"I can bench press one-third of my own weight," he
told students at Smithville Christian High School, Tuesday. "I can do
eight push-ups wearing a bathing suit, and I can run faster than a car --
that's parked."
Collins said he also researched some other powerful things.
The most powerful animal in the world is the rhinoceros beetle, the most
powerful computer in the world is The Titan and the most powerful gun in the
world is the 32 megajoule railgun.
But the most powerful thing in the world is the word of God,
Collins said.
"It is so powerful that people can hear it and in five
minutes their life could be changed," he said. "It's so powerful that
Satan will do everything he can to distract you from reading it."
When the people of Nineveh heard those words, they called
urgently on God, gave up their evil ways and violence and were spared. Collins said those few words demonstrate the
power of God's word.
"It's only eight words in the English translation but
120,000 lives were changed," Collins said. It's not because of Jonah, who probably
looks terrible and smells like fish vomit, "yet lives are changed."
Why is God's word so powerful? Collins asked.
Collins read Hebrews 4:12, 13: "For the word of God is
sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,
joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
Collins used a cardboard box to represent a human heart,
that can easily be opened to give and receive love.
But Collins said humans have a problem with sin: "We
produce sin and it hardens our hearts." When our hearts are hard as a
result of sin, two things happen: we don't know we are guilty and we think we
have no need for God. He asked students to name some of the sins that they experience,
and for each sin a student volunteer put a plastic bag over the cardboard box
heart. Students named lying, cheating, jealousy, gossip, and envy. By the time
they were done, the cardboard box was tightly sheathed in plastic "and
doesn't open anymore.
"You put this in a marriage, it's going to end in
divorce," Collins said. "You put this into a friendship and it's
going to create separation."
To illustrate the power of God's word, Collins told the
students that when he was younger he had been fascinated with weapons, yet to
his dismay, his mother never let him own any.
Collins told students he had had "a rough childhood. I
was not allowed to say 'fart,' I was not allowed to have a gun and I was not
allowed to have knives."
But on Tuesday he strapped on a leather belt that was loaded was
knives, such as a machete, bowie knife, and hunting knives.
As another student volunteer read Hebrews 4: 12, 13 out
loud, Collins pierced the "sin" shrouding the cardboard heart, to
reveal a heart "that is even more open than before."
Romans 3:23 says that we have all have sinned and fallen short of the
glory of God, Collins said, but the forgiveness earned for us by Jesus makes us
holy in God's sight.
Collins said we still have a responsibility to open the Bible and use it.
"What good is a knife left in its sheath?" he
asked. "You have to pull it out and use it. And you have to open God's
word, read it, pray about it , ask questions about it, think about it, memorize
it and trust it."
Members of a student praise team led in worship with Blessed
Be Your Name, From the Inside Out and Holy (Wedding Day).
Here is a video of the praise team and Blessed Be Your Name.
Today's memory verse is Hebrews 4: 12,13.
Spiritual emphasis week continues with a chapel every morning at 9. All are welcome to attend.
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