Citizen of Heaven

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Every year it seems I have more and more to be thankful for, and it's high time I said so on the podcast. this week I'll tell you which Hebrew word brings joy to my heart and why; the particular genre of book that piquest my interest the most and where I find them; the reason Roy Orbison and Brian Wilson are better musicians than...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! If I could choose any superpower, I might pick being able to fly. I doubt I'm alone in that. No wonder flight is used so often in the Bible as a spiritual metaphor. This week we'll learn how to escape the problems of this life by looking at the world the way God does; how to embrace the desire to fly God put in us and use it prop...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is my final installment of my conversation with Scott Taylor and Tyler Hall, who partner in the work with  the West Mason church of Christ in Mason, Ohio. We finish by talking about the most popular game in town, or so it seems — the Blame Game. These are smart fellows; can they explain to me why people’s situations are going to bet b...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Scott Taylor and Tyler Hall preach for the West Mason church of Christ in the suburban Cincinnati area. Scott, Tyler and I are all fathers, so I thought it would be good to continue our conversation by addressing the accountability of fathers in the home, and how we practically apply the concept of bringing up children in the nurture and a...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Scott Taylor and Tyler Hall preach for the West Mason church of Christ in the suburban Cincinnati area. We start our conversation with a simple question: What is your favorite story in the Bible about judgment? Check out Hal on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@halhammons9705 Hal Hammons serves as preacher and shepherd for the Lakewoods...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Turns out, there's not quite enough weeks in the year for me to say everything I have to say about San Francisco. So this week we'll put all the leftovers into a pot and see what comes out -- what if anything was really wrong with hippies; what businesses on the waterfront are closed and whether I care; whether the sound of sea l...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! The Golden Gate is a bridge, a park, and a geological feature. All three made a tremendous impression on me on my recent trip to San Francisco, and I'm here to tell you about it. We'll talk about crossing the barrier between opportunity and accomplished reality; the hazards of walking where others are careening; the most famous m...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! If you don't have the time or the vehicle to travel 5 1/2 hours to Redwood National Park on your next San Francisco trip, you can instead cross the Golden Gate Bridge, take a scenic drive through Marin County, and spend some quality time in Muir Woods National Monument. We did, and it's awesome in every sense of the word. This we...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Check out Hal on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@halhammons9705 Hal Hammons serves as preacher and shepherd for the Lakewoods Drive church of Christ in Georgetown, Texas. He is the host of the Citizen of Heaven podcast. You are encouraged to seek him and the Lakewoods Drive church through Facebook and other social media. Lakewoods Driv...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We're going to do something a bit different this month. I am going to spend October telling you about my recent vacation with Tracie to San Francisco. Spoiler alert: It was amazing. Life-altering, even. We'll have plenty to say in the weeks to come about Alcatraz, the redwood trees of Muir Woods, and the Golden Gate; we'll b...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Scheduled postings:  October 7: Tourism.  October 14: Alcatraz.  October 21: Muir Woods.  October 28: The Golden Gate. Check out Hal on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@halhammons9705 Hal Hammons serves as preacher and shepherd for the Lakewoods Drive church of Christ in Georgetown, Texas. He is the host of the Citizen of Heaven podcast...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We finish Animal Month with my third and (probably) final venture into ursine territory. If my buddy Kenny Embry is out there, this one's for you. We'll discuss Sarah Palin's favorite mammal and the situations in which you might encounter it; the most famous bear-hunter in history and my surprising issues with him; the most...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Again we turn to the insect world for help with living among the humans. I hope it's not bugging you. This week we'll discuss how smart humans have figured out a way to destroy themselves (which stupid ants don't do); the incredible work ants do by being what they are and doing what they are meant to do; a personal trip down...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I hate cats. But I enjoy Chinese food. See, there’s a blessing in every part of God’s creation – especially the lessons they teach us. This week we’ll deal with whether cats think they’re better than you or just don’t know you exist; some amazing poetry that somehow gave rise to some horrible acting; whether curiosity is actually deadly or...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Maybe when I announced “Animal Month,” you just thought “lions and tigers and bears, oh my.” But God teaches us big lessons with little things. This week we’ll discuss how ugly things grow beautiful through forces beyond their understanding; the man with a butterfly tattoo who went to crazy extremes to avoid being caged; a wonderful lie an...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Edwin Crozier and Andrew Roberts of the Text Talk podcast are back to finish up our discussion of everyone’s favorite reptile. Here we discuss a children’s game that, deliberately or accidentally, teaches us that life isn’t fair, some people catch more breaks than we do, and there’s not much we can do about it.  Can that make us bitter? Ab...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Edwin Crozier and Andrew Roberts are partners in the gospel for the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue in Lutz, Florida. They also co-host the excellent Text Talk podcast; a link is provided in the show notes. Edwin and Andrew are back to give the other side of the Biblical picture of snakes — one in which they, at least after a fash...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re talking animals this month, and we start in style by bringing in Edwin Crozier and Andrew Roberts of the Text Talk podcast to discuss everyone’s favorite reptile. We start where you would expect — the garden of Eden. But when I suggested Eve fell victim to a relatively obvious ploy, my guests didn’t necessarily agree. And the convers...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s time for one of my very favorite topics. How I got six and a half seasons in without a “Children” episode, I have no idea. We’ll discuss the reason spiritual people have children and then launch them out into the world; the sort of society we get when children make the rules; the simplicity or lack thereof of our hymn worship, and why...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! If something important is on the horizon, you get ready for it. That’s just common sense. Unfortunately, sense isn’t as common as you might think. This week we’ll discuss how Jesus is coming quicker than you think, and not in the way you might think; the extremes to which people will go in pursuit of what they really want; the voices in my...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! If there’s any subject in which I could claim to be an expert, this is the one. Thankfully God is more than competent enough to compensate for me. We’ll discuss how our repeated failures will not get in the way of a God determined to save us; a president whose best wasn’t nearly good enough and the problems that resulted; the very worst pr...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re wrapping up with Brent Clanton and Phil Robertson in this part of the episode. Here we focus on clickbait — the news industry’s increasing tendency to rope viewers in with wild headlines, claims of urgency, and countless other tactics designed to keep us glued to the screen. How can we protect ourselves? And how extreme should our re...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re picking up where we left off from the first part of my conversation with Brent Clanton and Phil Robertson, two veterans of the news business. If you missed the first part, make sure you go back and check that out. Is there media bias? If so, is it deliberate? And if so, what should be Christians’ approach if any to gathering news? An...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I got a couple of insiders for our discussion this week. Brent Clanton is a long-time radio celebrity in the Houston area and formerly served as shepherd for the Kleinwood church of Christ. Links to his work are included below. Phil Robertson worked in TV news in a former life; currently he is an associate vice president at Florida College...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! My final featured state this month is one that sparks extreme reactions -- fitting for a state that can be icy cold and boiling hot on the same day. We’ll discuss the most famous feature of Arizona and what it tells us about how the world came to be; the most famous gunfight in history and the lawlessness that lawmen can create; the reason...