Tommy Mann

  A married man was out somewhere he never should have been, with a woman he never should have been with. He wife was back at the house worried about him because he never came home, and he was not responding to her calls or texts.     Desperate for information, she sent a text message to her husband’s five closest friends, asking them the same question: Frank hasn’t come home yet. Is he with you?”   By the time Frank made it home that night, his wife had received five text messages, each providing a different alibi for their friend. Whatever Frank was doing, she knew he wasn’t in five places at once.    We can applaud loyalty, and we all want friends that will go to bat for us, but it is possible to be too loyal. The five friends who thought they were helping their buddy out actually sealed his fate. If they had been honest, the wife would still learn the truth, but they wouldn’t have been exposed as liars.    When we lie to help a friend, we aren’t actually helping. In that obviously

  Is pride ever a good thing? What if pride is used to bring about good?   In the classic novel  Pride and Prejudice,  Jane Austen crafts this dialogue between the heroine Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Wickham:   Wickham: “It is wonderful…for almost all [Darcy’s] actions may be traced to pride; and pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling…”   Elizabeth: “Can such abominable pride as his, have ever done him good?”   Wickham: “Yes. It has often led him to be liberal and generous—to give his money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and relieve the poor.”   In the book Mr. Wickham wrongly led Elizabeth to believe Mr. Darcy was a man of great pride. Darcy’s generosity was supposedly based only on his desire for people to know how wealthy he was.    How much charity is done from a place of pride? Are you the kind of person who makes a large donation, not for the cause, but so that everyone will know how deep your pock

  The dictionary defines the word refuge as a “shelter or place of protection from danger, trouble, etc.”       The author of Hebrews said, “we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us (6:18).” What does he mean when he says we have fled for refuge?    He is talking about running to Jesus, as the next verses make clear: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever…”   The word refuge speaks of a shelter, but it has a much richer meaning than that. This actually looks back to the cities of refuge described in Numbers 35. When the Israelites settled the Promised Land, they were told to create six such cities as shelters for people. These were cities where people could go if they accidentally took a life. Under their law, a relative of a slain person would avenge the blood of

As long as there have been people there have been disagreements. Think about it: the first guy ever born killed his own brother.   So as Christians we should seek to get along, but the deck is stacked against us. Our own selfishness and pride get in the way, pushing us to want our needs met above anyone else’s. There is an unfortunate book titled  War in the Pews  that chronicles some fights among church members. The book details the story of a feud that developed because of a covered dish; one sister made her congealed salad with Cool Whip, which so offended another sister who preferred a different whipping cream.    One church split over whether to position the piano on the left or right side of the pulpit, another split over whether to serve the Lord’s Supper from the front of the sanctuary to the back or from back to front.   These things ought not to be! But they are nothing new. That is why when Jesus prayed with His disciples on the night He was arrested, He specifically prayed

  The author of Hebrews might have made a mistake. In chapter 11 we read this praise of Sarah: “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.”   By faith? Since when was Sarah a hero of the faith? Her very name in this great faith chapter is surprising enough, but to credit her miraculous delivery of Isaac to her faith seems downright wrong. Don’t you remember when Sarah laughed at God?    Genesis 18:10-12 records the event. “The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”    In the next verses the Lord asked Sarah why she laughed, and she denied laughing, but the Lord reiterated the promi