Tommy Mann

  When teaching people how to read and apply the Bible, we often focus vertically and within. By vertically I mean our relationship with God in heaven. We ask questions of the passage like, “What does this teach me about God?” or “What promise from God can I claim in my life.” By focusing within I mean introspection. We ask questions of the passage like, “How can I demonstrate this positive trait in my life?” or “Am I guilty of making the same mistake this person made?” But in his book  Seven Arrows: Aiming Bible Readers in the Right Direction,  Matt Rogers mentions a horizontal element of application. By horizontal he means our relationship with other people, specifically, the church. He wrote: “The result of sin is that mankind is separated from one another, living in tension, division, and strife. The result of the Gospel is that all of those who are in Christ can be united to one another by virtue of the fact that they have all been made part of God’s family. This fac...

People need to communicate. Whether verbally or nonverbally, humans are in constant communication with one another, so if we are bad at it, we can ruin relationships. Some people are poor communicators for a variety of reasons, but if that is you, fear not. Dr. Gary Collins, in his book   Christian Counseling,   wrote, “Communication is a learned interaction. That which is not good can be made better.”     I want to share a few quick communication killers, things we might do that turn people off and hurt our relationship. Dishonesty is a big one. Colossians 3:9 says, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.” The unsaved person may lie, but those of us who are in Christ should not.    Interrupting someone who is talking is another communication killer. Interruption says, “What I want to say is more important than what you are saying. In fact, I’m more important than you.” Respect someone enough to listen inten...

  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 ...

  Many years ago people used to talk about the importance of keeping our minds on heaven. This evidently led to people becoming so focused on the life that is to come that they neglected the life that now is. The great preacher D.L. Moody began to preach that the church had become “so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good.” Things like personal holiness, loving ones neighbor, and evangelism were out of sight and out of mind.    When the call came to stop being so heavenly minded, I’m afraid the pendulum has swung too far the other way. I believe the problem with the church now is that we are so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good. We are too wrapped up in our political parties, our sports teams, and our social events, and we rarely think about heaven. Because we are so earthly minded, we are not doing anything for the kingdom of heaven—we aren’t inviting people to church, sharing our faith, or reaching out to those in need. When we focus so much on the he...