Intimacy with the Lord is something all believers desire and yet there seems to be a lack of clarity as to how this is achieved. Some (borrowing from our instant gratification culture), are under the impression that it is an easy intimacy—something obtained as simply as curling up with a nice “spriritual” book and aContinue reading “Intimacy with God”
Author Archives: A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green
Obedience And Love
They had known each other since they were ten years old. They grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, played ball together, spent the night at each other’s house, and did all of the other things that good friends do. Somewhere in their early to mid-teens, they began to drift apart.Continue reading “Obedience And Love”
Words for the Wilderness
The backdrop for understanding the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4/Luke 4 is Israel’s time in the wilderness. The parallels aren’t difficult to see. I’ve adapted the following from Liefeld and Pao (Luke, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary). To that last point, when Israel was in the wilderness, they were fresh off their miraculous rescue byContinue reading “Words for the Wilderness”
“Our Father”
There’s nothing in the biblical witness like the prayer that Jesus gave His disciples. It is located in the heart of the SOTM (Matthew 6:9-13), yet in terms of the overall organizational flow of Jesus’ message, the prayer is somewhat of a deviation. The central idea of 6:1-18 is the importance of not doing thingsContinue reading ““Our Father””
The Failure to Lead
The final thing John Wilkes Booth did before going to Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, was to stop at a bar next to the theater. The establishment was known as Star Saloon. Booth had been drinking all day—doubtlessly trying to work up the nerve to do what had never been done before—assassinate the presidentContinue reading “The Failure to Lead”
Keeping Our Faith Fresh
What if Jesus was the one who brought the bread and juice to you when you were taking communion? Can you envision this? If you can, I think you might find it helpful in personalizing the cross. We hear preachers and teachers tell us that if there had been no one else who had sinned other thanContinue reading “Keeping Our Faith Fresh”
Living in the Land of Promise
“Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, The Lord is one,” (Deuteronomy 6:4). It’s hard to overstate the importance of this text for Israel or for the follower of Jesus. For Israel, these words were spoken to them as they were on the brink of f-i-n-a-l-l-y entering the land of Canaan. The previous generation ofContinue reading “Living in the Land of Promise”
God At Work
Whatever else it might be, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is filled with fundamentally rich and glorious truths about the church that should transform the way we think about the community God has created through Jesus. Written to a first-century congregation comprised of people from starkly different backgrounds (Jews and Gentiles), the topic of community would be an area where theyContinue reading “God At Work”
Known but to God
Maude Brown writes that in the spring of 1862, when Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnson led his forces out of Corinth, Mississippi, and into Tennessee to launch a sneak attack on Grant’s forces at Shiloh, he had 500 coffins made. The good general was unduly optimistic in regard to the number of casualties his ArmyContinue reading “Known but to God”
Grace and Discipleship
Luke tells us that “crowds were traveling with Jesus” (14:26), and that’s precisely the problem. Everyone has gotten on the Jesus bandwagon but few, if any, have any understanding of what it means to be a follower of His. Jesus remedies this with a hard hitting discussion on discipleship. Three times He uses the phraseContinue reading “Grace and Discipleship”
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 