Mitchell Landress

Reflection On How To Celebrate Halloween Halloween is not what it used to be. Even in my generation we have seen the face of Halloween change from a child centered holiday that was characterized by candy and silly costumes to an event that is now centered on fear and gore. The focus has even reached the level of theme park events being centered on horror. Busch Gardens in Tampa will host their Howl-O-Scream event again this year. Curious as to what was involved (after seeing a disturbing television commercial) I looked on their website and to my surprise I found that you had to be 13 years old to log in due to violent content. The question that must be asked by Christians is this – Is it good to willingly subject ourselves to fear? Fear is a very present reality in everyone’s life. Right or wrong we have enough real fear in our lives without subjecting ourselves to greater and false fears. As Christians we are commanded to fear God and God only (Proverbs 1:7. Matthew 10:26-28). As Jesu...

Do We Suffer The Problem Of The Corinthians? Last weekend my wife and I went with some friends to Walt Disney World for their Annual Christian concert "Night of Joy" The concert was sold out and I was looking forward to spending a few hours in worship with several hundred believers. What I ran into was not at all what I expected to find. One concert that Jennifer and I were most intent on seeing was David Crowder. He is known for his Christ centered lyrics and uplifting rhythms. As soon as we walked into the venue I realized that Disney had erred in their choice of location. The concert area was far too small and even though we were there forty minutes before it began, the crowd was pouring out of the room. The security immediately roped off the area and would not allow anyone else to enter. This was not the problem. The problem came when other people who had been in the concert and had left to go to the bathroom or to get drinks tried to return. The security would not let th...

The Weakness of Islamic Evangelism Lately I have been struck by the testimony of those who have suffered at the hands of kidnappers in Iraq. One issue that comes to the front of my mind is Islamic evangelism. Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll spoke to ABC News of her captors holding her at gunpoint and forcing her to read the Koran, which she did. After several days they asked why she had not yet converted to their beliefs. Explaining that she needed more time she continued to read. Again the question came to her about conversion. Finally and saddest of all, she told them that she would convert because she feared for her life. But this leaves us with a strange view of the Koran and the way that Islam chooses to do their evangelism. If the Koran were powerful in and of itself, those who seek to convert Christians to Islamic beliefs would not need to use guns in the process. That is, you should automatically appeal to your most powerful source. The fact that they use guns s...

Reflections On Biblical Wisdom And Cooperate Ideology I have a friend, who some would consider young, who pastors a moderate size church in, well ...we will just call it a large state. Paul graduated High School on time and went straight to College. After college Paul went to Seminary with no break in between. He finished both college and seminary in a timely manner. It also needs to be said that his academic achievements were outstanding in both college and seminary. Paul, however, finished seminary at the age of 26. By most peoples standards Paul is a young man. He is not immature. He married and has one child. Most importantly, he is a man of strong convictions, all of which are grounded in the truth of God’s Word. Worldly experience is not on his resume, neither is any bad church experience. So why do so many men like Paul have a hard time gaining trust for leadership in their church? More than this, why are so many churches reluctant to hire young men as their pastors? The answer ...

Reflections on Sending Our Students Back To School Each August brings a big day for many of our students. The first day of school yeilds feelings of both excitement and anxiety. Several of our students are entering into their last year of public school before they go off to college. They are excited about senior privileges; parking spaces, graduation photos, college applications, and completing the work that will lead them to their graduation day. Others are starting over at a new school with all of the fears and expectations that accompany that process. Part of me wants to go with them, not just because I enjoyed my days in school, but because I genuinely want what is best for them. While I cannot get on the school bus with them (nor would they want me to) that faithful morning, my prayers will go with them. When the Apostle Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus, from his prison cell, he had this same sort of concern. He wanted to be there with the congregation, but could not. So ...

Reflections on Scripture Memorization Most spiritual disciplines can be accounted for by the budgeting of your time. Taking time to read your Bible, time to pray, time to witness to other people, but one spiritual discipline stands out from the rest. This is the discipline of Scripture memorization. It seems that it is easy to remember all sorts of things. I can remember my wife’s cell phone number, countless user names and passwords, and my personal favorite – song lyrics. I have countless songs stuck in my brain from the not-so-fabulous 80’s. Oh, that my brain were a hard drive that I could go in a delete out all the junk and then defragment for extra space. No such luck! Scripture memorization is so much harder to remember than any of these. Why? I really do not know for sure, but I have an idea. I think it is due to the fact that Scripture is living and active. So it just doesn’t go in peacefully. It goes in cleaning house and the flesh fights against it. In essence, Scripture memo...

Reflection on Attempting To Make Godly Decisions A brief overview of 2 Samuel gives us a peculiar insight into the mind of God, at least I think it does. This is why I doubt myself. Jeremiah tells us that "the heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick – who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:8-10, HSB). Therefore, I cannot judge right and wrong simply on my feelings, though I do find myself following them too often. Since my heart is sick it must stand in judgment of something else –God, and how He has spoken through Scripture. Now back to David in 2 Samuel. David had a desire to build God a house and the reason appears to be that David’s palace was nicer than the tabernacle. Man’s judgment was wrong, but it did not sound wrong. Even Nathan told David to proceed with his plans – that was before the Lord spoke to him (2 Samuel 7:4vv). The Lord would not allow David to build the temple, which seems to be a rejection of David as a person or at least as a king...