Author: Ian Bothwell

Sometimes I enjoy searching my memory banks for a verse of Scripture that somehow matches my situation.  So when I recently found myself lying flat on a table that was gliding in and out of a large white donut shaped chamber it was easy to come up with Psalm 139. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body.” That was written 4000 years ago.  Today we can look inside our bodies and see everything that is going on.

Technology has changed everything except human nature.  Without Jesus in our lives we are just as selfish as ever.  Do you remember Job’s dialogue with God, when God decided to put Job in his place by asking him some very interesting questions?  In chapter 38 God asked who can measure the dimensions of the earth.  Now we can.  God asked who could enter the storehouses of snow or hail or a path for thunderstorms.  Channel 4 does it every night.  Now I am not bragging about how wonderful we have become.  No.  It is God, the guru of technology, the omnipotent One, who knows all and who in these last days shares many of His secrets with us.

Best of all, He shares His grace with us.  That’s the best gift, not that I don’t appreciate all the scientific advancements.  It is just important that we acknowledge the source and are thankful.  By the way, not only can He scan our organs He can and does scan our minds.  That’s important to remember.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 23, 2017

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Our yard is one giant nursery.  There are babies everywhere.  Mothers and fathers are flitting from the rhododendrons to the azaleas finding food for their broods. It is quite amusing to see full grown blue jays begging with their mouths agape.  They remind me of college grads who have moved back home to mom and dad.  Midst the cacophony of crying baby robins, wrens and cardinals was something we had not seen before.  Baby red-bellied woodpeckers were trying out their new pecking skills on a beech tree.  It is a wonderful time of the year.

What a time Adam and Eve must have had in their new garden home trying to name all the dazzling, fearless, creatures.  With Adam and Eve’s perfect minds they soon would have qualified to be biologists, ornithologists, ichthyologists, lepidopterists, entomologists and on and on. Surely they would have become astronomers and physicists. But sin, the great interrupter to good things, spoiled it all.

That’s what sin does.  It spoils lives, homes, marriages and careers.  If you can think of something good there is a way for sin to spoil it and of course along with sin came the greatest spoiler of all, death.  But we must not be overwhelmed with grief.  God sent forth His only Son to defeat sin in every aspect of its heinous nature.  In I Corinthians 15 Paul wrote those marvelous words, “When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” Verse 54.  Our Jesus is the spoiler of the spoiler.  He is the resurrection and the life and He will make all things new.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 22, 2017

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While pumping gas I noticed a very pretty car pull up at the pumps behind me.  I had to smile when the driver, an old guy, got out.  It was a Buick and we have always laughingly supported the stereotype that Buicks are old people’s cars.  Thinking to have a fun conversation with the driver and that he would pick up with me on General Motors current advertising campaign, I called out to him, “Is that a Buick?  It sure doesn’t look like a Buick.”  I did get a smile but it wasn’t one of amusement.  It was an instant swelling of pride of ownership. Immediately I had to hear about the deal he got.  (You know someone is a good salesman when he can empty your pocket and you think you did great.) With all seriousness he started in on a list of the car’s features.  I was waiting for him to repeat a descriptive line I heard on the Price is Right when describing a prize car.  “It comes with paint.”  Really!

One of the worst things I could ever hear would be a variation on the Buick ad. “Are you a Christian?  You sure don’t look like a Christian.”  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?”  Matthew 7:16.  And in James 5:12 we read, “Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.”

I recognized the Buick at the pump by the emblem on the grill.  I hope we are not recognized as Christians by some cross on our lapel.  Instead the best recognition of all would be from what we are through and through.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 21, 2017

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It was 1949.  I was in the second grade.  Obviously my teacher knew nothing about Freud’s theory of child development proposing that at the age of seven little boys find little girls to be detestable.  We had double desks and at each desk she seated a little boy and a little girl.  My seatmate had just discovered the supposed enhancement of feminine charm by wearing perfume. I hated it and expressed my displeasure by asking if she was wearing, “An Evening in the Sewers of Paris.”  Instantly I was stabbed in my left arm with a newly sharpened pencil.  The graphite tattoo is still visible seven decades later.  What a different world we live in.  Today she would have been charged with assault.  Then, the teacher blamed me for my smart mouth.

As I look at the mark I am overwhelmed with the permanent results of our behaviors.  Each action whether positive or negative has lasting impressions on who we are and who we are going to be.  Things done that have long ago faded from our memories manifest themselves in our decisions, small or large.  How often do we excuse ourselves with the comment, “It’s no big deal”? It is bigger than we know.

It is wonderfully true that God is merciful and will forgive anything.  He will look at us as if we had never sinned.  Our brains are not that gracious.  Each of us is the accumulated fruit basket of a lifetime of choices.  Character building is our challenge. If we today are generous, polite and kind, we will be a different person tomorrow.   Paul so wisely wrote, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Philippians 4:8

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 20, 2017

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Each of us is offended by something. When something is contrary to our values and personal standards we react with revulsion and sometimes anger. We love our country and are more than irked when we see someone degrading our flag.  We love our mothers and want to retaliate when someone casts dispersion on their virtue.  Foul language and blasphemy arouse us.  And so it was for the Jewish people when Paul preached Christ and God’s mercy being the foundation of salvation and not our flawed attempts to perfectly obey the law.  The law was the perfect standard of God’s character.  It was the benchmark for justice.  When one reads Psalm 119, a hymn of praise for the law, one catches a glimpse of Jewish love for the wisdom and holy content of the law.

In Galatians 5:11 Paul speaks of the cross being an offense. He was describing the normal reaction one would have to anything heralded as having more value than the law.  The law was God’s gift to mankind and now Paul comes along and proclaims the law has been superseded by a filthy instrument of death reserved for the garbage of humanity.  A cross was not some beautiful object to be replicated in gold and worn about one’s neck.  Crosses were symbols of humanity at its worst.

The law could not save but instead it condemned because of our failure to measure up.  So often we have heard, “We are saved by grace, but . . .” What follows Paul called “yeast”.  See verse 9.  The yeast is anything that pollutes the purity of God’s gift on the cross.  If we allow, it will slowly permeate the entire Gospel.  That is the real offense.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 19, 2017

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I woke up this morning totally disoriented.  I had no idea where I was or what day it was.  It was not the most pleasant experience of my life.  My body must have awakened but my brain was still partially asleep.

Ever since I was a little boy and learned the story of Lazarus and learned that Jesus called death a sleep, I have been fascinated with the idea of a resurrection.  Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15, “I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.”  Those first few moments for those who have been dead must be extraordinarily disorientating with the brain trying to find some context.  If we continue thinking what we were thinking when we died the questions of “where and when” will be amazing.  I live in New England in a modern world.  What about the pilgrims buried here?  This is not the same Massachusetts they called home. It might as well be Pluto for all the differences.

Whatever God did for Adam the moment He breathed into the breath of life so God will have to do for all of us.  There will have to be, not only the creation of a healthy body but the creation of a mental context, a present tense, a now.  One of the things angels in the Bible usually said to people was, “Do not be afraid.” Whatever it will be I do know this.  We don’t want to miss it and because of Jesus’ love and grace we will not.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2017

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It is a rare person or group of people who does not long to be exceptional. Nations build monuments to their own glory. Richard Nixon made sure his signature and title were engraved on plaques affixed to the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 spacecrafts. I have had colleagues who demanded their students address them as doctor.  Even religious groups (perhaps especially religious groups) want to bask in their specialness as God’s unique people. I am not convinced God is overly thrilled with our ego’s seeking ownership of His care and love.

One of the first songs I ever learned was, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight.”  In Deuteronomy 10:17 we read, “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.”

What a great verse that is.  God does not take bribes. One’s largess means little if anything to Him since He was the one responsible for your having some wealth.  It is like giving your children money enabling them to buy you a Christmas present. We want so badly to be special.  The bad news is we aren’t.  The good news is that doesn’t matter because each of us is a son or daughter of the King of the universe with all the rights and privileges that come with that.  I say this with much fake humility since down deep in my heart I know my heavenly home will be nicer than yours.  (I think that sentence just disqualified me from getting any home.)  But wait He is able to save to the guttermost.  I’m still in.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 14, 2017

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Last Friday morning about 3 AM my dog bumped my bed.  It was time to take her outside so down the stairs we went and out the side door.  It was magical.  The moon was full, there were no night sounds and gray shadows displayed intricate patterns across the hostas.  Normally I am in a hurry for her to finish and come back in, but this time I wanted to linger.  Fetching a bottle of cold lemonade I sat on the porch steps waiting for dawn.  Eventually my dog came and snuggled.  She was happy to wait with me.

Waiting for dawn isn’t new.  Adam and Eve sorrowfully had to leave their garden home. They waited 900 years for a dawn that is yet to be as the darkness of sin encompassed their beautiful world. But, the promise had been given. A Messiah would come and what an incredible dawn would come with Him.  In II Peter chapter 1 Peter speaks of the surety of the promises and the dawn will come just as promised.

Together we basked in the moving moon and ever changing maple and oak shadows. Both of us were nodding when we saw the morning paper being delivered and we both knew it was time to retreat inside. Falling back to sleep was easy because I knew the dawn was coming. But before I was deep in slumber I heard the soft breathing of my beautiful lab rising from her place beside my bed.  She too seemed assured that dawn was not far away.  Indeed there is a new day dawning.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 12, 2017

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While identity theft is rampant it is not new.  In Isaiah 14 we read about Lucifer, who sometime in the ancient past said, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Perhaps Lucifer didn’t want to take over God’s persona as much as he just wanted to usurp God’s power and place.  Actually God would not have minded Lucifer taking over God’s persona.  Then Lucifer would become the kindest, most unselfish being ever created.  God wants us to so absorb His presence in our minds we could easily be mistaken for Him.  Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: . .”

Wouldn’t it be grand if people mistook us for Jesus?  I guess I am not talking about identity theft.  You can’t steal something someone gives you.  When we awaken in the morning surely God says, “Roger’s awake.  Now what can we arrange today that will build his character?  It might be painful and trying but the results will be marvelous. If he understood what was happening he wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 8, 2017

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A sandwich is a wonderful thing.  You start with two pieces of bread and the rest is all creativity. The possible combinations are infinite.  The end product is a work of art spanning the culinary range of a PB&J to a Dagwood.  I inherited my love for sandwiches from my father; though, I do hope my sandwiches are a bit healthier than his.  His idea of paradise was two slices of white Wonder bread laden with mustard and Lebanon Baloney washed down with an ice cold Pepsi.  It is no wonder he barely made it into his seventies.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Depending upon one’s choices a sandwich can be extremely healthy.

Sandwiches are like people. We start with a baby and the possibilities are limitless depending upon what ingredients we use.  Our choices range not only from the physical diet to surely the more important mental diet. We can fill the baby’s mind with wholesome, character building ideas or pour in useless drivel.  As we age the choices become ours.  We can watch endless hours of useless television or we can fill our minds with God’s Word thus preparing ourselves for a never ending life of infinite possibilities.

Psalm 119 is filled with promises of outstanding mental growth resulting from what we mentally ingest.  “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  Verse 11.  “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.” Verse 99.  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  Verse 105.  “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.” Verse 113.

A sandwich can grow stale.  May that never happen to you and me.  Stay fresh my friend.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 7, 2017

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