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You Are AMAZING! (But What if You Don’t FEEL Amazing?)
Last week I gave a talk to an AWANA group to help them understand that no matter how different they feel, God made them special, with a purpose, and doesn’t make mistakes. Podcast Audio: People Can Do Amazing Things Did you watch the Olympics this year? What’s your favourite sport to watch? Mine is hockey, but I…
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Special Request: How Do You Devo?
Podcast Audio: How Do You Devo? Devos, Daily Devotionals, Quiet Time, Private Meditation, Time with God, 1-on-1 with Jesus, Daily Prayers — there are lots of names for it and likely as many ways to do it. And I want to know yours! I recently filled my very first prayer journal and got a shiny new…
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A Man Like Caleb – (Men’s Ministry Kickoff Talk)
Podcast Audio: Life is a Battlefield We’ve all felt it. We all experience it. Life sometimes seems like a war. We are in a daily battle for our family’s security, our personal purity, our relationship with God, our attitudes, our church and the spread of the gospel. God has specially charged men with the…
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The Cathedral of Your Heart – Preparing for Easter by Looking Inward
Podcast Audio: Let’s start with a couple of short stories: I remember, a while back, going to a fancy restaurant on my parent’s 25th anniversary. We had a great meal, and my brother had bought a bottle of Dom Pérignon, which was pretty good too. After the appetizer we were served a small bowl…
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The Story of Saint Patrick
Podcast Audio: This week people all over the world celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. For many it is a time to pretend they are Irish, get drunk on green beer (or Guinness for the purists), take in a parade, and dress like a leprechaun. Ironically, though they celebrate with a passion, most people have long…
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Introducing the New Art of the Christian Ninja Podcast
Thank You! It has been my desire to bring glory to God and praise to Jesus through this blog. I want to start this post by thanking you for following the blog. It gives me a chance to serve God in a special way, and you are a huge part of that. According to…
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Why Should I Love My Enemies?
I gave a talk to a group of AWANA kids this week. It was “Heart Night” (celebrating Valentine’s Day) and I spoke on Love. I used some animated gifs in the powerpoint, which is where all the giggling at the beginning comes from. I linked to a few if you want a giggle too.…
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Reflections on the Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham Debate
Last night, hundreds of thousands of people watched a young-earth, biblical literalist and a committed evolutionary naturalist debate the question “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?” – for over 2 hours. And it was very, very interesting. The first debater was Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and…
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Making Room for Jesus – Redeeming the Innkeeper
For the past couple years my family and I have had a tradition of taking our collection of Christmas movies off of the shelf, wrapping them up, and then, when we have time in the evening, opening one of the movies as a surprise and then watching it. We all have our favourites (my…
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Things we can Learn from Rob Ford
The drama surrounding Rob Ford continues to make headlines as investigators dig up facts and new allegations come to light. Americans and Canadians are fascinated by what Maclean’s Magazine called “the greatest political train wreck of our time.” I don’t want to add fuel to the already blazing inferno of craziness surrounding Ford’s words…
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I’m Angry With My Toothpaste!
I gave a little talk to some kids at AWANA last night and wanted to share it with you. It was intended to make the kids laugh and think. The older kids seemed to get it, but it might have went over the heads of the little ones. It’s adapted from a post I wrote a…
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5 Reminders For Christians that Need to Make Big Ministry Decisions
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…
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How to Plan a Spiritual Retreat
In my previous post, “How to Make a Strategic Withdrawal During Busy Times“, I said that I would be happy to help anyone that needs help during the planning stages. I realized after a reader took me up on that offer that it might be more helpful to post it here. If you haven’t read the…
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Response to “Autistic Boy’s Family told to ‘Move or Euthanize Him’” – Why do People Get Sick?
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)…
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My Battle with the Demon of Discouragement
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything here for a while. Normally I would say something like “life got busy” but that isn’t the whole truth. Actually, my life, home and church over the past month has been an intense spiritual battleground and for too long I was losing the battle. Below…
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Equipping Yourself To Defend the Unborn
I want to start by welcoming all the new subscribers! If you didn’t receive your free e-book, contact me. Second, I want to apologize for the error I made yesterday that accidentally sent a message to everyone I have ever emailed in my entire life! I am very sorry and I’ve been working hard…
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My Boys' Testimonies and Baptisms
On October 14th I had the amazing privilege of baptising my sons Ethan and Edison. It was such a wonderful day, and my wife and I are so proud of them. I’ve finally uploaded their testimony and baptism video to youtube and want to share it with you. The audio isn’t that great, so here’s a…
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What to Do with Bad News
In light of current events I put together this handout to give to my church tomorrow. I thought it might be helpful to give you some things to do when you hear or experience bad news. This is by no means a comprehensive guide, but is what is on my heart to share right…
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My Sermon Archive
Hello and Merry Christmas! I’ve been having too wonderful of a time with my family and church and haven’t been posting much, so I wanted to point you to where you can read some of my sermons. (I know you’ve been sitting in front of your computer, just waiting for someone to send you…
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Map of Pilgrim's Progress
UPDATE: Hey, if you’re seeing this, you’d probably enjoy the Pilgrim’s Progress Study I’ve been doing on my “Of Interest” Podcast too. Check it out! I’m almost done reading John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” and hope to begin posting some insights from it soon (I could probably devote the next year of blogging to it!).…
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7 Things Your Pastor Wants You to Know but Probably Won’t Tell You
I have a question for you. How well do you know your pastor – really? What comes to mind when you think of your pastor? Some people treat us like we are another species – rare and peculiar, unlike anything else in the world – and that creates some unique challenges. This article was first published…
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Going Dark
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…
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Michael Jr. at Gateway Church
If you haven’t heard of Michael Jr. yet, you are seriously missing out on some funny and meaningful stuff. Here’s a sermon he recently gave at the Gateway Church. [Also, this is officially the first sermon I have ever watched that has a commercial!]
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I'm Now an Official Book Blogger!
Even though blogging has its downsides (carpal tunnel and trucker butt), there are some pretty great benefits to being a blogger. Check these out: 1. All the coffee I make I get to drink… after I offer my wife a cup. 2. A chair that goes up, down, round and round, and also reclines! 3.…
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Jehovah's Witnesses
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…
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Christian View of Suicide
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…
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RC Sproul on Predestination
I’ll admit it — I have a man-crush on RC Sproul. What an awesome teacher! Last week RC took on a favourite hot-topic among Christians – predestination. Every time I have an Ask The Pastor night this question comes up over and over. It is clearly close to people’s hearts and people want a…
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Favourite Podcasts
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,…
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Favourite Thinker's Blogs
Continued from yesterday… I’ve shown you my favourite Leadership and Christian Living Blogs, but today I want to show you something different. These blogs are more inline with my personal interests, but I think you may find them interesting — I certainly do. These are not Christian bloggers, but they are intelligent, insightful and entertaining. Some…
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Male Eldership
There’s some confusion among Christians regarding male Eldership and the role of women in the church. This is a concern to me because it can easily become a divisive topic if it’s not clearly communicated and carefully (and humbly) studied. I want everyone to understand what God says about the different roles of…
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Read My Book "Letters From Jesus" Free
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…
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I'm Angry with my Toothpaste
Oh toothpaste, how you have let me down! You promise so many things! In your TV commercials you tell me that no person can respect, love or enjoy the company of someone without shiny, white teeth. You tell me that the reason that I’m not successful in life is because my choppers are too…
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Why Life Sometimes Sucks
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,…
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The Basics of Bible Study
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…
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By Request: “A Good Church”
I recently spoke at the 165th anniversary celebration for Beckwith Baptist, a church in the Ottawa area. I got a lot of comments and requests for the text, so I thought I’d post it here this week. It’s based on Acts 2:42-47. — A Good Church If you ask the question, “What is a…
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Father’s Day “Relationships & Success”
I’m breaking pattern this week so I can share something I wrote for Father’s Day, a sermon based on Psalm 1:1-2. It’s challenging and practical, and I hope will help you next time you have the “I’m worried about the path you’re going down” talk with someone. —— “Blessed is the man who walks…