I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...

I want to introduce you to my friends, Jamie and Donice Gibson.

It's hard to know where to start to tell you who these guys are to Beth and I.
Beth worked with Donice at the church offices in West Columbia for several years and got to know her in a lot of different and stressful situations that can arise in both in people's personal lives as well as at the office. Beth, Donice, Suzanne, Linda Wilson, Linda Ragland, Cindy Mann, and others forged a friendship that can only come to people whose hearts share the same values. They went to work every day to serve, with no agenda but a pure heart toward God and toward the leaders to whom he had assigned them. (This is by no means a complete list of the fabulous team that worked there. These are the ones I can think of tonight.)
Donice was raised in that church and she loved everyone there. She showed it every day. She showed it when everything went right and church people acted like Jesus was really the Lord of their lives. And she lived her faith when it didn't go that way. And just in case you don't know it, it doesn't always go that way.
It seems to have a special barb to it when Christian people, who worship with you, turn and backbite you. But even now, you can't get that team of ladies that worked together in those days to tell the things that were done to them by self important people.
Occasionally, when referring to something particuarly egregious that was done to one of the OTHER team members, they will tell you what really happened. They won't defend themselves, but they will tell the truth when one of their friends is attacked and accused of some nefarious motive.
Now, anyone who knows Beth(my wife) knows she is a person who keeps her mouth shut and who from her heart refuses to judge the motives of other people. (Sometimes that drives me crazy, cause I'm so far behind and below her in that area of obedience to Jesus. She won't agree that I have true and deep insight into the reason someone has pulled some un-Christ-like stunt and that gives me the right to tell others what those motives are.)
A few years ago, I learned that someone accused Donice of being evil. I told Beth what was said about Donice. WHOOOWEEEE! I can't recall all the things Beth said and probably wouldn't put them in here if I could. But I remember the tone. I assure you, it was right and based on her firsthand knowledge of Donice's character. She did say, in short, that if you can know Donice, and still call her evil, you probably do not know Christ yourself and are attributing/projecting YOUR character and motives to her.
Donice is one of the greatest Christian women I have ever known. She is a woman of prayer and compassion. I would rather have her praying for me when I am in trouble than any of the folks you see and hear about in books or on tv. Why? God made it that way. You can pray with real compassion for those you know and love.
She is a woman of fun and humor and faith and she is one of the great friends of our lives.
How could we ever say we are not RICH, when God has placed friends like her and Jamie in our lives. Isn't amazing how that characteristics that anyone would call "good," are found first and in the greatest abundance in Jesus? Donice is, in so many ways, like Jesus. She has a sweetness and a goodness about her that was in her Mother and in her Father and before that was in their Creator and Lord.
She is also a great worshipper. She plays the piano and sings and just leaves the planet and gets lost in the spirit. She was that way before the revival that we all experienced in 1994 and after that it only increased in power and effectiveness. I think that right now, if you were to put a piano in front of her, you would be amazed at the anointing and the presence of God that accompanies her worship. One thing I know for sure. If she worships, and the presence of God, the mighty Holy Spirit of God, comes into the room, there is no limit to what God can accomp;ish in the lives of those who are participating.
Now, Jamie is just as good of a friend as Donice is, and Jamie is like Jesus in other ways. As in the case of Beth and I, one of the best things that can ever be said of Jamie, is that Donice saw something valuable and good in his heart and fell in love with him. Jamie is a walking miracle. I have known so very few people who have been exposed to the levels of strife and disobedience in people he should have been able to trust, i.e. his early church relationships, etc, and still be walking with Jesus after all these years. He still loves Jesus. He is a giver to missions and to outreaches and to his friends. He still brings forth fruit that is consistent with being a child of God.
As a young man growing up in a church in Bay City, he witnessed a fist fight behind the pulpit, as an "elder" tried to force the pastor out of the pulpit. He was raised around constant backbiting and distrust of anyone and everyone except their little group and then saw the evil that this produces, and saw it very close to him.
When he was in high school, he dedicated his life to Christ anew, and started going to early morning prayer with his pastor, who then had an affair in the church.
Still he loved Jesus.
Later he met Donice and he discovered that there really are some people who have a pure heart and who follow God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. He found as so many of us have, that it is not always the famous and the known leaders, who get paid for their ministry that are the greatest example of a what a follower of Jesus looks like. Often it is the folks who don't get paid that are the "saints." ( He saw real Christian living in Donice's father and mother, and Jamie is living for God today in a real and special way.)
Jamie is our mechanic and he is a good one. He has had to be good to keep our cars going. He gives good advice, he works hard.
We have spent so much money with him that he keeps promising to dedicate the new wing of the shop he will to us... "The Strickland' Family Pavillion is dedicated "to people who would rather fix their old cars than to pay for a new one! YEA!!!!!
Jamie and Donice are for real. They are our great friends, and I am better for having known them. It really makes me thankful.

Betty Strickland: Out with All the Kids

My teenage friends from church were my real friends. I liked my friends at school, but we were not as close to each other as I was to my friends at the church(Trinity Assembly of God.) Because we didn't do all the things my friends at school did, i.e., dances, movies, and parties, when we could, we would "hang out" together. That's how we knew if we or others were starting to "backslide." If we started to go to all these things, it was symptomatic of beginning to get cold spiritually and look to the world for pleasure instead of to church, Christian friends, and Jesus himself.

Now, Before you knock it, you should at least examine the thinking we had and not "throw out the baby with the bathwater." There were good things about that and some overly judgmental things. Kenneth Hagin used to tell us to have as much sense as an ol' mule. You've got to "eat the hay, and spit out the sticks!" A large percentage of those kids have become Christian leaders and strong examples of godly living in their chosen fields of endeavor.

Going out together after church became easier as we got older and got our driver's licenses and older model cars. The older teenagers would drive us to whatever we were attending and the younger ones loved it. Many of our older teen friends were very good to us, even though we were unable to pay them back. I still appreciate it and encourage others to take the younger kids and treat them like they are important, not like they are a weight and a pain, and totally in the way.

My dad travelled a lot, so a lot of times my mom would go out to eat after church with us kids. They didn't mind and neither did I. She either was or had been their Sunday school teacher and they all respected her and liked her.

So it wasn't unusual for her to be with us at a restaurant on Admiral St. after church one Sunday night. It was "Across the Street." That was the name of the place. You sat down in booths and each booth had a phone on the wall that you used to call in your order. When your order was ready, they would buzz your phone and someone from your table would go to the counter to pick up your order. No wait staff was required.

On this particular night, my mother was the only adult with us and we were taking up a section of 2 or 3 tables. When the order was placed, mom ordered onion rings. This place had great onion rings, really different than any we had seen before. They were great big, thick and delicious. The one catch to those onion rings was that they charged 3 times as much as any other restaurant for onion rings. But they were good. As a matter of fact, it makes me hungry for one right now.

Anyway, they buzzed our phone, and some of the teenagers went up to get the food. When they came back with the trays of food and began to hand them out, mom wanted to know if those kids ate some of her onion rings between the counter and the table. There were only six onion rings on that plate. Now like I said, they were big, and they were good. But they weren't that big and they weren't that good! Everyone was looking at her plate still on the tray, and the guys that carried it swearing that they didn't eat those rings. Mom said, "Give me my plate," and started for the counter.

You should have seen the shock on everyone's face. They had never seen anyone challenge a place like that. "What she gonna do? they asked. Well, the only thing new about this to me was that my friends were surprised. I said, "Well, when she comes back, she will either have her money back or a whole lot more rings on that plate." "No way!" everyone was hollering and now were standing up in the seat of the booth or in the floor where they could see what she was going to do.

When she got to the counter, she stood there for a few seconds and the workers were just going on as if she wasn't there. Some were talking to each other and ignoring her. Others were busy with other orders. She stood there for a few seconds and when they didn't acknowledge her presence, popped that plate down on the counter top, just hard enough to make the onion rings jump up in the air and back down on the plate. When she did that, it froze everyone behind the counter, and they all looked at her with wide eyes. She simply said with authority, "I didn't order a half order of onion rings. I ordered a full order. Three people ran over there to get her plate, saying "Yes, Ma'am, Sorry, Ma'am, and Right Away, Ma'am! When she brought that plate back, there were enough onion rings on the plate for everyone to have a few.

Well, our group nearly fainted. "She's tough." "My dad wouldn't even do that." and mostly just "Woe, baby! Did you see that." I enjoyed everyones' reaction even back then, but now I know how unusual it was to grow up with parents who were willing to pay for good things, but when what was paid for was not delivered, to stand up for a just and fair settlement of the issue. And I don't mean a law suit, either. My mom knew how to "set her jaw," point her fingers at the counter, lower her voice like the Godfather, and look anyone in the eye, and 'splain things. There has not been very many times when I was around that she didn't get what she was asking for. This was not pride or a better-than-you type of attitude. It was a demand for justice and fairness.

That is why it was so foreign to me when, in the 60's and the 70's these movements for women's liberation started. My mom was already liberated. Sometimes you even felt sorry for the fool salesman or clerk who tried to trick her or talk to her like "you are a woman - you can't understand." Even then, she did not lose her cool. But she didn't back down, either. How liberated can you get?

She still has a strong sense of worth and I picked up some of that from her. I am proud to be her son, and to have passed some of that same dignity on to my children and hopefully to my grandchildren. I'm proud and I'm very, very thankful.

Mom's Influence on Me and My Friends

My mother has probably had the greatest and most positive influence on my life of any one person ever. That may sound like someone stating the obvious, at first blush, but I don't think so.

Remember the statement that was made by Paul to and about Timothy? He said that the faith that had been known and seen in his mother and grandmother, could now be seen in him. In 2 Tim. 3:14, 15, We find Paul referring again to what Timothy had been taught from childhood, even infancy. "But as for you, continue in what you have learned, and have become convinced of, because you know those of whom you learned it. And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

My sisters and I received a foundation in the scriptures that few people outside of our small circles of influence would understand. How that literally from infancy we had the Bible stories of the Old and New Testaments read to us, over and over. We were told in our ears, in our Sunday School Classes (taught by our parents' friends) that God loved us, knew us, waited on us and wanted us to know Him. We were taught that when we pray here, even in the midst of trouble, our voices were heard by the almighty God, and that He loved to answer prayers of kids just like us. The closest thing I know to compare to how my mother, and both of my grandmothers taught us and read to us from the scriptures, would be how Jewish boys were/are raised in preparation for their bar-mitzva. ...From a child you have known the holy Scriptures...
The adults that I knew did their very best to live a godly life, both in public and private. Doesn't mean they were perfect, but they had integrity of heart.

My mother was a leader to all the young folks in my church. Many of them have become influential in their world and have told her and me that she had a major impact on their lives. Men like Alan Allen, Randy and Ronnie Darden, both of whom have been burned in separate electrical accidents. Bobby Whiteley, pastor in Salisaw, OK, who has walked through times of great personal trial, but when the world stopped shaking he had a faith in God's love and power that my mother helped put there. Women of faith like Kim Nance, Suzy Morrison, Sherry Darden, and others - many others. Women like Kim, who has been a stable, solid influence on wave after wave of ministers and missionaries who graduated from Agape School of World Missions in Little Rock, Arkansas, were raised in my mother's Junior High Sunday School class. Kim was not from a stable home, but God put something solid in her heart in those early years that has stood the test of time and trouble.

I remember my mother preparing for her class by telling us kids not to bother her while her bedroom door was shut. She would have her Bible, her lesson book, and a list of the kids who were part of her class. She would shut the door and begin to call the name of each child before God, and ask Him to help them. She would ask God to come to her classroom and manifest himself in the hearts, lives, and needs of these kids. Many were already in trouble with drugs, rebellion, illicit sexual relations, and from horrible, unstable homes. She would pray and begin to weep for them, for their parents, and for their future. I heard her say that unless God would somehow do miracles in their lives that would over-ride the negatives and help them, they would never become productive members of society, of church, and of heaven. He heard those prayers and is still working in our lives.

In the late sixties and early seventies, our church young people began to be pulled hard by the outside world. Some of my best friends began to be pulled by sin and rebellion. Our parents joined together to fast and pray in what they called a prayer chain. It was prayer around the clock and they did it until God revealed Himself to the kids in that small church and to hundreds of our school friends an amazing revival that changed the course of our history. That is a story for another day.

Only eternity will reveal what their prayers accomplished for us and for the people we have influenced, and those yet to be influenced by them.

My mother is still doing it, now. How can you put a price on that kind of person, of prayer, of unconditional love? You can't.

I sure am thankful!

My Response to Carmelita and Benny

I wrote the following response to Carmelita and Benny as they are stepping out by faith to start a new church. I did not include any personal aspects of their letter. As a father in the Lord, I try to encourage and as Peter said(2 Peter 1:12, 13), I want to help you remember the important things that will help you succeed in your ministry.
I include it here because whatever new beginnings you are facing this year, you should run through the check list that Jesus Gave us in Matthew 5, 6, 7.
Make sure you are following Him in truth and that, like Abraham Lincoln said once when he was asked if he believed God was on the Union's side in the American Civil War of 1861-1865. He responded to the effect that the real question is not whether God was on the Union's side, but whether or not we (the Union) are on His side!
That is still the question we must ask, not in our human effort at ministry. But in the light of His word and His ability to produce it in us by filling us with the Holy Spirit.
Enjoy!


Carmelita and Benny,
It sounds like great things are happening in your life and ministry. I am glad that you are not letting what other people think stop you in your obedience to the call of God. Even if we are wronged, we are not to return evil for evil, as some do and as I have been guilty of myself. I am a real follower of Jesus, though, and have repented and gone to Him for His help(Revelation 3:14-22). In Matthew, Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people persecute you, insult you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets that were before you. Later in chapter 5, verse 43, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you:
"Love your enemies;"
"And pray for those who persecute you;"
"That you may be sons of your father in heaven." (That means ...if you don't love, pray and forgive from the heart, you are NOT acting as a son of your father in heaven! And as a disobedient son or daughter are probably moving toward some very unpleasant discipline!!! You ask, "How do you know?" You ask, "Where did this man receive this wisdom?" Hah! Don't ask... just try it for yourself if you are feeling really tough!)
"If you love those that love you, what reward will you get?" (None. There is no debt, no imbalance left by that action; It creates no upward pressure, because everything is balanced. But if you love those who hate you, then you are giving, or investing, more than is being given back and it begins to create a pressure in the spiritual dimension; a pressure to bring God’s blessing down on you!
"Are not even the tax collectors doing that?" People with NO spiritual awareness or knowledge can love those who love them and bless those who bless them!)
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? (Apparently, even showing the courtesy of a greeting is not something that God overlooks!
Hey, if that is so with an outsider, do you think he notices when you are angry and won't greet your wife/husband?
Do you think this is hindering us and our ministries? In the very same chapter he gives the cure... There will be stuff of your flesh that needs to be cut off that will be as hard to do as to pull out your eye or cut off your hand! Cry out to God for help and DO IT ANYWAY! If not, you are not following Jesus and will soon be one of those religious leaders yourself with a little church and mad at the next new guy that God sends to minister in that area!
Forgive your enemies, or you will become your enemies... and hate yourself worse than you hate them.
Forgive. Love. Pray. Bless. Greet. Rejoice. These things are impossible to do without help from God.He might as well tell us to walk across the South China Sea. If you read this and realize how impossible it all is in your own strength, you begin to get hungry, desperate, thirsty, and willing to fast for help to change. It is not just my enemies that need prayer. It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.
Here is where you begin to beg for more of the Holy Spirit. More help. More comfort. More strength.
You weep at your own failure and inability to forgive, even with those you love.
He will answer and refresh you.
He will cleanse you by his blood, and immerse you again in the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit is able to give you victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Go to Him again and wait in His Presence.
The miracles of changing you, and helping you crucify the flesh and resurrecting IN YOU the character of Christ, have not passed away anymore than the healings and miracles of his earthly ministry.
But too often, we have stopped pursuing Him. Read Revelation Chapters 2&3 again, and do what he instructed them to do, if you need to.
Renew yourself and don't get caught off guard by the things that you mentioned that other pastors are doing. Finally, when the time comes and God sends another pastor or ministry to that area, don't do to them what is being done to you.

I love you guys, and I know that if you will build your church on the solid rock of both practicing the commands of Jesus and teaching others the words of Jesus Christ, your ministry to that part of the country will flourish!!!

Write again soon,
Phil and Beth

A Letter from Our Friends in the Philippines

This is a letter from a Lady who is teaming with her husband to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Philippines (just North of Manila, in the mountains.) She is Filipino herself and has been a missions overseer for a large outreach, based in Manila.
As an overseer, Carmelita Langouan gave guidance to many pastors who were planting churches for many years. Now, she, along with her husband Benny and their kids, are moving to a new area to plant a new church. It is in the mountains North of Manila, in the vicinity of Baguio.
Beth and I helped to disciple her in the Lord for several years. She is very important to us, like one of our own daughters. I hope to take my daughters there to meet her some day.

Read her letter and then read my response to her and her husband Benny. Enjoy!


Dear Phil and Beth,

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all. It's cold here in Baguio this time of the year. The City is full of people from all over the country. Some areas of the Philippines are still hot like summer. We are so glad we live here now.

Our family is doing fine. Benny will be finishing his responsibilities at the Church here in Baguio till the end of the month. And then we will be moving to La Trinidad this summer April 2007(April is HOT). La Trinidad is about 30 minutes away from Baguio. We will be opening and pioneering a new Church there.
Our Bible Study and campus group from Trinidad has grown. They have had to travel to Baguio to attend our services. Our youth service in Baguio is in the evening. A few weeks ago, some of our youth from La Trinidad got robbed. Because of that, the parents are not allowing them to travel to our services in Baguio anymore. They want us to open a church in their area. Actually, this is not a surprise. We have known that this is the direction we would be moving and now I believe that this is the right time.
We will have our first service in January 2007. We are excited. The Lord is connecting us to the City leaders in La Trinidad. The former mayor is a good friend of Benny's. He will be helping us with the Student Center we are planning to put up. This Center will be “good bait” for all of the students.
The former mayor said that it has been his dream for this city to have a student center. I think it will be perfect for the students, since the city does not have a mall or recreation center in Trinidad.
We are excited! Two weeks ago we announced to our group that we will officially open the church in La Trinidad in January. They were happy and excited.
The biggest church in this area is Pastor Michael’s church. Do you remember him? You used to preach in his church.
A lot of the churches here are not happy we will be opening one. They've been in this area for years, but most are still very small. Sometimes jealousy is still working among the ministers, but we are not going to allow them to disturb us in what God has for us.
God is giving us creative ideas to reach out to the people and they seem to be working out very well. For example, Benny is developing a student band in each of the area schools.
That's all for now!
We will share more next time. We love you guys dearly. Give my love to your children and hugs to your grandkids. A big hug and a kiss to Art and Barbara (Beth's parents, with us for Christmas). Tell Barb that the first bite of your turkey dinner will be mine.
Miss you all very much.

Carmelita

Betty E. Hair-Strickland; Meet My Mother

My mother is the best mom in the world, bar none. You may think you have the best, but you are mistaken. And I guess that's ok and understandable. Wrong, but understandable. You are entitled to your wrong opinion.

Mom graduated from highschool in Collinsville, Ok in the early 1950's. She was the youngest of 5 siblings and was very close to her father. Although he died before she married my dad, and had me, I felt like I knew him because of how mom talked of him and of what he thought and said.
Some of the things that she told about him that I can remember include:

• The first time a business sent a monthly statement of outstanding debt, he felt like they were treating him like a dead beat. He took it to them and told him that his word was all they would ever need to get paid. I think they took him off the mailing list.
• He loved to sing and passed that on to my mother. All the Hair kids could sing and read shape notes. All of the old campmeeting/hymn type song books were written with shape notes. Anyone who could read and sing shape notes, could sing four part harmony if you could establish a starting note (Do, Re, Mi...) He sang in quartets with men, and with couples in the church. He sang duets with my mother, all through her growing up years.
• He loved it when justice prevailed... in any situation of life. He believed in balance.
• His favorite verse in the Bible was Proverbs 14:34 "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
• He was a man of faith.
• He was a man of prayer.
• He was a tither and he believed that God would supernaturally bless and preserve a tither, i.e., that God will keep His Word.
• He grieved over the way some of his girls' husbands treated them, and avoided them because he feared what he might do to them. (to someone not raised with a sense of justice, that may seem terrible to you. But it is simple and fair to me. Don't hurt my family!)
• He would sit with his family on the porch of their farmhouse after a hard days work and talk and sing with them. It was in these settings that he built his love for God and his love for righteousness into my mom's lfe.

My mother is a leader in almost any crowd, and could have succeded as a professional in any field. What she chose to do, was to invest in us kids and to back my father's dreams.

That choice also enabled her to pursue one other great love. She loved missions and missionaries. She loved them, she prayed for them, she supported them with her own money and prayed for more money to give to them. She wrote to them, and she taught us kids to do all of that, too.

This was something she picked up from her mother. Even though they were very poor, her mother would set aside a few pennies per week from her grocery money and after six months, put a five dollar bill and mail it to a minister in India that she felt was doing a good work. I believe we will see ways in heaven in which gifts like that are like the little boy's lunch that Jesus used to feed a multitude.

Mom became a leader of the women's ministry of the churches we were part of and helped raise thousands of dollars in the 1960's, ten thousand's of dollars in the seventies, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 80's and 90's, and on into the present, to support them as they take life changing, body-healing, drug and alcohol delivering, and eternal destiny changing gospel to the nations.

She knows much about where the gospel is advancing and where it is struggling under terrible attacks of persecution and discouragement. She has watched the impact of the gospel on nations and held on to the life lines and been as much a part of that advance as the people on the front lines. And she taught her kids and hundreds of other people to do that, too.

My mom and dad are well known in the Assemblies of God Missions movement in Springfield and across the country for their giving, praying, and love for missions. I am so proud of them. I am proud of my mom. I am so very thankful.

I Married Up!

I married up. You know, don't you, that means it was a better deal for me... Not that Beth has ever acted that way, but it is a fact. I am a blessed man for having found this woman. She is great in many ways.
For one thing, she is my friend. She is my best friend. We like each other... most of the time, anyway. She followed me around for several years while I attempted to be a great minister, and what I needed was to become a better person. She began after a while to put on the brakes and say "Wait a minute, here." She loved me and had proved it, but it was her will of forged and tempered steel that started demanding communication improvements, growth in integrity, and stability from me. On the last count, she did not demand that I stop preaching, etc, but that I find the will of God and stay with it and quit jumping around all the time. That is something that had to happen. I have learned it so well, that I have had trouble in my mind with the thought of stepping out again and taking the risks necessary to realize my dreams. (I will do it, but it is not easy anymore.)
But I have Beth with me and I think we will do alright.
She is stable. She is humble in her estimation of herself. Not enough to let anyone run over her, but she is not too good for any job in the church, or at home. And, she's pretty sure that I 'm not too good for any of those job's, either. That's good for me. I know it is. It's bound to be. I think...
That reminds me of the two lines of men trying to get into heaven. One entrance was marked, "Entrance for Hen-Pecked Husbands" (for my friends from outside the USA, that means men who are constantly being told by their wife what they ought to do and he says, "Yes, dear" and does it). This line had so many men in it, that it stretched down the street and out of sight. The other entrance said, "For Non-Hen-pecked Husbands." There was only one man in that line. The men in the long line kept looking at the guy in the other line and whispering among themselves... Finally, one of the men couldn't stand it any more. He yelled over to the only guy in the other line, "Hey, man, what are you doing in that line over there?" The man in the "Non-Henpecked Line" yelled back, "I don't know. My wife told me to get in this line!"
Of course, that's not true of me and my relationship with Beth. Mister, I wear the pants in my family. (I asked Beth and she told me I could try it for a few days... as long as I didn't let it go to my head.)
Now, the truth is - that the quality of person that Beth is, has pushed me toward a more balanced and more Christ-like character. I can honestly say that I care more about what she thinks of me than of what anyone else in the world thinks of me. She is honest, and has less of an agenda for others or ulterior motives, than anyone else that I have ever known.
I got the better part of the bargain when I got her, and I promise you that Jesus knew what He was doing for me when he sent her from Denver to Tulsa to meet me 29 years ago... and I am so thankful!

Irv and Pat Eddy, My Friends

Irv and Pat Eddy are two of our great friends in Texas. We first met them at the Christian Center Church in West Columbia.
Irv is a quiet, hard working man that is cheerful and so much fun to be around. He is always interested in what other people are doing and never seems to mind if he gets a load of bad news when he cheerfully asks, "How are you?" I've unloaded my woes to him more than once and he takes it all in and starts praying about it on a daily basis until you let him know that God has answered in a positive way. That's a real friend!
He used to work the sound system at church and so was always sitting in the back. Then, in August of 1994, revival hit the Christian Center like a tornado, and Irv went from the back to the front. It was amazing. That was when we became really good friends and it has never changed.
Irv works, helps his kids, and assists Pat in her ministry, and is a constant help to the city of Brazoria concerning their drainage system woes.
Pat is Irv's wife of many years. She is one of the most positive and compassionate people I have ever met. She over-flows with the love of God. She is the leader of a ministry called The Christian Senior Citizen's Center. She works there 5 days a week from early mornings to late "dark -thirty!" She is a powerhouse of love, energy, prayer, and fun.
Their ministry has kept many senior citizens from going hungry, and God alone knows how many they have kept from committing suicide. Many have been saved through this ministry. Think about that and what the implications are of a ministry that reaches senior citizens for Christ. It is John Wesley's "Soul Saving Station three feet from the Gates of Hell!" They are rescued from despair by the love of God that the Center shares with anyone and everyone.
Have you ever thought of someone as a great person, but when you got to know them personally, you were dissapointed? Not the case, here! The closer you get to these two, the more you realize that they are "for real."
I am proud to know them, to be financial partners in their ministry, to have Beth volunteer with them, and most of all, to be their friend.

Milton and Anice Fenley, Our Friends

Milton and Anice,
We love you both and you are very special friends.
Milton, I appreciate your years of service to jail ministry. God hasn't forgotten. And your work at Phillips Oil Co. There is no telling how many people your life impacted and influenced for the Kingdom of God. We know it was a lot, cause I was at your retirement party... But, I met you at church and your giving, loving and participation in the advancement of the local church and of its mission to the whole world will be remembered in eternity. You are a man who loves and supports missions. Your Giving has preceded you into Heaven. No, you can't take your money with you, but you CAN send it on ahead by investing in missions. Thank You!
Anice, WOW! What can I say that is strong enough to express my admiration of your life and ministry. You both have ministered to us directly with words of encouragement and by your confidence that God will keep His Word to us, whether written on the pages of the Bible or on the secret pages of our hearts. And, of course, you were right about that every time! You have been a real friend to Beth and I.
In reality, I am blown away by the calling God gave you, many years ago to teach school and public school at that. I know that you have impacted and influenced more people for Christ than many evangelists who get paid to preach. I see your love of the children and your dedication and giving to see them blessed, taught, fed, bathed, deloused. I have seen you going to the school during your off hours to prepare, to decorate, and God only knows what else!!! It all shows that you have more than a job. You have served those children as though you were serving Jesus Christ Himself. Nothing you have done has been nor will be in vain. God will cause the children to remember your heart, and be drawn to Him.
Kenneth Copeland said that he recieved Christ in to his heart as he was led in what to say by his 3rd Grade Sunday School Teacher... not in the class, but on his own livingroom couch, 12 to 13 years later. He said he could still hear that man's voice in his mind and in his heart. I have no doubt whatsoever, that God will bring your voice back to many people and your love, your wisdom and your witness will be right there with them in some very dark hours of their lives!
Finally, Jesus said if you give one of these little ones a cup of water in my name, there is NO WAY you will be cheated out of your reward.
Know this; I will be cheering you and Milton all the way... both here as a friend and at the banquet... you know which one! The rewards portion of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. That will be me standing in my chair (so I can see) and screamin' myself hoarse, if you can get hoarse in heaven. I'm gonna try!

Thanks for your long term friendship.

Merry Christmas, 2006!

Phil and Beth Strickland

Soar Like an Eagle, (but don't forget your family)

How are you guys doing?
I want to talk to those of you who, like me, have dreams of accomplishing long held goals and visions.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with being intense and single minded in your pursuit of great purposes. Really, this is where many people fall short of fulfilling their hopes and dreams. It is a definate key to answered prayer, to request things that are burning inside of your heart and not the stuff you would "kind of like to have." It is what sets your heart on fire that stirs heaven's blood when you pray. Also, getting that vision started requires an intensity that those you love and lead and provide for, are going to have to understand and be patient with the unusually intense person that you have become during this time of intensive prayer and work.
But, (and that is a big but) you must trust God enough to put your dream in His hands and while He is working in your behalf and usually in the unseen realm, you are taking care of the basic responsibilities of being a husband, a father, and a faithful leader in your CURRENT local church.
Keep a tight reign on the basics of fellowship, loving and leading your family, dating your wife and not leaving her with all the kid stuff and house stuff while you do the "important" stuff.
Do not become SO single minded that you get out of balance. What does it profit a man if he gains...?
Many people gain their dreams but they walk all over the people that they love. Their success is not God given, but self actuated and self maintained. They end up like the guy on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour who is spinning plates on a stick. He has to keep running back and forth and catching the ones that are about to fall.
We need God to breathe His Life into our dreams. What He starts, He maintains! It's still a lot of work, but when you do it in Him, you can sit down after six days of work and the world won't stop spinning and fall down around your feet. Remember Colossians 1: 17 NLT, "He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together." Or, in KJV... everything holds together in him. WOW!
Jesus is still saying... "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father... When you obey my commandment, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow.
(Jn 15: 7, 8, 10, 11 NLT)
Until next time...

Greetings and News

Hi, folks! How are you? We are great in most ways and the things that aren't are being managed by the King! I have been leading a study on the Book of Revelation and it has been one of the highlights of study in my life. I am having so much fun teaching them God's Word. I have the most interesting and interested group of students that I have fellowshipped with in years. As we study and talk among ourselves, we have sensed the Presence of Jesus and believe that the reading and the promised blessing that comes with the reading, is accomplishing in us the same thing it did in John as it was revealed to him.

Cherry, my eldest daughter, has continued to grow in the Lord and as an adult. I have watched her make many selfless decisions that reflect a current and vital fellowship with the Lord that is being energized by the Holy Spirit. I am very proud of her. She is being mentored by a friend of ours who we have known for years and in whom we have much confidence. Stacey McCarron Collins and her husband Mike have befriended Cherry and JC in an unusual way and we are deeply indebted to them. Stacey was one of Ralph and Shirley Hagamier's team that I first got to know in Zaire (Now the Congo) in 1994. She is a great missionary still, and I believe God alone is responsible for bringing her and Mike into Cherry and JC's life. By God's grace, they are watering the seeds that Beth and I and had planted over the years of our lives.

When 9/11 happened, I told my girls that one of the key values for every Strickland to pass on to their children is to be a missionary... to be God's voice to their world.

God bless you all.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

For those of you who are unfamiliar with a blog (short for a Web Log), it is much like a room full of your friends that have come together for your birthday party. Everyone is equal, but it's my blog. Of course, you still try not to say stuff that is stupid or boring, yet you are more relaxed and open than you would be at a "company meeting."
Until word gets around that this is a blog worth visiting, many of the people who will be logging on to this page will be people who I know and who know me personally. However, in the future, new people who begin to log in will want to know who WE are, not just me. They will read what I say and then click on to your comments to see who else is reading what I have written and what they thought about it.
Right away, I am going to write about my friends and family. I want to tell our story, and just like you would if we were in a room together, instead of a virtual room, I want you to let me know if you remember a story differently than I do. In the same way, I may stick with my story and argue the point, but you are welcome to defend yourself and your view/memory.
I love my family and my friends. I won't write about people I don't love and respect. I won't try to embarrass anyone... ever.
Actually, what I want to do is to say thank you to everyone whose life has affected mine in so many positive ways. It would be a shame to live and die, and have never said thank you to those of you to whom I owe so much.
Apart from the Lord himself, my greatest debt is to my parents. Anything I say will understate my debt to them. I don't know how to thank them adequately for their love, their unwavering support, their giving and sacrifices, their example of love, commitment, maturity, and hard work. Their words, and their attitudes are interwoven into my letters, my daily life and conversations, my poetry and now, these musings with you.
Right there with them would be the influence and impact on my life of my wife, Beth. For this cause a man leaves... and cleaves! She is the one greatest gift and compliment that God has ever given me. She is beautiful. She is quiet. She doesn't like the spotlight. She can be as tough as she needs to be... with me and with salesmen. And still today, in our 29Th year together, she is still my best friend. She's Trevithick!
Her parents and brothers have been the best in laws a man could ever have. I love them all and appreciate their friendship and support.
Lastly, I want to tell you about my friends. To do that, I am going to write about them and what they have brought to my life. Just as with my family, there is no way for me to write about everything that my friends have done for me and all the ways they have influenced me. So, if I miss something important to you, PLEASE share it in the comments.
I will write about my friends in no particular order and especially since I have never rated my friends in terms of importance, neither the length of the article, nor the order of their reference has any bearing on the value I place on each one.
This is the one area of my life, that of my family, my mentors, and friends, that I am stinking, filthy, RICH. more later!

Personal relationship with Christ

It would be easy for a Christian leader, or a pastor, to look at my first post and say to themselves... "This site is designed to speak to outsiders, to people new to faith. However, we all may want to re-think that proposition. My opening statement was: Your personal relationship with Christ is the most pressing issue in the universe. That has to include you!

Mr. Pastor, or Mr/Ms Christian Leader, if you ever loose sight of that fact because of other urgent issues, you are already starting to sink. Go back, and carefully read the first three chapters of Revelation and then tell me you are getting a free pass. These chapters are a preview of the judgement seat of Christ that Paul speaks about.
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How busy are we?

Let me ask you this... As you mature in Christ, do you get more dependent on prayer and personal devotions, or less dependent because of your vast knowledge of scriture and of human behavior? Do you become more aware of your strength or of your weakness?

Look at Daniel's life. The higher he was placed up the "corporate" ladder, the more he felt he HAD to seek God 3 times a day! That doesn't just mean he was "so devoted to God that he wouldn't miss his 3 habitual prayer times" when a law was passed against prayer. It may have been that he was more afraid of trying to conduct the affairs of the Babylonian Empire without God's help than he was of the lion's den.

What about you?

Are you satisfied with the relationship with God that you are now enjoying. If you are satisfied, and don't want to start anything that may push you out of your comfort zone, you are already in trouble. You are not among those that Jesus called "Blessed."

He said, "God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice (Gr. for righteousness), for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right (or pursuing justice), for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven!... The smartest thing we can do, is go get in line with the things that He blesses, and quit trying to figure out why He is not blessing what we are doing!!!

You see, if you have lost your sense of spiritual poverty, of desperation for more of God, and you think you are rich and full and in need of nothing, you are deceived. Instead of contacting a great evangelist or pastor to pray for you, get alone with Jesus and begin to ask Him for a right heart and a fresh revelation of how things really are, you know, as He sees it. You may be surprised. I have been before... but that is a post for another day!

Knowing Jesus Christ Personally

Your personal relationship with Christ is the most pressing issue in the universe. Do you know Him personally? Have you ever committed your past to Him and received the forgiveness He offers to those who come to Him humbly and confess their sinful condition?
You can begin a relationship, a permanent friendship, with Jesus, right where you are. The main question is, are you ready to make Him the Lord (the Boss, el Patron) of your life? Often, people want Jesus to guarantee that they won't go to hell (you know, they want fire insurance), but they don't want to live in a permanent place of friendship with Him. Some may say that they aren't going to bow down to anybody, but they do. They may worship themselves or they may worship money and material things. There may be someone who you have pictured or as the psychiatrists say, imprinted, as an example of success, but I have never found anyone who compares with Jesus of Nazareth, who is also called the Christ. If you don't know Him personally, I want to invite you to read the stories of His life in the Bible. Start in Mark and Luke of the New Testament. One more thing - ask God to reveal Him to you - then relax and read.
I've found out that He will come to your house, your room, or your cell. You are not too good for Him and you also aren't too bad for Him. You will find that as you read His Word, He will walk into your life and be your best friend. He will forgive your past, heal your present and give you hope for your future. Give it a try. Test it for yourself. Any questions? Hit the COMMENTS button. God bless!