Shows
Citizen of HeavenOUR NEW HOUSE: I feel settled. I feel challenged. I feel achy. I feel joyful.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!After five years of waiting, working and praying, the Hammons family is actually living in a place worthy of the name Casa Hammons. Since I’ve been unable to think of anything else for the last two weeks, I thought I’d give in to the urge and just talk about what’s been going on with us – how we’re settling in, the challenges that lie in front of us, the pain the move is caused and whether it’s all worth it; and the increasingly numerous opp...2025-04-2919 min
Citizen of HeavenONE, part 3: with Keith Stonehart and Paul HammonsRegister your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!All month long you listen to me and me alone on this podcast. But early on I determined to let you listen in once a month as I sit at the feet of others. The results are some of my favorite episodes of all. That certainly includes my conversation with Keith Stonehart and Paul Hammons, which wraps up today. We wrap up by talking about the game of solitaire some of our brethren seem determined to play and why they should pay the price, however painful, to...2024-05-0816 min
Citizen of HeavenONE, part 2: with Keith Stonehart and Paul HammonsRegister your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!We’re back with Keith Stonehart and Paul Hammons, talking about the number one. Keith works with the Fultondale church of Christ in the Birmingham, Alabama, area. Paul works with the Graham church of Christ in north Texas. In this segment, we’re discussing the benefits, and especially the dangers, of obsessing over a single thing. Is it possible to focus too much on a single thing — even if that thing is Jesus Christ? Let’s find out. Hal Hammons serves as preacher and shepherd for the L...2024-05-0820 min
Citizen of HeavenONE, with Paul Hammons and Keith StonehartRegister your feedback here. Always good to hear from you! We’re talking about numbers this month on the podcast, and we’re starting with the number 1, which seems appropriate. Keith Stonehart joins from the Birmingham, Alabama, area. He preaches for the Fultondale church of Christ. I’ve never met Keith in the flesh, but he’s good friends with my other guest whom I’ve known for all his life and almost all of mine. Paul Hammons preaches for the church of Christ in Graham, Texas, and is widely considered “the smart one of the family.” Hal Hammons...2024-05-0719 min
Citizen of HeavenWEEKLY REPORT, March 31-April 5, 2024: "Helen of Troy," etc.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!This is the Citizen of Heaven podcast, my report for the week of March 30-April 5, 2024. I am Hal Hammons, citizen of heaven. I’m here with a behind-the-scenes look at what’s going on in my life and the life of this podcast. This week’s livestream on Facebook was thwarted by the gremlins in my internet service; apologies for that. Most of my time this week will be focused on “Helen of Troy” by Margaret George, my first big book of the year. Before I start the show, l...2024-04-0623 minCitizen of HeavenMEEKNESS: Jesus and Samson. Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir. The name you wear. Go Fish.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!Meekness has come to mean weakness or passivity in our modern vernacular. But that’s not what it means in the Bible. And it’s not what it will mean here for the next 20 minutes.This week we will discuss the difference between the strongest man in human history and a muscle-bound oaf from the book of Judges; the frustratingly nice words from a Hall of Famer; the boastfulness of people who have done very little to boast of; and the friendliest competition in Hammons fami...2023-07-1118 minCitizen of HeavenADOPTION, part 3: with Scott BeyerRegister your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!We brought someone new into the Hammons family recently; my daughter Taylor married a fine Christian man, and we are thrilled to put an extra chair at the game table for him. But his experience with gaming is very different from ours. We want him to be part of our lives, but we want him to feel comfortable in making the transition. Dice Town was a good choice for Jake. It’s not quite the same as playing poker with dice, but close enough for him to un...2023-06-0833 minCitizen of HeavenTHE GOOD FUTURE: Smyrna. "The Sky is Not Falling." "Shahdaroba." Terraforming Mars.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!I am Hal Hammons, citizen of heaven, your embedded correspondent in Satan’s world. Thanks for listening, rating and subscribing.I am an optimist by nature. When I talk about the future, sometimes I forget that. This episode helped remind me, for which I am grateful.This week we will cover the glorious future of the persecuted church, and when and how it might arrive; the future of church growth and why we are running from it; a guarantee of a brighter future fr...2023-05-3018 minCitizen of HeavenPOVERTY: Jesus and the poor. Hillbilly Elegy. The Great Depression. QE.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!Poverty is the rule, not the exception. We have become prosperous enough in modern-day America that “poor” people write Yelp reviews on their smart phones about how expensive their sushi was. Actual poor people do exist, though. They always have and always will.This week we will discuss Jesus’ apparent indifference to poverty; a young man’s trip from hopelessness to Congress; the origin story of Hal Hammons, Famous Tightwad; and how my wife stopped the Federal Reserve from invading our board game table.Hal...2023-02-2120 minCitizen of HeavenTIME, with Jeff O'Rear and BJ SipeRegister 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 Christian Life Lectures; check it out if you have not already. In the first half of the conversation we discuss Solomon’s ideas about time in Eccl...2022-07-1224 minCitizen of HeavenTRUTH, part 2: with Chris Kramer and Adam ShanksRegister 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 arguments in general; and the “Telephone” game so popular at gatherings of young people that turns out to have been triggering to one of my guests. We’l...2022-07-0642 minCitizen of HeavenTRUTH: with Adam Shanks and Chris KramerRegister 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 Answering Religious Error stream on Facebook. Both will be contributors this month to the Balancing the Christian Life Lectures. In the first half of our conversation, we will discuss th...2022-07-0521 minCitizen of HeavenSECRETS: God's secrets. "The Circle." Introverts. Rear Window.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); whether introverts can get to heaven — and if so, how; and how Alfred Hitchcock made his way to my game table. Hal Hammons is th...2022-06-2829 minCitizen of HeavenSILENCE: Authority. "The Autobiography of Charles Chaplin." Tinnitus. The Mind.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 between my ears; and your new favorite game that I’m here to make you hate. Hal Hammons is the preacher for t...2022-06-2125 minCitizen of HeavenEVIL: Idolatry and sex. "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde." Satan's world. Cthulhu.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 Satan is ruling in the world today; and why we avoid one of the most beloved cha...2022-06-1427 minCitizen of HeavenSPIES: Kadesh-Barnea. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." Banana republics and banana pudding. Covert.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 pudding; and the options available to us when we are in over our heads. Hal Hammons is the preacher for the Lakewoods Drive church...2022-06-0725 minCitizen of HeavenTHE SKIES: Psalm 8 and telescopes. "Contact." Starlight. Clank! In Space.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 arguments against the six-day creation, and my argument against that; and how making the most of your time on earth can caus...2022-05-3124 minCitizen of HeavenTHE SEA: Separation from God. "Raise the Titanic!" "There is a Sea." Oceanos.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 hymnbooks, one of which one may represent you; and the best scuba diving experience you will ever find that’s made out of cardboard. ...2022-05-2423 minCitizen of HeavenTHE EARTH: Stewardship. "State of Fear." The meek inherit. Habitats.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 can act responsibly with an uncertain future ahead of us.Hal Hammons is the preacher for the Lakewoods...2022-05-1725 minCitizen of HeavenCREATION: Something from nothing. "The Lie." Theistic evolution. Cascadia.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 we can defeat it; the problems with squeezing the Bible into a model built by atheists; and why God’s ecosystems work s...2022-05-1024 minCitizen of HeavenEVIDENCE, part 2: With Craig Dehut and Stuart Peck of Appian MediaRegister 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 for faith in other areas of study; and what we should do if and when the answers we are getting to our questions are not giving u...2022-05-0441 minCitizen of HeavenEVIDENCE: With Craig Dehut and Stuart Peck of Appian MediaRegister 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 the first part of our conversation we discuss the use of entertainment media, especially on behalf of our young people. Nothing...2022-05-0333 minCitizen of HeavenLUCK: Karma. "The Kings of Big Spring." Origins. Yahtzee!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 evolving from non-living matter, if it’s even fair to calculate them; and how we can turn an unfor...2022-04-2623 minCitizen of HeavenPRECONCEPTIONS: "Behold, I thought." "The Prince and the Pauper" (2). Grapes on pizza. Box covers.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 difference (if any) between rich and poor, a new and perhaps horrifying vision of pizza, and the value of a good box cover.Hal Hammons is the prea...2022-04-1826 minCitizen of HeavenPOSTURE: Gird up your loins. "The Prince and the Pauper." Jordan Peterson. Aggravation.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 up; what separates princes and paupers; Jordan Peterson’s first rule for life; and what motivates me to play games, including awful games. 2022-04-1227 minCitizen of HeavenRACISM, part 2 - with Benjamin Lee and Saif AlsafeerRegister 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 based on a sliver of facts or surface appearances, especially in the era of social media. Hal Hammons is the preacher for the...2022-04-0631 minCitizen of HeavenRACISM, part 1 -- with Benjamin Lee and Saif AlsafeerRegister 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 commonality and our need to live together in the body of Christ, as well as assessing the problem of racism in the church today and how we...2022-04-0544 minCitizen of HeavenPODCASTING, part 2: with Jared Bollman, Edwin Crozier and Kenny EmbryRegister 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 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...2022-03-3027 minCitizen of HeavenPODCASTING: with Jared Bollman, Edwin Crozier and Kenny EmbryRegister 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, as well as the Biblically Speaking channel on YouTube. Edwin Crozier teams up with Andrew Roberts to host the Text Talk podcast, an...2022-03-2932 minCitizen of HeavenWORDS: Context. "Robinson Crusoe" (4). Profanity. Scrabble.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!Words are the tools of my profession. Whether written or spoken, live or recorded, they are the weapons of my warfare, to borrow from 2 Corinthians 10:3. This week we will discuss a word used constantly by preachers like me — and if you ask me, we ought to use it more; the havoc that 300 years of usage can wreak on our vocabulary; the lie we tell ourselves about profanity and what it says about our view of God; and how the smallest of words can make the gre...2022-03-2227 minCitizen of HeavenREPENTANCE: Kingdom prep. "Robinson Crusoe" (3). Fake apologies. Civilization.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!“Repentance” is a church word. We don’t hear it very often in our daily lives in the world. And maybe that’s the problem. We’re not doing it because no one is talking about it.This week we will discuss our utter unworthiness of the kingdom of God, our utter unwillingness to learn from our mistakes, our utter incompetence at simple apologies, and my own utter refusal to accept the consequences of my actions. Hal Hammons is the preacher for the Lakewoods D...2022-03-1528 minCitizen of HeavenISLANDS: The gospel's spread. "Robinson Crusoe" (2). Jimmy Buffett. Isle of Skye.Register your feedback here. Always good to hear from you!When I think of getting away from it all, I think of an island. Me here, problems way out there, it’s a comforting way of looking at the world. But island living is not as simple as that.This week we will discuss God’s plan to bridge the gap between the mainland and the islands; Robinson Crusoe conforming the island to meet his needs instead of the other way around; why “wasting away in Margaritaville” is not all it’s cracked up to be; and th...2022-03-0824 min