Tommy Mann

A verse Christians love to quote is 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." But what does it mean to be "in Christ?"  Some people have a problem with this phrase, and have expressed concerns that it borders on blasphemy. The issue is that they have determined being in Christ means we become divine, especially if we add to this Peter's declaration that through the promises of Jesus we "may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)."   Are these New Testament writers saying we, too, have a divine nature like Christ? That does sound blasphemous.  Saint Augustine compared being in Christ to a sponge soaking up water. The absorbent sponge soaks up all the water it can handle until it is dripping, but the sponge never becomes water, and the water never becomes a sponge. They are forever two separate objects, no matter how closely they are used toge...

What things are you occupied with? To be occupied means to be engaged in something, or giving our attention to that thing. You may be occupied with work, family, responsibilities, or hobbies. Those are all good things to be occupied by at the appropriate times. But in Acts 18:5 we read that the Apostle Paul was occupied by something quite noble. The verse says, "When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus." The Greek word that is translated as occupied means to be seized, as if something has grabbed a hold of you. Paul was seized by the word, completely controlled by it. "The word" refers to the Word of God, or the gospel. Paul was completely occupied by sharing the good news of Jesus with people who did not know the truth.  The Jews knew about Jesus, of course, but they did not believe Jesus was the Christ. Paul was able to build a systematic case for Jesus by using, you guessed it...

God is love. We know this concept and it warms our hearts. 1 John 4:8 famously says, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." The sixteenth verse repeats this truth that God is love. We love this verse because it teaches us that the God of heaven loves imperfect people like us. This separates our God from other gods, like the god of Islam, who is impersonal. But what is sometimes lost in this verse is a deeper truth that points us to the Trinity.  If God is love, there must be someone for God to love. There has to be an object of His love; otherwise, how could God be love? He doesn't just love in the abstract, but existentially. God being love can't just be an idea; it must be put into practice. It stands to reason then, that if God is love, there is someone to love. I think we all would agree with that. Who does God love? Us! we shout with joy. But what about before there was an us? Who did God love before He made Adam? Or we could ask, Who ...

I am afraid that people outside the church don't realize that Christians are allowed to enjoy life. They probably think we are a group of people scared into submission by the rules of religion, living by a code of "thou shalt not's" that only exist to keep us from having any fun. Those outside the church probably think that way because of those inside the church. Too many Christians seem to operate from that idea that God is a cosmic killjoy who wants us all to be miserable. If we like it, He says don't do it. Life is not meant to be enjoyed, only endured. Since Christians seem to believe this myth, it is passed on to those who are unbelievers. And that isn't a very good advertisement of our faith, or the kind of God we serve. Did you know the Bible speaks of us enjoying life? In 1 Timothy 6:17 Paul wrote these words: "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who r...

When we hear someone described as being a fugitive it is never a good thing. "He is a fugitive of justice." That means someone is on the run; he has broken the law, and now the cops are trying to find him. We also use that word when someone breaks out of prison and there is a manhunt trying to track him down. To be a fugitive means you have made a series of bad choices, first in breaking the law, and then in attempting to evade the consequences.  But it doesn't have to be a bad word. Several times in the New Testament someone is commanded to become a fugitive. One such example is in 2 Timothy 2:22 where Paul writes, "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."   Like a fugitive, the word is hiding in the text. We don't see it because it is only in the original Greek. The word translated as flee is the Greek word pheuge,  and it gives us our English word fugitive. Rather...

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...