Tommy Mann

When it comes to peace, some people are peacekeepers and some are peacemakers. The former simply shoots for keeping the peace, not rocking the boat or ruffling feathers, while the latter proactively strives to make peace where there is none.  The peacekeeper does not want to hurt feelings. These people will kick the can down the road rather than deal with a problem. There may be trouble brewing beneath the surface, but as long as things are not exploding at the moment, the peacekeeper will keep on keeping on. The peacemaker recognizes the coming confrontation and seeks to get out in front of it, to even prevent it from happening by brokering peace between the warring factions.  In his book on dealing with conflict, titled Firestorm, pastor Ron Susek wrote, "While peacekeepers try to sweep things under the rug, peacemakers try to sweep things out the door." (p.126) Those who are non-confrontational may avoid being peacemakers because they dread the difficult conversations that...

I recently read about a scam people are running at hardware stores. They purchase a pressure washer, then take it home and do whatever they needed to do--clean their driveway, their house, or anything else they needed done. When they are finished, they put the machine back in the box, take it back to the store, and claim it didn't work. They return the item for a full refund, and by the time manufacturer realizes there is nothing wrong with it, it's too late. The manufacturer and the store have lost a sale, and the money they spent sending back a perfectly good product.  Apparently these kinds of scams are common, with people even returning half eaten food to grocery stores. Our economy is a trust-based system where we long assumed people would do the right thing. Con artists were the rare exception to the rule, so that our system still worked. Maybe the store loses the occasional sale, but everything still ended up in their favor. But they are not the rare exception any longer...

People love to quote the first two words of Luke 6:37, which are "Judge not." For many people that seems to be all of the verse (or even the entire Bible) that they actually know. Others will quote the first eight words of the verse, which are, “Judge not, and you will not be judged." Jesus is not telling us not to judge, but is warning us that, once we start to judge, we need to expect to be judged by others. Those who "live and let live," who ignore other's sins in hopes that others will ignore theirs, are not doing anyone any favors. Rather than letting iron sharpen iron, we create spaces where sin flourishes, all while we pat ourselves on the back because we "judge not." Jesus didn't tell us not to judge, but actually taught us how to judge, as John 7:24 says, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Judge is an imperative in Greek, an action verb; we are called to judge, so long as we do it the ...

A verse Christians love to quote is 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." But what does it mean to be "in Christ?"  Some people have a problem with this phrase, and have expressed concerns that it borders on blasphemy. The issue is that they have determined being in Christ means we become divine, especially if we add to this Peter's declaration that through the promises of Jesus we "may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)."   Are these New Testament writers saying we, too, have a divine nature like Christ? That does sound blasphemous.  Saint Augustine compared being in Christ to a sponge soaking up water. The absorbent sponge soaks up all the water it can handle until it is dripping, but the sponge never becomes water, and the water never becomes a sponge. They are forever two separate objects, no matter how closely they are used toge...