True Repentance - Jeffrey Stewart

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

stonesoffire

Poetic Member
Nov 24, 2013
10,665
1,829
113
#1
Repent in the Greek simply means to change how you think. It does not have the condemnation and sorrow that many think it does.

Most people in the church have the Catholic view of the word "repentance". The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. It simply means "to change your mind.". The Lord says, if you want to see how I think of the word repent, look at the parable of the Prodigal Son. There is a point where the boy looks around at the pigs, at the mud, at the husks he had been feeding the pigs, AND HE CAME TO HIMSELF. When he came to himself, THAT'S WHEN he decided to return to the Father.

Do you know what you DON'T SEE in the parable of the Prodigal Son? You don't see a man following the prodigal son and telling him how bad he is. No, the HUNGER the Prodigal Son felt in his stomach TOLD HIM that he was not in the right place. He REMEMBERED how good it was back at his father's house. The pig pen, the smell, told him that.

The Catholic religion is all about works. It has no concept of grace. If you sin as a catholic, the priest will tell you to do PENANCE. To pray to Mary ten times. After you do PENANCE, after you do works, THEN you are restored. Do you know what other SIMILAR English word that comes with this same idea of works in the minds of many? REPENTANCE. The way we teach on this subject is the exact same way Catholicism teaches in this subject. Shed enough tears, beat yourself up enough, do enough WORKS, and you will be restored to God. He will stop being angry with you. Do you know what is missing from the Catholic teaching on this subject? The Grace of God. The Father who went to the road EACH and EVERY day waiting hopefully for His Son to return. That idea of Father is absent from how Catholicism teaches on repentance. So when people preach THAT version of repentance people are given an INCORRECT picture of how God the Father REALLY IS.

The Father says:

"I want My People to portray an accurate picture of how I really am. I am that loving Father in the story of the Prodigal Son. I am that Father who got up EVERY MORNING to go stand by the roadside to see if my dear son would come home that day. I am that Father who went back to the house every evening sad my son did not come home that day. I am that Father who was overjoyed that day I saw him come in the distance. I am that Father who embraced him as he returned to be by My side.

It is THIS PICTURE OF ME that I want My People to share with the world. Please stop portraying Me otherwise. My Love, My Goodness, is what leads people to repent "
 
Sep 25, 2018
49
35
18
#2
Repent in the Greek simply means to change how you think. It does not have the condemnation and sorrow that many think it does.

Most people in the church have the Catholic view of the word "repentance". The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. It simply means "to change your mind.". The Lord says, if you want to see how I think of the word repent, look at the parable of the Prodigal Son. There is a point where the boy looks around at the pigs, at the mud, at the husks he had been feeding the pigs, AND HE CAME TO HIMSELF. When he came to himself, THAT'S WHEN he decided to return to the Father.

Do you know what you DON'T SEE in the parable of the Prodigal Son? You don't see a man following the prodigal son and telling him how bad he is. No, the HUNGER the Prodigal Son felt in his stomach TOLD HIM that he was not in the right place. He REMEMBERED how good it was back at his father's house. The pig pen, the smell, told him that.

The Catholic religion is all about works. It has no concept of grace. If you sin as a catholic, the priest will tell you to do PENANCE. To pray to Mary ten times. After you do PENANCE, after you do works, THEN you are restored. Do you know what other SIMILAR English word that comes with this same idea of works in the minds of many? REPENTANCE. The way we teach on this subject is the exact same way Catholicism teaches in this subject. Shed enough tears, beat yourself up enough, do enough WORKS, and you will be restored to God. He will stop being angry with you. Do you know what is missing from the Catholic teaching on this subject? The Grace of God. The Father who went to the road EACH and EVERY day waiting hopefully for His Son to return. That idea of Father is absent from how Catholicism teaches on repentance. So when people preach THAT version of repentance people are given an INCORRECT picture of how God the Father REALLY IS.

The Father says:

"I want My People to portray an accurate picture of how I really am. I am that loving Father in the story of the Prodigal Son. I am that Father who got up EVERY MORNING to go stand by the roadside to see if my dear son would come home that day. I am that Father who went back to the house every evening sad my son did not come home that day. I am that Father who was overjoyed that day I saw him come in the distance. I am that Father who embraced him as he returned to be by My side.

It is THIS PICTURE OF ME that I want My People to share with the world. Please stop portraying Me otherwise. My Love, My Goodness, is what leads people to repent "
Jeremiah 3

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
For I am merciful,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not remain angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God,
And have scattered your [a]charms
To alien deities under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.

All we need to do is acknowledge that we are wrong, and accept that God is calling us back to His love.

Psalm 51

16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

The broken heart and contrite spirit is the key. Not tears and eloquent words.

Luke 18

13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

God's forgiveness is simple and beautiful...when we truly feel our need and come to Him empty and broken for His healing.
 

stonesoffire

Poetic Member
Nov 24, 2013
10,665
1,829
113
#3
I didn't write the post. An acquaintance on Facebook did. He's a missionary to Kenya, lives there.

The problem with the hellfire brimstone message is what I believe Father is targeting here. It promotes fear to get people into religion, but does it promote relationship with a loving Father?

God changed that view by sending Jesus here. The exact likeness of Himself. Yet many still are tormented by the wrong understanding that's passed on down through the years.

I believe that scripture:


Or are you unaware of his rich kindness, forbearance, and patience, that it is God's kindness that is leading you to repent?

Lift His Cross! Jesus said that will draw all men.