PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES DAILY THOUGHTS: A PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

From John Collins Ministries:

 

Heavenly Father, I pray to You today and ask You to wake up those who are sleeping, those who are resisting You and please Father help the little ones who believe in You.

 

There are children hurting, children being murdered, children being abused and these little ones have such a need for Your protection Father, so please comfort them and please bring help for them into their lives.

 

Father God, I know this world is defiant and this world is full of stubborn people, but You are bigger than any problem here, You are more powerful than any resistance here and

 

You are needed so very much by all of us here.  Please know that You are our hope and our future and we are thankful to You, God and we have hope because of Your precious Son, Jesus, who I ask to watch over our children and to help their little hearts to know that they are loved.

 

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

 

LOVE THAT CROSS PASTOR JOHN, BELIEVE THAT

Read more about JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES or contact Pastor John Collins personally through JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES at www.johncollinsministries.com.

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS DAILY THOUGHTS: PRAYER AND DEATH

From John Collins Ministries: 

"And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” Isaiah 8:19 (NKJV).

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 (NKJV).

Have you ever heard someone say that they are praying to their dead grandmother for strength? It is not only a Catholic thing but it is a complete disconnect in a persons' faith and disobedience to God that leads people to reach out in prayer to their dead relatives, to the ‘saints’ of the church and especially to Mary the mother of Jesus Christ. Let me be very clear, Mary, the mother of Jesus is NOT the mediator of your faith and to pray to her is the same as praying to any other dead person. Jesus Christ is the way to get to the Father and it is through Him that you must pray.

You have been given a mediator in Jesus who was beaten, rejected and hung on a tree for the sins of the world. You have been instructed on how to approach God in prayer in the name of Christ. There is no way around this rule and there are no exceptions, even for His mother or the so-called saints or for any of your dead relatives. None of those people will help you, none of those people are able to provide you with anything and none of those people have the approval of God to stand as a mediator for you.

Do you think that God takes it lightly that so many ‘Christians’ ignore the words of His Son every day and are praying in the name of so many others? It is not something to think of casually. Your prayers are your communication with God and your faith is strengthened by your prayers. God does listen to the prayers of the faithful and the prayers of those whose hearts genuinely seek to worship Him in spirit and truth. Be serious in your prayers as that is the way that you approach God. Think of the holiness of the tabernacle and how so very few could actually come close. Think of the instructions to Israel about the holiness of God and how He must be worshiped. Jesus is now the mediator of your faith and it is necessary to approach both Jesus and God with reverence and awe. Do not be casual in your faith, in your prayers or in your attitude about God and Jesus Christ. Take your faith seriously so that you are able to enter through the narrow gate. Pray as the Lord has instructed you and do not turn to the right or to the left.

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” 1 John 2:1-4 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS PASTOR JOHN

Read more about John Collins Ministries or contact Pastor John Collins through John Collins Ministries at www.johncollinsministries.com.

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES DAILY THOUGHTS: OMG?

From John Collins Ministries:

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” Exodus 20:7 (NKJV).

“This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12 (NKJV).

We are told to revere God, fear God and hold Him in awe. We are not to take His name in vain and we are not to take the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain.  

Someone gets hurt and yells out Jesus Christ in a tone and manner that is equal to curse words. The term OMG has become second nature and of no consequence in the casual speech of people today. 

Vain use of the name of God and Jesus is to make them useless, of no effect, idle and worthless. To speak with such casual disregard for the name of God is show them contempt.  

The Lord is holy, divine and worthy of all reverence. The Lord is who we pray to, hope in and trust in. The Lord should never have His name fly off of the lips of those who claim to love Him in such an offensive manner. There is power in a name. Think of all that the apostle accomplished in the name of Jesus. Think of the prophets who accomplished so much in the name of God.

Those who curse with the name of the Lord or fling around the OMG response have absolutely no respect for the Lord and have absolutely no understanding of the Lord as they break one of the 10 commandments and are blasphemous in their speech toward the Lord. We have got to do better as a nation and dig deep to find our respect for God again. 

“How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” John 5:44 (NKJV).

LOVE THAT CROSS! PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

Read more about John Collins Ministries or reach Pastor John Collins personally through John Collins Ministries at www.johncollinsministries.com 

JOHN COLLINS MINISTRIES DAILY THOUGHTS: GOD AND WOMEN

From John Collins Ministries: 

“Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her.” John 20:16-18 (NKJV).

Mary Magdalene believed in Jesus, sought Him out, anointed Him with oil, wept on His feet and wiped those feet with her hair. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, learned from Him and was a disciple of His. Mary was the one that Jesus chose to see first after He was resurrected. Mary was brave and humble when she went to Him in that house of the Pharisee as she cared not what others thought of her, nor spoke of her but cared only to go to Jesus and kiss His feet and seek His forgiveness and His acceptance and Jesus not only gave that forgiveness, accepted her love for Him but spoke that she would be remembered for her actions and He demonstrated her value when He chose to go to Mary first and to give her the honor of knowing He was alive and to relate that information along with her witness of Him to his brethren.

It took courage to follow Jesus during His ministry and it took faith to know Him as the Son of God. Mary had that courage and had great faith in her Lord. There were dark centuries that followed the beginnings of the Christian faith. There have been centuries of oppression of not only the uneducated but of women as well. Women have come a long way from the days of the dark ages, of the days of education denial (for many parts of the world, anyway), and from the denial of equality of the genders. Women push forward in their search for that equality and for the opportunities to make their mark in this world but I want to remind women that their mark has been made and has never been taken for granted by God. God values women and Jesus demonstrated the love that He had for Mary by going to her first, by teaching her and standing up for her. Women should never forget that their value begins in the home, for they are the caretakers, the bringers of life and the mothers of our children. Do not underestimate the value of those things as being a mother allows you to teach your children how to get to heaven, how to live boldly and with faith in this dark world and being a wife allows you to help your husband be a part of a family that relies on God. A woman’s role does not have to be one thing or another but it should always be a role of strength and dignity with love and compassion at its core. That is the love of God within you and God has provided women with the complex ability to keep a family together and to guide it in love and faith with trust and truth at its center.

There always seems to be an agenda on the table and as progress ticks away and women continue to fight for what they believe to be most important to them I can only hope that they remember to value what has always belonged to them from the beginning. Family is everything and while equal pay may seem to be the biggest priority to some this world seems to be allowing the family to fail. Industrial success will never replace the failures of our homes and women need to find the courage, like Mary, to believe in our Savior and to brave the opinions of others to declare their loyalty to Him as they live up to the great responsibilities that have been entrusted to them. It is not easy to choose faith over finances, faith over popularity, faith over apparent success or faith over personal gain but in the end heaven is waiting and families need strong women to guide them.

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 (NKJV)

LOVE THAT CROSS PASTOR JOHN COLLINS

Read more about John Collins Ministries or reach me, Pastor John, at John Collins Ministries, www.johncollinsministries.com.

PASTOR JOHN COLLINS, DAILY THOUGHT: BULLYING

From Pastor John Collins:

In response to a question about people who claim to be Christian in their business and in their lives and yet treat people with contempt and dismissal, I have this to say:

The Catholic Church used to use ‘ex-communication’ as a threat to hold over people that included the added horror of dying while in such a state of separation from that church that would lead to being buried in unhallowed ground.

Guess what?  Every bully is known to God.  Who is one person, one church, or one group to determine who can belong to God and who is not welcome among His people?  Who is to determine who His people are?  The bully who uses you in the name of God and then discards you with a threat of slandering you amongst fellow Christians is in fact one of the tares being allowed to grow alongside the wheat and in the end will be plucked up and cast into the fire.

If you are among the lied about, slandered about and bullied about, have no worries because God has got your back.  The big thing to do is to not feed the fire which means that you do not have to be confrontational and ‘prove’ your righteousness but let you light so shine before others that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

There is something to be said for taking the high road because God will always lead you home if you are truly following Him.  If you allow God, then He will bring you new opportunities to have fellowship, have business and have a life that is righteous and true as long as you have the trust and the patience to let Him work.  Some things and people may be removed from your life and some may be introduced into your life.  Just remember that you don’t have to prove a thing to any man as it is God who should concern you and He is more than capable of seeing you through this trial too.Your true Christians friends will be there support you as well.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life; and there are few who find it.”  Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV).

 

LOVE THAT CROSS, PASTOR JOHN

#pleasesharethis

John Collins, Evangelist, John Collins Ministries is always available to talk.  He can be reached through John Collins Ministries, www.johncollinsministries.com.