Author: Ian Bothwell

The New England forests are decorated with vernal pools laden with choirs of frogs that fill the night air with songs of romance.  As spring wanes and summer makes her entrance the pools will vanish along with the spring flowers nourished by their water.   Each day brings something new and says farewell to the occupants of now.  Everything but God changes.  How important to cherish the good things we have and relish moments of joy and togetherness.  This weekend my grandson was eager for me to note he had changed.  He is now taller than I.

I was awakened this Sunday by the aroma of scrambled eggs, sizzling links and baking sweet rolls.  It is usually that way when the children are here. Grandma plans days in advance for each course.  Nothing will be left to chance for this time must be cherished.  It might not happen again.  And if it does it will be different.  Each child will be older, bigger and more interesting.

We do grow more interesting as the years go by.  We have more stories to tell.  We have more honed opinions.  Hopefully our values shift from the tangible to affairs of the heart.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told us our hearts will be where are treasures are.  Optimistically as we mature our treasures become people.  We want to love things that can love us in return. I can love my car but it can’t love me back.

The reality and the pain of life is that the people we love all go away.   Either we leave or they leave.  It is just a matter of time.  Everything changes so cherish now.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 7, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

With the windows rolled down I stopped at an intersection.  The magnificent sweet smell of freshly mown hay filled the car.  As I waited for a lull in the traffic so I could pull out I heard the lovely call of a cricket.  I reached for my cell phone because that is my cell phone ring sound.  Someone was calling.  But there was no one there.  It was then that I realized there were real crickets in the grass by the stop sign.

I have often wondered how many people hear voices and think it is God.  How often have schizophrenics responded with Samuel’s words, “Speak Lord, your servant hears”?  How many major religions or denominations have been founded on such a premise?  Through the years I have had friends who told me that God told them to do such and such.  When I pressed them for specifics the answers were always vague.  I don’t want to be a skeptic but how can one be so very sure?   I had a pastor friend who announced to his congregation that God was calling him to another church.  Of course it was a larger church.  I have yet to hear a pastor say God is calling him to a smaller congregation. This particular pastor got to his new place and hated it.  So he went back to his old church.  What about the call?

I have people who tell me God placed a certain person in their life only to have the relationship sour.  The Children of Israel used say God led them to war if they were successful.  If they were not successful then God had not called them. I am digging a hole here for myself.  I sound like I don’t believe God leads us.  I do believe He does.   I also believe God gave us brains with which to make wise decisions.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 27, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

I wish Solomon had been with me this afternoon.  I went to Barnes and Noble. If Solomon thought the world was full of books in 1000 B.C., (See Eccl. 12:12) he would have had a cardiac arrest this afternoon.  They are stocked for the holidays and they have an amazing inventory.   I am thankful I do not have a compulsive disorder that demands I read all the books I see.  I would have had the cardiac arrest.

The question is “How many are worth reading?”   The answer depends on who you ask.  Each author would insist his or hers is worth reading.  It depends on one’s interests.  Isn’t it amazing how many ways we can configure only twenty-six letters?  As I strolled around I saw many old friends on the shelves.  They seemed to say “Hi” as I passed.  Some of them I have read more than once.  That seems a waste when one only has a limited number of hours in life.

It might seem that I should only read one thing once so I have time to read different ones.   But just like a few people in life are worth a lot of one’s time,  so it is with books. I have spent countless hours in John, Ephesians and Colossians.  I don’t regret one second.  As I write about it I think I shall read them again.  I have read Desire of Ages over twenty times; all 700 plus pages.

How about you?  What books do you enjoy and find useful?  Perhaps Solomon would have strolled about Barnes and Noble and declared one hundred, two hundred or perhaps three hundred really worth reading.  Never-the-less it is a grand place.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 19, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

Hot, humid, steamy and sweaty are just a few of the words to describe today. It was one of those days you stick to everything you touch.  As the sun set this evening it was huge and bright reddish-orange as it lowered into the summer haze.  It was so beautiful it made you want to look at it.  But even through the haze it was too bright to look.  I found myself trying to see it with my peripheral vision.  I did not want to miss it but I knew it was harmful to look directly into it.  I remembered one of my favorite childhood Bible stories.  It is found in Exodus 33.

Moses asked to see God’s glory.  “But God said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.’ And the LORD said, ‘Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.  Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.'”

I used to think that meant we would never see God’s face.  But of course God was speaking about humans in our sinful state.  Someday that will be all cared for. Paul writes in I Corinthians 15 that this corruption will be replaced with incorruption.   Then the words of Jesus will come true. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”   The brightness of His glory will be one of our rewards.  The gift is not merely eternal life.  That by itself could be a curse.   It is a blessing because it comes with a vast array of delights.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 18, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

While filling out a form at the DMV this week I was sitting on a bench beside a lady who appeared to be a bit older than I.  (All of them are older than I.)  I particularly noticed this one because she was muttering fairly loudly about how stupid the form was.   I thought it was pretty straightforward.  They just wanted to know if there was any physical reason why you shouldn’t drive, etc.  Finally, I offered to help her with it. She never did stop talking about how stupid the form was.   Ah, how human of her.  It is never our fault.  She was a true daughter of Eve.  “The serpent made me do it.”  It is so difficult for us to accept that when something goes wrong it is our fault.  If we fail a test it was the teacher’s fault. If we get a speeding ticket the officer was just waiting for us.  It is so refreshing to have a student say, “I’m sorry.  I watched television instead of doing my assignment.”   Actually I guess I never have heard that.  Instead grandma dies several times during the semester.   I think people must name their cat Grandma.

Can you imagine all the excuses and all the blame that will be cast around on judgment day?   No one will be lost because of their sins.  It will be someone else’s fault.  It is so Freudian.   I wonder if on judgment day someone said, “Yes, God.  I see you offered me salvation as a gift and I didn’t take it.”  Will God be so amazed He will give them another chance? Who’s to say?   After all He is a God of mercy and the parable of the workers hired at all times of the day tells us to mind our own business. God will save whomever He deems.

Written on May 23, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

It was 7:54 A.M. Thursday morning and I had an 8:00 appointment at Clinton Middle School.   When I pulled up something seemed wrong.  There wasn’t enough activity.  Children should have been moving.  The parking area should been a beehive of activity.  Turning off the car I slowly got out and headed for the front door and then it hit me.  I was at Clinton Elementary School. Right time.  Wrong place.  Fortunately for me the right place was only five minutes away.

History has not been so kind to others who have been in the wrong place.   We would all have been much better off if Eve hadn’t been at the wrong place.  Samson would have been a lot better off if he hadn’t been at the wrong place.   It was a place he chose to go even after she had betrayed him prior to his final fall. How often are major mistakes made because we allow ourselves to be or worse yet go to the wrong place.   Psalm 1 says it so well.  “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.”   It’s all about being in the wrong place and usually by choice.   So often we arrogantly think we are strong enough when we are absolutely no match for the master tempter.

Wisdom is found in the next verse. “His delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”  God’s law is wisdom.  It is there to protect us.  God only wants the best for us.   We can help Him by being in the right place.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 16, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

One of the worst things that can happen to a charity is a cure for the disease for which they are raising money.  If a truly effective cure for cancer were found all the executives who work for the American Cancer Society would be hard pressed to continue their jobs and thus pay their mortgage and car payments.   This actually happened years ago to the March of Dimes when we discovered a cure for polio.   However, they were innovative and quickly shifted their purpose to raising funds for research related to birth defects.

I was wondering what would happen to some churches if we all stopped sinning.  Sometimes we refer to churches as hospitals for sinners. Obviously, this is a purely hypothetical thing as long as you and I are alive on earth.   The reason I even bring this up is sometimes when I go to church I hear more about sin than I do about Jesus.  Sometimes guest speakers spend thirty minutes telling us how bad they were and finish with thirty seconds thanking Jesus for rescuing them.   I actually wish the time frames were reversed.  Then sometimes I am told how bad I am. I don’t need that. I really am an authority on me.  I think preachers do this sometimes when they are leading up to a call for people to come forward to accept Jesus.

If we think of churches as worship centers the eradication of sin would not cause a problem.   There are some wonderful accounts of worship in heaven.See Revelation 7:9-12.  It is a very impressive scene filled with angels, elders and beasts.  I don’t want to miss mentioning that we also get to be there.  How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 1, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Today I reminded my students that the semester is over in two weeks.  I received a rousing cheer.  Other than the fact that I wanted them to groan because they would no longer hear my splendid lectures, I remembered being a student and thinking the same as they.  One student said, “I wish it was over today.” How often do we wish our lives away?  A four-year-old wants to be five.  A fifteen year-old wants to be sixteen.  I am sure it is so they can get a driver’s license.   So what happens along the way?  A fifty-five-year-old does not wish to be fifty-six.   Somewhere in the middle of life we realize the clock is running.

When we have an abundance of time we wish it away.  So often we fail to value now.  It was rainy today and my students were complaining about the weather.  Few if any treasured the gray, the mist, the sound of the wind wrapping around the corner of the building.   I love to sit here with a book in hand and listen to the rain on the copper overhang outside my window.   I don’t want this night to end.  I don’t want this day to close.  I want to taste it ever so slowly.

Jesus has promised us eternal life.  I don’t understand what that means.  We are so used to having life in this small box of time.   When there is no end will we want to squander it?  Will it matter if we wish a hundred years would go quickly so we could get somewhere else?  Will we savor those we love knowing we can always have them?  I so miss so many people.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 22, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

My students come from places I could not imagine.  They have done and seen things I wish never to see or hear of.  Today after class one of my students lingered.  I try to take note and not hurry out lest I miss someone who needs me.  He was in his twenties and from the Bronx.   I had begun class with a passage from John 10 where Jesus promises to hold us safely in His hand.   Not looking me squarely in the eye he said, “Why would God want me?” Great question.  Why would God want any of us?  Especially those of us who think we have reasons for being wanted.  We are most likely the worst cases with which God has to deal.

Opening my Bible I read to him from Ephesians 2.  Paul wrote, “God . . . hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”   Why do I like Christmas?  Why do I like birthdays?  So I can give those I love something nice.   There it is.  God saves us for the express purpose of showering us with exceeding riches of grace and kindness.  In ages to come we will be granted intellectual gifts, privileges beyond our present imaginations.

Thousands of years ago God said, “Let us make man in our image.”  He never stopped dreaming that dream.   Today before you go to bed look in a mirror and see the raw material of the image of God.  Yes, you.  Ages and ages hence you will be so like Him we will have trouble telling the difference. How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 25, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

I was fascinated today to watch two women and one man eating at Taco Bell. For over ten minutes the two women were engaged in a conversation with each other while the man talked to them.  The problem was they weren’t listening to him.  It was as if he wasn’t even there yet he talked as loud as they were talking.  They just weren’t listening to him and he didn’t seem to notice.  He just kept on talking.

I felt like I was watching the Christian Church trying to communicate to the world.   The world is busy talking and the Church is talking but few are listening.  We spend millions on evangelism with little result.   In my home church in the past decade we have spent a quarter of a million dollars on evangelism and the attendance is the same or less than it was ten years ago. One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.   I fear we keep doing it because we don’t know what else to do.  But the world is not listening.

I know I should not speak of this unless I have a better idea.   We are hungry for a better idea.  It seems the number one thing on our prayer list is for God to inspire us with a better idea.  We want so badly to proclaim the Good News.  We want the world to know the joy of salvation.  Could the problem be the world sees little joy in our midst?   Could it be the Christian Church has become so involved in politics we have lost our primary mission?  Could it be that our presentation of the Good News sounds like bad news?   Just wondering.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 7, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org