Citizen of Heaven

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the final installment from my conversation with Brian Rainwater and Michael Eldridge on the topic of songs. And this is likely what you came to hear — two experts on congregational song music weighing in on what makes a good hymn, which ones have impacted them in a particular way over the years, and what makes the special hymns so...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Here’s more of my discussion with Michael Eldridge and Brian Rainwater. Here we talk more particularly about the songs we sing as the people of God, old hymnals vs. newer collections, old-style hymns vs. modern radio fare, how we learn songs and whether it’s worth the effort, and much much more. Apologies ahead of time to Hillsong and thei...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! As Music Month kicks off, I thought it would be best to consult a couple of musicians. Michael Eldridge is a hymn writer and vocalist, perhaps best known for “When I Go Home”; check out his work at acapeldridge.com. Brian Rainwater is Director of Bands at Florida College, and quite the hymn writer as well. In the first part of our discussi...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! They say seeing is believing. But what does it really mean to “see” something? Is it possible to visualize something conceptual? Something futuristic? Something heavenly? This week I say yes. We’ll discuss the times when God’s vision of the future is wrong, or at least seems to be; an unbeliever’s view of prophecy and the blinders he puts...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Whether you’re talking about the Bible, the bookstore, the music you hear, or the games you play – it can get pretty strange. But sometimes the strange parts are the most interesting parts. Today we’ll discuss perhaps the most disgusting chapter in Israelite history (and that’s saying something); the oddest bookstore in the world and its p...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I started writing this episode planning to describe weakness as being not nearly as awful as you might think. I wound up deciding weakness isn’t a bad thing at all. Not if we see it as God sees it. This week we’ll discuss what makes wives weaker than their husbands (that’s enough to know it’s not a bad thing right there); the weakling God...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! My dad’s funeral is this week. So comfort is on my mind. I’ve gotten a lot over the last few weeks, so I’m here to share some with you. This week we’ll discuss Paul’s counterintuitive and yet foolproof recipe for contentment; my own favorite “warm and fuzzy” book, which in places is anything but warm and fuzzy; perhaps the music industry’s...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Maybe we should have done this episode before the holidays. Then again, maybe you have just as much stress now but with more bills to pay. If so, I’m here to help. This week we discuss embracing the simple truth about stress; celebrating a tiny book on a huge subject; considering whether medicine is the problem or the solution (spoiler ale...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re finally at the end of the road — the best books I’ve read in 2023. Here I discuss 10 books I read in the back half of the year and mix in the best from the first half. From self-help to Jesus allegories to nuclear apocalypse, you’ll find a little bit of everything here. Enjoy.  Books that made the list (*=appeared on one of the Halfw...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Books that make you go “Hmmmm” are my favorite kind of books. Whether I’m challenging my current mode of thinking or simply investigating the other side of the argument, more information is almost always better than less. And if what I read can help me understand who I am and who I am trying to become, even help me get there a bit more eff...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s that time once again. Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the college football playoffs. Fun, food and fellowship in abundance. Truly, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” This week we’ll discuss the parties that get a bit too festive; political parties and whether they are really necessary; the party spirit that dominates far too many...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! These are the biggest surprises, mostly good ones, that I got in the second half of 2023. Since I’m going back and editing the livestream I shared with my Facebook group, Heaven Citizens, I get to make an important correction. One of the books on the list was not in front of me; in fact, I never actually bought it in the first place. And s...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Signs are everywhere, from giant words in the sky to the fuzzy green stuff in your refrigerator. God gives you signs, too. Ignore them at your peril. This week we’ll cover the greatest sign Jesus ever performed and why people completely missed it; three authors’ ideas about how dense people can be in the presence of absolute proof; the roa...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Back in May, when I listed my best, most disappointing, most surprising and thinkiest books I had read to that point, I had no idea what I was in for. Since that time I have averaged a bit more than one book a day. That translates to, well, a lot of books. And they weren’t all winners. I was able to derive some benefit from everything I re...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Is bigger always better? That depends on what we’re measuring, and how we are defining “big.” (Wait a minute. Am I talking about context again?) This week we’ll cover the real giant who fought in the valley of Elah; the biggest book I have ever read and whether it was worth the exercise carrying it to Florida; the “Dollar General theory” o...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! What does the next level of development look like in the cause of Christ? How do we know we are getting there and staying there? This is the topic in the last part of my conversation with Adam Shanks and Reagan McClenny. If I do say so myself, I thought their comments were pretty great. Find out more about my guests respectively at edenhol...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!  We’re back with more greatness from Adam Shanks and Reagan McClenny. In this segment of our conversation we discuss the book they both urged me to read, how they were right (of course), and how we can create some “atomic habits” in our walk with Jesus that will keep us on course and drive us toward greater success. Find out more about my...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Are Adam Shanks and Reagan McClenny the greatest preachers I know? Let’s just say they are part of a big logjam at the top. So I brought them back this week to talk about what true greatness is, especially in God’s eyes. In part one of our conversation we discuss the one Jesus singled out for greatness and how he can be a model for us toda...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s Reading Month here on the podcast, and I’m taking you down to the mailbox this week to see what lessons we might find there.  We’ll discuss the “snail mail” that served the apostles so well in the First Century and that serves us still today – if we read it correctly; a murder scheme that has absolutely nothing to do with the postman...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We continue Reading Month with one of my least favorite genres. I’ll traverse the galaxy to find a good topic for the podcast if I have to. And this week I have to. We’ll cover what one Bible character did upon seeing a legitimate UFO; C.S. Lewis’s attempt to get us to find Jesus on a different planet; the “proof” of alien life and why no...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! In part 3 of the “Books” episode, which aired earlier this month, I asked my guests, Edwin Crozier and Elizabeth Nowlin, to give me their list of books other than the Bible they would want to take with them if they were going to stay indefinitely on a desert island. If you haven’t checked it out, please do, along with the other two parts o...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! “Reading Month” turns to Satire this week, defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity. And the Bible is full of it. This week we will discuss the fun God’s prophets had at the expense of idolators; a different take (to say the least) on the Pride and Prejudice story; the madcap...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Instead of shoehorning a game into this segment, I’ve decided to make my own. It’s called “Gilligan’s Island,” and here’s how it works. You’re going to spend an indefinite period of time isolated from everything and everyone. You can take five books with you, other than the Bible. And for reasons I can’t get into now, the books can’t be ab...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is part 2 of my conversation with Edwin Crozier and Elizabeth Nowlin. Edwin is the co-host of the Text Talk podcast and preaches for the Livingston Road church in Lutz, Florida. Elizabeth is a member at Livingston with Edwin, and she co-hosts the Book Fare podcast. Links are in the show notes. Here we discuss the character we build an...

Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This is the first part of my conversation with Edwin Crozier and Elizabeth Nowlin, as we kick off Reading Month. Edwin is the co-host of the Text Talk podcast; Elizabeth co-hosts the Book Fare podcast. They worship together at the Livingston Road church in the Tampa, Florida, area. Here we discuss the value of reading, beginning with the a...