Chynna Phillips Holds On To Faith
Social media Jesus influencer, Chynna Phillips Baldwin, doesn’t hold back when it comes to speaking the truth. She is the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the 60’s band, The Mamas & the Papas, and a successful actress and vocalist in her own right with the band, Wilson Phillips. Additionally, Chynna has been married for 30 plus years to actor Billy Baldwin, and they have three grown children. She said the past five years have been what she called “the dark night of the soul,” that was often played out in the tabloids.
Chynna: “As a matter of fact, from what I’ve seen and from my track record, there's a lot of pain in life, no matter whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian. I struggled for so long to believe that God loved me. And it was really starting to bother me. Like, wait a second, you profess that you believe in this all-loving God, and yet you have trouble believing that God loves you. I knew Jesus rose from the dead. I knew Jesus died for my sins. I knew that Jesus was the Son of God. But I just couldn't believe that God really loved me because I felt like damaged goods, just the life that I have led, and the sins, and the darkness and the rock and roll, whatever you want to call it. You know, flower, hippie child existence growing up that way. It was a painful existence. You know, my parents were divorced. My father was a heroin addict. I had some sexual abuse in my life plus I had my own addictions - food addictions, drug addiction, love addiction. It was a mess! There's just been so many traumas and so much pain to have to navigate through that. For me, it's been like I’ve had to, it's like a ball of electric wires. And I’ve just had to try and untangle this ball of wires."
Chynna continues, “I was not raised in church. I had never read a page of the Bible, and I go to this Baptist school and what do I do? On the first day I steal a chocolate milk off the cafeteria tray. And, the next day, the cafeteria girls walked up to me, and they were approaching me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I’m digging into my backpack getting the quarter, cause I want to give them their money. And they were like, 'no, no, no, we don't want your money.' And I was like, 'oh, well, what's going on?' And they said, 'well, we were just wondering if you would like to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?' And they hand me the salvation card and they're like, 'just read the words.' So, you know, just to appease them, like I start reading the words, but as I’m reading the words, I start to feel this holy scan take place from the tip of my crown of my head to the bottom of my feet, just like a holy scan. And by the time I was finished reading the prayer, I was speechless. I was paralyzed in the Holy Spirit. Well, for me it was a very profound experience and I didn't have anybody to talk to about it.”
As a teenager, she got caught up in partying, clubbing, and doing the LA life. She says Jesus was a faraway thought.
Chynna: “I got sober when I was 19 years old. And really after I got sober was when my life really started to congeal. That's when things really started to come together for me. You know, I was going to my AA meetings. I had a therapist. I'd gone to meditation groups. I’d done the whole new age thing. I was even getting my tarot cards read. And I was also taking vocal lessons because I had been a smoker for many years and I’d really shredded my throat, my voice. And this was sort of on the horizon that perhaps, you know, Carnie and Wendy and I would, you know, be a group.”
“And then, cut to 9/11. Stephen Baldwin gets saved around that time. And he starts totting his Bible around everywhere he goes. He and his wife, Kennya, are taking their Bible everywhere. I was like, really? We're like at lunch, like, can you just leave your Bible at home? We're just trying to have a nice lunch. And, you know, I still, I’d had my experience with Jesus, but still I was like, come on, really? This is a bit much. And, finally one day, Super Bowl Sunday, I’ll never forget it. He was at my house, brought his Bible, and my nieces were there on Billy’s side, Billy’s nieces, they had done something, and they were in trouble and Stephen was praying over them. And then I hear the Lord say, 'I want you to go in there and say to them that whatever you're doing with them, I want you to do it to me.' And Stephen looked at me like, white as a ghost. He was like, 'are you sure?' I said, 'yeah, I’m sure.' And I sat down, and he started praying over me. The exact same thing happened. I just had that holy scan experience again. And I realized, oh my goodness, Jesus is God. And then the next thing I did was I got up, I went outside, I had a Buddha about this big at my front door, and I grabbed a blanket, and I wrapped it in duct tape. I wrapped the whole Buddha up in duct tape. So, I grabbed the Buddha, and I threw it into my garage, and the next day I went to church. And ever since then, it's just been this ride or die for Jesus.”
Today, besides her weekly posts on California Preachin’, Chynna launched California Healin’ to share God’s love with woman all over the world.
Chynna: “And it also gives me a greater testimony because there are a lot of women out there who don't believe God loves them. And there are a lot of people who are Christians who are going to church, who are praying to the Lord, who are talking to the Lord on a daily basis, and still not believing that God loves them. I know that cause I was one of them. And so for me to be able to have a voice in the wilderness and to be able to say, 'God truly does love you, and not only does He love you, it's your unloveliness that He loves the most.' That's the message.”
Discover Chynna Phillips Baldwin's YouTube channel, California Preachin', information on Chynna's California Healin' ministry, and all things Chynna Phillips Baldwin at www.CaliforniaPreachin.com.
