Citizen of Heaven

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Red means many things to many people, from love to KFC to the sock you left in a load of whites that one time. Red coats the Bible as well, from Esau’s “bowl of that red stuff” to the rider on the red horse to the blood of Jesus. This week we cover the messages God circles in red; the red lights that signal go instead of stop; the red-head...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! BJ Sipe is the host of the Set Your Mind Above podcast, which I constantly plug and yet have not plugged this week — shame on me! Link is below. He and his wife, Kylie, minister to the church of Christ in Danville, Kentucky. In the third and final part of our conversation, we discuss the dangers of isolation and what both givers and receiv...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! BJ Sipe and Kylie Sipe, who work with the church of Christ in Danville, Kentucky, are back with the second part of our conversation. The focus this time: social media. Are the relationships we are forming through the internet part of the solution or part of the problem? And can we tell the difference? BJ and Kylie have some great things to...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! BJ Sipe, a frequent contributor to the podcast, joins us this week along with his wife, Kylie, to discuss their experience with depression. I think you will find their willingness to be open and honest about their struggles, failures and successes to be a tremendous blessing. If you know someone who is struggling, do them a favor and share...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’ve all fantasized about being able to go back in time and correct past wrongs, or go forward and escape current hardships. Current technology will not allow either, though — and I for one am glad. This week we will discuss how to live in the world we have made for ourselves or was made for us; the folly of asking John F. Kennedy to fix...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’ve all fantasized about being able to go back in time and correct past wrongs, or go forward and escape current hardships. Current technology will not allow either, though — and I for one am glad. This week we will discuss how to live in the world we have made for ourselves or was made for us; the folly of asking John F. Kennedy to fix...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Have you ever had “that sinking feeling?” Disaster slowly approaches. You find yourself paralyzed — partly by the terror itself, partly by your inadequacy, mostly by the sense that there’s nothing you do about it.  This week we will discuss the ebbs and flows of Peter’s faith in the storm; the death of American seamen and the subsequent se...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It isn’t 2020 anymore. Distance has brought some perspective to the COVID-19 issue. Perhaps now we can look at the idea of contagion, put it in a proper context, and learn some lessons that can apply both in sickness and in health. This week we will discuss practical applications from the Bible’s medical advice; whether romantic love count...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I’m back with more from Mark and Cindy Dunagan, the hosts of Nomads You and I. If you missed the first part of our talk, the Dunagans are in the business of talking to anyone and everyone about Airstreams, national parks, and Jesus Christ — not necessarily in that order. Check them out at nomadsyouandI.com. Since their home base is in Oreg...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Mark and Cindy Dunagan are the hosts of Nomads You and I, a podcast devoted to sharing their love of travel, hiking, Jesus Christ, and one another. Check them out at www. NomadsYouAndI.com. Since their home base is in Oregon, I thought they’d be the perfect partners for a discussion centered around my second-favorite state. In this section...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! God put in the heart of man a craving for the unknown, a need to expand his world. Ultimately it is intended to compel him to reach for heaven itself. Earthbound humans don’t know what they are missing, literally. We conclude Renaissance Month by discussing the greatest Christian explorer and his path to success; the greatest Renaissance e...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! If it’s important, write it down. The printed word has power unlike anything in human history — especially the printed word of God. For 1,000 years it had been unavailable to the common man. The Renaissance changed that forever. This week we will discuss an inspired writer’s obsession with what other people wrote; how comedy helped take do...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Even modern Catholic leadership will agree that the church was horribly corrupt in the Middle Ages. Systems were put in place specifically to keep the elites in their place and the peasants in theirs.  This week we will discuss God’s plan to keep churches free of corruption; a hero of song and legend who was probably anything but; the angs...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! My conversation with Jacob Hudgins and Michael Walls went so well, I felt compelled to split our conversation into three parts instead of my usual two. If you have not checked out the first two, please do so. Here we finish up the conversation by talking about how to take something seemingly unapproachable — such as modern board games, or...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! “A World Lit Only by Fire” by William Manchester is an amazing look into the Renaissance — what brought it on, what made it possible, and the people at the center of it. One of the most important of those people was a German monk named Martin Luther — a man lionized by many, demonized by many others. What is the legacy that Luther left beh...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This month we will be discussing the revival of learning that took the western world by storm in the 16th and 17th centuries. The world would never be the same afterward. Our first topic: the ignorance that preceded the learning. We begin with a conversation with Jacob Hudgins, preacher for the Twin City church of Christ in College Station...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Renaissance month begins next week. I thought it would be a good introduction to discuss the way we look at the physical world and how it can either defeat or reinforce faith, depending on how much faith we had to start with. This week we will discuss the scientific facts found in the Bible and which ones are more persuasive than others; C...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Easy is better than hard, all things being equal. But all things are not always equal. In fact, the more desirable the skill, object or accomplishment in question, the harder the quest seems to be. And that’s a good thing. This week we will discuss why life has to be so hard in general; why I have never finished a William Faulkner book, an...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Drawing a line in the sand is a common expression in English. And the beach has plenty of sand, and plenty of opportunities to draw lines. When does comfort become complacency? When does relaxation become laziness?  This week we will discuss Paul’s day on the beach and how it informs the book of Philippians; our influence at the beach, and...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re back with the rest of my conversation with Kris Emerson and Terry Francis; if you missed the first part, do yourself a favor and check it out. In this section I bring up the idea of the “authentic swing” from “The Legend of Bagger Vance” (which I consider to be bogus — both the concept and the book), and then ask how true to our indi...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! When I decided to put together an episode on coaching, I wanted to get two preachers who knew the topic — from both a sports perspective and a church perspective. I definitely got the right men. Kris Emerson is the preacher for the church of Christ in Lindale, Texas, and the host of the Excel Still More podcast. Terry Francis preaches for...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Maybe I’m still in stay-cation mode from last week. In any case, I’m spending this week talking about taking it easy and enjoying the life Jesus blesses us with here on earth, even in troubled times. We’ll discuss why the world is so confused by our peace; the extreme measures we sometimes need to take in its pursuit; the peace that has re...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Can you get away from it all without going anywhere? Tracie and I decided to give it a try this summer. We did some research on area restaurants, ordered a big batch of new board games, and settled in for two days of rest and relaxation. Long story short, I recommend it. In this somewhat different episode we will discuss the sermon I put t...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Maybe it’s the fact that I am fresh off a short “stay-cation” with Tracie, an experience I’ll likely discuss in a later podcast. In any case this week I’m in the mood to talk about the pros and cons of getting away from it all. We’ll talk about the folly of attempts to escape from an angry God; the problems that come with getting away with...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! What comes to mind when you think of monsters? The Sasquatch? The T-Rex? The boss? If telling your children there’s no such thing as monsters helps them sleep, go right ahead. But the grownups should know better. This week we will discuss the most famous monster story in the Bible, and the greatest one; how heroes find monsters instead of...