Pastor_David's blog

We will have only one worship service at ACC on Sunday, June 20. Starting time is 10:30am. Meanwhile, at least 60 ACCers will be away on a retreat at the Liebenzell Retreat Center in Schooley's Mountain, NJ. My family and I are looking forward to going on the retreat. I'm planning to come back to Queens on Saturday night, and am looking forward to preaching at the Astoria worship service on Sunday morning. Whether you are going on the retreat or not ... hope to see you next weekend!

There are a lot of resources available for those who struggle with lust and pornography. If this is a battle you face, I urge you to take advantage of as many of them as you can. Of course, none of these help at all without genuine repentance and faith in the gospel.

Here are a few items I have run across recently:(Read more)

I once saw a poster on the wall of a High School classroom with a slogan I have never forgotten. It read: "For every complex problem there is a simple solution ... and it's wrong!" The immigration situation in the United States presents our country with some very complex problems. Unfortunately, a number of people (on all sides of the issue) are proposing very simplistic solutions to these problems. (Read more)

Here's another Amy Carmichael poem that I like:

The Sign

Lord crucified, O mark Thy holy Cross
On motive, preference, all fond desires;
On that which self in any form inspires
Set Thou that Sign of loss.

And when the touch of death is here and there
Laid on a thing most precious in our eyes,
Let us not wonder; let us recognize
The answer to this prayer.

My mother gave me a book of poems by Amy Carmichael, an Irish missionary who founded an orphanage in India. Here's a poem of hers that I really liked:

No Scar?

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

Juan M. suggested I suscribe to the free weekly podcast from The White Horse Inn this year. What a great idea! This week's discussion was on "The Inspiration of Scripture" It's worth listening to.

At our church we believe that the Bible is God’s inspired Word. Of course, the obvious question is, “How can you be sure this is true?” The Bible claims to be a divine book, but so do other ancient religious texts. (read more)

“Have you read The Shack”? I’ve been asked that question a couple of times, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard it more often. The Shack is a New York Times #1 best-selling book by William Paul Young with over 10 million copies in print (and soon to be available in over 30 languages around the world.) Written as a novel, The Shack is designed to teach about the nature of the Triune God.

My answer to the question is, “No. I haven’t read The Shack.” I don’t know if I ever will or not. But I have seen reviews of the book from some people whose opinion I respect. They express serious concerns about the theological teaching of the book. (Read more)

I love listening to sermon podcasts of certain other preachers. I hope the sermons we post here are helpful to people, too. Sorry we've fell so far behind in uploading sermon podcasts. A bunch of recent ones just went up today. We'll try to get completely up-to-date ASAP.

There are a number of things that might come to mind when we think about Easter — multi-colored eggs, joyful worship services, stirring choir anthems, delicious family meals.

But judging from Scripture, whenever we contemplate the Easter story, we should immediately start to think about Christ’s mission for his Church. (Read more)