Tommy Mann

One of Aesop's Fables is titled The Frog and the Fox, or the Toad and the Fox in some editions. The short story is about a frog that declares he has the ability to heal any ailments within the animal kingdom. Upon hearing this audacious claim, the fox replies, "If you can heal any ailment, why do you look like that?" The fox pointed out the sickly complexion of the amphibian, and the fact that his mobility was limited to merely hopping.  Aesop wrote his fables around 620-564 BC, so they were in circulation and popular in the days that Jesus walked the earth. It is believed that the fox's clever insult to the frog gave birth to the Jewish proverb, "Physician, heal yourself." Jesus quoted those words in Luke 4:24, saying to the congregants in the synagogue, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Physician, heal yourself.' What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well." The proverb is one of skepticism, as i...

 I found an app called We Croak. It is not a game, a platform, or any kind of useful tool. We Croak is an app that reminds you that you are going to die.  For those interested, this app will send you five notifications throughout the day reminding you that everyone dies ("We croak," it says). With each alert comes a quote from a poet or philosopher with some allegedly profound thought to accompany this invited reminder of mortality.  I downloaded the app out of morbid curiosity, but I uninstalled it when I realized it costs $19.99 a year. People are actually paying twenty bucks for their phone to interrupt them five times a day telling them they will die. I tried to find the positive element in this, so I will offer two. One, if you are not ready to die, this can be a good reminder to make any changes you need to make before it is too late. But don't wait for the next notification. They just become white noise after so long. If you do not know that heaven would be your ho...

There is an interesting figure mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. In 7:18 we learn, “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven.” Who is this queen of heaven? She is only mentioned here and three times in chapter 44, where the Israelites insist they will continue to worship her instead of the Lord.   Most scholars believe this was Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of war and fertility. Archaeologists have discovered statues and other images of her in ancient Israel, a place where Ishtar never should have been, but King Manasseh imported idol worship during his reign. This was a silly primitive practice.  But today there is a modern queen of heaven that is just as silly to worship. Roman Catholics use this title for Mary, the human mother of Jesus. They pray to her, asking her to ask her Son to do things for them, not realizing they can talk directly to her Son and enter “boldly before the throne of grace (He...

  The United States Constitution is referred to as a living document because it can be amended. Some people use the phrase living document to say the Constitution adapts with society, so that we broaden or narrow the meaning of old language based on current events or understanding.    I’m not here to weigh in on just how living the U.S. Constitution may be. I have my beliefs, but this isn’t the place for them. Instead, I want to weigh in on another, much more important, living document.    The author of Hebrews wrote, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (4:12).”    If the Constitution is living because it can be amended, then the Bible is absolutely NOT living in that sense. If the Constitution is living because it adapts to a changing society, then the Bible is absolutely NOT living i...

This time of year people have a desire to be scared. They will dress up in scary costumes, go to haunted houses, and watch movies that keep them on the edge of their seat. While I have never had much of an appetite for such things, many enjoyed being afraid.       The Bible tells us a little fear can be a good thing.  The author of Hebrews wrote in 4:1, “Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.”   The rest he spoke of referred to their ancestors resting in the Promised Land. Unfortunately for that first generation, they failed to enter that rest when they turned on God (and Moses); when they weren’t complaining, they were doubting. They finally decided they didn’t want to go into the Promised Land because they didn’t believe God would give them victory.    They failed to enter their rest, but the author warned of missing another, and better, kind of rest—ete...

  Do we know that we are saved now, or do we only hope we are? I frequently hear people say they hope they will go to heaven one day, but I know I am going.     But some like to point out that the New Testament uses the word hope in association with our salvation; Titus 3:7, for example, speaks of “the hope of eternal life.” It is important that we understand what hope means.   When believers speak of hope we are not using it as a verb (“I sure hope so!”). We are using it as a noun. Hope is not something we do, it is something we have. Hope is an intangible object we possess in our spirit, something in the future that we are so sure of now that it is thought of as a done deal.   Charles Spurgeon once said, “Unbelief begins weeping for the funeral before the man is dead; why should not faith commence piping before the dance of victory begins?”    Hope is like faith. For the child of God, the dance of victory has not yet begun, but that doesn’t mean we c...

  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...

  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 ...

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 ...

  The Bible calls us to show love. Jesus Himself said loving God and loving our neighbor constitutes the two greatest commandments. We might become tempted to make a list of people we are supposed to love, and then keep a separate list of people we don’t actually have to love. But the author of Hebrews did not give us that option.   Notice what he says in 13:1-2: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”    This brotherly love, as some will recognize, is  philadelphia  in Greek, where the famous city in Pennsylvania (the city of brotherly love) derives its name. It is a combination of two words, and it literally means love from the same womb. The author told the Hebrews to love all those from the same womb. Because they were all Jews, they were each descended from the womb of Sarah, the matriarch of Israel. There is a clear call to love their fellow countrymen.  ...

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 h...

  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 twe...

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...

  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 ...

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 ...

  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 an...

  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 wor...

  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 e...

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 b...

The author of Hebrews wrote, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (4:14).” What does it mean that Jesus passed through the heavens? This certainly calls to mind the incarnation and His earthly ministry, when Jesus left heaven and was born into our world.     After He completed His great assignment which culminated with Calvary, Jesus ascended back to heaven. Luke described the scene this way: “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Then two angels explained what just happened: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven (Acts 1:9, 11).”   We notice that the word heaven in our text is plural; He passed, not through heaven, but the heavens. That is because there are three heavens. The sky above us, where clouds float by and raindrops fall,...