Tommy Mann

God famously called Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. There the Lord told Moses that he had a special assignment—to go to Egypt’s Pharoah and demand the release of the Hebrew slaves.     After describing the Hebrews’ plight to Moses, God declared, “and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…(v.8).”    God had come down to deliver them. That was great news! God was going to show up and fix everything.    But then just two verses later God seems to have changed His mind, saying, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt (v.10).”   So which is it? Was God coming down to deliver His people, or was God sending Moses to deliver His people?    The two are not mutually exclusive. It was not either/or, but both. God was coming down to equip Moses for the job. Over the next chapter the Lord addressed each of

Enoch is one of the most intriguing figures in history because he is one of only two people to never die. To add to that, there isn’t much of an explanation as to how he left earth. Briefly mentioned in the Bible’s first genealogy, we simply read, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (Genesis 5:24).”     We get a few more details in the Hall of Faith, where in Hebrews 11:5 we see, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”   To be translated means to be “carried across,” as if God carried Enoch from this world to Paradise. All we know of Enoch is that he walked with God and he pleased God by faith. What does it mean to please God? I looked up the Greek word used in Hebrews 11:5 in three different Bible dictionaries, and there was no entry.    So I consulted six different commentaries on the book of Hebrews, and none expounded on the ph

About a half dozen times the Psalms speak of someone being shaken. Typically the psalmist is saying that, because of God’s protection, he will not be shaken. For example, in Psalm 16:8 David wrote, “I have set the LORD always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”   Why do the psalm writers seem so concerned about being shaken? What does that mean? Were they prone to earthquakes or something?     The word translated as shaken means to slip. Walking through life is hard, as there are many things that can cause us to trip and fall. When the authors say they will not be shaken, they mean God will protect them and keep them upright.    On our honeymoon Alicia and I went horseback riding in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. We were going around some sharp curves as we were winding our way up the mountain, and the horses seemed to be about an inch from the edge. It was a little nerve wracking, to say the least. The tour guide rather nonchalantly said, “Relax. The

  I love how the Bible ends the same way it begins. In the beginning a perfect God put perfect people in a perfect earth, where they could have perfect fellowship all the time. In the future there will be a restored earth. We commonly think of living up in heaven for eternity, but that heaven is temporary.     One day God will move heaven to earth, and all believers will have glorified bodies. There we will be perfect people in a perfect world, where we can enjoy perfect fellowship all the time.    In between all this perfection we see sin and the curse. Adam and Eve sinned, messing up the perfect situation. In Genesis 3:17 we read these words: “cursed is the ground because of you.” In Revelation 22:3 says, “And there shall be no more curse.”   Everything bad that has ever happened is because of the curse. Every tear you have ever cried, every disease you have ever endured, every tragedy you have ever faced—it all stems from the curse. The wages of sin truly is death.    So as Christia