Month: January 2024

Combinations of people, things and foods can make for the most wonderful experiences.  Abbot and Costello doing “Who’s on First?”, children and dogs in snow, apples and cinnamon baking in flaky piecrust are just a taste of life’s great combinations.

When it comes to the richness of our inner being the greatest combination is spoken of by Paul in Galatians 2:20.  “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Imagine that.  Christ in you.  No longer you, alone, in the world, but you combined with Christ Himself, His thoughts becoming your thoughts, His responses to others becoming your responses, His love and generosity becoming your love and generosity.  The very idea is exciting, challenging and possible.

Let’s make yet another wonderful combination. Colossians 1:19. “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”  All the fullness of the Father dwells in Jesus and Jesus dwells in you.  The possibilities are astounding.  The fruit is beyond our imagination.  Have you ever seen someone you admired because of their goodness?  You need not look from afar.  You can join the group.  It is not an exclusive group but inclusive of all who desire to belong.

He wants to change the world by having all His fullness dwell in you via His son.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 31, 2012

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Blessed is the man whose wife can cook as good as his mother.  We learned what foods where supposed to taste like at our mother’s table.  Our taste buds were trained to the idiosyncrasies of our mother’s stuffing, pies, lasagna and cream of wheat.  Later in life it is rare to find something just as good as what was on our childhood table.  Really good pie crust is a gift.  Can you believe what you get from a store bought pie?  Most of the time it is two pieces of cardboard covering up something dumped out of a can.  And pumpkin pie has to have that just right amount of whatever it was that our mothers used.

I’m sure you have noticed how important food is in the Bible.  We started off with fruit from a tree in Eden and end with a wedding feast spoken of at the close of the Book of Revelation.  In between there are Psalms about the Lord preparing a table before us and Abraham feeding angels on their way to Sodom.  Jesus was not only a feeder of thousands He was also an attendee at banquets.  Matthew had one for Him.  Simon of Bethany had a feast honoring Him.  The disciples ate food from fields they passed and hoped for figs from a tree by the road.  Of course we must mention the Last Supper on that fateful Thursday evening before the cross.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.”  Revelation 22

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 29, 2012

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When one is not home and has too much time on one’s hands one tends to watch way too much television. In the last two months I have seen more “I Love Lucy” and “Bonanza” programs than I ever did when those characters were still alive. I can’t believe I did this and am admitting it but I even watched an old Lawrence Welk program.  Please turn off the bubble machine. What was fun about watching was a moment when he invited ladies from the audience to come and dance with him. About a dozen blue-haired ladies rushed to him. The camera caught one literally elbowing two other ladies so she could get her moment. I’m not sure she fit the definition of the word “lady.” So much for growing up.

One of the classes I teach is the psychology of human development and I am compelled to ask, not just because of this incident, but by daily behavior of most people, “Does our basic nature ever change no matter our age? Or do we just become more sophisticated about how we get what we want?” Jeremiah wondered, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”  Jeremiah 13:23

Hopefully the answer to this is “Yes.”  If not, educating our children or going to church or moral discussions would be useless.  In Matthew 5:48 Jesus exhorts us to be perfect.   Apparently He believed we could do better or He would not have bothered.  We can do better.  It might not be easy but with the help of the Holy Spirit “the leopard” might not change its spots but neither will it eat us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 21, 2012

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When my wife’s parents retired they moved back to her father’s birthplace farm.  It was a grand place to take our children in the summer and at Christmas.  One year we found the old manure spreader in the woods.  We thought it was wonderful and got the tractor and pulled it out into the yard.  We thought it would be beautiful once filled with flowers.  Her uncle who had lived there all his life and had used the spreader thought it was horrible. Things like that belonged out of sight and not in the yard for all to see. Needless to say it disappeared back into the woods.

Sometimes in church I remember that “honey wagon” and my wife’s uncle’s reaction.  It comes to mind during prayer request time when people publicly tell things that should remain in the woods.  God knows the secrets of our hearts and there is nothing to be gained by telling salacious tales for the voyeurs in the congregation.  We should not utter embarrassing details that only God should hear.  Actually we can permanently harm ourselves or others by being overly forthright.

But someone might say James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins one to another, that you may be healed.”  There is a significant catharsis when we get something off our chests.  It is healing to have a burden lifted.  If it is a public sin then public confession is very helpful. However, there are certain things that should only be shared with Jesus, especially when it involves others who could be damaged by our saying too much.  One thing that is wonderful is those secrets we tell Jesus will be blotted out and He will choose never to remember them.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 27, 2012

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I relearned an old lesson at 6:30 this morning.  Our dog woke us with her most ferocious bark.  We assumed it was the new ground hog that has moved into the backyard.  Much to our surprise we looked out to see our suet feeder being ripped from the tree by our morning guest–a huge brown bear.  Grabbing my camera I made my way down to the back door.  At first I took some really bad pictures through the window.  The rising sun set up a terrible glare.  But I wanted documenting shots.  Next I opened the door to get some unobstructed pictures.  I took about twenty pictures, some which should have been great, except for my haste.   I was just pointing and shooting.  In my excitement I failed to pause for that half second required for the camera to focus.  I just shot away.  The result was about three pictures worth saving.  The rest were garbage shots.   Haste does make waste.

I really should know better.  Quality takes time.  Quality takes thought.  Quality takes effort.  It is not only that way when taking pictures; it is that way with 98% of life.   I see it all the time in the classroom.  I can tell when a student has hastily banged out a paper as opposed to a paper that actually contained some thought.   If we really want to get to know someone we have to take some time to do so.  If we want a relationship with God we have to pause to hear His quiet voice and we have to spend time reading His letter to us.  It is the way life works.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 22, 2011

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I used to enjoy taking weekend walks with people so I could show off my prowess in identifying the birds we saw.  It was great for my ego when people would say, “Wow, you sure do know a lot about birds.”  Actually they could not have been more wrong.  While I did know the bird’s names, I knew nothing about the birds.  All I knew is what we call them in America and if I had been in another country often those birds are called something else.  I was a fraud.  We can know the names of lots of people and not know anything about the people themselves. A name is merely a random identifier attached to someone by their parents before their parents really knew them.

The same is also true about some people’s knowledge of Scripture.  They can quote all kinds of verses and be very impressive.  But once you really get to know them you realize they don’t know much about the author of Scripture.  God is merely a name of a being who is to them a stranger.  Jesus talked about these people in Matthew 7.  “By their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”   They know the name but they don’t know the attitude, the love, the passion to be like the one they speak of so freely.  They are as fraudulent a Christian as I was an ornithologist.

James, Jesus’ brother, wrote, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 26, 2012

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We got another four inches of snow last night.  I saw one of my neighbors  shoveling his driveway.  I was concerned for him.  He looks to be about my age and we all know that old men should not shovel snow.  I don’t.  It costs me about 30 dollars each time and we have had a lot of each time.  It might have cost me 300 dollars this winter.  It seems like a lot of money but when one puts it into perspective who wouldn’t spend 300 dollars not to have a heart attack.  I am told your heart starts to hurt for lack of oxygen.  Something has blocked its flow.

Jesus is the oxygen for mankind.  Our hearts hurt for lack of Jesus.  It is subtle at first but each time the pressure gets worse until the elephant steps on your chest.  The elephant has certainly stepped on the chest of mankind.  The news is filled with so much devastating pain.  It ranges from individual murders to mass murders by governments trying not only to attack their neighbors but sometimes as we see their own people.

Jesus really is the breath of life.  He started in Genesis when He knelt in the grass over Adam and breathed into Him life.  It happened again for Jarius’s daughter and on the highway for the son of the widow of Nain.  He is life itself.  In John 11 Lazarus’ sisters said, “If you had been here our brother would not have died.”   You know – they were right.  But the important thing He came.  And when Jesus comes life comes.  Oxygen comes. The pain goes away because He is everything He said He is.  He is the resurrection and the life.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 1, 2011

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When I was learning how to read I enjoyed the Sunday morning funnies, Al Capp’s Li’l Abner was one of my favorites.  One of my favorite characters was Marryin’ Sam.   He was on the cover of Life magazine in 1952 because he presided over the wedding of Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae.   Marryin’ Sam was especially busy on Sadie Hawkins day when the not so fleet-footed men got caught kicking and screaming by the brides-to-be.  Sam charged two dollars for a wedding service but his fee was negotiable.

By now you are wondering why I am talking about Marryin’ Sam.  Well, I kept thinking about him all afternoon because I presided over two weddings.   One was at 12:30 p.m. and the other at 3:30 p.m.   It was a grand day filled with wonderful music, pretty flowers, great food and lots of friends.

In Revelation 19 we are promised a prominent place at the greatest wedding of all time.  “’Alleluia! For the  Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'”

Now that’s a wedding.  Jesus is the bridegroom and we are the bride.  We are showered with gifts (see Ephesians 2) and angels will provide incredible music.   Best of all we don’t have to pay two dollars because the extravagant cost of this wedding was covered at Calvary.   I can’t wait!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 11, 2009

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Winter has come to New England.  My yard is white and according to the weatherman it will get even whiter in the morning.  Someone needs to tell our rosebush.  I would think the chill in the air would be enough communication, but we have three nice red roses.  They are out of place.  I’m going to guess that there have been times in your life when you felt out of place.  Perhaps you under dressed for an occasion.  Others showed up in suits and you showed up in blue jeans and a t-shirt. Perhaps people were partying a bit more than you wanted to.

I have always been fascinated by some of the events Jesus attended.  He certainly raised the eyebrows of the establishment because of the company He kept. “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”  Luke 15.  We often talk about how wonderful this was that Jesus made Himself vulnerable by doing this, but I wonder if there were not times when He was uncomfortable where He was.

I am sure Jesus must have been repulsed by the behaviors of many people.  Yet, He never stopped loving them.  That is so amazing.  How does one grow to the point where we care about people who make us feel out of place?

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 9, 2009

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The basic tool of statistics is the bell curve.  It describes a group of data.  It depicts the mean, the mode and the median.   Is this starting to be boring?   Be patient with me.  Knowing this information can enable us to make good decisions.  Let’s use smoking as an example.  If we look at a large group of smokers and a comparative group of non-smokers, the mean of each group can reveal to us a host of useful information which should enable us to make good choices.  Smokers on average die several years before non-smokers.  Smokers on average fall ill to a number of diseases non-smokers do not.

But someone will say, “I know someone in their nineties who has smoked two packs a day for 75 years.”   That person is an outlier, someone outstanding from the group.  They are the exception to the average.  They are not the rule.  The same is true with seat belts.  We can all tell the tale of the person who was saved because they were thrown from the car.  That person is also an outlier.  The average person who is thrown is killed.   The average person who is encased in their seat with the airbag does much better.  It is like buying a lottery ticket.  The average person loses.   It is the outlier who wins.  Most of us want to be an outlier.  However it is important to know there are outliers on the negative side of the bell curve.   Those are the ones struck by lightening.

Now that I have said all this I must mention Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to the world.”

The mode, mean and median of the antediluvian world didn’t get in the ark!

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 17, 2009

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