Roger Bothwell

The New England Patriots won their football game on Sunday but you would never know it by watching the local news.  You see, it wasn’t a pretty win. Local sports broadcasters have been running the lowlights of the game instead of the highlights.    Not only do New Englanders want their team to win, they want it to be a pretty game of well executed passing, blocking and running with no dropped passes or fumbles.

Alas, this is just like people I have known along life’s way.  Even though they have been blessed with health they find something to complain about.  In 1995 they had a hangnail and they will never forget it.  Their children were on the honor roll but didn’t get all A’s.  They have incredible memories and can recite in detail imagined slights and raises they should have gotten but didn’t. It is one lowlight after another.  I have seen marriages break up because one partner was a lowlighter. I actually saw one marriage survive because they were both lowlighters and thus were perfectly matched.

One day someone after church told me he could hardly wait to get to heaven because he wanted to see the video tape of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Really?  Talk about a lowlight.  That was the lowlight of all time.  I would much rather see the highlight that took place on Sunday morning.  I want to see the highlights of Jesus healing lepers and restoring sight to the blind.  I want to see the highlights of parents receiving resurrected babies into their arms and resurrected marriage partners looking even better than they did on their wedding days.  See I Corinthians 15.

Highlighters are so much more pleasant to be around than lowlighters.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 23, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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In Plato’s ideal world the only area of study until the age of twenty was to be music and gymnastics. Twenty to thirty would be filled with math, logic and grammar.  Thirty to fifty would be a time to work in the community.  Fifty to sixty would be a time to study philosophy and finally at sixty one could be ready to serve in government.  If we had such a system in place several presidential candidates would have to withdraw and wait.  The emphasis is obviously on maturity with the assumption that young people think they know but don’t know because they don’t know what they don’t know.

This certainly brings I Corinthians 2:9 to mind.  “However, as it is written: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ — the things God has prepared for those who love him–.”

I am often amused at people who speak with such authority about God and eternity.  We don’t know what we don’t know.  Paul also wrote, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, . . .”  Ephesians 3:20.

Being a citizen of God’s kingdom brings an unbelievable series of stipendiaries.  Surprise after surprise awaits us.  I am not talking about Disneyland kind of surprises but surprises of the mind.  Doors opening to areas of thought expanding our horizons in a never ending road to maturity.   We will never be mature because there will always be something more to thrill our intellectual senses.  Each new area will be seasoned with God’s love.  This just cannot be missed.  Come and join us.  Please.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 22, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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It’s apple picking time.  Branches are heavy with the makings of pies, cobbler, cider and sauce.  Roadside stands are decorated with baskets of Granny Smiths, Cortlands and Golden Delicious apples mixed with mums.  Big yellow school buses are unloading city children to roam orchards and perhaps to give them an opportunity to pick their very first apple.  Last week someone gave me an apple because I am a teacher.  It is sitting on my desk.  I probably should eat it but I like the idea of it being.

Twice in the Old Testament God’s people are referred to as being the “apple of His eye.”  (Deuteronomy 32:10 and Zechariah 2:8)  The Hebrew word translated “apple” really is the word for “pupil.”   Literally the Old Testament says we are the “pupil of His eye.”  The pupil lets light inside.  Maybe that’s why students are called pupils.  I like the idea that we are basically the light of God’s life.  Don’t you just love the expression on people’s faces when they are snuggling their child?  The light that goes in comes right back out as parents glow.  God must glow when He sees us do well just as parents almost burst when their child does well.

If you love God, and I’m sure you do, today try to do something that will make Him especially proud of you.  Give something to someone in need.  Help someone with a difficult project.  Make life easier for someone with heavy burdens to bear. Visit an old person.  No, don’t come to see me.  I’m not old yet.  I’ll let you know when I am ready for an old person visit.

In the meantime it really is grand to be the “apple” of God’s eye.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 21, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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It was a glorious evening. We were sitting in our city park enjoying a band serenading us from the town gazebo.  As we were watching a little guy about four years old came running by going full steam.  There were bigger children chasing him but he need not worry.  When one got close he suddenly veered off to the side only to leave them going the wrong way.  Soon the older children tired and lost interest but that did not slow him down.  For almost two hours that little guy stayed in high gear.   He was never out of breath.  He was just running and running and running.  He could have been the model for the Eveready Energizer Bunny.  He kept going and going.

How could I not think of Isaiah 40:30-31, “Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”  Isaiah obviously never saw our little guy in the park.  He never grew weary.  I have to admit I was so very envious of his seeming endless supply of power.  I wonder if he will grow up to be one of those ultra-marathon runners that go 100 kilometers or even the uber runners that do 100 mile races?

Don’t you love that promise in Isaiah?  Those who wait on the Lord will run and not get tired.  They will soar like eagles.  It’s one of the gifts we will get.  It comes as standard equipment with the new bodies promised to us in I Corinthians 15.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 18, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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What do the following names have in common?  Ansong, Appiah-Poku, Assan, Boateng, Dervishilari, Dwomoh, Fresh, Gualdarrama, Kiser-Miranda, Mitis, Morataya, Pokhrel, Tringali and Wantiru.  These are just a few of the last names of students in my class this semester. I feel like I am entering the United Nations when I go to class in the morning.  I look at them and wonder where they all came from and how they ended up being with me for three hours a week.  Talk about an opportunity to change the world.

America is changing.  The world is changing.  I know that makes some people uneasy because we don’t know where or what we are becoming.  We just know it will not be the same as it was in our childhoods.  But, really is this so new?  We have always been an open door to the masses.  We even brag about it in a poem inscribed near the Statue of Liberty.

It makes me hungry to see the multitude described in Revelation 7.  “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

There are going to be a lot of strange names to learn.  Then, of course, there are the names of the angels.  “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.”  Revelation 5:11.   How grand to add our names to the crowd.  Don’t miss out!

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 19, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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One of my students walked into class this morning wearing a tee-shirt that said, “Jesus Loves Everyone but I’m His favorite.”  There it was.  This is the heresy of almost every religion.  If you are not a Jehovah Witness, they cannot pray with you.  If you are not a Mormon your baptism by anyone other than a Mormon is disqualified and you are lost.  If you are not a Catholic you cannot be buried in the same cemetery with other Catholics.  If you are not Islamic you are an infidel. I can go on and on.  This is the cancer that eats away at the Gospel of Jesus and most other religions as it feeds the egotism of the soul.  You are okay but I am better.

Now of course my student was joking.  But the truth about humor is things are not funny if there is not an inherent element of truth.  Everyone so wants to be special and what could be more special than being God’s favorite?   Before we enter heaven Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15 that this corruption will put on incorruption and thus we will have some different ideas about things.  But, I wonder how I would manage eternity if I were God’s favorite.  I might never mention it nor deliberately rub your nose in it but there would be an unacceptable ting of arrogance in my mannerisms.

In Acts Peter said, “God is no respecter of persons.”   Everyone who lets Him into their heart becomes the apple of His eye.  Does that mean we are His favorites?  The answer is yes.  And all those who have not accepted Him are candidates to join our favorites club.  God is equalitarian to the extreme.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 18, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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The world is awakening to the reality of Ebola.  It must be confined and eradicated.  Councils in many nations are brainstorming strategies for effective action.  After Adam and Eve introduced sin on earth heaven knew it must be confined and eradicated.  But unlike Ebola, a physical malady, sin was a psychological malady that could spread throughout the universe ravaging civilizations and turning them into populations of selfish warring creatures.  Being that sin is psychological, the cure was not pills or vaccines, it was something so dramatic, so stunningly over-the-top, so horrific and so convincing that once administered sin would never arise again anywhere. The only cure required the death of the Creator Himself.

When announced angels were horror-stricken.  Surely there had to be another solution.  But, God in His infinite wisdom knew this was the only way.  Sin must run its course demonstrating to all the natural consequence, which is death to everything good and bad. It would even torture and kill the Creator Himself.  Sin is self-destructive.  Left unchecked sin will ultimately destroy everything.

In order to salvage something from this world and to inoculate other worlds that are watching, Jesus came and Lucifer was delighted.  His plan was to make the cost so dear Jesus would give up and go home.  In Gethsemane he pressed Jesus to the earth with the idea that Jesus’ eternal sacrifice was going to be forever and no one would benefit.  It was a waste.  But the hope that someone, even one, might be saved Jesus decided to pay the price no matter what.  On the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”  He was alone.  The price, the cure, was a plunge into the darkness of eternal hell.  Not only earth was saved.  The universe was saved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 17. 2014

Spring of Life, PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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I went to the seminary with a future preacher who claimed it was wrong to prepare one’s sermon.  He contended if at the beginning of the sermon he would ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance the Holy Spirit would then use him as His instrument for conveying what God wanted the people to hear.  I have to admit it sounded good but I was never willing to give it a try.  My idea was the Holy Spirit knows who is going to be there and what they need and can inspire me during the sermon preparation.   There is an advantage to what my unprepared preacher did.  I have to take responsibility for a lousy presentation, he never did.  Whatever happened no matter how poorly presented wasn’t his fault.  It was God’s will.

Through the years I have seen variations on this concept.  People are faced with difficult decisions where each will produce both favorable and unfavorable results.  (Very few decisions in life are all good or all bad.)  Because it is difficult they don’t decide. They let happen what will happen and then say that God’s will was done because they surrendered to Him.  Therefore, the mess that followed was God’s will.

It appears to me this is a tactic for not taking responsibility for one’s life.  It seems to me when confronted with a difficult choice we should pray for wisdom and make the best choice we can.  I believe He will bless knowing we tried.  That doesn’t mean everything will be perfect.  That will only happen in heaven.  While here we are expected to use the mental gifts He has given us.  1. Ask for guidance.  2. Gather as much information as possible.  3. Decide.  4. Take responsibility.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 16, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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When I was in college we humorously referred to a couple of our very bright professors as having a 20/20 I.Q.  Thus I was excited when I first read Ephesians 1:18 where Paul speaks about our “eyes of understanding”.  That’s the King James Version.  The New International Version renders it, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

So it was that I understood God wants us to have 20/20 I.Q.s.   God is not honored by ignorance.  Parents take no delight in the dullness of their children.  It is with pride that children, who are on the honor roll, are praised.  After God make Adam and Eve He came to the Garden in the evenings to walk and talk.  Those talks were science lessons filled with facts of flora and fauna.   As each evening’s lessons were absorbed they became more and more like their Creator.  They were made in His image and were to become mental wizards in which their Father could delight.

Paul, a man with a 20/20 I.Q., understood and shared with us in Ephesians 1 God’s great hope that we will grasp the inheritance to which we are called and realize great power comes from great knowledge.  God is all powerful because He is all knowing.  Creation was not a work of magic.  It was the product of mental prowess and scientific action.  As Albert Einstein once said, “God is a scientist, not a magician.”   “By the word of the Lord were the heaven’s made.”   The word was His encyclopedic knowledge of all that is.  It is to this that we are called.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 15, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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There is an interesting YouTube of a man on a street trying to sell a $50 Canadian gold coin for $25.  No one will buy it.  He is even standing near a store that buys gold so someone could go inside and check its value.  No one will do that.  At one point he offered to trade it for a bottle of water someone was carrying and he was unable to trade it. The coin weighed an ounce and gold was then selling for $1500 an ounce.  Many people refused the offer by saying, “I’m good.”

In Revelation 3:18 God calls for His last day church, Laodicea, to buy His gold so it can be truly rich.  The gold He offers are the riches of spiritual understanding. He so wants us to grasp the wonders of having an ever growing good character as we become more and more like Him.  It is so easy to be comfortably content with where we are.  We say and mean it.  “I don’t want to harm people.  I don’t want to steal from them.  I want the best for others.” However, there is so much more.  There is an incredible peace that continues to grow as we watch the world go mad about us.  There are philosophies and mental riches that come with a friendship with Jesus.

Like the people who refused the gold coin by saying “I’m good” we just don’t get it.  They didn’t buy the coin because they didn’t understand the value they were being offered.   We don’t spend the time in prayer and study because we just don’t grasp the value of what we are being offered.  So who is the biggest loser?

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 14, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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