XtianNinja
Full-time, Christian variety content creator building an open, encouraging, and meaningful online family through gaming, real talk, and God's truth.
I started a series on the Gospel of Mark a while back and have been planning to get back into it for a while. We barely made it through Mark’s introduction before we interrupted it by studying “Resolving Everyday Conflict”, went into the Advent season, and then spent a lot of time on the Foundations Series. Now we’re back into […]
Please open up to John 5:1-18 and let’s read it together: “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in […]
**Sorry, no video or audio this week!** Please open up to John 4, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman. We start where we left off last week: Jews and Samaritans “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his […]
Service Video: Podcast Audio: Sermon Text: A lot of things sort-of collided this week. First, of course, we’ve got this pandemic looming over us with all that entails – including […]
**Sorry, no audio this week** “So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three […]
Please open up to John 1:19-34. But before we get into the reading, just a quick reminder about the context. The Apostle John is writing his gospel to introduce his readers to who Jesus really is. The rest of the gospels had already been written and circulated for about 30 years by the time John wrote this one and […]
I think it’s appropriate that we start off the Christmas season with the very beginning of the Gospel of John today. We’ve been working on “context and structure” for about a month now and I feel like we could keep talking about it for another few weeks. The structure of John is absolutely fascinating! But we need to get into […]
John’s Purpose A few weeks ago I told you that the gospel of John is all about explaining who Jesus really is. If you recall, I said that by the time the Gospel of John was written, the gospels and letters of the New Testament had already been written and been circulating individually for some decades, so a lot of […]
An Introduction to the Gospel of John Please open up to John 20:30-21, but before we jump in and read it, we need a little context. We are starting a series on the Gospel of John today, but I don’t’ want to jump straight into verse one. In fact, we’re going to start near the end. But first, some background. […]
Spectacle over Substance Our North American society, including the Christian church, tends to overvalue style, spectacle, and cleverness in not only our educators but also our teachers, preachers and authority figures. What a person may lack in knowledge, character, understanding, wisdom and kindness, they can more than make up for in how they look, their showmanship, and their ability to turn […]
This is our last sermon in the Gospel of Mark and we’re going to end with a bang, covering the entirety of chapter 13. Let’s begin by reading it together: And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do […]
The Joy of Bible Study When I do Bible study (and perhaps this happens to you), I often have one of three experiences –each flowing from one to the next. I usually start out by feeling like a hunter, an archaeologist, or a prospector… wandering about, fairly sure that there’s something good there, but not exactly sure where yet. So […]
“And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the […]
“And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. […]
The Bali Nine This week in Indonesia, a group of eight convicted drug traffickers who were caught, arrested, and tried, finally met their end at their execution. I can’t imagine […]
Today we’re going to study Mark 7:31-8:33. At first these stories are going to seem disconnected, but as we read them, hopefully you will see a theme developing. I also want […]
The Story of the Reluctant Doctor Once upon a time there was a doctor of medicine. This doctor was somewhat controversial, in that, though his patients were cured, […]
“A Call to Resurgence Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future?” Mark Driscoll Tyndale House Publishers theresurgence.com Summary Mark Driscoll writes as a contemporary prophet who feels the pressing need to address a huge amount of issues that the North American Evangelical Church is facing (or choosing not to face) today. He’s also a loving pastor, clever writer, and […]
“I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me; the torrents […]
“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of […]
If you were converted later in life, or have friends that are non-Christian, then you have probably had the conversation about “what you are allowed to do.” The underlying question is always, “What kind of burdens have been placed on you now that you are a Christian?” And it’s a justified question because becoming a Christian changes a lot about […]
Jesus and the Mob Boss We’re going to talk about Mark 2:18-22, but let me set the context first. Jesus is sitting at the table of Levi, also called Matthew, who has just left his Tax Collectors booth and has followed Jesus. They went to his home where Jesus sat down to eat with Levi and his friends. […]
We’ve already talked about how Mark is introducing Jesus as the one answer to all the important questions in the world. If you recall, we said that the audience he is writing to are a group of persecuted, Roman Christians who aren’t looking for deep theology, long dissertations or genealogies, or a lot of teaching sections – they want proof […]
What we are going to study today is a deeply convicting passage of scripture for me. Though this passage is short, the concepts, teachings and applications found in this little section is both overwhelming and humbling. That makes it very tough to preach because there is no way I can feel like I’ve ever done it justice. So today I’m going […]
I celebrated a milestone. On Thursday, August 8th, 2013 I was officially 13,000 days old. That’s 1857 weeks and one day. Or 427 months. Or 35.6 years. I’ve learned a lot in my 30s. It has truly been the most productive and spiritually challenging decade of my life – so far. But I’ve learned something else about being past […]
Controversy & Division The church deals with a lot of issues, and there are a lot of controversies swirling around both inside and outside the body of believers. Moral questions, […]
Last week, I shared the number one most downloaded message on my website, this week is number two, entitled, “If God speaks today, why don’t we hear him?”. Plus, a […]
Audio: Text: Turn with me to John 3:16-21 and we’ll read it together. We talked about this passage a little bit last week when I highlighted the exclusivity of the claims that Jesus was making as being the only one to have faith in, the one and only way path to forgiveness and restoration to God. I also read John […]
Sermon Audio: Sermon Text: Doctor Luke Tonight we’ve read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. Luke, the man whom the gospel was named after, was Greek Gentile (or non-jewish), who was trained as a doctor. He was a friend to the ailing Apostle Paul and accompanied him on some of his missionary journeys to help him with his […]
We just finished going through the Gospel of Mark together, and it took 43 weeks, so for this series I want to do the opposite – I want to do four books in four weeks. Today I want to start a four-week series that I’m calling “summer shorts”, where we are going to go through four of the shortest books […]
Over the past couple years, going back all the way to September 2012, we have been working our way through the Gospel of Mark – and have made it all […]
Podcast Audio: We’re back into the Gospel of Mark. So far in Chapter 6 we’ve talked a lot about what happens to people who are faithful about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. First we saw Jesus rejected and almost stoned to death in his hometown. Then as Jesus sends out the twelve to heal people, preach repentance, and announce […]
I’m back from vacation and looking forward to catching up on my posts. I had a wonderful holiday and I’m very thankful to the church for allowing me to be able to spend time with my family taking a break. I hope you are all able to do the same this summer. Podcast Audio: Planting & Growing My family is growing […]
Podcast Audio: I want to take you on a bit of a journey around scripture today. We’re still in the Gospel of Mark, but we’re going to jump around a bit to explain part of what we are going to talk about today. First, open up to Mark 4:21-25. Let’s remember our context. Jesus was having a teaching time on […]
Podcast Audio: We’re continuing our sub-series in the Gospel of Mark which I’m simply calling “God Still Speaks”. Last week we talked about seeing the condition of our hearts, and how we have a responsibility to make sure we are not crowding out God’s voice with unrepentant sin or other things we are giving higher priority. But there’s a problem, […]
Podcast Audio: We’re getting back into the Gospel of Mark today, but as we step back into it – into Chapter 4 – I want to do it by way of a mini-series, of hopefully only two or three sermons, about something that is very near and dear to my heart – meeting God through bible-reading and devotional journalling. I’ve […]
We’re continuing a sub-series within our study of the Gospel of Mark where we are going to look a little more closely at the lives of the Apostles. A couple of weeks ago we talked about the Apostle Peter, and I reminded you that as we go through these mini-biographies that I want you to do a few things. First, […]
We’re starting a sub-series within our study of the Gospel of Mark where we are going to look a little more closely at the lives of the Apostles. As we go through these mini-biographies that I want you to do a few things: First, I want you to find yourself in this group. Without a doubt one of the Apostles’ […]
There are lots of pictures of the apostles. Probably the most famous picture with all the disciples is Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper”, but many artists over time have tried to put together a rendering of what they looked like. Over the next couple weeks, since I’m not much of an artist, I want to paint a mental portrait of […]
I took a little break from the Gospel of Mark series and preached a very difficult (yet hopefully timely) sermon this past Sunday. The background of the sermon was that our church needs to make some big decisions about its future together. I didn’t give my own opinions of the situation, but shared 5 reminders that I believe God gave […]
I haven’t been posting for the past while because of a big move and some vacation time, but after coming across this piece of news on Facebook (also here), I felt I had to rush posting the sermon I preached this week. We’ve been going through the Gospel of Mark (I’ll post previous sermons soon) and asked the question: “Why do […]
In this week’s episode, I share an interesting article about Christians doing weird stuff, continue our interesting study of Pilgrim’s Progress with the beginning of the seventh chapter when Christian […]
In this episode: Listening to that little voice inside you, how “Fear of Man” can wreck your life, and why you should let people ask you extremely personal questions. Podcast […]
In this week’s episode I share an interesting idea about how we all stand on the shoulders of giants, an interesting article about how Christians can deal with anxiety, and […]
What does it mean to be a “servant of all” when you are a Twitch Streamer, YouTuber, or social media star? What does humility look like as a Christian internet […]
If you weren’t following along when these were being released as sermon podcasts – or with the YouTube videos of the services – or for that matter, have just completely […]
Service Video: Podcast Audio: Sermon Text: Please open up to Luke 5:16. We’re going to concentrate our efforts on one verse today and use it as a jumping-off point […]
Service Livestream: Sermon Audio: The song I played earlier is called “The Voice of Truth” and it’s by a Christian band called “Casting Crowns”. It’s a song that […]
During the season of Lent is the time when we fast and contemplate the sufferings of Jesus, what they teach us about Him, and what they mean to us. Please […]
I’ve been encouraged by the Church Board, the Leadership Team, to take some time to clear the air and confront an issue that has been percolating in the background of the church for some time now. It’s a difficult issue to pin down though, which makes it difficult to address. The Board, for the last month or so, has taken […]
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