Tommy Mann

Well, the Golden Bachelor is getting divorced. Fans of the ABC reality show were surprised to learn the couple that captured their hearts last season were wed for exactly 100 days (about two days for each day of filming the show). I’m not picking on Gerry and Theresa, but do we really expect a competition to be the foundation of a covenantal relationship? This man went from one date to the next, making out with women and telling them he loved them, only to agonize over picking a winner. That isn’t exactly the stuff of fairy tales.    That this is considered entertainment speaks to a broader problem in this country. Other reality shows, such as 90 Day Fiancé, prove this point. Turn on any sitcom and the bachelor life is glamorized while the married man has to sneak around the “old ball and chain.” Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all,” but it is not held in honor in pop culture.    People can enter into these ill-advised marriages because they have an easy way out

  Shortly after Alicia and I got married she made a cake from scratch (after several years in a dorm room, she was glad to have a full kitchen in our Fort Worth apartment). I had never seen cocoa powder before, so I remember pulling it out of the grocery bag when she got home. I couldn’t believe it: a whole container filled with chocolate!   I tore open the package and grabbed a big pinch of the soft, dark powder, and put it straight in my mouth, expecting some sort of Hershey-esque ecstasy. That was the day I learned that cocoa powder is disgusting.    Why would something so bitter go into a delicious dessert? It doesn’t make the cake bitter; the sugar makes the powder sweet. It is when all the ingredients are combined that a tasty cake is born. When that happens, the sum is better than the parts.    That is how things are in the church. Paul famously compared the members of a church to a human body; some are the hands, some are the feet, etc. If I can tweak the apostle’s analogy, we

Have you ever been to a wax museum? Most of these attractions have wax statues of celebrities, and they are admittedly quite lifelike. Visitors can pose for pictures with the fake figures and make it seem as if they met someone famous.     So you can go to a wax museum and take a picture with a wax Jack Sparrow (or pick your favorite celebrity). But if given the choice between the wax version or meeting Johnny Depp in his famous Pirates of the Caribbean costume, which would you choose? We would probably all agree that the real deal beats the fake figure every time.    In the absence of Johnny Depp, the statue is cool; but if Depp is in the room, I’d rather pose for a picture with the human. An artist’s rendering is great, but it is unnecessary when the person is there in the flesh.   The author of Hebrews spoke about an artist rendering. In 8:5 he said, “They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” The word  copy  has been translated elsewhere as artist rendering. What is he t

In many places the New Testament tells us Jesus is sitting to the right of the Father. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each record an exchange Jesus had with Pontius Pilate shortly before the crucifixion; Pilate asked Jesus point blank if He was the Christ, and Jesus replied, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God (Luke 22:67-69).”   Many people know that the right hand was the seat of prominence in their culture. The seat to the right of the one throwing a banquet was reserved for the guest of honor, and it is why the disciples argued internally over who would sit at Jesus’ right side in the kingdom.    But the seat to the right also has another cool meaning. In ancient Jewish courts there was a scribe seated to the left and the right of the judge. Once his verdict was rendered one of the scribes would go to work. If the verdict was guilty, the scribe to the judge’s left

  Hebrews 7:25 says this of Jesus: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”   The Greek word that is translated uttermost only appears one other time in the Bible, and that is in Luke 13 where Jesus heals a woman. Luke, himself a physician, said the woman had a disabling spirit that rendered her unable to fully straighten herself, but “he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight (v.13).”    The word means completely, not halfway. Jesus did not heal this woman until she could stand up a little bit straighter, but until she was  fully  erect. When Jesus heals, He heals to the uttermost.    But the author of Hebrews tells us that when Jesus saves, He saves to the uttermost. He does not forgive some of our sin, make us a little better, and help us break some bad habits. No, He goes all the way, making us God’s children, bringing us fully into the family, and cleansing

  Do you know the difference between a dentist and an orthodontist? If you are like me, you don’t. According to WebMD, “ An orthodontist is a dentist trained to diagnose, prevent, and treat teeth and jaw irregularities. They correct existing conditions and are trained to identify problems that may develop in the future .” They use devices such as braces, retainers, and bands and correct issues such as overbites, crooked or crowded teeth, and jaw misalignment.    If you are like me, you did not go to dental school, but you may have been called to be an orthodontist. In his letter to a pastor named Titus, Paul told him,   “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you (1:5).”   That phrase “put…into order” is a pair of Greek prepositions attached to the word  orthoō,  which means “to make straight.” Orthoō, as you might have guessed, gives us our word orthodontist. Just as an orthodontist corrects crook

I recently wrote about the importance of milk in our diet. Paul scolded the Corinthians for still being on the milk of the Word rather than the meat, meaning that the church had not grown to maturity the way a baby likewise progresses from milk to meat.    I said that we often create a false dichotomy, asking people if they are on milk or meat, as if Paul’s point was to choose one or the other; we need both the basics and the advanced doctrines. The author of Hebrews makes that point better than I can, writing, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food (12:12).”   We sometimes think of milk as the stuff of babies when it should be thought of as the building block of health. We should move toward maturity, but we all need to be constantly reminded of the basics. We might call this the ABC’s.    We cannot read sentences or paragraphs if we do not know the alphabet. As Ch

  I love oxymorons. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms, like small crowd, jumbo shrimp, original copy, and old news. We use oxymorons when we call a painting pretty ugly, or a comedian seriously funny. Even the word oxymoron is a combination of the prefix meaning “keen” and the word for foolish.   Oxymorons are funny and make things easier to remember. The author of Hebrews employed a clever oxymoron in 4:11 when he wrote, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”   Strive, of course, means to work hard. Work hard at resting. Those two concepts would typically cancel each other out, but the author instructs us to work at rest.    What does he mean by entering rest? In the previous passage he looked back at the exodus when the ancient Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Joshua 21:44 says the Lord gave them rest as they were able to settle down and live in peace in a lan

    Psalm 95 is a song of praise to God for His goodness. It is believed that as the ancient Jews recited this psalm they would prostrate themselves in a posture of worship, as the sixth verse contains this instruction: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!”   But the chapter begins with these words: “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise (v.1-2)!”   We should certainly sing to the Lord with thanksgiving because of all that He has done for us. Psalm 95 takes a sharp turn by looking back at the Jews in the Exodus who were not grateful. They put the Lord to the test and complained, even when God was providing water from a rock and manna for breakfast each morning.    We do not want to repeat their mistakes, but it is easy to do that when we focus on our wants instead of our blessings. Maybe y

  Many Christians, myself included, believe in the future Millennial Kingdom, a 1,000-year period where Jesus will reign on earth. His rule will not end after the thousand years; that is when the devil will be cast into the lake of fire and then eternity will begin.   Some Christians, called  amillenialists,  do not believe this kingdom will be literal. They believe we are living in that period right now, and Jesus reigns from heaven, not earth. The 1,000 years, they say, is figurative.   To this claim I would point out that Revelation 20 describes this kingdom and it uses the words “thousand years” six times in seven verses. That seems literal to me. Also, during the Millennial Kingdom it says Satan is bound, and I don’t think anyone would claim that Satan is bound now. Peter said he is roaming the earth like a lion seeking prey (1 Peter 5:8).   But I would also like to point out Hebrews 2:5, which says, “For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are s

  How well do you represent God? Do you ever tell people what you think God is like, or what you think God wants someone to do?    I hear people affirm sin by saying, “God gave you those feelings.” “God wants you to be happy.” “Hey, God understands. He made you that way.” These sentiments almost always are tied to something unbiblical. Whenever we speak for God, we had better make sure we represent Him according to His word, and not according to the wisdom of this world.    Do you remember Job’s friends? In the book that bears his name, Job loses everything in a short time—his children, his fortune, his health, and his reputation. In his culture it was believed that if a person lived right, they would be blessed; any suffering in life had to be a sign that God was punishing them for something. So Job’s friends showed up to help him, and their help was scolding him for his secret sin and imploring him to just come clean and repent. When Job insisted he had no sin from which to repent, t

  The unknown author of Hebrews went to great lengths to tell us that Jesus is better. Using the word better 13 times in 13 chapters, the author shows that Jesus is better than Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Melchizedek; He gave a better promise, made a better sacrifice, mediated and better covenant, serves from a better temple, and is a better priest.    In the opening chapter Jesus is shown to be better than the angels, which the Jews held in very high regard. Alluding to Deuteronomy 32:43, the author reminds his audience that the angels worship Jesus, not the other way around: “And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him (Hebrews 1:6).’”   The Jews’ obsession with the angels bordered on the line of worshipping them. I realize you probably don’t struggle with the temptation to worship angels, but maybe you feel the pull to do something “religious.” The Hebrew Christians were battling the thought that Jesus was not enough, and that the

  Victory is almost ours! I cannot begin to express to you my excitement concerning the progress we are making. Much of the training we have done has been about learning routine things. If I am honest, for a while I found this training monotonous, but now I am beginning to see how it was all part of the bigger plan.    We have been learning to trust our Commander and to march in His footsteps each day. This routine was meant to build our confidence to the point that we no longer have to think; we just react and do what we have been trained to do.    We have also been learning how to use the equipment at our disposal. We have learned the proper techniques to defend ourselves against the enemy. Yes, he is a ruthless tyrant, and his soldiers are well trained, but our equipment is superior, and when we properly avail ourselves of it, it can protect us from even the strongest of attacks.    But now, beyond the equipment for our defense, I am becoming skilled with my weapon. When I was first

  I have some good news! I’m afraid that my previous letters may have come across with a touch of despair. I don’t mean to complain. Sometimes I just have to put my feelings on paper, but I realize they might not be the best letters for my family to read.   But not this week. I have been eager to put my pen to paper and express to you the good news we have received. Peace is within reach. I cannot speak for what the enemy will do, but I am at complete peace, as are the other soldiers in our unit. We know that we are doing what we are supposed to do, and we are at peace with our Commander.     The battle is still raging on, but it is different. Somehow we all know everything will turn out alright. The enemy is still trying his same old tricks, but they have not been as effective as of late. His fiery arrows are extinguished as soon as we raise our shields.    Individually our shields provide defense, but when we all band together in formation our shields form an impenetrable wall. The m

    The fog of war makes things hard to see. Sometimes I find myself doubting what is really in front of me. Are my eyes playing tricks on me? At times I see the enemy when no one is there, and at other times I think I am alone and the enemy comes out of nowhere.    That is one of the enemy’s tactics. He tries to mess with our minds, using propaganda to gaslight us. He wants us to doubt why we are actually in this war. He wants us to doubt our Commander. He is constantly asking, “Did your Commander  really  say…?”    It sounds so stupid when I write it, but in those moments I almost feel like I am going to fall for it. I must admit there are times when I start to think that maybe my Commander is holding out on us. He promised to never leave us or forsake us on this battlefield, but sometimes when the bullets are flying, I’m not sure that I see him.    No. I can’t think this way. I know that is what the enemy wants. I won’t fall into his trap. This is psychological warfare, and those tr

    We have learned a lot about warfare from letters that soldiers wrote to their loved ones back home. The Bible teaches that we are all involved in a war, a spiritual battle that takes place all around us. Ephesians 6:12 says,   “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”   If we could read a letter from the trenches from a soldier in God’s army, it might say something like this:    Another exhausting day. Because of the storm last night we found ourselves nearly ankle deep in mud as we marched in formation. We know the enemy is all around us, and the familiar sounds of gunfire and rocket blasts can be heard unceasingly. Occasionally someone in our company falls victim to these guerilla style attacks.    It only happens when someone wanders off from the group. Together we are strong. When we have our equipment we are

Sibling rivalries go back a long way; all the way back, in fact, to the first siblings. Cain and Abel are the first people that the Bible mentions being born (although they may well have had older siblings). In a fit of rage, Cain murdered his brother because of the different reactions the Lord had concerning their offerings.    Genesis 4:4-5 tell us, “And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” The preceding verse says Cain brought an offering of the produce from his garden, while Abel brought one from his flock. The former was rejected while the latter was received. Rather than being upset with himself, Cain turned his anger towards his brother and committed the world’s first act of murder.    But what is missing from this passage is God’s instruction. When did God ever tell them what kind of offering to bring? Genesis never tells us. It isn’t until Exodus that God gave Moses the law and its requirements for blood sacrifices. So