Mitchell Landress

The following article is by Pastor John Piper and can be found at www.desiringgod.org . I found this article extremely helpful, so I thought I would pass it along. First, a few testimonies: I have it third hand, that Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Seminary once made the statement (and I paraphrase) that if it were his decision, every student graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary would be required to learn one thousand verses word perfect before they graduated. Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization” (“Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Per...

Heaven is of some concern to a few people. Most of us just imagine being happy and do not give it another thought. But a few people have expressed concern with the eternality of it; specifically - what will be there and what will we be doing? This week at listened to a great discussion that involved this very issue and it shed some new light on the subject of heaven, so I thought I would pass a few of these along to you. First, God’s original and very good design was God on the earth, living and walking amongst his creation and his creatures (Genesis 3:8). Revelation tells us that when all of history comes to a close there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that the Lord will once again live amongst his people (Revelation 21:1-4). We also know that the human body which God has given us will one day die, but the promise that comes to us through Jesus is that these same bodies will one day be raised from the dead to everlasting life, just like Jesus’ was. These two things combined ...

Recently in our Sunday School class we have entered into some discussion about our obedience to the Lord and our obedience to our government and the laws they set forth for the people. Most of the time their is little to no conflict between the two, but because the question was raised I will try to offer some biblical direction for the conversation. We know that laws are good. In fact the Bible states that God puts governments and systems of law in place to restrain evil and lawlessness. (Romans 13:1-7) So it is both good and right that we have an allegiance to our country and government, because God, in His sovereignty, has put it in place. However, we must also understand that we have an allegiance to a much higher authority and law. Jesus makes it clear that the two greatest commandments (i.e. laws) we have are to (1) love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and (2) to love our neighbor as ourself. (Matthew 22:34-40) These two "greatest" command...

This fourth of July our family went to Winter Garden to visit with Jennifer's family. Every year they have a spectacular fireworks show along the shores of Lake Apopka. You have to get there early to get a place on the lawn and so we did. We spread out our blanket and the kids were having a ball playing in the grass. Then one of the vendors came by selling his assortment of junk...I mean, festive memorabilia. He had a colorful selection of glow sticks that you could make into loops for wearing or throwing, or whatever your desire might be. Noah and his cousin Cole had to have one, so off Jennifer went to run down this guy. She came back with two stiff and non-glowing plastic sticks. What a rip-off!! I had to ask, "Why aren't they glowing?" Apparently everyone knew but me as to why they were not glowing. "You have to break them first!", Jennifer said. So she took the small stick and bent it until I could hear something in it break. Then, apparently, the two c...

Making Disciples; By His Word, For Their Joy, To His Glory! In Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” We at Northside understand these words to be an imperative for our church. If we are to live in obedience to the words of Jesus we must exist for the purpose of making disciples. This is how we believe it is to be done: Making Disciples By His Word. God’s Word is living and active and the truth by which we are conformed into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the very essence of being a disciple. The Christian life is sustained by the nourishment of God’s Word. We are nourished by the preaching of God’s Word to God’s church, by the interactive learning of a small group Bible study, and by personal meditation of the Scriptures in our own lives. Making Disciples For Their Joy As Augustine said, God created our hearts to be restless until they find their rest in Him. Many people seek to find happiness in every passing fad and diversion, but the human ...

It often comes up in conversations at church, "How do you know someone is a Christian?" That is, how do you know whether they have really believed or not? The Apostle Paul had to answer this same question when he was writing to the churches in Galatia. His answer is something like this, 'When did you receive the Spirit?' (Galatians 3:1-9) The identifying mark of someone who has believed (converted, been born again) is the presence of the Holy Spirit. No Holy Spirit, No Salvation. But the Spirit is not something material that we can see with our eyes, so is this any help at all? Yes, because Paul goes on to say that if the Spirit is in you it will produce fruit. That is, visual works in your life that people can see and recognize. The fruits of the Spirit are "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..." (Galatians 5:22) Do these things identify your life? It's a good time to stop and reflect isn't it? If ...

Before we meet together next week we will have celebrated Valentine’s Day. Now I do not know how you have chosen to celebrate it in the past, but this year I would like for you to consider with me how Jesus shows his love for his bride – the church. Maybe this will help us show love to our spouses, family, and close friends. 1. Jesus Chose His Bride Before The Foundations of The Earth Were Laid. (Ephesians 1:4) 2. Jesus Fights For and Defends His Bride Because They Share A One Flesh Union Together. (Acts 9:4) 3. Jesus So Desires The Companionship of His Bride That He Promises To Be With Her Whenever She Gathers For Worship. (Matthew 18:20) 4. Jesus Demonstrates His Love For His Bride By Laying Down His Own Life For Her Redemption. (Ephesians 5:25) 5. Jesus Promises and Ensures That He Will Never Leave or Forsake His Bride. (Matthew 28:20b) Jesus sets the standard when it comes to demonstrating love. So this year, whether you will be sending out valentines or n...

When I was in my last year of seminary my wife and I began trying to have children. This had been our plan from the beginning; to finish school first and then start our families. We wanted the timing to be "perfect" and being as we were eager to have children we started trying to conceive nine months before graduation. The first few months were disappointing, but we were assured by everyone that these things just take some time. Then (as it seemed to us) all of our friends began to announce that they were expecting. It seems that many of the students shared our same game plan. So we were happy for them, but began to be more and more impatient as time went on. We began to resort to desperate thinking, like many people do. Maybe we have done something wrong, maybe God is made at us, maybe we are out of his will. As we passed the "one year" mark we noticed that our hearts had taken on a new and more dangerous characteristic. We were jealous. We would look down on othe...