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How do i repent from my sins?
I'm trying to become a better person & stop being so negative, angry, etc. I want to change my life. What do I need to do to become a better christian & what do I have to do to repent from my sins? Do I need to go to church and get baptized?
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all you have to do to repent for your sins is to say a prayer and ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and he will you don't have to go to church to ask him to forgive your sins you can ask him anywhere and you don't have to get baptized but it would be great if you did? if you have any questions feel free to email me at savedwithgrace_12@yahoo.com
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To Repent in Greek means literally to "change your mind" or "to turn back" from doing wrong. Realize that only Jesus forgives sins. First Pray,and you should read the Bible(especially the New Testament), realizing that it's the literal word of God,and know that all people sin and fall short of the glory of god, and DEFINITELY GET BAPTIZED and you will be saved. Jesus is a wonderful God.
God Bless You.
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Turning to religion is not the only way to become a better person. I grew up catholic and I know there is a lot of pressure to do right by god. But sometimes it's just about doing right by yourself. I myself live by the motto "treat others as you would like to be treated". Which, I know, stems from the bible and all, but there's really no religious motivation in it for me, it's just doing what I know is right. I struggle with anger problems, I take out my anger unnecessarily on people that I love and tend to push people away because of it. I've made a commitment to myself to be more self aware, I meditate every day, I vent my frustrations with exercise, and I let people know to tell me if they feel like i'm taking out my anger on them. I'm a better person for it, but it has nothing to do with god. I'm just trying to improve myself.
So, basically, you were created with a set of morals, you, as a human have the ability to think and reflect. Use these skills and make yourself the person you want to be. And by doing so, being a better christian will follow.
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It's a lot simpler than you think. No one needs the trappings of the church to be truly repentful for anything you've done. Your life on earth is like being in school and passing from one grade to the next as you learn and mature. God does not get mad at you if you fail a test. Like in school, all it means is you need more practice and to apply your self harder to get 100% on the lesson, whether it is learning to control your temper, or learning how to be encouraging, etc.
The failing of a test is much like what the church has told people is a sin. We are taught to feel so guilty about a sin, that just the guilt prevents us from moving forward.
What I suggest you do is what I did, get to really know God in a close relationship yourself as I did. The best way is by conversing. Prayer is conversation but people think it must be formal. NO...God talks to me in regular everyday conversation. So you can talk to him that way too. I would have to say that my conversation as I began to speak ended up more often being with the Holy Spirit than with Jesus or the Father though they are all aware of what you say. But it is the Holy Spirits role to be our helpers as Jesus promised. HS works close with us. So start by talking to HS and you won't hear back at first...keep talking, whether it takes months or almost a year. Eventually you will begin to hear back from the HS and have real conversations. I began to see that the HS and God are totally different than the stern angry revengeful God painted by the sermons of church and the Bible. Only people raised by loving parents are going to be able to relate to this. Those with messed up parents who were always beating on you are going to fear their heavenly Father too.
You can ask God how you can become less angry and negative. There will be simple exercises he gives you that will work better for you than for another person. One thing you can do is accept that everyone on this planet is not going to be at the same place maturity wise as souls. Some haven't awakened spiritually yet at all, and those who have...well there's gonna be Christians in Kindergarten, 5th grade, high school and college. And you will run across people that do stupid and ugly things in how they treat you. You simply choose to not get angry at them because they haven't learned yet. If you had a child that got angry at you because you didn't buy the sugary cereal at the store and now says, I hate you, you're a mean daddy/mommy, are you going to lash back in anger at the child? No! You know the child is immature and only saying that because they didn't get their way and they truly do love you. Look at the situations in life as opportunities to stretch the limits of your patience and understanding and to encourage the others "students" people on this journey of life that they too can overcome things to become better people.
As for the devil and evil spirits and such, I will use parents and children again as examples. While my parents were really good parents, they were listening to other people for advice on raising kids and tried some weird stuff like telling us what the rules were...and before we could disobey them, were telling us that if we misbehaved, they would have to call the police to come get us. Then one day they told us that the boogey-man would come get us. After a couple of years of realizing it didn't work and was uneccessary and only made things worse for the child, they stopped doing it. Thank God! I remember those couple of years clearly still tho I am in my 50's. Us kids were afraid to have curtains open or get near any windows for fear that the boogy-man was looking in at us waiting for his opportunity to snatch us away. Sometimes, we didn't want to go out in the yard to play because we feared he might find us there. We were afraid, even if we had behaved well. This is counter productive to living a normal life.
Does it make sense to you to get your child to obey out of fear rather than because they love you as their parent and want to please you? Never made sense to me either. Yet that's what the churches do when they focus so much on creating fear, fear of the Devil and evil spirits. Tho they may exist, for the most part, we create or conjure up with our own imaginations just like I did as a child, something that feels really real, the real thing...like the boogy-man. So while there may be souls that have not progress back to God when passing on and they haunt here on earth, the majority of devil/evil spirit stuff you hear about and feel is for the most part of your own creation. Once you are living a purer life, if there are any dark energies out there, they will not be attracted to you...this includes people who are yet asleep and not spiritually awake, they will carry lots of dark energy with them and if you have a gift for sensing those energies, you will need to visualize the angels pouring a shower of pure light over you at the end of each day to wash away the energies. Some people are sensitive to picking up on good and bad energies and some are not. It doesn't mean there are demon's afoot. So change your mind set and you won't find yourself battling so much scary stuff.
The Holy Spirit had me leave the church some time back. I found a whole network of believers who no longer attend a church. Why, well, for most part, the misrepresentation of what our God is really like and because of the use of fear to get people to obey and follow the church doctrines and rules.
And guess what? I have not come across a single person who has any problem with demons or negative energies. Also, I find more people who are actually living out the things Jesus said to do, how to love all other humans. It is so easy for them. I did not find it in the church but its out here outside of church...among the good people, the unchurched, there are more people who believe in God and Jesus and are actually following his example and living it out than I ever found in church.
Just for fun the other day, I looked up a couple Christian movies posted on the internet. Every single one had something to do about fighting evil. The focus was more and the bad than the good.
It's a pretty warped way of living. I recall a sermon where we were told that a naturopath doctor was okay to see but any other healing methods were all of the devil, like acupuncture, chinese herbal medicine, etc. I lost hearing in one ear and it was down to half in the other. Saw 2 drs and tried several different meds for major ear infections. After over a month...I was afraid I was going to lose hearing totally. I went to see and acupuncturist who worked in our chiropracters office. She took my pulse, looked at my tongue, went to look up the medicine and told me what Chinese medicine dispensary I could find it at. I took my first dose that night. Woke up in the morning and it was totally gone. I could hear again after one dose!! Just because you don't understand something does not mean it doesn't work or that it is of the devil.
I am not telling you to leave the church. It may be where God wants you for now to learn and grow. But don't rely so much on what you hear from there, but rather what you hear straight from the HOly Spirit for it will never lead you astray.
Blessings to you dear.
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