Posts by Joe Holland

 

When we confess our specific sins to our forgiving Lord we’re depriving our future unbelief of ammunition. We are keeping a short account of sin with the Lord and a long account of His grace. Every time we confess a specific sin and claim God’s promises of forgiveness we are declaring loudly that Jesus is not just a general savior for general sinners but our savior for our particular sins.

 

When we engage in biblical exegesis we must pay careful attention to how words are used in their specific contexts and how they are used by different authors.

 

Increasingly, you will find that your unbelieving friends will not have a background rooted in a Judeo-Christian outlook. In fact, many of them are probably relatively oblivious to the claims and narrative of both the Old and New Testament. No, he doesn’t have to go to Bible College before you start sharing the Gospel with him. Instead, drive the conversation toward God as Creator of all things. What might a Creator require of his creation? What would be the obligations of a creature to his Creator? What do the common human experiences of provision, beauty and laughter say about God’s gratuitous goodness? How could a man be made right with a God who is so good and so just?

 

We find an unexpected tension in the middle of Luke’s record of the Acts of the Apostles. The early disciples were trying to figure out how their Old Testament theology finds fulfillment in Jesus while practically attempting to disciple thousands of new converts. These were exciting times, full of complexity and conversions.