John Collins: Montana evangelism tour - Hardest lessons are the ones we learn best

John Collins, Montana tour: Evangelism, Hope and Trust revival. 

Redeeming the Gospel, Pastor John Collins is determined to revive faith in God across the country.  This blog contains a clip of some of what John Collins has preached across Montana during his tour-Hope and Trust.

Pastor John Collins, Evangelist with Love That Cross Ministries and Revival, brings revival across the United States.   

Evangelist and Pastor, John Collins is committed to bring back God one person and one church at a time. From the beginning of Love That Cross Ministries and Love That Cross Revival in Wyoming, Pastor John Collins continues to preach that all people need to examine where they are in the eyes of God, and where they stand in their faith in Jesus Christ.  Our very salvation depends upon it.

Pastor John Collins is determined to bring back God to each person, each church, one person and one church at a time.

John Collins is a pastor and an evangelist who is bringing that word of God across the United States in a new series of Hope and Trust.  The truth of God and of Jesus Christ is being preached so that all can understand it in down to earth words so that we all can once again understand the words of Christ and what was meant when Jesus came to be our Savior from death over 2000 years ago. 

Pastor John Collins does not cut corners, does not pad the truth, and does not pull his punches.   

Is God great?  Is God loving?  Is God real?  Why am I here?  These are the questions that people are still looking for, even after the hope that is Christ was sent here to us so that we could know these answers.  Our faith is nothing compared to what those in the Holy Bible had.  The generations of people from the time of Jesus until now have watered the message down so much that the very words of the current Bible translations change the meaning of the message that God has for us! God is there for us. 

Pastor John Collins says:

“Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ So, Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God’” Luke 18:18-19 (NKJV).

God is not only good, but great! God is just fabulous. God is faithful and true, merciful and kind, righteous and just and He loves you. God does want the best for you but He also wants you to learn to want what is best for you and that is not by your standards or the standards of the world but by His standards.

God does know what you need and I am not talking about material things. God knows what you need to assure that your soul is saved. It takes more than just a casual ‘belief’ that Jesus died on the Cross for you in order for you to obtain salvation and entry into heaven. It takes a true faith in Jesus and that faith will produce a belief in His sacrifice that is so strong that it will lead you into obedience to His will.

God will test you and you will go through tough times that will challenge your faith and belief. You will be put in situations that will give you different opportunities and the choices that you make are what adds up to a lifetime of testimony and what will ultimately be the fight of your life. Free will demands that you choose the paths of your life and each day will present itself with different choices. Are you loyal to God? Are you considering God when you make your choices and are you taking your salvation into consideration as you live your life?

Some people may think that God is absent from their lives, or that God has let them down. God is there and God is watching, waiting, and giving you the freedom to choose Him or not. God knows that the hardest lessons in life are the ones that we learn the best. Do your best to limit your frustrations in life by taking a moment to remember that life is short and what we do here matters. Remember that most of what seems overwhelming today may be forgotten a year from now. Trust that in the good times and in the bad times, God is there and has your best interests at heart. God wants you to learn to do what is right but more importantly, God wants you to want to do what is right.

God is amazing and is so beautiful and strong and capable. You can trust God and you can rely on God and know that He won’t let you down even if you may be struggling to deal with tough times in your life there is hope because God loves you. God knows what is right and good and will not let you down. Trust in Him, obey Him and believe in His Son and salvation is yours.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26” (NKJV).

What isn’t being preached in the pulpits today is that we have to make the commitment to Christ and to God to do what is right.  We have to make the commitment to act Christ-like, to love others, to serve, to obey what His Son taught over 2000 years ago.  God IS real.  God’s NOT dead.  God IS there.  He has never stopped loving us humans, even when we deny Him, blame Him, ignore Him.  He IS the loving Father that we all want.  He loves us so much He knew we would be just this way, and He gave us the chance of salvation by sending Jesus Christ to us to help us understand, to teach us.  We all have that place for God built into our hearts. 

Pastor John encourages us to open that Bible, to read about God and His Son, to pray and to simply ask God and Jesus for help.  That’s what is expected of us.  To seek Them, with all our hearts.

LOVE THAT CROSS, PASTOR JOHN

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS: SETTING AN EXAMPLE

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. KJV.  This verse is probably the most singularly memorized verse in the Holy Bible.  God put Adam and Eve in Eden and instructed them how to act, giving them one very important rule to not eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They disobeyed, got evicted from the garden.  Man lived without written rules from God for centuries until Moses was anointed to lead God’s people, Israel out of Egypt.  God spoke to Moses who wrote His commandments on stone tablets so that man would have the needed guidelines so that we could properly worship and serve God.  There were many other directions that were given to Moses that went along with the commandments, how to live safely in the desert, how to come humbly before God, through priests.  We still couldn’t get it right.  We needed an example to help us see and understand.  We don’t follow directions well.  

God sent His Son Jesus to us so that He could teach us and show us firsthand how to be godly, how to be Christ-like.  God knew we can’t do it on our own.  He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to teach us, show us, then sacrifice Himself for us to take away the sins of the world so that we can live a Christ-like life.  All we have to do now, instead of lists of directions in the Old Testament with old blood sacrifices and priest intervention, is believe.  Simply believe.  And in believing then change ourselves to be godly, not sinners.  Jesus led by example so that we would SEE how we are supposed to act and behave.  He taught the disciples who became His apostles who went out into the world and showed all who would listen how to turn toward God through Jesus.

Evangelist Pastor John Collins of Love That Cross Ministry and Revival that began in Wheatland, Wyoming was called by God over 10 years ago to serve Him.  Pastor Collins was not a godly man, he will tell you he didn’t believe in God and had very little experience with God and Jesus in his life.  That has changed for him because he accepted Jesus into his heart as his Lord and Savior.  Now he clings to the Cross that is everyone’s salvation with all his strength and all his might.  Why?  Because he knows that Jesus is the only Hope that this sad, lost, and seemingly hopeless world has.  Wyoming was a turning point in Pastor John’s career as an Evangelist.  He had his first revival there through Love That Cross, and he has been leading more people to Christ ever since.

An evangelist is someone who is set apart by God to teach the ways of God.  God knows that people are visual and hands on learners, merely reading and hearing the words in the Bible isn’t enough, even though it should be.  We need to see how to act, too.  Evangelists are in the public eye because they are outspoken and profess their faith so plainly that it is hard to ignore them.  They make you uncomfortable because they cause you to take a look at what you are doing in your life, or at least that is what an evangelist is supposed to do. 

Pastor John Collins shows us that in order to get to God, we have to believe in Jesus.  We have to act like Jesus Christ.  We have to act like Christians.  There is where we fail horribly, to ACT like Christians.  Christians are supposed to help the poor, Christians are supposed to treat others as they would like to be treated.  The two commandments Jesus taught were to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength….to Jews this is part of the Shema and is the foundation of their faith in God…and the other commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.  Pastor John Collins not only teaches these commandments in each and every one of his sermons, he acts them so that people can see how Christians are supposed to act.  Christians aren’t supposed to show up in a church pew on a Sunday and act Christ-like for that hour or so of worship.  Christians are supposed to act Christ-like every minute of every day.  We fall far short of that.  Pastor John teaches and walks the walk.  He lives humbly.  So many evangelists who are in the public eye have multi-million dollar homes, expensive new cars, designer clothing and pristine mega churches that they launch their ministry from.  Pastor John lives in a middle class home, drives used vehicles and preaches from pulpits of moderate to small churches all over the country.  He is quick to help the little girl who walks into a church in her pajamas and carrying a doll, not only in feeding her, but helping the family find a way to manage the reality of latchkey children left on their own.  A conversation with a diabetic woman reveals that she has no food and is unable to get out to a store because she is ill.  A phone call to an area food bank and senior center from Pastor John helps the woman get through.  An addict who needed to get into rehab couldn’t find an open bed was assisted into a rehab center that hadn’t had any beds open.  Waiting in line at a fast food drive through, Pastor John has been known to pay for the meals of the car behind him.  Taking people in off the street to allow them a meal and place to stay, opening one of his churches up on frigid nights as a shelter to those who have nowhere else to go…all are examples of being Christ-like in the life of Pastor John Collins.

It isn’t only the acts toward people in need, it is living the fruits of the spirit, every day, in everyday life:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  It is being truthful, having integrity, standing in faith of God in the face of the world and not caring what the world says about him.  Pastor John says frequently “Being Christian isn’t about going to church on Sunday.  Sure, it is good to go to church to worship Jesus, but it is what you get out of the sermon, what you do in your everyday life that matters as a Christian.  It’s what you do from Sunday to Sunday that counts, not showing up and putting your time in.  Just because you go into a garage doesn’t make you a car, and just because you go to church doesn’t make you a Christian.  It’s what you do that matters.”  Pastor John takes his faith seriously.  He takes his relationship with God seriously, he takes the salvation offered by Jesus seriously.  He walks that walk every day, every minute.  He admits he is a sinner, he knows that he isn’t perfect, but he also knows that people are watching and need an example to live by, just like 2000 years ago when God sent Jesus to show mankind how to act.  Pastor John strives to show how we are to act as humans, as Christians.  At the end of the day, he asks for forgiveness and repents of the sins and gets up the next day to try and try and try to be the best that he can be, for God and for Jesus. 

He means it when he says “God is never secondary in my life, He is always Primary”- Pastor John Collins

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS: WE GAVE OUR HOPE AWAY

Who took our hope away? To some degree, we have willingly given it away through political correctness, fear, trends of society.  We as Christians allowed men to “interject 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, “says Pastor John Collins, Love That Cross Ministries. 

This country needs HOPE.  The epidemic of violence, continuing issues of racism, younger and younger people becoming addicted to drugs, domestic violence, child kidnappings…..all of this is drowning the United States in a wave of hopelessness.  That hopelessness is coming from the deliberate choice of the society of the United States in general turning its back on God and His Son Jesus. Those who are Christians and were once addicts and alcoholics who have turned their lives around will flat out attest to the HOPE that can be found in giving it all up to Jesus.  Jesus IS Hope.  His death on the Cross gave us the Hope for eternal life, and He gave us Hope to be able to endure the day to day pain and struggle that we deal with here that is life as a human being. Evangelist Pastor John Collins has based the ministry, Love That Cross on Hope.  

Pastor John Collins began Love That Cross ministries with a focus on revival.  It began in Wheatland, Wyoming and spread across the country.  Revival of faith, revival of Christianity, not religion, but the revival of the HOPE that comes from acknowledging Jesus as a savior of mankind, ALL of us, is the central purpose of Love That Cross Ministry and Revival.  Without Jesus, there is no Hope.  The sorrow, the sadness, the pain, the anger, the violence that comes with living in the world today seems unbearable.  Pastor John preaches that it IS possible to have HOPE.  That hope is submitting all to the love that is Jesus and God.  

 Pastor John Collins calls a spade a spade. Faith is meant to save souls, to guide lives toward righteousness and to keep hope alive. Faith is meant to carry you through the tough times and to help you get to heaven. Churches continue with their traditions and doctrines that man has implemented; people continue attending them because they are comforted by the familiar.  That comfort is not providing a growing population in heaven. It is time to step out of that comfort zone and wake up. Knowing Jesus, allowing Him into your heart, having faith in Him to help carry us through a day has been twisted into canned sermons and litanies, false doctrines meant to sell a product rather than to save souls, or even lukewarm “God loves everyone, so be happy” attitudes:  all meant to keep people sitting in a pew on a Sunday, but not meant to stir the heart or the soul into repentance.

People have got to wake up and see that Christianity is broken and needs truth and healing. People need to turn away from the glitter and the traditions that have them going through the motions of worship only to leave them without the tools to apply the gospel to their lives in any real way.  When was the last time you could recall details about a sermon given on a Sunday all the way through a week until the next service, or even a month or more after it was spoken?  THOSE sermons are the ones that have touched a heart, sparked a soul, moved someone to think about and reconsider what they are doing in their lives.  THOSE sermons make us, all sinners, wonder about whether we really are heading to heaven by saying we are Christian, or if we have work to do.  

Looking at the society in which we live, it’s a pretty good indication that we all have work to do.  Not enough people know that there is a God or that Jesus even exists, not to mention those of us who profess to be Christian on Sunday but walk past the woman on the sidewalk on Tuesday who simply needs a meal or help off of the street into safety. There is a lot of work to be done.  Pastor John calls it as it is:  we HAVE turned from God as a nation and slapped Him away from our homes, families, children, our hearts. The time is NOW, and God WILL help us REVIVE our faith, IF we turn to Him and His Son Jesus.

God is waiting and willing to help us come to learn the truth and to embrace that truth. People must be willing to want that honest relationship that genuine faith provides.  We can’t continue to lie to ourselves that we can wait for another day.  We are NOT guaranteed tomorrow.  Only God knows just how long we have to work on our souls and our redemption.  We CAN’T wait.  It will be too late when we die, get there, and then go “Oops” because we didn’t do anything to help ourselves, even though help was available.  We no longer believe that God is paying attention nor do we believe whole-heartedly that He will intervene in our lives directly. Oh, we say we do, but it is obvious in our lack of obedience that we do not fear any real repercussions from God. We do NOT respect or revere God.  We do not fear Him.

Jesus does offer salvation to us for free. Yet, He Himself has demanded that we repent, sin no more, and that we obey His commandments. He also said for us to fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Do we take Him seriously and adjust our behavior accordingly or are we just banking on that price being paid and going about our lives with evil hearts and evil minds acting in evil ways and speaking evil words? Think about the standard that is set by Jesus. Think about the requirements of our faith. We cannot just say that we believe. We must believe so strongly that we are moved to change our ways. Remember the young man who was obedient to the law and yet was told by Jesus to sell all and give to the poor and follow when he asked what must he do to have eternal life? We cannot do some. We must do all. If you are not doing all that the Lord has commanded you cannot be assured of claiming the salvation He offers.

Begin again by coming to truly fear God. Renew your faith by refocusing your priorities in life. Claim your salvation by a belief that is so strong you know that nothing else in your life matters in comparison. That is saving faith. Know that no matter what amount of faith and obedience you have today, you can always and should always seek more.  That is the faith that will give us HOPE. 

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

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS: HE CALLS IT LIKE IT IS!

In general, most church sermons and pastors’ preaching have become a cool zone. Don't talk about the hard issues, the moral issues in a biblical manner, instead, calm the spirit and soothe frazzled nerves.  It will all be "ok."                        No.  It won't.                                            It goes to show that

difficult issues of today’s society are often avoided from the church pulpit.  Pastors and ministers do not want to hurt feelings and tread on toes in fear of losing congregation membership.  It isn't about bodies sitting in the pews, or the money in the collection plate.  It's supposed to be about the health of a person's soul, their journey to get to heaven.  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.  According to Pastor John, “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.” 

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.  Pastor John Collins does exactly that.

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 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.