This afternoon I went online and checked out a emergent church website. I don’t know much about the emergent movement except to say it is another church flavor of the week.

This one is yellow. Yellow as in cowardly. Yellow because no where on the site did it say anything about the Gospel, sin (other than the sin of being judgmental toward ideas different than your own and not repenting of it), a need of Christ alone for salvation (only that they want to live as Jesus taught), and not having the capacity outside of the grace of God to be able to gain it.

The whole idea of the site was to give the statement of belief and invite the curious to become a member of the emergent “denomination” (my word—not theirs). They have a whole set of hierarchy that looks like a concentric circle of concern, drawn by someone who has had too much to drink! There was also NO SCRIPTURE MENTIONED—anywhere!!! That was enough to make me scratch my bald head.

It felt as if I was falling into another Amway presentation of what was necessary for the church to do and change in a postmodern culture and why it needs to do so, and how emergent is doing that. Then if you agreed with joining the “conversation” you would agree to do some things.

One, when you greet someone in the church circles, you would identify yourself as a member of the emergent movement, be it in writing, blogs, or meeting someone for the first time in a coffee house, or environmental activist meeting for the saving of the African ju-ju-bee. (they are very into the social gospel of acting on behalf of justice)

This is all a rehash of the same song just different dance. Don’t believe me? Just look up why Pelagius came up with the “human will” being necessary for salvation. He came up with the idea so to get the Christians to put forth the effort to do the things that Jesus said. In order to show that you decided to become a believer, you did acts—or showed some fruit. It was all your choice. That is what emergent is all about. Doing and showing that you are a believer in a non-confrontational way.



Hence, that is why it is a yellow Christianity. Anything that takes the confrontation from the Gospel, takes away the gospel. Jesus was anything but “conversant” with those whom He came into contact—why would He want us to be?

Second, it included sending money to help support its conferences, annually. It also gave a structure in the circle thing that was a leader tiered organization. They even have their own emblem. That’s a denomination, within denominations.

Emergent asks some questions that, yes, should be asked because those in church leadership (pastors,etc.) haven’t made clear. We have fallen woefully short of educating and discipling our brothers and sisters in the why’s and how’s and what for’s of the church. Does that mean we should try to become postmodern in our outreach? No. Not at all.

Our people need to know that to be saved isn’t just praying a prayer, filling out a card, getting baptized, and going to church once a month or year. It is something to be lived out and if not then doubts should be there about that person’s salvation. This is a beat-down for pastors.

Having people that come, sit, listen, then go and live as if nothing is different. If every believer lived biblically, we (Body of Christ) would be seeing new believers being baptized and major persecution in the U.S. because of the radical backlash from the gates of hell.

May we live radically in the hand of God. Lives that are on the edges of His grace, pulling the lost into the light of His love.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3

A while back I got an email that my curiosity couldn’t pass up. Being a bachelor there often is no telling what that gets sent your way. All you have to do is login and give your email address to one site to many and BAM you got mail. This was no different. It was an advertisement from Yahoo!Personals.

Normally I just delete and move on, but this time I was feeling curious. So I opened it and looked at the pictures of about 20+ women. Well they must all work for the ASPCA because they all were looking for someone who “Must Love Dogs”. I saw one I thought was cute and clicked on the pic to see the profile. As I scrolled down I saw something that made me scratched my bald head. This is what was there

Religion: Christianity
Attends
Services: Rarely

Rarely….RARELY? I started to look at several others, forgetting the rest of the profiles to look at those two particular lines. I was shocked to see how many were willing to say that they call themselves Christian and yet rarely attend church.

Question: Can someone who rarely attends church be a Christian? Do they feel that they are doing God a favor like a friend or family member that you haven’t seen in forever suddenly surprising you? Would their pastor feel he has somehow succeeded in equipping them to serve as Christ’s representative with just a rare occurrence? Talk about pressure for a pastor. Better make that sermon a good one on Easter, it’s gotta last and get ‘em through the year!

Who is to blame for this? We who are in ministry. We let people think that “once saved always saved” means that as long as you walk an isle, fill out a card, and come to church every once in a while, your ok. That is not what the Bible calls it. The doctrine of perseverance has been so watered down that we’ve lost it.

Perseverance means this, if Jesus has bought us and saved us He will continue to work in us until the day of our salvation—be it death or rapture. Philippians 1: 6, Paul says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” It is a continuous work, not just a one time event, emotional experience, or search.

Now this should bother some people. It scares the daylights out of me. Do I base my life on the fact that I made a decision (thru His grace that awakened me to do so), and therefore, I am now free to do whatever.

Paul, again, said in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (NASB)

Again, Ephesians 4: 20-24, “20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (NKJV)

We are even told not to associate with them.

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. 3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Eph 5:1-7 (NKJV)

20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-- 21 "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," 22 which all concern things which perish with the using--according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Col 2:20-23 (NKJV)

May we then preach that for one to be saved, they must follow. We are saved to be free—biblically. And to be biblically free is to be free to be obedient to the One who saved us.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3

This past semester I had to do a exegetical research paper on what is known as the Colossian Heresy. There were some thoughts that I wanted to kind of work out that were drawn from that study. So I’d like to do some background info and then draw some applications and comparisons.

The letter to Colossae was written by Paul, to the church in Colossae, probably sometime around a.d.60-62, before a major earthquake occurred and destroyed most of the area. The church there never met Paul, and only knew of him through Epaphras, who was with Paul during his imprisonment in Rome.

The culture in the region of Colossae was of mixed religious variety with many Hellenized Jews and pagan religions. It is possible, looking at Colossians 2:16-23, that we can see some of the beginnings of Gnostic thought. However, it is just as likely that this is just a syncretic Judaism with pagan thought. The apparent imposition of observing certain holidays, festivals, and new moons, and Sabbaths is a combination of both forms of religion.

In verses 16-18, we see the commands of Paul for the believers not to allow anyone to rob them of their reward by
“… taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, …”
Col 2:18 (NKJV)
A false sense of arrogance was accompanied by those who appeared to be spiritual by imposing a sense of higher spirituality and placed this yoke upon the believers there.

This was added to by the worship of angels and looking into visions that seemed to be a signal of special knowledge into spiritual matters that gave the legalists the upper hand in matters. However, Paul calls this robbery. Why?

It was robbery, not just of the life of grace for the believers in Colossae, but robbery of the worship that was due the One who had saved them! The legalists were placing angels at the same level of reverence as the Saviour. This caused them to become disconnected from the Head of all believers by trying to focus their faith not on Christ, who is the head but on angels instead (v.19)

Paul then uses a poetic play on words in verses 20 and ch. 3:1. He starts 20, “If then you have died…” and verse 1 of chapter 3, “If then you were raised…” In these verses Paul gives the two sides of the gospel coin. If we died to the old way of life, why do we still look to our human, cognitive “gnosis”, appeasing to the regulations of the flesh? We are free, not bound to submission of the flesh.

If we have been raised with Christ, we have freedom to obey Him and Him alone. Yes we are free from the regulations of the flesh, but we are obligated to live in obedience until we go to be with Him, or He returns, whichever comes first.

Psalm 1:3

One of the questions that often come up when dealing with the question of God’s sovereign choice in salvation and man’s “free will” is that what about evil? Why, if God is in control of all things, knows all things, then why does God allow bad things to happen to people?

This is what is know in theological circles as the “problem of evil.” The best answer to the question is found in James 1: 12-18.

12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. (NKJV)

So God doesn’t tempt with evil nor is He tempted. In this passage we see that sin is born out of lust, lust from desire. The result of sin is death.
Now who is responsible for sin? We are. Since in Genesis 3 we who are in Adam are responsible for ushering in sin to the creation because of disobedience.

James tells us “Do not be deceived…” It is so easy to blame God as the audience of James apparently thought. It is so easy to do so because we think well we can just lay it on Him. If all else fails blame God! He did this. He is sovereign, in control of every thing! But this shift in blame does nothing to answer the question when the answer is found in our nature.

We don’t want to think we are so bad to be responsible for our actions.

Now your buzzer is goin’off. Tree you just said yesterday that free will is not biblical. Let’s get something straight. In salvation, salvation, God is in total control. Giving both faith to convict one of sin, and also to believe in Him for salvation. However, there is also the fact of human responsibility.

We are responsible for our actions. Does God know what those actions are? Yes. Why? Because He is in charge and leads us, even though we may rebel. Look to Jonah. Did God know that He would rebel? Yes. Did He lead Jonah to where He wanted to go? Yes. Even when Jonah was in the belly of the whale, God was there, calling him.

(Often God may use circumstances to lead us to where He wants us to go. Even if we rebel—this I know, personally. When God calls, listen and obey. It goes much easier. Trust me.)

Remember, James follows the progression of how sin comes about, with where good things come from—God. For the believer, there is nothing better to know.

Soli Deo Gloria

Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3

Last night I walked into the Discipleship class for the youth, after having to step out to make more copies of the lesson for the next session, and found a very robust discussion. On the board behind Chris was the letters on one end “pre” and on the other “destination.” Immediately, my mind flashed, “oh, boy, here we go…”
I tried to help answer the question concerning free will and predestination, but kind of felt a fog was still left in the room, so I want to try to clear some things up with Scripture texts that I found from a John Piper sermon series that I found. Hopefully these will speak for themselves with little if any explanation from me.
Do keep in mind one thing about what is called free will: it is a philosophy not a theology. What I mean is this, in our American-ness we tend to think that each individual has the ability to make their own decision, separate from any influence of another individual, even God. This is completely unbiblical. God is sovereign (all knowing and powerful) in everything as we will see from Scripture. So the best way to approach anything in life is to do away with the phrase “I think…” or “I feel like…” . But rather take on the phrase, “Scripture says…” or “ The bible says…” This way you won’t get into trouble for speaking wrongly (as long as you say what Scripture says in the proper meaning! J).
Let’s look to Acts 13.48 “ 48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”(NKJV). Notice the progression. As many were appointed to eternal life believed. Who did the appointing? God did—not Paul or Barnabas or any other.
There is also a couple of verses from the lips of Jesus Himself that should be noted. We kind of discussed some of them in the class. John 6:44,65, “44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:44 (NKJV)
65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
John 6:65 (NKJV)
God does the drawing and choosing.
So why is it that we think we can choose for ourselves? The reason that we cannot is because sin is part of our very nature, so much so, that even if we were able to have a choice, we would choose sin over grace every time. That’s how blind we are to our own need. Only by God drawing us to Himself and granting us faith as we saw in Ephesians 2.8,( 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.), faith is from God as well.
Here is a question for ya that a man by the name of Augustine asked. If it is only up to us to decide, separate from the influence of sin or of God, then why do you pray for the lost to be saved? Would we not be asking God to do what we have said He can’t do, influencing the decision? The answer is we DO pray for the lost because God DOES have the final say in salvation—not us.
Now let’s look at Ephesians 2.4-5
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph 2:3-5 (NKJV)
Paul sticks this phrase in, by grace you have been saved, and also later on, but here it is as if he can’t wait to use it. It was grace, not faith, that first saves, because faith is dependant on grace to be given first. Also we were dead. Dead means—well, dead. Not alive or able to think. Why? Because we were DEAD! Why would God make us alive, then sit back and wait for us to believe in Him before He saves us?
In other words, why would God make someone alive, say Bill, and afterward sit back, and ask Bill, “Do you have faith in Me? Do you believe?”. Then wait to see if Bill would say, yes or no? That’s ridiculous. If God went to the trouble to raise Bill from the dead, why would He wait for Bill to believe when God could (biblically) grant Bill the ability to believe in Him, also. Don’t ya think Bill would feel a bit confused? God raised him from dead to living and now has to be asked to believe in the one who raised him?
If this sounds ridiculous its because that is not God. It could not be God because then God would depend on me for justification of His own glory. And then I would be equal to Him.
Rest in the fact that God chose you (Rom.8:28-31). Before all the foundation of the earth, He knew you would be one whom He would save!!! This should make you even more grateful to Him that He would send His own Son, just for YOU!!!
When you were unable, He is. While you were dead, He was made alive again, so that you could be.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1:3

As I shared in my story, I was out of the church scene for some time. I had no clue what was going on in church circles nor did I care. So you can imagine my surprise when I turned on the radio.

Some shock occured when I listened to 94.9 here in Ft. Worth and heard a song that, for only a few words that were made neuter, was a song that I had danced to in the bars, drunk, before I came back to the Light!! I couldn't believe it. Then I find out that there are several bands, whose videos I had seen and songs I had listened to (Six Pence, Pod, etc.) that were *allegedly* Christian!
Many of the lyrics that I heard also were so WEAK and anorexic doctrinally that I was appauled!! It used to be that CCM was ministry oriented. Now I find that it costs $20 to go to worship with a group called Hillsong leading or somebody else. Their good, and I like their music. But who out there is more concerned with ministry and letting Him provide than getting the guarantee. Where does Christ guarantee us more than what we can carry in our purse, especially when He says not to take one!!
Then there were the new words--Seeker (?). The Bible says that "no one seeks God, no not one..."(Rom 3:11). So why call lost sinners "seekers" when Scripture is clear that that is not the case?
Two reasons: 1) because we don't want them to feel uncomfortable. 2) We don't want to be uncomfortable calling them sinners when we can't say we are without sin ourselves. We would have to live lives separate and holy in order to be able to do so.
More to come later....

What is faith? How does it relate to obedience? Can you be one without the other? One cannot live without one or the other. Obedience is keeping His commandments and faith is believing that He is true to keep them.
Our obedience does not cause God to keep His promises based on response. As many would teach, that if we do “x” God has to do “y”. There is nothing that we do that can force God to do something, anything, for us. It is simply because of grace that He does anything for us. He keeps His Word regardless of our faithfulness or faithless ness.
Can one break only one of His commandments and still be considered obedient. No!!! All one has to do is look to James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” One part is all it takes. We are either obedient to all of the commands to be obedient or we are not.
Now one may say that it is hard, even impossible to keep all of God’s commandments. That may be true—for the unregenerate (lost) man. But for the believer we have a Helper who helps us in our weakness (Rom.8.26). Because of the Spirit we have no excuse to NOT be obedient. Only because we exchange the glory of God for our own desires do we fail to be able to keep His commands.
To often though the reason that we fail to choose His glory but ours instead is because we fail to have faith that He will keep His Word and be true to it. We would rather “take matters into our own hands” than to trust that He is truly sovereign.
With faith and trust that He will help us in our weaknesses to obey, then our faith becomes effective, not to move God, but to move us into the mould that He has designed us to be and the witness that He wants us to become—agents of His glory. Out of this we become less, less influenced by the world and more influenced by Him.
Being obedient is truly to love Him (1 Pet. 1.22). By being obedient we show how we love Him. To display true obedience is to anticipate in love what God’s wishes are. That is true faithfulness, to know what He desires from us through His word and obedience to it.
Faith and obedience go hand in hand. Faith spurs us on to obedience; faith fuels us to obey. They two must work together to be effective. Knowing His word is incredibly important to ignite and know what His commands are.
May our faith be encouraged and moved on by being obedient to Him prayerfully, and potently.
Soli Deo Gloria
Aaron "Tree" Landis
Psalm 1.3

We all have stories and mine is no different than others.
I was raised in church as a kid, Methodist specifically, until I was 13. At that time my family moved to the Baptist church in our small home town of Godley(yes). I came to know the Lord shortly after that in a more personal way than I ever knew possible. At 17, I responded to the call to the ministry. I went to Howard Payne Univ. and graduated in '90 with a degree in Theology. Straight to Southwestern with many of my friends. Within 2 semesters I flunked out.
I began to take a slide, spiritually speaking. I had been making excuses for not going to church regularly during college. Substituting chapel for church, theology class for personal bible study, etc., caused my heart to get easily influenced. By the time I got to seminary, I was burned out from doing it all on my own strength. This became evident when I went to a small church and was asked to be the pastor. I turned it down, and blamed God. Why? I don't know.
I started to become a bar fly. There was no limit on what I wanted to do. I became bitter toward church and Christian faith. If you would have said anything to me about Jesus, I probly would have punched ya. Even though I still felt something tell me in the back of my mind that what I was doing was not right.
After about 12 years of doing things totally separate from God, I was on vacation, in my apartment, when I decided to clean my storage room out. In there I found my old bible. I started to throw it away, but decided not to and thew it into the living room.
Later, when I had finished cleaning, I picked it up and figured I didn't have anything else to do so I started reading. I started in Luke, don't know why, never really read it all the way through before. Well, I got through chapter 15 and the story of the prodigal. It was then that I realized that I was the prodigal.
I began to just weep. I never finished Luke. It was a couple of hours of just letting God have it and telling Him how he had blown it when...and just made a list of things. But it was then that I realized (He showed me) where I was the one who was to blame.
Since then, 3 years later, He has called me into ministry again. I have a new hope for the future and the present that rests in His un-fettered Grace.
All glory be to Him who was, is, and is to come

Soli Deo Gloria,
Aaron "Tree" Landis

Well, I just jumped into an area that I don't know much about but here goes. I'm a student at a large SBC seminary, a Reformed Baptist (but the seminary pres isn't). To tell the truth I think I may be one of a handful.
On my next post, I'll try to share my testimony of how God brought the prodigal home. It was encouraging to me to come back and see the changes in the church. More on that later.
My hope is this blog will be one of discussion and a place that biblical doctrine can be fleshed out. I may attempt to tackle some topics like prayer, for example, and what it means to pray. Secondly, I pray it is biblically sound. Third, to try to give those in my church youth group a place to go to get more on the Sun. School lessons that we'll be doin and to go deeper. We shall see what the future holds.

Soli Deo Gloria
Tree
Psalm 1:3