Month: August 2019

Have you ever had someone give you something you really didn’t want or like? You say “thank you” and then try to figure out what to do with it.  You can’t take it to the church welfare center lest they see it there.  Usually it ends up on a shelf or in a drawer and if you are lucky you can regift it. I’ve never been much of a regifter.  Somehow it seems cheesy to give someone something you don’t like just to get rid of it.  We have a table in our department where we put things for our students to take if they want them. I like that.  The person who gets it wants it.

There is the gift of salvation.  I have spent my life trying to regift it. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that I don’t like it or want it.  Wow – quite to the contrary!  I love it.  I want it.  That’s the point.  I think it is so great I want everyone to have it.  Salvation is one of those wondrous things you can regift and yet still have it.   Better yet you can keep on regifting because there is always more.  There is an abundance for everyone. It is like Bartholomew Cubbins many hats.  As fast as he could take them off another hat appeared.

Giving away salvation is not as easy as it sounds.  There is a natural human tendency to want to do things for ourselves.   Part of “Pride of Ownership” is having earned it.  Sorry, this is one area where it is all gift.  We receive it because God loves us.  It is a great thing to keep.  It gets even better if we regift it.  Please see the end of Ephesians 2.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 19, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I rarely give my students passages to memorize.  Instead we read and talk about the significant ideas contained in important passages.  Sometimes I wonder if I am doing them a disservice not to require that they put them to heart.  I remember hating to have to memorize.  Yet decades later I find it to be rewarding when I can recall a passage and once again ponder the beauty and import of certain works.  Memorized verses of Scripture, poetry and other works seem to be mental anchors around which I can tie new and challenging ideas.  Today’s students have laptops and other electronic devices that instantly find and reproduce almost any literary content.  Has memorization become a non-essential?   With a small handheld device my wife can within a few seconds find factual answers to most anything that strikes our curiosity.

Yet I am uneasy about the mere reproduction of facts as opposed to thinking about things.  A set of encyclopedias whether on paper or on an electronic screen is only information.  Information is the stuff of thought.  It is fodder for ideas.  It is the inspiration for the creation of new concepts and new understandings.  I must teach my students to love.  Love is the foundation of all true education.  It is that which builds character and prepares people for unselfish service, the only avenue to lasting happiness. Will it not enhance their journey to put 1 Corinthians 13 into their mental library?    The Psalmist wrote, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”  When temptation comes they will not check their laptops.  But they will certainly check the content of their characters.   Something needs to be there.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 31, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

At first I would have thought they were just married or about to be except they had two little girls with them who appeared to be about three and four. We came around the corner of an aisle in one of those discount warehouse stores and there they were; making out.  Because of their cart and where they were embraced we couldn’t get past and they seemed in no hurry to stop the lip lock.  We had a few choices.  We could have said, “Excuse me.”  We could have backed out and gone down another aisle but instead we waited.  I never thought an aisle of dog and cat food could be so entertaining.  Finally it was over.  I am not sure if they ever did see us even though we were just a few feet away. When I said to my wife we ought to show them how it’s really done all I got was an eye-roll and a “tist” sound.  How come there isn’t a correct spelling for “tist”?  “Tist” is an amazing word for which there is no retort.  How do you answer “tist”?

As the lovers wandered down the aisle I wondered why is it that we are uncomfortable with publicly displayed affection.  It certainly is much to be preferred to a public brawl and I have seen those in stores, actually even in church.  Humans are interesting creatures.  We have such an array of emotions.  We cry when we are sad and we cry when we are happy.  Do you remember Revelation 21:4 where it says God will wipe away our tears?   That must mean tears from sorrow because I personally will flood heaven with my tears of joy and I don’t need or want them to be wiped away.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 23, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Having to go to the DMV I went prepared.  I took plenty of reading material. I even went a half an hour before it opened and discovered over fifty people already in line at the door.  I was having a difficult time reading because of the conversation of three men behind me.  They appeared to be in their fifties and were making such comments as “I won’t take any painting jobs in Gardner because people in Gardner don’t pay.”  Then there was this line.  “I got a traffic ticket in Gardner once for running a stop sign.  I will never drive to Gardner again.”   What frightened me about this conversation was these people VOTE.  It is amazing that democracy works.

How often do we paint life with broad strokes and great generalities?  I fear it wasn’t just these fellows behind me.  I hear people say all manner of foolishness when speaking of other groups of people whether it be race, religion or politics.  “All liberals want to give our country away.”  “All conservatives have their heads stuck in the sand.”  On and on the foolishness goes.  While it is true there are similar characteristics in groups of people, it is also true that everyone is an individual.  Just because you meet one nasty, selfish Irishman (I only used that randomly) certainly does not mean all Irishmen are nasty and selfish.  It is just stupid.  Just as each of us want to be treated as an individual with our own unique ideas so we should grant everyone the same luxury.

God gave us brains so each of us can develop our own thoughts, our own identities and our own personalities.  Rarely does the word “all” ever result in truth.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 22, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I was feeling really good when I went to chapel at our college yesterday. My new metal knee is working just fine.  It likes the cold and we have lots of cold these days. As I settled in I suddenly felt not just fine but amazing for as I started reading the printed program I realized just how old I really am.  According to the printed date on the program I am over 155 years old. Radical!  I want to announce to you that I am really doing great. Not only am I still walking, teaching and driving, I still have all my teeth.  Better than that you should see my wife.  She is over 156 and she is totally awesome.  I think we should be on the cover of AARP’s monthly magazine.  Of course the federal government hates us because of the ninety years of social security checks we have received.  We got all our money back.

Age is very relevant and very important in this life.  When we are little we use fractions when we tell people how old we are.  “I am four and a half.” After we pass our forties we speak in generalities.  Note the paragraph above.  I said I am over 155. I did not how much older.

Our great joy is Jesus is about to make age totally irrelevant. When we are living forever, what’s a 1000 years?  I want to learn to play the cello like Yo-Yo Ma.  Now, I don’t have enough time.  Soon, I will have all the time I need.  Jesus is so special.  While here we don’t have time for our dreams.

Jesus will give us time for every dream.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 23, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Dark green leaves of August hung still in today’s heavy summer haze.  The day was filled with activities that required little movement lest one begin to sweat and stick to everything.  Sitting at a table by an open window I listened to and watched my neighbor mow his perfect lawn.  The first table I ever recall eating from was that table. Perhaps it shall be the last table I shall eat from.  The storm came as quietly as ants on my kitchen floor.  So gently did the breeze first come through the window I did not notice.  It was the smell of coming rain that woke me to the awareness that the dark green maple was stirring.  It is a wonderful smell.  I love that smell.  I loved the first drops on the window panes.  My neighbor headed for shelter. There is something so deeply, so lavishly rich about a warm summer rain.

It is no wonder Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit coming upon us like a soft wind and rain.  See John 3.  There is a gentle stirring inside.  It is the softness of a still small voice that makes us restless and uncomfortable with now.  We dream dreams of what could be if.   “If” is a disturbing word. “If” makes us understand our need for something richer and deeper.  We need our lives to mean something beyond these eighty to ninety journeys around our sun.  There is a hunger for eternity and we know it is beyond ourselves to make it happen.  The inner plea is to accept the gift of a loving heavenly Father who also longs for us to share with Him the incredible vastness of His universe.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

It won’t be long now until the hummingbirds that frequent our feeders will start their very long journey south.  They are such a joy.  They are amazingly brazen.  They will come and feed while you are standing right by the bright red feeder.  One day this week some bees decided to use the feeder for a luscious swimming pool.  About a dozen crawled up the tube only to discover their serendipitous adventure into sweetness was the call of the grim reaper.  The object lesson here just screams Psalm 1:1 at us and really needs no further elaboration.

So let’s go on to Psalm 1:2-3.  “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”  Understanding God’s will for our lives is a giant leap toward fulfillment and happiness.  Understanding that He forbids only that which would harm us enables us to obey with gratitude for His sharing His wisdom with us.   We have only been around a few decades.  He has been around forever.  Not trusting Him and not doing what He asks is really very stupid.  I listen very carefully to my elders.  (There aren’t very many left.)

I sometimes smile when my students try to tell me times have changed and morality has changed with it.  Little can they see that God’s standards are eternal.  Just because our culture no longer frowns on certain behavior does not mean the fruit of that behavior has changed.  It matters not in which century we live.  The secret of prosperity has not changed.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 7, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

G-20 meetings are reminiscent of a story found in Job 1. It appears that the sons of God, the representatives of the various worlds in the universe, assembled before God.  At that time Satan was the representative of our world.   A dispute arose between God and Satan regarding a man named Job who would not yield to Satan’s leadership and who maintained allegiance to God.  No matter how much pain and loss Satan inflicted on Job, he remained steadfast.

Leaders of the world’s strongest economic powers assemble to ponder our present world crisis.  Never before in history have men come to realize how interdependent we have become.  In times past one country could soar to a state of enormous wealth at the expense of everyone else.  Those days are past.  Our well being depends on the well being of our trading partners.  Rapid transportation and instant communication have created a global village, a term we hear almost daily.  And yet there are still poverty stricken nations with little or no hope of feeding themselves.

A great moral question facing each of us is, “Am I more worried about the declining value of my retirement funds than I am about starving people while I am surrounded by an abundance to which they have no access?”   Years ago when we taught in Uganda, children would daily clean out the garbage cans behind our school dining hall so they could carry away the scrapes our students discarded. Jesus once said, “If you have done it unto the least of them you have done it unto me.”   Today let us feed Jesus.  Today make a gift to some organization that feeds the needy.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 2, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Being snowed-in in 2009 isn’t quite the same as it used to be.  First of all those weather people on television told us it would start to snow at nine o’clock.  It started at nine o’clock.  They told us we would get a foot.  Aha, they missed it.  We only got 11 inches. Secondly the world comes to us via radio, television, Internet, e-mail, text messages and cell-phones.  Land-line phones will soon go the way of the typewriter.  I have a friend who is under house arrest. He wears an electronic device around his ankle to monitor his whereabouts.  Some punishment!  He has a house filled with electronics that transports his mind anywhere.  But in actuality we don’t need those things for our minds to take us to far off places.

Some years ago a surgeon friend invited me to watch him do a heart bypass surgery. I was positioned at the head of the patient as he split open the man’s chest, reached in and held the beating heart in his hand.  As I watched, I thought we could also hold a brain in one hand yet the brain can contain the universe.   A good book can take us places electronics cannot.  A good book not only creates the picture but fills in the smells and doesn’t need violins and soft piano music in the background to stir our emotions.  Our minds graphically create all the details.

If you would like to spend an afternoon with Jesus take your Bible and slowly read Mark chapter one.  We were snowbound today and today I watched Jesus go home with Andrew and Peter only to discover dinner wasn’t ready. Peter’s mother-in-law wasn’t well.  That was no problem.  Jesus took her by the hand and she was instantly well.  Dinner was soon on the table.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 3, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I didn’t write a devotional last evening because of the “Blank Brain Disease.”  Long I sat with my fingers on the keyboard as I stared at the computer screen. Usually that works if I sit long enough.  Last night it just didn’t work.  The blank computer screen was a perfect match for my brain.  Nothing happened.  I finally gave up and headed for bed.

How can this be?  Life is full of interpersonal exchanges.  My Bible is filled with magnificent promises.  My classes provide a massive amount of information and yet my brain was void.   I did try prayer for inspiration and the only inspiration I received was go to bed!  So I did.   I did have a student drop by my office and ask what he could do with a psychology degree and how much would he make.   When I told him he said, “I was sort of thinking of something with six figures.”  I did have another student tell me he didn’t believe what I was telling him.  And another told me he still didn’t have a textbook because he couldn’t afford it.   It cost twenty dollars!  So I gave him the twenty dollars and told him he no longer has an excuse.

Somehow these didn’t seem worthy of your attention.  I want to write something worthy of your time.  So here goes.  Jesus loves you.  He really does.  Sometimes it is difficult to comprehend the idea of a personal God. When we almost grasp the immensity of the universe it is difficult to think that an ant such as each of us could matter.  I don’t know how you feel about ants but when I find them in the kitchen,  I squish them with little thought as to their value.  I think the difference is we are called the sons and daughters of God.  The ants are not my sons and daughters.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 9, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org