by David Dodd

       You have to love a Christian rock band whose original opening line of the first song on their first record stated: I watched you crawl back to your vomit, referring to Proverbs 26:11: As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

       “Yeah, we thought we probably should change that line,” DecembeRadio guitarist Eric Miker discloses to Apostles That Rock with a laugh.    

      “That was written by our lead guitar player, Brian, who had a close family member continue to fall back into the same original sin of drugs and things she shouldn’t need to be in.  He would pray with her and counsel her and she would turn right back around.”

      The label was a little concerned about starting off the record with that line so we changed it to, I watched you crawl back to your addiction, but to be honest, Proverbs 26:11 talks about returning to our own vomit and it paints a picture of how gross it is and how disgusting we know it is, but yet we still crawl back to it because that’s what makes us comfortable.  That’s what she was doing.”

       The song, Can’t Hide, opens DecembeRadio’s ten track masterpiece of refreshing rockers and power ballads harvested directly from Scripture.

       “There’s a happy ending to the story,” Miker continues.  “We’ve actually seen her come back to Christ and start living and leading other women to Christ.  It’s been an awesome thing, but when she was out there, Brian was frustrated with her because she knew what she was doing was wrong.  I think we all have those things in our lives - I know I do - that I keep around even if it’s just in a mental capacity.  We let the devil think it makes us comfortable and it makes us happy to hold onto that sin.  It’s something as a band that we feel strongly about; we just want people to be free and live free of that bondage.  We don’t have to return to that for comfort because there’s a God we can go to who will always be there.”

       Comforting words from one of four Virginia guys devoting their lives to praising Our Mighty Maker with a whole lot of amplified love.

       Another song on their debut disc, Love Found Me, is a commanding anthem of radical rock for our King.

      "We grew up listening to our dad’s old record collections, and we love stuff like Aerosmith, The Black Crows, AC/DC and those rockin’ guitars.  We love those songs that are fun and make you want to roll the windows down.  We wanted a song like that, and the message that hit us was we knew we were saved from everything on this earth - and from hell - and we need to think about summertime and rolling down the windows and having a good time.  Love Found Me is just, smile as big as you can, turn your radio up as loud as you can and go and praise Jesus.”

      Eric makes a great point regarding the emergence of Christian rockers on a mission to speak the Truth to non-believers in a contagious, non-conservative way.

      “You know, people like music, they like to move, they like to get excited, and they’re going to go to another concert if that’s what they like.  We’ve been ridiculed by some big names in the Christian field who think that guitar solos and electric guitars take away from the message.   If we affect just ten kids who don’t think they can love rock ’n’ roll and also love Jesus, well, that gives us ten kids for the Kingdom.  I feel we’ve answered our call because that’s the call we’ve had in our lives - we feel strongly about it - so were going to make rock ‘n’ roll music for Jesus.”

       DecembeRadio refuses to play it safe with their music, lyrics and ministry.  They rock with their heart and evangelize at times in an extreme and precarious mode.  The second song on their CD is Dangerous, is an intentional lifestyle inspired by the John Eldredge book, Wild at Heart.

      “There’s a lot of Christian culture now that’s starting to spring up and saying it’s okay to live like a man and be a Christian.  I mean we’re all country boys, we love to hunt, we love to fish and we love Jesus, and it’s okay to have that manly thing, we ride motorcycles, and if you use that in your faith and you live dangerously and outspoken for God, which it seems you definitely do with Apostles That Rock, you just use that same energy to spread the Word of God, and that’s what that song is talking about.”

      With all the stellar success that God has handed the guys in DecembeRadio, you might expect an army of spiritual warfare attempting to shoot them down.   

      “I think one thing that helps us and has been a huge factor in guarding us from some of that is we’ve stayed here in Virginia.  Our studio is in the middle of 600 acres, so when we come off the road, we’re here away from all the hustle and bustle and we have time to stay connected and stay in God’s Word.  We’re also in constant communication with one another, but that’s not to say that eliminates obstacles and battles, that’s just how we’ve been able to overcome the spiritual warfare.” 

      “On the road when you’re tired and more irritable, there’s always things coming up, and you can really feel when you’re being attacked with situations between band members or something with the label, but in the grand scheme of things they’re just little things that are shouted at us to try to break us up or get us to do something we shouldn’t.  Satan tries everything, every day, but as long as you’re connected in the Word, it’s easier to be guarded and realize what is God and what is a trick from the devil.”

 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what

we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

                                                                                        - Hebrews 2:1

      “That song really wrote itself in about 20 minutes.  We were sitting in the studio with just one microphone on playing acoustic guitar and we just started talking about the verse, it was definitely inspired by God.  It wrote itself in 20 minutes.  We found it more than wrote it.

       We get these emails from mothers who lost their husbands and just feel that God has walked away from them and they heard the song Drifter and it reminds them that God was always there and He’s still there for them.  One man got out of prison and heard the song the next day and came to see us in concert and gave his life back to God.  That’s why we do what we do.

       Drifter is just saying: no matter what you’ve done, you can always come home for the love of Jesus, and we’re really intentional of writing songs like that for people who have no idea how to live for God or what they need to do, it’s a message of accountability.” 

      The chances are, like anything else, the more you do it, the more things you’ll get out of it and the more you’ll live your life like Christ which is what we should be doing as a Christian.”

      “I don’t wanna sound self-righteous or anything, I mean there are definitely days that go by being so busy with music or out on the road, or on a day off, and I don’t pick up the Bible, and a lot of times I can feel when I haven’t been in the Word and I’m not as close with God in the directions where I need to be.  It just really guards you and keeps you connected.”  

‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him,

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,

or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in,

Or needing clothes and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison

And go to visit you?’

The King will reply,

‘I tell you the truth,

Whatever you did for one of the

least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

                                                                             - Matthew 25:35-40

      “It’s about the verses in Matthew coming from Jesus’ perspective.  I was reminded of those words just last week when we were in Clearwater, Florida playing a show.  We played in one of the oldest buildings in that town.  Elvis and The Beatles played there, it was really something.  

      Clearwater is like the capitol of Scientology for America.  I stood in the streets and saw all these people going by and God was burning in my heart.  This guy comes up, apparently he’s a homeless guy on a bicycle ridin’ by, and I just had a quick chance to say, ‘God Bless You.’   I didn’t think much of it, and then he stopped and I looked in his left hand and he had a little flag that said Jesus.   He was a believer, everything he said was right on.  It just took me back to that song.  It’s kind of weird, you never know when angels are close by, the Bible says you never know when you’ll be entertaining angels.  I don’t know, it just kind of, not really convicted me, but it made me think on a normal basis if I was just walking down the street and saw a homeless guy on a bicycle, would I reach out and say anything or would I kind of shy away from him? 

      It’s just anytime we have the chance to reach out - to our families, to people in our hometown, not just to kids oversees, but also to anyone who needs love or anyone who needs Christ by giving them food or water or just being Christ to the people.”