Author: Ian Bothwell

I have a problem.  We stopped at a Friendly’s this evening and I got a Fribble, a large chocolate milkshake.  Even before I got halfway to the bottom I filled up; can’t eat as much as I used to.  The server gave me a cup to use so I could bring it home.  Now I have the problem.  If I put it in the freezer it will get solid.  If I put it in the fridge it will turn to milk.  So where, other than my stomach, should I put it?  Please do not be concerned for my health and say down the kitchen drain.

I wonder if God ever wonders what to do with us; too good for earth but not good enough for heaven.  Obviously there was no problem with Enoch.  “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”  Hebrews 11:5.  And there was Elijah, “There appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”  II Kings 2:11.   Apparently both of these men really really pleased God.

So what about you and me?  I’m never going to be that good.  And I have my doubts about you.  The Good News is it isn’t goodness that gets us there.  It’s grace.  Eternal life is a gift of God.  So neither Enoch nor Elijah really was good enough.  Even for them it was a gift.  For us, as it was for them, it is not a matter of being good enough but a matter of pleasing God by thanking Him for the gift and wanting to grow more and more like Him every day.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 28, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

It’s the last day of summer 2010.  Autumn is knocking at the door.  The hummingbirds have gone south.   The males left about two weeks ago and the females just two days ago.  It’s time for me to get the firewood in the garage.   It’s also time to set mouse traps.  They sense the coming of winter and are looking for warm accommodations.  We were surprised this year to find a couple decided to live in my sister’s car.  We keep it parked by the woodpile so we shouldn’t be surprised they decided to move in.  I wonder what they think when they look out into the K-mart parking lot.   Apparently they are smart enough not to get out because they keep coming home.

Getting ready for winter can be challenging.  When I sit in church and listen to some very important offering appeal I am often tempted to empty out our savings.  But if we all did that retirement might be pretty harsh.  One needs to be judicious.  Jesus’ direction to the rich young ruler to sell all and give it all away wasn’t a universal command but a very specific remedy for a very specific problem.  Our problem is deciding whether or not that’s an excuse for our not giving more.

Balance is a very important word.  It’s not so easy.  One needs to sleep but not too much.  We need to eat but not too much.   And so it is with giving.  We need to give but not too much.  I once heard a preacher tell his congregation they needed to give twenty percent because that’s what the children of Israel did.   He failed to mention they had no other taxes.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 21, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

Friday night on my almost daily walk I was heading down our hill not watching where I was going.  I was absorbed in reading my email on my iPhone.  Hearing the sound of another’s footfall I looked up into the face of my neighbor walking up the hill absorbed with his iPhone. We were face to face a step apart.  Phew!  No collision.  Both of us were so attentive to something other than what was important; where we were going.

I fear this to be the case for a fair amount of my students.  They too are absorbed, with almost everything except where they are going.  But, perhaps it’s not just my students.  Could it be most of us?  It is so easy to fill our lives with paying the bills, raising the kids, transporting the kids to school, play dates and soccer and hockey that we have little time to think about where we are going.

I experience this so often when beginning a book.  I get caught sometimes going somewhere I don’t want to go.  Movies also do that.  The reviews are good and yet I soon realize this isn’t where I want to go.  Fortunately, God gave us choice and free will and just because we have started a book or a movie definitely does not mean we have to finish it.  We are in charge of our destinations.  My problem is that often I want to go where I don’t want to go.  On such occasions I remind myself of Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 26, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

We have amazing brains that compensate for our lack of physical perfection.  As we age and begin to lose hearing often we miss the first sounds of words so our brains instantly search our vocabulary and fill in what our brains thinks should be there.  They don’t always select the right word.  This is one reason older couples often get a bit cranky or short with each other.  They think the other has said something the other did not say.  Ouch.

Our brains do the same with our eyes.  We have a blind spot in each eye where the optic nerve connects to the eyeball. We don’t notice because the blind spot in each eye is just a bit off from the other and each eye covers the other eye’s blind spot.  If you desire to see if this is so Google “eye blind spot”.   It will take you to sites where you can test this by closing one eye and focusing on a + sign.  Nearby is a dark spot.  As you move your head toward the screen the black spot will disappear.  It is in your blind spot.  Now comes the interesting part.  You will not see nothing.  Instead your brain will fill in the spot with white just as it had compensated for your hearing loss.

We also have mental blind spots.  These are related to our relationships and at times we are blind to, let’s say our children’s faults.  Our brains will because of love choose the best possible interpretation for their failures.  If our brain is full of God’s Word or something of much lesser value our brain can only draw upon what is there.  Garbage in – garbage out.   God’s word in – God’s word out.

“Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”  Psalm 119:11.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 23, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St.Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I have come to a new meaning for Jesus first major miracle – the water into wine.  This is major because prior to this Jesus told Nathaniel that He saw him under a fig tree praying.  That was a minor miracle.   But back to the water into wine.  I couldn’t have understood what I am referring to when I was young.  This only can come with age.  Remember in the story how they questioned the host regarding saving the best wine until last.  That is what is happening to me and I hope for you.  The older we get.  The longer we have been with Jesus.  The better the wine gets.

There is a sweetness I never could have grasped when I first finished the seminary.  Then I understood the doctrines of the church.  Now I appreciate so much the abiding presence of Jesus and somehow the doctrines don’t seem to be as important.  I am referring to such things as the end of Romans 8, “Who can be against us?”   And motives are more important than deeds, “If I give my body to be burned, if I don’t do it for love it is a worthless sacrifice.”  And after attending so many funerals I so value I Corinthians 15, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”   Perhaps the best is the parable of the unjust judge who only gave the woman her request because he was sick of her begging.  God is not like that judge.  We don’t have to beg.  We can come boldly and ask and if it is good for us, we get it.  God is a loving generous Father.

Every day it just seems clearer. The wine just keeps getting better.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 22, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

My wife and I decided to go to Denny’s for breakfast this noon and play the “Who Went to Church Game.”  Fifty years ago this game was much easier because most of the men would be wearing a necktie, but that custom has waned making the game more difficult.  There was one elderly gentleman, anyone older than me, who was sporting a nice suit and tie.   He and his wife were easy.  There was another young couple with two girls wearing nice dresses.  Surely they had to be. Then there was another couple with a boy.  I hope they had not just come from church because much to my amazement they walked out without paying. I could barely believe what I watched.  Now I am going to make an educated guess that twenty years from now one family will have two wonderful brides and another family will be lucky not to have a jailbird.

I realize there have been many debates through the decades regarding nature versus nurture.  Just how valuable is role modeling versus inheritance? Most of us have come to the conclusion both are extremely valuable.  Not only do our children arrive in this world with our predispositions but they also watch us.  Speech and behavior patterns are copied and become a blessing or a curse to the next generation.

I have talked with many people through the years who have longed to write a book so they could leave a legacy to the world after they are gone.  A book can become a musty old object that fills our basements with unsold copies or sits on a freebie table at a yard sale.  But a child grown to adulthood, now there’s a legacy!

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 26, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There’s a funny thing about humans.  The kind of world we think is out there is the kind of world we see out there.  One would think the latter would come first but quite to the contrary. We are the designers of our world.  We don’t see the world that is.  We see the world we think is.  Once upon a time I knew a woman whose life was most miserable.  It is true she only had one leg but the last time I checked our limbs were not connected to our brain, the source of our attitudes.  I was her pastor and I have to admit (I shouldn’t say this) that I was happy for her when she passed away.  She sat home alone and had a rebuttal for every positive comment any of us could make.  Nothing we could say could get a smile.  I do so hope the Lord can make her happy.  None of us could bring even a tiny ray of sunshine into her dismal world. I hate to sound like someone from the Sound of Music but think of your favorite things and life wouldn’t be so sad.

The law of God’s Kingdom, the rule for happiness, is service.  When we set out to improve another’s life we are the ones whose lives improve.  It almost seems counter intuitive but God’s Kingdom is like that.  The first shall be last and the last first.  Matthew 19:30.   So how much sense does that make?  Very little in our way of thinking but it is brilliant when Jesus says it.  The reason being is He is the Master Psychologist.  He created us.  He designed our minds and knows exactly what we need for happiness.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 21, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We often hear people speak about having a sixth sense.  There are things we know even though they are beyond our five sense’s capabilities.  They are not empirical.  We cannot weigh them or measure them in any manner.  Yet they are real.  No one would say love isn’t real.  However, only lovers playing an up-man-ship game try to quantify love by claiming they love the other more than they are loved.   Justice is real but cannot be put in the balance held by the blind statue of justice.  Perhaps it is because justice cannot be measured that we often times want to retaliate just a hair more than our cause demands.

I have come to believe faith is our sixth sense.  It is something Jesus certainly thought we should have.  He actually expected us to have it.  Just in Luke we find the following.   Concerning those who lowered the paralytic through the roof, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’ ”  Luke 5:20.   He spoke of the great faith of the Centurion.  Luke 7:9.  To the woman who washed His feet He said, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” To the woman who touched his garment, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.”  Luke 8:48. To the cleansed leper, “Rise and go: your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:19.  The list goes on and on.  It is a great study if you are wanting to have a refreshing time.

In Luke 17:5 the disciples figured this out and asked for more faith.   Perhaps it is the greatest want of modern man.  We are so educated in inductive and deductive logic and in the scientific method of research it is difficult for us to reach beyond our rational minds.  Philosophers call it the “leap of faith.”  It does appear it is something we need.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 20, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

She was a contradiction, a walking irony.  As she waited on me at the checkout counter I could not help but notice her lack of grooming which was accentuated by the title under her name: Beauty Consultant.   She almost hurt my eyes.  I looked around to see if I was on Candid Camera and maybe I was.  There are so many security cameras these days one cannot tell for sure.

While driving away I couldn’t help but think about my calling myself a Christian. The irony of encouraging and exhorting while failing to be that which we proclaim is often excruciatingly painful.  Almost the entire chapter of Matthew 23 is a record of Jesus attacking the religious establishment for their hypocrisy.   I chose the word “attack” because that is exactly what it is.  There is no gentle Jesus meek and mild in Matthew 23.  He pronounces seven woes upon the religious leadership for “traveling all over the world to make a convert and then making that person twice the son of hell as you are.”  Ouch.  He tells them they are like white washed tombs, lovely on the outside and stinking rotten on the inside.

I am so thankful for Matthew 5:6 which says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled.”  Often the desire to be a good person is as powerful as any hunger for food.  Without Romans 1:17 I would be overwhelmed with despair but Scripture is very sure on this. “The just shall live by faith.”  Righteousness is not a matter of doing.  It is a matter of being.  And the being is a gift.  Paul assures us in Romans 5:17 that righteousness is a gift.   It is a gift God is so pleased to give.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 27, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

After years of watching I am still amazed at how long it takes my wife to get through the fresh fruit and vegetable section of our supermarket.  If she sends me with a list I can quickly pick up the melon, the tomatoes, the potatoes and the lettuce.  It is so different with her.  Each melon is carefully fondled as she sniffs where it had been attached to the vine.  The tomatoes have to be just the right mixture of shades of red and green.  Each potato is sniffed and lettuce is, well actually I don’t know what she does with the lettuce.  I just know it is done with the care of a scientist.

If God checked us out with such precision there is no way we could be saved. Thankfully we have an advocate with the Father.  He is Jesus Christ, the righteous.  I John 1.   He and He alone is so utterly spotless, so pure, so untainted, so perfect He can stand before the Father and say, “See me.  I represent the redeemed.  I give them the gift of my righteousness.”  Don’t misunderstand.  He is not a cloak that covers evil.  He throws away our filthiness and fits us with His robe of righteousness.  It is all Him from start to finish.  He is the alpha and the omega of salvation.

The end result of my wife’s diligence is spectacular eating.   The end result of Jesus’ diligence is a wedding banquet mentioned at the close of Revelation.  Just as there is nothing spoiled on my table there will be nothing spoiled on or at Jesus’ table.  He is a great fruit inspector.  When our records are examined there will be nothing there except fruits of righteousness.  The other things have been blotted out.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 28, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org