Tommy Mann

  As Christians we serve in an important role, functioning as God’s ambassadors. Paul referred to himself as such in Ephesians 6:20, and then he spoke on behalf of all believers in II Corinthians 5:20 when he wrote, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”   The word ambassador comes from a Greek word that means “old man,” as most ambassadors where trusted elders. But in its official capacity an ambassador was one who was sent to represent another, much as our State Department has ambassadors around the world speaking on behalf of the President. These ambassadors served in a foreign land and delivered the messages they were given.   Ambassadors were also common in the Roman Empire. As Rome expanded its empire and took over more territories, they labeled their provinces as being either senatorial or imperial.  The senatorial provinces were not a problem for Rome. These vanquished territories b

Wouldn’t it be nice if tombs could talk? I would love to hear what that empty tomb would say about the very brief time that it held the body of Jesus. Here is what I believe that tomb would tell us, if only tombs could talk:    I had heard of Jesus, He was all the talk in town; I was glad He was condemned, glad to see He was going down. They say He was a blasphemer, that He claimed to be the Christ, He got what He deserved; He deserved to lose His life. But He is not here. He is risen.    They rolled away my stone and brought His body inside; I expected a celebration, but Joseph only cried. “Strange,” I thought, “to mourn over this liar, He claimed to be God in the flesh, that He was equal with the Father.” But He is not here. He is risen.   I was proud to do my duty, keeping watch over this body. No one would ever see Him again because they couldn’t get inside me. But before I knew what happened, on the morning of day three, This Jesus sat right up, and then walked right out of me! No

  It was Shark Week on Discovery Channel again, so you know what that means: cool shark footage, and evolution. We can’t watch TV anymore without being bombarded by references to billions of years or other Darwinian “facts.” If we aren’t careful we can play into their hands, hearing these comments from scientists so often that we just assume they are true and our well-meaning religious friends just don’t understand science. But if we learn how to think for ourselves, we can push back against matter-of-fact statements about Darwinism.    For example, while watching a special on sharks I heard the narrator make a strange comment of this shark’s digestive system. He said that sharks cannot digest fish, so they evolved a special system to allow them to do so. That was it. He said it like we know that is how it happened. We are supposed to think, “Wow, its awesome how it evolved itself the ability to eat,” and we chalk that up to survival of the fittest. If the shark didn’t evolve a keen di

    “Which one should we choose?” “I don’t know; let’s flip a coin.” Have you ever decided something that way? Flipping a coin is a handy way of deciding on (unimportant) decisions because the coin has precisely two sides. There is heads, and there is tails. Before flipping the coin we can say, “Heads its yes, tails its no.” With each flip it is heads OR tails. When even the magic eight ball occasionally says, “Unsure at this time,” flipping a coin gives you a definite response.    A coin has two distinct sides, which helps when flipping it, but the coin has a shortfall. Because it is two sided, we are left only able to see one side at a time. Pick up a penny and admire Abraham Lincoln, but if you want to see his memorial, you must flip the coin and lose Lincoln’s face. It is one or the other, and never both sides at once. If you want to study a coin, you must look at one side at the expense of the other. Pick a side and go all in.    Sometimes we feel like we must make similar monolit