XtianNinja
Full-time, Christian variety content creator building an open, encouraging, and meaningful online family through gaming, real talk, and God's truth.
That’s a cool video. The reason I like it so much is because it expands our understanding of Christmas. It gives meaning to the simple Christmas story we have just seen acted out for us. It takes us far beyond the nativity scene, the baby in the manger, the shepherds and the wise men… far beyond the trappings of our […]
How are you? – Fine. Really? – Yup, Fine. Are you sure, ’cause you don’t sound fine? – Totally fine. Ok. Have you had that conversation with someone? Someone once told me that F.I.N.E. stands for “Feelings I’m Not Expressing”, and while I agree that there are times and places to keep things to yourself (or to gush), there are a […]
I preached this sermon on Sunday and wanted to share it with you. Introduction Do you ever feel lost? I suppose there are lots of ways to get lost. You can get geographically lost. Like whenever you go to a new mall, or a big store, and are trying to find your way around. I get lost all the time […]
I don’t know why this never occurred to me before, but it wasn’t always hot and sunny while Jesus walked the earth. Maybe I’ve seen too many pictures of Jesus standing in a sunbeam or walking along a desert road, but it never really crossed my mind that Jesus would have been cold. I tried to find a picture online of Jesus […]
I went dark recently — in a bunch of ways. I bought some dark coffee — Starbucks Christmas Blend (super yummy!) and Muskoka Roastery’s Black Bear (which is so dark it’s like drinking ink… delicious, delicious, ink. It even seems to argue with the milk saying, “No, we won’t be turning mocha-coloured today. We’re shooting for a dark-grey.”) I went through a dark […]
I just paused my sermon prep for a moment so I could post this to the blog. I’m currently writing a sermon on The Powerful Witness of Unity in the Church and remembered that I had written in a Facebook Post earlier in the week. The two didn’t really connect in my mind until now, so I want to share […]
I preached this sermon on Sunday, October 31 2010 as a way to help the congregation process Halloween, but it grew into something much bigger. It became a sermon about how to make all kinds of decisions. I repeat it here in hopes it will encourage you to make wiser choices, release you from fear of judgement, open you up […]
Own Your “Why?” Some time ago I came up with a phrase that I try to live by and give away as much as possible — “Own your ‘Why?’” What it means is that when you do something (anything), make sure that you own up to your motives and reasons for doing it. Don’t try to fool yourself or anyone […]
During the “Ask The Pastor” meetings on Wednesday nights at the church I serve, many questions come up that I don’t have the time or equipment to be able to give a full answer to. I believe there are many who have similar concerns and questions, so for a little while I’m going to use this forum to share a […]
I’ve been sharing some of my favourite Christian content recently. I’ve shared Blogs & Podcasts, and now I’d like to share some of my favourite “Devotional Books” (by which I mean “books I use regularly during my quiet times”). Finding books that touch my heart, stir my mind, convict my spirit and bring me closer to Jesus has been a long journey […]
In my heart of hearts I’m a student. I loved school and now I love learning about Jesus and His Church. For me, being a teacher, preacher, leader, vision-caster, etc. isn’t a job but a natural expression of the things God built me to be interested in and impassioned by. I’m energized by reading books, articles, blogs, listening to sermons and other […]
I wrote a book a while back called “Letters from Jesus: A Study of the Seven Churches of Revelation“, and it’s FREE on Google Books to read and download as PDF. It’s all about how Jesus speaks to us in unique and special ways to encourage, correct, challenge and train us. The book won an “Award of Merit” from The Word […]
While writing this article I was reminded about this song by Casting Crowns called “Does Anybody Hear Her” which seems to hit the nail on the head. Do Churches Still Help? I had a conversation recently where we were discussing the place of “para-church ministries” within the realm of global and local missions and it dawned on me that North […]
I’ve seen some wonderful miracles throughout my life, and this past year has been even more amazing. Sometimes I get miracle and coincidence confused, but not this year — it’s been pretty obvious. I’ve been unemployed or underemployed for almost a whole year now, and even though it’s been financially tough, we have seen God show up and miraculously provide […]
Matthew 6:19-34, John 15:5-8 are key verses to read and know if we are to understand life as a Christian. They are encouraging, reassuring and powerful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read them or referenced them in sermons. Life with Jesus is meant to be a life where our worries are minimized, our joy is maximized, and where […]
I recently began a sermon series called Plug In: The Spiritual Disciplines, where I plan on going through 10 weeks of study on different ways we can meet God, know more about Him, understand our faith, and grow closer to Jesus. This was given as the first sermon in the series. I realized after the service that it was too […]
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