Songs
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Sung by Gary Phillips
Words and Music by Barb Phillips
Gary’s Testimony Song
Posted on February 13th, 2010 -
If You Want to Live You Have to Swim
If You Want to Live You Have to Swim
Words and Music by Barb Phillips
Sung by Barb Phillips
Posted on February 12th, 2010 -
A True Friend
A true friend will tell you the truth in LOVE even when it hurts.
A true friend will tell you if you have a booger in your nose or if your mascara is running down your face or if you have bad breath.
A true friend will be there for you when you call.
A true friend walks in when everyone else walks out.
A true friend is the one that fights for you when you won’t fight for yourself, even though you could.
I WANT TO BE THAT TRUE FRIEND!
BUT–I WILL NOT be your designated driver and sit with you while you destroy yourself and what God’s done in you and then drive you home. That doesn’t have to happen at a party or in a bar. It can be in your living room, in jail, or on the phone, because it’s not just booze and drugs that destroy you, but anger, bitterness, hurt, self-pity, and depression.
You can drive yourself, I guess, and put yourself and everyone around you in danger because of your selfishness. If you don’t call, they don’t know, and it gives you one more excuse. Nobody cares! I’m all alone, even though people have told you to call if you’re having trouble. Oh no! You can’t just destroy YOUR life, you have to take others with you. You don’t think so? Give it some time. (especially if you have kids)
OR-You can call an old buddy. They’ll not only take you, they’ll cry in their beer with you and shoot, snort, or pop pills with you, JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS!
BUT–that’s not TRUE Friends.It doesn’t have to be booze or drugs or sex. Death and Life are in the power of the tongue. You literally WILL eat what you say.
I WON’T sit with you and watch you kill yourself, but eventually there WILL come a time when you hit bottom. By that time you will have used about everyone you know and wore them out.
THEN YOU CALL ME. I’m the one who answers the phone in the middle of the night.
Do you know what it’s like to love and care for someone (maybe more than they do at the time) and have to watch them make one BAD decision after another and go deeper and deeper into a black hole that you know is almost impossible to get out of? To try to save someone from drowning when they want to die or they are so scared they fight your help. Sometimes you get them out and they jump back into the deep, dark, cold water on purpose.
BUT YOU KEEP TRYING.
I WON’T be your Dr. Kavorkian and help you medicate yourself to escape the pain. Pain is a part of life. But instead of feeling, you’d rather hide behind it or run from it. A TRUE friend will make you face it and help you thru it, not run from it.
I didn’t sign up as your friend to be your personal trash bin. I signed on as a sounding board. I WILL listen, but as a TRUE friend I have earned the right to not only listen, but to speak.
DON’T want to be PREACHED at, you say. Well, what I tell you I have to tell myself when everything’s going wrong. I have to live this too you know. Everything’s not always great with me either, or have you ever thought to ask.
If you just want someone to agree with you, DON’T CALL ME! I can’t do that. I thought I could, but I can’t I love you too much. There are people all around you who will do that because that’s easy. But NOT a TRUE friend. I can’t tell you only what you want to hear. I have to tell you the TRUTH.
BY THE WAY–Disobedience–it’s POISON, my friend. If you choose to eat enough of it, you WILL die! I refuse to eat it with you. I WANT TO LIVE! I WANT YOU TO LIVE. Quit taking the bait out of the devil’s trap. You don’t think you’ll get caught, but you will. I could tell you now what will happen because the end is always the same. DESTRUCTION AND DEATH.
BUT–YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, you say. NOBODY does! Oh really!
I UNDERSTAND MORE THAN YOU THINK!
I UNDERSTAND that no matter what happened in the past, you can’t change it. So if you want to live you have to decide whether you will allow it to DESTROY you or if your will DEFEAT it.
I UNDERSTAND if you make wrong choices you will DIE–maybe quickly, but more times than not a SLOW, PAINFUL DEATH!
I UNDERSTAND that the power to choose lies in your hands and that I can’t do it for you. So if you choose wrong, YOU will PAY the consequences.
I UNDERSTAND that my heart aches and grieves when I see you having to pay the price for bad choices because you refuse to obey. But my hands are tied. No matter how much I want to save you from destruction and heartache. THE CHOICE IS YOURS?
I UNDERSTAND that God said His GRACE is enough to get us thru and that He will make a way where there is no way. That He doesn’t love me any more than He loves you and the He has GOOD plans for us if we obey Him. That His Word it TRUE and He is FAITHFUL.
I UNDERSTAND that YOU are NOT a special case that he can’t SAVE, HEAL, DELIVER, AND SET YOU FREE. That His MERCIES are new EVERY morning and when we choose to REPENT not just be SORRY, that He FORGIVES and starts the process of RESTORING our lives.When you really want help, I won’t have to come to you, you’ll RUN to me. But until then, I will keep trying. It ain’t over til it’s over! You might come around yet.
When I ask if I can help, you say, Just leave me ALONE. I’m doing fine.
BELIEVE ME I’ve tried, but Prov. 24:10 keeps coming to my mind.
DELIVER THOSE THAT ARE DRAWN TOWARD DEATH. If you say you do not know, you deceive yourselves. I KNOW YOU KNOW, God says.Do I do it out of fear or love? I guess you could say both of the above. Out of fear because I know what He asks me to do and I choose to obey. Out of love because YOUR very life is at stake. He already paid the price but you’re throwing it away!
Do you think this is just what I’m suppose to do? It’s not just for me, it’s what God commands. Whose blood is going to be on YOUR hands?
The Word says you’re accountable to be a TRUE FRIEND too.
But you will never be able to be one until you realize that it’sNOT ALL ABOUT YOU!
By Barb Phillips
Posted on January 27th, 2010