Letters From Home

By Hank Garner

We're all a long way from home.

That's the thing the Bible keeps trying to tell us. We're sojourners. Pilgrims. People walking a road we can't see the end of. And the whole canon of Scripture

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FAQs about Letters From Home:

How many episodes does Letters From Home have?

The podcast currently has 80 episodes available.

Letters From Home episodes:

September 03, 2026 Letter 069 — The Address: You Are Reading the Wrong Frame (Exodus 20)
Most of us have been reading the Ten Commandments as a to-do list. As a test. As a standard we are supposed to meet. The Bible calls them words, not commandments. Today we ask what changes when the frame shifts.
In this letter
- The earn-it frame versus the rescued-life frame
- Why the Sabbath is a gift, not a rule, under the right frame
- Obedience as fruit, not root
- The tradition of counting verse 2 as the first commandment
- The rescue that precedes every response
Scripture — Exodus 20:2-17
The question to sit with
Which frame have you been reading the Ten under? A test to pass, or the shape of a life you have already been given?
Coming tomorrow | The Whole Letter.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
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8min
September 02, 2026 Letter 068 — The Story: Ten Words, Walked Slow (Exodus 20)
Ten items. Vertical first, horizontal after. Today we walk each one and notice what the Hebrew is doing.
In this letter
- The prologue in verse 2
- The first four vertical words — no other gods, no idols, no vain use of the name, Sabbath
- The fifth as the hinge — honor father and mother
- The last five horizontal words — do not murder, adulterate, steal, lie, covet
- The Hebrew qanna (jealous) and shav (vain)
- Why ratsach is murder, not all killing
- Why do not covet goes inward
Scripture — Exodus 20:1-17
Hebrew word studies
- qanna — covenant-jealous
- shav — vain, empty
- ratsach — to murder, unlawfully kill
Coming tomorrow | The Address.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
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9min
September 01, 2026 Letter 067 — The Sender: A Mountain That Shook (Exodus 19-20)
The words came out of thunder and smoke and fire. The mountain shook. The people trembled. And God spoke ten words to a people He had just rescued from four hundred years of slavery.
In this letter
- The rescue leading up to Sinai — plagues, Passover, Red Sea, manna
- Exodus 19 — the setup, the covenant offer, the preparation
- The theophany at Sinai — thunder, smoke, fire
- Why the ten were given at this moment, to these people
- How every command was a rejection of something in the Egyptian world
Scripture — Exodus 19; Exodus 20:1-2
Coming tomorrow | The Story.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
9min
August 31, 2026 Letter 066 — The Envelope: The Ten Words (Exodus 20:1-17)
They are the most famous words in human history. And they are not called commandments in Hebrew. They are called words.
In this letter
- The historical setting — Sinai, three months after the Exodus
- A slow read of Exodus 20:1-17 (NKJV)
- The prologue in verse 2 — the rescue before the commands
- The vertical/horizontal structure — the first four toward God, the last six toward neighbor
- The Hebrew name teased — aseret hadevarim, the Ten Words
Scripture — Exodus 20:1-17
Coming tomorrow | The Sender.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
8min
August 28, 2026 Letter 065 — The Whole Letter: Yada (Psalm 139)
The word for what God does to David runs through the whole psalm. Yada. Intimate knowing. The word for a husband and wife. The word for covenant. The word for the God who wove you before you were you.
In this letter
- The arc from alarm to invitation
- Yada traced through the Hebrew Bible — Genesis 4, Amos 3, Jeremiah 1
- The four movements as a spiritual journey
- Why the searching is not surveillance
- A direct pastoral landing for the hiding, the afraid, the grieving, and the accidental
Scripture — Psalm 139; Jeremiah 1:5; Amos 3:2 (referenced)
Hebrew word studies
- yada (יָדַע, H3045) — to know intimately (the Friday apex)
- tsur (צוּר, H6696) — to hem in (carried from Wednesday)
Next week's letter | Exodus 20:1-17 — The Words.
> That's this week's letter. We'll see you Monday with another.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
9min
August 27, 2026 Letter 064 — The Address: You Are Not Hiding (Psalm 139)
Most of us have been trying to hide from a God who has never lost sight of us. The exhaustion of hiding from the One who already sees is one of the least productive uses of a human life.
In this letter
- The difference between surveillance and love
- Why hiding is exhausting and unnecessary
- What changed between verses 6 and 23
- The womb verses for those who have wondered if they were wanted
- The honest question about hiding
Scripture — Psalm 139:1-6, 13-16, 23-24
The question to sit with
Where in your life are you hiding from God? What have you been managing away from His view?
Coming tomorrow | The Whole Letter.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
7min
August 26, 2026 Letter 063 — The Story: God Wove You in the Womb (Psalm 139)
The Hebrew yada runs through the whole psalm. Not observation. Not information. Intimate knowing. Today we walk it slow.
In this letter
- The four movements walked slow
- Yada (H3045) — to know intimately
- Tsur (H6696) — to hem in
- The impossibility of fleeing God's presence
- Verses 13-16 — the womb, the forming, the days written before there were any
- The imprecatory section briefly named
- The invitation to be searched
Scripture — Psalm 139 (full)
Hebrew word studies
- yada (יָדַע, Strong's H3045) — to know intimately, deeply, relationally
- tsur (צוּר, H6696) — to hem in, besiege, surround
Coming tomorrow | The Address.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
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10min
August 25, 2026 Letter 062 — The Sender: The Man Who Had a Lot to Hide (Psalm 139)
David wrote this psalm as an older man who had lived a long life and had a lot to hide. Which makes his final invitation — Search me — one of the bravest lines in the Bible.
In this letter
- David's life across the arc — shepherd, fugitive, king, husband, adulterer, murderer, repentant
- Why the Bathsheba episode matters for how we read this psalm
- The Psalms as permission for the full range of human speech to God
- Why Psalm 139 is a private meditation, not a corporate hymn
Scripture — 2 Samuel 11-12 (referenced); Psalm 51 (referenced)
Coming tomorrow | The Story.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
8min
August 24, 2026 Letter 061 — The Envelope: You Have Searched Me (Psalm 139)
The most personal, most searching psalm David ever wrote. It begins with alarm and ends with an invitation to be searched.
In this letter
- A slow read of Psalm 139 (NKJV)
- The four movements of the psalm
- Tsur (H6696) — to hem in, besiege
- The arc from You have searched me to Search me
- Why the ending is a different prayer than the beginning
Scripture — Psalm 139
Coming tomorrow | The Sender. David.
> There'll be more mail tomorrow.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
7min
August 21, 2026 Letter 060 — The Whole Letter: Ear to Eye (Job 38–42)
The shift at the end of the book is between two Hebrew verbs. Shama — to hear. Ra'ah — to see. Job says, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. That is the destination of the book.
In this letter
- The full arc of the book — Job 1 through Job 42
- The whirlwind and God's questions
- Behemoth and Leviathan as symbols of chaos under God's hand
- The pivot from shama to ra'ah
- Why the restoration at the end is real but not an erasure of the loss
- Why God said Job spoke rightly and the friends did not
- Pastoral landing for the suffering, the demanding, and the comforting
Scripture — Job 1-2 (referenced); Job 38-42 (full)
Hebrew word studies
- shama — to hear (carried from Wednesday)
- ra'ah — to see (carried from Wednesday)
- sa'arah — whirlwind (carried from Wednesday)
Next week's letter | Psalm 139 — Hemmed In.
> That's this week's letter. We'll see you Monday with another.
Support Letters From Home at https://buymeacoffee.com/lettersfromhome
Join us at https://hanksbiblestudy.com for more resources to help strengthen your faith.
...more
11min

FAQs about Letters From Home:

How many episodes does Letters From Home have?

The podcast currently has 80 episodes available.