Sandra Glahn’s publisher has just added Latte with Luke to Mocha on the Mount, Java with the Judges, Espresso with Esther…. Her seven-week study in Luke’s Gospel makes number twelve in the Coffee Cup Bible Study series. With this release the series re-launches with a great new cover and, even more fun, my endorsement on the cover! (I have been a fan of this series since before the first one launched in 2006.) Recently, she answered some questions for my readers.
What made you start the series in the first place?
As a young mom carrying a diaper bag and trying to squeeze Bible study time into doctors’ office waiting rooms or walking on the treadmill, I had a need for transportable resources. I was taking my Bible, a commentary or two, and a workbook everywhere I went. So, I needed a fit-in-my-purse option that allowed me to have it all. Also, as someone who loves art, beauty, and travel, I wanted a resource that drew on both sides of my brain while challenging me with cultural and linguistic insights to aid my contemplations. And maybe such a study would throw in a bit of poetry. Or reference a piece of art. Plus, to me, history is the People magazine of yesteryear. So I wanted to know info about historical backgrounds. You know where I’m going with this, right? When I didn’t find the kind of Bible study that helped me better interact with the text in these ways, I created my own. I hope readers find that this series will satisfy their hunger for biblical truth, background stories, art, community, and mystery as interacting with the text renews the mind and feeds the spirit.
How does Latte with Luke differ from the other works in the series?
Matthew, Mark, and John were Jewish; Luke was a gentile. And as a gentile, Luke saw Jesus from a unique perspective. In his Gospel, Luke emphasizes people like himself who had been religious and social outsiders before trusting in Jesus. So he gives us a woman bent over for eighteen years, a corrupt chief tax collector who shimmies up a tree, and a centurion—to name a few. (Luke includes more stories about Jesus’s interactions with women that any other Gospel writer.) And his stories paint a picture of the Messiah who came not to take over the world from occupiers (as some, like Judas, wanted him to do—and which he will do in the future) but to seek and save the lost.
Latte with Luke is the first of my studies to weigh in at more than 300 pages. Luke 1 is the longest chapter in the New Testament! So, a seven-week study of Luke’s Gospel takes more paper to produce and time to work through than my four-week study of Colossians, a book of the Bible that’s only four chapters long.
“Gospel” as a genre differs from a letter (like Colossians, Philemon; Ephesians) or poetry (like Song of Songs). Gospel includes vignettes tied together to make a point. For example, we get the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (that is, the Prodigal Son) all in one chapter, and all of which illustrate one point Jesus is making by telling them: The Father seeks the lost, and much rejoicing happens when the lost are found.
Luke also emphasizes Jesus’s humanity. His is the only Gospel to give us the journey to Bethlehem and the message to shepherds out in a field: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy!” Luke also gives us the genealogy of Jesus going back to Adam. And Luke likes to use the title “Son of Man.” Jesus’s humanity—his incarnation—gets emphasized in Luke’s version of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.
Oh, and as a little bonus: this study has some poetry from our friends Christine Prater and Misty Hedrick.
Got an excerpt we can read?
Sure! Latte with Luke includes devotionals on Saturdays and Sundays and Bible study the other five days of the week. So here is a sampling of four of the devotionals:
The Bent-Over Woman Jesus Healed
Mary Magdalene: Mary from Magdala or Mary Tower?
Where can we order?
If your readers want to order bulk at a discount for a group Bible study, they can contact me through my website at aspire2.com.
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