Tommy Mann

  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...

When we think about worshiping God, we probably think happy thoughts. We might envision ourselves in a sanctuary, hands lifted high as we sing powerful choruses. We might even think back to miraculous moments where God came through for us, and we couldn’t help but burst forth in praise.   These are good and important moments of worship, but we need to remember that worship can take place in the good and the bad, the highs and the lows. The moments described above could be classified as adoration and thanksgiving, worshiping God with a grateful heart because of how good He has been to us. And He has been very good to us.    But the Bible gives us snapshots of people who worshiped God in their lowest moments as well. For example, when King David’s infant son died, II Samuel 12:20 tells us, “Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house.” Similarly, ...

      In Part 1 we saw that David and Solomon led the nation to build a temple. Although some comparisons are fair, it is not really accurate to say that the temple was like “church.” This temple existed as a way for mankind to appease God’s wrath.      The temple, which was built according to God’s specifications, had an outer courtyard where each person was allowed to come for a sacrifice. But inside the temple, in the Holy Place, only the priests were allowed to go. At the back of that room was a large veil—a 60 foot high, 4 inch thick veil—that led into the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies). Only the high priest could enter that room, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement.      On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the high priest would offer a sacrifice on behalf of the entire nation. This did not forgive sins (“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” Hebrews 10:4), ...

As a Christian is there ever a time that we can justify going to war? War obviously involves taking lives, and aren’t we supposed to be against that? What about the death penalty: isn’t killing a killer still murder? Some Christians are opposed to these concepts, and I want to be very clear here. I am not writing this to argue with you; I respect that stance, and I am not trying to start a war of words. This is just my personal belief after studying this topic.  At the same time, I am not a hawk when it comes to war. I do not believe in going to war for selfish reasons, like gaining territory, resources, or money. But I do believe the Bible teaches the concept of just wars, to wit, some wars are justifiable. But aren’t we called to be peacemakers? Yes, in His famous sermon on the mount Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9).” But this sermon was given to teach how to conduct ourselves in our individual ...