Author: Ian Bothwell

This has been a weekend of transitioning my email from Verizon to Gmail.  It seems that I have been sending the devotionals to too many people.  Gmail is more generous and allows a bigger email list.  One of the issues is setting defaults to make everything work as desired.  I like defaults.  Going automatically to a setting greatly streamlines one’s tasks and saves a lot of time and effort.

Default setting for our characters are very interesting.  It’s great when our default settings are Christ-like.  It’s not so great when they are quite the opposite.  Some people don’t seem to be able to help themselves.  Their default is not to turn the other cheek but to strike back and they do it quickly without thinking.  And of course when we strike back it usually is a bit harder than the insult we received.  When cut off in traffic some people instantly go into a road rage mode.  Others’ default setting is to back off and let the offender continue on their way.  Jesus counsel is to “turn the other bumper.”

For seven decades I have been working on my default settings.  I want so much to react to situations as did Jesus.  On that fateful Thursday night over and over He was assaulted and over and over He kept His silence without retaliating in kind.  Jesus said in Matthew 26:53, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

Paul worked on this and counsels us in Galatians 2, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  I think he is talking about default settings.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 16, 2017

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I mentioned to a friend that all last week I had spaghetti for breakfast.  He thought I was daft.  People don’t eat spaghetti for breakfast.  When I asked him why not, the only real answer I could get from him was because that isn’t what we do.  How very easy it is for convention to dictate to us what we can and cannot do.  The power of culture, the routine of life, the hold of habit are so very strong; even to the point of sometimes mistakenly assigning moral implications of right and wrong to something with absolutely no Biblical basis or real ethical foundation.

Several years ago a Baptist pastor friend and I decided to unite our churches one evening for a joint communion service. It was a beautiful experience that changed our community.  Because we did some things a bit differently we did some their way and some our way. They did not have deacons pass the emblems to the people where they were seated but had the worshipers come to the front to receive the emblems from the pastors.  It was amusing to watch the expressions on the faces of our members when we asked them to the front.  You could almost see the smoke coming from their ears as their brains went into high gear trying to decide if this was morally right or wrong. Finally a few got it that the geography of where one ate the bread had nothing to do with its’ significance.  When they came the others followed.

Before we begin making a issue of something we should clearly understand beforehand if this is cultural tradition or God directed.  God loves nothing more than a clear thinking child.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 12, 2017

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After days of stifling heat our evening in New England was lovely and pleasant.  Wanting to be outside and do something useful, I grabbed some pruning shears and trimmed the English Ivy that was taking over many of the windows of my house.  I love the ivy but it can do a real job on woodwork.  As I was trimming away it struck me that I was “devining” my house.  I smiled as I thought that sounded like I was doing something holy to my house.  I was.  The word “holy” comes from the same root as “whole” meaning to make right and complete.  I was making my house right.

Now some of you are saying the word that pertains to God is “divine” not “devine.”  However the huge English Oxford Dictionary says “divine” came from an earlier spelling of “devine.”

“Ah,” I thought, “to make my life more “divine” (Godlike) I have to “devine” it because little by little, day by day, life can get choked out by bad habits that creep up and in like vines.  In order to be “divine” I often need to “devine.”

Words are fun but the concept of needing trimming once in a while is not just for mental amusement.  Jesus said in John 15:2,  “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 5, 2002

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It is imperative that I clarify yesterday’s devotional.  It would be very easy to read it and assume that Jesus was to blame for all the sins of mankind.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Lucifer has been trying to make God at fault for the sin issue from the beginning. God was not and never was to blame.  What Jesus did on the cross was to take the payment for our sins.  He paid the incurred price.  To say He was to blame would give Lucifer an excuse and a legal way to avoid culpability.

What Jesus did was to say you did it.  But I forgive you and I will take responsibility for payment incurred.  In the Old Testament Day of Atonement service there were two goats.  One paid the price by being sacrificed.  The other was taken to the wilderness and abandoned outside the camp because its function was to take the blame.  The first paid the price.  Blame was on the second making it not worthy to stay in the camp.

Our Jesus was our creator and when we messed up, justice demanded payment.  If we were to be redeemed someone perfect, someone with no sin of their own, had to pay.  If they were not perfect their death would be for their sins. Jesus fit the need.  Jesus stepped up and said, “I made them.  I will take responsibility.”  That was far different than blame.  They are very different things.  Jesus gave us Eden.  He gave us a perfect environment.  There was no viable reason for what happened.  The blame was completely on Adam and Eve.  At the cross the payment was completely cared for by the very One who made us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 11, 2017

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It was a Sunday afternoon and our family was sitting around the living room having a gabfest.  I was about twelve-years-old when suddenly there was aloud resounding snap.  As we looked about to see what had happened we noticed to our dismay the television screen was shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.  Everyone in the room was expressing dismay over the loss but I was extremely thankful.  I could not believe my good fortune.  It occurred with a circle of witnesses that I had not done it.  From a life-time of past events I knew I would have been forever blamed and if I proclaimed my innocence I would have heard, “Well, someone did it. Television screens don’t shatter all by themselves.”  But it had!

It is difficult to be accused of doing something wrong and not being believed when you know you didn’t do it.  Jesus was blamed for doing all manner of wrong.  “This man eats with publicans and sinners.”  But wait.  He did!  They were telling the truth. They accused Him of saying He would “tear down this temple and raise it back in three days.”  That was true.  He did say that.  They accused Him of Sabbath breaking when He healed the man by the Pool of Bethesda.  According to their twisted interpretation of proper Sabbath keeping, He was guilty.

And the apex of the sacrifice for our sins was the cross when He took upon Himself, not only our sins but the sins of the world.  He was guilty of the entire gambit of the world’s crimes. And He paid the price.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  Jesus had descended into Hell so we can ascend to Heaven.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 10, 2017

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Then this afternoon I saw something that reaffirmed my faith that not all is hopeless.  We were moving in a steady line of cars going 80 mph when off to the left came a mother duck with at least ten ducklings.  Seemingly oblivious to the situation she waddled across both lanes, babies in hot pursuit.  Brake lights lit up, cars moved onto the shoulders and to my amazement all ducks safely made it.   There is a children’s book entitled Make Way for Ducklings.  People do.

At this point I am tempted to write about Jesus weeping over Jerusalem when He said, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”   Matthew 23.   However, it doesn’t quite fit because the mother duck wasn’t caring very well for her babies.  Every duckling was on its own.  Jesus would never leave us on our own.   We cannot deny life supplies us with some very horrendous times.  But the Psalmist said, “Yea though I walk through the valley of death, thou art with me.”  Psalm 23.  And there is that fabulous passage in Psalm 139.  “ If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

I am encouraged.  More good than bad happens.  Usually it’s just the bad that gets broadcast on the news.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 7, 2017

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This afternoon we noticed that McDonalds had a special on pies – two for a dollar.  When we got to the drive-thru window the girl told us they only had one apple pie left but we could get a blueberry pie.  Much to my wife’s delight it was wonderful and she will most likely never again ask for an apple pie.  In Psalm 17:8 the psalmist wrote, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” The original meaning of the word “apple” in English was a generic term for any kind of fruit.  None of the Bible writers ever saw or ate what we now call an “apple.”  This gives any of us the prerogative to supply our favorite fruit in place of “apple.”

I think my wife is now going to render the text, “Keep me as the blueberry of your eye.”  So, just think of your favorite fruit and make the verse your very own.  “Keep me as the mango of your eye.”   I thought of watermelon but I’m not sure that is a fruit.  What’s your favorite?

The important idea is to know how much God loves us.  Think of our best and know that is what we are to our heavenly Father.  What God sees when He looks at us is not so much what we are now but what we will become.

I Corinthians 15 speaks of planting a seed and harvesting something  awesomely different.  Plant a tiny white seed and harvest a tomato.  They look nothing alike.

The blueberry pie was a serendipity for my wife.  We will be a serendipity to ourselves for we have yet to dream what God has in store for us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 6, 2017

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When one is a pastor one meets a vast array of interesting people.  When I am eighty I want to write a book about the “Stray Dogs and Alley Cats”* who through the years attended my church.  (I need to wait until I am eighty to make sure they are dead lest someone put two and two together.) One morning when we had over three thousand present someone whispered in my ear that the Zodiac killer had been in church.  This was north of San Francisco.  In a different part of the country (We moved a lot.) on many occasions I had a man come who had confessed to me of taking contracts for the mob.  I could contrast this with an evangelist who told me his goal was to win so many souls for Jesus his crown would be the brightest in heaven.  We once had a man who brought both his wife and girlfriend to church and sit with his arm around his girlfriend while she snuggled.

All of this brings me to Harley Allen’s song Stray Dogs and Alley Cats.  Some of the lyrics go like this.

“To bad for heaven and to good for hell

Little wings are better than big tails

I don’t expect to sit at god’s right hand

I could empty heavens garbage cans

Hope there is room on those golden streets

For stray dogs and alley cats like me.”

I find myself thinking there is very little difference between killer and evangelist, except maybe, the killer knew he needed Jesus.  I’m not sure the evangelist did.  The good news is found in Hebrews 7:25, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.”

*My thanks to Harley Allen.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 4, 2017

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“I don’t believe in anything that is not somehow tangible.  I have to be able to see it, feel it, etc.” so said one of my undergraduate students.  I’m suspicious he was trying to appear sophisticated to the coed he followed into the classroom. I remembered him last week as I entered a room with a massive eleven inch thick door.  I think the radiation techs would have disagreed with him as they positioned me on the table and then quickly left the room.  Before the buzz of the radiation gun I watched that massive door close and seal.  In a few moments the door opened the techs came in and I was walking out.  I never felt anything.  I never saw anything. I never tasted anything. But it was there.  It was real and the techs knew it was real.

At the close of Matthew Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”  Unlike many television evangelists who repeatedly recount God speaking to them, I have never heard His voice.  I have never seen Him.  However, I have no, not the smallest, doubt that He is. In Romans 1 Paul wrote, “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; . .”

I marvel at me.  I marvel at you.  I am awed by your intelligence and your ability to think new thoughts.  I marvel at the muscle memory needed for a three point basketball shot.  I marvel at the dexterity of a concert pianist playing Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto number two when the hands are faster than my eyes.

Our creator and our redeemer is real and we, you and I, are the apple of His eye.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 3, 2017

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For over 50 years my wife and I have always shopped together for our weekly groceries.  However, for the past month or so she has had to go without me.  The unexpected plus side is each week she brings me a treat.  B. F. Skinner would say I am being positively reinforced never to go shopping again.  This afternoon she brought me a cherry Tasty Pie, a childhood favorite.  But, it wasn’t just the price that has changed since I was a boy.  It used to be flaky crust laden with cherries.  Now it is a hard sugar crusted piece of folded cardboard containing about 4 or 5 cherries.  Alas.  But it was the love that came with it that mattered.

There is such joy in giving to someone you love, which brings me to Heaven’s response to Jesus on the cross.  Most prominently there had to be horror at the extreme torture we heaped on Jesus.  There also had to be revulsion and a desire to rescue Him.  But, it was a gift. It was the grandest, most generous; most extreme statement of love ever expressed anywhere ever.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”  When God gave us Jesus He made Himself poor.  There was nothing greater.  The Father emptied Heaven’s treasure chest as He restrained Himself from interfering.

When you love, giving is as natural as breathing. Today, 2000 years later, the Father continues to bless us.  “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”  Matthew 7.   Never hesitate to ask.  But don’t beg.  He hears us the first time and His generous wisdom will prevail.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 30, 2017

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