Tommy Mann

  In Luke 15 Jesus gave three parables that had essentially the same meaning. They are the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (commonly called the prodigal son). In those parables someone lost something of value, and the parable shows the joy of the person finding what was lost.   In the first parable one sheep wandered off, and the shepherd left his 99 other sheep to find the one. In the second parable a lady lost one of the ten coins that made up her dowry. In the third parable a father watched as one of his two sons left home for a far country.    Think about those percentages. The father lost fifty percent of his sons, and he was broken. The housewife lost ten percent of her coins, and she turned the house upside down. The shepherd lost just one percent of his sheep, and he risked his life to find it. He could have said, “Oh well; I’ve got 99 more. What’s one lamb?”    That is not the attitude of the shepherd; neither was it that...

  In Exodus 32 we read the familiar story of Aaron making a golden calf for the people to worship because Moses was taking too long receiving the Ten Commandments. Do you remember what he used to make the golden calf? He asked for the earrings to be donated to the cause, so these Israelites essentially worshipped the very jewelry they were wearing just the day before.       In verses 3-4 we read: “So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.”   I think it is ridiculous that they worshipped a golden calf, but I wonder what the calf thought of the whole thing.    “Take off your jewelry,” Aaron said, “And bring me all you have.” He took all the peoples’ earrings  And made a golden calf.   I wonder what that calf would think —hypothetically,  As it watched the people that day Bowing down on ...

  Have you ever wondered what the big deal with sin is? As Christians we often speak about God’s amazing grace and His willingness to forgive sins. If all we have to do is confess our sins and He forgives us, what’s the big deal?     That is similar to the question Paul posed to the Romans: “Should we go on sinning so that grace may abound?” But he answered it this way: “By no means! How can we who have died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1)   We need to understand that sin is a big deal because the consequences of sin are a big deal. I think Cornelius Plantinga was on to something when he theorized that the essence of sin is the disruption of shalom. You might know that word as the Hebrew word for peace, or as a typical Jewish greeting. Just as we say “Good morning” and “Good evening,” Jews greet each other with “Shalom.”   It means so much more than peace. Plantinga defined it as a “universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight.” Wishing someone shalom is...

  Do you remember how much fun it was to play hide and seek when we were kids? It was especially great when I knew I had the best hiding place. There were times I was completely hidden from my friends, and I could hear them asking, “Where is he?” Those were the words that let me know I was going to win. Now that I am grown I don’t play much hide and seek. Adults don’t typically look for hiding places, although sometimes we might wish we could hide away. But there is a hiding place we all need. Psalm 119:114 says, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.”   This psalm is similar to one of David, which contains the line, “For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent (27:5).”   Why would this writer need a hiding place? He was neither a child nor playing with his children. He needed a hiding place because of the people who bookend this verse. Psalm 119:113 mentions the doubleminded, and v.115 spe...

There is a great example of the provisions of God in Exodus 15. Shortly after the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, they began to complain because their canteens were empty and the people were parched. Their mouths were as dry as the desert they were traversing. And then they saw it—a river of water that could quench their thirst.   But there was a problem. They couldn’t stomach the water because it had a bitter taste. Verse 23 says, “When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.”   Marah is the Hebrew word for bitter. This place was probably not named Marah at the time, but was so dubbed by the disappointed Hebrews. They started to turn on Moses, blaming him for all their problems. But the Lord directed Moses to a certain log and told him to cast it into the water. Once he did, Marah lost its bitterness, and the people were able to drink until they were satisfied.    That was a temporar...

I recently heard a story about a lost high school ring. A man was using a metal detector in Barbados when he stumbled upon a piece of jewelry that he could tell had been there for a while. The ring was old, and the odds of ever tracking down its owner were miniscule, so most people would have headed to the nearest pawn shop to make a few bucks. But not this man.   Because the ring had the name of the school and the graduation year, he looked up the school and reached out to them. They were able to comb through their records and eventually conclude who it once belonged to.     It turns out the ring had been missing for fifty years. And the owner? They found him and mailed the ring, which arrived the day before his 83 rd  birthday. When I heard that story on the news it occurred to me that if he lost the ring fifty years earlier, and he was 83, then he was about 33 when he lost it.    You know who wears a high school ring in their 30’s? People who really...