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 who sugar-coat sin and the consequences of sin deny us our salvation. We need pastors who are willing to take a stand and preach truth! Pastor John Collins
does exactly 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. Pastor John Collins
of Love That Cross Ministries
does not hold back on any “hot topic” that is
an offense to God. In general, most church
sermons and pastors’
preaching have become a cool zone.
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.”
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment