate glory is unchanging, but His glory shines forth from His being a million ways. His Word, His Son, His Church, His Supper, all of these, and a host of others, are vehicles through which we see the shining of God’s glory. And all of us can receive these “beams” of His light, or reject them. To the degree that we receive them, seek to understand them, enjoy them, and spread them, we are “glorifying God.” Now, of course, we cannot add to His innate glory, which is perfectly and eternally unchanging, but we can magnify His shining glory, as it shines upon our lives!

Our ability to understand this theology is absolutely essential for us in understanding the purpose of our lives. The reason people feel chaotic, sad, out of control, or meaningless, is because we are often not consciously living to magnify the glory of God. We are magnifying the glory of self, or a thousand other earth-based things, and this leads to a malfunction in the human heart. After all, God has created us with the function of glorifying HIM, and so this we must do as our highest duty, honor, and joy, if we are ever to experience true life.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

I hope to see many of you at church tomorrow! Let us behold the glory of the Lord!