Month: July 2024

I had plenty of fuel to get home to the Napa Valley when I departed from Redlands, California.  But soon, while over the western edge of the Mohave Desert, I encountered much stronger head winds than forecast.  It became evident I was going to have to refuel somewhere up the coast.  Fuel consumption is measured not in miles covered but in hours in the air.  As I neared San Francisco I decided it would be interesting to stop at SFO.  I fully expected the control tower to bring me in on a small runway designed for private aviation but was pleasantly surprised to be led to one of the two giant side by side runways designed for 747s.  It was a real treat.

As soon as I touched down a truck appeared in front of me with a large sign that read, “Follow me.”  He would lead me to fuel.  As I taxied behind him I thought how interesting it would be if the sign read, “Matthew 16:24.”  Few pilots would even have a clue.  This was in such contrast to construction trucks on highways that say, “Don’t follow me.”

We all follow someone. Whether our pride allows it or not each of us is influenced by role models and our behavior, upon study, would reveal who it is.  Following Jesus is the best ever role model anyone anywhere could ever emulate.  He will take us to destinations far beyond our ability to think or imagine.  He will not only change our behavior, He will make us anew.  Following Jesus is not “off to see the wizard” but off to see unnumbered worlds filled with dazzling creatures who have never sinned and have only lived to serve others.  Come with me.  Let’s live forever.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 25, 2017

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For most of us salads are much better with our favorite dressing.  When it comes to people salads God enjoys a vast variety of dressings.  Surely He enjoys Italian with its zest or French with its smoothness or maybe Russian dressing.  According to Scripture God does not discriminate He must love them all.  See Romans 2:11, “For God does not show favoritism.”

Paul talks about dressing God’s people.  However, he refers to a different definition of dressing.  In Galatians 3:27 he writes, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”  And in Ephesians 6 he wrote, “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  Paul has quite a wardrobe for us.  And once we are well dressed in Christ our lives will be so much better.

One specific way our lives improve is we cease thinking about others as “they” and become more inclusive.  We learn to be “we.”  If we go back to Galatians3:28  he helps us with the following understanding.  “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”  I long for us to see ourselves as “one.”  Can you imagine with this straightforward counsel some churches still discriminate against women?   In a salad the carrots don’t think they are better than the cucumbers, who do not see themselves as better than the sweet peppers, who do not think they add more to the salad than the tomatoes.

Let all of us get dressed in Christ and watch the wonders of unity that will follow.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 21, 2017

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As far as salads go lettuce is by far the least nutritious and most boring ingredient.  But generously toss in carrots, tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers and celery and you have a small delicious banquet.  It is just like God’s family.  We are a marvelous salad of humanity.  Jesus commissioned us to go to the world and make disciples and the result is fabulous.  I’m sure there are members of His family from every nation in the world and He must find it delicious to behold.

Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

It seems the more variety we have the better the salad.  Take some of our U. S. presidents for an example.  Abraham Lincoln was the tallest at six feet four inches.  James Madison was the smallest at five feet four inches.  He weighed only 100 pounds as compared to Taft who weighed three hundred and thirty.  Calvin Coolidge was famous for not talking much and they couldn’t stop TR from incessantly talking.  Truman was the only president never to attend college, while Woodrow Wilson was a professor.

Shame on us if we ever discriminate by race, gender or language.  As Paul wrote in Romans 14 God invited us all to His table.  Who are we to cross anyone off God’s guest list?  Ultimately we all end up at the same place – the foot of the cross – needing mercy and forgiveness.

People salads are the best.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 20, 2017

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In 1956 Allan Jay Lerner collaborated with Fredrick Lowe to write the lyrics for a song in My Fair Lady.  As I read them it describes my 75 year-old relationship with Jesus and with some adaptation (my apologies to Lerner and Lowe) I read the lyrics like this.

He makes the day begin

He’s second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in
I’m very grateful He’s my Savior and not so easy to forget
Rather like a habit one should never break

How I have longed for my reactions to life’s ups and downs to be, without thinking on my part, automatically His.  Paul wrote in Philippians:5 “ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  There it is.  The goal of every believer should not only to be saved but to become like Him.  And should He never come to save us, (He will.  He promised.) we will have been the winner because a Christ-like life is the richest, happiest life ever lived by ANYONE.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 17, 2017

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My older sister and her husband have been visiting this past week.  It is difficult not to observe that we say everything twice. The first time the response is “What?” and the second time they and we get it.  Alas, we are now reaching that stage described in Ecclesiastes 12.

“Honor and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young,

Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,

Before your vision dims and the world blurs

And the winter years keep you close to the fire.

In old age, your body no longer serves you so well.

Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.

The shades are pulled down on the world.

You can’t come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.

The hum of the household fades away.

You are wakened now by bird-song.

Hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past.”

 

One of Jesus’ favorite expressions was “Let him who has ears, let him hear.”  It seems apparent that Jesus was in his early thirties when He said that.   Of course, Jesus was speaking of comprehension and our response to the truths He was teaching.  He wanted us to hear the Beatitudes and learn to be happy.  He wanted us to read His comments to Nicodemus and find eternal life.  All we need for happiness now and life evermore is found in His words.  Let him who has ears let him hear.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 19, 2017

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I have a few acquaintances with the uncanny ability to make lemons out of lemonade.  They have good lives but you would never know it when one listens to them.  I have unsuccessfully tried to get a few of them to count their blessings instead of making a list of catastrophes that could take their blessings away.  I fear Christians are some of the worst at this. Week after week we are told a time of trouble is coming and that seems to justify not enjoying the now.  If I remind them that they have a good job, they will remind me that it could be lost tomorrow.  If I remind them they have a good IRA for their retirement, they remind me of 1929.  It goes on and on. I sometimes doubt if they will enjoy heaven because their negative creativity will think of something that could go wrong.

Perhaps Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess had it right when he sang, “I got plenty of nothing and nothing is plenty for me… Folks with plenty of nothing got a lock on the door afraid somebody’s going to rob ‘e while they’re out (a) making more – what for?”

Paul wrote in Philippians 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice.”

When some people pray before eating they ask God to bless the food.  I’m not sure what that means.  Do they want the calories removed?  A much better idea is to thank the Lord for what we have today.

One of literature’s most famous pessimists is Eeyore, the gloomy donkey in Winnie the Pooh.  He even lives in a place called, “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place.  I fear our churches are full of Eeyores. We should ban Eeyores from church.  They are contagious.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2017

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In 1971 Coca Cola adapted a song from a pop group called The New Seekers.  It was entitled I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony.

I’d like to teach the world to sing

In perfect harmony.

Is it naïve to think Paul’s counsel in Romans 12:20 is still relevant?  “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”  Paul also wrote in chapter 15, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”

It is so easy to respond to adversity with our basic selfishness.  It just pops to the surface with little thought. To turn the other cheek is not natural.  The more we study the life of our Jesus the more we see how radical He was.  He was a revolutionary with a message so new and so different He divided history into two.

If He could bring us into His likeness and be our Prince of Peace by teaching us to stand hand in hand and sing in perfect harmony I truly believe He would be the REAL THING.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 31, 2017

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In summer the roadsides of central Massachusetts are filled with flowers.  The old stonewalls are decorated with day lilies and Queen Anne’s lace.  The day lilies come in a vast array of colors while the Queen Anne’s lace is just white but not plain white.  If you stop to look closely you will see in the middle of each cluster a tiny purple blossom proclaiming its individuality.

The very last thought of chapter 5 in Galatians is “Let us not…envy each other.”  It is so easy to look about and see wonderful features and qualities in others.  The next step is to envy.  To want be the best looking person at the party.  To be the smartest kid in the school.  To be the fastest athlete with the best jump shot.  To have a car and house like the neighbors.  Whole lives can be spent wishing to be or to have something else while failing to appreciate our own gifts and beauty.

God loves each person.  In His love He has given each one something unique and wonderful.  When we discover what that is and to use it for the benefit of others, we discover yet another gift.  For as we utilize what we have, God gives more.  Each of us is an original.  There is not another like you.  We each have something special to offer.  Envy no one.  Enjoy your uniqueness.  Be the purple little blossom in the middle of a Queen Anne’s lace.

Written by Roger Bothwell

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We have a metal bird feeder that is supposed to be squirrel proof.  (It’s not.)  The wooden perch that provides a place for the birds to stand while eating became well worn by all the bird’s toe nails and finally because of a squirrel’s teeth, it gave way.  Without a perch, without something to stand on the birds could not eat.*  They could fly right up to the seed, but without that perch they could not access the bounty that lay before them.

Such it is for us. Life has so many good things to offer but without something to stand on we cannot feed on life’s bounty.  I am no longer speaking of material things.  The wicked have access to those things.  I speak of the real treasures of life; peace, tranquility, serenity, real love, self-respect and absolute confidence in the future.  In Matthew 7, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told a story about a wise man who built his house on a rock.  He said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”  Now, that is a place to stand because that rock is Jesus.

We can have sizeable bank accounts and beautiful homes, but if we don’t have Jesus all those things are temporary.  They are like grass that comes up in the morning and is gone by noon.  Seek the eternal things.  Seek for what we can take with us into eternity.  They are available if we chose to make Jesus the foundation rock of our lives.  Really intelligent people choose Jesus.  How smart are you?

*I made the birds a new perch.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 13, 2017

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The wind is blowing the snow against the windows and making groaning sounds in the trees.   We knew it was coming.  For days the weather people were telling us almost to the minute when it would arrive.  So yesterday afternoon the supermarkets were packed with people stocking up on milk and bread.  One interviewed lady said she stood in the checkout lane for over 40 minutes.  I don’t understand.  First of all, the storm will be gone tomorrow and the roads will be plowed.  Are cupboards so bare people can’t live until tomorrow morning?  When they shop do they only get enough for one day?  Secondly, they have known about this for five days.

I’m reminded of Noah’s ark.  No one but Noah and his immediate family were saved.  But people had 120 years to show up.  Instead they pounded on the door when it started to rain.   In Matthew 24 Jesus speaks of a time of trouble climaxing in His second coming.  If the human pattern continues that means millions of people will try at the last moment to get ready.  When we consider how important this is, why do we wait?  Maybe we want to see more of the signs spoken of by Jesus.  But considering our hearts can stop at any second we might not be around to see the signs of the end.  We might not make it to the end of today.

This is a bit frightening and the last thing I want to do is to scare someone into accepting Jesus.   It is so much better to come to Him by responding to His wooing call of love.  But the truth is He loves us so much He will take us for any reason.  Scary or not He wants us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 15, 2017

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