Month: April 2020

It was time for some tough love.  For some unknown reason Annie, our new lab puppy, decided the road was a place to explore.  Just as soon as I would carry her back and put her down she scurried back to the street.  It was time to put on the little red collar and turn on the electric fence. Because we knew what was coming, we almost cried as she headed for the street toward the little white flags.  She never knew what hit her. I don’t think she will be very interested in the street anymore.  The little white flags have taken on new meaning.

God tells us not to do certain things.  We are curious beings and find delight in exploring forbidden things.  The forbiddenness actually increases the lure.  If we could only understand, God only wants to keep us from harm. He withholds nothing from us that is good.  If it’s good He encourages us to go for it.  Just as we are many times smarter than a puppy so God is many times smarter than us.  We know Annie cannot safely play in the street.  God’s commandments are His telling us not to play in the street.

Sometimes He has to decide it’s time for some tough love.  At Thanksgiving we often sing, We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing.   There is a very meaningful line that often rings in my head.  It goes like this, “He chastens and hastens His will to make known.”   I was a father before I finally understood that line.  I think He must cry when He sees what is coming but He lets it happen because He knows it will save us from something far worse.  We are loved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 21, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our ball of fire lab puppy, Annie, has adapted to us very well.  From the very first night she slept quietly, well almost quietly.  She snores. She has us trained to run for the door when she starts sniffing about the house. She gets a treat when she waters the lawn.  The problem is she now fakes it. She squats and then comes running for her treat.  We had a dilemma today. It was over a stick.  It was the perfect stick.  It was much too good to put down. However, how does one eat one’s treat when one’s mouth is already full?  This produced a lot of whining.

She is so much like some humans I have known.  God offers some incredible blessings.  However, often they are conditional on our actions.   Sometimes we have to give up something to make ourselves able to prosper from what He offers.  If we want the blessing of health we have to give up some bad eating habits.  We have to get off the couch and walk around the block each day.

God wants to forgive us of our sins but we make ourselves ineligible because we continue to harbor grudges against others.  It isn’t that God doesn’t want to forgive us.  Our unforgiving spirit interferes with God’s work in our hearts.   Often just like Annie we whine about life’s misfortunes when the irony is we are the author of our misfortunes. It is easier to blame them on someone else.   My students who do not study don’t do well on exams and it is my fault when they receive a poor grade.    If we truly want all the goodness God offers there are some things we must let go.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 19, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

So many things in life become more and more complicated as one immerses oneself in the complexity of design and function.  But in the development of morality it is quite the opposite.  We start off life as a child. (That was profound.)  For a child the world is full of dos and don’ts.  There are hundreds of them for the child to learn if they are to stay safe and please the giants in their lives.  But something wonderful happens as we mature.  Most of those rules and regulations cease to have any meaning because we have come to understand our world.  No longer does the rule not to touch the hot stove exist.  We know better.  We need no rule.  We become freer and independent. We are governed by intellect and knowledge.

Soon we understand there are really only Ten Commandments and once understood they encompass everything else.  Then Jesus tells us there are only two and finally we come to grasp the marvelous truth that the way we love God is by loving other people and we are then down to one.  Jesus tells us when we do it to the least of them we have done it to Him.

Thus we come to Galatians 5.  Freedom in Christ is Paul’s great theme.  How difficult it must have been for one who described himself to be a Pharisee of Pharisees to free himself and step into a whole new morality.  How grand to grasp the truth that all laws were nailed to the cross of Jesus and God doesn’t have a Santa Claus list that He is checking twice to see if we are naughty or nice.  Instead we become temples of the Holy Spirit that lovingly lives out its life within us and by thus we automatically keep the rules without thought.  Oh, the glory of such freedom.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 14, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

One of life’s great truisms is if we are selfish we will never reach our fullest potential.   And one of life’s great ironies is if we are unselfish we will never reach our fullest potential.   If we are selfish we will become stagnant and cease to grow.  And if we are givers God will launch us upon a journey to infinity, for God is a giver and we were created in His image.  Should we seek to be like Him the possibilities before us are amazing.  Paul says our possibilities are beyond our wildest imaginations. Peter says we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises. Jesus says ask and we will receive.

So what is wrong when we ask and don’t receive?   It is all about motive. If our asking is selfish it is futile. When we cease to be givers we cease to be like Him and thus we have lost our original purpose for being.  Why should God pour out blessings for us if we are like the Dead Sea that only takes?   The more God can trust us to be a conduit of blessings to others, the more blessings He will channel through us.  Heaven is full of blessings and God needs ways to dispense them.  The more we give the more we become. The more we become the greater the possibilities for us to become even more. It is a never-ending pattern of growth.

Here is the fascination of this.  If we don’t give we die and will never be all that we can be.  If we give we will live and never be all that we can be, because there is always tomorrow with bigger and better blessings. The possibilities are infinite.  How grand.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 16, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

It is Boston Marathon Day.  World Class, elite runners are gathering from all over the planet. However, because the temperature will be near 90 degrees and for the first time in 116 years officials are advising many not to run and to defer their applications fees until next year.  Over 1,000 people have been trained in the art of CPR and will be stationed along the route from Hopkinton to the finish line in the city.   In 2007 in Chicago when the temperature hit the mid-eighties the race was stopped at 3.5 hours.  It was just too dangerous.   However, the winners will cross the finish line in just over 2 hours.

Racing is as old as people.  Who is the fastest is something we want to know. It drives us.  In New Testament times reference is made to crowns that fade.  For a short time it sits on top of the winner’s head but is very short lived.   In Boston in 2011 there was $806,000 prize money to be awarded so the motivation is a bit more than just olive leaves.

Lest we feel left out because our physical prowess does not rank us in the money winners there is another crown waiting for us.  Paul wrote, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”  I Corinthians 9:25 and Peter wrote, “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”  I Peter 5:4.   In Christ we are more than conquerors. What great verses!

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 16, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I was sitting in a Burger King this evening when an employee started yelling, “No, no. Please no.”   My imagination immediately created the worst possible scenario.  I was ready to run for an exit or hide under a table as I imagined someone had entered with a gun.   What a relief to know it wasn’t what I thought.  A bus had pulled up to the door and offloaded forty-six teenage girls who then lined up at the order counter.  The financial boon for Burger King meant a whole lot of work for the three employees behind the counter who were contending with a never-ending line of cars at the drive-up window.

So I wondered why it was that my mind had first gone to something bad. Could it be that we have developed a culture of fear because of all the bad news we continually hear on our radios and televisions?   Twenty-four hour news channels have a voracious appetite for content.  In order to stay fresh they garner all the bad stories that occur all over the world and frighten us into thinking our neighborhoods are filled with all the gruesomeness they can dish up.   Organizations with a need for government or charitable funding hype their cause and exaggerate so they can maintain their existence.  The end result is we have come to believe the worst.

I would like to state that while it is true some places in the world are racked by war, famine and genocide, that is not the norm.  The norm is so much better.  I don’t want to be a Pollyanna but if we really believe we are under the shadow of the Almighty we can truly say to each other, “Fear not.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 15, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I am sometimes amazed at the longevity of things that are just not so. Decades ago we were told we only use ten percent of our brains and if we used all of them we would be incredibly intelligent.  Despite the fact we have known for a long time that we use all our brains, one can still hear the old wives’ tale. Our brains are amazingly complex organs with different parts designated for different tasks.  Fact retention and mood retention are executed in specific and separate locations, and so it is that researchers have discovered something most interesting.   People with Alzheimer’s disease have difficultly retaining memory of recent events.  We can visit grandpa only to have him in just a few minutes forget we were there.  However, the mood we set for grandpa will stay with him all day.  If our visit makes him happy, even though he forgets we were there, he stays happy for the rest of the day.  Our visit made a huge difference in the quality of his life.   He cannot tell someone what it was that made him happy.  He just knows life is good.

When I was young our church would visit “The Old Folks Home” on Sabbath afternoons.  We called what we did, “Sunshine Bands.”   We would sing and visit people who couldn’t get out of bed.   I must confess I used to be a bit cynical about the value of this.  I thought it did more good for us than it did the old folks.  Now I am not so sure.  I know it is good for us.  But research now tells us it makes grandpa’s day.  Matthew 25 has become more meaningful.  “When I was old you came and visited me.  You made my day.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 14, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

If you are thinking about getting a dog but you’re not sure, don’t (I repeat. Do not.) visit an animal shelter just to see what’s there.  We did. We now have a new dog.  A shelter is totally pathetic.  As you walk down the aisle past all the cages it seems like some form of a penitentiary.  Some of the prisoners rush to the door of their cells barking “Pick me, pick me. Please pick me. I need to get out of here.”   Others sit and look up with the most pleading eyes you have ever seen.   One fine fellow put his paw out as if to say, “If you touch me, we will be friends forever.”  One very muscular bulldog gave me the eye as if to say, “Hey Buddy, you looking for some protection?  I’m your man.”

I, along with many of you, grew up hearing Joshua 24:15, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”   So we chose thinking we were initiating a relationship with God.  We couldn’t have been more wrong.  In Matthew 25 the king said to those on His right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” God said to Jeremiah, “Before you were born I chose you.”

Unlike the dogs at the shelter, we do not have to jump up and down or beg for God to pick us.  He already did before we were born.  Actually, He already did before the day He said, “Let there be light.”   He knew us.  He knew we would be here and He longs to have us with Him.  That’s why Jesus told us to call His father our Father.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 13, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Annie and I took our first late night walk together last Thursday evening. We didn’t get very far because the neighbor left his yard light on.  Annie soon discovered something was following her.  It was dark and no matter how fast or slow she went it stayed with her.  She pulled the leash to go home so I released her. She ran as fast as she could go, but that thing chased her right into the alcove to the door.

Shadows can be frightening and also comforting.  Consider Psalm 17:8, “Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.”  That’s one very comforting shadow.  Too bad they are all not that way because we must also consider Psalm 23:4, “I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . .”    Just as shadows grow longer toward the evening of day so that shadow grows longer in the evening of life.

I cannot imagine what that must be like without having Jesus in one’s life. Though the shadow looms for me, it isn’t terrifying.  Yes, we will miss our families.  Perhaps we will miss seeing our grandchildren graduate from college or see our great grand children graduate from eighth grade, but we know it is not the end.  Paul so eloquently put it in II Timothy 1:12, “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.”

There are no shadows dark enough or deep enough to swallow up the light of Jesus.  He is the light of the world.  He is the resurrection.  The only shadows He creates are good ones.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 12, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Occasionally a small rectangular box appears in the lower right hand corner of my computer screen with the following message, “Security Essentials has detected and isolated a threat to your computer.”   It then gives me an opportunity to “clean” my computer of the offending bug.  Needless to say I appreciate this feature.  It keeps my computer healthy.  Wouldn’t it be grand if we had such a feature built into our brains to defend our characters?  Each time we were confronted with something that would diminish us we would hear a small voice warning us.  But wait, I think we do.  It’s called our conscience.

However, our conscience is educated and honed by its environment.  Social norms and cultural expectations become the standard of behavior.  What I need is a voice that speaks to me the social and cultural norms of heaven.  But I can quickly see that would eliminate a huge amount of my intellectual input.  Most television programs would be red-flagged.  The local evening news would definitely have to be turned off. Most popular music would set off a warning once I listened to the lyrics.

Philippians 4:8 is the gold standard.  It says, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”  I must admit I would have difficulty with the Old Testament book of Judges.  There are a lot of stories there that do not meet Paul’s criteria.

I find the way to being a better person is a tricky path.  I need help.  Fortunately that help is available to us.  The Holy Spirit is able and anxious to be our guide.  We merely need but ask for help.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 11, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org