Christians and those of you so-called, you need to check your circle. Who’s encouraging you in the faith? Who’s reminding you of gospel implications in your every day struggles? Who has your ear, your head and your heart when difficulties arise or when drastic decisions need to be made? Take a look at the people […]
Read More Smiling FacesChris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Robin Williams, Kurt Cobain and the list goes on and on. Two people that helped shape me went out the same way that they did. There was a point in time when I could have joined this list. Not intentionally, but because of reckless abandon. A good friend of mine held […]
Read More Don’t Go AloneIf you peruse this blog site for any amount of time, you will probably find a number of articles pertaining to the subject of moving on. And that’s probably because, personally, I have had a lot of stuff over the course of my life that I have had to try and move on from. Even […]
Read More Getting Uncomfortable In Our Misery: The Art of Moving OnBehold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. […]
Read More A Beautiful MessToday felt lively. The local church showed up in great numbers and there were prominent voices in the abolitionist movement present. Joseph Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul Jr. and Rusty Thomas were among the more widely known voices pleading for the lives of the unborn among us. Solidarity is important and I think it’s something worth discussing. […]
Read More Murder Mill Musings #003Sometimes I have to process things really slowly, especially when those things involve people I was close to. For instance, I have been working through processing a couple of events that took place in the last couple of months that seemed rather unnecessary and petty, but came from the least likely sources. RECENT EVENTS For […]
Read More The 3 R’s of Moving OnBeing called a Spiritual Son or hearing someone call themselves my Spiritual Father (or mother) was something I wasn’t used to growing up in the Southern Baptist Church. Which is odd, because there is certainly this type of relationship displayed throughout the Bible.
Read More A Word of Caution to the Spiritual Fathers of this WorldQuestion: Why do you believe the bible? Answer: Because it’s a reliable collection of historical documents written by eye witnesses during the lifetime of other eye witnesses that reported supernatural events in fulfillment of specific prophecies. Finally, they claim that these messages are divine rather than human in nature. “Thus says the Lord”, and variations […]
Read More DivinityRecap: God has something to say about knowledge. The bible is a reliable collection of historical documents. It was written by eyewitnesses in the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. Continuing that thought, these witnesses reported supernatural events in fulfilment of specific prophecies. I emphasize specific, because that’s just what this is. These are not some vague Nostradamus type […]
Read More ProphecyIn case you missed it, the third entry of this series on apologetics was about eye witnesses to Jesus’ ministry. Consider this entry part two of entry #3. This is also going to be about eye witnesses, but from a different vantage point. You see, those that claim that the disciples just “made up” the […]
Read More The MartyrsRecap: In the previous entries on apologetics, I’ve shared the emphasis God puts on knowledge and the unique composition of the the bible. In this entry, I’ll share the next reason I believe what the bible says and why I think you should too. The bible was not written in a vaccuum. No one just […]
Read More Eye Witness TestimonyIn part one of this series of entries about why I trust the authority of scripture, I explained how important wisdom is. God doesn’t want us to be uninformed about the legitimacy of His claims, who He is or the implications all that has for our lives. This time, my goal is to show you […]
Read More The Reliability of ScriptureNotice: All of the answers you’re looking for are in the bible. I, a pastor, or any well educated theologian can tell you all about what we believe, why we believe it, and what we know about history that corroborates with it, but you have to know Jesus and place your faith in Him as […]
Read More Apologetics Intro – Bearers of Truthau-thor-i-tar-i-an /əˌTHôrəˈterēən/ adjective: favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government at the expense of personal freedom showing a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others; domineering; dictatorial. noun: an authoritarian person Nothing is more unattractive to me than a church who has leaders and a pastor who […]
Read More 6 Signs of an Authoritarian Church LeaderTHROWING UP THE WALLS Since I’ve begun my foray into examining and critiquing modern Church practices and settings in hopes to find what the Church really should look like, I have found that from the moment I began I have been met with a whole bunch of seemingly unnecessary defensiveness from other believers. The walls […]
Read More Obese Church VS Keto ChurchSometimes, I scroll through my timeline and wonder if a lot of people have any original thoughts of their own. The NPC meme sums them up in a tragicallty comical way. They have preset phrases they use to engage most issues and do not respond – AT ALL – to new information. The absolute WORST […]
Read More Facts > Feelings ICLEARING THE STAGE AND THE AIR Jimmy Needham put out a cover of the song “Clear the Stage” back in 2012, but I was only introduced to it a year or 2 ago by my former pastor. It is a song that challenges the notion that worship may, in fact, be more than a song […]
Read More Worship Is More Than a SongOn January 20th, 2013, my life changed drastically in an instant. In the span of maybe an hour, I went from looking for trouble at the bar to being distraught at the realization that I was at the mercy of a God I didn’t know. All that is a story for another day. For now, […]
Read More Identifying a True ChristianNo Dave Grohl, but I’ve got a confession to make. I’m a procrastinator. I waste a lot of time on mindless entertainment. I work hard at my job and building my relationship with my life, but I can be flat out lazy with other aspects of my life. I waste A LOT of time. Honestly, […]
Read More Stewards of Spirit & TimeTHE MOVEMENT Around 1997, a man by the name of Jay Shafer began a now growing and increasingly popular movement known as The Tiny House Movement. The purpose or vision of most who are moving toward the Tiny House movement is really quite simple: simplifying life. Don’t be fooled by these tiny houses though! These […]
Read More The Tiny House Movement: A Big Lesson for the American ChurchA ROYAL INVITATION Imagine, the Queen of England sends word to you that she would like for you to pay her a visit. She would like for you to come to England, sit down in her living room (or whatever that looks like in a palace), just you and her, and she wants to talk […]
Read More An Audience With the KingOne of the most recognized charactersitics of God is His alignment with Love. That is His defining trait. God is Love. That’s comforting, isn’t it? God is Love. God is good. God is forgiving. God is merciful. God is generous. God restores. Yes and amen, God is all of those things and more. But, God […]
Read More Wrath: People God HatesIt was announced back at the end of October that the church I had been serving on staff at would close it’s doors on December 30, 2018. And so it did. This, of course, left my family wondering what we were going to do in this next season of life. Would we find another church? […]
Read More The Table – What is Fellowship?Have you ever seen those commercials or read the inserts on some prescriptions that seem to describe side-effects that far exceed the issue it is supposedly treating? You know, crazy things like, “This drug treating a mild cough could cause internal bleeding, the breakdown of the intestinal walls, or cause cancer.” And you’re like “Look, […]
Read More No, Your Pastor Shouldn’t Be Expected to Lead Your Friend to Jesus and The Church Gathering is Not For The UnbelieverBeing “salt and light” (Matthew 5: 13-16) in a dark world is not easy. There are so many issues that need light brought to them. It’s hard to listen to the still small voice to find what path to be that light on. PLANTING OF THE SEED I couldn’t tell you when foster care fell […]
Read More Faithfully Fostering: The BEGINNINGI look back on opportunities I’ve had to speak up and make a difference with utter embarassment sometimes. Why didn’t I say that thing? Why didn’t I do something when I had the chance? How could I be such a coward? Honestly, it makes me sick to my stomache how pathetically weak my faith is […]
Read More Be Bold in What You Stand ForFirst, and foremost…HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! It’s officially 2019. Can you believe it? Where did the time go? Anyway…Brad here…and I just wanted to let you know that there are some big changes coming to the eagerforTRUTH site! We are expanding and bringing in new voices! This is great because, who wants to always read […]
Read More BIG NEWS!I currently serve in a charismatic Church that is fully open to the concept of the supernatural. But I haven’t always been in such environments. In fact, I spent the first almost 30 years of my 36 years of life on this planet in the Southern Baptist Church that is far less open or receptive […]
Read More Ruby Sunday – A Baptist Boys First Experience With the DemonicIf you’re seeing this article, and haven’t had a chance to read Part 1, I HIGHLY encourage you to start there as I lay this whole thing out in a fairly structured way. And much of what will be said in Part 2 gets its foundation from Part 1. If you’ve already read Part 1, […]
Read More A Pastoral Epidemic of Biblical Proportions (Part 2)In recent weeks, months, and even years there has been a growing concern for the mental and emotional health of pastors (especially younger pastors) as we have seen far too many of them take their own lives leaving behind ministries, families, and friends behind to wonder why. Many of these pastors were the senior pastors […]
Read More A Pastoral Epidemic of Biblical Proportions (Part 1)I just recently read an article titled 20 Signs of a Toxic Church Culture, where the author Dr. Joseph Mattera recounts several signs that he has observed over time that indicate that the church you are part of may have a toxic culture. The article appeared on Ministry Today Magazine‘s website, and to be fair, the author […]
Read More 20 Signs of a Consumer Driven Church CultureI was schooled in the public school system. I didn’t experience any real sense of “private education” until college when I went to a Christian university (Charleston Southern University). So, to say that my perspective on homeschooling was a bit skewed is an understatement. In fact, my views of homeschooling were so skewed that this […]
Read More Why I Turned My Back on Public Education and 15 Benefits of Homeschooling“We need more community at our Church.” “We need more youth events at our church.” “We need more contemporary music at our church.” “We need more children’s stuff at our church.” “We need more outreach at our church.” “We need more…..” “We need…” “We need…” We need….” These are common phrases I have heard from […]
Read More We Need More “Community” At Our Church – So I’m LeavingBrand = the sum of every interaction with your organization This is what my boss told us today in our weekly team meeting. He was speaking, of course, about how we brand ourselves as a business, and how branding goes deeper than simply a logo and some colors. That our brand (as a company) is […]
Read More Re-Branding the American ChurchI like documentaries. I think it is an interesting way to learn about things in an auditory/visual way that maybe you don’t get from reading. Especially if the documentary is chronicling events as they are unfolding on the spot rather than retracing long gone history. Some documentaries try to insert their own agenda into the […]
Read More When Two Worlds CollideI admit, it’s a weird and unsettling title for an article. But I cannot sugar coat the meat of the message. So why sugar coat the title as well? I say happy Father’s Day to you fathers who have and who are adulterous, not for what you have done or are doing, but because of […]
Read More Happy Fathers Day to the Adulterous Fathers – We Still Love YouI’ve seen this question posed an unbelievable amount of times in recent months by good, kind, and well meaning believers, who are asking the question in most cases because something about a piece of music they heard has genuinely caused them to take issue. The things they take issue with, however, tend to be grouped […]
Read More Can Music be Christian?Hey Everyone! I just wanted to bring your attention to a couple of new pages on my website. As some of you may know, I’m a singer/songwriter, worship leader, and pastor. And I’m in the process of trying to establish an itinerant worship/speaking ministry based out of Charleston, SC (the area I’m from). Part of […]
Read More A New Music and Ministry Page!There seems to be this…I don’t know…unwritten rule in the Church that any sign of unhappiness suddenly means that you either lack faith or even trust in God, OR you are somehow ungrateful for the lot God has given you at the moment. And many times, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Unfortunately, though, often times the […]
Read More To the People Who Mean Well In Your Season of PainHave you ever been chugging along in life, thinking, “Man, nothing could stop me now!” and almost at that very moment you have the rug pulled out from under neath you and your world begins to crumble? Yeah, that happened to me back on October 31st, 2017. I had been with my company for over […]
Read More Yours: The Story Behind the Song – Peace Out of Pain![eager for [truth]](https://eagerfortruth.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/cropped-truth.png)
