Tommy Mann

  One of Jesus’ disciples gave us a great reason to show love. 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”   I have always liked that phrase, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” The Greek word means to hide or conceal something. But better than a dictionary definition is the graphic image another disciple gave us in his gospel. Describing the event where Jesus calmed the storm with just His words, Matthew 8:24 says, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep.”   Matthew described the boat as being swamped by the storm.  Swamped  is the same Greek word translated as  covers  by Peter. The storm that threatened to claim the lives of the disciples violently covered their fishing boat. This was an aggressive covering.   Our love should have that same type of aggression. Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest wrote of this verb, “...

  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...

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...

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...