Roger Bothwell

There truly is a lot of fake news and most of it circulates on Facebook.  It seems the more outrageous the story the faster people pass it on.  It was said that President Trump gave Germany’s Angela Merkel a multi-billion dollar invoice for past NATO expenses.  Both the United States government and the German government have stated it did not happen. But it made for an interesting few moments when we first read it.
 
Spreading fake news is nothing new. Please note the story of Jesus’ resurrection in Matthew 28:12-15.  “When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.”

So there is fake news, real news, bad news and best of all Good News.  When one thinks seriously about the Good News, it really is outrageous.  The disciples would have loved Facebook.  Outrageous news spreads.  Paul addresses this issue in Romans 5:19.   “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  And so the Good News spread. Yet the task is not yet finished.  It is up to us in the 21st Century to use the modern tools God has given us.  Today there isn’t any corner of the world that cannot hear.  Isn’t it time we all posted the Good News instead of what we had for breakfast?

I witnessed an argument between two earnest souls.  One had taken the position that Jesus miraculously, creatively produced more bread and fish at the feeding of the 5000.  The other took the position that the miracle was the opening of the hearts of those present to share what they had with them as had the little boy with his basket.

I would like to take a third position.  What does it matter?  The real point is the people were fed.  But the arguers were adamant as if they had been there and personally saw what happened.  While I tend to lean toward the creation of more bread and fish, I also think changing the hearts of selfish people is a great miracle.
 
Sometimes we get worked up, generate a lot of heat and hard feelings over issues that really are insignificant.  Issues that relate to our salvation – these are what matter.  How Jesus did or did not do something has not been shared with us.
 
I confess that through the years I found myself sucked into meaningless arguments and afterwards I always regretted it.  I went away wishing I had not spoken.  Silence on issues of which we were not witness to, issues on which God has not given us definitive information, issues that tend to divide us when we really don’t know the actual facts seem to me to be a ploy of Satan to draw our attention away from Jesus and His command to love each other.
 
I have some young men in my classes that are studying to be pastors and I see the fervor and fire that burns in their hearts.  Hopefully they will always use that zeal to lift up Jesus and proclaim Him and only Him to be our savior.

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.

I have a friend who lives in Africa.  On occasion we send him funds from Spring of Life to help with various projects.  Sometimes I am a bit amused and a tad offended by him.  When he needs something he begins his email with a plethora of compliments.  “You will never know how wonderful your devotionals are.  I am translating them into my native tongue and going to publish them so thousands of people in Uganda can be saved.”  When I read that I know what follows.  He needs something!
 
I am reminded of the literally thousands of prayers I have heard in churches since I was a child.  Often the suppliant begins, “Oh, mighty God, ruler of the world, master of the universe, Father of our magnificent savior Jesus Christ.”  That goes on for a while and the second half of the prayer is a list of prayer requests.
 
Have we never read Matthew 7:11?  “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!”
 
As a father I would have been extremely put off had my sons ever approached me when they needed something by saying, “Oh, wonderful and generous father, who truly lives up to the greeting cards that say, ‘Best Dad Ever.’”  I think that would have most likely guaranteed they would not get what they wanted.
 
God knows our needs and our wants.  He wants us to live the abundant life and yes we should thank Him and praise Him for His goodness to us.  But when it borders on psychologically trying to manipulate Him I doubt if He is pleased.  When Jesus told us to call God Father there was an important reason.

U. S. News and World Report has proclaimed Massachusetts to be the best state in which to live because of health care, infrastructure, etc.  Apparently the people at U. S. News and World Report have never tried to contact the Massachusetts Registration of Motor Vehicles.  I was put on hold an hour ago and this very moment while I am writing I am listening over and over again to the same insipid music.  In fairness I have to say when I called the machine warned me my wait time would be over an hour.  If we are such a great state can’t we hire a few more employees?  Or, at least, how about getting a bigger musical play list when put on hold?
 
We are so blessed not to be put on hold when we need to talk to God.  If His system was comparable to the RMV and calls were coming in from all over the universe we could have a century or so wait time!  At least the music would be heavenly.  
 
There are several promises in the Psalms regarding God’s listening ear and His response.  Psalm 91:15 is an example. “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.”   Psalm 139 is fabulous.  Please savor these words.  “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.”  We get instant response time because He is always with us.  How grand!    (The final wait time with the RMV was 2 hours and 24 minutes.)

I have a student who genuinely believes all the science involved in a search for a cure for cancer is a scam designed for a few people to get rich and all we need to do to cure cancer is eat raw foods and drink lemon juice.  At first I thought she was just spoofing me but she convinced me she was serious.  Oh, how I wish she was correct.  How wonderful it would be if it were that simple.  Something that wonderful could not be kept secret.  Good news spreads quickly.   This is the same student who did not know that our sun was a star.
 
Ignorance is not a sin.  At the same time to be ignorant is not a crown of glory making someone the envy of the world.  On my way home I thought of Paul’s counsel to Timothy, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  II Timothy 2:15.  I understand Paul was telling Timothy to be the best pastor he could be.  But inherent in the idea is a message for all who are not pastors.  Be good at what you do.   And to be really good at what you do, one needs to study.  We learn from those who have gone before us.  We stand on the shoulders of our parents and they on the shoulders of our grandparents.  We don’t have to start from scratch every few years.
 
We should study to rightly understand Scripture.  On top of that we should be informed about knowledge connected to our occupation and then to other arenas.  Unfortunately, knowledge is growing faster than any of us can assimilate.  Therefore, eternal life isn’t just a great idea.  It is a necessity. 

When in high school I belonged to our school temperance association.  For a reason beyond my understanding, the faculty sponsors took us to a night court in Baltimore.  I had never seen anything like that.  They must have emptied the drunk tank just as we arrived.  The courtroom was awful.  I can still remember the smell of cheap booze, vomit and men and women who had not bathed in who knows how long.  One by one in an assembly line they appeared before the judge, pleaded guilty to whatever charge, and were sentenced to time served and shuffled out the back door.  Next, they brought in the “ladies of the night” and once again one by one they plead guilty and I remember they were each fined $50.00 and shuffled out the back door.  For a teenage boy raised in a middle class home that made sure I got to church each weekend, this was another planet.
 
I hadn’t thought of this in years until this evening when I was reading one of my favorite books, The Desire of Ages – a life of Christ.   I read the following paragraph and this all came flooding back.  “Our Redeemer has opened the way so that the most sinful, the most needy, the most oppressed and despised, may find access to the Father.  All may have a home in the mansions which Jesus has gone to prepare.”
 
As I read the above paragraph, I suddenly realized my pharisaic attitude of feeling superior to those poor souls thrust me into their group.  Thankfully Jesus will forgive me.  Even snobs can be redeemed.  “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.”  Hebrews 7:25

In II Corinthians 3:6 Paul wrote, “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  I have watched good people struggle in a diminished state of despair over their inability to perfectly keep God’s law.  When they are honest with themselves they know deep down they don’t measure up.  Trying to keep the letter of the law kills.  The alternative is to be filled with the Spirit and understand the law in terms of love, true justice and safety from harm.  Keeping the spirit of the law brings life and joy because God gave us minds to discern how a loving person will react in any situation.  With the power of the Spirit that we CAN do!
 
Once grasped we can begin to understand Ecclesiastics 3. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, . . . a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”
 
Last week in Afghanistan, terrorists donned doctor’s garb, entered a hospital, went floor by floor, room by room slaughtering. Some people have given up the right to life.  The letter of the law would restrict justice.  The spirit of the law would allow loving, thinking, compassionate people to do the right thing to those animals. 
 
A life in Christ is a life of comprehension of what the law is and that true obedience is responding to the spirit and not the letter.