Roger Bothwell

We have some very nice neighbors who for many years we pass on our evening walks.  We stop and chat.  We know tons about them.  We know where they work and what they do.  We know about their sons and what college courses they are taking.  We know when they bought their home and what they paid for it.  There is just one really important thing we don’t know.  We don’t know their names.  I’m also sure they do not know our names.  I really should ask them and tell them ours but it seems so awkward after knowing them for years.  Some evenings when we walk past their house and we are sure they haven’t come home yet from work I am tempted to look in their mailbox to read their names on their mail.  I would probably be caught and arrested.

Can we call them our friends?  I don’t think so.  I don’t think you can call someone your friends if you don’t even know their names.   Ever since I have been a little guy I have loved John 15:15.  Jesus said, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”   Jesus doesn’t keep secrets from us.  If we want to know what God is thinking we should study the teachings of Jesus.  I grew up singing the song I Come to the Garden Alone.  The refrain says, “And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am his own.”  Those are sweet words especially when they come from someone who knows our name and a whole lot more.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 9, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

It was fifty years ago this past weekend when I first became a pastor.  My wife and I left the seminary in late August and went off for our new adventure.  Everything we owned was in a 5 by 7 foot U-Haul trailer as we rolled out of Michigan on our way to Iowa.  I can’t tell you how excited I was that first Sabbath morning.  I can’t tell you how puzzled those church members were to try and understand why the conference would send them a child to be their pastor.  They loved us and bragged that they trained us.  They did.  They taught me more than I ever learned at the seminary.

Most of them are gone now and when I see them in heaven they will have to reintroduce themselves to me because so many of them were old when I first met them and in heaven they will be young again.  Perhaps we will all have to reintroduce ourselves to each other because Paul says in I Corinthians 15, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.  It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: . . .”  We are going to look so good.  Move over George Clooney.  You ain’t seen nothin yet.

I had one ninety-year-old guy who wore a Band-Aid on his forehead to keep his eyelid up.  If he didn’t it just fell closed.  I so want to see him in his prime.  We have so much to look forward to.  Once we understand and catch a glimpse of our future we just cannot let it go.  We would be so foolish.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 8, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

They appeared to be in their twenties and seemed to be very enamored.  They (and I say this as tenderly as possible) appeared to be on the lower side of gifted.  Perhaps challenged is the correct word.  They were at Burger King and their hugging and kissing were bothering some of the customers.  They were not being aggressively disgusting just displaying a lot of passion with their affections to each other.

Several years ago I had a similar situation occur regularly in church during the worship services.  While the situation in Burger King was almost sweet, such a display in church really bothered me.  Perhaps it was because I was preaching and was trying to keep the congregation’s attention.

Being associated with universities through the years I learned intelligence comes in so many levels and areas.  I had faculty members not come to church when I was preaching because they knew I would not challenge them.  They really were very smart.  The smarter you are the fewer people you can talk with without boring them.  I am amazed that God is interested in talking with us.  He knows and understands everything.  What can we tell Him?   How do we interest Him? I think my dog is very smart but really our conversations are very limited.

God’s fascination with us is our capacity to grow.  Just as I loved my sons when they were three, I found them more and more interesting as the years went by. Now I am in a situation where they can speak of things that force me to really concentrate and even then I sometimes don’t understand.  As God’s children we will never speak of things He will not understand.  He will be delighted to see our IQ climbing with our never ending birthdays.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 7, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

One of the greatest men who ever lived was a tradesman from Galilee.  We know very little about him.  What we do know catapults him to the apex of the Human Hall of Fame.  Heaven selected this man to be the protector, nurturer, role model, teacher and most influential person in the earthly life of Jesus.  I am of course thinking of Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth.   He was a widower and already had children when he married the teen God chose to be Jesus’ mother.

We don’t know when he died but he was the one who taught Jesus His carpentry skills.  Years later when Jesus raised Lazarus to life, He surely must have thought about using that power to bring His Joseph back.  But, knowing what was to come and knowing how crushing it would be to Mary, He spared Joseph seeing the cross.

A study of Jesus’ miracles reveals that He did nothing for Himself.  Every miracle was to bring health and joy to others.  That is not to say that He did not gain personal pleasure from healing the blind and the lame.  He would not have been human had He not thrilled with the joy of restoration.  Can you imagine His joy on resurrection morning?  He will be as happy as we.  But then again, it has the element of sorrow because of those He does not raise to eternal life.  It will be a day of mixed feelings.  I love what Peter says regarding this. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  II Peter 3:9.  I’m sure Jesus is very anxious to see Joseph.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept 2, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

If you have ever owned a dog you know the “Who Me?” look after something happened in the house.  Whether it be a pie on the floor or a missing pet pigeon (that happened in our house), the only culprit possible will give you that bowed head so you can’t make eye contact.  The news this evening reported a home in Oregon that was missing a lot of footwear.  They must have seen a lot of “Who Me?” looks because the vet found 43 socks inside their Great Dane.   Since we only have a very sketchy story of Adam and Eve I wonder if they tried the “Who Me?” with God.  I wouldn’t be surprised.

Sometimes we are so in love with ourselves (and love is blind) we don’t even recognize that the very things we blame others for we are doing.  We don’t even do the “Who Me?” because we won’t allow ourselves to believe we could be like that when we are so blatantly like that.  Do you remember Nathan having to tell David, “You are that man”?

This is such a common human trait that Freud even had a name for it.  He called it the Projection Ego Defense Mechanism.  Jesus was the best psychologist who ever lived.  No one knows us better.  In the Sermon on the Mount He warned us not to judge others because so often we have a 2 x 4 hanging out of our eye when we accuse someone else of having a speck of sawdust in theirs.  The next time the Holy Spirit prompts you regarding something that you need to fix, please don’t give Him the “Who Me?” look.  He knows the secrets of your heart.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 5, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The popular television show America’s Got Talent is coming to the finale.  The emcee and judges talk to the contestants about the million dollar prize and sometimes ask them how they would spend the million dollars if they should win.   At the end of the show during the credits a message in small print is flashed on the screen.  If you blink you will miss it.  It says the million dollars will be paid out over forty years.  Humm.   That translates into $68.49 a day.  The twelve-year old, who is competing in the finals, will if he wins, be fifty-two-years-old when he will finally have all his prize.  I wonder what you will be able to buy with $68.49 forty years from now.  Perhaps a milkshake at the Dairy Queen?

Granted I wouldn’t mind having an extra $68.49 cents a day.  Today it would have paid for the gas I put in my car.  But my point is things are not always what they are touted to be.  This week I returned a telescope to Amazon.com because it didn’t really do what the manufacturer touted it would do.  Returns are nice.

I have spent my life touting Jesus and I have never been able to think of really great descriptors that are adequate in describing who He is, what He did and what He is going to do for us.  Jesus is beyond language.  After Paul became a believer he tried.  In the first chapters of Ephesians and Colossians he waxes eloquent in his attempt to tout Jesus.  No one has ever done better.  Please take time today to read Paul’s touting.  Jesus isn’t everything we have touted Him to be.   He is mega times more.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 4, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Thirty years ago I saw a movie that etched itself in my brain.  Sophie with her ten-year-old little boy and her darling seven-year-old daughter is forced by a monster Nazi guard to choose which child will live and which will die.  If she doesn’t choose both will die. Being the father of two small sons at the time I shuddered with horror at such a choice.  What would I do?  How could I live with myself either way?

Two thousand years ago God the Father in cooperation with His Son had to make a choice.  Jesus had to die not a temporary death but an eternal death.  The price for sin is eternal separation from God.  If Jesus was to pay the price for sin then He had to do it with no hope of ever living again.  In the Garden of Gethsemane the Father withdrew from Jesus and the hope of the resurrection Jesus had previously referred to was now gone with the Father’s presence.  If Jesus did not do this we could not be saved.  Together the Father and Jesus chose us to live while He died the death we deserve.

While on the cross according to Matthew’s account a horrid darkness settled over the cross.  The Father was gone now.   Jesus was alone and cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”   Jesus is at the doorway to hell and descending into eternal darkness.  At any moment Jesus could have said, “It is too much” and billions of angels would have rushed to save Him.  The Father could have said, “It is too much.”  Our lives trembled in the balance.  The choice was made – Jesus or us.  They chose US.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 3, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I’m sitting here looking at a full page magazine ad that states “96 elephants are killed every day in Africa.”  It stirred a memory of someone who said to me, “If only Satan would die, the world would get better.”  My reaction to that is absolutely not.  It isn’t Satan out there killing those elephants.  It’s ignorance.  I would like to say, “If only we could eliminate ignorance the world would be a better place.”

There is no question that the most dangerous animals on earth are humans. Our bottomless pit appetites drive us to amazingly thoughtless acts of cruelty and destruction.  Our ignorance of the consequences of our acts or our blindness to see those results are destroying the very earth over which God made us stewards.  We deny well researched scientific data merely to satisfy those appetites with cheap whatever.

We don’t need Satan to inspire our actions.  We are very capable of imagining and designing our own evil.  Sometimes we are tempted to say the world keeps getting more and more evil.  However, that is a lack of knowledge of world history.  Holocausts, pogroms, mass slaughters and serial killers have been with us since the dawn of written records.  The one thing that has changed is technology makes it easier and more efficient to do our dirty deeds.

Often we point our fingers at others with disgust and rarely understand or admit to ourselves that we under the same circumstances of those others might have done what they did.  The only real answer to this is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to transform us and finally according to I Corinthians 15 replace our corruption with incorruption.  It cannot come soon enough.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 2, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We began a journey today in the rain.  As we rolled along with limited visibility from the rain and the spray of other vehicles I had my wife check the weather map on her iPad.  “We only have 50 more miles and we will drive out of it,” she said.  But after 50 miles we were still being pelted.  Again she checked the weather map only to discover the storm was moving with us and we were barely making headway.  For each 50 miles we went the storm followed at 30 miles per hour.  Eventually we won.

How like life it was.  Life’s storms and troubles follow us.  We think we see sunny days ahead only to discover either our troubles have followed or we have driven into new ones.  Do we eventually win?  Perhaps.  It depends on our definition of winning.  If by winning we mean we have grown and understand more, then hopefully we have.  If by winning we mean sunny days come and last for the rest of our lives.  Then no we never win.  This life is one filled with disappointments and challenges. And truthfully we need them.  The old expression “no pain, no gain” is pregnant with meaning.

The real challenge is what do we do with challenges.  They can ultimately be blessings if we become better people because of them.  Maybe using the word “blessings” is pushing it a bit.  Perhaps the word “opportunities” is a better word to use.

Lest I sound like I am complaining, I am not.  I have had more than my share of sunny days and I am very thankful.  But I also know that as my wife and I age there are many unsunny days ahead.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 1, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I had an awful father.  He had an incredible work ethic.  For decades he worked two full-time jobs making sure his family was well cared for.  While we were not rich, far from it on a school teacher’s salary, we had nice things.  Remembering him fills me with awe, making me awful.

English is an awful language filled with words that mean just the opposite.  I stopped at a yard sale and saw piles of priceless things.  Who could put any price on the junk they were trying to sell?  Here in New England things that are really fascinating and intriguingly good are wicked good.  Once I had to resign a letter resigning from a job.  I lost the first copy.

In 1719 Isaac Watts wrote, “Before Jehovah’s awful throne, ye nations bow with sacred joy; know that the Lord is God alone; He can create and He destroy.  Wide as the world is His command, vast as eternity His love; firm as a rock His truth shall stand, when rolling years shall cease to move.”

Most things in the universe change.   Even our sun will change.  It will burn out.  Don’t worry about it.  It’s a few billion years before that happens.  But we will be around to see it happen because another thing that doesn’t change is God’s promises that we will live forever.  Forever is a really long time.  How reassuring it is to know there is only one thing about God that will change.  It is His love for us.  Love grows and if He loved us so much two thousand years ago to give us His only Son just imagine how much He will love us when our sun burns out.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 31, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org