Citizen of Heaven

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the second half of my discussion of the topic of service with Tim Jennings and Edwin Crozier. Tim is the preacher for the Castleberry church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas. Edwin  preaches for the Livingston Avenue church of Christ in Lutz Florida.  We pick up with a discussion of how being a friend of Jerry Seinfeld does not make...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the first half of my discussion of the topic of service with two of the most qualified servants I know. Tim Jennings is the preacher for the Castleberry church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas. Edwin Crozier preaches for the Livingston Avenue church of Christ in Lutz Florida. I had a lot of trouble trimming this week. Lots of great c...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the second half of my conversation with Reagan McClenny and Scott Taylor. Reagan preaches for the Timberland Drive church of Christ in Lufkin, Texas. Scott preaches for the West Mason church of Christ in suburban Cincinnati.  In the second part of our conversation, we explore why God chooses to squeeze out the grapes of His wrath a...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This week I have a special pair of guests for you. Reagan McClenny is a long-time friend of the show. He preaches for the Timberland Drive church of Christ in Lufkin, Texas. Scott Taylor is a first-timer. He preaches for the West Mason church of Christ in suburban Cincinnati. Reagan and Scott will help me deal with the topic of anger this...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I’m back with the second part of my conversation with Jeff O’Rear and BJ Sipe. Again, Jeff is the evangelist for the Judson Road church of Christ in Longview, Texas, and co-host of the Working with the Word podcast;  BJ is the evangelist for the church of Christ in Danville, Kentucky, and the host of the Set Your Mind Above podcast. BJ is...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This week I spend some time with Jeff O’Rear, evangelist for the Judson Road church of Christ in Longview, Texas, and co-host of the Working with the Word podcast; and also BJ Sipe, evangelist for the church of Christ in Danville, Kentucky, and the host of the Set Your Mind Above podcast. BJ is another contributor to the Balancing the Chri...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the second half of my conversation on the topic of truth with Adam Shanks and Chris Kramer, two of several participants in the Balancing the Christian Life Lectures who will be appearing in this space in coming weeks. In these two segments we discuss what we think of Ron Wyatt and his outrageous claims, as well as spurious Biblical...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I’m joined this week by Adam Shanks and Chris Kramer, both first-time guests on the podcast. Adam is the preacher for the Edwards Lake church of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama, and the host of the Preach Impediments podcast. Chris is the preacher for the church of Christ Northside in Russellville, Kentucky, and a regular contributor to the...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Are secrets good or bad? It probably depends on whether it is others’ secrets under consideration or your own. Knowledge may be power, but too much power can overload our circuitry. This week we will discuss the secrets God is keeping from us, whatever they may be; whether privacy is an inherently bad thing (and I can make the case); wheth...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Is silence golden? Is it deadly? Is it nervous? Is it dramatic? As with everything else I seem to talk about, it depends on the context. This week we will discuss the role silence plays, if any, regarding authority; the greatest silent picture star of all time, and what he didn’t say; the thousand tiny triangles that play constantly betwee...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! There is evil in the world. I remember President George W. Bush getting in a lot of trouble saying that 20 years ago. But he was right then, and he’s right now.  This week we will discuss my theory on why the ones who knew God best rejected Him the most; how Dr. Jeckyl thought he could have his cake and eat it too; why I insist on saying S...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Spy stories have always fascinated me — the subterfuge, the twists and turns, the idea of being involved in something bigger than yourself. I’m largely over that, though, and this week I’ll tell you why. We will cover the challenges of getting too much information; the sacrifices that must be made for the cause; the moral dilemma of banana...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! The Bible speaks of three “heavens” — the one with birds and clouds, the one with the sun, moon and stars; and the one where God dwells. We will touch them all this week. We will discuss Psalm 8 and how we may have our telescopes pointed in the wrong direction; Carl Sagan’s idea of God and how woefully short it falls; one of the best argum...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! The sea represents the edge of the inhabited world. It’s deep, cold, mysterious, intimidating — not to be trifled with. This week we talk about the sea that separates us from God, and what God’s doing about it; Clive Cussler’s take on the Titanic story — better than James Cameron’s in my book; a pair of seas from the Bible and from our hym...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We follow up on last week’s “Creation” episode by talking about the land we inhabit and the role God gives us while we do so.  We will discuss the nature of our stewardship, and its implications for our own bodies; the folly of thinking we can every really know what we’re doing; what it means for the meek to “inherit the earth,” and how we...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This month is all about God’s power over the physical world — starting with our Evidence talk with the Appian Media guys last week, and continuing this week with the world we inhabit and how it came to be. We will discuss making something from nothing, both in the world and in our own lives; the great lie our enemies are telling, and how w...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the rest of my conversation with Craig Dehut and Stuart Peck, the founders of Appian Media. Appian Media provides free resources of extraordinary quality to help flesh out and fortify the faith of Bible believers. Check them out at AppianMedia.org.  In this part we discuss the testimony of the resurrection and how it paves the way...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! A few months ago I got to speak to Jeremy Dehut and Barry Britnell about some of the work being done by Appian Media. This week the founders of Appian Media are here, Craig Dehut and Stuart Peck. I got to pick their brains about the effective use of evidence from archaeology and history in efforts to build faith in ourselves and others. In...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Ironic, isn’t it? The man who never gets sick catches COVID the week he plans an episode on luck. You can’t make this stuff up. Anyway, I’m likely not at my best vocally, so your patience is appreciated. This week we will discuss the myth of Karma; our tendency to see bad luck crossing our path more often than good luck; the odds of humans...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We talked about standing up straight in the Posture episode last week. But stand where? For how long? Using our best judgment is critical; but sometimes what we call “best judgment” is simply what comes easiest. That may be simplistic and even counterproductive. This week we will discuss the dangers of thinking too much, the real differenc...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Take a stand for truth. Be a stand-up guy. Stand up and be counted. We instinctively connect good posture and good character. If you don’t buy into that, if you prefer to be a slouch, it’s probably going to affect your relationships — including your relationship with Jesus. This week we will discuss what our loins are and how we gird them...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We pick up where we left off in my conversation about racism with Benjamin Lee and Saif Alsafeer. If you haven’t checked out part 1 yet, please do so. In this conversation we go back to Robinson Crusoe one last time to discuss how relevant the racism discussion is in today’s world and today’s church; and the hazards of stereotyping people...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We begin Season 4 of the podcast this week with a very special conversation with Benjamin Lee and Saif Alsafeer on a very sensitive topic. I very much appreciated the perspective of these two men, and I enjoyed how we were able to approach the topic as brethren. This is the first part of our discussion. We spend it emphasizing our commonal...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the second half of my conversation with Kenny Embry, Edwin Crozier and Jared Bollman, three of my favorite people in this space. We will discuss the blessings and hazards of social media, what draws us to this space, the price we pay to participate, and the upcoming Balancing the Christian Life Lectures. Hal Hammons is the preacher...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! To cap the third season of Citizen of Heaven, I sat down over Zoom with three of my podcasting buddies to talk about the medium, how we are all using it, what potential pitfalls await us, and how we came to podcasting in the first place. I hope the conversation will be interesting and informative. Jared Bollman hosts the Man Up! podcast, a...