Light Bearers Author

If you could, instantly, have any book of the Bible memorized, which one would it be? I’ve asked this question to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people over the years. In fact, I asked several friends just recently while enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The most common answers, in

If there were Olympic Games for the person with the saddest story in all the Bible, obviously Job would take the gold medal, but do you know who I think would take silver? Jacob. His story has always fascinated and attracted me. It’s not only sad, though; it’s also redemptive and, in the finish, even hopeful.

“Father Steve” was a fixture of my childhood. He was the longtime minister of the local Episcopalian church my parents attended. I remember him being kind and funny. I remember the strange robes he would wear on Sunday. I remember he had a daughter named Cathy who was a few years older than me. I had my first-ever

What if I said this to you? “You should dead drift an olive wooly bugger, with just a touch of swing, right through the gut and watch for a flashy, butter-colored take.” Or this?

In his excellent book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson writes, “All the wisdom and strength of the ancient world were in Mesopotamia and Egypt…Mesopotamian power and Egyptian wisdom were strength and intelligence divorced from God, put to the wrong ends, and producing all the wrong

Get in the Word for yourself. Get in the Word for yourself. Get in the Word for yourself. Get in the Word… That’s really all I want to say in this devotional: Get in the Word for yourself. But I guess I’ll say a little more, since I’ve been asked to

Do you love snow? I’ve always loved it, but today I love it a little bit more. You see, I’ve lived in sub-tropical Australia for the last six years. “Cold” there is 50° Fahrenheit. So, as you might’ve guessed, it doesn’t snow. To be clear, there are places in Australia where it does snow, but not where I

Presently, for my local church, I’m in the midst of a preaching series on the book of Romans, called All Roads Lead to Romans. And the next sermon is on one of my three favorite passages in Romans: chapter 3:21-31. Without going into too much detail, I want to highlight the “turning point” phrase in Paul’s

I’ve heard quite a few people say it: “I have the best job in the world.” I always like it when I hear that, because it makes me feel really happy for the person that says it. And I’m one of those people. I say it. And I mean it. In 2003, I co-founded ARISE, a

I don’t know about you, but I love a good road trip. There’s something really satisfying about covering large distances while listening to a great audiobook or inspiring music. I’ve always thought the point of a truly worthy road trip wasn’t just the destination, but the journey itself and the route by which you

“David, I’m so judgmental. I’m just so judgmental of others. I need Jesus. I love Jesus. He can change my heart, because I’m very judgmental of those who are not like me.” And there were tears that ran down the cheeks into a beautiful smile. Those tears and that smile belonged to Judith. Judith is one of my church members here in

There is a genuine revival taking place among the youth and young adults of my local church. Read that first sentence again, please. And again. This is not a hyperbole or exaggeration; it’s the wonderful, God-glorifying truth. Let me tell you the story. ARISE held its first Australian program at the Kingscliff Church in early 2013, five

Lately, I’ve been taking my teenage sons, Landon and Jabel, to the climbing gym. I was introduced to rock climbing by two close friends, a young couple named Tim and Tanya, when I was a teenager. On my first day, I had to be essentially rescued by Tanya from the top of an 80-foot granite spire. It was an inauspicious start to what would become a

Every ARISE class is a miracle. And not just a miracle, but miracles upon miracles. Like a cluster of delicious grapes, each one is amazing in itself and the cluster magnifies the miracle all the more. The 2017 class was no exception! One of these “grapes” is a Pakistani young man named Zeerick, 18, who preached his first sermon at age

I recently did the Rainbow Ride, a local 102.5-mile (165 km) race. It was my first large group ride, and it was awesome! The ride starts with a steep and winding climb, followed by a fast descent, and about 30 miles (50 km) of relatively flat roads. I got past the first big climb and descent feeling strong. But there was a problem, a big

Have you ever heard of drafting? Sure you have, but perhaps not the kind of drafting I’m thinking of. Drafting can refer to: Refining several preliminary versions of a piece of writing. Governmental enlistment of young men for mandatory military service. A brilliant aerodynamic technique that significantly

Discipleship is a bit of a buzzword right now, and that’s a good thing. As the church, and as followers of Jesus, we should be talking about discipleship. More than this, we should be doing discipleship. But right there is the rub. Because discipling people is hard. It takes time. It takes investment. It takes energy. It

Let me tell you about one of my least favorite Australian realities: speed cameras. Ugh, just saying those two words makes me feel ill. You see, in the US, where I’m from, you receive a speeding ticket by being pulled over by an actual officer and given an actual ticket. It’s still no fun, but it is decidedly more, well, human. Perhaps

On February 8, ARISE Australia’s fourth three-month session began enthusiastically here in Kingscliff, Australia with students from all around the world. Norway, Germany, Finland, the United States, Canada, and South Africa, in addition to Australia of course, are all represented! I’ve been doing this for fifteen years now, ever since

In 2014, Michael and Lisa Gungor, who together form the band Gungor, had a child with Down Syndrome. They named her Lucette, meaning “light." Also in 2014 a woman tweeted that she would face "a real ethical dillema" if she found out that she was pregnant with a baby with

Here’s a miracle story. Fifteen years ago, I was preaching an evangelistic series in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The series was a joint venture with Adventist-Laymen’s Services & Industries (ASI) and the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day

A pastor. A physical therapist. A builder. An investment banker. Since its inception, ARISE has attracted diverse groups of people, and this year’s class was no different. Diversity is one of ARISE’s greatest strengths, but also presents one of our greatest challenges. How so?

“What Lance couldn’t handle was the truth.” So said Betsy Andreu at the close of Alex Holmes’s difficult-to-watch documentary on the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong, Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story. Lance is not alone. Most of us can’t handle the truth. Just today, I returned from a two-week trip to Jasper,

I am admittedly surprised to hear over and over again that the current conversation and study the Seventh-day Adventist Church is having regarding the theology of ordination, generally, and of the ordination of women to pastoral ministry, specifically, is a "distraction" or even a "deception" of the enemy. Prayerful Bible study in the context

Recently we had our car broken into. Between the damage to the car and the stolen goods, it set us back several thousand dollars. Not the nicest “Welcome to Australia” moment one could imagine. I can still recall the almost nauseating feeling in my gut when I walked out that morning to get in the car and saw the smashed window. I instantly and

Yeehaw! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Amen! Yes, I know I’m geographically Down Under, but, wow, am I flying high right now! It’s the Monday after the final weekend of the ARISE Australia program, and I’m sitting back to soak it all in, and, hopefully, to write down something about

Paul the Apostle said some strange things, things hard to understand. Even Peter agreed (2 Peter 3:15). And if some of his writings were admittedly puzzling back then, how much more so would that be the case today, nearly two millennia later? I used to be exasperated over Paul’s occasional inscrutability, but no longer. And the reason is

A really cool thing happened recently, and I can’t wait to tell you about it. Here goes… It started at the Light Bearers Convocation earlier this year. The theme was Jesus Only, and was a chapter-by-chapter study through Acts. In preparation for those sermons, I, along with Ty, James, and

It’s hard to believe, really. It happened to me, and I’m still trying to grasp it, to take it in. What happened? Well, I just preached to representatives from more than 110 countries during two globally-significant, Seventh-day Adventist Youth Congresses. It is unlikely that I will ever have a similar opportunity during my ministry. What a

A consequential question, to be sure. But, first, another: what is meaning? What does meaning mean? Who’s to say what the answer is to either of these queries? Or, for that matter, to any query of consequence? Who decides what meaning means and what life’s meaning ought to be? There cannot be many answers: either it is me,

Short of making the sun stand still, it is no easy thing to make room for four months of instruction in just nine days. Nevertheless, we here at Light Bearers are trying anyway! ARISE has, for the last decade, been a four-month endeavor. We have known from the beginning that many––most, in fact––people cannot attend a program of this

Just the other day, while on my morning run, I had a rather sublime revelation. I get these “running revelations” quite a bit actually. Maybe it’s the increased blood flow, or the quiet time, or the aloneness of it all, I really don’t know. Whatever it is, I like it. Perhaps I’ll write more about these running revelations sometime, but

I get admittedly nervous when I hear these words: “Pastor Asscherick, you changed my life.” You see, I’m not in the life-changing business; I’m just a messenger, a mail carrier. The biblical term is evangelist, one who carries a message. That’s me. My response has, over the years, become reflexive: “Well, thank you, but

Family My youngest son, Jabel, just turned ten. In the absence of a miraculous intervention, I will never again have the joy and privilege of parenting a less-than-double-digit aged child. Life moves on. Time does its thing. “The past has gone where the past inevitably goes, the future has not arrived,” David Berlinski resignedly

Emily Bronte, in her poem Fall, Leaves, Fall, writes: Every leaf speaks bliss to meFluttering from the autumn tree.  Here in Oregon, as I write this, autumn has come and (nearly) gone. Leaves are aground wherever one looks––golden yellow, ochre red, and a million hues besides. Each one tells a story, a tale of

In my world, there would be no sexual slave trade, because there would be no customers. In my world, there would be no promising politicians, because people would be too informed and intelligent to believe them. In my world, there would be no illegal drug use or trafficking, because people would be high on life. In my world, there would

Quick: what do Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, and Jimmy Swaggart all have in common? Answer: they’ve all made my life harder. At various times, and in various ways, they all succeeded in sullying my profession, my faith, and, worst of all, my Savior. (He’s their Savior too, of course!) They can’t help it that people are largely unthinking and

Someone told me that someone had a friend who was told by someone else that, “ARISE Bible workers don’t get results.” Sure, a rumor is a rumor, but the alleged statement does actually raise an important question, one that I’ve been asking for more than a decade: What is ARISE trying to accomplish?  The answer starts with a

It was, without doubt, one of the highlights of my life: more than a thousand young people standing arm in arm, committing themselves to God and to making a difference in Europe. Even now as I write, my heart thrills within me as I remember that site and that night. It will be with me for the rest of my life, of this I am certain.

My family and I recently had the privilege of spending some time touring around Boston following a speaking appointment. Not being a city person, I had but mild anticipation. The primary goals were to expose my boys to some American history, and to have a couple relaxing days with friends. Both of those missions were accomplished. But God, as

It is no secret to those who know me that I regard New Zealand as “the best country on earth.” I’ve been there four years in a row, and have no plans or desire to stop my annual visits. My most recent visit, which I’ve just returned from, was a wonderful blessing, as it afforded me many opportunities for ministry and

The ninth four-month ARISE class has come and gone. It’s hard to believe we’ve been at this for nearly a decade! Every class is special, I’ll be the first to insist on that. What made 2011’s class so special? I think it was a combination of several

Even though it’s happened, I still can hardly believe it. We merged. We moved. We’re here. After months of conversing, praying, thinking, and planning, it happened. And, again, I still can hardly believe it. But here’s the good news, no great news: it’s going so much better than I thought it would. Being a perennial

A lot has happened since Part Two was written and posted, not the least of which is that ARISE has moved to Jasper, Oregon to merge with Light Bearers. (At least most of us have. Pastor Nathan Renner

What a privilege it was to conduct the Week of Spiritual Emphasis at the General Conference World Headquarters earlier this year! Blessings continue to flow from that experience. One such blessing is the

The original plan was one post with all fifteen points. Plan B was fifteen points in two blog posts. Now we’re on Plan C: fifteen points in, you guessed it, three posts. Life has a way of suddenly rearranging our otherwise perfect and precise plans. I’m sitting here surrounded by boxes on boxes. The packing is in full swing. Moving is neither

Pastor Torres, complete with wetsuit, baptizing me in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Best day of my life. It was June 6, 1996. Five days ago was June 6, 2011. Fifteen years. Fifteen years ago, right now, seems like a long time. But time being the funny

ARISE is thoroughly Gospel-centered. ARISE is authentically Adventist. Let’s be unmistakably clear: there exists no tension whatsoever between these affirmations. Both can be affirmed concurrently, absolutely, enthusiastically and unapologetically. Neither is threatened or crowded by the other. We don’t have to play one against the other, or

Recently, I met Mark. Mark was scared. Mark had spent the last week cutting people’s limbs off. I’m not kidding. February 22nd saw Christchurch, New Zealand rocked by a deadly earthquake. At present nearly 200 have lost their lives. Hundreds more have been injured, many of them dreadfully so. This is where Mark comes in. Mark is a

David Asscherick shares his eyewitness account of the 6.3 quake. A deadly earthquake (6.3 magnitude) struck Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday at 12:51 p.m. Reports are that the Central Business District (CBD) received the brunt of it. They are correct. I should know, I was there. My family and

Twenty-six point two miles. 138,435 feet. 1,661,220 inches. There are many permutations, but the distance remains the same: long. For reasons not perfectly clear to me, running a marathon seemed like a good idea. That was six months ago. It’s easy to say yes. It’s easy to go online and register. It’s easy to read a book on