Tag: Southern Gospel Radio

A new voice from 8th Street has a message for anyone who has ever felt like giving up

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AMY TURNER

Jonathan Thompson did not write “Here Comes the Promise” in a moment of inspiration. He wrote it out of need.

Thompson, a member of the group 8th Street, recently released the song as his debut single, and the backstory behind it is as personal as the music itself. He has spoken openly about the fact that the lyrics draw from his own experience of hitting a low point and finding, as he describes it, the peace of God moving in.

The song opens in a place many listeners will recognise: a desperate situation, no clear path forward, and a cry for help. “There was a time in my life when I was so low, in a desperate situation, didn’t know where to go,” the lyrics begin, “so I cried out, ‘Jesus help me, I can’t make it on my own.'” What follows is not a resolution wrapped in easy comfort, but a declaration: the promise is coming, the victory belongs to God, even if the reason is not yet visible.

Thompson has described the song as partly his testimony and partly a message he believes applies broadly. “This is partially my testimony, but it’s a message that we all can learn from,” he said. “It’s a message, again, that God has told us to put all of our cares on Him, to make sure that we don’t… we don’t worry ourselves to death because he’s got it all under control.”

He was careful, though, not to position himself above the struggle he is singing about. He acknowledged that knowing something in faith and living it out are two different things. “I know I’ve caught myself doing that,” he said, referring to the tendency to worry despite believing otherwise. “You do have concerns and things, but we just need to remember that the promises of God are yea and amen, and he is going to come through for us.”

The song’s second verse addresses the listener more directly, shifting from personal testimony to invitation: “Friend, if you are in a struggle, you don’t know what to do, you try to handle it on your own, you feel so tired, you’re through, cast your cares upon the master, for he cares so much for you, just give it all to him, for his strength will carry you.” The language is plain and the sentiment is familiar to anyone raised in or near a Pentecostal or evangelical tradition, but Thompson delivers it without the triumphalism that can sometimes hollow out that kind of message.

The song closes with a lyric drawn from Isaiah: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take up wings and soar higher than they’ve ever been.” It is a fitting end for a song that does not promise ease so much as endurance.

Thompson’s framing of the release itself reflects a similar kind of deliberateness. He indicated he spent considerable time thinking through what he wanted the song to communicate before putting it out. “I’ve thought a lot about this song,” he said. “What am I trying to convey to get across to people about this song? Being my first song that I’ve actually completed and recorded and released out, I want to make sure that people understand.”

The central conviction he lands on is straightforward, even if living it is anything but: “It doesn’t matter if the entire world stands against us. If God gave you a promise, it’s going to happen.”

For listeners who have been carrying something heavy, that may be exactly the reminder they needed to hear.

The eternal nature of hell and what Jesus actually taught about it

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JEFF TURNER

Jesus spoke more about hell than almost any other topic, and what he said in Matthew 25 makes it clear that punishment is not a one-time event that ends in annihilation. He described the fire as eternal, meaning it never consumes what it burns, which is precisely why it lasts forever. This doesn’t appear to be figurative language being stretched to make a point; it lines up with what other passages of scripture say as well.

Passages throughout the New Testament describe this judgment as unquenchable, everlasting, and inescapable. Second Thessalonians 1:9 speaks of everlasting destruction, and the imagery of the undying worm and the unending fire appears more than once. Those who suggest that the ungodly simply go out of existence at judgment have to work around a large body of scripture that points in the opposite direction.

The consistent witness of the Bible is that the punishment of the wicked has no end. And it’s a punishment no one need endure because Jesus paid the price.

 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

Revelation 14:11

Southbound takes stock of what’s ahead while a new song does the talking now

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AMY TURNER

The Florida-based gospel quartet Southbound has been quietly productive of late, with new music taking shape in the studio even as the group’s current release continues to reach listeners. In a candid moment, vocalist Jody Braselton offered a look inside the recording process and the themes driving the work.

The group is currently laying down tracks for what Braselton describes as a brand new project, still in its early stages. Among the songs recorded so far, one stands out for him personally. “We’re in the studio recording a brand new project,” he said. “And out of all the songs that we’ve done so far, and we’ve only recorded a few of them, I think my favorite that Pastor Clint Brown wrote that we are recording right now is a song called Miracles.”

The song, penned by Pastor Clint Brown, carries a message that Braselton says speaks to something universal. “And it just talks about how as many miracles as God has done in my life, in their life, and maybe even in your life over the years, there is no shortage of miracles,” he explained. “Whatever it is you need in your life, God didn’t run out of miracles. He’s not done healing. He’s not done setting free. He’s not done saving people and changing their lives.”

While that project moves forward behind closed doors, Southbound’s current release is already in rotation on Texas Gospel. The song, titled “Nothing,” takes an unconditional view of God’s love, exploring what it would take to separate a person from His grace. The short answer, according to the lyrics: nothing.

The song poses a series of searching questions before arriving at its repeated refrain. “What could I do to forfeit and lose all of this grace you’ve given me,” the lyrics ask, “what could I say to push you away God what could make you ashamed of me.” From there, the song builds toward its central declaration: “there’s nothing there’s nothing there’s nothing I’ve been through there’s nothing I can do that could keep me from you that could break us apart or make you regret your scars.”

The writing leans into imagery of ransom, return, and redemption, with lines that frame God’s pursuit of humanity in strikingly relational terms: “what would you do be willing to lose to pay off my ransom everything where would you run so bring home your son when you hear me calling anywhere.” Later, the song turns to the limits of what can stand against grace: “the never strong enough the power of your blood what can you love what can stop amazing grace what’s left inside that grave there’s nothing there’s nothing.”

For a group whose catalogue has long centred on themes of faith and restoration, “Nothing” fits neatly into that tradition, even as “Miracles” promises to push that conversation forward once the new project finds its way to listeners.

Head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11: what the passage really teaches

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

1 Corinthians 11:5 states that a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head. This verse has prompted longstanding debate: does it require women to wear a physical covering in church today, or was it a specific instruction for first-century Corinth?

The answer is not simple, and sincere believers have held different views for centuries.

At the heart of the passage is a theological truth about order and distinction. Scripture teaches a clear structure of headship: God over Christ, Christ over man, man over woman (1 Corinthians 11:3). This order is meant to govern both the home and the church.

Within this structure, women express their honouring of God’s design in particular ways. Some of these expressions are cultural; others are rooted in creation itself. Paul notes, for instance, that a woman’s longer hair is a natural covering, a gift from God reflecting this distinction.

Head coverings, in certain cultural settings, have served as a visible symbol of this order. Whether that specific practice is universal or contextual is where Christians disagree. What is not in dispute is the underlying principle: men and women are distinct by design, and that distinction carries meaning in worship.

The outward practice may vary across cultures and eras, but the call to honour God’s created order, in both attitude and action, does not.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:3

He was a sweetheart of a man’: the gospel project that brings personal memories of Elvis to life

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AMY TURNER

His voice sold millions of records, his name still sells out tribute concerts, and his gospel recordings remain some of the most emotionally raw performances in American music history. But to Billy Blackwood, Elvis Presley was something simpler, and more human, than any of that.

“He was just the kind of guy, honestly, it was hard not to love him,” Blackwood recalled. “He was just a sweet man, just a gentle, real, loving man.”

It is that personal dimension, the Elvis who existed in small rooms with a handful of people rather than on stadium stages, that gives a new collaborative recording project its particular weight. Ronnie Booth, one of gospel music’s most respected voices, has joined forces with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet for “Together: Gospel Tribute to the King,” a collection built around the sacred songs that shaped Elvis Presley’s faith and defined his spiritual identity.

Billy Blackwood, who sings baritone and has worked as a songwriter throughout his career, is one of the few people still active in gospel music who knew Presley personally. He was the younger son of James Blackwood, the quartet’s longtime leader and public face, and those family connections placed him in rooms where Elvis was simply himself.

“When you’re in a room this size and there’s eight or 10 people around, you get to know what somebody’s like when you have enough exposure,” Blackwood said. “I think his life and his thinking, maybe his heart got really corrupted by what the world had to offer. But my gosh, I just loved him. He was a sweetheart of a man.”

The Blackwood Brothers Quartet was not merely a successful singing group. For nearly a century, it has functioned as something closer to an institution. Founded in 1934 by brothers Roy, Doyle, and James, along with Roy’s son R.W., the quartet began building a following during an era when gospel music was still finding its place in the broader American cultural landscape.

The early decades were not without tragedy. In the late 1950s, Roy and Doyle retired from the road, and in 1954 R.W. was killed in a plane crash, a loss that shook the gospel world. James Blackwood, however, rebuilt. Under his leadership, the quartet assembled a new lineup of singers and took their music far beyond the American South. They performed in all fifty United States and every Canadian province. They carried their sound to Great Britain, across Europe, into the Middle East and Northern Africa, south to South Africa, and across Asia to Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. By almost any measure, they became the best-known name in gospel music history.

James Blackwood died in 2002, but the tradition he built did not end with him. His sons, Jimmy (James Jr.) and Billy, carried the work forward. More recently, Jimmy retired after 49 years on the road, leaving Billy as the keeper of a legacy that now spans more than eight decades.

Elvis Presley’s relationship with gospel music was not a publicity exercise. He grew up in Assembly of God churches in Mississippi and Tennessee, singing hymns long before he ever walked into a recording studio. The Blackwood Brothers were part of that world, and young Elvis was part of their audience. That connection eventually grew into something more personal, and Billy Blackwood’s recollections of Presley carry the kind of detail that only comes from genuine proximity; not the carefully managed image of a superstar, but a man who could sit comfortably in a small group and show his actual nature.

Blackwood’s tenderness in describing Presley is matched by an honesty about the pressures that made his later life so complicated. The faith, he suggests, was always real, even when everything around it was not.

One track from the project, “Put your hand in the hand,” is currently in rotation on Texas Gospel now. For Ronnie Booth and the Blackwood Brothers, the album represents something beyond a conventional tribute; it is a recording made by people who carry a direct connection to gospel music’s most storied era, honouring a performer whose faith, whatever its complications, was entirely genuine. For Billy Blackwood, that faith was the truest thing he ever saw in Elvis Presley, and it is clearly the part of him he remembers best.