We must work our explanation of true biblical repentance when working with the poor (or anyone). Feeling bad about doing something wrong and repenting of your sins are two completely different acts that produce two very different lasting fruits in your life.
Sin is a serious thing for God and separates us from it. Repentance means turning your back on this sin. Pastoral difficulty comes precisely from the time that repentance can be very different when it comes to destroyed and chaotic lives.
- One example is that of Innocent.
- A thirteen-year-old girl from northern Brazil.
- Who lived on the street most of her short life.
- Her parents abandoned her when she was five years old and since she was six.
- She has sold her body to buy food and feed her glue addiction.
- When we found her.
- Her life was miserable.
- One of her arms no longer moved.
- The result of a fight in the street.
- All her teeth had fallen off and she had been raped countless times.
One day, when he heard about God’s transformative truth, his sinful position before him, and the good news of what Christ had done, he wanted to repent immediately. We pray with her and believe she has made a true profession of faith.
A few days later, we find the semi-conscious innocence on the street, with a bag of industrial glue at her feet (sadly this glue is much more deadly than heroin). My Brazilian group was devastated and angry; His regret seemed so sincere!
We’re hosting the girl. He took a shower in our center and we told him his commitment to Christ, Pastor Mez said: I love Jesus, I turned my back on my sin, last night I rejected a client and now I only feel six bags of glue. instead of ten?. She smiled proudly and I felt humiliated. Did you expect it to be the final product at the time of conversion?
The laments in Scottish developments are not very different, although they are not always so extreme What about a man who came to Christ, who has three children with two different women and who wants to abandon his sinful and abusive past to be a pious one?father to his children What does repentance mean to him?One way or another, it won’t be easy. For a person in a difficult situation, repentance involves making difficult choices and dealing with the consequences of a selfish and sinful lifestyle.
Sharon was a woman in her thirties with a terrible story, had four children and all were kidnapped by local authorities, has served several prison sentences for theft and narcotics, was outrageous and daring, and was the leader of a gang of thieves in the community where she lived. He came to a visiting center where I was a volunteer and heard me explain the gospel when I told him what Christ did in my life. She came to me with tears in her eyes and said, “I love Jesus in my life. Do I want to be transformed the way you were? I was sympathetic to her.
I looked at her and said, “This is going to cost you dearly and you have to know. I had to turn my back on everything I knew, including my friends and even some family members, to really grow up as a Christian. “What you see in me today represents ten years of painful growth. It doesn’t happen overnight. Jesus asks us to evaluate the price before deciding to follow Him. Christ does not want us to deceive ourselves into thinking that life with him will be easier. Actually, it’s probably harder because our friends reject us and don’t understand our motivations for embracing this new life. Why don’t you go home, think about it and come back tomorrow?If you think God really calls you to repent and turn your back on your sin, meet me here tomorrow at 10 p. m. I never heard from her again.
Did I do the right thing? I guess. Since then, I’ve done it several times. When you work with vulnerable people, the temptation is to push them into some kind of commitment in their weakened emotional state. This is easy to do and people from poorer environments can be easily manipulated to follow. Christ for several reasons, but authentic repentance is a work of the Spirit of God, and we do a lousy service if we do not present these people with the true price of following Him.
One of my favorite questions for addicts who come to my office and ask me if they can?It is: “What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus Christ?”If the answer is “everything,” then they are un prepared and I do not understand the message of the gospel. The common answer is: Mez, am I going to do something?My answer is :?Something?Are you sure ?, is it true. Give me your phone number to remove your SIM card and your contacts from the drug trade, ninety-nine percent of the time they get up and leave, if you can’t afford this price, you won’t pay the price of following Christ. .
In recent years, Christians and Christian organizations have increased their interest in helping people suffering from poverty and misery, but this renewed interest in poverty reduction is doomed to failure if it has no roots in the local church, which is God’s established way of attracting the miserable. people in a transformative relationship with him.
Emphasizing the priority of the gospel, Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley, both pastors of local churches in poor areas, offer biblical direction and practical strategies for faithfully establishing, revitalizing, and cultivating churches in difficult places, in our own community, and elsewhere in the world.
The greatest need of the poor is to understand the true gospel The greatest need of the poor is to know the true God The greatest need of the poor is to understand that they are sinners The greatest need of the poor is ” to be saved by the true Christ The greatest need of the poor is to repent of their sins
By: Mez McConnell. © 2016 20Seemas. Original: The poorest need is to repent of your sins
Rights: Excerpt from the book Church in Hard Times, published by Editor Fiel Igreja in Hard Times
Permissions: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided you notify the author, his department, and the translator that you do not modify the original content and do not use it. For commercial purposes.