Watch this and you’ll never have another bad day!

Click here and watch the story of Patrick Huges!!

Wil Franklin’s sacked out!

I wanted ya’ll to see my grandBoy, Wilson Franklin Collins, as he napped yesterday and his mom, Amberly, caught this image on the the baby monitor.

That’s being SACKED OUT!

Time to Share my Personal Mission Statement

Here’s the personal mission statement that I wrote over my life more than 20 years ago.  I’ve struggled to live by it, but it is the goal that I press to every day:

“In my life, I will concentrate on the principles of personal integrity, spiritual convictions, and moral excellence.  The most crucial issue in my life is to know Him and to make Him known; to energetically do the work of an evangelist as an ambassador of Christ.  As Paul said, I have the ambition of being pleasing to God, living by faith in the promises of His Word and sacrificially loving my family, while working tirelessly to provide for their needs.  I will revere the qualities of being a committed and trustworthy man, and will implement in my life characteristics such as being dependable, organized and principle-centered.  I wish to be an encouragement and blessing to others and would like for others to see me as the best at what I do.  I will recognize that I have strengths and skills as a person who is experienced, confident, goal oriented;  a practical problem solver who is an optimistic, spiritual leader and pace setter among my peers.  I will seize each day and make the most of every opportunity while aspiring to excel as a Christian communicator.   In my professional ventures (I wrote this while serving in Christian radio exclusively, as a manager, account executive, and on the air personality), I will labor to positively influence the lives of listeners and others touched by my work and to point them to Jesus as the Lord.  Each day, I will envision myself as a person who is living a life of accomplishment and success.  My mission in life will be to significantly increase my value to my clients, my employers, my family and my God.

If this can be used by God to help you think through the most important values and issues in your life, then I am pleased.  Thanks, and pray for this old boy that I might actually live this out in my every day life!!

New Year; New Life. Time To Walk in GOD’s Choices!

I love New Years!

It is a time to reflect on the past; to look  forward to the future.  To plan, to be resolved, set goals, make new starts.

2010 is not only the start of a new year but also the start of a new decade!  I know, I know, there is a fierce debate about whether the decade ended with this year or if it goes all the way through 2010.  Doesn’t matter.  There have been 10 years since we started this century.  If you count starting with the year 2000, then there’s no doubt we just ended the TENTH year.  All the, “what about the A.D. no year zero” problems can wait until…..next year!

Nevertheless, the need of the hour is NOT a debate about decades but a real and honest look at ourselves!  I have had MORE need to counsel my brothers and sisters in Christ during 2009 than in any other year of my 37 years of ministry!!  There has been more divorce, adultery, financial failure, substance abuse and the like than ever before.  I DO NOT like having to talk with people about these things, but it is my privilege that others feel confident enough in me to come and talk.  It is a part of the territory in which God had me pitch my tent.

The one thing that has hurt me more than anything else, though,  is the UNWILLINGNESS of BELIEVERS in Christ, truly born again people, to follow the Lord’s direction in the life matters they are struggling with.  It was and IS NOT God’s will for Christian couples to divorce!  God hates divorce!  He hates it.  What He wants is the opportunity to take a really messed up marriage and fix it so that the world will marvel at HIS POWER to restore and make new!!

I know it’s hard for those who have been cheated on to find the grace to work through it.  I understand that, not from personal experience, but I’ve walked through it with enough people to know that it is never easy!  BUT, I’ve been pastor to enough couples that have had horrible, I mean horrible circumstances, public, messy adulterous affairs, and yet, they were able to find God’s grace to repair the mess and stay together.  I’ve seen God take those couples who were willing, and He’s taken their truly convoluted messes and made them brand new.  He is the God of new chances, second, third and fourth chances.  He’s the God who CAN.

I’m also deeply concerned about people because many don’t realize that they’re in the messes they’re in because of BAD CHOICES!  Sometimes it’s as simple as that!  Bad choices.  So, to get out of the mess, make good choices or at least make BETTER choices!  This simple life truth is sometimes  like trying to chisel your girl friend’s social security number in a rock!  Tuff to do.  Not impossible, but very, very tough to do!

And then, the other great truth I long for folks who are struggling with BAD CHOICES to know is that the route to GOOD or ever BETTER choices is through God’s Word!  Period!  One of my favorite passages is in 2 Peter 1:3, 4, “His divine power has given u everything we need for life and Godliness THROUGH our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.  Through THESE he has given us His very great and precious PROMISES, so that THROUGH THEM you may participate in the divine nature and ESCAPE the corruption in the world caused by evil DESIRES (choices)!”

WOW!  What a great Word for the new year.  THROUGH His very great and precious PROMISES (the promises in His Word) we have everything we need for LIFE (including divorce, adultery, financial problems, relationships, health, lost jobs……you name it – EVERYTHING!!) and Godliness (being Spiritual, living like God in this world, following His path and His commands)!  I’m tell you, the joy comes when you are willing to open the Book and see what God has to say about your problems, and THEN, be willing to walk in those directives, to walk in GOD’S Choices, rather than chasing after our own desires brought on by an evil and corrupted world.

(More to come in the next installment)

Special Notice:
Our pastor will have the privilege of sitting in for Crane Durham on his show, Nothing But Truth, on the AFR talk network (90.9 and 91.7 FM here) Monday thru Thursday next week, 4-6 pm. Please pray as this is the first time he has had the chance to do a talk show by himself.  Thanks for praying and listening

Your pastor has a renewed vision for 2010!  Let me share with you just a little of what I believe the Lord would have us focus on in the coming year:
 
1. Soul Winning – THE NEW FOCUS of our church: I know that not many people care about going out and doing community soul winning, but anyone who is willing to give it a shot could cause a revival to break out!  Remember, the GREAT COMMISSION of the church is to GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO ALL CREATURES:  This will involve hospital and jail visitation, a RENEWED and WORKING WEB ministry (yep, we’re finally gonna do it RIGHT) and much more!!
 
2. Trump up the Deacon Family Ministry: We have a great group of deacons and a great congregation that needs direct ministry.  There is a wonderful deacon family ministry plan that our deacons looked at years ago……then we got into a multi-million dollar building program!  Need I say more? But we are going to revive that tremendous ministry, soon!

3. COPS Ministry: We are so blessed to have within our congregation the Sheriff of our county, a couple of deputy’s and the departmental chaplain! What a great foundation for building a ministry to the Law Enforcement Officers in our area!  COPS stands for Christian Officers Publically Serving. Pray for a great ministry to men and women of the front lines, protecting us from the lawlessness of our society!
 

4. Street Ministry:  I took a 12 foot wooden Cross around the state.  I know how to do “street evangelism” and we need to capitalize on that!   I envision taking a “crew” of fired up witnesses for Christ into various different towns in North East Mississippi and blitzing the streets with a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. Then, holding revivals in those towns that night.  What a great OUTREACH plan our church can become known for!!

5. WEB MINISTRY: We are going to finally do the web ministry RIGHT!  Most churches that are reading the world and their communities have a powerful web site ministry that people can connect to their church through. WE WILL, TOO!  Starting in 2010~
 
6. An Intercessory Prayer Ministry: We WILL provide a prayer ministry email address that anyone can write in and share their deepest needs.  Then, our prayer teams will intercede before God on their behalf! This will also develop a WORKING Prayer Chain: Our church needs a WORKING prayer chain that can start and go around until completion with the prayers of those who call or email us.
 
7. Marriage Saving Ministry:  Personally, I’m TIRED of the devil being so successful in destroying the marriages in our church and community!!!!  We are going to host the greatest Marriage Conference North Miss. has ever seen.  We WILL become THE church that hurting relationships can find deliverence and hope in!!

8. Men’s Discipling Ministry: We NEED SPIRITUALLY STRONG MEN IN JESUS!!  I am going to start a MasterLife type ministry for men to grow in their faith and become spiritual leaders for this church and community.

9. Healing Rooms: We believe in James 5 and the call to pray for the sick, don’t we?  So, we are going to start a once a week time for anyone to come to our church and visit a Healing Room!  There, our prayer warriors of FAITH will share the healing Scriptures with them, anoint them with oil and pray the prayer of faith over them asking God to heal them if He graciously would.
AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE:

10. Biker Church: Why not?? We have about 15 people in our church who ride bikes and the biker community in our area is about 80-200 strong.  Let’s open up our church to do church for them, their way!  We could do it once a month to start on Saturday nights.
 
Again Church, as your pastor prays, all I hear the Lord saying is WIN SOULS!!!  The time is SHORT and we need to populate the Kingdom of God mightily and FAST! 
 
Will you join me in this vision?  I know we must start slow and determined at first, but my hear is SET and the direction is SURE, being from the Lord Himself.  Join me FIRST by prayer and fasting.
 
January will see our annual time of 21 days of prayer and fasting.  More details on that next Sunday!
 
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OK: They’ve Rammed It Down Our Throats…Now READ It For Yourself!

You can read that 2000 page plus health care monstrosity by clicking on the link below (a PDF viewer required):

The SENATE’s HEALTH CARE BILL

It Really is On The Way!

I recently promised a post about what one has to believe to be saved and sure.

It Is coming I promise! I have had a really busy period lately and will be getting more “office time ” in order to get these kinds of things accomplished.

Thanks for your patience.

COMING SOON:

A short study on what it means to be SAVED and WHAT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE  to be saved and sure of it! 

Please spread the word to those who are friends of this ministry to be alert to this upcoming post.  I truly believe that what I have to share will be of great help to many who are struggling to know how to be right with God in these troubling, unsettling days that we are living in today. 

I will have this post ready soon.

Mean while, I know you would enjoy this article written by the late Zane Hodges.  Check out, “How to Share the Gospel”.

GREAT Weekend Ahead!!

I’m super excited about the weekend ahead!

First, all of my immediate family is going to be in my household TONIGHT (Friday 10/23/09)!  Matt, Amberly, and the GrandBOY, Wilson Franklin Collins, as well as son-in-law number two, Duane (Uncle D) and Whitney will all be here this weekend. 

The occasion?  Sunday morning I will get the privilege of doing what has been termed in my church, “baby dedication”.  That is, I will assist Wil Franklin’s mom, dad, and the other two grandparents along with my Pat, in the dedication of Wil Franklin to the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of his life. 

About two to three times a year, I get the joy of helping parents dedicate their “babies” to the Lord.  The biggest day of dedication is normally on Mother’s Day each year.  Well, Wil Franklin will be one year old this Thanksgiving Day, just over a month from now.  So, why have we waited so long to do this deed?

I believe that the father is the King/Priest of his home, set aside by God as the leader and spiritual head of his family.  Matt, Wil’s dad, has been in church all his life and a dedicated Christian believer since his college days, and Amberly who’s grown up in the church oriented, Christ centered home of your’s truly, they wanted to wait on Wil’s dedication until he and Amberly got their church membership moved to their current church fellowship.  That having been accomplished in the last few weeks, they have called upon dear ole “DahDaddy” to help them set apart their firstborn to the Master!

We will truly be privileged to also have present with us in the worship service, Matt’s parents, Jan and Gail Collins, Matt’s brother and sister-in-law, his grandmother and her best friend, his aunt and a few others that are special to the dedicatee of honor! 

I will be under the spiritual “gun” from all sides with tremendous expectation to handle the service with deep theological finesse and emotional clarity.  Yeah, right!  I will probably be able to only get the first few words out of my mouth before I go into a slobbering blob of happiness, joy and emotional freakiness! But, that’s OK, I won’t be alone.

So, if you’re looking for a really sweet place to worship the Lord Jesus this Sunday where the Spirit will be warm and blessed and the people will the friendliest you’ll ever meet, then join us this Sunday morning at 11 at the Friendship Church, Ecru.

We’re dedicating a special little boy on that day!

AFR Sharathon is going strong!

Wednesday through Friday of this week has been the time for the fall sharathon at my radio/TV/media home for the last 8 years, American Family Radio.  This ministry is LISTENER SUPPORTED, which means, there’s NO big money behind this ministry; there’s NO commercial type advertising to generate funds.  The money to OPERATE, the money to PROMOTE, the money to DEVELOP new radio stations, new internet ministries and whatever else God leads us into, comes from people just like you, the listeners and supporters of the radio/family ministry. 

We are unlike many other media ministries in that we don’t take a lot of time to do fund-raising on any kind of continual basis.  We actually ONLY take 6 days a year, three in the fall and three in the spring to talk about the money needs we have.  Just three days at a time! 

At the end of each sharathon, we will have pledged about $1.2-1.6 million dollars.  is that enough to get us through the next 6 months until the next sharathon?  Hardly.  But we have a couple of things going for us. 

First of all, there are some who will minister to our needs in other ways throughout the year that helps, but certainly wouldn’t be enough without the monies of sharathon added to it.  Also, Brother Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of the ministry and his son, Tim, the president of AFA/AFR, have been smart enough to wisely operate the ministry in a totally debt free condition!  Yes, you heard me right!  We are a 189 radio station network, with a channel on the Sky Angel TV network, and a whoppingly huge internet ministry presence, and we operate completely DEBT FREE!! That’s almost unheard of these days, but how powerful in the midst of an economy that is as dead as ours is!

I’ve had a great privilege in this fall’s sharathon.  As you may know, I stepped away from AFR after 8 years of working about 20 hours a week as a parttime voice talent and talk personality on the new Talk Channel.  I didn’t completely resign from the work, but I did step just short of being absolutely gone.  I had to! I pastor a fulltime church with about 350 members and I am also a state certified, sworn deputy sheriff/chaplain with TWO County Sheriff’s departments.  So, I was searching for time to breath, eat and sleep.  You know, just some of those mundane but at times, necessary activities of life.  So, I pulled back to about 4 hours a week or less of recorded, computerized voice tracking on the Inspo station (about 60 stations around the nation and on the net at www.afr.net).

But I was pulled into this sharathon for a full three days of service for which I am very grateful. As you may have known, Marvin Sanders, the general manager of the network since it’s beginning, has been very ill with cancer.  He is the co-host with Tim Wildmon on the flagship program, “Today’s Issues”.  Well, I was asked to come in and sit in Marvin’s chair with Tim during the Sharathon.  Well, on the first day, in walks Marvin back from the hospital feeling well enough to do the program!  YEA!  I wanted to be on and participate in the fantastic interviews that we were going to have during g the sharathon.  Interviews with people like Gary Bauer, Ravi Zacharias, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and the like.  BUT, BUT….I was extremely happy that Marvin is feeling well enough to be back and on the air!!

As it turned out, Marvin hasn’t felt well enough to do ALL of the two-hour program, so I have had the blessing to step in and sit in his seat for a portion of the Today’s Issues program each day.  In addition to that, I was able to be on the Crane Durham show, “Nothing But Truth”, as a promoter of the sharathon during the three breaks each hour. And then, I got to step in and help out with the Inspo stations a couple of times.  The real joy of that was on Thursday, I got a chance to interview SELAH, the magnificent group that has been providing us with heavenly worship music for the last 8 plus years.

This sharathon has been a real blessing, more so than many others.  This was my 6th sharathon at AFR.  THANK YOU for helping us, for making a pledge, for praying for us.  Let’s pray that God gives us many more “springs and falls” to spread the conservative, Christian perspective views that you simply cannot get from the main stream.  Thanks.  It was a real blessing to receive your gifts. 

You have sown into good ground!