Monthly Archive for June, 2010

Think about an icy river this coming 4th of July

Published on June 30, 2010 in Chris Brauns Radio Spots. 0 Comments

In Psalm 16, David praises God because God has given him a delightful inheritance. King David sings, “my boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places.”

Americans can surely sing the same song. We celebrate the birth of our nation this week and, from the warm gulf waters to the North Atlantic, to the desert of the southwest, to San Francisco harbor, to the greatest farm ground in the world here in the Midwest, our lines have fallen in pleasant places.

But, even as we celebrate the blessings we enjoy as a country, we should thank God for those who went before us. We think of the year 1776 as a wonderful beginning. But, by the end of that first year, the Continental army was ready to quit. The ground was frozen and wherever the army marched shoeless leaving a bloody trail. Enlistments were running out and, by any realistic assessment, the end was near.

But, on Christmas Day of 1776 General Washington rolled the dice and crossed the icy Delaware. It was an awful night to position troops. Two men froze to death. Powder was wet and Washington told the soldiers to use their bayonets. Washington himself led the attack on Hessian troops in Trenton. It was a gruesome battle, a horrific scene of suffering and agony. Even the commander of the Hessians was mortally wounded.

I am Pastor Chris Brauns from the Red Brick Church. . . We are Americans. Our boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places. When you feel the warm sunshine on your shoulders while grilling out, remember that a group of men, some of them only 17 years old and younger, marched across frozen ground, forded an icy river, and fought with bayonets so that we could grill hamburgers and watch fireworks in our small towns.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish”: One of the most misapplied verses in the Bible

Published on June 29, 2010 in Proverbs. 2 Comments

It is June 29th – - why not read Proverbs 29.  And, when you do, stop to consider Proverbs 29:18: one of the most misapplied verses in the Bible.  See also this post on reading Proverbs.

Christian leadership books often quote Proverbs 29:18 as a rationale for a church writing a vision statement.  The KJV version reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” This wording fits nicely for those who want to persuade others regarding the need for a vision statement. 

While it is good for leaders to communicate vision, Proverbs 29:18 is not talking about a leader’s vision.  Rather, “vision” here refers to special revelation and the principle is that that apart from God’s Word, society quickly spins into moral chaos.

Below is an excerpt of something I wrote elsewhere.

****************

The ESV gives this translation if Proverbs 29:18.

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law (Proverbs 29:18, ESV).

The word translated “prophetic vision” refers to special revelation or God’s Word.[1] The word translated “cast off restraint”[2] carries the idea of there being a total loss of social order. It is the same word used in Exodus 32:25 to describe the Israelite’s frenzy during the Golden Calf disaster. The NIV translation reads:

Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies (Exodus 32:25, NIV).

If a people do not hear God’s Word, then we can expect society to break down and even local churches to cast off restraint.[3] “Social harmony and restraint cannot be achieved without the exhortations of the prophets and the teaching of the law.”[4] Public morality depends on knowing the law of God.[5] Fabarez argues that the reason there is so much immorality in evangelicalism today is because God’s Word is not preached.[6]

[1] “חָזֹון”, see Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, Edward Robinson, Charles A. Briggs, and Wilhelm Gesenius, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament : With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic : Based on the Lexicon of William Gesenius as Translated by Edward Robinson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), 302. Waltke concludes that this word refers here to, “the sage’s inspired revelation of wisdom.” Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 446.

[2]“פָּרַע,” has the idea of “let go, let alone.” Brown, Driver, Robinson, Briggs, and Gesenius, 828. There is some confusion about the meaning of this verse because of the King James Version translation, “perish.” See Robert L. Alden, Proverbs: A Commentary on an Ancient Book of Timeless Advice (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983), 202.

[3] This Proverb has been used a great deal in recent years as a biblical defense for local churches writing vision statements. Writing a vision statement is a good idea. However, this verse doesn’t apply to that task. Alden summarizes, “Verse 18 has been misinterpreted for many years, probably because of the way it reads in the KJV; ‘Where there is no vision the people perish.’ ‘Vision’ here does not refer to one’s to need formulate goals and work toward them, nor does it mean eyesight or the ability to understand. ‘Vision’ instead is a synonym for what a prophet does. Thus its real meaning is God’s ‘guidance’ (TEV), ‘revelation’ (NIV), ‘authority’ (NEB), ‘prophecy’ (NAB).” Alden, 202. See also, Kaiser, 10-11. Kaiser applies this passage directly to a call for expository preaching. Delitzsch summarizes, “People are only truly happy when they earnestly and willingly subordinate themselves to the word of God which they possess and have the opportunity of hearing,” quoted in Waltke, 447.

[4] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, The New American Commentary, vol. 14 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993), 232.

[5] Derek Kidner, The Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1975), 176.

[6] Fabarez, xiii.

"The sexual relationship is a good barometer for every couple"

Published on June 28, 2010 in Marriage and Recommended Reading. 2 Comments

 What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage:

The sexual relationship is a good barometer for every couple.  The character and quality of the marriage relationship will determine the character and quality of their sexual union.  You don’t leave disappointment and division at the bedside.  You don’t escape misunderstanding and hurt simply because you are in another’s arms.  Because, in this most intimate of human relationships, you are actually physically disrobed and in the arms of another to whom you are offering your physical self, most if not all of the layers of self-protection are gone.  You are in a place of exposure and vulnerability.  This is what makes the sexual relationship so beautiful.  You can be exposed and vulnerable in the arms of your lover and be unafraid, because you know he or she will care for you, and you know that the results will be mutual satisfaction.

See also

A European question for Dr. Wittmer (and you too)

Published on June 27, 2010 in abortion, Church and Doctrine. 0 Comments

June, 2010clip_image002

Dear Church Family,

We went to Dachau this week. As a result, I have a question for Dr. Mike Wittmer who is preaching to the Bricks. Hopefully, he will give an answer however brief from the pulpit.

Dachau was, of course, the infamous Nazi concentration camp where people were imprisoned and subjected to awful atrocities. Most of you are familiar with those accounts. I won’t detail them further in a Sunday morning letter. (In the included picture I am listening to a English recording detailing how a camp intended for 10,000 prisoners housed 30,000 tortured image bearers by the end of the war).

What struck me about the trip to Dachau was that we rode a train through the land of the Reformation to get there. At one point we traveled from Berne to Strasbourg tracing a route that Calvin and Bucer traveled by horse. From there, we crossed the Rhine and ventured into Germany and the land of Luther and Melanchthon.

And, as many villages as there are across Germany, there are churches in the center. Churches all across the land. So, Dr. Wittmer, how could the geographical center of the Reformation give way to the Holocaust?

Keep in mind that in terms of church history, it wasn’t that long from the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries until the Holocaust in the 20th century. If church history thus far is a week long, then the Reformation was on Thursday afternoon and the Holocaust was on Saturday.

Again, how do we go from Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon and Bucer on Thursday to Hitler on Saturday morning?

I’ll let the guy preaching speak to the question. But, as your pastor, I will send this message from the land of the Reformation, “Don’t stop believing.” If we build our church on the sandy land, then we can expect it to collapse during the first hard rain. There’s a lot for us to think about. While, I was proud to see the plaque remembering the United States troops that liberated the camp, I quickly reminded myself of the “Abortion Holocaust.”

You’re in good hands. But, we miss you. We are praying for you. Christ is all.

On for the King,

Pastor Chris Brauns

If

Published on June 26, 2010 in Quotes. 2 Comments

My son, Ben, is 13 today.  Here is a poem my mother read to me that I hope he will learn.  As a pastor, I have thought often of the line, “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, yet make allowance for their doubting too.”

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

No severing tendons!

Published on June 25, 2010 in Church. 0 Comments

Be encouraged to be in a Bible believing church on the Lord’s Day.  If possible, treasure the opportunity to be together with the Body of Christ.

Calvin:

“If any man say he will withdraw himself from obedience to the church, it is just as if he would sever the sinews of the body.”[1]

[1] John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Rev. translation. ed. (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973), 374.

The Love Letters of John Wooden

Published on June 24, 2010 in Marriage. 0 Comments

John Wooden wrote his wife over 300 letters (one per month) for 25 years after she died.

HT: Justin Taylor

Where are you?

Published on June 23, 2010 in Chris Brauns Radio Spots and Psalms. 0 Comments

Where are you at this very moment? Are you on bypass 20? Alpine or Perryville? Are you just getting off onto Riverside? Or, are you on 11th Street? Some of you may be on Kishwaukee headed up to Rockford? Maybe you are still in your kitchen.

Wherever, Psalm 139 tells us that God knows exactly where we are at. The Psalm says:

2 [Lord] You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.  5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.  6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.  7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Wherever you at this moment, God knows and he is aware of your precise location. He knows the make and model of your car, how close your license plate is to expiration, and how many French fries your kids dropped in the back seat of your mini-van. He numbers the hairs on your head.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for us. Almighty God is an all knowing God. We say He is omniscient. Nothing is outside His awareness.

Why not look to Him for help? The God who knows about the guy who just cut you off (or the person you just cut off) is aware of what is going on in your world. He loves you. Pray today, in the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus, and ask for His help. He knows all things.

The Big Picture: “Oil in the gulf, two months later”

Published on June 22, 2010 in Pictures. 0 Comments

More pictures here.

Lessons on sorts of popularity from the life of Calvin

Published on June 22, 2010 in Calvin and Recommended Reading. 1 Comment

Hopefully, by the time you read this post, I will have been to Geneva on my sabbatical.  So, I will have taken some of the same steps as Calvin.

Geneva in mind, Tim Keller helps us learn about popularity from Bruce Gordon’s biography of Calvin:

For much of his life, John Calvin had two close friends — Farel and Viret. Farel was very hot-headed and out-spoken, while Viret was of very mild temperament, an instinctive peace-keeper. Farel often came to Geneva and stayed at Calvin’s home, where, sometimes with Viret, the friends would have long talks about theology and current events over a glass. Calvin delighted in the company of his zealous friend. Nevertheless, as time went on he came to see that Farel’s inflexible nature made him a doughty defender but a limited propagator of the gospel. He often sent his own discourses and letters to Viret, whose job was to moderate his language. Calvin himself had been more hot-headed as a young man, and he worked to curb his own tongue.

After Farel inappropriately denounced a prominent woman in Geneva from the pulpit, which turned her whole family against him, Calvin wrote him a remarkable letter:

"When you have Satan to combat, and you fight under Christ’s banner, he who puts on your armor and draws you into battle will give you the victory. But…we only earnestly desire that insofar as your duty permits you will accommodate yourself more to the people. There are, as you know, two kinds of popularity: the one, when we seek favor from motives of ambition and the desire of pleasing; the other, when, by fairness and moderation, we gain their esteem so as to make them teachable by us. . .”

More here.