Author: Ian Bothwell

When people lose a sense of the divine they also lose respect for humanity. Instead of our being the product of love forged from the earth into the image of our maker, humans become an end-product of an evolutionary process on its way to who knows what.  We cease to be special.  We are merely a step on a lonely road with no purpose other than to reproduce.   All the achievements of mankind are nothing but a byproduct to fill up our time after we have bred and are waiting to die.  What is so sad is some proponents of evolution are now claiming they have proved it and the rest of us who do not agree with them are less bright.   Some of them actually call themselves “the brights.” How utterly contemptuous.  They need such pride and self-grandeur because that is all they are ever going to have. Self-love is such an empty trap.

Now I have fallen into the same contemptuousness. Instead I need to care. For the God they deny loves them dearly.  Jesus’ words in John 5:24 are so wonderful.  The moment we make Him the Lord of our lives we have entered eternity.  We are already living forever on our way into a kingdom of unfolding promises.  A year ago I got a new knee.  In pre-op the doctor was leaning over me.  An instant later he said, “It’s finished.  It went well.”  I was in post-op.  In John 11 Jesus said His friend Lazarus was sleeping.  He woke him.

Paul writes in I Thessalonians 4 the following, “The Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: . .”

What a stark contrast.  Just who are “the brights?”

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 29, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

We inadvertently ended up at a bonsai demonstration.  For over an hour we watched a real artist take a four foot tall tree and ever so cleverly cut and trim so as to prepare to turn it into a bonsai beauty.  I winced as I watched him trim off branches that I thought should stay.  He explained that when given a choice of two always cut off the thickest one.  The thinner one will be more pliable.  After he had the branches he wanted to keep he took heavy gauge wire and first wrapped it around the trunk and then around the remaining branches.  He could then bend the wire now holding a branch and form it to grow in any direction or shape he wanted.

I could not but think of John 15 where Jesus said, “I am the vine.”  Jesus talks about pruning.  “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.” After the man was finished he said, “Now come back in forty years and see how beautiful it will have become.”  I sat and thought of the things I have lost through the years.  Some of them I desperately wanted to keep.  But once gone, really gone,  now decades later I think I understand a little bit more.  Maybe I need to wait another forty years to really understand.

When you pray for something you really want and it doesn’t come to you, please be patient.  The Master Bonsai Artist is at work pruning and bending.  One of my favorite authors wrote, “If we could see the end from the beginning we would never question the way our Father has led us.”  Happiness in life so often is the fruit of trusting the Artist.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 24, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

“To be or not to be” is, apart from Scripture, one of the most known literary quotes of all time.  While Ophelia watches Hamlet ponders existence.  Surely all of us have considered “being.”  We don’t remember being born because we were not there.   Very rapidly as the months elapsed that baby assimilated quadrillions of stimuli, merged them with inherited endowments and a self emerged.  We call that self “me” or “I.”  Being has begun with all its positive and negative characteristics.  The challenge that follows is to make the best “me” possible.  We begin to practice the “fine art of being.”  It is an art to be a quality person.

Quality does not happen by accident.  Quality is honed and perfected. Quality is the state of eliminating as much of the negative as possible.  The fine art of being is an awareness of our inner motives. It is the honesty to recognize I do not like someone because they are more talented than I, they are better looking than I, they are more charismatic than I, they are more popular than I.  It is a thankfulness for the gifts of another without wanting to usurp them.  It ultimately is the ability to stand before God recognizing that any hope I might have for eternity is to know eternity is a gift and nothing I have earned.  This places me on even ground with all around me and there is a knowledge that I am no better than another, regardless of my education, my wealth, my religion, my race or my anything.

The fine art of being is the ability to enhance the being of others about us. We are here to serve.  We are here to make each other better beings.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 29, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

If you knew how to spell “Laodicean” you could be 40,000 dollars richer.   I know most of you are smiling because most of my friends have known this word since we were small.  Week after week preachers have been chastising us for being Laodicean.   “Laodicean” was the final championship word in the 82nd National Spelling Bee.  The problem with winning the money is we would also have had to have known “xebec,”  “menhir,”  “phoresy,”  “macenas” and many other words my computer tell me are misspellings because they are not even in the computer’s dictionary.

Usually I cannot write one of these daily devotionals without a misspelling. It was amazing to see these young people spelling words that make me feel most obtuse.  However in addition to being able to spell “Laodicean,” I can also spell “salvation.”   It is spelled J-e-s-u-s.   I can also spell “forgiveness.”  It is spelled J-e-s-u-s.  I can spell “peace.’  It is spelled J-e-s-u-s.  And yes I can spell “redemption.”  It also is spelled J-e-s-u-s.  That’s my spelling lesson for the night.

Just in case you have missed church on the weekends, the pastor has told us we were Laodicean.  Please turn to the beginning of the Book of Revelation.   There you will find a message for each of the seven churches of Asia Minor.  They correspond not only to actual cities but to time periods in the history of the Christian Church.   The last one, the period in which we live, is described as being lukewarm.  One can easily see how easy it is for a pastor to make us feel very inadequate when using this passage.

By the way the word “macenas” means a generous benefactor.  I found one. His name is spelled J-e-s-u-s.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 28, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

I opened a box this evening whose contents were wrapped in a plastic bag. I could not but notice the warning printed on the bag to keep it away from children was printed in fifteen different languages.

Languages are fascinating systems of sound symbols which were eventually turned into visual symbols. Speech came before writing.  We are symbolic creatures that communicate with each other via a variety of symbols.  The words you are reading right now are nothing more than a batch of symbols that we have agreed upon to mean something to us.  It is an interesting process of taking a thought from my brain and putting it into your brain.  It is superior to a Vulcan mind meld because I don’t have to be near you.  I don’t even have to be alive to do it.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John continually put their ideas about Jesus in our minds and they have been dead for almost two thousand years.

We also communicate with each other by our body language.  The expressions produced by our eyes and the curvature of our mouths often times speak louder than the words that come out of those mouths.  Often we communicate with others who do not know our language by the symbolic gestures of our hands and stance.

Jesus once said, “All men will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” I was vividly reminded of how tricky this can be.  Today in class I specifically said, “We show our love for God by how we treat each other.”  About two minutes later I verbally sliced up a student who irritated me.  As Paul once asked, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 18,2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

Today was campus cleanup day.  Faculty and students spent the afternoon raking, sweeping, spreading mulch and carrying away the last fall’s leaves. We do it every year just prior to alumni weekend.  We want the campus to look good for the homecomers.   Our problem today was the wind.  There were moments when the wind redecorated the dormant flower beds just as fast as we could rake them clean.

As I stood with leaves swirling about my feet I remembered other occasions in my life when I couldn’t seem to ask forgiveness for my sins fast enough because they continued to accumulate about me.   As fast as Jesus carried them away I replaced them with a new batch.  I found myself envying a colleague who told me he sometimes had trouble confessing his sins because he couldn’t remember any that he hadn’t cared for days before.   Then I remembered a verse that killed the envy.  It’s I John 1:8.  “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

I don’t think my friend thought he was lying.  I just think he was ignorant of the magnitude of selfishness that resides in us.  I think sometimes we are so full of sin and so used to it we no longer recognize its presence. I heard a preacher say if God revealed to us the full magnitude of our desperate situation we would just give up in despair.  God only shows us the truth about ourselves as we are able bear it.

The truth is very simple.  We are sinners and we have a Savior.  His name is Jesus.  He and He alone is the only way any of us are going to make it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 9, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

This evening I opened a small bottle of maraschino cherries.  The human mind is an amazing treasure house of memories triggered by sights, sounds and smells. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with a memory I have not experienced in decades.  When I was a small boy with brand new front teeth I got hit in the mouth with a baseball bat.  Good-by new teeth.  Dentistry was pretty limited then and our dentist was an old man who must have gone to school in WWI.  Visits to him were most unpleasant.  One warm sunny afternoon as my mother and I came out of his office she took me to a corner drug store.  Sitting up at the ice cream counter she whispered something to the lady with a scoop in her hand.  The next thing I saw was totally awesome.  There in front of my bulging brown eyes was a giant mound of vanilla ice cream smothered with twenty-seven whole maraschino cherries.  I never again had such a sundae.

Our memories are who we are.  Our memories paint a life.  While we are able to remember both good and bad, it is our choice on which ones we dwell.  The close of the Book of Revelation speaks of former things not coming to mind.  Some say this means we will not remember things of this life.  I do so hope they are very wrong.  If so, we will cease to be us.  I am sure the passage means we will be so occupied with positive things we won’t have time for negative memories.  I don’t ever want to forget my cherry sundae.  It speaks to me of my mother’s love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 10, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

Several times today I heard today called “Super Sunday.”  I don’t think so! I don’t care if there was a hundred yard interception return for a touchdown. There was only one “Super Sunday” and that happened almost 2000 years ago. Jesus had been in the tomb since Friday evening and not just Jesus’ disciples but the entire universe was in mourning. How could it be that the one who would later be described by Paul as “the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature” be dead?  How could the one who raised Lazarus to life be so mangled and torn?   How could those hands that cradled children be ripped to bloody shreds?  The horror of the weekend was beyond belief.  Even Satan was amazed that Jesus took it.  His plan had been to so torture, so mutilate, so debase Jesus that He would give up, declaring that we were not worth it.  But our Jesus is a real hero.  He took all that hell could heap upon Him.

Sunday morning an angel rushed from heaven’s throne with the most important task ever assigned to anyone or any angel.  The earth shook as he swept into the garden.  Some of the most wonderful words ever spoken followed.  “Thy Father calls thee.”  Surely Satan had mustered all the forces of evil to keep Jesus in that tomb. But one righteous angel is all it takes to defeat all the forces of Hell.

Oh, “I serve a risen savior.  He’s in the world today.  I know that He is living whatever men may say.”

The next time you hear someone talk about “Super Sunday,” if you can, remind them of the real “Super Sunday.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 1, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

Since no one in our house can sing we got a canary.  He is a super singer. He loved this afternoon’s football game.  He cheered all afternoon for the Pats.  At least I think so.  I haven’t yet figured out how to translate him. His name is Hymn.  It has a wonderfully ungrammatical sound to it when one asks, “How is Hymn doing?”  And the response is, “Hymn is fine.”  We need to invite our English professors over for dinner.  We can drive them crazy. But back to whether or not Hymn was cheering on the Pats or Miami.  If I somehow find out it was Miami, I will have to take away his seed cup.

Aren’t you glad God isn’t like me?  “You have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

How fortunate we are that God doesn’t turn off our food supply when we disappoint Him.  While it is true there are hungry people on earth, it is not God’s fault.   There is adequate food for all.  It is human politics that create famines.  God is generous with friends and enemies.  Note Romans 5:10, “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Hymn is a super singer and our God is a super saver!  No coupons needed.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 9, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

It’s almost springtime in New England and it’s pothole time.  Gigantic craters capable of jarring one’s teeth and literally ripping a tire off a rim have appeared overnight on heavily traveled streets.  Today we passed a poor soul standing by the roadside with a cell phone in his hand as he looked at what was supposed to be his left front tire.  That was going to be costly.  Sometimes they seem to magically appear and it is best to hit them straight on.  If one catches you at an angle you can lose more than a tire.

Have you noticed life is full of potholes?  Accidents, broken relationships, illnesses, financial difficulties or work problems seem to come out of nowhere.  One day you are happy and think life is okay and bang!  It happens leaving you startled and a bit woozy.  If it hasn’t happened recently, watch out your turn is coming.  It’s called “Life.”   Nothing lasts.  Both good times and bad times come and go.  Hopefully we are aware enough to relish the good times and not be swallowed up by the potholes.

In John Jesus promises us the abundant life.  That certainly has nothing to do with the Dow Jones Index.  It is about trusting the One who has proclaimed His love for us and allowing Him to carry us through the potholes we can’t get around.  When the hit comes we often think we are alone, but it is not the case.  He’s there ready to tow us to safety.

The most difficult potholes are the ones we should have been smart enough to avoid like not deliberately disobeying His Word.  As tough as that is He is always anxious to forgive.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Masrch 12, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org