philip's musings

A long time ago… in a galaxy far away… I wrote a little booklet… my church used it to evangelize… that was over 40 years ago…

Old friends from our church found it stuffed in a book… being used as a bookmark… they brought it to me when they came up for our 50th Anniversary Celebration…  Here it is… it is probably the only thing I ever wrote that I still do not have to edit a word.

THOUGHTS

for people who…

-have ever questioned the meaning of life

-have never questioned the meaning of life

-neither of the above

MOST PEOPLE CAN IDENTIFY

Most people can identify with the feeling of excitement you get when you discover something that really has helped you to get some kind of handle on life.  Especially when it’s in an area of your life where you’ve never had a handle before.

For instance… there’s that time you really got hold of your weight problem with that terrific new diet.  Immediately you wanted all your friends to try it.  Or when you quit smoking and drove everybody up the walls preaching the terrible evils of tar and nicotine and how easy it is to stop.

Perhaps you’ve been caught up in the return to natural foods, taking vitamin pills or some elixir that has helped you to a better life in some way.  Anyone who knows a jogger, has heard many times over, the glorious benefits of getting out there every day and tearing off the miles to cardiovascular fitness.

With others it is some religious experience, the new car they have purchased, a book they’ve read or a movie just seen.  Because we’re people, we want to tell the world about our discovery.  That’s what people do.

NOT JUST ANOTHER THING

I want you to understand that this is not what I’m doing.  What I have to tell you isn’t just “another thing” that someone got “into”.Most of us have walked through life with a lot more questions than we’ve ever had answers for.  We’re frustrated with our marriages, our kids, the economy, inflation, the government, our jobs, foreign policy, the energy crunch and a million other things that don’t seem to make much sense.

No matter what we accomplish, we never seem to really be satisfied.  We get a raise and it’s still not enough or what we’re really worth.  We get a promotion or build a bigger mousetrap but the elation of our latest success or achievement wears off and we’re empty again, wondering what mountain to climb next in order to experience that exhilaration once again.

Things always seem to be going wrong.  Everything from silly inconvenience and nuisance things,  to deep, tragic, inexplicable situations that only bring with them more questions and still no answers.  It’s almost like fate has singled me out in some mysterious personal way to crush me, my hopes and my dreams.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT

What’s it all about anyway?  Is there a God?  Am I the master of my own destiny? Is there some supernatural force or power or something that actually controls the universe?  Did this whole whole world just “happen”?  Some kind of cosmic accident?  How many of us have come to the point in our lives where we’ve said,  “There has to be more to life than this!”

Have you felt this way?  Do these kind of thoughts bounce through your head?  If they have. it means you are a very normal person.  It is designed that way in order for us to come to grips with the purpose of life.

YOU CAN KNOW

The truth is that you can know what the purpose of life is.  You can find meaning and reality.  You can know why you are here and what it’s all about.

That’s why I’m so excited and want you to know it’s happened for me and for so many thousands of others, and that it is possible for you.  You see… there is a God who put this whole thing together.  He does have a plan and purpose in it all.  What’s even more exciting is that God is more than willing to tell you about it.

I really don’t want to sound like I’m trying to lay some kind of religious trip on you.  What I do want to do is stir up your mind to think about God and begin to question what you believe about life.

LOOK AT YOUR LIFE

Look at the circumstances of your life.  Are you really in control?  Be honest now.  Do you have real answers or only questions?  Perhaps you’ve already seen the beauty and order of creation and know it couldn’t be an accident.  Perhaps you do see that there is some sort of supernatural force or power or god but it is all so intangible, impersonal and remote.

It’s not supposed to be that way.  God does not want to be remote and impersonal.  He wants you to experience His love for you.  He actually wants to reveal Himself to you so you can know Him intimately and personally.  I can’t give you a magic formula to make that happen for you.  It’s a heart transaction between you and God.  If you honestly search to know Him, He will show Himself to you.  Talk to Him, question Him, seek Him and you know what’s going to happen?  You are going to find Him.

WHAT YOU WILL FIND

What you are going to find is that you’ve been separated from God.  That’s why you don’t really know Him. You’re also going to find that in order to know God you must know His Son.  God sent His Son, Jesus, so you could be brought back to Him and intimately know and experience the living God, the way He designed you to know Him

The reason nothing makes sense to us and that emptiness is always there, is because we wanted to be our own God. We’ve been trying to run our own lives and God never intended for us to run things.  Ever since we can remember we’ve been taught “You’re Number 1″… “Take care of yourself”,… “Do your own thing”… “Be independent”… “If it feels good, do it!”… “Be your own person.”  That’s the opposite of the way God made you so it ends in the frustration of a life of selfishness and independence.

GOD’S DESIGN FOR YOU

God’s design is for you to let His Son Jesus run your life… for you to depend totally upon Him for everything.  That’s not a cop out.  That’s facing truth and coming to grips with it. But I really don’t want to talk you into something or convince you of something.  I don’t want you to settle for my experience with God.  I don’t want you to settle for some pat theological argument or doctrine.  I don’t want you to settle for saying some magic words or some formula.  I want to challenge you to search for God with all your heart and not settle for anything less than a head-on collision with God yourself.  He will reveal Jesus to you and give you meaning and purpose for your life.

There are people all over this area who really care about others and would like very much to help you as you walk through this personal search to meet God.  Someone even cared enough about you to give you this little booklet.  They would love to tell you more about the reality of the Kingdom of God.

Their name and phone number is written below so you can call them.  Why don’t you?

It was time to honor dad as well as Mom.

It really hit me again this past weekend as we stopped to visit some friends on our way up to Vermont from Jersey…. how clear the scripture is about what our attitude needs to be to our parents.

“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

This is Deuteronomy 5:16…  but there are at least 7 other scriptures saying the same thing.   Any religious system that separates parents and children  is a cult.  When the leaders say to the adult children that “their parents have left the church and no longer are following Jesus”…  and then order the children to no longer see their parents, nor allow them to see their grand children…. that scenario is a horror story… and… it is happening in religious cults everywhere.

I choose to honor my parents.  You have met  Florrie, aka Florence and Nicole.  Now meet Bruno Bernhard Wolff, aka B.B.Wolff and the Big Bad Wolff!   🙂

I am introducing many of you to someone you never met… she sang at Carnegie Hall back in 1959… she had a beautiful Soprano voice.  She was also known as my mother… Florence Wolff….

nicole scott – wolff     many called her  “Nickie”  over all those years until Jesus came to pick her up back in 2010….   🙂

Back on October 5th, my cousin  Marge  wrote this on Facebook about my sketch of the Carters….

“Your sketches are really beginning to show character. Keep it up! If I could do what you do, I would produce a sketch of Florrie.

I asked her if that was a challenge…  🙂   🙂

So… here is a sketch of  “Florrie”… Florence Wolff... aka  my Mom…  🙂

On Saturday, May 6th, we attended the memorial celebration for Phil, Jr.  … at my son Matthew’s church in Sussex, N.J.  It was quite a special time. See Jennifer’s Facebook Page and you will get a little idea of how the  “family”  gathering was quite an event…. many pictures…

Lots of emotions and memories shared.  I had the opportunity to tell how thankful I was for the past couple years as Phil and I talked…. and I watched him soften… then had my chance to say goodbye when Phil III called… and told me his dad could no longer speak but could still hear… then he put the phone by Phil’s ear… where I told him again that I loved him, said my good-bye and asked him to make sure he was there to greet me when it is my turn.

My sketch to honor Phil, Jr…..

Our lives are so full of  divine appointments…  🙂   I love it!  I will never forget the day the phone rang and this guy introduces himself to me by saying he had met  Darryl Rodman  who told him that there was another guy that talks just like he does… maybe he should give this guy  Phil Wolff  a call… so he did…  🙂

Voila!   Jeff and Sandra Carter  entered our lives…. we did talk a lot alike…  and have had countless wonderful conversations as we have shared life over the years.

Thank you both for bringing so much into our lives.

🙂

Darryl and Martha Rodman  came into our lives in the early 2000’s… they had an Apostolic ministry to the East Coast…would fly out from their home in the Seattle Area and visit churches all over the NorthEast… one group was up in the Morrisville, VT area.  They would stay with us at our B&B and we became very good friends.  Eventually they even purchased a second home in Connecticut to help with all the travel.

I always looked forward to their next visit… Darryl would sit down with his guitar to worship in our living area and I would join him with my harmonica… we would just go on and on and on… I do miss those times.

We had just been with them, they drove back to CT and were scheduled to fly back to Seattle on April 22, 2010… I sent them a Facebook note to  “have a ‘bon voyage’…” 

Darryl had a heart attack in the airport, followed by a massive stroke.  The Lord was merciful to Martha and the family…. miraculously He kept Darryl alive to give family and friends time to adjust to all that had just happened.

Jesus came to pick Darryl up and bring him home on October 5, 2012…. that will be 6 years ago in a couple days.  He was a hero of the faith, fought the good fight and finished the course.  Martha continues to minister as the Lord opens doors to her.

Their story is on their web-site for   Impart Ministries…. just click the link.

We all miss him.

We have all been born into a world  “at war”… sometimes it takes a little longer to finally discover it, but once we do, everything changes.  These heroes have been at it for quite a few years.  Nancy  worked for us at our  Christian Center Bookstore in Allendale, N.J. and also lived with us for several years in Ramsey.   She was part of our church.  We believed the scripture told us that  “God sets the solitary in families” … so we made sure that all the unmarried members, all the  “singles – the solitary”,  were living with one of our church families to help them as they grew in the Lord.  Nancy lived with us.

Along the way she met  Kenny Baker… I had the privilege of marrying them on November 6, 1982… where they joined to walk together in this war against the evil one and have fought the good fight together almost 36 years.  Both are devotional writers.  May the Lord continue to bless the many years you have left here together.   🙂

Here is my sketch of  Mel Gibson  as  Col. Hal Moore  in my all time favorite movie……      “We were Soldiers”