Month: June 2023

Each morning I retrieve the memory disk from our trail camera to see who or what visited us during the night.  It time stamps the pictures.  Last night at 10 PM a mourning dove took a bath in a water tray on our patio.  Strange.   Why?   We have mourning doves at the water at all hours during the day but not at night.   This must have been an avian woman at the well.  In John 4 Jesus met a woman coming at noon to draw water.  The other women came in the cool of the evening or morning to avoid carrying water during the heat of the day.  She most likely did not feel very welcome when the others were there.  Do I have an outcast dove?

Paul has some very specific counsel for us regarding people who feel left out. “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”  Romans 12:16.   Who do we invite to our homes?  Who do we choose to sit near in church?  Who during potlucks do we seek out?   There is a real danger in following Paul’s counsel.  We just might be condescending.  “Look how wonderful I am.  I eat with the masses!”  Should we feel that way, they will know it.  We can’t hide it.  It is then that we need to remind ourselves that the King of Glory came to be one of us.  Talk about lowering one’s self!  That was the ultimate.   See Philippians 2.

In almost every group there are those who feel unworthy.  If we really want to be like Jesus we should seek them out and draw them into our circle of love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 27, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

Life isn’t fair.  But you already knew that and didn’t need me to tell you.  I was reminded this morning while getting a haircut.  I could complain about the person who came in with a magnificent white mane while my barber was scanning my head for hairs to clip.  But that wasn’t the thing that really got to me.  It was my barber.  She is a wisp of a thing.  If she sneezed the laws of physics would guarantee she would fly backwards across the room and slam into a wall.  The unfairness was her continued conversation about all the places in the area to get ice cream and which are the best.  It is spring and once again they are open.  She takes her 80 year old mother and together they eat their way around the circuit.  I assumed she only got the kiddy cones but no she assured me she always got large.  Now that is unfair.  My waistline barely accommodates a one dollar cone from Burger King.

Once I had a church member complain that the thief on the cross got a free ride to heaven.  He thought that was so unfair considering how good he, the complainer, had been all his life.  Really?  Somewhere he failed to catch on that a righteous life is the best life.  If there was no heaven or no hell the person who lives righteously wins.  And furthermore, we all get a free ride to heaven.  I do agree life isn’t fair.  How is it fair that someone who never sinned died so the rest of us sinners get eternal life?  No, life isn’t fair and especially eternal life isn’t fair and I am so glad.  See John 3:16-17.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 28, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

This afternoon I wandered past the deli section of our supermarket and spotted a roll of Lebanon baloney (bologna).  It most likely is one of the unhealthiest things ever processed for human consumption.  But despite its nutritional value, or lack of, I paused for a moment of nostalgia.  My fatherloved Lebanon baloney.  His idea of a great meal was a Lebanon baloney sandwich made with spongy white Wonder Bread layered inside with yellow mustard.  This was then washed down with an ice cold Pepsi that had been in the freezer right up to the moment before freezing solid.  Wow.  It is no wonder he did not live as long as I am old.  Sometimes I am tempted to imbibe.  Fortunately my head rules over my heart.

My Dad was educated.  He was a graduate of Shippensburg State University and was a special needs teacher.  He taught his students about healthful living and the food pyramid.  He was a living example that just because you know something it doesn’t take the place of actually acting upon that information.

Some of the world’s foremost New Testament scholars are Jewish.  They know more about the text and content of the Gospels and writings of Paul than most Christians.  But knowledge is not going to save them.  I grew up in a church that valued being more right than other Christians.  One day the light bulb went on and I realized being more right about things isn’t what Christianity is all about.  Being a Christian is about being Christ-like.  It is trusting Jesus to save us and then living the kindest, most generous, most caring life possible.  “Truth” doesn’t save.  Jesus does!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 16, 2016

PO box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 2 Marc Antony rises to speak at Caesar’s funeral and says, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”  Thomas Jefferson was brilliant.  He was encyclopedic in his knowledge of science, philosophy and government.  He along with a handful of brilliant men gave us America. Winston Churchill stirred the hearts of his countrymen and fortified them to resist in the darkest of times.  Yet, so often I hear that both men were spendthrifts with little control over their wallets.  Why do we do this?  Why do we say things like this?  Is it to reassure ourselves that even great men are not perfect?  Why when speaking of Judas do we always talk of the betrayal and rarely speak of his genuine love for Jesus?  Why when speaking of Noah do we refer to him as a drunk and rarely, if ever, speak of him as the savior of humanity?

Even as I write I realize I am doing it.  In a backhanded way I am reminding you of these great men’s faults lest you forget they were not perfect.  Jonah must have been a powerful preacher but rarely do we hear about his oratory.

In Romans 12 Paul wrote, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”  If we did surely we would not be sure to speak of another’s failures.  I know a man who calls me friend and yet every time he sees me he speaks of one of my failures.  I really don’t need him to do that.  I know and remember them well.  I confess I am happy to rarely see him.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I was in Walmart this week and was suddenly enveloped in a cloud so potent I almost gasped for a breath of fresh air.  He looked like he was 15 and apparently he had just taken a shower and finished off with some manly body wash.  He was a walking advertisement for Old Spice or some other manly fragrance.  I wondered how that was working out for him.  I looked around for a female 15 year-old thinking he might be on a date treating his sweetie to a trip to Walmart.  Pretty classy place for a date.  But he seemed unattached.  Maybe he was on the prowl.

Being that I had just read II Corinthians 2, I subsequently thought of the following, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved.”

What a great idea.  Paul wants us to be a pleasing presence because Jesus is in our hearts.  So, why is it then that I am often put off by the scent of some so-called Christians.  I am uncomfortable with their holy vocabulary and better than I attitude.  I should be careful here, because some people like Old Spice and others like Polo.  Perhaps the aroma of Christ comes with different fragrances to appeal to different kinds of people.  Just as one size does not fit all so one fragrance does not appeal to all.  That’s why Jesus needs all of us.  There is someone out there who needs you or me and no one else will do.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I received two birthday cards yesterday, one from my sister and one from a dear friend.  They are exactly the same other than the personalizations inside.  Since both of the senders will read this I want to assure them that it is okay, because it is the personalization that makes the card so special.  It’s like people are to God.  People are basically all the same.  If not, it would be impossible to write a psychology textbook.  Psychology is only possible because of our samenesses.  God has created billions of us.  However, we are basically the same no matter what race or gender.  Normal people (two standard deviations on either side of the mean) act and think alike.  I doubt if I have ever thought an original thought because somewhere in time and space someone has already thought that thought.

But then there are the personalizations.  Each of us is unique enough to make us special for God.  God has never had persons like us.  Perhaps there have been a trillion humans since Adam and Eve and never has there been another so like you and me.  It’s the personalizations that matter.  That is why God will forever mourn the eternal lose of someone who fails to accept the gift of eternal life.  Every parent knows when they lose a child that no other child will ever fill the void left behind.  I once heard someone try to console a grieving parent by saying, “You can have another.”  Really?

Even if you have a hundred doppelgangers it does not make you replaceable because it isn’t your cheekbones God loves.  It is your soul, your personality, your you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

I am so thankful for the option in my email program that allows me to preassign certain senders to the junk graveyard.   I along with you probably receive over a hundred emails a day, of which 80% are unwanted.  It would be awful if we had to decide on each one each day whether or not to read it.  I love getting email from my friends and I love being able to only pay attention to the emails that matter.

In II Corinthians 3 Paul refers to us as letters.  He wrote, “ You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

I love the concept that we can be a letter from Christ to our friends and family.  How utterly awful to be junk mail.  We all know people who, when showing up, make us groan inside because we know some unpleasantness is about to descend upon us.  That’s junk mail.  But it is so grand to think that we can bring genuine joy and peace to people merely by showing up.  When that is the case we are letters from Christ.

Some of you might be thinking, “Did he just say some people are junk?”  No.  That’s not what I intended.  But, I did intend to say that the message some people bring is junk.  With Jesus in our hearts we can light up a room and chase the gloom of ridicule away.  Jesus makes us positive and it just spills out.  We can’t help it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 14, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

When we need to fly somewhere my wife always buys our tickets early enough so she can select our seats.  She prefers the aisle seat while I like the window seat.  She doesn’t feel so confined and I can sleep with my head against the side of the plane.  It works pretty good but there is a problem. More times than not we alienate the person sitting between us.  It’s not because we are talking over them.  We try not to be so rude.  It happens when they first arrive.  You should see their faces light up when they realize we are together.  How could they be so fortunate?  This is an opportunity for them to be noble and offer to change seats so we can sit together.  We won’t mention that they will not have to sit for hours in the middle seat.  When we decline their generosity they go hostile on us.  There is an instant disappearance of their smile and a humph.  They plop down into the seat of discomfort and rarely will they ever again say a word to us.  It is like it was our fault they bought their ticket too late to get a decent seat.

Now being the nice guy that I am I sometimes try to warm them up with a smile or a greeting but it rarely works.  I know what Jesus would do but I am not yet that sanctified.  Jesus said, “Do unto others what you would have them do to you.”  The Golden Rule indicates I should give up my seat.  But I revert to the Silver Rule of don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.  I never awaken them so I can crawl over them to get to the restroom.  I can wait.  After all I am a nice guy!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 9, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

Have you ever wondered what it means when the emcee of a contest tells the finalists, “Good luck to all of you”?  Only one person is going to win. Saying “Good luck to all of you” is meaningless.  If the emcee said good luck to just one of them, that would have meaning.  However, he/she would be violating any appearance of being impartial and make it appear the contest is rigged.

At first I wanted to say God says to us, “Good luck to all of you.”  That would have meaning because we can all win.  However, that doesn’t work because the word luck denotes chance as in rolling dice.  We are not saved or lost because of chance.  We are saved as a gift and lost only if we do not accept the gift.  There is no luck involved. We do not win salvation at the expense of others being losers.  However, I get the feeling that many people think luck is involved.  If asked if they are saved, many people say, “I hope so.”  Somehow, that seems to include a hesitancy that includes a bit of chance.

I love what John wrote in I John 5.  He said, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  Please do not fail to notice the word “know.”  Assurance of salvation is the difference between an abundant life and a so-so life.  This weekend we flew back and forth from Mass to California.  Without assurance of salvation I would have been listening for any strange noise coming from the aircraft.  With assurance I settled in knowing whatever happened wouldn’t change eternity for me.  That’s a done deal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 7, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

The New King James Version translates Ephesians 5:1 as “Therefore be imitators of God.”  And I respond, “Really? Can Paul be serious?”  Just what is he saying?  There is no way I can imitate God and speak worlds into existence.  There is no way I can be a source of life by saying, “Lazarus, (or whoever) come forth.”  God is morally perfect.  I cannot be so other than by allowing Jesus to stand in my stead.   Part of the problem here is I haven’t considered the milieu of Ephesians 5.  It’s dangerous to lift any text or sentence out of its context.  If we look carefully at Ephesians 5 Paul is telling us to walk in love for others.  Even that is difficult.  To love one’s friends is one thing but to love one’s enemies is another.

Often we hear people say, “I only attack people who attack me.”  And that is the reason the world is in and has been in a mess for all of recorded history.  The eye for an eye Old Testament philosophy leads us into a nowhere future of just more of the same.  Paul goes on in Ephesians 5, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.  Therefore do not be partakers with them.”

The wrath of God Paul is speaking of is not a vengeful God pouncing upon us when we do evil or just plain stupid things.  God’s wrath is passive.  He merely allows us the tragedy of reaping the fruit of what we sowed.  If when attacked we return the gesture with a turned cheek and a “I’m sorry I agitated you” we will then begin being imitators of God just as Paul counseled us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 1, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org