Month: October 2021

The evening’s news was headlined by the horror of the terrorist attack in the mall in Nairobi. One of the women who escaped reported that “Bullets were flying everywhere. God saved me.”

Sixty-five plus people were killed.  Obviously God did not save them. This supposed fickleness of God has bothered me all my life.  Does He really save some and not others?  Or is it random chance?  If He does save some, why some?  Does He love some more than others?  Maybe none of the other 65 was a Christian?  Does He only save Christians?  If so being a Christian would turn into having a life insurance policy?  There are situations where an accident only involves persons from the same church. An example would be a busload of teens where some are killed some are not.  The question becomes much more difficult to answer.  Our answers rarely end up saying anything nice about God.  He ends up looking fickle, discriminating, selfish and uncaring.

So what’s the answer?  There is an element of His care.  Psalm 91 speaks of thousands falling around us and we are left standing.  We pray and our prayers are answered: sometimes yes and sometimes no.  That is the bothersome issue.  Why the “no” answers?  I don’t know. I wish I did.  The older I become the less I seem to know.  However, this I do know.  We need to be careful we do not inadvertently make God look bad.  We try to say nice things but we end up trashing Him.

I know I must trust Him.  Proverbs 3 says, “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on your own understanding.”  My “understanding.”  That’s the hard part.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 24, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our local high school band practices outside on October evenings.  The traditional band sounds float up our hill.  Even from a distance I can hear them getting better and better each night.  When they start I can’t identify any particular song but after a couple of weeks familiar tunes fill the moonlit evenings.  Practice and improvement is our human experience.  Only the abnormally gifted do things well on the first attempt.  The rest of us try and err, try and err.  I don’t think the sound “err” is by chance.  “Err” is what we feel as we try.  Anything worth knowing, any skill worth doing requires work.

Salvation requires work.  The good part for us is Jesus did the work for us, which causes us to ask is there anything for me to do.  Regarding salvation the answer is “No.”   However, what follows can be very difficult.  What follows is character development. After being saved we begin the journey of change from a self-centered, egotistical being to one willing to make major sacrifices for others.  It isn’t easy. After decades we still have moments when the old man (Paul’s name in Romans for us when we began) rears its ugly head.

This evening an overly enthusiastic political volunteer stood in the middle of a crosswalk waving his sign.  In Massachusetts we have to stop when someone is in the crosswalk.  I stopped.  But I thought, “Hey idiot, you just lost a vote for your candidate.”  Really now.  I should be past that by now.  But alas I was reminded the old man is still there ready to rear his ugliness merely because I was inconvenienced.  Practice.  Practice.  I need more practice.  “err.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 10, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I am a creature of habit.  Almost every morning I have a bowl of cereal.  So you can imagine my consternation this morning to discover we were milkless.  I opened the fridge only to discover an empty shelf. How can one possibly eat cereal without milk?  I certainly can’t.  So we had waffles.  It was not at all the same; even the blueberries and sliced peaches tasted different without milk.  Habits are good.  Habits create stability and order in our lives. Tomorrow will be an adventure but there are some things about tomorrow that need to be the same.  Cereal and milk need to be one of those same things.

Habits come in three categories.  There are harmful habits, good habits and neutral habits.  Educating ourselves is the key to understanding which is which.  Habits can be active or passive.  We can actively do something or we can neglect doing something.  Probably in church one would expect to hear about the passive habits of what we don’t do.  We often call them sins of omission.  Most of us are not bad people as much as we are neglectful people.

It would have been grand if there had been a biographer recording Jesus’ daily activities so we could copy them.  Luke 5:16 mentions one, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 22:39 also says, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.”  It would seem this was very important to Him and being so for Him how much so it is for us. I have a feeling He never had a prayerless day.  Going prayerless was just not an option for Him.  It was His cereal and milk.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 9, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Usually I enjoy talking about the more grace-filled statements of Jesus like John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” but today I noted what has to be Jesus’ most frightening statement.  It is found in the Sermon on the Mount.  “Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”  Matthew 7.

Those words “I never knew you” have to be the worst thing anyone could ever hear.  It is so natural for us to want to take credit for the good things we do and have it count for something. If we write something we copyright it so another cannot take credit.  If we give money to a school we want a building named after us.  We want our picture taken and have it published.  We are someone great.  Therefore, it only makes sense we would want God to be thrilled with our goodness.  But, He isn’t thrilled unless we do it secretly.  “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”  Matthew 6

Lest I leave you feeling a bit paranoid and fearful, please don’t be afraid.  You will never ever hear “I never knew you” because that is for the self-absorbed.  For those of us who long to be with Jesus and accept His gift,  salvation is a SURE thing.  Smile because good things are ahead.  Jesus knows you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 8, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Gray days – soothing days – the soft patter of rain washing the leaves one last time before their final descent displaying their true colors minus chlorophyll.  Greens are replaced by reds, rusts and yellows.  Soon the leaves will be a blanket protecting the fallen but not yet eaten acorns.   Chipmunks and squirrels are making final preparations for the coming storms that will pile a blanket of white over the reds and yellows. It is a busy time with obvious changes every morning.  Summer is passed.

One of Scriptures most poignant passages is Jeremiah 8:20.  Painfully it reads, “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”  It falls in the context of a people negligent to the importance of their souls’ conditions.  I fear if Jeremiah were with us today his message would be little different.  We too fill our hours with activities that do not enhance our characters.  Hi-Def this and Hi-Def that occupy our minds with invented tales, mostly violent, to tantalize our imaginations.  We read the New York Times best sellers instead of John.  We spend more time on Facebook than pondering how to understand the power of the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most challenging documents ever written.  We twitter our thoughts. We text more than we pray.

Spring will most surely appear again.  But we have no guarantees we will be here to see it.  If we are, it will be by God’s grace giving us yet another summer to prepare.  He is so good and so patient because He desperately wants to save as many as possible.  The irony is salvation is not a mysterious process revealed only to a few.  It is a gift offered to all.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 7, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

It’s evening in October in Massachusetts.  It is 63 degrees and the moon is full.  We haven’t had a frost yet so the Hydrangeas and the Black-Eyed Susans are in their full glory along with a host of late summer bloomers not yet touched with hoar.   Roadside stands are filled with apples and pumpkins and yellow school buses are taking their loads of children to local orchards for outdoor education in the groves. The leaves have just begun to tease us with the bonanza of color yet to unfold as they catch the now slanted rays of afternoon sun.  I wish each of you could come and walk with me in the slightest of breezes that is wafting the faint scent of field dried maize mixed with wood smoke from a neighbor’s fireplace. A moose has errantly wandered into our neighborhood looking for Mrs. Moose.  I think she is back in the forest.

I would feel sorry for all who do not live here but I know better.  Each place we have lived has had its special charm.  North Georgia, Iowa, California, East Africa have enchanted us with things so very unique to their locale.  When God gave us our minds He built in a marvelous capacity to instantly reproduce the best of where we have been.  I know where you are is wonderful.  It is home.  It’s the best place.

In John 14 Jesus speaks of His home.  He tells us it is full of many rooms, one for each of us.  When Isaiah spoke of heaven he mentioned our building places for ourselves.  I really don’t want to appear greedy and demand a dozen different homes in a dozen different places.  I will be happy time sharing with you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 6, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

We had a beautiful and yet unusual sunset this evening.  The colorful display was in the eastern sky while the western sky was clear.  Should someone have been visiting and not have known the compass points for our location, they could easily have been sure that east was west.

Often we make judgments and snap decisions based upon very limited input.  John might be the nicest man in the world but have just one really rotten day. That is the only day we will ever see him.  Ever after we “know” that John is a rude, short-tempered man.  We know it because we saw it with our own eyes.  The truth is 364 days a year John is a very kind man.  We think we “know” something because we experienced it.  To “know” something.  To really “know” something most often requires lots of experience and lots of study.  We would not want someone who visited New York City to think that is what America is.  The research sample is just too small.  So much of what we “know” really isn’t so.

Because we have read the four Gospels we think we know Jesus. However, they are very limited.  The authors selected incidents to develop a theme.  Matthew designed his work to prove that Jesus was the Messiah.  Luke, a doctor, concentrated on the healing miracles. John told us about Jesus’ Judean ministry and John finishes by telling us the world could not hold the books that could be written about what Jesus did. To really know Jesus will take a lifetime, the kind of lifetime He offers us which is eternity. There will always be something new to learn about Him.  Each new insight will be more wonderful than yesterday’s insight.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 25, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The harvest of leaves has begun.  A wonderfully melancholy fragrance rises with the dust from the raked leaves.  One can almost hear Andy Williams singing about red and gold leaves drifting by his window. Sweetness drifts in the autumn air as afternoon shadows grow long across the garden chrysanthemums.  Decorative cabbage lines walkways and pumpkins are arranged in threes on porches. Sweet corn melts in our mouths.  Apple tree branches are propped up to keep them from snapping under the weight of their bounty.  Harvests are important.  They are the fruit of a year’s labor.  They fill our cupboards, bins and root cellars with the reward of faithful work.

Matthew 27 mentions an amazing harvest. “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”  Jesus will not have to wait for a harvest.  It will be there for Him when He rises on Sunday morning.  Revelation 7 speaks of a group of the redeemed that surround the throne.  Many scholars believe they are the first fruit of Jesus’ gift to us. In I Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 we read of the great harvest of all the redeemed.  It is the harvest of our parents, grandparents and our children that passed too soon.  It is our harvest.

We harvest the crop of leaves from our yards.  We harvest the crops from our farms. They are wonderful.  But there is no harvest greater than the harvested crop of the redeemed that will live with our Jesus forever and ever.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 4, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We live directly under a flight lane for planes coming from the west heading into Boston’s Logan Airport.  Fortunately we are 50 miles out so even though they have begun their descent they are still high enough not to create a disturbing sound.  In the evenings there is a steady stream about five minutes apart bringing in the day’s travelers.  The lights of the planes often make interesting patterns in the sky when mixed with the lights from Venus and other planets.

When learning to fly many years ago, I learned how to contact flight traffic control and have them guide me along my way and safely into busy airports.  If by chance you have flown into clouds and have no visuals available they will follow you on their radar and continually give you headings and altitudes that will guide you back to clear skies.  If there are no clear skies ahead they will guide you to a runway.  It all works perfectly well if you trust them.  It is a wonderful feeling to drop out of the clouds and see the big painted numbers at the end of the runway right in front of you.

Many times I remembered Psalm 3, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”  Often life can grow very cloudy for us and we have no idea what to do, when to do it, and where we are heading.  But we have a divine Father who knows everything that awaits us if we will allow Him to direct us.  Trust and obey is the secret.  A safe landing is guaranteed.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 2, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

There was no school bus in sight but the elementary school students at their morning bus stop were all lined up in a perfectly straight one-behind-the-other queue; except for one little girl.  She was the boss. She had them all under her control and they were ready whenever the bus would appear.  I shudder to think what wrath would fall on a child that got out of line.  I do hope that someday the man who marries her knows what he is getting.

The world needs leaders.  We couldn’t run much of anything without good leaders.   Note the adjective “good.”  There is a certain personality type that drives persons to take control. Many do so for the good of others.  Unfortunately many do so for self-glorification.  Those are a scary lot.  Once people taste power it is very difficult to accept another position that does not offer a continuation of power.

Power is a blessing when used unselfishly and for the good of others.  Gandhi is an amazing example of such a person.  While never becoming a Christian he was a great admirer of Jesus and said he would have been a Christian if it were not for Christians.   Our greatest need for power is the power to control not others but ourselves; to master our personal desires and wants. The problem for most of us is the failure to recognize what they are.  We don’t know our character needs. There is the special need for opening ourselves to the control of the Holy Spirit.  It is frightening to ask God to reveal to us our needs. We often times are shocked when He tells us.  But thankfully with the revelation comes the solution and the power.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 2, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org