Danny Phillips Speaks about God's Grace in His Life
Mr. Danny Phillips spoke at Faith Temple, Taylors, SC, on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. Phillips is the president/owner of Upstate Tire, Inc., 5428 State Park Rd., Travelers Rest, SC 29690.
Pastor Raymond D. Burrows welcomed Brother Danny and his wife, Mrs. Rosanne Robinson Phillips, and two of their three children: Mr. Joe Phillips and Ms. Misty Nicholson. Mr. Derrick Stroud, their oldest child, lives in Texas.
When Pastor asked Danny to speak, he said he would pray about it.
“I went home and immediately started praying,” Danny said. “But really, I was arguing with God. I was telling God all the reasons why I shouldn’t do this, all the reasons why I couldn’t do this. But God kept bringing to my mind Moses. … Moses had a speech impediment and had all these reasons why he couldn’t do it, but the Lord convinced him to do it. … I’m not a preacher, a teacher, or a Bible scholar, but I can tell you what I know.”
Danny, 68, was born in West Virginia in 1954.
“I was born into a home that had no love,” he said. “Both my parents were alcoholics. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and hear the fighting, the arguing, the throwing, and the cussing. I was in jail by the time I was 11 years old. I left home before I was 15. I don’t know if it was trying to escape that or what. … I ran the streets, committed probably every sin that could be committed. At 17, I went into the Marine Corps and was still 17 when I went overseas.”
He served in the infantry in Japan and Vietnam. After exiting the Marines, Danny was invited to a small, rural Methodist church revival in Virginia in July 1974.
“I said then, ‘I don’t have time for that stuff. I don’t even want to hear that.’ Anyway, somehow I was convinced to go,” he said. “The funny thing is, it was a Baptist pastor, or evangelist, that was holding the meetings. That night, I agreed to go — didn’t really want to. And I went in that little church. [About 25 people were there.] But as this revival started, and the preacher was preaching — he was a fire-and-brimstone preacher — and I could feel God speaking to me and the Holy Spirit convicting me, and I’m sitting there, hoping this thing would hurry up and be through so I could get out of there. And the more he preached, the more the Holy Spirit drug and tugged.”
The congregation stood and sang a hymn. The preacher gave an invitation.
“I’m standing there,” Danny said. “I was ripping the back off that pew. If you could probably go up there today, you could see my hand prints. And I fought, and I fought, and I fought. I was telling God, ‘I’ll do better; I’ll get better; I’ll change. I’ll do this, I’ll do that.’ But the Holy Spirit kept tugging, so finally I stepped out. I almost ran down that aisle, and I cried out to God, ‘Save me! Save me! Have mercy on me, a sinner!’ And you know what? He did! He gave me such peace. He forgave me of my sins. I knew that night, that if I died before I got out of there, I would be in heaven.
“Years after that, I had children, and I used to walk by their room at night and thank God because they would never have to wake up at 3:00 o’clock in the morning, hearing their mom and dad fighting and cussing and drinking … all by the grace of God.”
After conversion, Danny worked for the Lord.
“When God saved me, he set me on fire,” Danny said. “I couldn’t do enough. I don’t know if I was trying to repay God or what. Every job that came open in the church, I was ready. I wanted it. I taught a little third-grade Sunday school class. That was my first job. Then I joined the bus ministry. I was the bus captain and all that. I’d visit on Saturday and drive the bus on Sunday and pick up kids. I seen a bunch of ’em come to know Christ. And I became a deacon. And I became a youth director. And at this particular church we went to, every 4th Sunday night, the youth had the service, and as a youth director, I was expected to do what I’m doing now [speaking].
“One night, I had asked my mom to come to that meeting, and she came in and sat in the very last pew. I don’t even know what I spoke on or even said, and I gave the invitation. I saw my mom step out and come forward and give her life to Jesus Christ! And I asked her later, ‘Mom, do you still have problems with alcohol?’ And she told me that she could walk by beer and wine in the grocery store and she’d get sick to her stomach. God took that thing just like that! So no one can ever tell me that God don’t do miracles. I’ve seen too many.”
God gives us grace, he said.
“I wish I could say that I always was close to God and all, but after that, I let things creep into my life, and before I knew it, I was far from God,” Danny said. “I was living in the world, doing the things of the world. Then, like the Prodigal Son, I came to myself. And again I cried out to God, ‘Forgive me!’ And by his marvelous grace he brought me back, hugged me, and loved me. So, that’s what I know. I know that God is gracious and God will save us. And I also know there’s nothing you and I can do to save ourselves. It’s all through the grace of God.”
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