The Web Site and Blog of Pastor Chris Brauns
Cornelius Plantinga:
It must be an odd feeling to be thankful to nobody in particular. Christians in public institutions often see this odd thing happening on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the institution seems to be thankful ‘in general.’ It’s very strange. It’s a little like being married in general (Cornelius Plantina, Jr in Assurances of the Heart).”
Dr. Mohler explains a change that is being made today in the policy manual for the institution he leads:
No one thought it would end this way. Joe Paterno, the legendary head football coach at Penn State University heard of his firing by the school’s board of trustees by phone last night. Just two weeks after achieving the most wins of any NCAA Division One football coach in history, Paterno was fired. His firing — a necessary action by the Penn State board of trustees — holds lessons for us all.
Almost a decade ago, a graduate assistant told Coach Paterno that an assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, had been observed forcing a young boy into a sexual act in the school’s football locker room showers. Sandusky was himself a big name in Penn State football, and he was considered a likely successor to Paterno if the head coach had retired. Sandusky also ran an non-profit organization for boys, and he brought the boys onto the Penn State campus. He continued to do so even after his own retirement from Penn State’s coaching staff.
Read the rest here.
Rainer’s analysis of why churches fall deserves careful consideration from all long established churches:
The names of the churches stare back at me.
There are 876 churches in all. Most of them have their names written in my books. They are Effective Evangelistic Churches, High Expectation Churches, Standout Churches, and Breakout Churches. Three books were written on these churches. My teams did hundreds of hours of research.
Though quantification of church health is difficult, we attempted to look at health from several perspectives. Evangelistic health. Discipleship health. Doctrinal health. Fellowship health. Worship health.
We know that our measurements are fallible, but we still think we identified some of the greatest churches in America.
But now some of the names stare back at me. Not all of the names. Just some of the names.
From Great to Mediocrity
The names I am seeing right now are churches that are no longer great. They have fallen from the lists. They no longer meet the criteria.
We found some of the fallen churches from statistical follow-up. We found others in consultations, and still others from familiarity with the churches. Some people told us that other great churches had fallen on tough times. And some people even questioned if our studies had validity since those churches had fallen from greatness.
Again, we make no claim of infallibility in our research. But we do believe that our research is sound. The studies that we did, however, were mostly “rear-view mirror” studies. We looked at churches from the past several years to the present. But past accomplishments are no guarantee for future health. Churches can reverse their positive trends.
It’s those churches whose names are staring at me.
Hubris, Denial, and Nostalgia
Of course, the single word question that disturbs me is “Why?” . . .
Read the rest here.
Where will you spend eternity? If you’re a Christian, then it will be on earth (as it is in heaven). But what earth?
Dr. Mike Wittmer has an important post on the continuity between this earth and the New Earth where Christians spend eternity. In this post he interacts with a recent book, but even if you haven’t read the book, you will benefit from the post.
I haven’t yet dug into What is the Mission of the Church?, the new book by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert. It looks promising, and I plan to read it carefully soon. I did read their section on the continuity and discontinuity of the new earth (p. 213-19), and thought I could make a few contributions to their discussion.
1. They rightly note that Scripture teaches both discontinuity (Matt. 24:35–“heaven and earth will pass away”) and continuity (Rom. 8:18-25–“creation itself will be liberated”) between this world and the next. Indeed, both elements are included in the phrase, “new earth.” The term “new” implies that something is different while the term “earth” means that much remains the same. Kevin and Greg make an admirable and helpful attempt to explain both groups of passages.
2. They suggest that one way to understand the biblical teaching of discontinuity and continuity is that perhaps this earth will experience a death and resurrection (p. 216). If this earth is burned up and dies, then there is discontinuity between this world and the next. And if this earth is raised again, like a phoenix from the ashes, then there will also be continuity (p. 217). I think this is a helpful way to think about how the end might go, though I also think that their suggestion implies more continuity than they realize. Let me explain.
3. There must be much continuity between the resurrected earth and the present earth, because if the new earth is too different from the present earth, then it hasn’t been resurrected but replaced. The same is true of you. If the “resurrection you” is too different from the “present you,” then you will not have been redeemed but replaced (note the future pluperfect tense, a difficult tense to pull off. This is one of those times I wish I had a blog editor). So their hypothesis of cosmic death and resurrection does not leave the continuity/continuity question as unresolved as they think (p. 219). It actually is a strong argument for continuity. The resurrected you and the resurrected earth must be really you and the earth, or there is no resurrection.
Read the rest here.
Ed Stetzer recently posted about how churches will schedule their services on Christmas morning. Some of you will recall that the last time around a number of churches cancelled their Sunday service on Christmas morning . . . which I don’t get . . .
We’re having on service at 9:00 AM.
And we’re having two on Christmas Eve: 4 and 10:30.
I plan to preach from John 6: Jesus is the bread of life.
Dan Phillips has written an excellent post on why fear and comfort are a healthy combination.
Wouldn’t you think that “fear” and “comfort” are antonyms, like “love” and “hate,” or “darkness” and “light”?
In a Biblical context, we might most quickly associate the word “fear” with “of the LORD,” or “of Yahweh.” That topic — “the fear of Yahweh” — is a major Biblical theme. Clearly, in Proverbs, it is a literally foundational thought (cf. 1:7; 9:10; 31:30). In the Proverbs book, a chapter of 40+ pages traces the concept its older Old Testament appearances, just so we can begin to understand of Solomon’s use throughout the book of Proverbs. One discovery is that the concept itself frames and must color our understanding of each individual verse within the entire book.
When we develop the concept Biblically, we feel the burden to show that the fear of Yahweh is not (as some might think) an Old Testament concept as opposed to a New Testament concept. Indeed, it is quite literally a pan-Biblical concept.
This stood out to me in a recent daily Bible reading. Acts 9:31 leapt out at me in this context:
Ἡ μὲν οὖν ἐκκλησία καθ᾽ ὅλης τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ Γαλιλαίας καὶ Σαμαρείας εἶχεν εἰρήνην οἰκοδομουμένη καὶ πορευομένη τῷ φόβῳ τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τῇ παρακλήσει τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐπληθύνετο.
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
Read the rest here.
Dr. Mike Witter recently interacted with whether or not it is appropriate to forgive ourselves. Be encouraged to read Mike’s excellent post.
Here is what I wrote in Unpacking Forgiveness regarding the question, “How can I forgive myself?”
If you are asking, “How can I forgive myself?” it is probably in reference to mistakes you have made in life. You know that your choices have caused yourself and others great pain. You want to know how you can move beyond your regret.
While is a good thing to want to move beyond your mistakes and the consequences they have reaped, there are fundamental problems with even raising this question. As I have stressed throughout this book, forgiveness is something that must occur between two parties. In light of that truth, it makes no more sense to talk about forgiving yourself than it does to talk about shaking your own hand.
More important, our great need in life is not forgiveness from ourselves. Rather, we need God’s forgiveness. When it comes to regrets and lingering guilt, we need to ask God to forgive our sins, knowing that Christ already paid the penalty for sin on the cross. Paul talked about this very point in 2 Corinthians 7:10, when he said that godly grief brings about true repentance which leads to salvation. Nancy Leigh Demoss said, “Forgiveness isn’t something you can give yourself. It is something [God] has purchased for you.”
You might respond, “Okay, maybe you’re right. Maybe ‘forgiveness’ is not the word that I want to use. But how do I get past this? How do I move beyond my feelings of regret?” The short answer to that question is that you must be increasingly centered on the cross. You must live in the glory of the Gospel. The more you focus on Christ and the truth of his Gospel, the more you will find joy in your salvation and victory over guilt and bitterness.
My schedule is busy enough these days that I’ve decided to take a blogging break. Thanks to all of you who have been an encouragement one way or another. I’ll be back in a few weeks.
Read endorsements for Unpacking Forgiveness here.
Click here to order Unpacking Forgiveness.
“. . . Chris Brauns has done a magnificent job in helping us understand the true nature of biblical forgiveness. Every Christian will profit from reading and applying this book.” Jerry Bridges.
“ . . . Unpacking Forgiveness is an engaging, convicting but emphatically encouraging treatment of this hugely important (and sometimes mindbogglingly challenging) part of life. Dr. Brauns writes from the standpoint of a faithful, wise, experienced and caring pastor . . .” Ligon Duncan, First Pres, Jackson, MS
A Brick in the Valley
