PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, DAILY THOUGHTS: 3 STEPS TO REPENTING

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, EVANGELIST: REPENT

Repent. 

What does the word “repent” truly mean? John the Baptist made it his clarion call as he prepared the way for Jesus Christ to make it on the scene over 2000 years ago.  The Old Testament has many passages about repentance before Jesus Christ came.  God wants us to truly feel sorry for our sinful natures and ask for forgiveness because God truly wants His children to come home to Him.  Guilt is a useful tool that helps us recognize that we are in the wrong before God, writes Pastor John Collins of Love That Cross Ministries.  Until we feel genuine remorse for the actions that we have done that offend God, we cannot find salvation nor can we expect to make our way to heaven.  Heaven is not a guarantee just because we say we are Christian, just saying we are sorry and saying we are Christian isn’t going to get us anywhere if we don’t change how our hearts act.  Actions speak louder than words, and God knows exactly what we really feel and how we really are.  There’s three steps to repentance:

• 1.       To repent is to recognize that we have offended God by not following His commandments.  Sin.  Repentance means to feel genuinely sorry for our actions.
• 2.       Seek forgiveness.  We will sin every day because we are human.  Ask for forgiveness through Jesus Christ and mean it from the heart.
• 3.       Make an effort every day to become a better person, seeking to become Christ-like, acting in compassion and caring for others.  This is a life long journey, the race that Paul refers to.

It really is as easy as that, Pastor John Collins preaches.

The problem with the word “repent” is that it sounds offensive.  Street hawkers of “repent and be saved” who stand on the corners waving a Bible spouting Bible verses of doom and hell are threatening and drive more people away from God and the Word of the Gospel.  Shoving religion in the public’s face in a manner that is threatening is no way to win souls for God.  It certainly wasn’t the way Jesus did it.  Teaching the Gospel with sincerity and candor, with a nonjudgmental approach will draw attention of people, and those people when drawn will come to listen, and in listening will come to understand the concept of repentance.  Pastor John Collins is an evangelist who preaches the truth, reaches the heart, and draws listeners closer to God.

“I don’t believe that there is a true understanding by most people of what repentance is. Repentance is recognizing your sin and the wrongs that you have committed against God and being sorry about it. It is knowing that you need forgiveness and that what your actions, feelings, thoughts and words have reaped is worthy of sending you to hell. This is an acceptance of God’s law in your heart and soul and it produces a genuinely contrite heart. This will then produce the desire within you to stop those sinful behaviors and to seek to obey the laws of God.” Pastor John Collins, Love That Cross Ministries (April, 2018).

Pastor John Collins began preaching over a decade ago, and more recently began a revival of hope and trust in God.  As the head pastor of Love That Cross Ministries and John Collins Ministries, Pastor John Collins reaches congregations around the United States, bringing God back to those who hear him.  As an evangelist, Pastor John Collins has a passion and love for the Cross that is unwavering.  So many people have been disillusioned by churches, the false doctrines of pastors who are looking for nothing more than money in their pocket and bodies in the pews to fill the offering plates, or the prestige of being on a pulpit but not practicing what is preached. Pastor John Collins is determined to bring faith in God back for the people, recognizing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been watered down like so much Kool-Aid to fit the need of the people in the pulpit, not the needs of souls in the seats.  The Gospel needs to be redeemed says Pastor John Collins, it needs to be made clear and understandable so that people can find their way to God.

Pastor John Collins writes:

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’ John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Mark 1:1-4 (NKJV).

John the Baptist preached repentance, Jesus preached repentance and His Apostles preached repentance, even the Prophets preached repentance.

I don’t believe that there is a true understanding by most people of what repentance is. Repentance is recognizing your sin and the wrongs that you have committed against God and being sorry about it. It is knowing that you need forgiveness and that what your actions, feelings, thoughts and words have reaped is worthy of sending you to hell. This is an acceptance of God’s law in your heart and soul and it produces a genuinely contrite heart. This will then produce the desire within you to stop those sinful behaviors and to seek to obey the laws of God.

Now, how is it possible to feel these feelings with a genuine heart and not just give a mental nod followed by lip service? You must agree with God. That is where true faith, repentance and forgiveness begin. You must agree that God and His laws are right and that it is for you to obey them.

If you don’t agree with God, you will never truly submit to Him, repent of anything nor claim true salvation.

If you don’t agree with God, you will find ways to justify your point of view and to excuse yourself for your sin. Every human sins and every human has an opportunity to have a relationship with Jesus.

If you see the laws of God as antiquated and therefore don’t agree with them and choose to disregard them, even if you come to know Jesus and seek forgiveness for your past sins, your heart will not genuinely be remorseful. Imagine a man who cheats on his wife and she never finds out about it. He sees it as hurting no one. He goes to church and claims Jesus as His Savior. In his old age, his cheating stops and he does ask for forgiveness. But his heart does not really feel sorry because he feels that what his wife never knew never hurt her and it really was not any big deal. His heart is unable to feel the remorse required to be forgiven.

Just because we ask for forgiveness does not mean that it is given. We have to mean it. We show that we mean it by choosing to live lives that do not embrace sin. Like Paul says, if you stole, steal no more. We are to quit the sinful behavior and seek to alter our actions, words, thoughts and feelings. We begin to make these right choices when we agree with God. That is why to be friends with the world is to be enemies with God.

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17 (NKJV).

Love That Cross, Pastor John Collins

Our hearts have to come to know what our sinful behaviors are.  Repenting, being truly and honestly sorry for our actions is the beginning of changing our lives, here and eternally.  The right choices will take us along the road back to God, home to heaven, and those actions are a daily commitment to changing.  Allowing Jesus into our lives is the key to changing our hearts. Asking forgiveness means we believe we are indeed guilty, and we have the humility to admit it.  No one of us is free of sin; no one of us will be able to make it to heaven without Jesus.

Pastor John Collins can be heard at 1000 am Mountain Time weekly on Sunday on Heaven’s Country Radio with Marty Smith. You can listen via the Internet at www.heavenscountry.com.  Other sermons, recordings, blogs, interviews, Youtube clips, and other media of Pastor John Collins can be found by clicking on the links within this post.  Pastor John Collins is available for prayer, discussion and ministry-not to debate-at jc65777@yahoo.com.  If you want Pastor John Collins to come to speak to your church or group, contact can be made through the same personal email.  Pastor John Collins is in it to win it for God.

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, DAILY THOUGHTS: NAME IT, CLAIM IT

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, EVANGELIST: PROSPERITY DOCTRINE OF ANOTHER COLOR

One of these days, we are going to have to come eye to eye with God and He is going to ask what did we do with the Grace that He gave us in the salvation provided by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  This is no fairy tale, this is not a bed time story, it is not a myth created to threaten children into behaving.  This is truth, this is our souls and our eternal life at stake.  Pastor John Collins of Love That Cross Ministries is up front and puts it right out there when he preaches from the heart and calls out the dilution of the Gospel when it’s presented in prosperity doctrine or other forms of false doctrines.  One of these false doctrines is the fad of “Name it Claim it”.  Faith is not a fad.  Salvation is not a fad.  God and Jesus are not fads, They have been around since the beginning of time, the Holy Bible says so. 

“Name it Claim it” is promoted by the likes of Joyce Meyer, Paula White, Joel Osteen, T. D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, John Grey and others, and is another false doctrine of prosperity doctrine.  If you can visualize something and call it out loud to God, He will provide you with what you ask for.  God is not in the business of giving us what we want, He is in the business of saving souls.  God demands humility.  For us to demand of God what we want will earn us a ticket to someplace we don’t want to be, and we are not going to be able to explain it away when we do meet Him face to face one day.  People don’t even recognize that what they are doing is actually offensive to God because they don’t know the truth of the Gospel and they don’t know the Holy Bible.

“There are many Christians that see no harm in a visualization board, affirmation clippings and scrapbooks of hopes that are created, kept and prayed over. What is wrong with picturing a better life for yourself, creating a visual focal point so that you can put out into the world your hopes and dreams and create for yourself the life that you desire? Many believe that you can state your claims out loud to God and He will answer your heart’s desire. That is your will, not His. As much grace as God is willing to provide, He is not in the business of granting wishes like some genie in the sky.” Pastor John Collins (March, 2018).

Pastor John Collins, evangelist, is the head pastor of Love That Cross Ministries and John Collins Ministries.  For the past decade, Pastor John Collins has been bringing God back to churches across the country, most recently through a true revival of faith and hope.  The Gospel has been so watered down that it seems that it is being fed like Koolaid to those who thirst for some kind of taste of God that will make them feel good.  Pastor John Collins is redeeming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching the truth of the Word of God and His Son, Jesus Christ.  What is being preached from the pulpits in so many churches and other media venues is a feel-good, what people want to hear, not the truth that Jesus came to teach us over 2000 years ago, and the sacrifice of His human life is not even taught to congregations across this country.  Pastor John Collins preaches the truth of the Gospel with vigor and enthusiasm, he does not write what he preaches:  Pastor John Collins preaches from the heart.

Pastor John Collins writes:

“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:24-25 (NKJV).

Name it and claim it! There are many churches out there that have been peddling the law of attraction for some time now. There are many Christians that see no harm in a visualization board, affirmation clippings and scrapbooks of hopes that are created, kept and prayed over. What is wrong with picturing a better life for yourself, creating a visual focal point so that you can put out into the world your hopes and dreams and create for yourself the life that you desire? Many believe that you can state your claims out loud to God and He will answer your heart’s desire. That is your will, not His. As much grace as God is willing to provide, He is not in the business of granting wishes like some genie in the sky.

The challenge of being a true Christian in this life is to deny the passions of your flesh. That is what you fight against. Your flesh wants nice things, joy and happiness above all and most of all it wants validation for your importance and existence. People want success and recognition for their efforts and they want the paycheck that goes along with it. There are many that say to live your life to the fullest, claim your reward, allow God to do more for you than you realize was possible. God is in the business of saving souls, not making your dreams come true. God desires humility and not pride of life. People want to try this and that to make their lives better but do not even see when those things are anti-biblical because people don’t know the word of God.

This name it and claim it nonsense is of the new age church. There are many churches today that are introducing and blending pagan ideas and activities into their church, whether they realize it or not, which are contrary to true faith and genuine worship of the Father and the Son. Be careful of the influences that you allow into your life, your church and especially your home. Many Christians don’t know about the occult and those practices which makes it hard to rebuke when it enters your life and there are many of these that seem harmless enough but in reality all they do is undermine your beliefs. God has been fighting the evil practices since the beginning and many cannot see that it is nothing new but it is just updated and repackaged for this generation. Paganism and idolatry is an abomination to the Lord and you must be cautious and aware in what you allow to have influence over you. Hold tight to the doctrine of truth and let humility rule your life.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

Pastor John Collins emphasizes it’s time, now, to get on our knees and pray, open the Holy Bible and read it.  The kingdom of God, the King of God, is before us and we need to repent and get ourselves back to God.  If we don’t change, things are going to get worse, it has to be done right now.

Pastor John Collins has many sermons, recordings, interviews, blogs and other media available throughout the Internet that can be found by clicking on the links found in this post.  Pastor John Collins can also be heard Sundays at 1000 am Mountain Time on Heaven’s Country Radio with Marty Smith at www.heavenscountry.com.  Pastor John Collins is available to speak with you in person, not to debate, but to minister to you at jc65777@yahoo.com. Pastor John Collins posts regular thoughts on Facebook and Twitter. Pastor John Collins is also available for guest speaking and can be contacted at the same personal email address.  God wants us back, as many as will come. 

We need to hear and learn the truth first.  Pastor John Collins is in it to win it for God.

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, DAILY THOUGHTS: CEASELESS PRAYER

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, EVANGELIST:  Pray without ceasing

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 Paul’s letter in 1 Thessalonians 5 says to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” ( 1 Thessalonians 5: 16) NKJV. Pastor John Collins preaches that God wants to hear our prayers.  Some doctrines teach that there needs to be a person to intervene for your prayer; this is not so.  God sent Jesus Christ to be our intercession for prayer.  When we pray, we are to pray in Jesus’ name, as the old hymn says “what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” 

God wants that personal relationship with us, He wants to hear our prayers ~ Pastor John Collins, 2018.

What a wonderful thing to be able to talk to our Father about anything and everything, from thanks to pain to worries about family, God is our loving Father who wants to hear from us.  Yes, God knows exactly what we need and He knows what is going on for us, but as our Father, He wants that personal relationship with us.  How do we do as Paul instructs to pray without ceasing?  We couldn’t work, we couldn’t attend to our physical responsibilities, and we physically cannot stay on our knees unceasingly.  The Hebrew word for without ceasing means “constantly recurring”.  Instead of trying to pray without ceasing, God wants us to tune in frequently.  As Pastor John Collins has preached, prayer should be the first thing you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before you fall asleep.  If you happen to fall asleep while praying, it’s ok, when you wake up, you will remember you were praying, finish that prayer, God understands and will hear us. Prayer and conversation with God should be a priority in our lives.

“We have a God that wants to hear from us, wants that relationship with us and He is seeking those who would worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Let your life be grounded in prayer, built upon prayer and fueled with prayer. Always be willing to prioritize your time and know that prayer should be at the top of the list.” Pastor John Collins, April 2018.

Pastor John Collins is an American evangelist and head pastor of Love That Cross Ministries and John Collins Ministries, Inc.  Pastor John Collins travels throughout the United States to bring revival of faith and hope back to churches and congregations around the country.  Communities are looking for hope and change, and Pastor John Collins is a voice of hope among the craziness in society today.  Pastor Collins posts devotionals on his Facebook page to help to explain where our faith should be, redeem the Gospel, and talks about difficult issues that many pastors won’t.  Pastor John Collins is determined to redeem the Gospel and bring God and Jesus back into our lives.

Pastor John Collins writes:

“In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple,And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” Psalm 18:6 (NKJV).

We are told to pray without ceasing, to give our burdens to the Lord and to seek Him in all that we do. Too often people get busy in their lives, they have things to do, jobs to go to, children to raise, families to see to and trying to carve out some personal time to enjoy social activities all while trying to maintain a strong relationship with God. Sometimes prayers are whittled down to the bare necessities or even cast aside until a day of trouble and calamity. Prayer is personal and essential to your walk of faith. Prayer is your journal of love, hurt and worry written on your heart and trusted with the One who is trustworthy. Prayer is your place that you can admit all that you hide from the world, where you can be more honest than you ever dare to be out loud. Prayer is the place you are safe.

We should be taking the time to pray in thanks to our Creator and be willing to voice that praise out loud to all. We should be casting our cares upon Him and sharing our fears and worries while trusting that all things work for the good of them who love the Lord. We should be seeking wisdom and righteousness in all we do, coming prepared to every situation, having been founded in prayer. We should be connecting with God continuously so that His strength is what we carry with us through the days. We should never put off our prayer, ignore our need for prayer nor should we allow our prayers to become rote. We have a God that wants to hear from us, wants that relationship with us and He is seeking those who would worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Let your life be grounded in prayer, built upon prayer and fueled with prayer. Always be willing to prioritize your time and know that prayer should be at the top of the list.

“I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” Psalm 16:7-8 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

God loves us, we are His children.  Like any good parent, He wants to know what is going on in our lives first hand from our own hearts and minds.  Prayer is our way to talk to God. 

Pastor John Collins is a dynamic and charismatic preacher with humility and a love for God and Jesus that sets an example for everyone.  Pastor John Collins is a featured speaker on Heaven’s Country Radio, www.heavenscountry.com, on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Mountain with Marty Smith.  Other content of Pastor John  Collins can be accessed by clicking on links through this blog post, including interviews, radio programs, sermons, and YouTube recordings.  Pastor John Collins is determined to bring God back to church, family, and society through redeeming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Pastor John Collins walks the walk and talks the talk.

In all things, pray.  Believe that.