Opening the Bible – Page 5 – A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green

Scared of the stink

Martha was scared of the stink. When Jesus told them to “Take away the stone” from Lazarus’ tomb, Martha shot back with, “But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days” (John 11:39). We do this godly lady an injustice if we understand these words as reflectingContinue reading “Scared of the stink”

God Is With Us!

Matthew’s gospel was written to Jewish disciples in the years prior to Jerusalem’s destruction (AD 70). Tension between the synagogue and the church was continuing to escalate, and life was difficult for the follower of Jesus. By beginning his gospel with a genealogy connecting Jesus to Abraham and David (1:1), Matthew was, in a sense,Continue reading “God Is With Us!”

From Now On

It’s a familiar story in Luke 5. Peter and his companions have been fishing a-l-l night and come up empty. They’re tired. They had expectations that weren’t met, so they’re disappointed and discouraged as well. They just want to wash their nets and head home (v. 2). You can feel their fatigue. Jesus is also thereContinue reading “From Now On”

Healthy Holiness

Peter was writing to Jewish disciples living away from their homeland. They were Jews living among Gentiles so there was certainly some pushback from that, but more to the point, they were followers of Jesus of Nazareth, so they were at odds with most people within their already marginalized community—their neighbors, friends and family. It wasContinue reading “Healthy Holiness”

More, More, More

Greed is the state of wanting more than you need. It’s never a good look. It’s the attitude that says, “More, more, more!” when there is no legitimate purpose or reason for it. People can be greedy because of status. They buy into the lie that you are what you own. They are under theContinue reading “More, More, More”

Circling the Son

Well, it finally happened. It got cold enough last night (below 30) to kill the zinnias. Janice plants them, takes care of them, and picks them to brighten up our home and to give to others. I take pictures of their visitors (bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds). But now they’re gone. They went from vibrant andContinue reading “Circling the Son”

Remembering our Song

Deuteronomy 11 begins and ends with a robust call to love the Lord and obey His commands (v. 1, 32)—with v. 13 functioning as the fullest expression of this. To those who have read the first ten chapters this comes as no surprise. Loving God and keeping His commands forms the “chorus” for the songContinue reading “Remembering our Song”

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””