Author: Ian Bothwell

For years one of my sons worked on Wall Street.  For years I listened very carefully to him.  I was always hoping to glean just a tidbit of information that might alert my attention to a particular stock.  I knew better than to ask.  Insider traders go to jail. But I couldn’t resist hoping I could put two and two together for a hot tip.  I never got it.  He was always super careful and I was never able to glean an iota of investment information.

But I am still fascinated by the idea that insider information might be helpful.  Being that I am a family member in God’s family, I listen carefully for insider information.  Maybe I can glean a tidbit of information that might make gaining eternal life a bit easier.  But, wait.  How much easier can it be?  Romans 8:23 says eternal life is a gift.  The last time I checked the dictionary the word gift meant receiving something for free.

Now let me think about this. I am a family member.  I have connections.  Jesus is my Savior and Brother.  If there was a shortcut available surely He would tell me.  But how can there be a shortcut when something is already free?  So I have to conclude my kinship with Jesus isn’t going to make the deal any sweeter.  It’s already as sweet as it can get.  And I can begin reaping the benefits right now.  I Peter 1 says,   “. . . you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  Note the present tense in that promise.  I was about to say, “Sorry, I don’t have any inside information.”  Instead I should be rejoicing that there is no insider information needed!

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 2, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, Ca 94574

rogerbothwell.org

I, like most of you (I imagine), occasionally look at my paycheck stub and sigh over the deductions.  Then I sink into my easy chair to watch the evening network news.  There before my eyes is the video footage of hundreds of thousands of people streaming out of the middle-east fleeing savage carnage that few of us can even begin to comprehend.  I am so thankful to pay taxes for the wonder of our land.  The political zoo that is winding up now for the next year can be amusing but is also an example that anyone can run for president and say anything, no matter how outrageous or untrue.  We call it free speech.  Stop and think about the miracle that not one candidate will be beheaded in the coming months.

It is easy to be thankful when one lives here.  While there is probably an end to the list we could develop, it would be a long list. Once in a while I hear someone say, when asked to mention just one thing they are thankful for, “I have so many I can’t distinguish just one.”   Well, go ahead then and say two or three or four.  Or could it be they have no concept of what life is like for millions not here?

If life is all about being fair, when most of us get to the pearly gates Peter should say to us, “Sorry, you already had your share.”   How wonderful it is to know that life isn’t about fairness.   It is about mercy and love and family.  It’s about redemption from our selfishness and transforming us into a Christ-like creature.  Perhaps one of the very early steps on that journey is being very thankful.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 9, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

It occurred to me this afternoon had Jesus lived into His seventies He would have added a few beatitudes.  “Blessed are the nappers for they shall be refreshed.”  “Blessed are the early risers for they shall see each dawn.”  “Blessed are the grandparents for they shall spoil their grands.”  “Blessed are the walkers for they shall not be stiff.”

Jesus was a great observer of people.  His beatitudes and the entire Sermon  on the Mount is one of the greatest philosophies ever written.  It is intriguingly simple and astonishingly difficult.  There is something for everyone.  His challenge to be perfect as God is perfect takes one’s breath away just by thinking about trying to do so.  Fortunately for us it is not the requirement for salvation.  Yet it is.  The answer to the enigma is how.  Paul answers that for us in his letters to the Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.  Without Paul’s counsel we would be most miserable.  He wrote, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”  Eph. 2.

Jesus’ insight in Matthew 5 regarding sin’s most dangerous state being internal instead of external shocks us with a description of our true human condition and how much help we really need.  Teaching us to turn the other cheek when abused challenges the heartiest among us.  How often do we want to hit back and of course hit back a bit harder.  Kermit once sang, “It’s not easy being green.”  I would like to add it is not easy being a real Christian.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 15, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

It’s time in New England to start building up one’s supply of firewood for the coming winter.  When I take my axe in hand I feel like one of the ants and not the grasshopper who played his fiddle.  I have done my fiddling for the year. It is time to pay attention to the calendar.  It feels very manly to raise the axe overhead and bring it down on a nice round of maple.  It is a game to see if I can hit the mark for which I am aiming.  When I miss I hope no one was watching.  One would not want to hold the round of maple unless they have an excellent surgeon standing by.

It must hark back to Greek class in the seminary so long ago, but I can’t do this without thinking of “hamartia.”   “Hamartia” is one of the first Greek vocabulary words we learned.  It means to miss the mark.  Paul often uses it for the English word “sin.”  There is something almost comforting about “hamartia.”  It might indicate one was trying to do what was right and just missed the standard.  However, Paul does use the word in Hebrews 10:26, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, . . .”  In this verse it doesn’t sound like one is trying and therefore there is no forgiveness.  It is true we are saved by grace and all can be forgiven but we cannot spit on God’s grace by deliberately missing the mark.  Jesus offers to help us with our aim.

Just some thoughts while chopping wood on a September afternoon.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 17, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

It has been my observation through the decades that some of the most gifted people I know are the most unhappy people I know.  They are highly talented or wonderfully skilled and can out do 98% of us.  But it is the 1% who are better than they that frustrate them.  It seems that to be almost the best at something is far worse than being mediocre.  Those of us who are mediocre know better than to dream of having the masses know our names.  But when you are so very close so as to see the top and not get there produces misery.  Perhaps a new beatitude should read, “Happy are the average for they shall be satisfied.”

Regarding those whose characters and behaviors are almost perfect Jesus said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ‘And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; . . .’”  The danger of being too good is thinking we are very good and that will get us in big trouble.

Jesus did admonish us to seek to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.  But we should never ever rely on that as a ticket to heaven.  Paul says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

So if you are part of the 98% of us rejoice and be exceedingly happy with life knowing we are covered by Jesus’ love and we don’t need to worry about making it on our own.  Oh, that also works for the 2%.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 28, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

It was April, 1945 and I sat on a throw rug on our wooden floor listening to a radio that was as tall as I was.  It had beautiful decorative wood carvings over the cloth covering the speaker and the dial was fun to play with because of the wooing and wowing noises that occurred on either side of a clear station.  But this day I was not playing.  I was listening to the voice of Arthur Godfrey and he was crying as he was trying to describe the funeral procession for Franklin D. Roosevelt.  It was my first experience with death.  That night when my father came home from school we talked about death.   This was different from what I had learned in Sabbath School.  I had seen pictures of Jesus on the cross but He lived again on Sunday.  Why, I asked, wouldn’t President Roosevelt be alive again next week?  Maybe he could be like Lazarus and Jesus would call him forth.

My theology hasn’t changed much since I was almost three.  I still believe and I look forward to a great day when Jesus will indeed call forth His children.  Paul wrote, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”  I Thessalonians 4:16.

There was no doubt and there is no doubt now.  Perhaps the only difference is now I know where the promise can be found.  This is what being a Christian is all about.  Death will be destroyed.  No longer will we fear its separating pain.  This is not complicated.  Even a very little guy can get it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 29, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

Recently the president of the Seattle NAACP was scandalized because it was revealed she wasn’t black.  She had been pretending.  I honestly do not know why this was so awful.  Why can’t someone pretend to be what they want to be?  I have been pretending to be something I am not for most of my life.  I was a pastor and pretended to be a good man.  For years I have been a college professor and have been pretending to be knowledgeable about certain areas of knowledge.  The truth is my gift is being able to project confidence because I know a little about a lot of things but I am not an authority on anything.

When I was in college a professor, who I really admired, said to me after I made a presentation, “That was the most interesting nothing I have ever listened to.”  Instead of being hurt, I thanked him because I knew he was telling the truth.

All this brings me to my point.  As human beings, if we want to face the truth about ourselves, we are basically selfish.  There are a few unselfish people in our midst, a few.  But most of us who claim to be Christians are pretending. To be a Christian is to be Christ-like.  That is an insurmountable goal.  But I am committed to pretending because I believe if we pretend to be something long enough we actually become what we desire to be.  Our challenge is to be a better and better Christian pretender.  The wonderful thing about this quest is God promises to help us become.  Enoch was taken to heaven because he became so much like God.  That did not happen overnight. See Genesis 5.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 12, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

I have received several responses to the message regarding Fels-Naptha soap.  Most of them were about having had their parents use it to wash out their mouths because of lies and bad language.  No longer do I feel like I was abused.  My mother used Ivory soap.  It’s 99.44% pure.  Pure what?

Jesus is an interesting study in purity.  Hebrews 4:15 says, “ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  And yet we read of Him being angry.  “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man, ‘Stretch forth your hand.’ And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”

Obviously anger for the right reason is not sin.  Not to be angry would be allowing wrong to rule when righteous people do nothing. In Matthew 23 He lashed out at the religious leaders by calling them names.  In the following verses He is anything but being politically correct.  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  You are like unto whitened sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Jesus was purer than Ivory soap.  He was 100%.  But that did not mean He did not take action when He saw the poor and the powerless being abused by the 1% who had all the wealth and power.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 22, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

I’ve heard of it happening but it never happened to me until today.  My wife and I decided we would each like a Frosty from Wendy’s.  We ordered at the menu board and when we pulled up to pay the girl said, “You don’t owe anything.  The man in the car in front of you paid for you.”  Really!?  I looked ahead to see him pull out onto the highway and he was gone.  All I could see was he was black and had a fireman’s license plate.  I will never get a chance to thank him.  But I want to thank him.  One of life’s lessons is we don’t always get what we want.  Every time I see a black fireman I will wonder if he was the one.

But we don’t always get what we want.  Life serves us up good and bad things and we have to live by adapting to what is.  It is a good life lesson to learn.  If we don’t we will live frustrated and that really destroys the quality of life.  Paul wanted a particular thorn to be removed from his life.  We think it might have been a vision problem.  He wrote, “Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’”

If there is something in your life that you have repeatedly prayed about with no seeming answer, please remember God’s grace is sufficient for you.  Live with it, cope, manage, adapt and become stronger by doing so.  Be more of a person than before.

I think I will say thank you by doing the same thing for another person the next time I go to Wendy’s.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 1, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

Physicists tell us something called Dark Matter keeps the stars from spinning off into space.  Dark Matter is five times more abundant in the universe than the normal matter that composes you, me, your house and your car.  What is fascinating is they, we, don’t know what it is.  We can’t even see it.  Defining it and seeing it will be the next big discovery.

In the meantime, while super smart people are looking for it, I would like to tell them where to find masses of it.  It’s inside human heads and is responsible for people thinking they are serving God by blowing themselves and other into tiny bits.  Dark Matter is in the heads of those who think slicing off human heads, the most wonderful thing God made, brings glory to God.  Humans are made in God’s image and we cannot imagine Dark Matter in Adam’s head; although He did eat the fruit.  Somehow that stupid decision must have had a lot to do with who was handing the fruit to him.  She had to have been gorgeous and men make terrible decisions in the presence of gorgeous women.

Surely we exhibit the Dark Matter in our heads when we mistreat and abuse God’s creation.  When we are cruel and thoughtless, when we curse another person, when we mistreat a child, when we steal from someone or worse deliberately kill them, we are defiling something made in His image.  Jesus said if we do this even to the least of them we have done it unto Him, God.  It is no wonder Jesus called Himself, the Light of the World.  He and He alone is the solution to the Dark Matter problem that exists in us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 2, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org