From July 2-6 several hundred people will arrive on the Light Bearers campus for our 2013 Convocation to study through the book of Acts, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, story by story. And this will be the theme of our study: Jesus only.

Learn more and register here .

It was a crisp winter day, and snow blanketed the quaint landscape surrounding me. Bright rays of light sparkled off the fresh snow that had fallen the previous night. Tall evergreens could be seen just about wherever one looked, and the rich smell of these majestic trees filled the air with an invigorating scent. The melodious, irregular song of tweeting birds could be heard above the gentle sound of wind rushing through the nearby woods.

But this is not going to be a story about tall trees, rich smells, or tweeting birds, so I shall not say more than is necessary about the setting. But what I should tell you is that this story took place in the mountains of California during a prayer retreat. People, young and old, were gathered here from all across the northern and central California area. Why did they come? They came to learn about the power of prayer. Some heard about it. Others experienced it.

I shall start by introducing a term that many of you are probably familiar with: “The Snowball Effect.” It is …
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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 I’m sure it was Jesus Christ who changed your life, not me.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” is usually the reply. Or something like it. The point is taken, on both sides. I appreciate the affirmation, yes, but I appreciate the accuracy even more.

Jesus Christ is in the life-changing business, and He is awesome at it. For my part, I find it easy to “sell” and “tell” such a successful and consistent “product.” They say that Porsche salesmen do little more than hand out keys, because the cars sell themselves. I like that. That’s what we evangelists do: hand out keys, “the keys of the kingdom” (Matthew 16:19), no less! What we’re offering is better than any Porsche, however.

On my most recent trip to New …
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In politics, are you Republican or Democrat? In terms of religion, are you liberal or conservative? When it comes to your personality, are you sanguine or melancholy? In diet, are you vegan or vegetarian? Are you for or against . . . , in or out, yes or no, right or wrong? I mean really! Take a stand! Isn’t that how we think at times? It is for good reason that we have developed a passion for platforms, positions, and absolutes. There is enough wishy-washy in the world. However, when it comes to certain issues, especially lifestyle related ones, I am continuing to be impressed with how wisdom is often found in the middle of the road, rather than in either extreme.

The average American diet is full, and I do mean full, of very cooked food. Some of the foods we eat use highly processed ingredients that are then cooked once, twice, sometimes three or even four times. Have we killed it yet?! Other foods we cook at temperatures and conditions that cause chemical reactions to occur that literally …
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In 1929, the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty settling the Roman Question and setting the stage for what some have since described as the healing of the deadly wound. Somewhere between that time and today, an idea developed that has since taken many minds captive.

This idea was that from 1929 to the second coming of Jesus there will be exactly seven popes, and the seventh one would reign for a “short time.”

God is waiting for people, not popes.

With a surface study of Revelation 17 in one hand and a February 12, 1929 San Francisco Chronicle headline, “healed wound of many years” in the other, advocates felt they had a valid Bible prophecy (though our pioneers taught a much longer healing process dating back to the 19th century). When Pope Benedict was elected, he was the 7th since 1929. And since he was 78, it did not appear that he would be in office very long and it seemed that the final crisis could burst forth at any time. However, Pope Benedict remained in office more than …
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As I took my seat on the plane, an energetic little boy came up the aisle with his dad. In my mind I thought, “I sure hope he’s not gonna be in the seat behind me.” As a frequent flyer, I know short legs tend to kick seatbacks.

As he walked past me, he smiled. Or was it a menacing grin?

Sure enough, his seat was behind mine. In a matter of seconds, the kicking began. For the first hour his father repeatedly scolded him, threatening the little guy: “If you don’t stop kicking that man’s seat, you’re going to be in big trouble. Is that what you want, big trouble?”

It’s all a matter of how we represent the character of God in our approach to people.

It was all to no avail. I got the distinct impression that all the threatening dad could heap on the little rebel was only stimulating more rebellion in him. So I took the matter into my own hands. Turning around in my seat, I looked up over the seatback and said, “Hi, …
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I despise sloths. The continuous ritardando of their existence is not to my liking. They sleep for 20 hours a day. When they are awake they barely move. They are so slow and sluggish that algae will actually grow on their fur! Can you imagine if sloths could talk? A short sentence would probably take five minutes! Wwwwwhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaat diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid youuuuuuuu ssssssssssssssaaaaaayyyy? I am way too impatient for that!

The human body has a certain speed at which life processes must occur for health and survival to be maintained. Cellular functions operate according to a biological clock. If these interactions and reactions occur too slowly, life cannot be sustained. This is what makes enzymes very important. They keep things happening, fast.

You have heard the generalization that man can live for about three to five weeks without food and three to five days without water. However, we would live only three minutes without enzymes? Enzymes are proteins with amazing abilities. They function as catalysts, compounds that increase the rate of chemical reactions. They were designed to attach, activate, and adjust their …
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Traveling all over the world from place to place to share the gospel as part of the Light Bearers Ministry team is especially rewarding when hearts are healed and lives transformed by the power of God. Many of you are reading these words because you attended a series of meetings in your area and now receive our monthly newsletter. The Mission Update  offers ongoing spiritual encouragement, communicates the latest on the mission of Light Bearers and offers timely health tips in the newly formatted Alive  articles.

Some of you have confessed, though, that the health section is the first section you turn to (you know who you are). Others have shared how the health article was the right information at the just the right time for a personal need.

Often extra copies of the health article have been ordered to share with friends and relatives or to be placed in doctors’ offices and other outreach venues (this is one of the reasons Alive  is a stand-alone tract). We recognize that the circulation of our health publications is a most important work. It is a …
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I saw my mother-in-law die this week. It was on Wednesday morning at 7am. My wife held her hand and sang hymns to her till her last breath. I always thought shock was the result of something unexpected. But I was expecting this moment, and still shocked when it happened.

I’d been watching Natalia’s condition for two months via online video chat from Australia. She was obviously getting worse, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw in that room. She looked like a completely different person, so small and fragile. Cancer had wreaked havoc on her, it got to her bones, spine, liver and finally her brain.

It began with a lump. I called everyone I could think of: friends at Loma Linda, Weimar, Harvard and everywhere in between. We counseled with cancer survivors. Then came the mastectomy. She wasn’t comfortable with chemo, so we followed up with cleanses, herbal remedies and juicing like crazy (she should’ve turned green with all that wheat grass). But those wicked little cancer cells came back with a vengeance to finish what they …
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A powerful ministry to prison inmates is under way in Kenya.

A group called the King’s Messengers, sponsored by the East- Central Africa Division, recently paid a series of visits to a prison in Nairobi housing 3,500 men. Rather than merely preach, the King’s Messengers conducted free medical check-ups and offered treatments for the sick. Seven hundred inmates were treated in conjunction with nursing and medical staff from the Adventist University of Eastern Africa Baraton, based in Kenya. Benson Obolla, one of the leaders of the ministry, said, “We were the first outsiders ever to be allowed to conduct a medical camp in the prison and the authorities were very excited with the results.”

Once the ministry of healing hands softened the hearts of the inmates, the King’s Messengers offered the King’s message by placing in each inmate’s hands, a Bible and a set of study guides provided by Light Bearers. As a result, says Obolla, “we baptized 213 prisoners.”

Those men in Nairobi are behind bars for a reason, and the reason reaches deeper than their deeds. There is …
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