What exactly is the grace of God? What was that sweet sound Newton heard? You can hear it in three words of Jesus: "Come to me."

Come to me if you're thirsty and I will give you drink; come to me if you're weary and I will give you rest; come to me if you're blind and I will make you see. Jesus seeks us out with open arms, wretches like you and me, with all our baggage and guilt, and offers to give us himself and everything he has.

Newton suffered great brokenness in his life and ended up a very lost young man, far from God. But that's exactly where grace found him. Wherever you are in your life, the grace of God invites you to come, to see that your sins have been paid for on the cross, and that all the barriers have been taken away.

You can come because the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave himself in your place and died for you. That's what makes grace such a truly amazing gift of love.

"Come to me," Jesus says, and Newton eventually turned back to the Lord and came. You too can come, put your faith in him, receive his gift of grace, and give him your life. Newton's story was entirely rewritten by God's gift of grace in Christ, and whatever your story, grace will rewrite it, too.

Some say it is a philosophy, others say it is an ethical stance, while still others claim it is an experience. None of these really gets to the heart of the matter. Christianity has at its core a relationship between a person and God—moving from knowing about God distantly to knowing him directly and intimately. Christianity is knowing God.

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." –John 17:3

Our desire for personal knowledge of God is strong, but we usually fail to recognize it. When we first fall in love, when we finally break into our chosen field, when we at last get that weekend house—these breakthroughs arouse anticipation of something which never fully arrives. We discover that no lover, career, or achievement can satisfy our deepest longing. The satisfaction fades even as we close our fingers around our goal. Many of us avoid the yawning emptiness through busyness or denial.

"Nothing tastes,"

–Marie Antoinette.

By blaming the things themselves

finding fault in everyone and everything around you. You believe that a better spouse, career, or salary would finally yield the elusive joy. Many successful people are like this—bored, discontented, running from new thing to new thing.

By blaming yourself

trying harder to live up to standards. You believe you've made poor choices or failed to achieve the things that would give you joy. You're wracked with self-doubt and burn yourself out thinking, "If only I could reach my goals, then this emptiness would be gone." But it is not so.

By blaming the universe itself

giving up seeking fulfillment at all. You become cynical, repressing the part of yourself that once wanted fulfillment and joy. But you become hard, losing your humanity and compassion.

By recognizing your separation from God

seeing that the emptiness comes from being separated from God, and establishing a personal relationship with him.

1.) Who we are:

God's creation. God created us and designed us for a relationship with him. Because humans were built to worship, we will always worship something—if not God, we choose other things to give our lives meaning: success, relationships, comfort, and so on.

Sinners. We have all chosen to reject God and make our own joy and happiness our highest priority. We cling to idols, centering our lives on things that promise meaning but leave us empty.

In spiritual need. To live for anything other than God leads to breakdown and decay. When a fish leaves the water it was built for, it is not free, but dying. The things we worship besides God can never truly satisfy us because they were never meant to replace him. They also distort our self-image, causing us to define ourselves by our achievements and driving us to work too hard or fill us with terror when they're threatened.

2.) Who God is:

Love and justice. God's active concern is for our joy and well-being. He loves and seeks the good even of people who are his enemies. But because God is good and loving, he cannot tolerate evil. The opposite of love is not anger, but indifference. Imagine a judge who also is a father, sitting at the trial of his guilty son. A judge cannot let his son go, for without justice no society can survive. How much less can a loving God merely ignore justice for us—who are loved, yet guilty of rebellion against his loving authority?

Jesus Christ. Jesus is God himself come to Earth. He lived a perfect life, fulfilling all human obligation to God—the life we couldn't live. Then, instead of receiving his deserved reward, Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins, taking the punishment each of us owed. When we believe in him: 1) our sins are paid for by his death, and 2) his perfect life is credited to our account. God accepts us as if we have done all Christ has done.

3.) What you must do:

Repent. Admit that you have been living as your own master, worshiping the wrong things, violating God's loving laws. Repentance means you ask forgiveness and turn from that stance with a willingness to live for him.

Believe. Faith is transferring your trust from your own efforts to the work of Christ. You were relying on other things to make you acceptable, but now you rely on what Jesus did for your acceptance with God. If you think, "God owes me something for all my efforts," you are still on the outside.

Pray after this fashion:

"I see I am more flawed and sinful than I ever dared believe, but that I am even more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I turn from my old life of living for myself. I have nothing in my record to merit your approval, but I now put my faith in what Jesus did and ask to be accepted into God's family."

When you make this commitment: 1) your sins are forgiven and you are adopted into God's family, and 2) the Holy Spirit enters your heart and begins to change you into the character of Jesus.

Follow through. Tell a Christian friend about your commitment. Get training in the basic Christian disciplines of prayer, worship, Bible study, and fellowship with other Christians.