I have an article in front of me from Merriam-Webster.com on “How ‘Wonderful’ Lost Its Sense of Wonder.” It discusses semantic bleaching—the process by which a word’s meaning can fade over time so that what we end up with in its popular usage is a greatly reduced version of what it originally conveyed. Words likeContinue reading “It Always Works That Way”
Author Archives: A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green
Hypocrisy and Heart-Guarding
Hypocrisy is one of those words that’s bandied about with all too little thought as to what the word actually means. It’s an extreme term that’s over-employed because people want to shock or throw a verbal hand grenade as opposed to being accurate and truthful in their speech. The word comes to us from theContinue reading “Hypocrisy and Heart-Guarding”
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
I heard the following story on Moth Radio on Fathers’ Day weekend. It is about a husband and wife who have just experienced the birth of their first child—a girl. The father is sent from the hospital to a grocery store across the street to get a few items. He’s on one of the aislesContinue reading “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”
Guilt, Shame, and Grace
Guilt and shame are two of the most powerful spiritual forces known to humanity. Guilt is what we experience when we do something wrong, while shame is what we experience when we are wrong. In other words, guilt is about what we do, and shame is about who we are. We can think of themContinue reading “Guilt, Shame, and Grace”
Growing a Greater Vision of God
The Tipping Point was Malcolm Gladwell’s debut book in 2000 and the first of five bestsellers. It probed the forces behind societal change and proposed to explain “how little things can make a big difference” (the book’s sub-title). For example, Gladwell popularized the broken-window theory. This theory says that when a window in a building isContinue reading “Growing a Greater Vision of God”
Grace, Faith and Transformation
God is in the transformation business—He’s always changing things. He changes caterpillars into butterflies. He changes the seasons. He changes CO2 into food for trees and oxygen for people. He changes the food we eat into energy and replenishment for our cells. And while it’s true that God does these things through the natural world HeContinue reading “Grace, Faith and Transformation”
Grace and Coming to God
Our situation is this—we’re drowning in an ocean of our sins and misdeeds. None of us are “one sin” sinners, we’re all repeat offenders. If we’re to be saved, it won’t be because we do it ourselves. We’re too far from land, too weak to swim long, and too much in touch with reality to kid ourselves otherwise. IfContinue reading “Grace and Coming to God”
God’s New Creation
Most people can relate to the experience of getting a new car—whether it is one with no miles on the odometer or a gently-used vehicle. It is new to us, a big investment, and usually something that we have been anticipating for a while. When we find the right car, everything comes together: it looksContinue reading “God’s New Creation”
God’s Holiness and Our Hope
Isaiah felt undone in God’s presence (Isaiah 6) and that’s not a terrible thing. If the biblical witness teaches us anything, it is that though God is wholly approachable through Jesus, He is nonetheless holy, and we neglect this truth to our spiritual detriment. God’s holiness is often misunderstood. It is equated with purity andContinue reading “God’s Holiness and Our Hope”
Four of God’s Favorite Words
“Do not be afraid,” the angel told the women who had come to Jesus’ tomb. But they were. They were plenty of reasons to be afraid: * the stone was rolled away and (they thought) it wasn’t supposed to be, * it was early morning in a garden by aContinue reading “Four of God’s Favorite Words”
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 