Thoughts, Failures, and victories

Catching up

2010-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

To all the saints who are in Christ who keep up with me, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with Joy because of Your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the Day of Christ Jesus.

In the past few weeks and months I have been challenged by the Spirit, my fellowship of believers, and the teaching of my pastor to know Gods word better and hide it in my heart. So I chose Philippians because of its encouraging nature and as a beginner to memorization, Its length. One chapter down to memory and I have begun on chapter Two. Now in my everyday meanderings and failures I am quickly reminded of the truth in Gods word because it is there for the Holy Spirit to bring up and place i the forefront of my thinking. The value of memorization is immeasurable. I am so thankful for the word given from God.

I have really needed the encouragement and the perspective of Paul in this part of the journey I find myself. I am still really searching for What God wants me to do. I know that Seraph is done and that God has something out there for me to do that I am as passionate about as the ministry of Seraph. RIght now it is hard for me to see. I immediately began to search for a church job and the search is taking me so far from home. My wise and supportive bride(Paige) asked me, "If we were not struggling financially, would I be looking for a job?" I said no without a thought. So I am ashamed to say I my initiative has tried to take the place of God. So i am trying to wait and see what it is exactly God wants me to do.

I have been blessed to play some events this fall and there are some up coming winter and spring events in the books that I am excited about. I have also had the pleasure of playing acoustic guitar for Dorothy Savage. Here new record Glorious Mess is an excellent record and she has also released a cool Christmas Record called Sleigh Ride. So i hope God sees fit to continue allowing me to share in the wonderful ministry Dorothy has going. Check out her story and music, you won't be disappointed. If you want to do an event for your girls that is geared for just girls then She is the one you should be calling. (shameless plug)

At any rate I am continuing to pray for a steady Job with the flexibility to continue to write and share my music on a part time basis. there are bills to pay. And for some reason my little girl insist on eating and pooping all the time. Kidding! she has been a great encouragement to me and when things seem hopeless, God speaks to me through her smiles and laughs.
I leave you with this, merry Christmas.

The best gift I ever Got

2010-08-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

They say that Hindsight is twenty-twenty. However, when looking back on a loss, it doesn’t bring much comfort, only regret. I don’t want to live with regret. Today, hindsight brings introspection and wisdom I hope I never forget.
Seven years ago, Paige, my wife who was then my fiance’ gave me a gift for graduation. I was living on campus as an R.A. at the time and the gift was breaking the rules in grand fashion. However, being an R.A. I was able to fudge the rules for a few weeks until we graduated. Paige presented me with a golden retriever puppy. A yellow ball of fur that loved to chew on anything and everything. My house mates at the time were generous to keep it quiet until we all moved out in a couple of weeks. So began a fun filled journey of being a pet owner, and not to just any pet, but the poster pet for any dog food or commercial. We took some time to name her and in the end my good friend Joe Langley told me I should name her Arwen. Since I was a huge fan of Lord of the Rings it totally made sense. So we named her Arwen.

She did lots and lots of funny things while growing up. She chewed on everything it seems, and once I moved into a rental house ruined several water hoses and once I left my cell phone on the porch and she smelled me on it and decided to chew it up as well. I think my favorite story that sums her up is when Paige and I were on our honeymoon, Arwen laid by the gate into our driveway until we came home a week later. She would eat and then go back out there and wait. She loved us unconditionally. I mean I would discipline her severely for digging a hole or chewing up oh, one of Paige’s high heels, but five minutes later it was like nothing had happened.

She learned all kinds of tricks. She would do all of the standard, sit, lay down, stay, heel, and no problem getting her to come to me either, since her favorite place to be is next to me. Her favorite was to fetching. We have a duck dummy and she would go get it as long as I would throw it and even longer if water was involved. She loved the water and would get in any body of water she could. After a rain she would walk through puddles out of her way just to get in the water. If we were playing fetch she would deliberately run out of her way through puddles. I also taught her to bark really quiet and she would play dead about as good as you could. I was playing with her once and we did that trick and she rolled over to play dead but she was wagging her tail. I said, "dead dogs don’t wag their tails" and she quit wagging her tail. We had a great laugh at that moment.

She also blessed us with a litter of puppies. It was planned and awesome. We only wanted to do it once. She had the puppies and they were ready to go to a home right at Christmas. It was perfect. I was blown away at how she instinctively knew how to take care of those puppies and how tender she was with them. That was undoubtably the most fun and at times most disgusting thing I had done. At one point we put them all in the tub and left them there. It was a mess. But I am not sure I could handle that much cuteness at once.

Well, my sweet puppy has stopped wagging her tail. Due to some uncontrollable situations and some complications Arwen passed on July 31th, 2010. Today in true Arwen fashion, we broke the rules and buried her behind the University of Mobile near the creek where we took her swimming.

Looking back, I am sure their are things the vet wishes he had done different and I know there are things I could have done different. But none of that brings any comfort to me or Paige. Looking back on Her life, we can learn a lot from Arwen. I don’t think anything in life is for nothing. I thing every situation is to teach us something. Arwen showed me how I should live. She loved me no matter what. She would rather be with me than eat. I should love God in that same way. Even if I beat her for going out of the gate into the front yard without me, she would still come wagging her tail to me. When we would leave her, she would long for us to come back. We were her life. I want to love God the way that dog loved me.

As I dug her grave my heart was broken and the tears came down. She was such a special gift not only from Paige but from God. In her death, my heart was broken and I realized that even in her death she was teaching me something. My heart doesn’t break for those around me that are going to die and go to hell. Arwen, as much as she looked like she had a soul, didn’t and was without sin. If she had sin then Christ would have had to die for her. But he didn’t, Christ died for me and the world. And for some reason I am more broken for my soulless pet than I am my neighbor who is going to go to hell because He doesn’t know Christ.

Don’t get me wrong, please don't, I don’t think it is bad to be sad for loosing your pet. I am and will be sad every time I think about Arwen. But, I have a lot to learn from my golden retriever. I need to love Christ like she loved me. Loving for her was as easy as breathing. She didn’t even have to think about it. I want to get to that place in my walk with God. I also want to be as broken for the Lost as I was for Arwen’s death.

I thank God for the best present I have gotten in life so far. She taught me a great deal about life and is teaching me in her death how to go on living. I will miss her.

FBC Wilmer

2010-06-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well it has been an age since my last post. there have been a ton of things going on in the Life of Seraph. We are in the middle of our camp season, but there have been a few developments to get us to where we are.. Things have definitely changed and will always be different. It looks like this will be the last summer we book and play under the name Seraph. Will and I (Brad) are the Last two left that remain committed to Seraph and the mission we set out to do. The other guys have moved on in life and we remain great friends still but understand that things move on and hearts desires change. They are in different places in their life and we wish them well. Our time together is priceless and we thank God for every moment the Seraph Boys had together.

Alas, Life goes on and the journey continues though it is different and the company is different we press on toward the goal. With couple of new faces Wesley Wells playing drums and Lane Fisher on electric guitar our sound is simplified and refined. Will Jarrel has stepped out from the sound board and shown just how talented he is not only in running sound but also as a musician and vocalist. So our band is complete for the summer season.

We had a wonderful opening week with the students from FBC Wilmer and Travis Road baptist. We found ourselves in the middle of No where Mississippi at Waukaway Springs enjoying the cool springs whenever weather would allow. We were blessed to see 7 students come to know Christ and begin the journey of faith. So it was a great week. We were blessed by the teaching and passion for Gods word from Jeremy Burrage. With all of that we had an amazing start to our summer camp season. we will do our best to keep up the ole blog for your reading pleasure. blessings to all of you.

Grace and Peace.

Catching up

2009-07-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Been a while since we have updated our good ole blog. We have had a great summer which began with week in Chattanooga, TN with FBC Opp and FBC Church Hill. We had a great time by the river and a couple royal rumbles on the dock. I think it ended up being a draw and everybody ended up in the river.

After the week ended we made our way up to Canal Fulton, OH for the Alive Festival with Dorothy Savage. Dorothy is a new artist and we were able to play with her on the Woods stage. It was a great festival where we enjoyed seeing a ton of great artist.
You should keep you eyes and ears open for Dorothy Savage. Her new album will drop this September. But for now you can follow her on Twitter @phillsgirl03

We just arrived back from North Carolina where we were blessed to be apart of the Centrifuge experience. We had a blast getting to know the Staff and we were blessed to serve along side James Tealy who brought the word every night. James is another great artist you should get to know. You can follow him on @jamestealy.

This past Sunday I traveled up to Talladega, Al and played for a bible study. It was a unique opportunity and one I had not really thought about doing. I really enjoyed it. We set up in a the Smothers family basement and played for an hour or so, sharing about the songs we have written and why we wrote them. I had a wonderful time teaching and sharing what I have learned. So with that being said, If you are reading this and you want to do a house concert, I would love to come and share a night a songs and worship.

We hope to see you soon. Please let us know if there are things we can pray for you about please let us know. We are excited to say that we are booked for most of next summer in Texas for Texas Super Summer and Powerplus camps. We are currently booking for the fall and spring so give us a call.

2009-05-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

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Well our trip to Las Vegas was an amazing Journey yet again. Driving across country from Mobile, AL to Las Vegas, NV. is always a challenge and a great reminder of how vast and different our country really is from town to town and state to state.

We were able to make it to the Grand Canyon on our trip and camp there at the State park that evening on our way to Vegas. We were able to spend a good amount of time on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Even though we had seen it before, it at first sight is overwhelming and breath taking. I personally have yet to see a photo that captures that feeling of seeing it in person. That evening we went back to our camp site there at the state park where we had set up our tents earlier that afternoon and once we got back to our camp site we were able to get right to the grill. We grilled out some hamburgers that night and took in the sights of the stars. It has been a while since I saw that many starts at once and being out there was a real treat. Will, our sound-man looked up and said, “it had been a while since he looked up and was reminded of how small he really is in view of the stars above. And how long it had been since he had done so.” The following morning we were blessed to see a female mule deer that walked right through our campsite again blessing us with the opportunity to see God’s creation.

We then made our way to Henderson, NV. to Greenvalley Baptist, but first we had to stop at an In-n-Out burger. Oh so good, too bad they aren’t here in the south east.
Once we enjoyed our burger we went on to the church where we started our weekend with students. We had an awesome time with the students that weekend. We always have a great time with Shawn and Natalie Key. We hope that they were encouraged and Spiritually challenged. We had a wonderful time in all three services on Sunday morning.

Monday morning Aaron, Steven, Morgan, (Steven’s wife) and myself got up painfully early and made the trek to Red Rock canyon for some early morning climbing. We had ourselves a book on the area and we found an area with some intermediate climbs for the inexperienced climber such as myself. We hiked out about 15 minutes from our parking place and found the place to climb. It was a brilliant clay colored red rock hence the titled Rock Canyon. We were truly in the desert. It was rather desolate and we were thankful for the water we had brought with us. Even though by mid day when we were leaving our water bottles we very warm it was still wet and hydrating. We all climbed and really enjoyed the view behind us as we climbed.

While we were there we met folks of all kinds. There were a couple of older men there climbing circles around us. They were both retired lawyers from there Vegas. On our Hike out we met some folks from New Zealand and a touring group from England. Their accent was so strong, I could hardly understand a word.

Later that afternoon we all went on a tour of the Hoover Dam, which is pretty amazing. In view of the Grand Canyon a mere plug in the river, but an amazing plug at any rate. The fortitude of those men who did the labor is awe-inspiring. There is apparently enough concrete in there to make a 4 foot wide sidewalk all the way around the earth. Again Pretty impressive. However, after feasting my eyes on the depth and width of the Grand Canyon I am oh so blown away by the power of God, who with the words of his mouth created all we see.

We made our way home on Tuesday and finally got there Thursday evening. It was great to be home but the journey was great. I was very tiered but I very much enjoyed the trip. As I think about that very truth I realize that life is just like that. Will we look back on life from heaven and say, It is so good to be home with Jesus, but the journey was great. Though it was a lifetime, I met so many wonderful people. I had a family of which will be here with me, and most of all on the journey, I met Christ.

What will your story tell? Will you look back and say that you enjoyed the journey. Though it is long and very hard, it was good. Many blessings to you all. Pray for us and let us know to pray for you.

Grace and Peace,

Brad

Where has the year Gone

2009-04-10T15:27:00.003-07:00

Easter is upon us, Passover is gone, and the rest of 2009 is knocking at the door. Time will get away from you if you are not careful. We have been doing great, not to slow, but not as busy as we would like to be. We continually pray for opportunity to share our music and the hope we have in Christ. We have continually been writing new music and growing more passionate about the Church. Our schedule has not allowed us to really put the creative time we would like to toward working on our new music as a band. But will begin to sort through what we have.

We just arrived home from FBC Dallas and we are worn out. Slap out if you will, whatever that means. I have heard it so many times, I guess it means really worn out. We had an amazing time there with Justin Hillhouse and his students there. They put together a huge event called OneDay and at the end gave away a Jeep Liberty. A seventh Grade girl won the Jeep, but more importantly there were I think, 11 to 15 decisions for Christ. Gotta be careful with those numbers, you know those ministerial numbers can get out of hand. At any rate, numbers in the end are souls and lives were changed on Wednesday night and God let us be apart of that. We are so thankful for it and we would have driven twice that far to see students come to know Christ.

We will be off to Nashville, TN at Grace Baptist this coming Wednesday night and then on to Greenville, IL. If you are close we would love to see you.

If you are one of our devoted prayer worriers and we need them desperately, pray for us. We have some pressing needs like workspace when we are home to get organized and practice ect. Second, our sound system is wearing down. We have put some serious miles on our sound system. It really has become a huge part of our ministry. It is nice to have quality sound to offer when these churches are unable to bring in adequate sound to support and make the message clear. So pray that we would trust God, seek His face in how to make our ministry/ small business effective and excellent. We want to be good stewards of what has been given.

We are also working hard on hosting our own conferences in the fall. So keep your eyes and ears open to how you can be apart of those. Please email us if you have anything we can pray for you about. If we can serve you in any way please don’t hesitate to call us.

Grace and Peace to you guys,

Brad, Will, Aaron, Steven

just a thought for today

2009-03-14T15:01:00.001-07:00

We get the opportunity to travel all over the country and visit with the church and see her in her different forms from Las Vegas to Missouri. There are many differences, as you would surmise. However, there are many similarities there in. One thing I have noticed from time to time is that often times when we talk about Satan we tend to give him more credit that he should deserve. Now don’t get me wrong, he is powerful but lets face it in the end he is a looser. Now he knows of his coming demise. He is fully aware that he cannot and will not win. So from now until then he is doing his best to take as many of us down with Him as he can.

For instance, a joke I am reminded of where Satan is seated on a set of steps going into a small church crying and during his pity party God almighty walks up and asked the question. “What is wrong with you?” Satan begins to tell how they are inside there blaming him for all the bad that is happening there and then says but I have not been here in months.

The truth is Satan would not be upset if they were giving him credit, but he would gladly take it for himself. Often times we try to say of our sin, that Satan made me do it. When the truth of the matter is the temptation is not always Satan, many times it is our own sinfulness. Man is truly fallen, depraved if you will.

Do you ever just get frustrated with your own sin. Our humanity wants to blame Satan and take the focus off of us. But we will be better for it if we take ownership of our sinful nature. The fact of the matter is God has made a way for us to overcome this fallen state we find ourselves. I have heard some ask the question, How could God love men and send men to hell? Please hear the truth, God does not send people to hell but he has made a way for us to have eternal life through the death of Christ.

To often we give Satan credit for our sinfulness and I am sure his head blows up and you begin to think of Him as more powerful than he really is. Respect your enemy of coarse, but remind yourself that God almighty is the creator of all things and His Holiness is greater than anything Satan can be. For you believers, who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb, Hold your heads high and know that God’s Holiness is now your own. We have not only been justified through Christ, but God has also adopted us into His eternal family.

The next time you are faced with temptation be it your own doing or Satan doing his best to make you stray remind yourself who you are. Remind yourself you are the Child of the King of Kings and a member of His family. Satan is a looser and he knows it, though an injured and dying Lion is dangerous the truth there in is that he will die. You don’t have to let him take you with Him.

To Texas and Back again

2009-03-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

We just returned from our third trip to Sugarland/ Houston Texas area and the last of 6 events in Texas since the end of January. We are by no means complaining, we have enjoyed ourselves in Texas. This last trip was a great weekend with some sweet people.

This weekend we also had the opportunity to serve along side Mike Satterfield. He did an amazing job relaying the Gospel and teaching the word. We are praying for Him as God has moved him away from Shelby Crossings in Birmingham, Al to full-time evangelism. If you need a quality preacher for your event look up Mike Satterfield

Wilcrest Baptist in Houston was one of the most memorable churches we have ever had the opportunity to serve. It was by far the most multicultural church we have ever served and will most likely be one we remember for many years to come. It is not often sadly that you see an established Bapstist church that is really willing to get out of their comfort zone and move to a place where they are not reaching people who look just like them, but they are reaching their community whatever ethnicity they may be. They are doing an amazing work. We hope they continue to expand their borders and impact their community. It has been great our last two trips to Houston we have really had the same experience. James Darby's church Body of Faith was a similar case to Wilcrest. The only difference was Body of Faith was a new work altogether, coincidentally James was once the Youth Minister at Wilcrest and Body of Faith is a church plant from Wilcrest. So they really are sending out and displaying what a church should be. We pray that they don't get comfortable where they are and we hope they don't forget their first love.
There is so much potential there for continued impact.

We are blessed to travel all over the place and we rarely see what we have seen in these past couple of Churches in Houston. Lets face it folks, the church as a whole is missing it. We are only reaching people just like us and scripture says he died for the world and go ye therefore to all nations. Not just white people or black people. We need to grow up and stop being so selfish about who we worship along side. There is a lost and dying world and we have the answer for life. So stand up church meet the challenge and impact your community. It can be done, it has to be done. The best way to do it is with Love.

Love Wins,

Will, Aaron, Steven and Brad

new album available now!

2009-01-26T21:48:00.001-08:00

"Goodbye is not forever" is now available on Itunes! Don't miss your chance to experience the last Seraph concert with Joe, Anthony and Matt. Hear some great stories and unique live versions of your favorite seraph songs. You can get a free sample of the new record by going to seraph6.net and clicking on the "free download" link. If you like what you hear... head on over to itunes and download all 18 tracks. In the next few months look for us in Texas, Illinois, Missouri and even all the way out to Las Vegas again. Please be faithful to pray for our ministry as we set out on a busy spring touring season. Pray that God will continue to open doors for our ministry and that we would be faithful to follow where HE leads. We hope to see you soon.

January is leaving fast and the year presses on!

2009-01-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

It is cold out side and January is quickly coming to an end. We had an amazing time up in Illinois last month and we have really enjoyed all the comments from you guys.

Yesterday we had the unique pleasure of traveling over to Milton, FL. To 1330 AM WEBY talk radio. We were able to sit down and chat with Anthony Daughtery about transitions and our new release. You can see some of that interview on Youtube over the next few days. We will release a new video every other day or so with excerpts from our time over there. I believe the interview will air on 1330 WEBY on Sunday January 25th from 11am- 11:30am.
You can also stream it from their website.

We are really looking forward to our upcoming dates. We will really get started touring hard at the end of the month. We will be doing our best to update the twitter daily and our myspace. Keep and eye on our Youtube channel for new videos from our adventure.

Also the biggest news is on January 27th we will be officially releasing “Goodbye is not Forever”. This will be a complete live show of all the guys that toured with us for the past year and a half. As many of you know three of the guys have moved on to do something different from Seraph. We will miss those guys but the great things they added to our band and concert have been immortalized on disc. You can own a copy of this event that was as candid as you will hear from the Seraph boys we told stories from the road, about songs and we changed up some songs for this event. There are things you will never be able to get except on this recording. So, January 27th go to iTunes and Download “Goodbye is Not Forever”.

We hope to see you at our next event. Blessings to all of you guys.
You can send any questions or comments to info@seraph6.net

We would love to hear from you.

Grace and Peace,

Brad, Aaron, Steven, and Will

P.S. Download your free song at www.seraph6.net !

Seraph in Springfield, IL.

2009-01-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

It is a dreary Monday morning in Mobile, AL. and the Seraph boys are at home from the trip up to Illinois. We had an amazing trip up there leading worship for Youth encounter. We were the little fish in the big pond up there and it was a blessing of an opportunity to lead worship for 3000 students.

The bands that were there really blessed us. Pocket full of Rocks were great and they did and amazing Job leading worship. It is crazy to think they have been playing together for 14 years. I hope we get to go as long as those guys have gone and continue to go.

The Main speaker was Brock Gill and he did some ridiculous illusions. He was extremely talented at not only accomplishing complicated illusions but he also did a quality Job preaching the truth of the Gospel and challenging the students there.

All in all it was a great trip for us to learn what it was like to play a huge event like that. The schedule was absolutely slammed and when we got home we were just beat. But we enjoyed every minute of our time up there. We were blessed to meet so many of you downstairs at the table and you guys really supported us, thanks for coming by and speaking to us.

If you have not gone by the website and gotten your free download then you should truly swing by there and download some of our live music. While you are there cruise around our website and read about the guys and check out our video blog. Blessings to you all and shoot us and email if we can pray for you.

Grace and Peace to all of you.

Brad, Steven, Aaron, and Will

Transition

2008-11-23T14:51:00.001-08:00

Transition....

We in seraph are in a transition. The Lord has seen fit to do some awesome things in our lives. For those of you who may not know, we went full time in May 2007 and for the most part we have been busy enough to not need to take on a second job for the past year and a half. Praise be to God for the work that he has allowed us to witness during this time.  

Some of you may have heard recently that a few of the guys in the band have gone in different directions. This is true. After our busiest summer ever, we sat down for a debrief of sorts, just to evaluate where we have been and where we are going. At that time Anthony, Joe and Matt indicated that they were being led to move on. Let us be abundantly clear about the following point; despite any rumors that may be around, we all are absolutely convinced that we are following where God leads. Whether they travel with us or not, all of these guys are our brothers and best friends. We don't have to know where the path leads to take the next step. We freely admit that those of us remaining do not have this whole thing figured out. But the beauty of Gods way is that we can trust in him to direct our path as he sees fit.   

So those of us that remain are; Brad Hill (Acoustic), Aaron Turner (bass), Steven Kelley (electric) and Will Jarrell (soundman). We have enlisted the services of friend of ours named Chris Mclean to fill in on drums for the foreseeable future. In November and December please be faithful to pray for us as often as The Spirit leads you.

We are excited about the things that God has in store for us in future ministry. For those of you who have been thinking about booking us, please contact us even if you are not sure about exact dates, the spring has been booking fast and we want to make sure you are included.

Love Wins,

Brad, Steven, Aaron and Will

gifts, sounds, and truth

2008-10-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

The band guys and I just got a great addition to our gear closet. We were fortunate to be given a partial endorsement to Ultimate ears. This company made us some custom molded in ear monitors. We had a cast of our inner ear and sent it off and Ultimate ears made us headphones that will fit our ears and our ears perfectly. It is really nice. God keeps sending us blessings.

Well we just got them today and when we all opened them up we had to listen to all sorts of different things. Well when I got home and sat down and listened to several different things I decided I would watch a movie. I picked “Saving Private Ryan.” It has to be one of my all time favorites. It has a great story, lots of WWII history, and huge spiritual implications.

I do hope you have seen it. In case you have not I will give you a summery. In the beginning you see D-day and Tom hanks make it through D-day. Once they get through that they get orders to go and find a young man. This Young man is Private Ryan. His three brothers had died previously in the different parts of the war. The military decided Ryan should come home if he is alive, sparing his mother and his family line from ending. So this small group of men go on a perilous journey through enemy territory risking their lives for his. In the end Tom Hanks’ character dies. His last words were to Ryan. He said, “ Earn this.” The end of the movie shows Ryan standing among a sea of white crosses in France. He stands before John H. Miller’s grave. He speaks as if John can hear him saying,

“ I am here with my family. They wanted to come with me. To be honest I wasn’t sure how I would feel coming here. Every day I think about what you said to me on the bridge. I have tried to live my life as best I could. I hope at least in your eyes I earned what all of you have done for me.”

He then looks at his wife and says, “ Tell me I am a good man.”

I get teary eyed every time I think about that scene. When I think about the spiritual implications of that being my life. As Christians we had one man sacrifice his life so that we get a chance to live. He did not even ask us to earn it! There is nothing we can do to earn it. He did not do it as if following orders or that it was just the right thing to do like the officers who decided to bring Ryan home. Christ sacrificed his self on the alter of all time to give us the opportunity to live with him for eternity.

When that camera pans backward across all of those stone crosses, it reminds me of what He did for me. As moving as this story of a few those men sacrificing so that one my live is and it moves me every time it pales in comparison to the gospel. We do not deserve to live. However we can do our very best to live a life worthy of the call God has placed on us. To represent him and what he has done for us.

For it is by Grace we have been saved through Faith not by works lest any man may boast. We can not earn it but it has been given t us. He knows our thoughts, the number of hairs on our heads, the least we can do is give him our lives.

If we were put in the situation of Ryan and we do that to ourselves when we see this scene we are overwhelmed. I mean that is why tears well up in my eyes. The thought of some one giving their life for mine in reality is enormously breathtaking. The truth is the King of the universe stepped off the throne of all time. He put on flesh and humbled himself. Not only did he live perfect but he died. He did not have to die but he chose to die. He chose to die for you and me...for the entire world! It is the greatest story line of all time. Ever other great story we have known only borrows from this one. If you think no one loves you or that you matter enough for someone to save you. Be assured that Jesus died for you so that you could live not for a life time but for an eternity.

Grace and Peace to all.

the journey continues

2008-10-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

The Seraph Journey continues…..

We recently began to do some dates without Anthony, Matt, and Joe. It was different. We will miss out bros but we are excited about where God has us. We have a great drummer that has been and will continue to serve along side us. His name is Chris Mclean. He has been great and you guys will enjoy him. His attitude in worship is contagious.
There will soon be live music available for you on the website and we are pumped about getting some live concerts posted for you to have access to and enjoy. We will be starting some email updates. we will also do our best to update you by region so that you folks in Texas, Illinois, and Missouri will know when we are close. So keep an eye on our website and myspace for email sign up. free music.

We will be out in the Arlington, Texas area next week for the youth ministries conclave at the convention center. We will be playing Wednesday night in Waxahachie, Texas at the Lakeview conference center. (http://www.lakeviewconference.net/) I will be posting the event times this week on the website and myspace.

I pray all of you are doing well. I hope we get to see some of you in Waxahachie next week. Blessings to you.

pressing on

2008-09-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since the last entry. We have weathered a couple of tropical waves and it looks like we have another one headed our way.

As I said before there is a lot of Change on the horizon for Seraph. September 20th at Mars Hill will be the last time you can see the Seraph as everybody knows us. We will be loosing Matt and Anthony as regular installments in our band. They both have new directions and opportunities ahead. We hope for the best for them both. Joe will also be taking more of a part time roll in the ministry of Seraph. He is now the manager of Mars Hill café in Mobile, Al. You should go by and check it out. It is on Cottage Hill road. This is where our concert will be.

As for Steven, Aaron, Will and Me (Brad) We will be pressing on as Seraph. We are working on our tour schedule for the fall, winter and spring. We are looking forward to what God has in store.

God has really been challenging us and we are doing our best to hang in there. A lot of our music is really ministering to us. Don’t Give up has never been a more needed message. It is a scary place to be but a good place. The scary part is we have absolutely no control. We know God has us right where he wants us to be. And that is the Good part we all feel like we are right where He wants us and all the credit goes to Him without any doubt.

Trust in the Lord, when you are in the wilderness some how bread falls from the Sky, quail in their deranged little brains walk right up and say eat me. When you are thirsty water will flow from a rock. Does it make sense? No, that is why the wilderness is claimed only by God.

Keep praying for us, that God would open doors of opportunity for us when we are ready.

Grace and peace to all of You.

this is where we are

2008-08-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

I pray all of You are doing well. It has been a while since my last email update. Our summer was amazing. We were able to see about 5000 students from Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Missouri. We saw about 147 decisions for Christ and about 113 calls to ministry These were the ones that were documented. I have been answering many messages on myspace and email from students that were impacted by God through us.
I am so overwhelmed by the thought that God would use people like us.

All summer I felt like within the band there was disunity. Not bad, it just felt like we were all going in different directions. We were not of one mind. So I prayed that God would give us one mind. He answered my prayer.

This past weekend we went to a conference called Feedback. It was a conference designed for independent artist like us. There were a ton of bands there. We all attended seminars by Shaun Groves, Charlie Peacock, and many other industry people that equipped us for what we do. It was a retreat for bands. We learned a ton. All the bands that were there got to play a 2 song showcase for a panel of Industry people. Some from record labels, some from radio, and all sorts of other areas of the music industry. They provided each band with a critique to help them improve. They also chose one band that would win the showcase series. This band would win a five song recording, 500$ off of CD duplication, 250$ in free merch, a free Photo Shoot, free art design, a ton of Radio promotion, the possibility of booking and management (if we want it), a guitar, and a few other things I can’t remember. Well with all that said, we didn’t expect to win anything. There were a ton of great bands there and out of about 40 bands WE WON! What?

We got an overwhelming review from the panel of judges and they chose us. We won the prize. We won with three acoustics and three vocals. Not at all a real representation of what we normally do. This does not mean everything will be ok. It just means we have some extra help and a lot of work ahead of us. We had a great time and we learned a ton. The guys left are all of one mind and purpose. Just like I prayed. God has blessed us and we don’t deserve it.

We need your prayers for vision and wisdom. We could care less if we are ever “big-time”, we just want to follow after God and impact his Kingdom. We don’t need any transportation now, what we have is perfect for us. Our biggest need now is in our sound gear. We have put some miles on our gear and we need to replace some key parts. We are now looking for a drummer to fill in for us. Our other need is opportunity to play.

Thank all of you so much for your prayers and support. Please continue to lift us up. We need it more than ever. We are completely at peace with where we are in our journey.
Let us know if we can pray for you. Keep up with us. Oh I Twitter now if you do that. (bradhil) is my name on there. Blessings to you all.

Grace and Peace to you.

Feedback

2008-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well we are in Denton, Tx. and we are learning about the importance of blogging and well i decided to start a blog about the journey of the Band I am in called "Seraph". There is a ton of change happening in our band and i will get to that tonight. come back if you want to come by and hear our story.