The Strangers and Aliens in Exile Podcast

01/01/2026

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/the-end-of-the-innocence?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Continuation in Genesis 3

12/30/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/perhaps-youre-not-as-free-as-you?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Jesus Knows Our Address

12/27/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/still-a-strange-way-to-save-the-world?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

A Late Christmas Reflection

12/04/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/strangers-and-aliens-out-the-gate?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

The temptation to be like God instead of embodying the Stranger and Alien God's called out ones are going to need to be in a world already occupied by same alien force.

12/02/2025

11/30/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/the-witness-of-aged-depravity-ea7?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

You know I never really have had a problem with the doctrine of “total depravity”, a doctrine heralded as one of the main and first talking points of Calvinism’s TULIP.

11/26/2025

If there is one thing I’ve learned in my 34 years of being a Christian, and especially after the last several years on X, substack and other social media platforms, is that most Christians do not know how to communicate to people who do not share their faith, and mostly end up leading them away from it rather than drawing them to it. This is a travesty that those of us within the Christian community (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestants) need to fix right about now!

11/26/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/strangers-and-aliens-in-exile-right?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Strangers and Aliens Living In Exile is a reader-supported publication.

11/15/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/the-strangers-and-aliens-in-exile?r=6bvsrl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Today, we wrap up our new podcast intro by highlighting at least some of the things we struggle with as a stranger and alien in the world, but also unfortunately, with the very church idea we love.

11/14/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/when-we-miss-the-forest-of-the-scripture?r=6bvsrl&utm_medium=ios

Longer Than Normal Blog Alert!

11/11/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/mark496/p/the-ghosting-inside-the-church-machine?r=6bvsrl&utm_medium=ios

To say that the movie Shawshank Redemption moved me immensely, would be tantamount to saying “the Pope is Catholic”.

11/09/2025

Here are a few thoughts on my second exit from putting my hat back in the ring of the church as a pastor and leader, and to continue doing what I have always nonetheless attempted to do in saying something hopefully worthwhile where and how I can, and also something else I have wrestled with for a long time, and what I humbly believe is the "middle" way for Christians in how we rightfully minister to those in the gay community. A community I have been been introduced to unsuspectingly, and from where it has hit close to home for my wife and I far more than I could have ever imagined. I believe this is a word from the Lord, and I implore you to at least consider it. God's Peace!

Off We Go. Let me Explain