how do u explain repentance to someone. see to turn away from sin wont make sense to people because we arent perfect. i know what it means but to those that love living in sin such as having sex all the time then they wont understand the word repentance...now if u dont repent you will perish, but how can you show someone what repenting means and if they want to know how to do it how can you explain HOW to do it

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jesse

first you must show them they are a sinner
listen to Ray Comfort's 'Hells best kept secret' that has a good explanation to your questions, also find chad arneson's 'The Need for a Confrontational Gospel' both reccomended for people who want to give the Gospel.

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Ste

There are many ways to explain repentance. Here is one.

All sin is a perversion of gifts from God. Having sex before marriage is like stealing money from your father's wallet that he was going to give you anyway. God created sex, and gave it to man as a gift. Having sex before or outside of marriage is stealing a gift God already set out for us. We just took the wrapped-up gift the night before the party.

This and other rebellion against God's rules (explained ten different ways in Exodus 20) is so foul to Him, that he was willing to be given capital punishment, after being tortured to the point where He was unrecognizable, to cover the debt of sin:

Psalm 52:14 "..his visage was so marred more than any man.."

So, sin can be measured of how disgusting it is to God, by what He went through to pay for it.

So if sin is so foul to God, that He gave Himself up to be falsely tried, mocked, beaten, spit on, have His beard plucked out, His body flogged, His hands and feet pierced and used to support His body weight on the cross, and set in the sun to slowly pass into death, how could He want us to live in the sins that He did all this to pay for.

We must not only put our faith in his paying for sin, but we must depart from it. If sin was so foul for Him to do what He did, how can we continue in it?

A man that recognizes his sin, will want a Saviour to pay for it, and will be disgusted enough with his own sins to turn his back on them. No repentance, no salvation. Christ says that a believer will have a new birth, and be a new creation. If that person is still the same person, they were never saved.

A man still living in his sin either doesn't understand His state before God, or doesn't feel the need to do anything about it. A man must know he is going to hell because of sin. If he bows to Christ for this reason, and realizes God's holiness, wisdom, justice, and wisdom, he will depart from iniquity.

What did Jesus tell the woman at the well? "go, and sin no more"

If one truly believes that God came to earth in the flesh for one reason, to save us from sin...

1 Tim 1:15 "..Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.."

...then how can that same person, who claims to put their faith in Christ, continue in sin, thus trampling Christ's blood under foot.

Matt 1:21b "and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Not 'in their sins', not 'because of their sins', but "from their sins".

Truthfully, lucky, all you can do is show someone their sins, and tell them their need to repent, and put their faith in Christ. We can then pray, which is an absolutely powerful thing. But remember, we are only required to be faithful, not successful. Most people will reject God, that is guaranteed. We just have to preach repentance.

Am I telling you things you already know, or is this helping?

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Hal Bachman

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Hal Bachman

hello. thank you for sending what u said about repentance. ive learned alot. i have one more question though. i always hear people say something like put your faith in jesus or trust in the lord jesus christ...i think i know what that means but i dont wana think, can you please tell me exactly what that means so i can KNOW. thank you

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jesse

To put your faith in, or to trust someone, you are being dependant upon that person. Like someone wrote in another thread, we are to be like children because they are totally dependant upon an adult to stay alive. We must trust in God (Jesus) by doing what He says (in the Bible and by the Holy Spirit in us), even though it may go against what we think is logically or practically correct. By doing something that God has told us to do (being obedient) we are saying to God 'I don't know how this will work out but I trust you that it is for my own good'. Think of the 3 friends in the book of Daniel:

Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

They were Dependant upon God. Also think of what Job said:

Job 13:15a Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him

are we ready to Trust God to this extent?

Just an aside while I'm on this subject; I wrote a thread yesterday about a new law that may come in in England whereby street preachers could face 7 years inprisonment. Now I do a little preaching and my unsaved neighbour is a police woman (her partner is a policeman but not where I preach). Would I be willing to face 7 years in jail so that she, by arresting me, whom she knows to be a Christian and not a terrorist, would get convicted by the Holy Ghost because of my stand for Christianity? It may be the only way God can save her from Hell, who knows?
What is one life worth?
You see how by trusting in God we let Him make the difficult decisions because He knows the future.
I hope I made some sense.

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Ste