Month: January 2023

When I was a little guy my father took me to a small fair at the edge of town.  I was captivated by what at that time in my life was the slickest fastest tongued man I had ever seen.  He was standing on a large box surrounded by people eager to buy his product.   It cured asthma, angina, constipation, sciatica, cataracts, diabetes and hepatitis. You name it. It cured it. Even though I didn’t know what most of those things were I wanted some.  My father was both amused and appalled at my gullibility.  I remembered this as I just now read a magazine article for a human growth hormone calling itself the reverse age miracle.  It appears that my snake oil salesman is still alive and is buying full page ads in magazines.  Nothing much has changed – only the promotional vehicle.

I have often wondered if what I have to offer the world is just a snake oil variation.  Or can I be like Paul?  Can I say, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”  Surely there comes a time for all of us to admit to and to confront moments of wonder.  I did not say “doubt”.   I said “wonder.”  Wonder is halfway to doubt.  I am not afraid of my wonder.  I believe it makes me stronger to say with Paul this

mortal shall put on immortality and this corruption will put on incorruption.  Then all the promises of snake oil salesmen become truth.

Eleven of Jesus’ disciples died horrible deaths.  There is no way they would have done so for a made up story.  John wrote, “We handled the Lord of Glory with our own hands.”  Because they knew we too can know!  This isn’t snake oil.  This is the real deal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 26, 2016

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

Rogerbothwell,org

 

 

Some of our most valuable possessions are our photo albums.  When today’s youth age they will sit and browse through electronic files of digital images of days gone by.  Those of us who have logged more than a few decades instead sit with crumbling paper albums filled with pasted fading brownish pictures of people standing straight with arms at their sides staring at the camera.  Under the pictures the person in the family with the nicest handwriting wrote in names and dates.  “Aunt Cora with Uncle Emil – 1911.”  It is the one thing we cannot replace when a home is destroyed.

I have grown up listening to preachers tell me that once in heaven I will not remember anything about earth.  They usually quote Isaiah 65:17, “The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”  But where there is no memory there is no wisdom.  I do not think Isaiah was speaking of God performing some memory purge.  If that would be the case Jesus would not eternally bear the scars.  They are there lest we forget.  Surely all Isaiah was saying is we shall be so occupied with wondrous things we will not dwell on the past.  We have all had such wonderful days never once did we think of our troubles.  Heaven will not be burdened with memories of troubles but to forget will only cause us to repeat the foolishness that began all this woe.

History courses are a significant part of a good curriculum so each generation can do better than past generations.  There is a sweet nostalgia in browsing old photo albums.  Remembering the way we were adds to the richness of the way we are.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 8, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

My wife gave me a Fitbit for Christmas.  It is a small black band worn around my wrist.  Not only does it tell me the time and date, it also continually records my heart rate, the number of steps I take, the calories I burn, the number of times I climb stairs and how many hours I sleep down to the minute.  It even records at what moments I stir during the night.  It syncs with my computer that grafts all this data. It tells me I have a resting heart rate of 63.   On my daily walk there are some down hills and some steep up hills.  I can tell from the graphs generated what moment I started the ups by the increase in heart rate.  I know from my heart rate record when my dog stopped to sniff.  All this information is amazing.

One thing it does not do is number the hairs on my head.  That task is still left to God. But it is truly illustrative of how easy it can be for records to be kept in heaven of our daily activities – good and bad.  We do not have to rely on some angel’s memory or faithfulness to record things.  All the information can be recorded on and retrieved from a chip.  Isaiah talked about our sins being blotted out.  He was speaking metaphorically using the technology of his time.  Should Isaiah be alive today surely he would speak of God hitting the delete key or mouse clicking to the trash bin where they would be electronically shredded.

Whatever means one uses to describe the eradication of our sins is mere poetry.  The eradication itself is life and death.  Nothing could be more important.             I John 1:9.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 8, 2016

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We stopped at a Dollar Store this afternoon.  I was very impressed.  People with limited incomes could eat fairly well by shopping there.  There was a nice array of shelved and frozen foods.  My problem was I bought things I didn’t really need because the price was so good.  I couldn’t resist.  There are two ways of looking at our visit.  I could tell you how much money I saved on the purchases.  Or I could tell you about how much money I wasted because I didn’t need what I bought.

This was one of those glass half-empty or half-full situations depending on one’s perspective.  I thought about applying the glass half-empty half-full metaphor to our accepting Jesus as our personal Savior.  However, the more I thought about it the more I couldn’t do it.  From every perspective I saw the glass full.  I couldn’t think of a half-empty perspective other than one.  Sometimes when one accepts Jesus the other members of one’s family rejects them or shuns them.  Actually in some situations in the Middle East one’s family actually kills them for accepting Jesus.  That certainly counts as the glass half empty.

Jesus did call for us to take up our cross and follow Him.  Matthew 16:24.  I can speak of this for others.  I cannot for myself.  If heaven’s rewards were in proportion to one’s suffering for Christ on this earth my mansion should be a slum  for my glass has always been full.  If that would be the case (I don’t think it is.)  I will not complain.  Do you remember the text about being a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord?  Well, I would rather live in heaven’s “slums” than in the palaces of the wicked.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 7, 2016

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

Rogerbothwell.org

She was a pretty girl with a very sweet demeanor.  It would have been a labor to dislike her.  She was always on time in her seat when class began.  She turned in her assignments on time and yet she was one of the poorest students I ever had.  Her written work revealed that she just did not get it.  As simple as I tried to explain things, all I would get was a sweet smile but no indication that what I said helped. Her quizzes and exams were disasters. When I gave her a final grade of “C” totally based on effort, I wondered if she had gotten that far academically because other profs did the same as I.  I wondered, when I closed my grade book, could someone so endearing get her doctorate someday without ever learning anything other than to be nice.

I have to admit when I enter heaven’s gates it will not be because I have learned a lot along the way or for being likeable.  It will be a gift because I am loved.  There’s the question.  Do I have to be loved to be saved?  Actually that question is mute because I am – we are.  A better question would be do we have to be liked?  Will Jesus like everyone He saves?  Was the thief on the cross likeable?  Were the two mad men from Gergesa (Matthew 8) likeable?  I doubt it.

What is wonderful about our God is He doesn’t save any of us because He likes or dislikes us.  All of us are saved because He loves us and best of all He knows what we will become.  We are bundles of potential likeability.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 7, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

According to the evangelical publication Christianity Today, “Two out of three persons surveyed said that a person obtains peace with God by seeking God first, and then God responses with grace.”  A few months ago I said the Gospel via modern media has spread to most of the world.  I am going to have to take that back.  I was wrong.  It appears that we have yet to spread the Gospel to so called Christians.

Right from the beginning it has always been God seeking us.  When Adam and Eve hid in Eden it was God who came in the evening seeking for them.  Hungry to save, God is a hunter.  Perhaps I should instead say wooer.  It was God who came to Abram’s tent.  It was God who drew Moses to the burning bush.  It was God who was the cloud that led the Children of Israel and the rock that supplied them with water.  When Jonah tried to run away God chased Jonah clear into the stomach of a huge fish.  It was God who sent His only beloved Son to earth.

In the parables of Jesus it is the shepherd who goes in quest for his lost sheep.  It is the wronged landlord who sends his son to the tenets.  The story goes on and on.  God first loved us and when we finally catch on we return the love.

I fear we are not as close to completing the proclamation of the Gospel as I thought.  Having been a mission teacher in Uganda for six years I would not discourage the value of missions.  But the truth seems to be we have a gigantic mission field among the “Christians” in our families.  We haven’t done such a great job.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 6, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In my “man room” – a place where I can maintain a permanent mess without being chastised – there is a large jumble of wires twice the size of a basketball.  It is a wonderful source of needed speaker wires, computer cables, electric cords, wi-fi connectors, etc.  This morning I was thinking of putting all of those perfectly good wires in a large plastic bag for the trash man.  But, I kept saying to myself, as surely as I do it tomorrow I will need one and there isn’t any Radio Shack anymore to replace one.  Then I realized all the gadgets I have that need wires are wired and any new thing I might get will not need a wire because of the cloud.  If I put a shopping list on my PC, behold, it appears on my phone.  Wires are becoming obsolete.

I was walking my dog in the forest when suddenly I received a cell phone call.  I was immediately reminded of Psalm 138.  “Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”  For thousands of years God has been wirelessly communicating with us.  That still small voice doesn’t even need our ears. And we think we are so clever.  We are still millennia behind.

So I think I shall throw away my ball of wires.  My “man room” will be so much neater.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 5, 2016

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

rogerbothwell.org

The human mind is amazing.  We store all manner of events and conversations only to have them come flooding back with the right stimulus.   This evening I noticed a full page Citicard advertisement in a magazine with the message, “You didn’t come this far to go somewhere else.”  My mental floodgate opened to a conversation with a student a few years ago.  Something very discouraging had happened to him and he told me he was giving up on God and Jesus and the church.  He had been raised a Christian and I said to him, “You didn’t come this far to go somewhere else.”

Really bad things do happen along our ways and the last thing we want to happen is to allow ourselves to give up.  Truthfully, life can be a slimy mess.  It is not a bed of roses just because one is a Christian.  But that does not mean Jesus doesn’t love you and that God doesn’t care.  Giving up on the promises, no longer believing that Jesus is going to make it alright, deliberately choosing and changing one’s lifestyle to an inferior way of living, just doesn’t make sense.  “You didn’t come this far to go somewhere else.”

Why would someone deliberately choose to begin harmful habits and abandon grace and the assurance that there is more to life than these few decades?  Following Jesus and what He counsels and offers is a superior way of living.  Dare I say, “One might give up on a religious organization, but that is totally different than giving up on Jesus. They are not one in the same.”

I vividly remember saying to my student, “Don’t go somewhere else.  Being with Jesus is life at its best!”

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 4, 2017

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, is an ode to the glory of God’s law.  Verse 1, “Blessed are those who walk according to God’s law.”  Verse 99 – 103, “Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.  I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.  I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

So I was not surprised, when in church, to hear the worship leader welcome us and describe his church as a place where we believe in the Ten Commandments.  If only he had added, “This is a place where Jesus is our Savior, Lord and King” or something like that.  But, he did not. Jesus wasn’t mentioned.

There is no question that the law is a transcript of God’s character and sin is the transgression of that law.  But the central focus of our worship is not, and should never be, a law.  The central focus is a God full of grace, who sent us His only Son to perish at our hands, that we might be redeemed.  The law is magnificent in knowledge and its protective wisdom guides us to a good life.  But apart from the giver of that law, Jesus Christ, it cannot supply us with forgiveness when we transgress, neither can it give us eternal life.

I apologize if I am nitpicking.  But I don’t think so.  Jesus is what gives church and worship value.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 2, 2017

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

Rogerbothwell.org

A Time for Mulligans

Every golfer knows what a mulligan is.  It is something very much needed when one does not keep one’s head down and left arm straight.  A mulligan is a do-over without counting the first swing as a stroke. The rules regarding mulligans depend on the agreement of those playing.   The rules range from none to one for each hole.  The usual rule is one and is often used on the very first hole when you whiff the ball because instead of keeping your head down you looked up to see where it was going.

Christianity is a mulligan religion.  The basic rule is there is always another mulligan available whenever needed.  God is a God of do-overs.  We can create an impressive list of God’s patience with His people.  We could start with the woman taken in adultery.  In the Old Testament there is David.  He is most likely the king of mulligans.  Usually we think of him murdering Uriah the Hittite because David wanted Uriah’s wife, but the list is long.   He robbed people and then killed them so they couldn’t identify him.  Even on his death bed he ordered a murder.  If we go back to the New Testament one of the most poignant do-overs was Peter after he had denied knowing Jesus, not once but three times.

I am encouraged by all of this.  Our God is a God of infinite mercy.  The adjective infinite is a marvelous word.  There is no end to His love.  No end to His forgiveness.   No end to His giving us another chance.  So just in case you are feeling pretty miserable about your past just remember God says, “Second chance.  Why?  I don’t recall a need for my child to have another chance.”  Awesome.   Happy New Year!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 1, 2016

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

Rogerbothwell.org