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Why ComicCon Made Me Cry: The Heartbreaking Reality For Some Who Attend (and What We Can Do)
I’ve always looked forward to ComicCon, but this year, it was more than just an event for me. It became a window into a deeper truth. In fact, telling this story has brought me to tears twice this week. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been able to bring some young people with…
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Fear, Uncertainty, and the War in Ukraine (incl. a note from someone in Ukraine) Devo & Discussion
I have a lot of viewers from Europe so it was only fitting that we would take time to talk about the situation in Ukraine, how to deal with worry, and read a note from someone who actually lives in Ukraine right now. Podcast Version: https://anchor.fm/xtianninja/episodes/Fear–Uncertainty–and-the-War-in-Ukraine-incl–a-note-from-someone-in-Ukraine-Devo–Discussion-e1euavr If you’d like to help me stay full-time…
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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, How Christians Can Deal with Anxiety, Walking Between The Lions (PP 6.3)
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 continue our interesting study of Pilgrims Progress by exploring more of the sixth chapter when Christian meets the lions. Interesting Links:– Article: https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2021/05/living-faithfully-with-anxiety/ – Pilgrim’s…
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Why You Keep Falling Apart: How to Stop Being Afraid of Your Life
Living in fear that if anything goes wrong your mind and body will react like it’s the end of the world and you’ll end up losing all the progress you’ve made is a terrible way to live. It stops you from trying new things, meeting new people, and leaving your comfort zone. Here are…
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Elijah: A Nature Like Ours – Burnout, Depression & The Let-Down Effect
Turn with me to 1 Kings 18:1–40 and I want to read two stories about the prophet Elijah today, but we need to read a large section so we can get the whole story. A lot has already happened up to this point, but you’ll figure out how things are going as we…
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Contemplating Sin & Rebirth (Lent 2019)
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God,…
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Stewarding Wealth 2: Why Are We So Anxious About Money? (And What Can We Do About It?)
Audio: Text: https://player.rightnow.org/99573 So, that little video is a reminder of what we’ve been studying over the past while, especially last week where we looked at Jesus teaching in Matthew 6 about how we ought to be setting our priorities when it comes to stewarding our treasures (meaning our finances and possessions). The biggest…
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Stewarding Time: How to Combat Our Habits of Wasting and Worrying About Time
First, A Quick Request: Here’s the poll (link fixed): https://www.facebook.com/ArtOfTheChristianNinja/posts/1618969174822815 Sermon Audio: Sermon Text: Review Over the past few weeks we’ve been talking about the wise and godly use of all the good gifts that God has given us in our lives, which usually, in the Christian church, is called “stewardship”. The jumping…
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Christians & Depression IV: The Truth
Audio: Text: Ok, just for fun we’re going to start today with a True or False test of some random questions I found around the internet: Approximately one-quarter of human bones are in the feet. (True – 52 bones in the feet and 206 in the whole body.) In ancient Rome, a special room…
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Christians & Depression II: Fighting The Stigma
*Sorry, no audio. Tattoos & Human Branding I don’t have any tattoos, but I know lots of people who do – and a few that don’t have one yet but want one. As far as the Bible goes, there’s no problem with getting or having a tattoo, so long as it’s not done in…
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Christians & Depression: A Few Things Your Pastor Wants You to Know
Sermon Audio: Sermon Text: Well, we took down the Christmas decorations at home this week. No more tree, lights, or socks on the wall (nothing says Christmas like decorating the wall with fancy socks you’ll never wear, right?). The socks have been replaced with our standard portrait, the tree has been boxed up and…
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Your Weaknesses Are Very, Very Important (Acknowledging the Necessity of Lack)
If you have your Bibles with you, please up to 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 and let’s read it together. Those of you who have been following along with the sermon series so far are going to see some really important words in there and will, hopefully, recall some of the things we’ve already learned. When…
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Mind Your Buckets: What You Need to Know to Get Your Priorities Straight
I was given the opportunity to be a special speaker this week and as I was preparing my sermon, I ended up stopping and thinking: “You know what, the talk I just wrote for this other group really lines up to what we’re talking about in 1st Corinthians. Maybe I should just share this…
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Woe to the Self Secure: You are Not as Safe as You Think
Parable of the Rich Fool Let’s begin today by reading “The Parable of the Rich Fool”: “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take…
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Getaway: Jesus Kidnaps His Disciples
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…
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How to Make a “Strategic Withdrawal” During Busy Times (Mark 3:7-15)
“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…