Author: Ian Bothwell

Last evening I heard a television preacher talking about the powerful spiritual  significance of today’s solar eclipse. I was overwhelmed by the self centeredness of his observations. Considering there is a total solar eclipse somewhere on our planet every eighteen days how could this be more meaningful other than it happened in front of him?  So often we humans act as if nothing else matters unless it matters to us.

We all know the old observation that goes like this.  They came for Jews and I said nothing.  They came for the Jehovah Witnesses and I said nothing.  Eventually they came for me and there was no one to say anything.  I think the moral of the story is that I should speak out in defense of the first group, therefore, defending myself. The logical end would be, if they were not going to come for me someday I need not bother to say anything.

Self is the great human dilemma. I am the center of the universe. My comfort and my safety are paramount.  What an amazing contrast this is to the nature of Jesus.  Paul wrote in Philippians 2,  Jesus, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!”

Oh, to be like Jesus.  To care, to really care, regardless of self is the goal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 22, 2017

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In 1962 Rachel Carson published her seminal book “Silent Spring.”  It was a sounding alarm that with our spraying of DDT we were unwittingly depopulating the earth of birds and other essential fauna.   I was reminded this summer when I realized how very few butterflies I see.  As for fireflies they are so rare I call people in the house to come and see when one lights up our yard.  As a child I would fill a Mason jar in the evenings and watch them in the darkness of my room when I went to bed.  I never did enjoy how my hand smelled after such an adventure.

This summer our nights in Massachusetts have been very quiet.  Where are the night sounds?  Finally this past Wednesday about 4 AM when I let the dog outside I thrilled to hear a chorus of tree frogs filling the darkness with their wooing of the ladies.  Last night other creatures joined them.  It is a wonderful sound rivaling any human choir.  I did not hurry back to bed but sat on the porch reveling in the symphonic beauty.  I wish you could have been with me.  One needs to share beauty.

Last summer we visited Longwood Gardens.  It is a taste of Eden.  It is a place one must never go alone.  It has to be shared so we can say, “Oh, look there and there and there.” It is why you must come to heaven with loved ones.  As grand as it will be, it will be better if we can say, “Oh, look there and there and there.”

We had to pay to enter Longwood Gardens.  Heaven is free and so much better.  The night sounds will be incredible. (Yes, I said, “Night.”)

Written by Roger Bothell on August 21, 2017

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Summer is ebbing away and it’s zucchini time. What a wonderful time of the year.  Days are toasty, nights are cool and gardens are reminding us of our heavenly Father’s prodigal ways. I have a friend who planted six zucchini plants  and I asked, “Why?”  One plant could feed Boston.  It’s a good thing the patriots chose to toss tea into the harbor because no one would have noticed had it been zucchini.  This afternoon we even had a bagful magically appear on our doorstep and we don’t even have a garden. (Thank you zucchini fairy.)

God’s generosity is not limited to a vegetable.  One of my favorite verses is Micah 7:19.  “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”  Please take note of the word “all.”   But, you may ask what about the unpardonable sin Jesus spoke of in Matthew 12:31. “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”  That verse has frightened many people because they wonder if they are guilty of that sin.  As Jesus would say, “Fear not.”  The unpardonable sin is one’s refusal to yield to the Holy Spirit’s wooing.  The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict us of our sins and urge us to repent.  Thus the unpardonable sin is refusing to repent of any sin.  If you are concerned, that means He is calling you.  So just say, “Lord, I am so sorry.  Help me.”

That brings us back to all our sins being forgiven.  The last time I checked the deepest part of any ocean is 36,070 feet.  That is a long way down.  God loves mercy and is prodigal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 16, 2017

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Romans 5:7 has been on my mind most of today. Paul wrote, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  My younger son’s wife spent over seven hours today under the knife as surgeons ever so carefully removed a tumor from her brain.

Today’s events for our family caused me to make a mental list of those for whom I would gladly, without the slightest hesitation, die. I actually surprised myself in that my list is longer than I would have at first estimated.  In the course of the exercise, while trying not to do so, I also made a list of those for whom I would never die.  That is a very extensive list.  Life is precious and should be guarded with diligence.  One should never squander one’s greatest gift. And then I come back to Romans 5:7.  Jesus, God’s only son, died for Herod, Pilate, the soldiers who stripped Him bare, beat Him to a pulp and drove nails into His flesh. “Father, forgive them”

In the course of several decades I have recounted this story over and over and pretended to understand. I don’t!  I have acted as though my degree in theology made me privy to the mind of God.  It did not!  And now I, after all these years, am at a loss to understand God’s amazing love.  If you understand I am envious of you, for I know that, even in heaven after a millennium of millenniums, I will never get it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 15, 2017

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It will be 2021 before anyone once again hears London’s Big Ben chime over London.  Restoration has begun and the worker’s hearing has to be protected from the bongs of the huge bell. The chiming is so loud there is a very real danger that the bonging would permanently deafen the laborers.

There is an interesting story about Moses in Exodus 34.  He had been on the mountain with God and upon coming down his face glowed so brightly he had to veil it from the others.

And so there it is. The answer to today’s seeming lack of power in God’s modern church.  Too much light, too much sound, too much of any good thing can damage us if we are not prepared and ready.  Just as any good parent is careful with what gifts they give their children God is careful with us.  No good parent gives a 16- year-old a 700 horse power Corvette.  God wants us to do great things, but He also knows how much our egos and sense of self importance can tolerate without our becoming totally narcissistic.  With great power comes the need for even greater humility.

So what can we do to increase our effectiveness?  Paul gives us a few good ideas in Ephesians 6, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”  And how do we do that?  Like all good things time is required.  If we make sure we spend time with His word each day, the armor is added piece by piece.  This isn’t rocket science.  Everyone can do it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 14, 2017

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According to the dictionary the definition of the word “inflation” means to increase in volume or value. The irony is when certain things inflate they actually decrease in value.  As a teacher one cannot help but be aware of grade inflation, GPA’s continue to rise without a corresponding correlation of increased knowledge or understanding.  Twenty-five years ago a 3.0 GPA could easily be today’s 4.0.

Then there is the size of people. Airlines have adjusted seat size to accommodate our larger bottoms.  And of course I have to mention the inflation of language.  Celebrities used to be stars.  Now they have to be super stars, even if they only had a bit part in some B grade movie.  The adjectives huge, astonishing, great, immense, fabulous and tremendous are so over-used they don’t mean much – a prime example of inflation causing deflation.  And I must confess I am overly tired of “Breaking News” followed by a news item reported two days earlier.  Cannot stations buy a thesaurus?

This brings me to one precious thing that cannot be inflated. I speak of course of God’s love for us. Paul tries to describe it but fails to find grand enough words.  “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3

His love for us surpasses our understanding, because in our eyes we cannot understand God’s obsession with us.  But, I accept.  This love is impossible to inflate. It is already mega-huge.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 13, 2017

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Having spent this past weekend in a local hospital I woke up about 1 A.M. with a tremendous appetite for a can of Pringles. If I had had my cell,  I would have called my wife asking her to please please bring me some.  Alas, I could not.  Actually, I would not have called because merely knowing my request she would have gotten out of bed and immediately brought me a can.  (Yeah, she would have!)   Now comes the interesting part of the story.  At 8 A.M.  she came into my room carrying a can of Pringles!  Absolutely amazing.

While I do not have a great theological lesson to draw from this, I just wanted to quote a few famous lines from Psalm 23.  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

I could fill pages of blessings but to do so would bore many people.  (However, just one more story.)  This morning my wife called drug and grocery stores all over our little city looking for clear Ensure.  No one had any in stock.  She mentioned it later today at our cancer clinic. A dietician overheard and said, “Wait just a moment.”  She returned with the gift of fourteen cans.  She said, “Next week I’ll have more for you!”

I have blessing guilt for I am totally aware that life is gruesome for so many people.  “A life in Christ is a life of restfulness.”  Steps to Christ. E. G. White.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 9, 2017

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There is a very easy trap to fall into when reading Scripture.  I am personally guilty and have to on occasion chide myself. I judge the ethics and behavior of Old Testament characters as if they were Christians.  They were not.  Often I have heard people say people in the Bible had more than one wife.  How come?  The how come is a different time, a different place and a different culture.  As a Christian living in a different time and place we follow Paul’s standard recommended in I Timothy 3 and of course there is the law of our land.

I have struggled with David.  David wrote the majority of the glorious Psalms indicating his deep love for God.  And yet he was a liar, a thief, a conman and a murderer.  Even on his death bed one of the last things he did was to order a murder. I so want him to be a Christian.  He was not.

We are so inculturated into a Christian environment we forget how revolutionary Jesus was.  In the Sermon on the Mount, one of the greatest moral guides in all literature, Jesus said, “You have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.”  To this day we still find this difficult.

Bible stories cannot be properly understood if we fail to consider the historic context.  The next time you sit down and read the Book of Judges remember the characters involved were mostly illiterate, simple folk.  Their actions are not models for us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 2, 2017

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America is great not because our people live far better than any other population in history.  We are great not because we have more things than ever.  We are great not because we have submarines, aircraft carriers and missiles.  America is great because it is an idea.  More than 50 states, more than a geographic location, America is a never before held idea that “we the people” can govern ourselves.  “We the people” grant to others the same freedoms we ourselves desire.  To miss that this was earth-shakingly unique is to not understand the history of mankind.

In Luke 17:21 Jesus said, “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”  The establishment in Jesus’ day continued to look for a physical kingdom that would result in Jerusalem being the capitol of the world with Rome paying them tribute.  They missed the idea that the kingdom of God was an idea.  When Jesus prayed “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” He was speaking of our becoming one with Him and the Father and experiencing peace, forgiveness, grace and rest from works of the law.  Salvation did not depend on diet, tithing or adherence to Leviticus. Salvation is a gift that brings the kingdom of God into the present and not sometime in the future.

Just as America is an idea so is the kingdom of God.  This is not to deny the reality of heaven or the second coming.  Instead it is to recognize that heaven begins now.  Anxiety and stress about one’s salvation should be put to rest.  Going to heaven will be but a change of address with our physical issues remedied as this corruption puts on incorruption.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 1, 2017

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I’m sure everyone has at least once in their life gotten a paper-cut.  The edge of a piece of paper so quickly slits one of your fingers. The cut is so smooth and so subtle you can barely see it.  But you can surely feel it.  Often it doesn’t bleed; it  just creates nagging, annoying discomfort.  If it is on the end of a finger it makes keyboarding very unpleasant. How can something so small be so aggravating?

Ticks can be even worse. The tiny ticks that almost require a magnifying glass to see them are the worst.  Often you don’t know they are there until it is too late and they have begun using you as a banquet table. Sometimes relationships are spoiled by little things.  Others’ idiosyncrasies can so irritate, things like sucking one’s teeth, constant humming off-key, slamming car doors when you are still inside, not really listening and then asking you to repeat yourself, chewing a finger, putting their cold feet on you in the middle of the night, and on and on.

Life is full of irritants and we are not as innocent as we might think.  We just don’t notice ours, but others do.  They can be like tiny ants that steal away the joy of a picnic.  Paul’s counsel to us basically is not to make a big deal out of others’ issues and to (if we can stand it) mind our own business. He wrote, “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”  Romans 14:12.  We can not justifiably say, “But Lord, every time we stop for a traffic light, he picks his nose!”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 31, 2017

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