Pastor John Collins, Evangelist: iPhones, Monster Trucks, and Jimmy Choo shoes...

Pastor John Collins, Evangelist, Montana Tour of Love That Cross Ministries: How much do you really need?

How much have you REALLY trusted God to provide what it is that you need? Do you go to church on Sunday and parrot the prayers and the order of worship like you do every week, or every time you go, yet during the week, ignore that God is right there and really, truly gives you what you need?   Do you even notice?

Pastor John Collins, Evangelist once said that people who lived more simply, closer to poverty have more faith.  

Those who are wealthy or who are upper middle class who really have not had to struggle financially or who seem to have it all think that they DO have it all and likely have it because they made it happen, not that they trusted God to make it happen, to let it happen.  A phrase that is popular among pop-Christian culture is "God's got this."  But, how many of us truly let God handle for us.  Truth is, very few of us really do.  Those who have had to struggle see the works of God and provision for what is needed more easily than those who have much.  How much is enough?

Pastor John Collins, Evangelist and Pastor of Love That Cross Ministries.   

In the fall of 2016 a revival series was launched in Montana.  Traveling across the United States, Pastor John Collins, brings a fresh view of revival of the Gospel and faith.  

Pastor John Collins is a leading evangelist in the United States today.   

His vibrant, no nonsense style of preaching brings the Word of God, the teachings of Jesus to life.  He reaches the hearts of those who hear him. He has been recognized as an influential pastor by Inspirational Faith Magazine consecutively two years in a row.

Pastor John Collins strives to bring God back to the United States.   

He often preaches that we as a country turned our backs to God, one person at a time, one church at a time.  It’s time to change that and bring God back into our lives, to bring hope to ourselves and to our country, one person at a time, one church at a time.  Through our own choices to serve our own will, not God’s, we as a whole have turned away from God.  The result is that our country is in the turmoil it is in now.  As the Holy Bible says, if we turn back to God with all our hearts and cry out to Him, He will hear our plea and heal our country.  More than ever, we need God.  Pastor John Collins is answering his call by God to bring the gospel to as many people as he can reach with the words that he preaches.

Excerpts from Pastor John Collins’ revivals speak to the issues that we face in the United States.   

We have turned our backs to God, taking Him out of our schools, our government, our families and our churches-and as a result our society is hurting badly for hope. 

 

Pastor John Collins preaches hope, and the salvation of Jesus Christ, seeking to bring souls to Christ through his revivals and his messages. 

Pastor John Collins says:

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”  Matthew 19:23-24

How much money does it take for a person to be considered rich?  How big does their home need to be?  How much does their car need to cost?  And how much clothes and how many pairs of shoes does a person need to own in order to be considered rich?  What about computers, cell phones and other pricey conveniences of today, are these considered when thinking about wealth?  

We live in a world that has created generations of entitled, demanding and unsatisfied people.  Does anyone even know the difference between what we want and what we need today?  You may want a new car, a big house, plenty of changes of clothes and shoes as well as a phone and all the toys that are available today.  You may want to eat filet mignon and drink fancy coffee in the morning but do you need it? 

 Do you need closets full of clothes?  Do you ever think about the huge difference between your wants and your needs?  Take a minute to look around you and ask yourself if you even need what you already have and then ask yourself if you are wanting more.

God will provide what you need.  God will test you to see if you can be content with those needs being met.  In a world of excess it is necessary to stop for a moment and find some Godly perspective.  We have been raised to believe that more is more and that more will make us happier people.  It is also a misunderstanding to believe that our existence is a pursuit of happiness.  That is just not true. 

 Genuine happiness comes from living a life that is of service to our Lord which will result in entry to heaven which is where the true prize awaits your soul.  The goal is to make it home to heaven and the only way to meet that goal is to become Christ-like and serve God with submission and joy.  Life is full of bonuses and huge rewards but having a lot of stuff is not one of them.  Some people do have great wealth in this life and believe me that is a test of its own.  Learn to be content with your needs being met and learn to be a great servant.  This will produce a life that is truly rich and will leave you satisfied and at peace.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth, nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21   

PASTOR JOHN.

Just how much “stuff” do we really need?  Jesus taught us to care for those who were widows and orphans and the poor.  Today’s poor live on the streets, are our elderly, single parents living with children and struggling to keep it together.  Food, shelter, clothing, safety are at risk for those who do not have enough.  So many of us in the United States live in our cushioned homes, complaining about too many channels of nothing on cable, while there are those who don’t even have decent shelter to sleep in.  Look around you where you live.  Women hide the fact that they are struggling or living in their vehicles.  People are proud and don’t admit they need help, especially in small towns where opinions kill reputations of those who are trying hard to succeed against terrible situations that keep knocking them down.  Instead of moving to the other side of the street, driving past, walking by, or simply turning our eyes down or away, Pastor John puts it right in front of us to reach out and give a hand up to those who need it.  Do we have clothes that can fit the woman who is on kidney dialysis and lost 60 pounds and her clothes fall off of her because she doesn’t have money to buy even used clothes?  What about the guy who had his bedding stolen by another homeless guy for the sixth time this month?  Is there a spare sleeping bag in your attic?  Food….no one in this country should be hungry….nor should anyone who is hungry be turned away from a soup kitchen, a church, a mission.  Everyone should have the opportunity to have something to eat.  We are so out for ourselves in this country…the me generation has spread far and wide.  Look out your window, reach out to those who are in need.  Jesus Christ taught it, Pastor John Collins reminds us.  We need to act like the Christians we say we are.

Montana: Pastor John Collins, For the Love of God

Montana: John Collins, Pastor and Evangelist of Love That Cross Ministries speaks about God's love.

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

Pastor John Collins is determined to bring back God to each person, each church, one person and one church at a time.  From a beginning in Wyoming with Love That Cross Ministries, Pastor John Collins is 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 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

Wyoming Evangelist Pastor John Collins' Sermon Series: Buffet Christians

Wyoming Evangelist Pastor John Collins Sermon series: Buffet Christians

Evangelist Pastor John Collins began a revival in Wyoming to spread the truth of the Word of God, bring back God, and to fix the brokenness of Christianity.  Christianity is indeed broken.  Christians are treating faith as a buffet, caring for others as a pick and choose menu, treating the Holy Bible as if it is a book of suggested topics for life and choosing which passages to follow instead of taking it all in.  Pastor John Collins calls it out like it is:  the Bible was written by people who were inspired to write it by God Himself.  It isn’t fabricated, it isn’t randomly written.  The Bible ties everything together, Old to New Testaments.  What Jesus Christ taught, He meant. He meant it when He said “Love your neighbor as yourself, do to others as you would have done to you.” It wasn’t new and those were God’s words from the Old Testament. Jesus spoke them and taught by action.  That does not mean that you ignore the guy struggling to find a safe place to sleep because he lost his home and can’t get work but turn around and help out the other guy who shows up asking for money.  It does not mean that you care for the person sitting next to you in the pew but not the woman who is drinking to kill shakes at 9:00 am. It doesn’t mean sing in the choir on Sunday, then Wednesday go into the porn store. It means that Christians act like Christians EVERY day, ALL the time, not just when it suits to do so. Christians are not supposed to act like hypocrites, doing one thing and saying another.  

 Pastor John Collins puts it all quite plainly:

“Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which makes a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.’” Mark 12: 41-44.

You cannot only be a Christian when things are going good in your life and you cannot only be a Christian towards those whom you like and approve of. The whole point of being a Christian is to be Christ-like and believe me, Jesus was kind to those whom He knew to be sinners and those whom He would not approve of, which is the reason that He was sent to earth, to save those who were lost. Jesus gave all that He had down to His last breath, for us.

Many people take their own lives and situations too seriously and become defensive and ignore those who are around them. Many people justify their self-absorption by claiming tragedy, turmoil, victimhood and obligations. You cannot justify acting nasty or dismissive to others because you are not in a comfortable situation or in a place of stability. God tests you on how you behave under pressure, under stress and in the tough situations. God tests you all of the time and if you really are interested in how you are doing, just go and read the Sermon on the Mount and see how you measure up.

The words of Christ when He spoke are not to be dismissed, they are to be obeyed and that is how you will be tested. God doesn’t want you to wait until you are happy and financially stable to help another. It is your suffering that makes you able to have compassion and it is your willingness to put another before yourself that makes you rich.

Be willing to be a follower of Christ when no one is looking and be willing to open yourself up to another when they are in need. Not everyone needs money as charity. There are so many lonely people in this world that need love and faith. Be willing to offer both freely because God knows that Jesus always will. 

“Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have the glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” Matthew 6:2”

It’s time for Christians, or those who call themselves Christians to take a good long look at themselves and how they portray themselves to others.  People ARE watching.  People who have not been inside a church for years do that because they don’t feel comfortable with the double message that is so often delivered by those inside the church to those outside the church.  What little does it take to offer yourself in truth, in kindness, and not be judgmental?  Don’t offer your hand in kindness and helpfulness then turn it over to criticize and withdraw from someone. Jesus Christ came to save us all, He didn’t pick and choose to serve us from a buffet of lesser sins.  A sin is a sin in the eyes of God, none greater, none lesser. It’s time for Christians to stand up and take a fresh look at how they are measuring up in God’s eyes because that is Who really matters, not the eyes of fellow church goers.  Are we living a biblically correct life as a Christian?  Are we measuring ourselves against the book that was given to us for that purpose?   

We are all sinners, every one of us, pastors and congregations alike.  We all need to get it right to get to heaven, to get back to God and to bring back God to others.  We have to change how we are toward others in order to save ourselves.  It’s time to come back to the Cross.

LOVE THAT CROSS, BELIEVE THAT! Pastor John Collins, Evangelist