PASTOR JOHN COLLINS: PREACH, DON'T CONFORM

Abortion, drugs, addictions, hate and racism are all part of society today.  Lies, gossip, slander, pride and ego are all part of everyday life.  These are the hard topics that pastors MUST talk about to their congregations in order to teach TRUTH.  Pastors and ministers do not want to hurt feelings and tread on toes in fear of losing congregation membership. Difficult issues of today’s society are often avoided from the church pulpit. In general, most church sermons and pastors’ preaching have become a cool zone.  Evangelist Pastor John Collins of Love That Cross Ministries does not hold back on any “hot topic” that is an offense to God.    Pastor John Collins will tell you he is not politically correct, Jesus Christ was not politically correct and not preaching and teaching the TRUTH from the pulpit is NOT pleasing God. Cushioning the truth behind what society deems acceptable is leading a congregation to complacency and acceptance of sin.   “Men have interjected their will upon the people and Christianity has suffered. Religion will get you nowhere if you are complying with the traditions of men while ignoring the commandments of God."-Pastor John Collins.

  

God sent Jesus to teach and preach God’s Law.  Jesus went about the countryside, living and talking among the sinners, not the ones who were self-righteous in what was taught and conceived as law by man.  Men took God’s Law from the time it was written on the tablets by Moses and twisted it to their uses and purposes.  These were the priests and holy men of the time, people who were looked to as examples of faith and religious conviction to the Jews.  Jesus came and taught what was right: kindness, love, looking after those who had need, the poor-everything wrapped up into the commandment of love your neighbor as yourself.  In other words, treat others the way you want to be treated if you were in their place.  

Jesus taught that what was of this world is sin.  Two thousand plus years later, Pastor John Collins began his ministry of revival in Wheatland, Wyoming with Love That Cross.  The very same lessons from Jesus are the lessons that Pastor John preaches in his revivals. Abortion is murder. Drugs and alcohol and addictions are gluttony, among other issues associated with them.  Hate and racism has no place in God’s creation-there is only ONE race-the HUMAN RACE.  Pastor John Collins teaches that these sins are no different than lying, cheating, or stealing. 

A sin is a sin, one is no worse than another in the eyes of God.  Pastor John teaches that as Christians, we do need to be tolerant, but we also need to be aware of our faith and where our hearts are in relation to the sin that is being witnessed. It is not up to us to bombard others with our faith and beliefs, but we also have to be cautious to not conform to their beliefs.  Pastor John says that we must know as Christians what our beliefs are so that we do not compromise what is in our minds and in our hearts.

Pastors, ministers, reverends, preachers are held to a higher accountability according to the Bible.  Pastor John takes that accountability seriously; God comes first in his life. Jesus taught to be aware of “false prophets”, those that look like a Christian pastor, but inside are truly a predator, a wolf in sheep’s’ clothing. Jesus taught that there was only one way to get to Heaven and that was through Him.  Pastor John preaches that pastors on the pulpit who do not know how to get to Heaven and preach otherwise, or who are there for profitable gain and not to save souls should not be on a pulpit.  The Bible very clearly shows that “there is only one way to get to the Father, God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe. That is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior who died on the Cross for us and became the pure sacrifice on our behalf so that He could pay the price for our sin and conquer death and Satan once and for all; that by our belief in Him and our seeking forgiveness through Him, we are permitted access to the Father and the kingdom of heaven.” These words of Pastor John’s call it like it is.

Pastor John challenges pastors to preach without crib notes for a change. Instead of meticulously writing out a lengthy sermon or a tick list, set to fill a specific allotted time during a church service, preach from the heart.  Let go of the restriction of the mind and preach FILLED from the HEART by GOD’s WORD.  God wants us to know Him, to FEEL the Spirit within.  Pastors who are truly serving God CAN preach, just like the apostles of Jesus’ time, speaking from the HEART, where the Spirit lives.  It can be done without preparation and the fanfare of technology.  One simply must TRUST God and Jesus to put the words in their heart and then speak it on their behalf.  Pastor John challenges those same pastors to search their hearts and minds and take a stand, once and for all, on the difficult issues.   

What are the difficult issues?  Sin.   

The pulpit has become a soapbox to profess the love of God and Jesus, and sugar coats the reality of the Resurrection.  Sin is what keeps us from that beautiful awful sacrifice of Jesus’ life for us to be able to have eternal life with God, not eternal life in Hell with Satan. 

Sin has become a topic of distaste.  If pastors don’t preach from the heart, don’t talk about the difficult issues of gossip, being a busybody, lies, resentment, adultery of the heart, abortion, gluttony, greed, addictions and how it all keeps us from sharing in the grace of God through His Son Jesus, then there is no Hope.  Pastor John knows that there is Hope, and in order to bring revival, there has to be change and the difficult issues have to be faced head on.  That time is NOW.

Pastor John’s revivals confront us to take our faith seriously, to not take the Bible lightly, and to not take our belief in Jesus for granted.  The society we live in is chaotic and confusing.  So many people do not know God, do not know Jesus, and do not know the Bible.  Even those who say they know the Bible and who “know” Jesus are not as educated in the Bible as they think they are.  The lack of knowledge allows Satan to mislead many people who say they are Christians away from God and away from Jesus. Pastor John teaches that God wants us back, He wants us back Home with Him.  The only way to do this is to get back into the Bible by reading it and by coming to know Jesus and what He teaches that is written in that Bible as a blueprint for how to live. Pastor John teaches that obedience to God and to Jesus is the only way we are going to get back Home to God.  We have to stand firm in the truth, facing the hard issues with the armor of faith in God, trusting that we are held FIRMLY in His hands.

“God is never secondary in my life, He is always Primary”- Pastor John Collins.