APRIL 2026

Ever precious greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is my great honor and high privilege to share my heart with you once again. It was the summer of 1984, and I was 27 years old. I was, by the grace of God, still a homeowner with a very successful business. I had about 12 men working for me full time. They formed three crews of four men each, all working on their own separate jobs. I knew how to make money; I had worked since I was 14 years old. Worse though, I was a reckless spender with no concept of budget. Sadly, at that point, I had also been a full-blown, daily drug user for about 13 years. I had no moral compass – none! I was the scum of the earth.

Unbeknownst to me, having never read a Bible, I was without the Compass – the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! I was a “free-range chicken” in a world of sin. A “high plains drifter” as the cowboys used to say, going nowhere fast! I was on an evil, downhill trajectory, to where, I did not know. It is written, “For the wages of sin is death. . .” (Romans 6:23a) I was quickly sliding down the pernicious rabbit hole of sin, of which (but for Christ), there is no expiation!

In the process of time, the Lord began to call me through my neighbor, a sweet, gray-maned woman of God named Jane. Sovereignly, she had sold me my house, and she and her family, a tribe as it were, lived right next door to me. They witnessed to me constantly as I daily smoked my cocaine and drank my vodka. They were to me like a loving fly buzzing around my head. I innately did not want to swat them, but I knew not why. The whole family was always so nice to me! They were loving, I was not. If you looked in the dictionary under “selfish” – my picture was there. I cared nothing for another. I could not hear what they were saying. My ears were clogged by sin. It is written, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15) I could not hear, so I would not hear. Jane, herself, was uniquely other to me in that I had no column to put her in. Christ in her, was the very Word of God to me; the precious breath of Heaven on earth, but ignorantly, I knew it not! She loved me, for Christ in her loved me.

Love is always seeking. He is satiated only in another. Love alone is moot. Love must give and thus He seeks another, and this time, that other was me. At that point in my life, I did not know what the Lord was doing because I did not know the Lord. In the darkness of my sin, I was “. . .without hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12) In the queer irony of my bondage, I was groping for satisfaction in that which could not satisfy as I daily personified and fleshed out the book of Ecclesiastes!

As grace would have it, one day I acquiesced to sweet mother Jane as the love of her Christ flowed from her. I said, “Yes Jane, I will go to church with you.” I had no clue what that even meant. Shortly thereafter, I was found in a small Baptist church in Wanamassa, NJ, on Wickapecko Drive. I was in a pew, but really in the phew of my sin! Quite naturally for me, I was armed with a bottle of vodka under the seat of my pickup truck! Every 20 minutes or so, I was out there drinking from my river of dead water. Truly, I was “out there!”😏 Despite myself though, as is His want, the Lord was planting seeds in my heart because the Lord of all mercy had other plans for me. . .

It is written, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you. . .” (Jeremiah 29:11-14a NIV)

Skip ahead 42 years – it was April 12, 2026. It was a beautiful, sunny, Sunday, spring morning and on top of that, it was my Debbie’s birthday to boot! I was up early putting the finishing touches on my sermon for the morning service. I had been invited to preach at Living Stones Church in Wanamassa. It is a wonderfully growing, Spirit-filled church plant from our home church, Cornerstone, in Howell. I was honored to have been invited by the pastor, Mike McNerlin, and excited to share the Word of God. I have found, after being out of prison for almost five years, that most congregations are very curious about the machinations of prison life. They are very inquisitive about prison ministry and what it entails. So, as I am led of the Spirit, I preach the Word of God and weave real prison stories (things I’ve lived) amongst the Word to illustratively bring home spiritual truth, not quite unlike how the Master did with His parables. At His feet, we learn of Him. . .

I am an exhortor. I seek to call everyone to be all that they can be for the Lord. I like to say, “All of Jesus Christ was on the cross for you, and all of you had best be on the cross for Him! If not, you are not walking in the fullness of your calling!” By way of example, if the Lord died for you to have $100.00 and you say, “I am good with a 20 spot” – are you not dishonoring Him? He gave Himself that you might have the whole $100.00 because He knows what you need – does He not? Beloved, do not settle. Contrarily, by faith, lay a hold of all that He died for you to have! Be all you can be for Him so He gets all the glory!

When I was homeless and on the streets, I smoked cigarettes. When you are down and out and have nothing – you beg. When you see someone smoking a cigarette, you walk over to them and ask, “Hey, can I get a short?” In street language, it means, “Hey, would you save me a little bit of that cigarette?” It’s humbling to beg someone for the leftovers of their cigarette. You don’t care though, ‘cause you want what you want, and the monkey of addiction (sin) is on your back, even the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:2) Well, Jesus don’t take no shorts! He does not want your leftovers. It is written, “. . .If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) Well logically, if self got me into prison, then I am not going to follow that joker any more! Where has self brought you? Not good? Then, don’t follow him anymore.

That morning, 42 years later, even on my beautiful’s birthday, we were in awe of the goodness of God! By grace, I stood before a packed congregation in the very same church in Wanamassa that Jane had brought me to back in the day! Now I was the preacher of the morning, planting seeds in others! I am sure there were others there drinking dirty water in whose hearts I planted the Living Word! God had indeed brought me full circle! Like the story of Joseph, you can’t make this stuff up! I hope that an angel saw what God had done and rejoicingly went to tell Jane that her labor was not in vain! Ha! Be encouraged, our labor is never in vain! Rise up weary one, the Lord takes no shorts, but gives strength to the brokenhearted. Our God is sovereign in His doings among the children of men! Perhaps the Lord has other plans for you too! By faith, He can also, quite wonderfully, bring your life. . .

“FULL CIRCLE”

JOYFULLY IN JESUS,
LOVE, PHILIP