Memo From the Mann

One of my domestic responsibilities is to open up the house each morning. I’m undeniably an early riser, so taking care of such a thing seems natural. Admittedly, I get an energy bump when I lift the shades and or spread the curtains to reveal a bright sunny day. On those special days I want to expose as much beauty as possible, so I work at making sure we get as much exposure as is available. In...

In today's scripture we hear God saying,” I came, I called, and you didn’t respond. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the power. I knocked on the door and no one answered.” Wow, he must have been so disappointed that he was unable to reach his people. Lord, help us to listen for you, to listen for your calling, for your knock on the door, and strengthen us to respond in kind. Pray on, ~ E.M. Song: G...

Jesus spent thirty years in preparation for his ministry. A ministry that only lasted three years, and by this world’s measurements would have been deemed a failure. He failed to reach his chosen audience, and at the time of his death only had about a hundred and twenty disciples that were hidden away in an attic somewhere. Faith is not about our standing in the world’s community, it’s about where...

Are you currently in God’s shadow waiting for the revelation as to what your ministry is, and when it will happen? Jesus waited thirty years to begin his work. The arrow needed to be polished, and sharpened, it needed to be attended to. Relish this time with God, listen for his guidance, study his word, and look forward to being anointed by the Holy Spirit, and commissioned  for his purposes. Pray...

We have become so quick at questioning God, that we often do it without thinking. We speak, text, and use whatever media is available to complain, critique, and cry-out about whatever is not going the way we think it should. We do this more and more freely, without ever considering the hands of the one who is truly in control. We don’t have the capacity to think on his level, so maybe it shouldn’t...

I know someone who doesn’t do well under extreme conditions. They don’t generally do well in stressful times. I think we all know a person, or person(s) that are not good under pressure. Maybe it’s our friend in the mirror. Whether God gets us out, or carries us through, what matters is that he cares, and he’s with us ...and we can trust him. Pray on, ~ E.M. Song: Trust (Album: God Jul)

The world is filled with attractive and intriguing idols, and they’re all promising to bring us joy and contentment. But the emptiness we feel inside, that empty space, cannot be filled with any of these worldly things. The empty puzzle space can only be filled with the missing puzzle piece. Only the perfect piece will bring the puzzle perfect peace. When the world only provides short term answers...

We have freedom from this world’s clutches, from this world’s nagging, from this world’s value system... we have freedom in Jesus, and he’s not hiding from us... in fact he’s crying out for us to come to him, to embrace him, to be free! Open your heart and allow him to free you from the entanglements of this world, from the trappings of this world... and join the heavenly chorus singing, “we are f...

What a beautiful thing it is to accomplish God’s intent for us. What a content feeling of joy it is to please God; to act in a way that would bring a smile upon his face, that would bring joy into his heart, and that would create a special parental bond between us. Lord, how we long to be the pleasing shepherd. How we long to hear you say of us, ‘He/She is my shepherd and has accomplished all that...

Psalm 106: 43-46 Many times He delivered them; but they rebelled in their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.” Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry; and for their sake He remembered His covenant...”   My journey in life has brought me into a few relationships that have challenged me. By challenged I mean when my patience, my compassion, and my love was p...

I’ve always connected well to Luke 12:34,” For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” It speaks plainly, and clearly,  to my personal heart. It leaves no loop holes to wiggle out of, or rhetoric to creatively spin. It simply asks where and or what is our treasure.   You see, as I’ve come to discern, we were created to be God-centered, and sin, makes us self-centered. Knowing our w...

Being creative people, means we’re often searching for a better way to do things. A better way to save time, or a better way save money. The quest here is an honorable one ...after all our creative genes come from our Designer, who created us in his image.   In Psalm 101, we read where David wanted to bring the Ark of God up to Jerusalem. The Ark was God’s sacred seat - His throne on the earth. Da...

Malachi 2:4–6 (NIV): 4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord Almighty. 5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in pe...

6 “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ ~ Malachi 1:6 (NIV)   If I’m honest, there were a few moments growing up where I probably harvested some contempt for my ea...

“Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” ~ Zechariah 7:3   How many time have you caught yourself doing something that you weren’t aware of. Maybe your hands were idling themselves with unknown movements; or your leg were bouncing with anticipation, or maybe your feet were tapping out an annoying rhythm.   We are prone to doing some really curious stuff when...

Is there yet any seed left in the barn? ~ Haggai 2:19   As the days fly by on my calendar, I’m well aware of the passing of time. In fact these days, way too often, it seems as if life is rushing by ...and then with it comes these feelings of self deprecation.   Age has a way of creeping up on us when all of a sudden we’re doing second takes at the image in our mirror, but it’s the nature of our e...

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’ ” ~ Haggai 1:2   My earthly father had a tough time with me when it came to getting my chores done, my jobs done around the house. I had a special way of putting them off. I don’t know why I say special, as they were anything but special in that I was always getting reprimanded for not...

“you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” ~ Habakkuk 1:13a   Do you ever look at the world and feel confused by its behavior? Not a day goes by where we’re not bombarded with an endless supply of examples. It seems that every time I really step back and look at it, the world insults my faith. It makes me, a believer, wonder how can this continue ...day in, and day out?   The prophet Habakkuk was wondering...

“I am against you,”  ~ Nahum 3:5a   It’s human nature for all of us to want to be liked, to be accepted, and to be supported by others. Whether in business, or our personal lives, we want to be smiled upon. Just take a glimpse of our social networks and the vein attempts being made to get positive feedback.   None of us want to hear the words, “I am against you,”  ~ (Nahum 3:5a) ...but that’s exac...

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet ~ Nahum 1:3b   The closest thing to God’s fury that I can think of is weather related. I’ve experienced some harrowing weather events in my lifetime, events that made me reflect on how I was in control of very little, if anything at all.   Those are great equalizer moments. In those moments we realize just how weak and...

hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea ~ Micah 7:19   My daughter once lost a teething ring in a swampy bit of water in St. Augustine Florida. What compounded the retrieval of the ring was that it settled onto the snout of a rather large alligator. Just relocating where the ring was a miraculous achievement on my part as I realized after the fact that it was gone, but the sight of this...

He will stand and shepherd his flock ~ Micah 5:4   There are countless stories where love lies bleeding. Where the love for another is the driving force for sacrifice that sometimes leads to death. Have you witnessed this kind of love in your life time?   Seven hundred years before the gospel, in Micah 5, we read about a deliverer that is foreseen. The character of the deliverer will be that of a...

and peoples will flow to it ~ Micah 4:1   Have you ever been caught up in a moment when time didn’t exist? A moment when your mind was so occupied that the passing of time was oblivious to you. That’s to say at some point you stopped to realized a large portion of it had passed without your recognition. That’s being in the flow.   As a musician I get to experience (flow) it in those special improv...

Let everyone call urgently on God ~ Jonah 3:8   When is a time where you have urgently called on God? Urgently meaning you required immediate action or attention. It certainly would’ve been a serious, and probably even a life threatening moment. I mean we’re not gonna urgently call on God to shine on tomorrow’s day at the beach.   In Jonah 3 we find the king of Nineveh, the most powerful man in th...

But Jonah ran away... ~ Jonah 1:3 Have you ever run away from something? I’m sure you have ...we all have, and hindsight usually reveals just how foolish and wasteful the behavior was.   But imagine running from God ...as if that’s even a possibility. What foolishness to think that the omnipresent God would not be able to track us down, that he’d somehow lose us in the world’s mass of humanity. Si...