Whoever doesn’t receive you, nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.
How to Navigate and Reject Ungodliness in Today's World
About this episode
Historian, archaeologist, and podcast host Mike Coleman joins Philip Cameron to tackle one of the most urgent questions facing believers today: how do Christians reject ungodly cultural influence without losing their love or their witness? Drawing on deep biblical and historical roots, Coleman unpacks Jesus's command in Matthew 10:14 — "shake the dust off" — revealing that this phrase carries far more weight than most modern readers realize. Coleman traces the symbolism of dust all the way back to Genesis, where God cursed the ground after the Fall, and explains how the ancient Jewish practice of never leaving home without shoes — especially in Egypt, considered an unclean land — set the stage for Moses's encounter at the burning bush. "Take off your shoes because the ground you're standing on is holy ground," Coleman reminds listeners, then pivots to the present: "We can either fight that battle on unholy ground, or we can fight it on holy ground." He connects foot-washing in the New Testament to the same principle — washing off the dust and influence of the marketplace before entering a place of refuge and fellowship. Coleman also warns against two specific forms of ungodly influence: misusing God's name by claiming divine authority for personal agendas and the social pressure to conform or be canceled. The episode closes with a powerful prayer and a challenge to let the washing of the Word remove the world's barnacles. . Find more from Mike Coleman at www.realliferealtalk.com
Part of our Faith collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“We can either fight that battle on unholy ground or we can fight it on holy ground. And that all depends on where we're at. The Bible says fight the good fight of faith. And that is determined by whether we are going to fight this battle on God's terms or on the terms of the woke crowd. Because if we fight this battle on the terms of the woke crowd, we are not going to win.”
“When he said, shake the dust off, he's saying, shake off the ungodly influence. We as believers, we have recourse. We have recourse.”
“We wash off the dust, we wash off the influence of the marketplace, we wash off the influence of all those things out there that want you to come in here with a mindset that is not healthy, that is not good. And here together, with the dust washed off, my goodness, we're going to truly stand clean before the Lord.”
What's Discussed
Historian and archaeologist Mike Coleman joins Philip Cameron to explore how believers can identify and reject ungodly cultural influence. Coleman unpacks Jesus's command in Matthew 10:14 to 'shake the dust off,' tracing its roots to Genesis, where God cursed the ground after the Fall, and to Jewish traditions surrounding unclean places like Egypt. He connects Moses removing his sandals on holy ground to the believer's call to fight spiritual battles on God's terms rather than the world's. Coleman also addresses the misuse of God's name and cancel-culture pressure within the church, and ties the ancient practice of foot-washing to the ongoing need to wash off worldly influence through the Word. The episode closes with a pastoral prayer for the body of Christ.
- Ungodliness Unmasked in America Today
- Biblical Philosophy of Standing Against Influence
- Misusing God's Name and the Third Commandment
- Matthew 10:14 — Shake the Dust Off
- Genesis Curse, Egypt, and Holy Ground
- Fighting Spiritual Battles on Holy Ground
- Foot Washing as Washing Off Worldly Influence
- Prayer for Freedom from Ungodly Influence
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
Auto-generated · click any timestamp to jump the video
Intro
Philip:Hello, my friends. Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am delighted to have you with us. Now, I don't know if you know this, but every day my son makes me sit down here and makes me do reels, which are 45-second thoughts. And if you think it's difficult for us to do a 30-minute program and get all the stuff we need into a 30-minute program, you should watch me try and do a 45-second reel. It is absolutely hysterical. And I get tongue-tied and start again. And I think he's doing this just to punish me for something in my past lives. I'm only joking. I don't believe in that — don't send me any letters, I promise you. But he teases me and he'll say, come on, we need to do some more of these reels, Dad. I'm thinking, oh Lord, here we go.
Philip:So you can check out my daily reels. I think you'll be blessed by them. And you can also follow us on Facebook at Daily Faith TV and also at facebook.com/dailyfaithtv. And be a part of our family. We love what we are doing. We have a daily program we do here, along with the reels — these blessed reels that he makes me do. And the thing is, the Irish have reels, and that's a jig that you dance. And whenever he tells me, come on, you've gotta do some reels, Daddy, I think he's accusing me of being an Irishman. That's what really ticks me off, to be honest with you.
Philip:So I'm doing them in obedience and I'm going to — I don't care what he says — I'm gonna be successful at these things and try and condense my thoughts to 45 seconds. Try it sometime and you'll admire me all the more. It's great to have you with us. As you know, we do mission work in Eastern Europe. We've been there for 35 years. 35 years ago, my dad made me go because he had been watching on the BBC these horrendous events when Nikolai Ceaușescu was deposed. He was a dictator, a communist dictator. And they discovered hundreds of thousands of kids in orphanages all across Romania. And he literally forced me to go.
Philip:And when I went there, I found a wee boy sitting in a crib, covered in his own waste. And the Lord spoke to me and said, that's your son. And I went and picked him up and I said, look, whatever it takes, I'm coming to get you. And it took me a year to find him. In the meantime, I replaced the toilets, replaced the beds, replaced the roof, painted the whole place, changed the whole orphanage. In fact, they told me years later that the ideas that I had — instead of these great big rooms, I divided the big dormitories into smaller rooms that gave the kids a sense of home rather than these great big empty spaces and concrete walls and floors. And it was terrible. And so that's how I started out. And by the time I got Andrew, after a year, God had completely addicted me.
Philip:I was hooked on caring for orphans. And for the last 35 years, that's what we've done. And in the last 20-odd years, we've been in a country called Moldova. One of the biggest centers of trafficking in the world is this tiny country that has been blighted with communism and poverty because of the communism. Tremendous people, fabulous people, but they live under this curse. As you're watching Ukraine living under the same effects of communism — even though Russia's no longer communist, it's a dictatorship — and you're watching the horrendous things that are taking place. And our kids, these orphans that we rescue — in fact, I got a list today of 27 new kids coming in in the next few days, 27 brand new kids that are being rescued from the grip of the trafficker. Can you imagine 27 lives?
Philip:But what that does to us — that adds to our costs, adds to our expenses. Right now, everything in Moldova has at least doubled in price. Sometimes it's gone up three or four times. We send our kids to school. What we do is we rescue them from the orphanages and we readmit them to school. And some of our kids are now doctors and lawyers and teachers — kids who have been told, you know, you're garbage, you're worth nothing, your mother doesn't want you, your father doesn't want you. These kids whose lives were ruined by alcohol and other effects of poverty.
Philip:We are seeing God do tremendous things in their lives. So they've been transformed from orphans to sons and daughters and now missionaries. And all through the summertime, our kids go out and we'll go to a village that has never heard the gospel — no gospel witness in it. And they shake a village up by having camps. And they take all the kids from the village and share the gospel of Jesus with them, feed them more food, more fruit, more of everything than they've ever seen, give them new shoes to take home and school bags to take back to their house.
Philip:So what happens is we impact a whole village. And they sent me a video the other day, just of them ministering to these kids. And in this video, they ministered to a hundred handicapped kids that no one else is interested in. And you'll watch one of our young leaders, Catalina, telling you how God has changed her life and is allowing her to change the lives of these kids. Watch this. It'll bless you.
Catalina:Hello, from Orphan's Hands. My name is Catalina. Once somebody told me about God, about hope, and about His amazing love. Some of them are from orphanages, and nobody told them about God, nobody showed them love, nobody cared for them. Today we are here telling these amazing people about how much God loves everybody. No matter how you look, no matter who you are, no matter what your abilities are, God loves you very, very much. Today we are serving these amazing people in this camp. We are telling them about God. We are teaching them to pray and to read His word. Thank you for everything you do. God bless you.
Philip:And my son Andrew was talking to Catalina this morning and she said it's the most humbling thing she's ever done, to serve these handicapped people. They had to be helped to go to the bathroom. I mean, they are helpless. And that zip line was their wings — they could fly like birds, because they took them out of their wheelchair and let them zip line down that zip line, and they could fly free. And that's just one of the camps. That particular video we got — and let me explain — our kids make these videos and send them to us. We didn't have a big production crew. Our kids make that video. They add the music, they decide what goes in it, and we receive it from them as we show it to you, that our kids work. Isn't that amazing?
Philip:And so this camp was for the handicapped, and all through the summer they've been going to other camps, regular camps, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And your help is allowing us to keep this gospel message going forward. And we really need you to help us in the summertime. As you know, most ministries, most churches go through a dip in finances because folk get busy and they're outside most of the time, rather than realizing that the work of God continues all the time. We never stop.
Philip:And my son Andrew, to underline that truth — my son Andrew just came back a couple of weeks ago and he led a team from Moldova, from Orphan's Hands in Moldova, up into Ukraine, and called me one night with the sirens going off, a warning of a missile alert. And I said, hey, you're gonna be fine. Don't worry about it. Go back to bed, you'll be fine. And he went to a place called Kherson. I don't know if you remember or not, a couple of months ago it was bombed — there's a huge dam in Kherson, and the Russians bombed it and it flooded.
Philip:Amazing — right in the middle of a war zone. Our kids, orphan kids, rejected by everybody else, have become absolute heroes and missionaries to these people. And as I said before, we need your help. We need you to stand with us. If you can give a one-time gift to help us through the summer, it'll be a tremendous blessing to us. We are stretched. Moldova is 30 to 40% more expensive to live in than Ukraine because most of the goods sold in Moldova come from Ukraine. So you have the war tax.
Philip:A war tax means that everything's more expensive, everything is more difficult. The process of buying a home — the home that we've been leasing for years — we're trying to buy in Ukraine right now, and you have no idea the difficulties we are facing because everything and everyone has only got one thing on their mind: are the Russians coming? Are the Russians going to be bombing? And we are fighting this thing. And in the middle of a war, we are trying to invest in and care for 24 kids in that nation, in the city of Odessa.
Philip:We need your help. If you could give an offering today, it would really help us. Just make a check out to Orphan's Hands and you can send it to PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. If you go to www.dailyfaith.tv, there's a giving page there and you can almost — it's like wiring the money to us. And you can also call our 800 number, 833-Daily-Faith. And by doing so, you are helping us be God's hand extended.
Philip:If it was your family today being bombed by Russia, if it was your family that has lost their father because he's fighting in the war — let me tell you, the death toll from this war in Ukraine is not being reported, and is being under-reported. And it is a tragedy. I don't think Ukraine can ever recover from this because of the devastation, both in infrastructure. What Russia's doing is they're destroying everything they can — all electrical, all fuel, all water. This dam was blown to pieces because that is how it sustained so many people downstream. So we need your help, and you can be a real partner with us to be God's hand extended. So get in contact with us.
Philip:The address will be up during the rest of the program and let the Lord talk to you. I've got a dear friend with me today called Mike Coleman. He is from one of the most beautiful parts of America. Every time I go down to where he lives, I get jealous of him. And God's gotta deal with me because I'm just fighting a wee bit of envy, 'cause I like warm weather. My family likes cold weather, so they moved me up to Tennessee up in the hills, which is much cooler, believe me, than where he lives down in Orlando. So, well, let's put that aside. Mike, I'm delighted to have you with us on Daily Faith. How are you doing, my brother?
Mike Coleman:I'm doing great, my friend. And what a joy to be with you. And by the way, the grass is always greener on the other side. So we in Florida envy you guys in Tennessee with the cooler weather.
Philip:Well, I don't know. Listen, I thought winter would never come to an end this year. I'm telling you now, I looked out — where our studio is, you can see outside — and I looked out at that rain and snow and I thought, Lord Jesus, will spring ever come? And now here we are in August and it's as hot as Hades at the moment. But it rains so much. I didn't expect us to have so much rain. And the reason why I like to move to America from Scotland was because I don't like rain. So I just think the Lord's gonna — I'm in the belly of the whale at the moment, I guess. Listen, I'm just so grateful for you to be with us today on Daily Faith.
Ungodliness Unmasked in America Today
Philip:And we are watching some horrendous things happening in this country. And it appears that the mask has been taken off the horrors of hell. And no longer are they trying to hide it — they are now coming after the church, coming after faith, coming after anything that has to do with godliness. And we need — what I want you to talk to us about today is how can we reject this ungodly atmosphere and ungodliness that's prevalent in America today.
Mike Coleman:That's an incredible place to start, Phil. And I agree with you 100%. We are living in a time that our nation — there are those that are doing everything they can to redefine it. And without the body of Christ, the Christians standing up and saying, no, enough is enough, and drawing lines, we are literally going to see our nation continue to unravel in front of us. Yeah, it's not too late. This can be turned around. But I think where it starts with us — it's not that we quit caring — we have to quit caring about what the lies are saying and about what ungodly influence is doing to us.
Biblical Philosophy of Standing Against Influence
Mike Coleman:When you go back and you study biblical thought and principles, there is a philosophy of biblical thought. We talk about great philosophy, we talk about Latin philosophy. No one usually talks about the philosophy of the Bible, but there is a philosophy there. And what it's really telling us to do is to take a stand against ungodly influence in two ways. Number one, in word. In other words, let me bring it down to where we live. How many times have we all heard someone say, well, God is telling me to tell you? And we have to be very, very careful with that. We all need to revisit that. Well, God is telling me to tell you — and one of the strongest of the Ten Commandments, and by the way, they are listed in different strengths, but one of the strongest is do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Now, traditionally we all think, well, don't go cussing, don't go using bad words. But what it's really saying is don't invoke the name, the purpose, the plan, or the will of God over something that God hasn't touched. In other words, if God's telling me to tell you, make certain that God's really doing that.
Misusing God's Name and the Third Commandment
Mike Coleman:And the other — not only in word, but there's an influence coming: follow my actions, mimic my attitude. If you do, you're cool. You're one of the cool kids who are in the club. If not, you're going to be canceled. So there's pressure — there's pressure in the church, not only in the world — of canceling. This is also in the church, that you've gotta follow on this. Like sheep, we're all like sheep being led astray. And that is happening in the church as well.
Philip:Exactly. Exactly.
Mike Coleman:But you know, there are some things we can do. As the body of Christ, we balance this thing out. Where do I draw lines? How do I continue to show the character of the Lord Jesus Christ and continue to show love, while at the same time standing in strength, standing in purpose and in power?
Philip:Yet because, you know, the moment we are resistant to the woke crowd, we're called something phobic. We're phobic about something, or we're a hater, or we're something. But don't buy into that.
Mike Coleman:Don't buy into that. I was recently reading in Matthew chapter 10, verse 14, where Jesus gave an incredible command — a very strong command, Philip — where he said, in Matthew 10:14, when he sent them out, he said, I'm gonna send you out. He said, some people are gonna reject you, some people are gonna push back, they're not gonna like you, they're gonna stand against you, they're gonna persecute you, and some of you are gonna be killed. He said, but if anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that place. But before you do, shake the dust off.
Matthew 10:14 — Shake the Dust Off
Mike Coleman:When Jesus said that, he was invoking a very common, well-known phrase in Judaism — that of rejecting the dust. Now to understand what that means, you've gotta go all the way back to Genesis, to the Book of Genesis. When the serpent beguiled Eve and God ended up cursing three things — he of course cursed the serpent, he cursed Eve with the pain of childbirth, not with childbirth itself, because God had already given the very first commandment: be fruitful and multiply and fill the face of the earth. And obviously they were doing that. And by the time all this happened, we don't know the thousands or millions of others that might have been on the earth. But he said the pain of childbirth — and not just in giving birth to that child, but the pain of watching their life without that intimacy with God that you've enjoyed. And he also cursed the ground.
Genesis Curse, Egypt, and Holy Ground
Mike Coleman:Now that became a huge thing in Judaism, to the point that in the oral traditions that were passed down, it got to the place that a Jew, a Hebrew, would not leave their house with their shoes off, especially when they were in Egyptian bondage. Egypt especially was considered ungodly, an unclean place, a non-kosher place. And so they would not leave without their shoes on. And fast forward to Moses in the wilderness — there's this bush burning in front of him, and God gives again, in the Hebrew, what is a very incredibly strong command: take off your shoes, because the ground you're standing on is holy ground.
Mike Coleman:Now here's something we need to think about, Philip. As the body of Christ, we are in battles and wars like we have never fought before — morally, spiritually, mentally. The battle for our children, the battle for our very nation. Now we can either fight that battle on unholy ground or we can fight it on holy ground. And that all depends on where we're at. The Bible says fight the good fight of faith. And that is determined by whether we are going to fight this battle on God's terms or on the terms of the woke crowd. Because if we fight this battle on the terms of the woke crowd, we are not going to win. I don't care how much we invoke the name of the Lord — yes, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, we run to it — but we have to fight these battles on holy ground.
Mike Coleman:And so this whole idea of God cursing the dust, and that carried through in Judaism and in the Old Testament philosophies — and Jesus, that's what he's addressing when he said, shake the dust off. He's saying, we're dust, we're the adamah. Which is a description of the literal dirt. It's a description of Adam. Those two are inseparable. And so what we begin to see is Jesus is saying, shake off the influence of the words that come against you. Shake off their ability, and their efforts to try to manipulate you and change you and make you a product. And dust gets in everywhere. Dust gets in every nook and cranny of your life.
Fighting Spiritual Battles on Holy Ground
Philip:And this is why I love him being on the program, Mike, because for those that don't know, he's an archaeologist and a historian. So he's bringing all of this right back to the roots. And boy, we need to do some shaking and get ourselves on the holy ground, get the world's dust off of us. That's amazing stuff.
Mike Coleman:We just gotta shake the dust off, Phil. We've got to get to that place. We shake the dust off. And again, Jesus is always using — how many times did he say, it is written, or there was a man, or let me remind you of a story that you already know, but let me bring new revelation and meaning to that. They didn't have the written word of God, but he used what they knew as a foundation for what he was going to show them they did not know. And this is one of those accounts. When he said, shake the dust off, he's saying, shake off the ungodly influence. We as believers, we have recourse. We have recourse.
Philip:Hallelujah.
Mike Coleman:And I think it starts with a good old-fashioned, if you please, foot washing. We have to get into a place with God that we can wash off the dust and the influence of this world. We've got to quit being so concerned about what those who are not of God think about us.
Philip:Is this root that we're talking about just now why it was the tradition, when you came to someone's house, that they washed your feet? They were literally washing off the influence of outside. So when you came into the home, you had been almost purified by the foot-washing process.
Foot Washing as Washing Off Worldly Influence
Mike Coleman:Exactly. It was that foot-washing process was twofold. First of all, it was a literal thing and it had health benefits and so forth, but it was symbolic that when you came into the house of your friend, that home was for you, and that time was going to become a refuge. But we wash off the dust, we wash off the influence of the marketplace, we wash off the influence of all those things out there that want you to come in here with a mindset that is not healthy, that is not good. And here together, with the dust washed off, my goodness, we're going to truly stand clean before the Lord.
Philip:We've got a couple of minutes left. I want you to pray for us that God help us in this day we're living in to be conscious that the devil — the sins that so easily beset us — it doesn't have to be conscious sins. It could just be negative thoughts and doubting. That's a sin. All the things that the devil would like to throw on us. I was talking to my grandson the other day about barnacles. He saw this boat with barnacles on it and he asked, what are those things? And I explained about the barnacles. And one of the ways to get rid of barnacles is to get into fresh water, because saltwater barnacles cannot survive in fresh water. It's the same principle. We've got to have the washing of the word to get the dust of this earth off of us. We've got two minutes left. Mike, please pray for us. Would you, that God would help us see this in a really clear way?
Prayer for Freedom from Ungodly Influence
Mike Coleman:Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that each of us, every one of us right now, would come into that place, into that position, that we understand the importance and the power and the reality of just washing the dust off. Let us stop and let us be reminded, Lord, of how much more than we might even realize we're being influenced by the world, by the values of the world, by the woke crowd. And Lord, let us push that aside as we simply come into that place of — more than ever before — you alone, oh Lord, are our influence. You alone are God, the model for our character and who we are and where we're going. And let us stand clean before you, not just on the inside by the washing away of our sins, but on the outside by the washing away of ungodly influence, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Philip:Amen. Wow. What a blessing. Every time you come here, you leave a thought. I'll be thinking about this all day long. And if you're watching today, the Holy Ghost has spoken to you — get the dust off. Get that fine detail that comes into your life and ruins everything. Mike has a tremendous podcast you need to find and listen to regularly. It's called Real Life Real Talk, at www.realliferealktalk.com. Real Life Real Talk. And he brings a perspective to the Christian walk, along with the history and all of this stuff that he has great wisdom in. And I encourage you to check his podcast out. It will be a blessing.
Philip:Mike, thank you again for being with us. We love you and we thank God for your support and your care for what we do. And we're gonna have you back again real soon.
Mike Coleman:Philip, thank you. We love you guys. We love what you're doing with Orphan's Hands. We love what you're doing in Ukraine. We love what you're doing on Daily Faith Television. And we believe very much in you, my friend.
Philip:Thank you so much. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. God bless you. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-Daily-Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What does Mike Coleman say 'shake the dust off' actually means in the Bible?
Coleman explains that when Jesus commanded his disciples to shake the dust off their feet (Matthew 10:14), he was invoking a well-known Jewish concept rooted all the way back in Genesis, where God cursed the ground. Shaking the dust off, Coleman says, means actively rejecting ungodly influence — the words, attitudes, and pressure from the world that seep into every area of your life, the way dust gets into every nook and cranny.
Why does Mike Coleman say Christians need to fight on 'holy ground' instead of the world's terms?
Coleman argues that if believers engage today's moral and cultural battles on the woke crowd's terms, they will not win — no matter how much they invoke the name of the Lord. He says the key is choosing to fight on God's terms, which he calls holy ground, because the outcome of the battle depends entirely on where you're standing spiritually.
What does Mike Coleman say the commandment 'do not take the Lord's name in vain' really means?
Coleman says the commandment goes far deeper than avoiding bad language. He explains it means you must not invoke God's name, purpose, plan, or will over something God hasn't actually spoken to — so phrases like 'God is telling me to tell you' need to be used with great care and honesty.
What is the symbolic meaning behind foot-washing that Mike Coleman talks about?
Coleman says foot-washing was both a literal health practice and a powerful symbol: when you entered a friend's home and had your feet washed, you were washing off the influence of the marketplace and the outside world, so that the home could become a true refuge. He connects this directly to the idea of believers needing to regularly wash off worldly influence before standing before God.
How does Mike Coleman say the church should respond to being labeled 'phobic' or a 'hater' for standing on biblical values?
Coleman says believers simply should not buy into those labels. He acknowledges there is real pressure — even inside the church — to conform or face cancellation, but he urges Christians to stop caring so much about what ungodly voices say and to focus instead on letting God alone be their influence and the model for their character.
Topics
mike colemanshake the dust offholy groundungodly influencematthew 10:14foot washingwoke culture