Category: devotional

Of all my blessings I count, the richness of having real friends is at the top of the list. At every stage of my life I have been surrounded by people who I would count it a privilege to give life itself.   My dearest one, of course, is the one who has shared my walk for over fifty years.   My walk has been incredibly rich with those who I believe would do the same for me. If they would not they had me fooled.

Once during the worst crisis of my life when I thought everything was gone a group of people surrounded me with amazing care.  When I took inventory of them many surprised me.  They stepped up from the background of my life.  I had not known they were there.  My crisis made my life richer.   One who did not surprise me by his presence surprised me by his depth.  He was an old friend who mailed me a signed blank check.   He told me to fill in whatever I needed.  It would be his worry to cover it.  I still have that check.

Have you ever wondered what you would want on your tombstone?  I think I would like to have the following.  “He had friends.”   And of course I must mention my friend from heaven who said to His disciples, “You are my friends.”   See John 15.

One spring day when the waters of the American River in California were particularly high and raging I had an incredible ride, or should I say swim since we were out of the raft almost more than we were in.  After hours of being bashed against rocks and gasping for air we safely arrived at our destination.  One of them seeing the glee in my eyes asked if there was ever a moment when I was afraid.  My response was heartfelt.  I said, “How could I be?  I was with my friends.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 8, 2009

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The yearly subscription price is only ten dollars for twelve issues.

That’s good.  However it gets better.  There is a guarantee that states if I do not save $1500 over the next year by following their money-saving advice, they will refund my ten dollars.  It sounds wonderful.  But wait.  How can I prove that I only saved $1475?  Do I have to keep receipts and compare them to the receipts from last year that I probably did not keep?  How much documentation am I going to need to get my refund?  How can I prove that I really did do “everything” they required?  The more I think about this the more convinced I am this isn’t really much of a guarantee?

This reminds me of an ad I once read that guaranteed my child would have a successful life if I purchased and read a book entitled, How to Raise a Successful Child.  How many decades would have to go by before we determined my child’s life was successful?  By whose standards would success be measured?   What if he became a billionaire but was miserable?   What if he lived on welfare but was amazingly happy and carefree?

However, before we over-generalize and declare guarantees worthless we have to remember car companies do repair or replace parts on our cars as long as the warranty is valid.  There are reputable guarantees and I want to mention the best one ever made.  It begins with I John 1:9.   “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

And of course there is John 3:16.   Our God is a God of His word.   When God makes a promise you can count on it!

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 6, 2009

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When I sit down to write, my dog heads for the kitchen wastebasket and        soon returns with the largest envelope or some other paper product she can find.  Snuggling up to my feet she then proceeds to turn it into a pile of confetti.  Night after night this occurs and night after night before I go to bed I get down on the floor and pick up the pieces of her handiwork. Or should I say paw and mouth work.

Why do I do this?  I could train her not to do it.  I could take it from her when she arrives at my feet.  But night after night I watch her make her pile of tidbits.  The truth is it does no harm and it is easy to clean up and it seems to make her happy.  Perhaps she thinks she is doing paperwork with me.

I wonder if some of the work I do is just as useless and God lets me continue because it makes me happy to think that I am doing something useful.  As long as I am doing no harm it is easy for Him to clean up after me.

I got to thinking about this because not long ago I listened to someone tell of all the great things he had done for God and I wondered if they really were great outside the realm of his mind.  Perhaps it was jealousy on my part because I could not tell such great tales of accomplishment.

However, I do believe God has something great for each of us to do.  I pray God will help each of us to hear the “Well done” we read about in Matthew 25:21.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 29, 2008.

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The fallen hawk lay on the forest floor.  He had not been dead long.  He was still beautiful and noble.  Soon he would return to the dust of the forest to become part of a flower, tree or vine.  How high had he flown?  What vistas had he seen? What conquests over mice and rabbits nourished him?  Why was his piercing scream now silent?  Was it old age?  Had he lived his three score and ten?  Or had a hunter used him for target practice?

There in death his remains would provide the essentials of life for a host of other creatures.  His death would provide life.  Thankfully God will take the memory of our personhood and on resurrection morning put it in a brand new immortal frame and body.

Jesus, who not only proclaimed Himself to be the resurrection and the life but also proved it, promises us so much more than decades of limited walk.  Centuries and millenniums await us.  We too shall soar like hawks and eagles with nothing to bring us down.  Surely one of the most marvelous verses of all scripture is Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 14, 2000

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It’s spring and the goldfinches are turning their lovely canary yellow.  It’s fascinating to note the different stages of maturity at our bird feeder.  One or two are bright yellow while some are still gray.  Others show various shades of transition.

I have always been fascinated by Paul’s addressing his letter to the Corinthians to the saints at Corinth. When you read the letter one soon becomes aware that these people were far from perfect.  A very important lesson may be drawn from this.  Each church member at Corinth was at their own personal stage of maturation. Yet each qualified to be a saint.  To Paul, the person who was an infant Christian qualified compared to the old hands who had weathered the battles of character growth and development.

Just as our gray goldfinches are still goldfinches, so everyone who makes Jesus the Lord of their life is a precious saved child of the Lord.  Justification makes us saints and sanctification is a reflection of our growth.  We are saints before we are sanctified.  Just as I am looking forward to all the goldfinches displaying their dazzling summer plumage, so our heavenly Father is anxious to see us radiating Jesus in our attitudes and actions.

There is a wonderful hymn with the words, “Just as I am without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”  Jesus never told anyone to go, clean up their act and come back later.  He first touched the leper and then said, “Be thou clean.”  Awesome.  Just plain awesome.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 27, 2017

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Last Friday morning about 3 AM my dog bumped my bed.  It was time to take her outside so down the stairs we went and out the side door.  It was magical.  The moon was full, there were no night sounds and gray shadows displayed intricate patterns across the hostas.  Normally I am in a hurry for her to finish and come back in, but this time I wanted to linger.  Fetching a bottle of cold lemonade I sat on the porch steps waiting for dawn.  Eventually my dog came and snuggled.  She was happy to wait with me.

Waiting for dawn isn’t new.  Adam and Eve sorrowfully had to leave their garden home. They waited 900 years for a dawn that is yet to be as the darkness of sin encompassed their beautiful world. But, the promise had been given. A Messiah would come and what an incredible dawn would come with Him.  In II Peter chapter 1 Peter speaks of the surety of the promises and the dawn will come just as promised.

Together we basked in the moving moon and ever changing maple and oak shadows. Both of us were nodding when we saw the morning paper being delivered and we both knew it was time to retreat inside. Falling back to sleep was easy because I knew the dawn was coming. But before I was deep in slumber I heard the soft breathing of my beautiful lab rising from her place beside my bed.  She too seemed assured that dawn was not far away.  Indeed there is a new day dawning.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 12, 2017

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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

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There are about 150 varieties of fuchsias each with a special name like pinwheel, flaming pink, cardinal, red spider, pink rain, and snowcap.   These plants have the reputation of being expensive and fragile—plants one buys each spring only to have them die each fall. However, in Ireland fuchsias grow like weeds.  They line the roadsides with red walls for miles on end.  They are beautiful, hardy and need no special care—they have found just the right environment.

People like plants will flourish if placed in the right environment.  Sometimes there is the temptation to think of some students as just bad kids—those kids voted most likely to end up in jail.  However, that does not need to be so.  Sometimes a student is hostile and belligerent for what we are tempted to think is no reason at all.  But usually there is a reason; we just do not know what it is.  It is the same for many adults. 

 Oh, that we would pray for God’s wisdom to know how to help those around us find the right environment—to flourish.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 19, 2004

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I called the 800 number to order a new batch of checks.  The nice man on the phone told me he was going to give me a nice leather checkbook holder.  When he finally stopped adding on this charge and that charge I complained and told him I was going to shop around.  “Oh,” he said, “I can subtract $10 from your total.  But, I can’t send you the leather checkbook holder.”  “Wait just a moment,” I said.  “Then you really weren’t giving me the checkbook holder.  You were selling it to me for an additional $10.”  I really should have hung up at that moment but I didn’t.

 

Don’t you just hate it when it becomes apparent that you are being duped? And when we object the duper plays innocent.  Nobody enjoys being a dupee.  How often in life are we dupable?   We have dupability and I hate it.

 

Let me assure you that when Jesus promises us eternal life as a gift He means it.  There are no take backs.  No, not once saved always saved.  We can give it back and so often we are foolish and do so.  But I repeat.  He never takes it back.  If God is anything He is honest, forthright, and open.  When Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive” He is transparent and telling the truth.  Satan is the great duper.  He is the liar.  He is the one who lures us with things that look good but are filled with death.  He puts the cyanide in Kool-Aid.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 4, 2013

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If I put all green wood in my wood stove nothing happens.  I can put all kinds of fire starters under them only to come back a bit later to find the fire starter is consumed and the green wood is just sitting there.  I would be tempted to think that wood would never burn.  But if I put one or two pieces of green wood in with seasoned wood not only does the green wood soon catch on fire but the fire lasts longer for when the seasoned wood is gone the now seasoned by association green wood is burning nicely.  The analogy almost writes itself.  Put a group of inexperienced young people on a project and mix in some older seasoned veterans and it isn’t long before those young people are very capable.

When Jesus started His ministry He gathered a mixture of young and mature men to be His disciples.  James and John were teens while Peter and Andrew were mature men with families.  Timothy must have been young because Paul told him not to let anyone despise his youth.  I was twenty-two when I began to pastor five churches in Iowa.  In one of them the youngest person was forty-five.  I learned so much from those midwesterners.  They were very patient.

Now I am on the other end of the timeline and I find myself learning so much from my college students.  If we keep our minds open we can always learn.  I have some very conservative friends and some very liberal friends.  I enjoy fellowshipping with both of them.  I sometimes think one group doesn’t think much of the other group.  I always learn if I don’t do so much talking and instead just listen.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 11, 2009.

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