
Advertise on podcast: The Mark Casto Program
Rating
4.9from
This podcast has
83 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Mark CastoExplicit
No
Date created
2024/03/14
Latest episode
2026/10/22
Average duration
52 min.
Release period
5 days
Description
The Mark Casto Program is a top Christian podcast for leaders, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who want more than surface-level faith or hustle culture noise. This show delivers wisdom-driven conversations on business, culture, leadership, money, creativity, and influence—through a Kingdom lens, without churchy language. Each week, Mark Casto brings solo teachings, cultural commentary, and long-form conversations designed to help faith-driven leaders gain clarity, build influence, and create sustainable impact in the real world. This podcast is for builders—those shaping culture, stewarding ideas, and creating value that lasts.
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The Lord’s Table And Radical Mercy | Cole Burks
2026/10/22
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The church can be loud and gifted while still leaving people unhealed. That tension is where Mark sits down with Cole Burks, a pastor whose story runs from Pentecostal wildfire to ancient Christian roots, and somehow comes out with more tenderness and more fire, not less.
We talk about why so many believers are drawn toward stability, church history, and contemplative practices right now, and why that pull is often theological before it is stylistic. Cole shares how communion once felt dangerous because of the “unworthy manner” warning in 1 Corinthians 11, then walks us through what changed when he reread the text and saw Paul confronting division, exclusion, and shame at the Lord’s Table. The Eucharist becomes less about self-policing and more about honouring the body of Christ and asking a haunting question: who did we miss?
From there the conversation gets personal and practical. Cole describes daily liturgy, an encounter that challenged his capacity to forgive, and how the table becomes the place where mercy stops being a theory. We also wrestle with politics, dehumanisation, and the way our categories shrink the table, even as Jesus keeps inviting tax collectors and zealots to sit together. We end with a compelling vision of prophetic ministry as a way of life, and pastoral leadership as rearranging everything so others can “kiss the face of Jesus” too.
If this challenged you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review so more people find these conversations. What part of the table teaching hit you hardest?
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Agree With God’s Perspective
2026/10/15
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A low view of yourself can feel like humility, but it quietly poisons trust. We dig into Romans 8:28-30 and Hebrews 3–4 to argue that God’s “perfect plan” is not endless striving or managing shame, but a life woven with goodness that leads into real faith rest. Predestination gets reframed in a startling way: God’s intent from the beginning is to conform us to the image of Jesus, awaken us to righteousness, and restore humanity to glory.
From there, we confront the hidden engine of burnout and unbelief: seeing yourself as a grasshopper. Using Israel’s wilderness story, we show how insecurity blocks inheritance even when the promise is true. We also redefine idolatry as any idea about God or yourself that fails to line up with Jesus, then challenge total depravity thinking and fear-driven religion that trains people to distrust their hearts and live under condemnation.
The conversation gets practical and personal, moving through worship, identity in Christ, and the “I’ll be good” lie many of us learned through religion and family pain. We talk about why goodness leads to real repentance, why love must come before performance, and why receiving affirmation from the Father changes how you relate to everyone else.
If you want deeper Christian theology that still lands in everyday life, press play, share this with a friend who’s tired of striving, and subscribe so you don’t miss what comes next. After you listen, leave a review and tell us: where do you most need to agree with God’s perspective?
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A Camera Does Not Add Justice It Adds An Audience
2026/10/14
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A firing squad execution at Fort Hood, livestreamed to your phone, sounds like the ultimate proof that “actions have consequences.” But we cannot stop at the legal question of guilt and punishment. We have to ask the question nobody wants to touch: what does the camera add, and what does it do to us when we watch a man die as content?
We walk through the announced plan and then slow down on the moral shift that happens when justice gains an audience. A trial, a verdict, and a sentence already establish accountability. A livestream creates a spectacle, timed for impact and built for mass attention. We also draw a hard line between justice and propaganda: the killer is guilty and received due process, yet the practice of broadcasting death is a “strategy” that has been used to shape crowds through fear, power, and revenge.
From there, we go back into early church history and into our own media habits. Christians once refused Rome’s arenas, not because they were soft on evil, but because they understood what watching does to the soul. We connect that to today’s outrage economy: humiliation clips, scandal replays, and the quiet pleasure of “finally” when someone gets what we think they deserve. Then we bring it to the center of the faith: the cross as a public execution and a spectacle that God turns inside out, revealing forgiveness instead of feeding vengeance.
If this conversation helps you think clearly about Christian ethics, the death penalty, media consumption, and what justice is for, share it with a friend. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us your line: what should never become content?
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The Cutoff Culture
2026/10/06
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60% of Gen Z adults say they cut off a friend or family member in the last year and most of them still aren’t talking. That’s not just a youth trend, it’s a loneliness trend, and it forces a hard question: are we building healthy boundaries, or are we handing down verdicts with silence as the sentence?
I walk through how “protect your peace” and other viral mental health phrases can lose their context and quietly replace the biblical language of sin, forgiveness, repentance, and reconciliation. When every disagreement becomes evidence and every relationship feels like a crime scene, community collapses. We unpack a crucial framework: a boundary says, “Here’s how you can be in my life,” while a verdict says, “You’re judged and I’m gone.” One keeps a door open; the other builds a wall.
Then we go to Scripture for an actual process. Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 give a direct alternative to ghosting, gossip, and group chat trials. We also talk about when distance is wise and biblical, why it should come after a clear process, and how restoration stays on the table. For leaders and parents dealing with silence, we name what might really be happening underneath: shame, lack of safety, or old wounds being projected onto you.
You’ll leave with practical next steps for leaders, parents, and adult kids, plus one simple challenge you can do this week: send one text that opens the door without guilt or demands. If this hits home, share it with someone you trust, subscribe, and leave a review so more families and leaders can find a path toward reconciliation.
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What If The Bible Ends With Renewal
2026/09/30
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Most of us grew up with the same ending: the world burns, the faithful escape, and whatever you build here is basically temporary. Then Revelation 21 drops a detail that changes the entire direction of hope: the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven. Not us going up. Heaven relocating. And once you see that “down,” you start to realise how many fears, shortcuts, and tired assumptions were built on getting the direction wrong.
We walk slowly through Revelation 21 and 22 and follow one thread that runs through the whole Bible: God keeps closing distance. Garden. Tabernacle. Temple. Jesus “tabernacling” among us. And finally, God dwelling with humanity in a renewed city. We talk about why “I am making all things new” is not the same as scrapping creation and starting over, why the bride is shown as a city, and why the city’s perfect cube echoes the Holy of Holies. That’s not trivia, it’s a declaration that restricted access is over and the whole neighbourhood becomes a place of communion.
Then we press into what that means for Christian eschatology and daily life: no temple because distance is gone, gates that never close because threat is finished, a river of life in the street, and a tree whose leaves heal the nations. Finally, we get painfully practical: what you believe about the ending shapes your Tuesday morning, your education, your generosity, and what you’re willing to start. If the ending is evacuation, building feels pointless. If the ending is a healed, populated city, your work becomes practice while you wait for a gift you do not construct.
Subscribe for more teaching through Revelation, share this with a friend who’s tired of fear-based end-times talk, and leave a review telling us what you’re building again after hearing this.
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Discernment Over Hype | Justin Allen
2026/09/28
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A prophetic word can be accurate and still be unsafe in the wrong hands. Mark sits down with Justin Allen, founder and president of Times and Seasons, to name what many church leaders feel but struggle to address: a global drought of discernment tied to biblical illiteracy, celebrity platforms, and unhealed inner lives.
We get specific about definitions. Discernment is not just spotting “good versus evil”; it’s learning the difference between Christ and everything else, then letting Scripture and intimacy with God shape what we receive, repeat, and act on. Justin breaks down why gifts can operate without deep union, while the fruit of the Spirit cannot, and why that difference explains so many public “wins” that later collapse into scandal or confusion.
From there, we move into hands-on leadership and training. We talk IQ, EQ, and SQ, how trauma can contaminate prophetic flow, and why prophecy must be embodied, not just announced. For pastors who want the prophetic in their house but fear the chaos, we lay out a healthier path: define the target culture, empower committed people assigned to the house, and teach the church how to weigh words by what “smells like Christ” rather than by hype, fear, or urgency.
Justin also shares details on the Times and Seasons School of Prophecy and Discernment in Franklin, Tennessee (November 13th and 14th). If this conversation helps you breathe again about prophetic ministry, subscribe, share with a leader, and leave a review so more churches can build wisdom-first prophetic culture.
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Unveiled: Decoding 666
2026/09/22
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666 has been used to scare people for generations, but Revelation frames it as something else entirely: a riddle meant to be solved by the original readers. We slow down and read Revelation 13 the way it was designed to be read, then trace the clues back through Revelation 12 and Daniel 7 so the “beast” stops being a random end-times monster and starts looking like a recurring empire pattern with a very real first century address.
We also tackle the detail most people never hear from the pulpit: some of the oldest manuscripts don’t read 666, they read 616. Instead of wrecking the message, that variant actually strengthens the case for Nero Caesar through ancient letter-number calculation (gematria), showing how a Latin spelling and a Hebrew spelling can land on two different totals. It’s one of the clearest examples of how historical context and textual history can illuminate biblical interpretation rather than threaten it.
Then we pivot to the pastoral heart of the passage: the mark of the beast. We argue it’s not about microchips, barcodes, or accidentally “getting marked” at a checkout counter. Revelation uses the language of seals and marks to ask a far more personal question: whose name is on you, and what are you willing to bow to in order to keep buying and selling? Along the way we connect Rome as “Babylon,” the economics of worship, and why obsessively naming the beast can become the trap that keeps us staring out the window instead of looking in the mirror.
If this reframes Revelation for you, subscribe for the rest of the series, share this with a friend who’s tired of fear-based end-times talk, and leave a review so more listeners can find it. What part challenged your assumptions the most?
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Unveiled: Stop Charting Revelation Like A Math Problem
2026/09/17
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Revelation has a reputation for panic, charts, and worst case predictions, but that’s not what the text itself is trying to produce. We pick up our “Unveiled” series at Revelation chapter 6 and walk straight into the chapters that often get used for fear-mongering: the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. Then we ask a question that changes the whole read: why do these sections all sound like they reach the end of the world?
We make the case that John isn’t laying out a 21 event end times timeline at all. He’s telling one story three times, each angle turning the volume up. That’s recapitulation, and once you see it, the book stops feeling like a math problem you’re failing and starts reading like a chorus you’re meant to hear. We track the fingerprints in the text, from the fractions that escalate (a fourth, a third, then totality) to the repeated pauses between the sixth and seventh that spotlight the people of God sealed, counted, and standing.
Then we connect the trumpet and bowl imagery to the Exodus plagues and recover the point: deliverance, not annihilation. The hardest line in these judgment cycles isn’t rage, it’s grief, “they did not repent.” And right in Revelation 6, the question we all carry surfaces out loud: “How long?” God’s answer isn’t a date, it’s a white robe, a vindication, and the invitation to rest. If you’ve ever wanted a countdown, this teaching offers something steadier. Subscribe, share this with a friend who fears Revelation, and leave a review with your biggest “how long” question.
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When Did Disagreement Become Disowning | Ryan Johnson
2026/09/16
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A three-letter label is changing how Christians treat each other, and it is bleeding from social media straight into local church life. Mark Casto sits down with itinerant minister and author Ryan Johnson to talk about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) narrative, why “lists” and guilt by association are so corrosive, and how pastors can lead with clarity when people are afraid and angry. We are not interested in defending a movement or launching an attack. We are trying to let Scripture, context, and truth set the pace.
Ryan explains where the term came from, why critics often describe NAR as an organisation even while admitting it is hard to define, and how that confusion turns normal biblical beliefs into “red flags”. We dig into what often gets lumped into the NAR bucket: healing, prophecy, deliverance, revival, spiritual warfare, apostles and prophets, and the idea that the Church should influence culture through faithful gospel presence. The conversation keeps circling back to one question: are we building a Berean culture that tests teaching by the word of God, or a cancel culture that reacts emotionally and calls it discernment?
We also talk about Ephesians 4 and why fivefold ministry gifts are meant to equip the saints and move the body toward unity and maturity, not toward celebrity, control, or suspicion. For leaders facing NAR accusations, Ryan offers practical next steps: slow down, respond rather than react, ask for evidence, open the Bible together, and refuse to let preference become “truth”. If you want to connect with Ryan, find his books, and join his Tuesday email, visit RyanJohnson.us. Subscribe, share this with a pastor or ministry friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
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From Trauma To Peace | Craig Seawright
2026/09/13
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A pastor can preach the right message and still live in a body that feels under threat. That tension has a cost, and sooner or later it shows up as burnout, fight mode, sleepless nights, or the quiet desperation to be accepted by the room. Today we sit at the Family Table with Craig Seawright, a leader from Belfast whose childhood was marked by political violence, constant fear, and the assassination of his father, and we talk honestly about what happens when trauma goes unhealed for decades.
Craig shares his journey from alcohol and drugs to a living encounter with Jesus who did not just rescue him from a dark alleyway, but was with him in it. From there, we explore how unprocessed pain can manifest in ministry as intensity that looks like passion, and how the Holy Spirit begins healing by asking simple questions that expose what your body already knows. We get practical about a powerful combination: wise counselling that brings buried memories to the surface, and a daily “safe place” with Jesus where you stop performing, sit in stillness, and let love do what striving never can.
One of the most striking themes is shame, and how it can lock the “rooted rooms” of the heart. Craig describes an encounter where Jesus insists on kissing the very place he wants to hide, and how that opened the door to deep nervous system healing, freedom, and real peace. We also zoom out into church reformation, tables not stages, and why the next move of God must be built by whole leaders who use the keys of the kingdom to unlock people, not cut them.
If you lead, love the church, and secretly feel like you are burning yourself to keep going, press play. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs peace, and leave a review with the line that stayed with you.
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Unveiled: The Lion And The Lamb
2026/09/09
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John expects a lion and gets a Lamb, and that one unexpected turn changes everything.
We walk through Revelation 4 and 5 and slow down long enough to actually see what John sees: a door open in heaven, a throne that is occupied, and a worship scene that feels like the original reality behind every empire’s knockoff ceremony. Instead of feeding our curiosity with charts and timelines, the throne room gives a terrified church something more stabilizing: the face of the One in charge, a covenant rainbow wrapped around his seat, and the reminder that God is not distant but “is to come” toward his world.
Then the mood shifts as the sealed scroll appears, written on both sides and locked with seven seals. The search for someone worthy fails, and John weeps out loud because it looks like history has no one to finish it. If you have ever laid awake wondering whether anything is actually being driven anywhere, you will feel the weight of that moment.
The elder announces “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” and “the Root of David,” but John turns and sees “a Lamb standing as though it had been slain.” That gap between what he hears and what he sees becomes the interpretive key for reading the Book of Revelation, apocalyptic literature, and the meaning of Christian victory. We talk about the Lamb’s seven horns and seven eyes, why his wounds are not a detour from winning but the definition of conquering, and how the prayers of the saints are held before God like incense. If this helped you read Revelation with clearer eyes and a steadier heart, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.
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Unveiled: The Book Of Revelation Is About Jesus
2026/09/02
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666 has been used to scare people for generations, but Revelation frames it as something the faithful can “calculate” with understanding, not a vague threat meant to paralyse the church. We start by resetting the subject the way the text itself does: the first five words say it plainly, “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” If your mental image of Revelation is charts, beasts, or headline-level panic, this conversation is an invitation to read the book the way its first listeners could actually hear it.
We walk through what “apocalypse” really means in the Bible: not disaster, but unveiling, like a veil lifting at a wedding. From there we name the genre Revelation claims for itself, an apocalypse, a prophecy, and a letter, and why treating it like a newspaper keeps producing a 100 percent failure rate of confident predictions. We also give a simple guardrail that protects your Bible reading for life: Revelation is written for us, but it was not written to us first, and any interpretation that would have been nonsense to the seven real churches in Asia deserves extra caution.
Then we hand you the key John assumes his audience has: Revelation is saturated with Old Testament imagery, especially Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, Exodus, and the prophets. When you know the source, the symbols stop being a blank screen for modern speculation and start becoming a coherent portrait of Christ. We also map the four major schools of interpretation and tell you where we’re standing, so you can think, test, and push back honestly. We close where Revelation begins: Jesus among the lampstands, saying “Fear not.”
Subscribe for the rest of the series, share this with a friend who avoids Revelation, and leave a review if this helped you read with clarity. What’s the one question about Revelation you’ve never gotten a straight answer to?
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How The Book Of Revelation Got Its Modern Meaning
2026/08/31
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Most of us did not “discover” our view of the Book of Revelation, we inherited it. A pastor said it with confidence, a prophecy chart put it in neat boxes, a study Bible printed the interpretation right under the verse, or a movie at church camp made the end times feel like a guaranteed timeline. We want to slow that down and ask a sharper question: whose mind have we been using when we read Revelation?
We walk through church history that rarely gets mentioned in modern end-times debates. Revelation was one of the most disputed books in the New Testament canon, and the Eastern Orthodox Church still treats it with careful restraint in public liturgy. We talk about early Christian expectations of a literal millennium, then the major shift sparked by Ticonius and carried forward by Augustine, who reads the “thousand years” as the present church age. From there we jump to the Reformation, where Revelation becomes a battleground, and we explain how futurism and preterism were systematized in the heat of Counter-Reformation argument, not as a secret plot, but as the normal way ideas get forged.
Then we connect the dots to modern American Christianity: John Nelson Darby, dispensationalism, the origins of the pre-tribulation rapture system, the Schofield Reference Bible, the rise of prophecy publishing, and how books and films like The Late Great Planet Earth and Left Behind shaped an entire generation. We also look at the “fruit” of date-setting and failed predictions and why any Bible interpretation method that forces us to explain away Jesus’ words should set off alarms.
We end by sharing where we stand, why we are launching a five-part “Unveiled” series on how to read Revelation, and why we think the book’s real subject is right there in the first line: the revelation of Jesus Christ. Subscribe, share this with a friend who is tired of fear-based end-times talk, leave a review, and drop your hardest Revelation question in the comments so we can answer it.
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The Dead Garden Test
2026/08/24
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A leader can look wildly successful and still be dying inside. Tonight we start with a simple question about a “good pastor,” then uncover the hidden math many of us use to judge ourselves: public fruit versus private neglect. The story of Wes and his daughter’s raised-bed garden makes it painfully clear how something precious can wither “20 steps out the back door,” not because we don’t care, but because the system only pressures what everyone can see.
From there, we open Song of Solomon and sit with the line, “They made me the keeper of their vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.” We talk about the difference between tending and guarding, how overwork often comes from old disapproval, and why the Shepherd King refuses to score you. If you’ve been carrying ministry weight, family weight, or life weight mostly alone, you’ll hear a different voice than the internal accuser: “Behold, you are fair, my love.”
We connect that grace to Elijah’s collapse after victory, Jesus’ promise of soul-rest in Matthew 11, and the “easy” well-fitted yoke where he carries what you were never built to pull. We also name the way church culture can reward output while ignoring the inner life, then offer practical next steps: look at your neglected vineyard, water something that produces nothing, let a good thing die on purpose, get truly known, and let yourself be loved out of exhaustion.
If this helps you, subscribe, share it with one leader who needs shade, and leave a review so more tired people can find the table.
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Healing From Religious Fear with Cara Barone
2026/08/21
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Fear can be stubborn. You can pray hard, believe sincerely, and still feel that tight, buzzing anxiety in your chest that keeps you awake at night. Mark Casto sits down with neurostrategist Cara Barone to name what so many Christians quietly carry: sometimes what we call a spiritual battle is also a nervous system pattern, a trauma loop, and a learned way of living in fight or flight.
We go straight to the root belief that drives so much stress and overperformance: “I’m not enough.” Cara breaks down overfunctioning versus shutdown patterns, how chronic stress rewires the brain through neuroplasticity, and why fear-based religion can accidentally train people to practise shame, hypervigilance, and self-focus. Mark connects it to beloved identity and the idea that you become what you behold, making “perfect love casts out fear” both a promise and a practical direction for your attention.
You’ll also hear what nervous system regulation actually means (hint: not permanent calm), how early imprints and generational stress can live in the body, and what a real 90-minute neurorewiring session looks like. Cara shares simple tools you can try right away, including practising a safe memory and using a belly breath with humming to support the vagus nerve and signal safety. We also talk about discernment and mental health, including when someone needs a licensed therapist or doctor rather than coaching.
If you’re a pastor, leader, high performer, or exhausted believer who wants to lead from rest instead of pressure, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s been stuck in anxiety, and leave a review so more people can find the freedom they’ve been praying for.
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Podcast reviews
Read The Mark Casto Program podcast reviews
by PhillipHoward 2025/09/27
Great words, great podcast
Love Mark, love what he does and who he is. Thankful for him and his teachings. Fresh perspective on everything that matters, especially pertaining to...
Sheldon Listy 2025/07/23
Great content
Mark has powerful, life changing content that has already impacted my life! Definitely take the time to listen.
Gunner Lane 2025/06/02
Unfiltered, Unashamed Truth
Mark Casto is a man of integrity and authenticity. His podcasts are packed full of knowledge, truth, and wisdom. Every time I listen, I am not only im...
M Silye 2025/04/17
THIS IS FOR YOU
I know there are a lot of podcasts out today but you do not want to miss out on this program. Mark does an amazing job at teaching the True Good News ...
Bill Hal 2024/04/15
Awesome
Mark has such a way of taking biblical wisdom and making it practical. Love it!
JoshuaMacClenny 2024/04/14
Thankful!!
Grateful for Mark! His wisdom, insight, and experience is helping me and my family build a better life.
Way Family Church 2024/04/14
Follow now
Mark has been a huge voice of wisdom and direction. His heart for Christ and his journey with authoring have been such a blessing to our family here i...
Eman4jc 2024/04/14
Great Podcast!
Mark is an incredible voice to the church! This podcast is teaching the church that Yahweh wants his people living in the blessing and that they have ...
Brandon Preach 2024/04/14
Excellence
Mark is communicating excellence that will bring forth such a great change in the entrepreneurial mind!
GodGurlTN 2024/04/14
eBook
I have learned valuable skills though your online course! Thank you for sharing your knowledge to help make what seemed impossible, possible!
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