Philip’s Musings

When I mentioned my own private little war yesterday…….“I have my own private little spiritual war going on with all the greed and profiteering going on in the oil industry…”….  please note the word “spiritual”  there.  I do not mean I am using the court system or attacking anyone in anyway….except God’s enemy….Satan. I have never brought a law suit against anyone…and I never will.  I do not do battle using the world’s systems.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”   This statement from scripture is reality   for me…. not an illusion.  I believe it with all my heart and state it every day.  See my daily prayer if you are interested in the practical outworking of waging this kind of war.  My attack…. my war is waged in that realm….and…. we are winning on several different fronts.

Usually, there is some small, practical outworking in my life on the various fronts where we engage the enemy…… I  mentioned a couple of those fronts in our last newsletter…… this whole thing with the oil industry and the lie about the economy generating all this fear in people’s lives…. it’s kind of a “put your money where your mouth is”  thing for me.  This outworking is just some simple “statement of faith”  in that spiritual realm that I really believe God is in control and not Satan…nor any of the systems of this world which he controls.

So how does it work out in the nitty-gritty of daily life?  We borrow $100,000 and pump it back into the economy in whatever areas the Lord tells us to put it.  We are providing jobs locally…..  contractors are buying materials from local suppliers…..and you would be hard pressed to convince these folks that everything is going down the drain!  At the same time, the Lord keeps blessing everything we touch in ways that boggle my mind, enabling us to meet all the extra payments….. we are having our best year ever….what’s all this stuff about how the economy stinks…..  At the same time, you have my personal ok to believe anything you want to believe about it.  

When our local oil supplier got caught up in all the greed stuff….not worth all the gory details….we ended up telling them to come and pump out all the oil they put in there at twice the regular price without even asking us if we might like them to do that.  We are presently changing our whole heating system to propane and pulling our 3000 annual gallons of fuel oil right out of the oil equation.  That’s a drop in the bucket of the oil greed but it is huge in the realm of spiritual warfare.

For months our supplier was arrogant and immovable, simply agreeing that maybe perhaps they should have called us before making the delivery…..until we told them to come and pump it out because what they did was wrong….. unrighteous….and profiteering….then they wanted to negotiate.  I told them it was way too late to do that.  They just really didn’t believe that anyone would stand against them….I think they may have found a whole bunch of other people (we’ve heard hundreds) decided they got treated poorly to….many of them (like us) who had been with them for over 13 years.

So we have embarked on a whole new exciting journey in this great adventure we are part of.  The plumber is in tearing the whole place apart.  The biggest blessing will be to all our guests at the B&B who will now be able to control the heat in their rooms with their own individual thermostat.

Hey…come visit some time this winter and try out your thermostat.

I would invite anyone visiting for the first time to read 3 of the pages to your right.

Why these musings will explain how I got involved with blogging

Philip’s Story will give you an idea of where I am coming from.

Good to have you visit will lay some groundwork for all that will follow.

Everything else…..just daily thoughts and stories, running from one day to another….. starting at the beginning will help it all make sense….. kind of a journey thru my life that I started recording here back in mid-December 2007 ……..I sincerely hope you will enjoy the journey.

I sure have!

That’s how the lies and illusions come at us…..every which way…..they are are mostly negatives but some times the illusion is about my wonderfulness…… as I mentioned yesterday.

Satan really does want us to believe every illusion he throws at us…. every distortion of God’s reality. God says take no thought for tomorrow…Satan says you better think about tomorrow. God says I’ll take care of you….Satan says you’d best take care of yourself…. no one else will. All of the situations of life will come at us and Satan always says…”look at that mess….now did God really say He would take care of you?

I have my own private little spiritual war going on with all the greed and profiteering going on in the oil industry…all of the lies that somehow this is normal and alright and people just need to give in and accept it all. Join me in the battle against all that. We have already won many battles…..some day we will win that war!

Same thing with the lie that the whole economy is going to hell in a hand basket…..surely God will not take care of you in this…..so start living in fear.   Stop believing the lie of what this world’s system tells us is going to be or not be and start believing what God has to say instead. Every world system is built on fear.   Fear is the enemies’ greatest tool and biggest lie.

Think about why we do what we do and where all the money and power is….

Insurance Companies: One of the most profitable industries in America…all based on fear….fear of your death…fear of provision for your family…fear of every conceivable catastrophy….fear…fear…fear….just send us your money…we’ll take care because God surely won’t.

Banking: Who makes more money than the banks? Save for some rainy day…put your money in our bank! I had a mentor once who told me if we believe we need to save for a rainy day, we might just get what we are believing for….rainy days! Back when I was a kid they put the $6 for $5 guys in jail for usury…today the banks legally steal our money getting a lot more than 6 for 5! Miss a payment on your credit card and watch your rate sore up to over 30% interest. Some genius got the banks back into the big time with credit cards once people started investing money elsewhere than their beloved safe place. They appealed to our greed to have today what we can’t afford tomorrow!

Investments: It’s all based on having enough money when I get old…. do I qualify as I enter into my 74th year? That stuff is all fear…. fear that I won’t have enough to pay the bills when I retire (whatever that is!) and no one will hire me…. fear that I will be sick and in a rest home….fear of losing my home….losing my this and not having my that!

Do we realize how much money is being made on just these 3 areas of business….all of them based on fear! These fears are all lies…illusions…..

My goodness….I need to stop for now…..and I haven’t even begun to talk about the AMA and Pharmaceutical industry. Think for a moment…be as honest as you can…. and think about why we do all the things we do….and how much of it is based on fear…..fear of something…anything!

Sorry…fear is no longer a motivator in my life. It doesn’t have to be in any of our lives.

This is such an important area.  Lies ….. illusions….. are very powerful things.  The only way to break their hold on us is to simply believe the truth instead.  Why is that such a difficult thing?

Just lost my job…..you’ll never get another one.

Business just went down the tubes…..not only is your business a failure but you  are too~!

House burns down….sickness comes…..some terrible accident happens…..relationships are destroyed….big things… your children are on drugs…….little things….your flight is canceled….. you forgot to pay the credit card….and all the negative thoughts are flowing into your head..the you always…you never….what’s wrong with you….you dummy….thoughts….some of them that were planted there by loved ones…parents…spouses…all telling you just exactly what kind of jerk you are and how you aren’t up to it, will never make it and aren’t good enough……you just haven’t got what it takes big fella!

Ever hear that stuff?  Ever say that stuff?   To your kids….to your spouse?  I’ll never be able to forget…which can be a good thing to help us never to do or say certain things ever again…..    what I did to my poor wife for too many years.  Until God took my arrogance and did a number on it….I think (hope) He did….there was an attitude that came out every time I corrected her….or anybody else for that matter….my kids…my employees….

It is very hard to be humble…when you are perfect in every way…and so easy to correct others!  Of course…I know that I am the only person in the whole world with this problem but….when you do absolutely everything perfectly yourself……absolutely every time you do anything…. then you tend to have an attitude when others cannot quite come up to your wonderfulness…..and those others might just be able to pick up my attitude.
Of course I was so wonderful that I would never say anything really nasty like “What’s the matter with you stupid wife…what is it about doing things right that you do not understand” ...no…never… I was a loving Christian husband…so I would gently correct…injecting a sweetheart here or darling there… nonetheless making sure that she understood she didn’t do it the way I would do it…the correct way….the right way….

One day…she asked me a very simple question… Why did I think she heard two more words every time I finished adjusting  her…. words I never spoke but words she always heard….. you dummy!

I was the one who needed some adjusting.  I had a few illusions.  They were distortions of reality.

Ah…yes….more things to think about now.

Haven’t been able to go anywhere else since I threw out that last posting on illusions….it just keeps rolling around in my head. Illusions….the distortion of reality. The reality is that the sun is always shining. The illusion…may I also use the word lie…. the lie/illusion is that the last two days have been overcast, full of clouds and thunderstorms and we get all mellow dramatic and talk about how the sun will never shine again…..ever…in my entire life.

Ellen first shared that with me when we had some very serious storms in our lives and she was driving over the mountains thru the Sugarbush pass where there is a pull off at the top to catch the extraordinary view of the valley…only there was no view of anything….there was no sun…..she was literally in a cloud… comparing that with all the turmoil in our lives at the time….she was complaining about ever seeing the beauty again….. and God spoke to her…..”Nothing has changed Ellen….the beauty of the view is still there…you just can’t see it right now…..the sun is still shining brightly….you just can’t see it right now.”

Ellen had started believing the lies. God doesn’t really care. He’s left. I must be a piece of dung. Everything is just going downhill and getting worse by the minute. Nothing will ever change. There is no beauty. There is no sun. Nobody loves me…everybody hates me….I’m gonna go eat worms!

Ever been there? Ever done that? They are called illusions….lies…deceptions….part of the enemies plan to steal your joy…destroy your relationship with God….push you over the edge….personally I believe Satan’s untimate joy is to get us to the place in the clouds where we actually believe the lie, rather than the truth….embrace the illusion rather than the reality and totally give up…taking our own lives.

One of the saddest days for me this year was hearing of a believer who just gave up….took her own life….the pressure just kept increasing and she was unable to see past the illusions. Those lies are terrible lies. We need to embrace the Truth….the One who is Truth…..and believe the reality of the view behind all the terrible storm clouds.

I have so many illustrations making their way thru my musing department…so there will be more illustrations.

If we could somehow live in reality  we would never be disillusioned.  The only reason we are disillusioned is that we live in our illusions……. our perceptions of what should be real …  what we have been taught about the way things are or the way things should be.  Wikipedia states that “While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people.”    In other words….we all have illusions….our distortions of reality…..ergo: we will be disillusioned.

The most disillusioned people I know are Christians who are still caught up in the illusions of what they have been taught as reality, rather than being caught up in the one who is reality….the only reality….His name is Jesus,….He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Mumford has been saying for some time now that the capital “C” Church has not been teaching wrong doctrine….just inadequate doctrine.  I can handle that…but recently he took that a step further and said that about the capital “C” Church itself…that it is not wrong…just simply inadequate…. I disagree with that.

I am watching the havoc of disillusioned believers totally frustrated by what they have been taught…and it doesn’t work out that way in their lives….the Capital “C” Churches have put their spin on doctrine and it is not reality.  It presents distortions of reality …. illusions…. and God’s small “c” church are terribly disillusioned…wounded…frustrated….and giving up on God because of what has been presented by the Churches….. because those Churches are wrong… not just inadequate.

Are you disillusioned?  About what?  Think about it for a little bit.  Perhaps we can get back to this another time. I am tired of living in my illusions.  How about you?

So…..did you think about what Jesus was trying to communicate to Peter in that little play on words from John 21? Did you see anything? What did you see? Send me a note.

I’ve preached on that agapao/phileo thing several times….. there is so much there…. so there is no right thing for us to see. There are lots of things we could see. This time around what grabs me, is how Jesus really wants us to understand that the only love we are capable of producing is the Phileo variety…the human kind of love. We cannot produce the Agapao kind of love…..we need His very own life to see any of that variety come out of us. He knows that….and we  need to know that too and say with Peter….. you know all things Lord…..especially how much I need your life in me to ever be able to agapao others.

The awesome thing is….. that once we know only  He can produce that in us….the more we know we need to press into Him in order for that to begin to happen in our lives. Sometimes it seems only a fraction of an inch at a time but it does happen…..we change…we are different because of that agapao shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Hey…… I’ll take it a quarter of an inch at a time…whatever…..I’m just happy for anything He can produce in me….and you know…..it actually all begins to add up to something when you are at it long enough!

For me, this Agapao kind of love thing is all about my relationship with the One who is love. For you, it is all about your relationship with the One who is love…. our relationships with the King of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is relational….far above all of the other things that it is….. it is a love relationship. It is His love first reaching out to us…then touching us….revealing Himself to us… then our responding to that love by loving Him with all our heart, mind, soul, strength, energy… loving Him with all that is within us.

When I finally saw this…then experienced it…it simply blew me away. Mumford saw it 15 years ago after 50 years having a relationship with God…then he saw Agapao and started teaching it. This major figure of the Charismatic movement…recognized bible teacher….prominent speaker at major conventions….turning down hundreds of invitations each year because there are not enough days to fit them all in….he finally sees Agapao and that’s all he has been saying now for the past 15 years. The critics say…oh yes…poor Bob Mumford…all he says is love, love love….poor Johnny one note. The critics don’t understand it…I didn’t either….but now Philip understands it too…..you have to touch it to understand it.

30 years ago, a guy came thru our North Jersey Area saying it’s all about love…that’s all it is….. His love for us….our love for Him…..then Him reaching out thru us to love everyone He puts in our path. That was too simplistic for the great Phil Wolff back then….back then I was one of the critics….I hadn’t touched it.  No more.

I was reading the next chapter of John Eldredge’s book Walking with God the other day… please note that I have finally been able to get all the way up to page 76…..and he talks of asking God “What are you saying, Lord?” He asks Him over and over and over again…..day after day…. and he gets the same simple two word response each time he asks the Lord…..the Lord just says “My Love”.

Do you think maybe, the Lord is trying to say something to…. not only us…but maybe the whole world? Think on these things. Have fun with it…. It’s called musing!  It’s good for us too.

I promised to talk to you about love and the difference between the the Greek words Agapao (God’s totally selfless kind of love) and Eros (the worlds totally selfish variety of love)... then there is a 3rd word in the Greek, Phileo (just ordinary human love…I love my mom, my kids, golf and the Red Sox!)

Read this text from John 21 and look at the word love each time it appears and see it in context.

15* ¶ So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus *said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He *said to him, “Tend My lambs.”
16* He *said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He *said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”
17* He *said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus *said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Now I am going to repeat the text and substitute the Greek words that were used and translated simply the same way each time….love….I do this in order for us to think about it….think about what Jesus is really saying here and compare it to what you thought He was saying during the first read thru.

15* ¶ So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus *said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you agapao Me more than these?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I phileo You.” He *said to him, “Tend My lambs.”
16* He *said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you agapao Me?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I phileo You.” He *said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”
17* He *said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you phileo Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you phileo Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I phileo You.” Jesus *said to him, “Tend My sheep.

Muse about that yourself a little today and see what it is that you see. One day soon I will probably say what I see. But not today.

We live in the me first  generation. I’m gonna get mine  and the rest of you will just have to deal with it. Selfishness is king. It rules our lives. Ever since Adam and Eve decided they wanted to be god….mankind has been sitting on the thrones of our lives. It really is time to get off the throne.

In James’ letter he talks about how we don’t have things because we don’t ask…..or we ask with wrong motives, to “spend it on ourselves”.  The reason we don’t ask is we don’t understand the Kingdom. If I plug into the King and His Kingdom and want what He wants….duh….I get what He wants.  But if I am the king of my life, then I don’t need God, I don’t ask God and don’t get because I don’t ask. Not terribly complicated.

On the other hand….if I do ask God and do it like the me first generation does it….gimmee, gimmee. gimeee and I want what I want when I want it…..then what happens….nothing…because I don’t want what God wants… I want what I want….my desire is for stuff to “spend on myself”.

There are two things I ask God for every single day during my Daily Prayer time. This is the first one.

“I pray that your kingdom comes. I pray that your will is done, right here on earth, just as it is in heaven. Begin that work of the kingdom in me Lord.”

The desire of my heart is that His Kingdom comes…right now…right here….today… and….the first place for that to happen is in my own life……me first! This is when “me first” is a good thing. I want your rule in my life Lord. Be King of my life. I choose to get off the throne of my life again today. I choose not to be God any longer. You be the ruler of my life.

That is a very safe me first prayer.

The second thing I ask for every day, is also a very safe thing to ask.

“bring your authority and your kingdom rule over my life, my family, my household, my sphere and my domain…over everything you have given me to be and to do during my time here on earth. “  Please note the first thing on the list is my life…..me first!

When we do ask something like that every day….it is truly amazing to watch what goes on….always exciting…always interesting….always challenging…all of it…the good…the bad…and the ugly!