Tommy Mann

We have probably all heard about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with only five pieces of bread and a couple fish. This is a story we learned about when we were children. You have probably also heard that it was much more than 5,000 people; that was only the men. When we begin to account for women and children, the number could easily rise to 20,000 or more.    We love the story because it is a great miracle, but something that jumps out at me is this feeding took place shortly after Jesus sent His twelve disciples out in groups of twos. These men had been given authority to heal the sick, cast out demons, and perform miracles.    So when they encountered this situation, they should have been jumping at the chance to see another miracle. Instead, they told Jesus to send the crowds home because it was getting late and there was nothing to eat. How quickly they resorted to thinking about things naturally!    In Matthew 14 Jesus told the disciples that it was their responsibility to feed the crow

Have you ever seen someone throw a boomerang, or maybe try it yourself? The design of the boomerang, along with proper throwing technique, allows it to travel through the air and return right back to the thrower. As great of a quarterback as Tom Brady is, he cannot throw a football downfield, and then catch it without moving. But with a boomerang that is possible.     Proverbs 21:7 tells us, “The violence of the wicked will sweep them away, because they refuse to do what is just.” That verse is paraphrased in The Living Bible this way: “Because the wicked are unfair, their violence boomerangs and destroys them.”    So often in life we see wicked people become successful because of their wickedness (Have you ever heard of Washington D.C.?). We struggle with this, wondering why God allows the wicked to prosper, especially when just as often it seems that the godly struggle.    Why does God allow the wicked to get away with it? We need to think of the wicked as throwing a boomerang. It ha

Are we really supposed to believe that there is some evil spirit that goes around the world tempting people to sin? That might work in children’s church lessons, but are grownups still expected to believe in an actual devil?   Professor Jeffrey Burton Russell wrote extensively about the devil, including his book  The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity.  He posed the question, “What, really, is the Devil? This is comparable to the question: What, really, is art? Absolute answers to such questions are not attainable.” He went on to write, “evil has no ontological being and can therefore strictly speaking have no essence.”    Russell’s point is that the devil is a myth, simply “the personification of evil [1] .” Throughout time people have sought to explain the existence of evil in the world, and rather than blaming whatever god they worship, they assign blame to a malevolent devil.    But if we believe the Bible is God’s inspired (and thus inerrant) word,

We all need to practice good hygiene. Being around a person that doesn’t brush their teeth or wear deodorant can be unpleasant. You have probably been taught that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Many are surprised to learn that this phrase does not actually appear in the Bible.    That is not an excuse to practice poor hygiene; in truth, good hygiene is next to godliness, just not in the way you might be thinking. When Paul wrote to Pastor Titus, he instructed him, “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine (2:1).”   The word that is translated as  sound  gives us the English word hygiene, and it literally means “to have sound health; to be well or uncorrupted.” Paul utilized this adjective to describe the kind of doctrine Titus should preach—that which is uncorrupted by error and therefore in sound health. Titus needed good hygiene in the pulpit.    We have too many people entering the pulpits with poor hygiene. I don’t mean their nails are unclipped and their hair is

Do you see the glass as half empty or half full? Are you the kind of person who is prone to look on the bright side, or do you fixate on the shadows?    When it comes to offering heartaches, life can be quite generous. The longer we live in this fallen world, the more acquainted we become with suffering. Things do not go our way. We get dealt bad hands. No matter how we choose to phrase it, life can stink sometimes.    If we are not careful, we will see little reminders of our frustrations everywhere we look. Rather than looking at your car in the garage and being thankful that you own a vehicle (and the garage where it is housed), you think about how you cannot afford your neighbor’s sports car. God has blessed you with a mode of transportation, but the sight of it makes you angry. That is how you know your focus is in the wrong place.    In the Bible’s opening book we read about Joseph. Although his father loved him more than his ten older brothers, it was not an easy house to grow u