The Web Site and Blog of Pastor Chris Brauns
Justin Taylor:
A letter from one mother to another who just found out her baby in the womb has ARPKD, a rare genetic disorder of the kidneys that has no cure. (HT: LJT)
Emma,
I am so sorry that you received this news. Please know there are hundreds around you who have been in this same or a very similar position. We know the pain that facing this decision brings you. Many others before you . . .
Read more here.
Dr. David Powlison – What is the process of healing after an abortion? from CCEF on Vimeo.
HT: Justin Taylor
Cal Thomas:
On January 22, the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, think of it this way: 50 million branches of family trees cut off; 50 million regrets over what might have been; 50 million babies who could have brought joy out of sadness and a future that might have contributed substantially to the human race, snuffed out at the beginning of their lives.
It is precisely because the 7-2 Supreme Court majority vote in 1973 read something into the Constitution that isn’t there, to wit, that a “right to privacy” means the right to kill an unborn child — even when it is capable of living outside the womb — that Congress must restore the original intent of the Framers, which includes the “endowed by their Creator” clause in the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution cannot be separated from the Declaration, its philosophical and moral foundation.
Read the whole thing here.
Scott Klusendorf:
In short, you didn’t come from an embryo, you once were an embryo. At no point in your prenatal development did you undergo a substantial change or change of nature. You began as a human being and will remain so until death. Sure, you lacked maturity at that early stage of life (as does an infant), but you were human nonetheless. ‘Living things do not become entirely different creatures in the process of changing their form,’ writes Greg Koukl. ‘Rather, they develop according to a certain physical pattern precisely because of the kind of being they already are.’
This is a photo of a baby at 10 weeks. Jennifer Rego writes:
I recently came across the above photographs of a ten week old embryo on flickr, taken by an OB/GYN med student in India named Dr. Suparna Sinha, and I was struck by how beautiful they were. The mother had cancer of the womb, and her uterus, including her unborn baby inside, had to be removed. I can only imagine the pain that she must have felt losing this baby, having already been the mother of six children.
I made one of them my profile picture on Facebook, and the other day, one of my classmates from high school asked me why. I thought about it, and explained that I think that photographs of developing babies are one of the most powerful ways for people to realize the humanity of the unborn child.
The rest here.
HT: Z
June, 2010
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
In a Washington Post article:
As statements at Super Bowls go, I prefer the idea of Tebow’s pro-life ad to, say, Jim McMahon dropping his pants, as the former Chicago Bears quarterback once did in response to a question. We’re always harping on athletes to be more responsible and engaged in the issues of their day, and less concerned with just cashing checks. It therefore seems more than a little hypocritical to insist on it only if it means criticizing sneaker companies, and to stifle them when they take a stance that might make us uncomfortable.
I’m pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I’ve heard in the past week, I’ll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the "National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time." For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do.
Tebow’s 30-second ad hasn’t even run yet, but it already has provoked "The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us" to reveal something important about themselves: They aren’t actually "pro-choice" so much as they are pro-abortion. Pam Tebow has a genuine pro-choice story to tell. She got pregnant in 1987, post-Roe v. Wade, and while on a Christian mission in the Philippines, she contracted a tropical ailment. Doctors advised her the pregnancy could be dangerous, but she exercised her freedom of choice and now, 20-some years later, the outcome of that choice is her beauteous Heisman Trophy winner son, a chaste, proselytizing evangelical.
Read the whole article here.
Again, whenever you hear an argument for elective abortion, stop and ask this question: Would this justification for killing the unborn work for killing a toddler? If not, your critic is assuming that the unborn aren’t human, a point for which he needs to argue. Trot out your toddler to expose the hidden (and perhaps unrecognized) assumptions in the argument. Scott Klusendorf, The Case for Life, page 32.
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
