Citizen of Heaven

Bölümler

• 
  EARTHQUAKES: When the earth broke. "A Crack in the Edge of the World." Are hurricanes worse? TableTop. 15.09.2026 19dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s not all sunshine in California, unfortunately. The usually amazing weather can turn absolutely horrific. Do earthquakes represent God’s efforts to finally destroy California entirely? What do we do when a giant gap threatens to separate brethren permanently? Are natural disasters worse for Californians or for beach people? And what kind of quake could disrupt train travel over an entire continent? Let’s find out. Check out Hal on...
• 
  HOLLYWOOD: Stardom. "He's Just Not That Into You." Real heroes. The Networks. 08.09.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! This month’s tour of California starts where talk about California always starts, for better or for worse. We’ll talk about the nature of stardom and whether it’s worth the cost; our obsession with happy endings and the harsh realities that may land instead; the heroes Hollywood used to produce, how the modern-day versions measure up and whether it matters; and how a show about your colon might be the key to becoming the best TV execu...
• 
  CALIFORNIA, part 3: with Shawn Highfill and Mike Wilson 03.09.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Shawn Highfill and Mike Wilson have joined me for an insightful talk about California this week. We conclude our conversation by considering the abundance of blessings God shares with us in this life – and that are visible in California arguably more than any other place in the world. Links to Shawn’s work in San Jose and Mike’s work in Santa Clara are supplied in the show notes. If you have a vacation coming up, you couldn’t do bette...
• 
  CALIFORNIA, part 2: with Shawn Highfill and Mike Wilson 02.09.2026 13dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Christians are prisoners of local culture. Such has always been the case. What do we do when local culture interferes with the culture Jesus is trying to build in His body? And is the problem with California culture that much different than in other places? To help us find an answer, we have Shawn Highfill from San Jose and Mike Wilson from Santa Clara, deep in the heart of a region with a reputation of, to put it mildly, not prioriti...
• 
  CALIFORNIA: with Shawn Highfill and Mike Wilson 01.09.2026 32dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! California is now my second-favorite state. And as a birthday present to myself, we’re going to spend the whole month of September there. Here to help are Shawn Highfill from the Miller Avenue church of Christ in San Jose and his neighbor Mike Wilson from the church of Christ in Santa Clara. We start with the reason California was so low on my list for so long – stereotyping. I asked whether they had experienced stereotyping as Califo...
• 
  AGING: Caleb. "William Henry Harrison." Outliving your advisers. Fromage. 25.08.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I turn 60 years old in two weeks. And I’m totally OK with it – so OK, in fact, that I want to talk about one of the greatest senior citizens in the Bible; a man who some thought was too old and stubborn to be president, and who then got elected and proved them right; the disadvantage of having older men as advisers and how it got a king killed; and a game that gets better and better the longer you leave it on the table, although it ma...
• 
  AUTHORITY: CENI. "Henry V." Yelling. Rulebooks. 18.08.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Those who know me are likely shocked that an “authority” episode has not appeared as of yet. Well, better late than never. This week we’ll talk about the authority model I’ve heard all my life and whether it deserves its reputation; a king who came up with a way to rule from a distance; an alternative to authority favored by children of all ages; and the authority that governs my gaming and how I deal with it when I don’t understand i...
• 
  DELAYS: Saul's baptism. "Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln." Air travel. A.I. 11.08.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! OK, I’ve put this off long enough. It’s time to actually do an episode about delays. We’ll discuss Saul’s baptism and why it’s such a powerful lesson for us today; the delays in our speech patterns that may speak louder than our actual words; the delays Tracie and I faced in a place where delays are most unwelcome, and how delaying got us there in the first place; and the effect that pointless delays have on our playing partners, both...
• 
  WORLD CUP, part 3: with Terry Francis and Nick Angel 06.08.2026 35dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! It’s not soccer; it’s football. That’s how the world says it, and that’s the way Terry Francis, Nick Angel and I have been trying to say it. The things you say and the way you say them makes a big difference – including and particularly when you’re talking with brethren. And not always in a good way. So check your biases at the door; it’s time to decide which shibboleths are needful and which are needlessly divisive and destructive. C...
• 
  WORLD CUP, part 2: with Terry Francis and Nick Angel 05.08.2026 23dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Nick Angel preaches for the Loudon church of Christ in Louden, Tennessee; Terry Francis is with the church in Chelsea, Alabama. Links to their work are in the show notes. In the second part of our World Cup conversation, we discuss the anti-American propaganda and a German named Freddy has headed up the charge of rebutting it, and how we as Christians can be both victims and perpetrators ourselves while wearing the colors of Team Jesu...
• 
  WORLD CUP, with Terry Francis and Nick Angel 04.08.2026 32dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Confession time: I did not watch the World Cup this summer. But I did keep up with it well enough to appreciate the cultural phenomenon that it is in the world and that it became here in America. To show proper respect for the game we’re trying to call “football” this week, I enlisted the help of true aficionados Terry Francis and Nick Angel to help me through some of the highlights, beginning here with the pros and cons of nationalis...
• 
  WATER: Power. "A Perfect Storm." Too much of a good thing. Underwater Cities. 28.07.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! In a month full of drinking one thing or another, we finish with the most basic liquid of all. We’ll cover whether water can actually save you or whether it just gets you wet; whether the depths of the ocean and all the terrors therein should be enough to make you change your vocation; why I’m not as excited about rain as I usually am this time of year; and how the water outside your habitat can sneak in and destroy both your game and...
• 
  WINE: Drunk on love. "The Alcohol Experiment." "A Case of You." Machi Koro 2. 21.07.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Wine comes up in a wide variety of contexts in the Bible. This week we’ll discuss how the most famous Bible passage about wine may not really be talking about wine at all; how choosing to leave the drunken lifestyle doesn’t always yield the results you had hoped for; how being in love is like drinking wine, both for good and for ill – and how it’s worth it in at least one instance; and how you don’t have to make wine while playing a g...
• 
  TEA: Civilization. "Blood Orange Brewery." The Tea. Ceylon. 14.07.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re talking beverages this month on the podcast. Last week was coffee; this week we’re going a bit highbrow – or maybe not; we’ll have to see. We’ll discuss whether civilization is all it’s cracked up to be; whether tea is merely a beverage or an entire lifestyle; what “the tea” really is (not “tea,” mind you – “THE tea”); and whether you should content yourself with growing “good enough” tea, both in your game room and in your walk...
• 
  COFFEE, part 3: with Mark Roberts and BJ Sipe 09.07.2026 28dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! I hope everyone else has enjoyed this week at the coffee shop as much as I have; let’s have one last cup before we leave. To conclude the discussion, Mark Roberts and BJ Sipe discuss the willpower you have to find sometimes to walk away from something that may not be dangerous or sinful in and of itself. Links to their respective work are included in the show notes. Thanks again, fellas, for the talk. I’m stepping away from the table ...
• 
  COFFEE, part 2: with Mark Roberts and BJ Sipe 08.07.2026 31dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re back for a second cup with Mark Roberts of the West Side church of Christ in Irving, Texas, and BJ Sipe of the church in Danville, Kentucky. Links are included in the show notes. We’re talking here about mornings – how a cup of coffee can get you going physically, and what it might take to get you going on a daily basis spiritually. Whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, I think you’ll find something here to get you int...
• 
  COFFEE, with Mark Roberts and BJ Sipe 07.07.2026 29dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Mark Roberts’s Coffee and the Bible series was a big prompt for this episode. I was excited to sit down with him and BJ Sipe, another avid coffee drinker, to discuss a variety of coffee-adjacent topics. We start with the idea of combining coffee and Bible study. No one says you can’t study the Bible without a cup of coffee. But Mark and BJ clearly think it helps. So I just asked them how that worked. Links to Mark’s books as well as t...
• 
  HALFTIME REPORT: My Best Books of 2026 (So Far) 06.07.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! These are the best books I've read in 2026 so far. See also my list of "most surprising" books." Lord willing, the lists for the entire year will be posted in December. (Honorable mention): Doubts About Darwin, by Thomas Woodward 10. Mr. Roberts, by Thomas Heggin 9. Under God, by Toby Mac and Michael Tait 8. Conquerors, by Roger Crowley 7. John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Aitken 6. The Last Outlaws: The Lives a...
• 
  HALFTIME REPORT: Most Surprising Books of 2026 (So Far) 03.07.2026 28dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! These are the most surprising books I've read in the first half of 2026. 10. Where God Was Born, by Bruce Feiler 9. The Death of Evolution: Restoring Faith and Wonder in a World of Doubt, by Jim Nelson Black 8. The Grave of John Wesley Hardin: Three Essays on Grassroots History, by C.L. Sonnichsen 7. The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid: A Faithful and Interesting Narrative, by Pat F. Garrett, Sheriff of Lincoln Co., N.M., By Who...
• 
  BUSINESS: "Bad, bad." "A Shopkeeper's Millennium." Not personal. Furnace. 30.06.2026 18dk

  Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! Jesus wanted to be about His Father’s business as soon as possible. Here’s hoping His attitude will rub off on us. This week we’ll cover the difference between a successful businessperson and a crooked one; the help the business world has offered over the years in the cause of Christ and why we’re better off without it; an expression from the movies that is both true and offensive; and the way to grow a business on your game table tha...