Tommy Mann

  I love oxymorons. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms, like small crowd, jumbo shrimp, original copy, and old news. We use oxymorons when we call a painting pretty ugly, or a comedian seriously funny. Even the word oxymoron is a combination of the prefix meaning “keen” and the word for foolish.   Oxymorons are funny and make things easier to remember. The author of Hebrews employed a clever oxymoron in 4:11 when he wrote, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”   Strive, of course, means to work hard. Work hard at resting. Those two concepts would typically cancel each other out, but the author instructs us to work at rest.    What does he mean by entering rest? In the previous passage he looked back at the exodus when the ancient Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Joshua 21:44 says the Lord gave them rest as they were able to settle down an...

    Psalm 95 is a song of praise to God for His goodness. It is believed that as the ancient Jews recited this psalm they would prostrate themselves in a posture of worship, as the sixth verse contains this instruction: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!”   But the chapter begins with these words: “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise (v.1-2)!”   We should certainly sing to the Lord with thanksgiving because of all that He has done for us. Psalm 95 takes a sharp turn by looking back at the Jews in the Exodus who were not grateful. They put the Lord to the test and complained, even when God was providing water from a rock and manna for breakfast each morning.    We do not want to repeat their mistakes, but it is easy to do that when we focus on our wants inst...

  Many Christians, myself included, believe in the future Millennial Kingdom, a 1,000-year period where Jesus will reign on earth. His rule will not end after the thousand years; that is when the devil will be cast into the lake of fire and then eternity will begin.   Some Christians, called  amillenialists,  do not believe this kingdom will be literal. They believe we are living in that period right now, and Jesus reigns from heaven, not earth. The 1,000 years, they say, is figurative.   To this claim I would point out that Revelation 20 describes this kingdom and it uses the words “thousand years” six times in seven verses. That seems literal to me. Also, during the Millennial Kingdom it says Satan is bound, and I don’t think anyone would claim that Satan is bound now. Peter said he is roaming the earth like a lion seeking prey (1 Peter 5:8).   But I would also like to point out Hebrews 2:5, which says, “For it was not to angels that God subjected the wor...

  How well do you represent God? Do you ever tell people what you think God is like, or what you think God wants someone to do?    I hear people affirm sin by saying, “God gave you those feelings.” “God wants you to be happy.” “Hey, God understands. He made you that way.” These sentiments almost always are tied to something unbiblical. Whenever we speak for God, we had better make sure we represent Him according to His word, and not according to the wisdom of this world.    Do you remember Job’s friends? In the book that bears his name, Job loses everything in a short time—his children, his fortune, his health, and his reputation. In his culture it was believed that if a person lived right, they would be blessed; any suffering in life had to be a sign that God was punishing them for something. So Job’s friends showed up to help him, and their help was scolding him for his secret sin and imploring him to just come clean and repent. When Job insisted he had no sin...

  The unknown author of Hebrews went to great lengths to tell us that Jesus is better. Using the word better 13 times in 13 chapters, the author shows that Jesus is better than Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Melchizedek; He gave a better promise, made a better sacrifice, mediated and better covenant, serves from a better temple, and is a better priest.    In the opening chapter Jesus is shown to be better than the angels, which the Jews held in very high regard. Alluding to Deuteronomy 32:43, the author reminds his audience that the angels worship Jesus, not the other way around: “And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him (Hebrews 1:6).’”   The Jews’ obsession with the angels bordered on the line of worshipping them. I realize you probably don’t struggle with the temptation to worship angels, but maybe you feel the pull to do something “religious.” The Hebrew Christians were battling the thought that Jesus was not e...