Month: October 2019

One of my students from Jamaica cannot pronounce my name.  As hard as she tries she can’t get her tongue between her teeth at the necessary instant.  When we are born we can learn any language and any sound but as the years wane so does our ability to form sounds.  In Judges 12 there is a fascinating story where Jephthath required people to say the word Shibboleth in order to cross the Jordan.  The men who could not make the sh sound were slaughtered, a gruesome story. I promise not to slay my student because she cannot get my name right.

Obviously passwords are not something new.  Yet in this twenty-first century we live in an age of passwords. I have so many different passwords for so many different computer accounts I have to keep a file of them that requires a password to open. I was wondering today, if there were a password, what password God might require to enter heaven’s gates.  I don’t think there is one but if there was I think I have come up with the perfect password.  “Thank you.”

“Thank you” is what we say when we receive a gift. Since eternal life is a gift what could be more appropriate?  Our entire life is a stream of gifts.  We began with the gift of birth.  We certainly didn’t have anything to do with that.  It continues on and on.  Each day right now I am so thankful I live in New England.  It is mid October and everywhere I look I have to say, “Thank you” for the stunning beauty. Each time I eat I say, “Thank you.”  My list could go on and on.  Yes, I think “Thank you” is the perfect password for heaven.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 20, 2010.

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Last evening my wife and I went for supper at a place that features local musicians.   When we entered there was a small group performing that included a female singer.  She had a terrific voice but was a bit difficult to watch.  Her facial expressions looked like she was in pain but what came out of her mouth was anything but painful.  I noticed an old guy sitting in a back corner by himself.  I wondered if he came in just to be somewhere.  He looked scruffy and I completely misjudged him.  When it was time for the next group of musicians to take front and center the scruffy old guy worked his way to the piano.  Oh, my!  It was beyond amazing.  With not a single piece of written music, for the next thirty minutes he dazzled us with music that came from deep inside. It just flowed out.  So much for thinking he was just some old guy in the corner.  I kid you not.  I would have remortgaged my house to pay someone to teach me to do what he was doing.

It is no wonder that Jesus told us not to judge other people.  We really don’t have the abilities to make good judgments about others.  So often we make assessments using the wrong indicators.  I know the Bible says by their fruits we will know them.  But, rarely do we spend the necessary time needed to be good fruit inspectors.  We make snap judgments based on the flimsiest of details.

I didn’t shave today and have gray stubble that makes me look like a cheap version of Freddy the Freeloader.  I really wouldn’t want someone evaluating me on such scratchy evidence.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 18, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

By now I’m sure many of you have seen Alex Trebek selling Colonial Penn Life Insurance.   In small print at the bottom of the screen are the words “Compensated Endorser.”  “That’s me,” I thought.  “Compensated Endorser.”  For over twenty years I have been attempting to write at least five devotionals each week endorsing Jesus.   Some weeks, like last week, I don’t make it.  What an amazing privilege it is to be an endorser for Jesus and I must say the compensation is amazing.   It has to be far better than anything Alex Trebek gets from Colonial Penn.  All they can give him is money.  Jesus gives me forgiveness of sins, cleansing of guilt, peace of mind and best of all eternal citizenship in God’s magnificent kingdom.  I am most assuredly the best compensated endorser in the history of promotion.

Paul certainly caught on to this.   He started out as a persecutor of those who followed Jesus and when the light came on Paul became the world’s most famous traveling salesman for the very product he had hated.  He wrote, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”   2 Timothy 1.    He even speaks of never being ashamed of his product.  It was the finest anyone ever had to present to any customer.

I want to recruit you to join Paul and me and the host of others who have come to know that Jesus offers something literally out of this world. “Compensated Endorser”  I like the sound of that.  I especially like what it means.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 19, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

It’s fantastic to live in a community with people who care.  This evening we were unaware that the thunderstorm heading our way housed a tornado.   That is we were unaware until friends south of us who were watching television saw the threat to us.  Our phone rang and a caring voice said, “Turn on your television you are in a tornado warning zone.”   Thank you, Paul.

The next few minutes were filled with getting birds into the basement and in general preparing for the worst.  Thankfully after much thunderous noise and lots of water the storm moved east.  Hopefully those people also had someone to call them.

In I Peter 5:7 we read that God cares for us.  If we are to be imitators of Christ, as we are urged to do in Philippians, we must indeed be watchful to see need and to be quick to offer and supply what is needed.  Thankfully, I not only have people who call me I also have people who enable us to quickly reach out when we perceive problems.   Just last week I overheard one of my grad students say quietly to another student, “I don’t know how I am going to feed my four children lunch.  I don’t have any food or money.”   Needless to say because so many of you on occasion send offerings to our Spring of Life ministry her problem was cared for immediately.

It is very rewarding to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves.  God gives to us that we might be streams of blessings.  And when we are a stream, we are the ones with the biggest smile.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 20, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

A few Christmases ago my sister gave me a really nice comfortable sweater.  I truly like it and wear it on these cool autumn days.  Yesterday in one of my morning undergrad classes one of my students made reference to my ugly sweater.  I really didn’t take umbrage to his uncouth remark.  I like the sweater and that is all that counts.  I wouldn’t even mention it now except for what happened last evening at a graduate class. One of the men in the class said, “Wow, nice sweater.  Where can I get one?  It looks extremely comfortable.”   So, if anyone ever wondered about the taste of undergrads now we know.  They have none!

Beauty indeed is in the eye of the beholder.  If we ever doubt that just get out one of our high school yearbooks and look at our hairstyles. We thought we were looking good.  Oh, dear.  But, it’s true.  Fashion, culture, love or hate very much dictates to us our definition of beauty.  Not one of us has the exact same taste.  That’s good.  If we all had the same taste in spouses only two people could be happily married.  The rest of us would have to settle.  No one wants to settle. Each of us wants the best. And so wonder of wonder someone out there actually thinks we are looking fine.

God thinks we look fine.  First of all, we are made in His image.  Secondly, He loves us and tells us to call Him Father.  Fathers think their kids are terrific. There is no question that we are the apple of His eye.  It’s because He has an amazing ability to see what we will become and that will really be beautiful.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 15, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Zophar the Naamathite had grown tired of Job’s complaints and broke his silence by saying, “Can thou by searching find out God?”  Since the beginning of time man has been in search of God and all we came up with is pitiful reflections of ourselves.  We came up with gods filled with petty jealousies, short tempers and hunger for appeasement.  None of which were what God is really like.  All the truth we knew about God was what He chose to tell us about Himself.  He is a self revealing being, who in His own time chooses to give us glimpses.  Until Jesus came glimpses were all we had.   We were looking through a glass darkly.  Then Bethlehem happened.  It was so revolutionary angels sang to announce the wonder.  God came to us.  He walked with us, ate with us, slept with us and told us the truth about Himself.  He is a loving Father who is anxious to give us good gifts.

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, … Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person …”  Hebrews 1.   “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”  John 14.

This is totally awesome. If you want to know what God is like study the life of Jesus.  Does God get angry?  Apparently so.  More than once Jesus grew angry,  but only when He saw the powerful taking advantage of the weak.  Power is given to us for service.  Never is it to be used to harm someone.  We will never find God by searching for Him.  But we will see Him if we only ask.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 14, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I’m sitting here looking at the current issue of Popular Mechanics.  The cover “grab your attention headline” is 20 Bold Ideas that will change the world; quake proof buildings, cheap solar power, finding water on the moon, curing cancer with laser, cars that drive themselves.  Technology is changing our world so rapidly I’m afraid to buy anything lest it be antiqued before I get it home.  There is no doubt this is the most interesting ever time to be alive.  I don’t want to get any older not because I’m afraid of dying.  Jesus has taken that fear away.  I don’t want to die because I don’t want to miss what’s coming next.

If the afternoon judge programs on TV are a valid sample of our general population, I hope not but fear they are, then something becomes extremely clear.  All the wonders of technology aren’t doing a thing to change human nature.  We are still as bright and stupid, noble and selfish, nice and vicious as we have ever been.  We can read Bible stories and understand them because the people then were the same as people now.  It doesn’t matter if a man rides one horse or drives in a car powered by 400 horses it is still the same man.  It’s exciting to be human but there are times it is very discouraging.

Isn’t it absolutely amazing that God became one of us?  Sometimes I think God is a bit crazy.  Crazy with love for us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 13, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I received a telephone call today from an office that said I owed them money.  When I told the lady I had sent the check I sounded like the old “the check is in the mail” story.   But I had and I could tell her the date and the check number.  “Oh,” she said, “I’ll keep looking.”  Upon disconnecting I thought this is an old routine that Satan loves to use on us.  The price for our salvation was paid, but he tries to discourage us by telling us it wasn’t and if it was it isn’t valid for us.  We are just too bad.  Or because we grew up knowing the Gospel our indiscretions are worse than other people’s because we knew better.  We need to claim the promises and inform him that the price for our sins was indeed paid.  The check is not in the mail.  It has been cashed.

When we get to thinking we are just too bad we need to remember Hebrews 7:25.  “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.”  I enjoy rewording that to say “to the guttermost.”  The meaning is the same.  As uncomfortable as it might make us we have to adjust to the idea that Hitler could be our next door neighbor in heaven.  I agree that it is most improbable, but we don’t know what his frame of mind was when he died.  That is totally between him and God and God is full of grace and is in the business of saving people.  It even seems distasteful to me to even think it.  But perhaps there are people who think it distasteful that I should be saved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 12, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

One of the very first sets of books I ever read was Bedtime Stories by Uncle Arthur Maxwell; five books filled with character building stories for little people. When I was learning to read my father sold those books door to door.  Well, that was what he was supposed to do but he was the principal of an elementary school and instead of going door to door he got his colleagues to put them in their school libraries.  Never did I dream in a thousand years that as an adult one of our best friends would be Arthur Maxwell’s son.  Today the stories are very outdated but the moral lessons are eternal.  Good morals never go out of date; only the cultural details change with time.

This afternoon my sister went to a u-pick apple orchard and was laughing at people trying to get just one or two more apples to balance on top of the baskets they purchased to fill.  Inevitably the balanced apples tumbled to the ground before they got to their cars.  When she told me about it I immediately remembered one of Uncle Arthur Maxwell’s stories about their family sitting around the table and one of the boys always made sure he got the biggest pie or apple or whatever, just so it was the biggest.   Then one day the biggest pie was hollow and the biggest apple had a bad center.

It is part of our nature to want to get the biggest and the most but so often in life the biggest isn’t the best.  True happiness in life comes from service to others.  Real happiness comes from helping others get the best.  Life’s greatest rewards are the fruit of unselfishness and from putting apples in another’s basket.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 11, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I witnessed a tiny piece of history today.  I heard a lot of banging in my workspace which is in the basement of our college library.  I found students carrying microfiche machines to the dumpster.  It is the end of an era.  For decades we have used microfiche machines to retrieve data from old newspapers and other documents.   Now that everything is digitized and on computers, microfiche machines are merely dust collectors.  They have gone the way of typewriters, of which some of my college students have never used!

Recently I had a student try to convince me that God’s law had become a dust collector and only had historical value.  His logic went something like this.   Because Jesus died on the cross and we are now saved by grace the law lost its purpose.   He was partially correct.  Jesus did die for us and we are saved by grace.  And while the purpose of the law was often misconstrued by some as a means of salvation, the real purpose of the law has been eternal.  It is a fence.  It protects us from the fruit of stupid behavior.  If I lie about someone I am setting myself up for lies to be told about me or a libel suit.  Each of the commandments protects us from disastrous reprisals by others plus the deterioration of our own characters.

The very idea that God’s law is a dust collector and a relic from the past displays a tremendous lack of understanding.  God’s law is based on the two principles that are the ultimate standard for daily living.  A prescription for happiness is to enjoy the gift of salvation while keeping God’s law.  If you do you will never be sorry.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 8, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org