Tommy Mann

Q. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? 
 A. The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him If the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, how do we accomplish this? How do we know how to glorify God, and how can we learn to enjoy Him? It seems these days the key to being a best-selling author is to have had some type of awesome encounter with God. The latest fad in religious bookstores is books written by people who claimed to have been to heaven, or that they simply put their pen to paper and God did the writing. Others say God appeared to them with some new message that God chose them to share. Are these the ways God has chosen to reveal Himself? It seems very unlikely. God does not need to give anyone a special tour of heaven or a new word of knowledge; everything we need to know about God has already been re...

Question: What is the chief end of man? Answer: The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.  The Declaration of Independence states that we have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This has led many Americans to, without realizing it, believe their chief end is to pursue happiness. This is true, but only in the sense that we realize true happiness comes from understanding who we are in Christ. As Asaph wrote in Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.” The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins by saying the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That might sound confusing, but if we understand that concept then we will understand how to truly live. The chief end of man—or the reason we exist—is to glorify God. Revelation 4:11 says all things were created for God’s pleasure, and...

Question: Don't we have to be good enough for God to love us? Answer: No, God loves us in spite of the wrong we do. One of the saddest misunderstandings in human history is the false belief that God’s love is based on how well we perform. As we continue to think about our adoption by the Father, think about each Christmas or birthday you had growing up. Did you earn the gift under the tree, or did they come regardless of your behavior? While I have heard many jokes about receiving a lump of coal in a stocking, I have never heard of a person who woke up on December 25 th to a carbon Christmas. Gifts, like love, are not earned; gifts are given by the giver simply because the giver chose to give the gift. In the same way, God’s love is a gift that emanates from the throne room of heaven. His love is poured out on all of His adopted children. How do we know that His love is not based on how well we perform? Because His love was demonstrated to us while we were at ...

Question: What does it mean to be a child of God? Answer: That I belong to God who loves me. Last week’s question showed that we become children of God through adoption. Wouldn’t you say that adoptive parents do what they do out of love? Waking up with a newborn at night is difficult with your biological child; how much more love would it require doing that with one who is not your flesh and blood? The same can be said of all the trying things that children do. Children certainly are not cheap. Raising a child for 18 years costs Americans an average of $241,000. Add to that the average cost of adoption, which is another $30,000. People do not adopt on a whim; adoption is not done for luxury. Those who choose to adopt are motivated by a heart of love for the child. They commit to care for that child for the rest of her life. The children who are adopted are totally at the mercy of the adoptive parents; without them, the children remain orphaned and not belonging to ...

What should we have seen coming? One murdered thousands of people. The other quoted the Bible.  This is a typical atheistic move, comparing murdering terrorists to Christians.