The Web Site and Blog of Pastor Chris Brauns
One of the authors who has most influenced my life is Jerry Bridges. I am so humbled that he was willing to endorse Unpacking Forgiveness.
If you have a couple of minutes, you will benefit from listening to Bridges give brief answers to important questions.
More here.
These days, few people challenge me more than C.J. Mahaney. This post reminded me that it is vital that I communicate passion about the Gospel.
Read this and pray that your pastor would be most passionate about the Gospel, especially if you are a brick in the Valley.
I have learned a very important lesson over the years: those I have the privilege to teach are not usually most affected by the general content of my teaching; they are often most affected by what I am most passionate about.
I am still learning this, and it’s all too easy to forget.
When I teach, my passion must be theologically informed, and proportional to the content or point I am making in the sermon. This insight is not original with me (no insights are original with me!), and I have found this point better articulated by Dr. Don Carson in a lecture he delivered last year at the CBMW Different by Design Conference (Feb. 2, 2009, Minneapolis, MN). While speaking of those who are passionate for social justice, he delivered this caution:
There are some wonderful instances of ordinary Christians, not least the young, who are concerned to preach the whole gospel unabashedly and do good first to the household of God and then, as much as is possible, outside as well [Galatians 6:10]. That has got biblical mandate behind it.…
My warning would be to those who are coming along and talking a lot about, “I want to be faithful to the gospel, but I also want to do social justice of good works.” My warning would be: it is not just what you do, it is what you are excited about.
And the implications are broader than social justice. All manner of topics can capture our excitement, like church methodology, parenting style, or any other point of application. Carson continues,
If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.
If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.
Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow.
Seminary professors and preachers will transfer to others what they are most passionate about. And those we serve should see a difference between our passion for the gospel and our passion for other issues. It’s worth asking ourselves regularly: Is it clear to others that nothing excites me more than the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified?
This from Justin Taylor was encouraging for me to read:
I am not a morning person. I don’t like early mornings, and early mornings don’t like me.
But here are a few things that have encouraged my heart lately, and perhaps will do the same to you. Remember that a good part of the Christian life, as Lloyd-Jones said, is learning how to preach to yourself more than listen to yourself.
1. This morning I am one day closer to seeing the Lord face-to-face, and closer to the day when all that is wrong and broken and rebellious will be made right and submissive. (“For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed”—Rom. 13:11).
2. Every day I need God’s mercy, and when I awoke today there was a fresh supply of such necessary grace awaiting me. (“[God's] mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning”—Lam. 3:22-23).
3. God has already shown and modeled kindness this morning to his people and to his enemies by causing the sun to rise and shine. (“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good”—Matt. 5:45).
4. My to-do list can feel overwhelming, but Jesus boiled down the 613 stipulations of the Sinai Covenant to two: “
Mike Wittmer explains why the Gospel is counter-intuitive:
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it (2:8-9).
Wildlife officials in my town vainly tried to save a duck which had an arrow sticking through its breast. The wounded duck ate the bread which the rescuers threw her way, but she flew away whenever their nets came close. It’s hard to blame the duck. She didn’t understand that the same self-reliance which normally kept her alive was now preventing her from receiving the help she needed.
We are that duck. Crippled by the self-inflicted wound of our sin, we stubbornly think that we can survive by trying harder. But every flap of our wings sucks the arrow in, and if we don’t get help soon we will bleed out. . .
Read the whole thing here.
Tuesday night we drove south and east across the windy Illinois cornfields to watch our high school win in overtime to go “down state.”
I like winning, and I am so excited about our kids enjoying the honor of playing at state.
But, what excited me most was that they kept pressing. There was no quit in them. There were gale force winds causing other area teams to postpone tournament games. Uriel Perez, who scored both Stillman goals in a 2-1 victory, played with 17 stitches in his head from an injury received in the previous game. They trailed much of the game. There were heart wrenching moments when we missed goals by inches. But they kept pressing.
Shane Weber (pictured above) said to a reporter after the game:
“Me and Uriel were pounding them at them the whole game. I kept telling him ‘We’re going to get one. We’re going to get one,’”, Weber said. “When he finished it off, I just got the chills. We never gave up, and now we’re going to state.”
Pressing and pounding is what life requires. As one of the greatest authors in history, wrote in the Holy Bible,
Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to take hold of the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14).
We must always look to the Right goal and the Good News.
Here we have the essence of the Gospel or Good News.
James Montgomery Boice explains that God’s mercy is not seen in saying, “sin is okay,” but rather in his taking the punishment on himself.
In the final analysis, the greatest mercy of God is seen, not in God’s mitigation of our punishment, but in His taking the full curse of the punishment of our sin on Himself at Calvary, which is why Adam and Eve were not cursed. Did sin bring pain in childbirth? No pain is equal to that of Jesus who travailed in pain in order that He might bring forth many children into glory (Heb 2:10). Did sin bring conflict? Jesus endured even greater conflict of sinners against Himself for our salvation (Heb 12:3). Did thorns come in with sin? Jesus was crowned with thorns (John 19:2). Did sin bring sweat? He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Do we know sorrow? He was a ‘man of sorrows, and familar with suffering’, (Isa. 53:3). Did sin bring death? Jesus tasted ‘death for everyone’ (Heb 2:9). In short, Jesus took our curse as Paul says in writing to the Galatians: ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us’ (Gal 3:13). He became a curse so that we might be set free to live to God through Him (James Montgomery Boice, 182, commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1, Zondervan, 1982).
In this post I give a summary of the Gospel. Or, here I link to some thoughts from Trevin Wax.
Steven Altrogge recently provided a very concise way to determine if you understand the Gospel. It will take you about 5 minutes to consider. Read it here.
Wittmer points out that this might not play very well on the Larry King show (click here).
One of my sabbatical highlights was watching the below video on my computer while in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
In Holy Subversion, I briefly recount the conversion story of my father-in-law, Florin Trifan. Bro. Trifan was a Communist party member in Ceausescu’s Romania back in the 1970’s. Sent to spy on a Baptist revival meeting, he heard the gospel and trusted Christ. He then abandoned Communist ideology and eventually became a pastor.
In 2007, we were fortunate to have Corina’s parents visit us here in the U.S. The videos below (part 1 & part 2) are of Bro. Trifan giving his testimony at our church (I’m the translator). I encourage you to listen to his story.
Bro. Trifan is currently battling throat cancer. He has been through an operation, three rounds of chemotherapy, and he will start radiations in the next few weeks. Please pray for him and for our family during this difficult trial.
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
