Tommy Mann

Have you ever worn clothes that were too tight? Sometimes people have a suit they only wear on rare occasions, and when they pull it out of the back of the closet last minute, they discover it doesn't fit like it used to, and they have no choice but to wear it anyway. Or maybe the clothes weren't tight when you put them on, but they became that way over the course of the day. After a big meal, the waistband feels like it shrunk, and you can't wait to get some relief when you change into something else. If you have had to spend time in clothes that are too tight, you understand that good feeling when you can finally put on something more comfortable. After a long day you can slip into your favorite lounge pants and baggy shirt and just let yourself relax. You take a deep breath and hold it in for a moment before finally letting it out. At last you can breathe much easier.  In her book Forgiving What You Can't Forget, Lysa Terkeurst compares that feeling to when we finall...

  1 John 1:9 contains one of the greatest promises in the Bible. The Apostle wrote, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is one of the verses I quote the most in the pulpit. But it is important we understand what this verse entails. First, John is writing to the church, not to unbelievers. The unsaved are not cleansed of their sin just by confession of sin. They must confess Jesus as Lord of their life. Whether Paul was telling the Philippian jailer he had to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31),” or telling the church in Rome that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13),” it is clear that there is no salvation apart from Jesus.  John is telling the church—who is already saved and had their sin-burden removed at their salvation—that our individual sins can be forgiven by confession.  And it is also important to understand what confession means. ...

  A few months after Bob broke off his engagement to Sally, he received this letter from her out of the blue:   My dearest Bob. I have not been myself since you called off the wedding. I miss you terribly. I have been unable to sleep, I have no appetite, and no desire to do anything at all. I cannot control my emotions. Each day a million little reminders of you cause me to burst into tears and cry uncontrollably. If you would only take me back, I will be the happiest girl in the world. Please know that I love you so!    P.s. Congratulations on winning the 107 million dollar Powerball.     Sally might not have had the purest motive for wanting to reconcile with Bob, but that should be the goal of any believers who are in conflict. In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus said, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother,...

  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, “...

I once heard a preacher say that having an unforgiving spirit is like a man who grabs a bear by the tail—both man and bear are caught in that scenario. A bear does not have a long tail, like that of a rhesus monkey. If someone wants to grab a bear’s tail, he has to get up close and personal.    If you were able to successfully sneak up on a bear and grab its tail, what is your next move? You can say you have trapped the bear, but in reality, you are the one who is trapped. You have gained the beast’s attention, and he will soon spin around and face you with his menacing teeth and massive paws.    Holding on to unforgiveness is like holding the bear’s tail: it will not end well for us. But once we choose to let go of the grudge, there might be a little pain, but it will actually set us free. The longer we refuse to forgive, the more harm we do to our own soul. We lose our joy, and we gradually become miserable people.    In Luke 6:37, Jesus succinctly said, ...

  Anger can spread like wildfire. Hurt the wrong person’s feelings and wars can break out. This was perfectly illustrated in 1894 when the Boston Red Sox hosted the Baltimore Orioles. During the course of the baseball game one player lost his temper and started a fight with someone from the other team. Within seconds both dugouts cleared as the athletes and staffs engaged in a brawl out on the field. The violence carried over into the stands when one fan punched another, and soon the entire ballpark was one big riot. During the mayhem someone set fire to the bleachers, which were wooden in those days, and the entire venue was burned. The fire was not quickly contained, and when the smoke cleared, 107 buildings in Boston were impacted by the blaze.     Anger can poison our minds and cause us to believe that we need to react in kind. This way of thinking can lead us to misery as we make wrong decisions in the heat of the moment. That is why Laydon Milton, in his book...

For more than a week now I have been haunted by the 6 turnovers that Florida committed in their 17-9 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Florida, who was ranked #2 nationally and leading the SEC East at the time, controlled their own destiny; win their games and go to the championship. Following the loss Florida must now add another element to their title hopes: win their games and hope for 5 teams ahead of them to lose. That is a big and. That loss was a tough one for me. Well, technically all losses are tough for me. I am not a fair weather fan. I followed the Gators chess team even through their rebuilding years. I bleed orange and blue. If there is a Gator on the uniform then I whole-heartedly pull for them. For whatever reason, I have emotionally invested myself in the University of Florida, a school that I did not even attend. I know just how hard it is to win a national championship in college football. I have watched three times where the Gators ha...