Author: Ian Bothwell

We have this old wooden bear standing near our bird feeder.  It stands on its hind legs.  Knowing that our grandchildren would be here during the holidays, my wife put an old hooded coat on the bear.  Sure enough the birds quickly became used to the coat and continued to feed from the bear’s wooden paws.  Now comes the neat part.  One by one our grandchildren put on the old hooded coat and stood in front of the wooden bear. The birds seemed a bit cautious, something was different; never-the-less juncos, titmice and chickadees came and fed from the children’s hands. It was an exciting moment.

Birds are not the only creatures that can be conditioned.  Humans are especially prone to conditioning. It doesn’t take us long to change our behaviors, our sense of fashion, style and speech.  If we are told, enough times, that something is beautiful, we actually begin to think it is beautiful.  Many of us pride ourselves on being independent thinkers, but the truth is we are not as independent as we suppose.  Paul certainly understood this and thus warned us in Romans 12 not to be conformed to the world.  Ever so slowly our sense of right and wrong, our sense of decency, our moral code is modified.  Psalm 1:1 encourages us not to walk by, stand by and ultimately sit down in sinful places and ways.

The way to guard against such change is to continually focus on our benchmark – Scripture.  If we daily feed our minds on the purity of God’s Word we can perceive the lower standards about us.   However, should we fail to keep our eye on the benchmark, we will change.  It is our nature to do so.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 29, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

We received a box of Godiva chocolates for Christmas. They are an indulgent luxury one should never buy for oneself.  That being one of my core beliefs means I can only have a Godiva chocolate when given one.  This is the second time in my life. At that rate I shall never have another.  Forest Gump’s mother must have never had a Godiva chocolate because they come with a map.  She would have discovered life is not like a Godiva chocolate because if you read the map you do know what you are going to get.  She ate the cheap kind.  She didn’t know what life was going to bring.

As I sit here looking at the gold colored paper box it suddenly occurred to me that a life without Jesus is like the cheap stuff.  You don’t know what’s coming. It’s a life without a map.  A life with Jesus is a life with a map.  While the map doesn’t show us all the bumps in the road it definitely reveals our destination.  When I bite into a Godiva chocolate I know what to expect, except the reality is better than the anticipation.  Once again this is like a life in Christ.  We know what we will receive – eternal life. The reality will be so much better than the anticipation.   I wonder if Godiva ever considered I Corinthians 2:9 as a motto.  “Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard.”  Well, that really is an overstatement regarding candy.  But it definitely is no overstatement for the wonders and glory awaiting those who accept the gift of God’s grace.

While I cannot promise you a bumpless journey I can with all assurance promise you a safe and successful destination if you are trusting Jesus.

Written on December 28, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

We are in the midst of what the weather people are calling a blizzard.  The wind has for over three hours been blowing over thirty five miles an hour and has been pelting the sides of our house with tiny ice crystals.  At some point our eighty pound black lab has to go outside.  When I open the door she puts her head outside and checks out the birds flocking to the feeder for food, but she is reluctant to venture forth.  No amount of telling her to go has worked.  But when I attach her leash she pushes past me to lead the way.  If I am going with her then it must be okay and out we go.

She reminds me of me.  I depend on the last words of Matthew 28 where Jesus promises to always be with us.  I really don’t want to go anywhere without my Master.  When I was small I learned to sing  “Anywhere He leads me I can safely go….  Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade.”    When we are small we have our parents but as the years go by in the due course of time we lose them.   We become the big people. We become the security for our little ones.

Even though my dad has been gone for twenty-six years I still find myself impulsively wanting to call him and tell him about something that has happened in my life.  Then I remember that I can’t.  It is wonderful to know there is someone to call who is older, bigger, stronger and very interested in me.  Jesus is there.  So I call Him. Just as my dog seems to need a master so do I.   So do we.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 27, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

With the promise of many sunny 60 degree days ahead I decided it was time to wash the salt and crude off my car.  I pulled onto the track that would drag my car through a myriad of sprays and brushes.   Opening my window to pay the man I held out my arm with the money and he promptly hit me full in the face with a blast from his handheld sprayer.   Ouch – that stung!   So much for the friendly welcoming service promised on the sign out front.  I found my glasses on the passenger seat.  At least I was as clean as I wanted my car.  What amazed me is he still took my money.  At least I could have gotten a “freebie.”  However I think there is a limit to life’s freebies and I already got the one I wanted and needed.  I got John 3:16 because I believe.

Now that I have said that I do have to explain that just because it was free to me it was certainly not free to God and to the universe.   They watched the horrible ordeal as it moved from Gethsemane to the courts and finally to Golgotha.   At some point most of them stopped watching.  Who could watch such a scene?   I had a tough enough time watching Mel Gibson’s movie and I knew it was pretend.   What must it have been like when it was real?   No, it wasn’t free.

Yet for me it is free.  I have never been asked to sacrifice anything that was not in my best interest to shed.  God is like that.  If it’s good for us He wants us to keep it.  This is definitely good for us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 18, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I’m sitting here this evening thinking about gifts.  It is difficult not to do so the eve before Christmas.  Did I remember everyone?  Did I get the right thing?  Will they like it or will they regift it?  That would be better than having it reside in the bottom of a drawer for the next twenty years.  Would they give it back?  Nobody does that; especially if it is extraordinarily valuable.

But that is not always true.  People do give back the most precious Gift they ever received.  Usually it is young people with little if any developed concept of time.  When we are children the seventy or eighty years we have ahead of us is an eternity.  When they accept the Gift of eternal life from Jesus there is little difference between that Gift and what they already have.   Somewhere along the journey, perhaps in their twenties they give back the gift without a thought.  It just happens as they get busy with life and careers and families.  Life becomes too full for their relationship with Jesus.  Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder.  It makes the heart forget.  Hopefully in a few decades when mortality becomes real they will reaccept the Gift.  How grand that it is always there.  God never goes away.  It’s us that go away.

I have always wanted to regift salvation.  Of course I wanted to give it away and yet still keep it.  I wondered if there was anyone I would regift it to and NOT retain it.  Jesus asked, “What would a man give in exchange for His soul?”   For me the answer is simple.  My wife – my children – my grandchildren.  How amazing that Jesus gave it away for His enemies!!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 24, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our California children arrived late last night.  Hooray.  This afternoon in the midst of a real New England snowstorm we cut down our Christmas tree.  It was perfect.  The weather was perfect.  The tree was perfect and the company was perfect.  We put the tree in the garage to let the snow melt off before bringing it into the house.  On the way out the door to go to the grocery store my wife asked me to make a fresh cut on the bottom of the tree.  Now I must admit I was puzzled by this because we had just cut down the tree.  I made a feeble objection but I knew better.  While she was gone I made another fresh cut.  My son started to clean up the sawdust.  “No,” I explained. “Leave the evidence.”  I was feeling smug. When she came home she pulled the car into the garage over top of the sawdust. Can you believe it?  There was now no visible evidence to prove my compliance. So much for being a good guy.

Sometimes I obey God because I want His approval.   That is really silly.  If we have made Jesus our Lord we already have His approval.   God doesn’t want our obedience so He can declare us “Good Guys.”   He wants our obedience because obedience leads to the abundant life He desires for us.  Being good brings its own rewards just as being bad ultimately brings grief.   We actually leave evidence all over the place.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”   It’s very hard to hide the evidence when there are piles of it all around.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 23, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

In 1971 William Hall of Shrewsbury, England killed himself by drilling eight holes in his head with a power drill.  I know that’s a pretty gruesome way to begin this devotional.  However, the significant fact to note is that he drilled seven holes in his head and was still alive.  I could not help but think of a conversation I had with a college student.  He was convinced that some of God’s commands were really quite unreasonable.  He boasted that he had broken nine of them and was doing fine.  He hadn’t killed anyone.  He totally rejected my argument that God’s laws were made to protect us from ourselves and others.  I wish I had known about William Hall when I talked with my student.  Mr. Hall is a great illustration of the truth that you cannot continue to do something really stupid before it kills you.  One might get lucky for a few times but not for always.

The truth is God’s commands do make good sense.  God isn’t trying to deprive us of anything good.  Notice I said “good.”   God is trying to deprive us of heartbreak, pain, jail, ruined relationships, etc.   If it’s good for us God wants us to enjoy it in moderation.  No going off the deep end on good things.  Too much of anything is ultimately bad.  You can even go to church too much.

I figure this is a good time of the year to talk about Mr. Hall considering the fact that many of you have eggnog in your refrigerator, sugar cookies on the table, and boxes of See’s Candy given to you as presents.  Just because you over ate last year and got away with it doesn’t mean you can do it this year!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 22, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

It’s below ten degrees outside.  It is going to snow ten inches tomorrow.  I am cold.  I just put on a hat and a sweater on top of a sweater.  I am sitting here eating ice cream.  Now how stupid is that?  But it’s blueberry ice cream and it is so good!  So how many other stupid things do I do “just because.” “Just because” is a great reason for doing or not doing things. Do you remember using it when you were a teen?  Whenever a teacher or our parents asked us why we did something “just because” was the reason.  Either we did not want to articulate why or so often we really didn’t know why.

I know people who smoke but intellectually they know it is stupid.  When I ask them why, I get a “just because.”  While I do not believe everything Sigmund Freud wrote I certainly do agree with him that we live on several different mental levels and not everything we do is rational nor do we even attempt to be rational about those things. We tell ourselves “just because.” We are born with a collective unconsciousness that instinctively drives us often to self-destructive behavior.   God certainly agrees, that’s why in Exodus 20:5 He speaks of the fruit of our sins extending to the third and fourth generation.

It is no wonder David prayed in Psalm 51, “Oh Lord, create in me a clean heart.”   He was tired of the “just because.”  If we are looking for the abundant life Jesus promises, it is essential that we allow Him access to our inner being.  Jesus and Jesus alone can give us the power to move beyond the mere human.  See II Peter 1 for a promise of sharing in divinity now.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 28, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We have a new neighbor.  Recently he purchased a home close by that had been on the market for several years. I was working in the front yard this afternoon and he stopped and introduced himself.  When I went to tell him my name he said, “Oh, you’re Roger and I know lots about you.”  He went on to say he had as a boy been best of friends with the boy who grew up in our house before we moved here.  He said, “I have probably been in your house as much as you have.  I know everything about it.”  Then he went on to describe things in the house that were not here when he was a boy.  He described things on the walls and furniture.  That was super strange.  He explained.  His now best friend is a man who replaced our windows.  That man spent a lot of time inside.

As he drove down the hill I thought about God knowing all the trivia of our being.  He knows the secret parts of our hearts.  He knows stuff we don’t want Him to know.  He knows stuff that’s in there that we don’t know is in there.  It is amazing to think about God knowing everything.  Does that mean He is never surprised?  Is His foreknowledge based on knowing actual events or is it wisdom based on an eternity of experience?  After one has been around the barn a few times one knows what’s on the other side of the barn.   Could that be how He knows and our free choice could surprise Him by our doing the unexpected?  There is so much we don’t know and the only way to find the answers is to meet with Him face to face, which might not be as far away as we imagine!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 20, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Almost each weekday-noon my wife and I have a fine dining experience at Taco Bell.  It’s close to our school.  It’s cheap.  It’s fast.  And if you select wisely it is fairly nutritious.   Yesterday I said to the girl who takes our order, “Isn’t it amazing that I give you a small piece of paper and in return you feed us?”

“What,” she said.  “What are you talking about?”

Apparently she had never stopped to ponder our monetary system.  When I explained to her the five dollar bill I had given her was nothing but a piece of paper she seemed a bit dazed.  The only difference between a five and a twenty are the printed symbols.  The entire system works on faith.

Recently I had a student who claimed he didn’t live by faith.  He wasn’t a faith person.  He was a realist who only dealt in tangibles and things he could qualify and quantify.   I think you can guess what I next asked him.

“Did you buy lunch today?  What did you use to pay for it?”   His answer was even more intangible than faith in money.  He used a credit card.  He got his lunch with the sweep of piece of plastic.   Talk about faith!

All of us live by faith in so many things.  Just driving is an act of faith. Cars rush by us with the force of a hundred miles an hour.   We are going fifty one way and they are doing fifty coming toward us.  The only thing that separates us from instant death is a small yellow line of paint. Talk about faith!

So why not experience the ultimate act of faith?   Let Jesus save you. Let Him give you eternal life.  Let Him forgive your sins.  You are already living by faith.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 18, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org