Titus 3:7
The Message (MSG)
3-8 It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.
Wow! No other translation says it quite like that! Yet it is what God's grace is. I'm working on the Volume 3 of my Scrapbook Biography and thinking of titling it "Grace" or something about grace. Volume 1, the first thirty years was really about growing up with exciting adventures, learning, becoming a self-centered young adult, loosing a lot of my innocence and naivete. Volume 2 tells the story of both grand adventures and failures in marriage and child-rearing, surviving it all through God's grace, though wounded and hurting in my second thirty years. Volume 3 is the happiest of the three stories as I find great joy and fulfillment in retirement, another example of God's grace, undeserved happiness that I credit to His Spirit! The story of my life.
This was one of the focus verses of today's sermon on grace by Frank Lewis.
