OCTOBER 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! I have been given, by the Lord Himself, a most special brother and friend in Christ. His name is Mark, and a few of you know him. I have written of him before. He is a personal gift from God to me. Mark is my teacher sent from God. Every time I have the privilege to be with him, the Lord humbles me, recalibrates me, and often rebukes me by the simplicity of Mark’s faith and life. He is about 50 years old with a 10-year-old mindset. He is very sharp in some things, yet very simple in others. Not quite unlike ourselves!🙂

Mark lives in a special house in Lakewood. It is called the Lexington House. It is a state- approved facility and filled with over a hundred assorted men and women struggling with mental, physical, emotional, and addictive life-dominating issues of every sort. They are the outcasts of society. Like a leper, no one goes near them, but at the very sight of them – all cry out in their hearts, “Unclean, unclean!” They live in the basest of squalor. The house is filled with unthinkable filth and aroma. It is a den of thieves, full of addiction and sexual immorality. It portrays all of our lives before Christ – does it not?

It is a staunch reminder for me. I lived like that once, hopeless in my homeless shelters. The word “homeless” itself is pregnant with the gospel. When you are homeless, you cannot see it for what it is. All you know is hopelessness, and like the mythological sirens of old, death calls with the lying suicidal song of relief. Yes, homelessness begats hopelessness, which finally begats the ungodly child of suicide. The gospel is the spiritual dog whistle for the hopeless homeless. Are you blowing the whistle? If you do not blow, they cannot hear. I know, I know, someone else will do it, right? In truth, all unbelievers are hopelessly homeless, and in the end, they will find their final home in the lake of fire. Are you sharing the Word? The gospel is the sweet milk and honey of Heaven. It is the children’s Bread, and even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the table of grace. The Spirit led me to the crumbs. Groping in the dark I found the Friend of sinners because He found me. In finding, I was found, and I am alive forevermore! Beloved, drink your milk; but by now, ought you not to be eating meat (1Cor. 3:1-3)?

When you are homeless, you are simply trying to survive. They live from one high to the next high. It matters not what you get high on. In the beginning, they have a drug of choice; in the end, they are a slave. They become what is called on the street, “a garbage-head.” They will do anything for a “high.” It is their only escape from the empty, hollow, relentless pain of life in the dark. Food, appearance, family, friends, medical issues are all meaningless in the bondage of addiction. They are grappling with sin as the devil rides the horse of their lives, on the way to hell, ever driving his spurs deeper and deeper into the sides of their souls! They are without God and without hope in the world (Eph. 2:12). I was as they are. I usually go get Mark every Tuesday morning, and we go have fun. Over the last three years or so, I have grown to love Mark very deeply. I sympathize with his weaknesses as the Lord sympathizes with mine. As Mark is before me, so am I before the Lord. I quite joyfully receive him as my son, even as the Lord has quite joyfully received me! Mark and I do all kinds of exciting things together. To him, even the smallest of things is exciting! We do stuff that he never gets to do. I take him to Walmart and tell him, “I will follow you.” I push the cart as he patrols the aisles with great joy! Everything is something to him. I buy him trinkets of nothingness that bring him great delight! I take him to the ocean, and we walk the jetties. I take him fishing, and I even take him to Chick-fil-A for the scrumptiously delicious peach milkshake (only to be had seasonally)! He has an unmatched appreciation and gratitude that teaches me daily. The centerpiece of his life is now the joy of the Lord! He always has a scripture and a prayer ready for me when I pick him up! When I met him, he was a staunch Catholic. Albeit, he did not know what that really meant doctrinally. Unbeknownst to him, He was religious. Over time, just by loving on him, praying over him, and simply talking to him about the very simple gospel of the Lord, I watched the Lord transform him! He is now a great lover of the Lord – no doubt the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven! He is my teacher as I covet his childlike faith and humble simplicity. He calls me his father – I cry. Love desires an object, and the Lord has hit His mark in Mark!

It is written, “Then He said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.’” (Matthew 18:3)

One Tuesday, I picked Mark up, and we went to get some breakfast. Nothing big, just a Wawa wrap and a drink on our way to Walmart. We were in my truck. I try to keep my truck nice, as unto the Lord, and I had just cleaned it out. Mind you now, from our perspective, we might think Mark is a bit unkempt; the Lord, not so much. He looks at the heart and is well pleased with Mark (1 Samuel 16:7). When Mark eats and drinks, things fly everywhere! No big deal. In anticipation, I usually put a towel on the seat before I pick him up. Well this particular day, he was in rare form! He started eating and talking to me as projectiles of all sizes began assailing, if not even assaulting me from every direction! Stuff was flying everywhere! Keep in mind, I am trying to be calm as I drive! His coffee was now all over his shirt and the seat on which I had forgotten to put the towel, and all the while his hands were smothered with egg and cheese as everything he touched was defiled by the dreaded wrap! As for Mark, he was having a ball pounding down his wrap and delighting in his coffee with a big smile on his face! “Lord have mercy,” I thought. I was driving and trying to remain calm and full of grace, but not so much, as my heart was boiling on the inside with, “Be careful; don’t touch that – don’t you see what you are doing?” I was disciplined enough not to voice it out loud, but the Lord heard every single word (Heb. 4:13)! The ever-faithful, beloved, still small Voice immediately said, “What is of more value to Me, Philip – Mark, or your truck?” He slew me with a Word. “Have I not given you the truck to serve Mark with?”

It is written, “…I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” (Matt. 11:25-26)

Later that day, after I dropped Mark off and was cleaning up the mess, I was found worshiping God for Mark, not for the truck. The Lord cleans up our messes daily, does He not? Mark is my teacher. Who is yours? We all have one in our life. Be it a person or an experience, the Lord is teaching. When we speak – things fly! We have sin on our hands, and we touch everything with it. Mark is very sharp in some things and simple in others. . .

“NOT QUITE UNLIKE OURSELVES!”

JOYFULLY IN JESUS,
LOVE, PHILIP