AUGUST 2025

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! Upon reflection, I have learned that in the process of time, over the seasons of our lives, there are generally only a few days that end up defining us. Markers are placed along the way (spiritual road signs as it were) by the sovereign Hand of God to redirect us back into His perfect will. He is ever calling men unto Himself. Even, “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” (Psalm 19:2) He is patient and gentle in His doings toward the sons of men. Emmanuel Himself became flesh and dwelt among us that He, the loving Christ, might always and forever sympathize with our weaknesses – ah, the sweetness of grace personified!

It is written, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

For me, there were two particular days. The first was July 27th 1991. As you know, I was in the hole for having fought over a few silly cigarettes. I was at the end of twenty years of daily drug use and very despondent to say the least. Sinfully laden, sadly, I had taken a life. I was at the bottom of the worldly- vaunted rabbit hole of sin, which, by the way, never goes up, but always down, down and further down. It is written, “…the way of transgressors is hard.” (Proverbs 13:15) I was discouraged, depressed and radically suicidal. I was “without hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:12) At that life-defining moment, teetering on the brink, there the Lord revealed Himself. Meeting me not with the righteous judgment that I so deserved, but with the precious mercy and grace I so desperately needed. It is written, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

I didn’t know what I needed. I was so delusional from sin that I thought I needed to die to find relief. But the Lord, Who is rich in mercy, met me at the point of my need. He then lovingly brought me to His fountain of Living water – His holy Son, Jesus Christ! I am, to this day, keenly aware that I was not looking for the Lord, but that He, the Good Shepherd, sought me out while in the dumpster of my sin. In grace, He came into the dumpster and pulled me out by the hands of Tony Harden, whom He used to preach the gospel to me through an air vent. It is written, “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

The second event that forever defines my life was meeting and eventually marrying Debbie Carver. She was created in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world to be my wife and I her husband. As one, we seek to give God all the glory in all that we do (Ps. 115:1)! Through Tony Harden’s leading me to the Lord and through Debbie’s love, despite the wicked circumstances of my previous life, God sovereignly birthed “Our Father’s Persistent Love Ministries, Inc.” For almost thirty years now, Debbie and I have tirelessly served men and women behind bars. As missionaries to the prisons, we live by faith and trust God for all of our provision. He has caused us, by His Spirit, to be of one heart, and in all things, Kingdom minded! It is written, “House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD.” (Proverbs 19:14)

On a more somber note, I am saddened, albeit joyful to inform you that our brother Tony Harden has recently gone home to be with the Lord. He had just been told by the earthly judge, after 38 years in prison, that he could finally go home! Everyone was ecstatic! He then got cancer and was quickly gone. Little did we know, from our fleshly perspective, that His Father, the Heavenly Judge, was going to bring Tony to his true home – forever in the Heavenly Places! (Psalm 16:11)

Tony had a most lovely woman of God, Shirleen, at his side for many years. She was the perfect helpmeet for him. The Lord is gracious; He knows that as men, we sure need help!😃 After Tony’s passing, I picked up Shirleen in my truck, and off we went to Rahway to pick up his belongings. When we arrived at the prison, we had to wait. Waiting is the prisoner’s lot. We wait for everything – always! In the Lord though, we know how to wait. After a bit, quite sovereignly, I ran into a sergeant who remembered me from the Greenhouse where I had worked inside of the prison for all those years. I had shared the gospel with him many times. He liked me and treated me very well. He took it upon himself to expedite our process! The waiting was soon over, and by the grace of God, we were on our way with nine bins of Tony’s “stuff.”

In these nine bins were all of Tony’s valuables. It was all he had in life. In prison, everything is something because you have nothing. Every little thing has value as you strive to McGuiver your way through life in there! I was able (as I have shared with you in past Inside Perspectives), to make “cook-pots” out of a plastic bucket, toe-nail clippers, a toothbrush, and an old radio wire! Boom – a homemade Crock-Pot from which Carlos and I ate quite wonderfully for 30 years of my life! I bet you did not know that if you take the colored thread out of tube socks and braid it into a string, you can cut through hard plastic like butter! But let me stop – I can’t give you all my tricks!😁

Shirleen and I then drove back to Trenton having a 7-Eleven hot dog along the way to boot!😋 When we got back, we unloaded the bins, and one by one we went through them all. Mind you now, these were Tony’s treasures – that which he esteemed most valuable! And, that which others inside the prison would risk life and limb to steal! We soon discovered that except for a few bibles and personal writings, his “stuff” was worthless out here in the world! It was sad, but true. We ended up throwing 95% of it out!

Observe – “stuff” that is valuable in prison has no value in this world. Similarly, the “stuff” in this world that has value in your heart now will have no value in Heaven! Let that thought tweak you. It is written, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:21) What will people think one day when they go through your bins and look at your “stuff”? And they will! What will they find that you treasured? Indeed, truth be told, the Lord is going through the bins of your heart right now as you read this – looking at your. .

“STUFF!”

JOYFULLY IN JESUS,
LOVE, PHILIP