The Web Site and Blog of Pastor Chris Brauns
Increasingly, I find myself repeating this phrase to people:
If you want to drive yourself crazy thinking about (insert rebellious children, doctrine of the Trinity, doctrine of election, problem of evil, the world economy, problems in your church, your spouse’ faults, etc) you will be able to pull it off.
Be still and know that God is God. Rest in Him. Don’t try and sort everything out in your mind. It won’t all fit between your ears.
Letters of note is becoming one of my favorite blogs.
April 29th, 1865: Queen Victoria, still grieving and “utterly broken-hearted” following the death of Prince Albert four years previous, writes an empathetic letter of condolence to Mary Todd Lincoln following the recent assassination of her husband, Abraham Lincoln.
Transcript follows. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Read more here.
Trevin Wax:
We hear a lot about Paul, Peter, James, and John. But there are plenty of people mentioned in the New Testament that can slip by us unnoticed.
In Colossians 4, the Apostle Paul lists ten less-familiar names from the early church. Paul’s “shout-out” to these saints reminds me of the vast majority of Christians who quietly play important roles in the kingdom of God. Even though these mentions are brief, they contain life-long lessons for us today.
Tychicus – Encourage one another by speaking God’s Word.
Tychicus, our dearly loved brother, faithful servant, and fellow slave in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts.
Tychicus had a job to do. He was to deliver news about Paul, as well as Paul’s letter to the people in Colosse. The result would be the encouragement of the Christians’ hearts. I want to be like Tychicus. I want to be a herald of the Word, so much so that it overflows from my heart at the right time and place.
Onesimus – The gospel turns uselessness into usefulness.
[Tychicus] is with Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.
Onesimus was a runaway slave. His name meant “useful,” but he had proven “useless” to his master, Philemon. Yet Paul commended him as a faithful and dearly loved brother, adding “he is one of you.” The cross unites what the world would keep separate. Early in life, Onesimus hadn’t lived up to his name. The gospel changed all that, and it changes us too. There is no way we can live up to the name “Christian” apart from the soul-sanctifying work of the gospel, the good news that takes useless sinners and turns us into useful co-laborers in God’s kingdom.
Aristarchus – Suffer with one another.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you…
Aristarchus was one of Paul’s companions in ministry, and here he is shown as a companion in suffering. We need people like Aristarchus, who stay focused on the kingdom regardless of the consequences, who rejoice with us in times of joy and mourn with us in times of trial.
Mark – Keep getting up after you fall. . .
The rest here.
Thom Rainer:
I like to laugh. In fact, I sometimes think some of us Christians take life with such a somber attitude that we forget how to smile.
Most everyone has seen church bulletin bloopers. They are typically corny, but my sons tell me that corniness is one of my spiritual gifts. I have saved dozens of them over the years. They simply make me laugh. I thought it might be good to take a brief break from the seriousness of life and share with you my top ten favorite bloopers. Enjoy!
10. At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be “What is Hell?” Come early and listen to our choir practice.
9. The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.
8. The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, “Break Forth Into Joy.”
7. Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
6. Announcement in the church bulletin for a National Prayer and Fasting Conference: “The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer Conference includes meals.”
5. Charlene Mason sang “I Will Not Pass This Way Again,” giving obvious pleasure to the congregation. . .
The rest here.
Darryl Dash blogs about what we’re learning this week about the book of Hebrews. I am participating in the same retreat where we have the privilege of learning from George H. Guthrie and Haddon Robinson.
Darryl writes:
I’ve been studying Hebrews this week. It’s interesting to observe how the author of Hebrews uses both encouragement and warning to address a situation pastorally. It’s my observation that most of us default to one or the other. It takes intentionality to use both together.
Jonathan Edwards touches on this . . .
The rest here.
You may find Tim Keller’s thoughts encouraging.
Tim Keller – Interview Session #3 from Vintage21 Church on Vimeo.
On Ed Stetzer’s blog, Philip Nation ponders what it is about “flash mobs” that resonates with so many. Flash mobs are planned events in a public place where a group begins to do something in a way that appears spontaneous. Below is a flash mob where the participants froze in Grand Central Station.
Nation wonders if “flash mobs” don’t point to a need to connect.
But it is a fleeting sense. For an hour or maybe the whole day, the flash mob participant has been a part of something larger. They were–if for only a few minutes–a member of a community.
Here for the whole thing.
We need to savor ordinary family life at home and at church. It will quickly be over.
If you haven’t noticed the pastor’s family is growing up. Our oldest, Allison, is wrapping up her junior year and Mary Beth, our youngest is polishing off second grade. Mary Beth wasn’t even speaking in sentences when we signed on as “bricks in the valley.”
Jamie and I sometimes talk about what we’ll miss the most when our children are grown. We’ve been able to travel as a family, the highlight of which was our sabbatical in Switzerland. It was wonderful, but it isn’t what we’ll miss the most when the youngest is grown up.
I think what we’ll miss the most is the ordinary sound of family around the house. We will miss having dinner together. I’ll miss telling the children to quit eating like Assyrians or to pass the food before feeding their own faces. I already miss wondering why Christopher was dressed up like a cowboy to play a board game with Benjamin, as in the picture to the right. (I will point out that he wasn’t actually “packing heat” since his holster is empty, though I’m sure his sidearm wasn’t far away).
I will really miss eavesdropping on a little girl while she lectures her dolls and when Allison would fall asleep playing with her dolls and Winnie the Pooh.
I think it’s the same deal at church. What I’ll miss the most isn’t the major projects that we’ve done together, but rather the ordinary beauty of family life as a church. I will miss standing around the corner while you are excited to see one another at church. 
I will really miss doing benedictions. So many times when I give the benediction, I sweep my eyes across the congregation – - picture what is going on in your worlds – - and pray.
Jamie and I will miss standing at the back door shaking hands and hugging people.
It may sound strange to say, but I will miss going to a funeral and seeing a buffet of excellent food prepared for a hurting family. (Fortunately, most of you have better manners than our kids at home so I don’t have to rebuke you for eating like Caananites).
In church, we tend to sit in the same places and I will miss being able to go into the sanctuary, even when it’s empty, close my eyes, and picture what it would be like if you were all actually there.
I will miss studying the biblical text while I consider what is going on in your world. I will miss getting down on my knees by the south window in my study while I pray for you all.
And I will miss a lot more. But, thankfully, our children aren’t yet grown, and my time as a brick is not yet over, so we have the opportunity to more consciously savor the joy of ordinary life for another couple days, or for a week or so, or as many years as God gives us.
My family (with an emphasis on my wife, Jamie) has enjoyed watching the Decorah eagle cam. We eagerly await the hatch which could be any moment.
I was reminded this morning of the picture Psalm 91 uses to assure us of God’s comfort:
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge (Psalm 91:4, NIV).
If you watch the below video, you will see this picture wonderfully illustrated at about the 2:20 mark when the eagles make a parenting switch. Consider the picture of God caring for us as the second eagle settles into the nest.
James Hamilton rightly points out that Paul modeled how the Gospel can be applied to a wide variety of situations.
As I often stress, Titus 2:1 does not say that we we should teach sound doctrine. Rather, we are to preach and teach what accords with or is consistent with sound doctrine. Of course, sound doctrine is basic to this task, but we must go a step further and show how sound doctrine works out in life.
James Hamilton, Jr. stresses that Paul practiced what he preached; he preached to his listeners what was consistent with the truth. (The below words are Hamilton’s, though I have broken the paragraph into bullet points).
One of the most remarkable features of the thirteen letters of Paul in the New Testament is the stability of Paul’s theological positions, which are so flexibly applied to a wide variety of circumstances.
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
