Bruce Green
Columnist
Bruce is a writer for The Observer
Bruce Green's Latest
BY BRUCE GREEN PUBLISHER'S NOTE - Bruce, we will miss you! Thank YOU for the good lessons you've shared throughout the years. OPINION — It’s hard to believe that 15 years have gone by since I began writing this col-umn. Janice and I had just moved...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — I’m rewatching “Band of Brothers,” the WW2 series based on the book by Stephen Ambrose and created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks not long after they worked together on “Saving Private Ryan.” The series focuses on Easy...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Most of us are familiar with this verse from Psalm 23. It’s part of the description of what God does for us as our Shepherd. It speaks of how He brings...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — It’s the person looking for glasses that are perched atop their head or someone searching for keys that are still in the door. Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!“Who has known the mind of the Lord?Or who has been his counselor?”“Who has ever given to...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — Chapters 9-11 are a speed bump in the book of Romans. They make us slow down and thoughtfully consider the text. These chapters are also very important to the overall theme of the letter as they develop the righteousness of...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — The resurrection of Jesus is one of the core beliefs of the Christian faith. As such, it has profound implications for us. Here are three. Our body is an essential part of our identity. There’s a little saying that goes...
Last week we looked at Romans 8 in terms of what Paul has to say about the follower of Jesus and the Spirit. We saw how as God’s new creation we find life in the Spirit (v. 9-11) and therefore we have an obligation to live according to the Spirit...
Romans 8 is one of the highest mountains in range of Scripture, packed full of power, encouragement and instruction for the follower of Jesus. I’d like to spend this week and next week focusing on what we’re told about there about the disciple and...
Paul’s statement, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1), is a crescendo he has been building toward from the beginning of his letter (1:16). As such, it is embedded with a richness that is easy to overlook....
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — Romans 7 is as challenging to grasp as Romans 6 is easy to understand. It would have been fine with most of us if Paul had gone straight from chapter 6 to chapter 8. But of course, had he done so, the first four verses of...
OIPINION — In Romans 6, Paul is dealing with a couple of objections he must have encountered more than a time or two in sharing the good news of Jesus. The first one is in v. 1, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — Seriously Paul?The fifth chapter of Romans begins with a celebration of the peace we have with God through Jesus and “the grace in which we now stand” (v. 1-2). And just when you think it can’t get any better, Paul goes on...
BY BRUCE GREEN Anyone who’s ever been to VBS knows the song, Father Abraham. But what is the song talking about? What is its meaning? That’s the subject matter of Romans 4. God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3), represented the beginning of the...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — How does God make the world right while maintaining His righteousness? How does He treat a person as if they’ve never sinned when in fact, they have sinned (over and over)? How can He treat the violator of His law the same...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — Romans has a lot to say about the wrath of God. In fact, the word is found there more than in any New Testament book other than Revelation. No one is surprised that wrath is discussed in Revelation — but Romans? Isn’t...
BY BRUCE GREEN OPINION — In Romans 1:16-17, Paul speaks of how he is not ashamed of the gospel—the good news about what God has done for us through Jesus. Shame is a comparative feeling—it’s what we feel when we don’t measure up to something. We...
By Bruce Green OPINION — Considering the circumstances they were facing, Jesus’ words to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2-3 are surprisingly brief. They obviously dealt with the most vital issues facing those communities.Sometimes though,...
A little love OPINION — For nearly a century, Teas Nursery occupied five acres of property in the Bellaire section of Houston. The family business began in Indiana in 1843, moved to Texas in 1910 and closed in 2009 with the death of John Teas.Teas...
Blessing or Burden OPINION — When we think about obedience, it’s helpful to recognized that there’s the common definition of it and the biblical definition—and the two are not the same. Dictionary Online tells us obedience is “the act or quality of...