Citizen of Heaven

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s a mistake to think of the word “no” as merely a rejection of an offer, request or suggestion. Sometimes saying “no” to one thing is a gateway to saying “yes” to something better. Today we will hear Jesus say no to stagnation and yes to growth; we will hear two political pundits say no to isolation and yes to discussion; we will hear A...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I am sharing here the Top Ten list I did for my Facebook group, Heaven Citizens, of the characters in the Bible that I think (1) feature prominently in the story and (2) do not get much credit for it. Agree or disagree as you like -- but I hope you will agree at least that these characters deserve our respect. Hal Hammons serves as preache...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Meekness has come to mean weakness or passivity in our modern vernacular. But that’s not what it means in the Bible. And it’s not what it will mean here for the next 20 minutes. This week we will discuss the difference between the strongest man in human history and a muscle-bound oaf from the book of Judges; the frustratingly nice words fr...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the final part of my conversation with Reagan McClenny and Adam Shanks. Reagan preaches for the Timberland Drive church of Christ in Lufkin, TX; Adam preaches for the Edwards Lake church of Christ in Birmingham, AL, and his podcast, Preach Impediments, will soon return from hiatus. Today we look at the struggles we often face in se...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Adam Shanks, host of the Preach Impediments podcast, is also the author of In God We Trust, an excellent book on money management. You can find it at Adam’s website, Edenhollow.com. In this segment, Adam and Reagan McClenny, who preaches for the church of Christ in Lufkin, TX, discuss with me the importance of properly managing our money,...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This week I am joined by Reagan McClenny and Adam Shanks, both of whom are participating in this month’s Balancing the Christian Life Conference. Find out more at balancingthechristianlife.com. Check out Reagan’s work through the podcast of the Timberland Drive church of Christ. Adam’s work can be found at his website, edenhollow.com. In o...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! “But Hal,” you may be saying, “photography wasn’t invented until the 19th Century. What does it have to do with the gospel?” Well, that’s what you’re here to find out, right? This week we will discuss whether God is a photographer or a sketch artist; who the most famous anonymous couple in America actually was, and whether we should care;...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Nothing shows the power of God like a flood. Water, the most common and necessary object in the world, becomes an irresistible force, destroying everything in its path.  This week we will discuss the impact Noah’s flood had on the songs Israel sang for centuries afterward; the most famous weather event in Texas history and the lesson in hu...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! As of this posting I have finished 63 books this year. There’s no way I will be able to address all or even most of them on the podcast. Since I am largely reading these books for the benefit of you, my listener, I don’t want my experience to go entirely to waste. Hence these Top Ten lists. These are the books that have had the biggest imp...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Do unicorns exist? Have they ever? It depends a bit on which sort of unicorn you’re talking about. And there are several. This week we will talk about the unicorns we find in the Bible, and what they can teach us about the gospel; the dream of a unicorn farm I am sadly having to surrender; the unicorns our young singles are looking for, an...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We brought someone new into the Hammons family recently; my daughter Taylor married a fine Christian man, and we are thrilled to put an extra chair at the game table for him. But his experience with gaming is very different from ours. We want him to be part of our lives, but we want him to feel comfortable in making the transition. Dice To...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re back for the second part of my conversation with adventurers in the field of adoption. Wilson and Julie Adams have adopted three teenagers from overseas. Scott Beyer and his wife Jenna have adopted a total of seven children, many with serious health issues. In this section we discuss the role we play in accomplishing the will of God...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! When it comes to adoption, my guests are experts. Wilson and Julie Adams serve with the Veterans Parkway church of Christ in Murfreesboro, TN. They are licensed counselors and adoptive parents of three. Scott Beyer preaches for the Eastland church of Christ in Louisville, KY. He is also the host of the Love Better podcast and has adopted s...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s almost unfair for me to describe the books in this week’s list as “disappointing.” In most situations, the fault is entirely mine — I had unreasonable or inaccurate preconceptions before starting the books, and then they naturally let me down when I realized what they truly were. In any event, I did not enjoy these experiences as much...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I am Hal Hammons, citizen of heaven, your embedded correspondent in Satan’s world. Thanks for listening, rating and subscribing. I am an optimist by nature. When I talk about the future, sometimes I forget that. This episode helped remind me, for which I am grateful. This week we will cover the glorious future of the persecuted church, and...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Last week I introduced my Facebook group, Heaven Citizens, to the ten books I’ve read so far this year that made me think. This week I did the same, looking at the books that took me by surprise. I appreciate the interest being shown; if this encourages you to read more, my work here is done — so long, of course, as your regular Bible read...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I have good news, and I have bad news. Please come back next week for the good news, which I am very excited about. But the bad comes first. This week we will cover the church so sick it thinks it’s healthy; one man’s effort to blame religion for everything; the trendsetters of our culture and how they are setting us all up for disaster; a...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is a special edition of COH. I took the time to connect with my followers on Facebook and talk for a bit about the books I’ve been reading this year. It’s halfway through my biggest reading year ever, and there’s no way I will be able to even briefly discuss all of these books on the podcast. So I thought I would put together a few To...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! The unknown can be terrifying – and nothing says “unknown” like the future. This week we will cover how the mighty can fall hard and in a remarkably short span of time; what genetic manipulation could do with regard to divine authority and human ego; whether a machine can write an essay better than I can; and the games people play in the p...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the first of four episodes focusing on the future – good, bad, scary, and exciting. I’m excited about it, so I guess “The Exciting Future” is the place to start. This week we will discuss the church that excited Jesus and why it might not excite you or me; the book that got me started on this line of thought in the first place; the...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! BJ and Kylie Sipe from Danville, KY, are back to finish our conversation about bearing and rearing children, and especially the spiritual implications that come with it. Check out parts 1 and 2 if you have not done so already. We finish by talking about bringing another generation of humans into a sinful world, and another generation of po...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! BJ and Kylie Sipe work and worship with the church of Christ in Danville, KY. They host the Set Your Mind Above and Called & Worthy podcasts, respectively; links are in the show notes. In part 2 of our conversation, we discuss how children can become a serious spiritual problem in our homes, and how we can commit ourselves to the task...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Travail is a synonym for work, especially painful, extended work. In the bible, it is often used specifically for childbirth. Perhaps “going into labor” is a more common figure of speech today. An extended period of suffering can seem unbearable, but it is forgotten in the bliss of the birth of a child. Describe some ways God works good th...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Tolerance is in short supply these days – especially with the people who are always preaching tolerance. I hope I didn’t just condemn myself there. This week we will discuss the problems tolerance brought to the church in Thyatira back in the day, and that might pop up in our churches today; the crazy beliefs we will accept in our heroes,...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Sequels are a mixed bag. Sometimes they celebrate or even improve upon the original. Sometimes they make us wish someone had just left well enough alone. This week we will discuss the purpose of sequels in the Bible and how we can make the most of them; the war we fought because we didn’t fight the previous one well enough; the upcoming In...