Titus 3:4-6      New English Translation

4 But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared,

5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy,

through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior.

 

New Birth

 

The spirit is quickened here, and that’s done by Christ

I  did not know that I had a spirit of my own

I am, who I am, I thought, the way I feel enticed

The way I think and what I say, the way I am at home

 

To be quickened in the spirit did not change my flesh

I changed some of the things I did, but old habits don’t leave easy

I had different desires, and they made me feel like taking a test

To prove that I had changed a lot, no more living for the pleasing

 

The moment I came forward with my heart a pounding

With my mind screaming loud to wait for another day

I had no strength to move then, but I still flowed to the fountain

On the power of someone else, and that seemed the only Way

 

God led me to repentance in more ways than one

The receiving of Christ in me was in spite of my humanness 

Divinity then settled beyond what I had done

Christ completed what I can’t through His Love and Holiness

 

God just touched me where I was, and I could not resist

The part He touched within me was totally dead and gone

It surely had no feelings and in ignorance, I surely did exist

For the part that I enjoyed till then as sin was so appealing

 

He washed me clean with Christ’s blood, I remember how I felt

I had never been clean before, and I did not like this feeling

I cried: Enough! Just barely wet, but Christ just kept on moving

Me into the crimson flood as He just kept on lovingly smiling

 

 

Jan Wienen