Tommy Mann

Well, I tried. I tried to be a techy guy, but it just isn’t me. When I first became a pastor of students I got a leather organizer to carry pens, business cards, a notepad, and most importantly, a 2008 calendar. That planner soon became my personal assistant and good friend. I found it was vital to write down all my appointments, and to check my schedule often. Over the years I perfected my system, getting it down to a science.    But as 2022 was drawing to a close, I finally caved. I listened to the voices telling it me it was time to enter the 21 st  Century. It’s all digital, you know. Use the calendar app on your phone, sync it with the calendar on your laptop, share it with office staff…it’s all so easy!   But I am an old dog, and that was a new trick. I gave it my best shot, but the first week of not carrying a planner and I received a phone call about a meeting I missed. And yes, I set up my phone calendar to remind me of meetings, but one of us failed to get ...

It’s almost time for Christmas! As a kid that was the greatest feeling. The buildup and anticipation of Christmas culminated with a state of euphoria, the realization that soon I would know exactly what was wrapped up in those packages, and those toys would be mine to enjoy.    Knowing that Christmas was coming also meant that someone was coming. We would sing that song Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and on the evening of the 24 th  we knew that his sleigh was loaded, and along with his team of reindeer, Santa was coming. He would even be coming down the chimney, despite the fact that we didn’t have chimneys in Orlando.   There is excitement knowing Christmas is coming. Even as an adult I still get a sense of that childlike wonder as Christmas day creeps ever closer. But for most of us, Christmas is not as exciting as it used to be. Maybe you are more like Faith Hill, singing “Where are You Christmas?” Or maybe you are more like the Grinch, who “hated Christmas, the ...

  Have you ever heard people refer to either the milk or meat of the Word? They are talking about a level of spiritual depth, contrasting the stuff of beginners with that which is reserved for the mature. The idea comes from a scathing rebuke from Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2:   “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready.”   Brand new believers are like spiritual infants, babies that cannot chew solid food. They are learning the basics, like the reliability of the Bible, the importance of belonging to a church, and how to pray. They are not ready for solid food, things like understanding the Trinity or deciphering the book of Revelation.    The goal is to grow. If you have been a believer for a while, you should be progressing towards solid food. That might mean eating bananas before beef, but i...

Did you know that your words smell? And no, I’m not talking about your breath.    The words we choose to speak have a distinct smell; some words smell good, and some smell bad. Paul referenced the smell of our words in Ephesians 4:29 when he wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”    The Greek word translated as corrupted means rotten. I’m sure you have smelled something rotten before. You walk into the kitchen and the scent slaps you right in the face. You try to hunt the source of the stench, and after several minutes you see the bag of potatoes in the corner. You hold your breath and reach for the bag; once you pick it up you see that it is dripping. You now work to get the rotten vegetables out of your house as soon as possible, and remove any trace of their remnants.    Rotten food stinks. So do some of our words. Making fun of peo...

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” That is what the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas in Acts 16:30. His question was posed because an earthquake opened the doors of the prison that housed the missionaries, but Paul and Silas chose not to escape. The jailer was touched by their choice to stay put, and then he knew that these men truly possessed something different.    The duo answered his question by telling him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household (v.31).” This shows us there is something we must do in order to be saved. They did not tell the Philippian that all people go to heaven automatically; each person must make the personal choice to believe in, or trust in, Jesus and His work on the cross.    If you want the answer to the question to be  nothing,  then the question needs to be “What must I do to be lost?” Some might say that in order to be lost we need to do something terrible, like commit a violen...

The author of Hebrews wrote, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (4:14).” What does it mean that Jesus passed through the heavens? This certainly calls to mind the incarnation and His earthly ministry, when Jesus left heaven and was born into our world.     After He completed His great assignment which culminated with Calvary, Jesus ascended back to heaven. Luke described the scene this way: “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Then two angels explained what just happened: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven (Acts 1:9, 11).”   We notice that the word heaven in our text is plural; He passed, not through heaven, but the heavens. That is because there are three heavens. The sky above us, where clouds float by and raindrops fall,...

One of Aesop’s fables is about a boy who was drowning in a river, so he yelled out to a man nearby for help. The man was startled by the boy’s cry, so he approached the water’s edge and began to scold the child for being so loud and presumptuous.     Desperate for help, the boy yelled back, “Rescue me now! You can lecture me later on when I am safe.”    The world is filled with people who are drowning in their sin. Many of them do not yet realize this reality, but it is still a matter of fact. As Christians, our job is to rescue them, pulling them safely onto shore. Jude used similar imagery, writing, “save others by snatching them out of the fire (v.23).” Unfortunately, many of us adopt the posture of the angry passerby in the fable, choosing to lecture rather than rescue.    What do I mean? When we see someone we disapprove of, do we share the gospel, or do we shame the appearance or action? Many of us have become experts in lecturing the lost. We tell th...

The second chapters of Hebrews begins with these words: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” We do not want to be guilty of drifting away. What is the author referring to?   The things “we have heard” were laid out in the first chapter, namely that Jesus Christ is supreme over all things, the only one able to bring us salvation. Drifting away from that would be terrible. But I want to point out something that should be obvious: drifting takes time.    It has been pointed out that the Greek phrase employed by the author of Hebrews has nautical connotations, describing a boat that was carelessly tied to the dock; when the boat’s owner goes back to retrieve it, he will find that it has drifted away. However, that same phrase has also been used to describe the process of evaporation. Go outside and pour some water on the ground, and eventually you will not be able to find that water. It has made its way into the clou...

One of my favorite hymns was written all the way back in 1757 by a pastor named Robert Robinson. The song begins this way:   Come, thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing they grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise.    It is a beautiful hymn, but I also love the story behind it, as its author was once confronted by the reality of his own words. Robinson wrote the song when he was only 22 years old. At that time he was considered be an up and coming member of the Baptist denomination, and was even commissioned to write their history (a book titled  History of Baptism and Baptists ). Unfortunately, like the song says, he was “prone to wander,” and prone to leave the God he loved. At a low point in his life he walked away from the church.   To try to fill the void in his life, Robinson began to travel extensively. On one of his journeys he shared a stagecoach with a lady who was humming his song Come Thou Fount of Every ...

Last week I wrote about God’s will for Jesus, that all who look upon Him will be saved, and that Jesus will keep us saved forever. But what about us? Can we know God’s will for our lives?   The answer is yes! We can know God’s will for our lives because it was never supposed to be a mystery. God’s will for us is laid out in Scripture just as clearly as His will for Jesus.    God’s will for your life is that you are saved and live your life the way you are supposed to. Consider 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, which says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”   God’s will is that you are sanctified. That word means to be holy, or set apart. At our salvation we are made holy, set apart from the unsaved world and set apart to God. We become adopted as children of God. Sanctification me...

We talk a lot about the will of God. As a pastor people say things to me like, “Pray for me as I try to discern God’s will.” We tell our students they need to find out God’s will for their lives. We have turned God’s will into some deep mystery, but the truth is, we can easily know God’s will.    Jesus knew the will of God for His own life and ministry on earth. In John 6:39-40 the Son of God said these words:   “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”   God’s will is that people are saved. He wants all who look on Jesus to receive the eternal life He came to make available. The language here reminds me of what Jesus told Nicodemus just three chapters earlier, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must t...

There was a tribe in Africa that converted to Christianity when missionaries came through. While learning more about their new faith, these believers began to make a habit of going out into a field to pray. Each person secured his own personal spot in the field, and as they spent time on their knees in prayer, the grass began to die.    Eventually some began to cool off in their devotion, and they started to neglect their daily prayer time. This led to the adoption of a new phrase in the tribe, don’t let grass grow in your prayer field. The problem with many Christians in the church is they are letting grass grow in their prayer field.    Jesus assumes His followers will pray. In Luke 11, when speaking with one of the disciples of John the Baptist, Jesus said, “When you pray…” Notice that He did not say,  If  you pray, but  When  you pray. Prayer should be a part of the Christian’s routine.    Jesus continued with a humorous parable abou...

What is grace? Christians love to sing about that amazing grace that saved a wretch like me, but what does that word mean? The Greek word means  favor or graciousness , and Strong’s defines it in a spiritual sense this way: “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.”   This word is a familiar friend in Scripture, but let’s consider Romans 11:6, which says, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”   Human nature is always to make salvation the result of works, something we earn by our efforts. But the second works become necessary, grace ceases to be grace. I love the line “grace would no longer be grace.”   In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” A rose is a rose, no matter what you call it. A rose is a rose because of its inherent qualities as a rose.    In the same way, grace ...

Human nature is to worry. We worry about the economy; we worry about our health; we worry about our family; we worry about work, school, the neighborhood, and the government. There are so many things that can keep us up at night if we allow them to.   Human nature is to worry, but Jesus told us not to worry. I cannot think of a single problem I have ever resolved by worrying about it. Can you? I am powerless, with so many things out of my control, but the Lord is capable of doing anything. Rather than worry, we should trust Him to handle our problems.    Jesus used ravens and lilies as examples of things that do not worry, and yet their needs are met. In Luke 12:24 He said, “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!”   Then in verse 27 He added, “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glor...

  I absolutely hate snakes. In my opinion, the only good snake is a dead snake. But pastor and author Greg Laurie spoke of how he was obsessed with snakes when he was younger, even keeping multiple snakes as pets in his room. He came to know a man who collected venomous snakes, including the incredibly lethal tiger snake. This man was actually bitten by the tiger snake and lived to tell about it.    Although it was a close call, he credited his survival with the fact that he gave himself daily injections of tiger snake serum, and effectively developed an immunity to its venom. Rather than realizing how fortunate he was to still be alive, this man became invincible in his own mind. He became careless, even letting all of his deadly snakes roam freely in his house. One day he was bitten in the leg by one of his cobras, was subsequently hospitalized, and died.    It’s a tragic story, but an ending you could probably predict halfway through reading. It reminds me of...

There is a popular phrase among Christians that says each person has a “God-shaped void” in their lives. This is speaking of the natural man, of course. The Bible teaches that we are born with a sin nature and are separated from God as a result.    The phrase is traced back to Blaise Pascal, a French inventor and philosopher of the 1600s. But rather than a God-shaped void (or vacuum as some say), Pascal actually wrote of an infinite abyss. In his posthumous work defending his faith   he wrote these words:   “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”   According to P...

Christians should be able to rest easy knowing that God is sovereign. According to the dictionary, to be sovereign means to be “supreme in rank or authority,” and God certainly is that. The word   reign  is right there in the word—as our Sovereign God, He reigns supreme over the universe He created.     The word sovereign does not appear in the Bible, but Isaiah 45:5-7 says, “I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.”   That sounds like sovereignty to me.   God does whatever He wants. He consults no one; He seeks advice from no one; He answers to no one. Psalm 115:3 tells us, “Our God is in the heavens;  He does all that he pleases .”   ...

The 23 rd  Psalm is a favorite for many people. It is memorized and recited, and often displayed and framed around church buildings and homes. I want to focus for a minute on the first line of the third verse—“He restores me soul.”    When we hear the word soul, we might think of the part of us that goes on to be with the Lord when we pass away, and in that regard, having our souls restored doesn’t really make sense. However, that part that goes to be with the Lord is actually our spirit, while our soul is our personality, that invisible part of us that makes us who we are (our soul remains with our spirit, so we will keep our uniqueness for eternity).    So why would our soul need to be restored? Well, sometimes we are cast down. David wrote Psalm 23, but he also wrote Psalm 42, where he asks, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”    In the book  A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23,  Phillip Keller explains being...

I frequently write on the topic of truth because the concept of absolutes has been under attack in our country for several years. Many of our social and cultural problems stem from our rejection of truth. For example, I read last week that a man paid $20,000 to have himself turned into a border collie; through multiple surgeries, he is now the spitting image of Lassie (only much larger). How did we arrive here?   When we say there are no absolutes, a grown man named Dylan can say he is a six-year-old girl, and we have to respect that because that is “his truth.” When a male athlete wants to compete against females, he only needs to say his pronouns are she/her, and then he gets a gold medal.    If a man can be a woman, or a man can be an adolescent girl, then he can also be a dog. When truth goes out the window, we open the door for all types of lunacy. This is why the devil works so hard to undermine truth. The first two times we see him speak in Scripture, he asks Eve, ...

Who do you share your secrets with? If we have something that we do not want to get spread around, we are very careful who we tell. Our secrets are usually reserved for our closest and most trusted friends. Did you know that God has secrets?    The KJV rendering of Psalm 25:14 reads like this: “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.”   What is this secret that God shares with the ones who fear Him? It is not some deep mystery or hidden Bible code. The secret is used as a metaphor. The ESV translates the same verse this way: “The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.”   The Hebrew word that is translated as secret (KJV) and friendship (ESV) describes a company of persons in close deliberation, and by implication, intimacy. In other words, this word paints a picture of people that are so close to each other that they trust each other with sensitive information.  ...

In the upper room on the night that Jesus was arrested He asked the disciples this rhetorical question: “For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table (Luke 22:27)?”   The question is rhetorical because everyone knew the answer. The one sitting at the table is considered to be greater than the one serving the table. The rich sit at a table in their house while their butler attends to their needs. When we go to a fancy restaurant we get a feel for that. Have you ever gone to one of those nice steakhouses, the kind of place where you get dressed up, sit in a dimly lit room, and hear soft music playing in the background?    At those types of restaurants we expect good service because we are paying for it. We can even get a sense of self-importance, thinking that the wait staff is beneath us. After all, they wouldn’t even have a job if it weren’t for patrons like us. We’re doing them a favor! Some people treat the...

  I read about a businessman who had an idea for a book. The title was going to be  A Million Thanks,  and the book was just going to say “Thanks” one million times. The idea was not to sell the book, but to hand them out for free to his clients as his unique way of expressing his gratitude for their business. He submitted the title to the Library of Congress to obtain the rights to his book.   But the Library of Congress responded by saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.” It is not possible to copyright just a single word, even if it is used a million times. I love what this demonstrates—that no one owns the exclusive rights to “thanks.” Being thankful is in the public domain; no one will get in trouble for saying thank you.    That means we all can and should be thankful people, and more than that, we should express our gratitude often. We should regularly say thank you to those who bless us, whether it is our Sunday school teachers, the ones who work with our ...

What are spiritual gifts? We talk about them a lot in our churches. We ask people if they know what their spiritual gift is, and if so, are they using their gift. We pass out spiritual gift inventory assessments to help people discern their gift. Spiritual gifts are simply gifts—or skills—that the Holy Spirit gives believers to use for God’s glory.    There are many spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament. In fact, there are lists in four different passages. But the lists are not identical in each passage (Ephesians 4, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and 1 Peter 4). There is some overlap, but there are unique gifts in each list as well. I believe this teaches us that there is not a rigid list of gifts. For example, in our modern society there are people who are gifted technologically, working in the AV ministry, the church website, social media, and graphic design. These are not gifts mentioned by the Apostle Paul, but they could very well be gifts given by the Holy Spirit fo...

We have probably all heard about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with only five pieces of bread and a couple fish. This is a story we learned about when we were children. You have probably also heard that it was much more than 5,000 people; that was only the men. When we begin to account for women and children, the number could easily rise to 20,000 or more.    We love the story because it is a great miracle, but something that jumps out at me is this feeding took place shortly after Jesus sent His twelve disciples out in groups of twos. These men had been given authority to heal the sick, cast out demons, and perform miracles.    So when they encountered this situation, they should have been jumping at the chance to see another miracle. Instead, they told Jesus to send the crowds home because it was getting late and there was nothing to eat. How quickly they resorted to thinking about things naturally!    In Matthew 14 Jesus told the disciples that it was their re...

Have you ever seen someone throw a boomerang, or maybe try it yourself? The design of the boomerang, along with proper throwing technique, allows it to travel through the air and return right back to the thrower. As great of a quarterback as Tom Brady is, he cannot throw a football downfield, and then catch it without moving. But with a boomerang that is possible.     Proverbs 21:7 tells us, “The violence of the wicked will sweep them away, because they refuse to do what is just.” That verse is paraphrased in The Living Bible this way: “Because the wicked are unfair, their violence boomerangs and destroys them.”    So often in life we see wicked people become successful because of their wickedness (Have you ever heard of Washington D.C.?). We struggle with this, wondering why God allows the wicked to prosper, especially when just as often it seems that the godly struggle.    Why does God allow the wicked to get away with it? We need to think of the wic...

Are we really supposed to believe that there is some evil spirit that goes around the world tempting people to sin? That might work in children’s church lessons, but are grownups still expected to believe in an actual devil?   Professor Jeffrey Burton Russell wrote extensively about the devil, including his book  The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity.  He posed the question, “What, really, is the Devil? This is comparable to the question: What, really, is art? Absolute answers to such questions are not attainable.” He went on to write, “evil has no ontological being and can therefore strictly speaking have no essence.”    Russell’s point is that the devil is a myth, simply “the personification of evil [1] .” Throughout time people have sought to explain the existence of evil in the world, and rather than blaming whatever god they worship, they assign blame to a malevolent devil.    But if we believe the Bible is God’s ...

We all need to practice good hygiene. Being around a person that doesn’t brush their teeth or wear deodorant can be unpleasant. You have probably been taught that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Many are surprised to learn that this phrase does not actually appear in the Bible.    That is not an excuse to practice poor hygiene; in truth, good hygiene is next to godliness, just not in the way you might be thinking. When Paul wrote to Pastor Titus, he instructed him, “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine (2:1).”   The word that is translated as  sound  gives us the English word hygiene, and it literally means “to have sound health; to be well or uncorrupted.” Paul utilized this adjective to describe the kind of doctrine Titus should preach—that which is uncorrupted by error and therefore in sound health. Titus needed good hygiene in the pulpit.    We have too many people entering the pulpits with poor hygiene. I don’t mean their nai...

Do you see the glass as half empty or half full? Are you the kind of person who is prone to look on the bright side, or do you fixate on the shadows?    When it comes to offering heartaches, life can be quite generous. The longer we live in this fallen world, the more acquainted we become with suffering. Things do not go our way. We get dealt bad hands. No matter how we choose to phrase it, life can stink sometimes.    If we are not careful, we will see little reminders of our frustrations everywhere we look. Rather than looking at your car in the garage and being thankful that you own a vehicle (and the garage where it is housed), you think about how you cannot afford your neighbor’s sports car. God has blessed you with a mode of transportation, but the sight of it makes you angry. That is how you know your focus is in the wrong place.    In the Bible’s opening book we read about Joseph. Although his father loved him more than his ten older brothers, it wa...