Roger Bothwell

Houses have memories.  The sounds of babies crying and children laughing are imprinted in the wallpaper.  The kitchen sounds of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner preparations accompanied by the sounds of football games and commercials in the background permanently give a home the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.  Before this week’s snow I drove past an old doghouse sitting by the side of the road with a big “Free” sign attached.  I wondered about its memories.  Was its owner long gone or was its passing recent?  Did the house have the sounds of puppies imprinted on the insides of its walls?  Some of the shingles were missing.  Was that from old age or did its owner imitate Snoopy and wear them off by sitting on the roof?  Whatever the answers to all these questions I hope it has good memories.  I hope its owner’s owner did not make him or her stay in that house in Massachusetts’s Decembers and Januarys.  I hope it was a summerhouse.  But now the house is “Free.”  Surely the new owner will not use it for firewood but will give it to a nice dog.
 
Houses are special.  Every house takes on the uniqueness of its owners. I had a new house once.  I never want one again.  I like moving into a pre-owned house with pencil marks already on the door frames of the bedrooms.  I like the scratch marks of a dog on the back door.   In John 14 Jesus tells us He has gone to prepare homes for us.  I want mine to come already personalized with wear marks on the stairs.  He could really personalize it by putting marks on the bathroom door frame indicating the heights of my sons at ages 3, 4, 5, etc.  That would be super special.

I used to think Thomas Edison took the honors for being persistent.  He worked 18 months until he got a light bulb that would burn for 13.5 hours.  However I now think a Korean named Seo Sang-moon might be the most persistent man in history.  He is almost 70 years old and after 271 unsuccessful attempts to pass the non-driving part of the driver’s test he passed.  It cost him almost a thousand dollars in fees but he passed on his 272nd attempt.  The test givers cheered.
 
In Luke 18 Jesus tells a very interesting story about persistence.  It seems there was a widow who needed judicial protection.  The judge was not a godly man and didn’t care a bit about her but finally granted her request because she endlessly pestered him.  He was sick of her and gave her what she wanted to get rid of her.  Jesus goes on to say if this ungodly man would give this woman what she wanted how much more will our faithful heavenly father hear us and give us what we need.  Jesus is not telling us we have to beg God for good things but merely pointing out the surety of God’s love.  We can count on Him!
 
I once heard a sermon based on this parable teaching us the necessity of repetitive prayer.  While there may be some benefit in repetitive prayer, not to change God’s mind, but to prepare us to receive, the lesson of this parable is just the opposite. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”   The God who loves us dearly hears us and will answer when the time is right.

Our New England world is sated with white.  One wonders if it could ever be whiter and still it falls from the sky.  The green boughs of our pines are laden.  The arms of our maples, oaks and beeches are dressed in bridal splendor.  It is a moment to savor the purity and imaginative touch of our Creator.  Amidst the falling blanket juncos, finches, cardinals and woodpeckers are banqueting outside our breakfast window.  It is so glorious and yet it comes with a sadness because it will end. 
 
Life is that way.  Every good thing comes to an end.  Our babies are given to us and in a blink of an eye they are married and gone to have their own babies and to blink.  The vigor of our youth melts into summer and fall.   Life’s winter brings its own whiteness if we are fortunate to keep any.
 
The wonder of Jesus is the whiteness that will never melt.  I love the way the New International Version renders Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  The matter is settled!  There is no negotiating.  God says it and it’s finished, sealed in love.  It is a whiteness without sorrow because it will never end. Aeons from now we will be pressed and wrinkle free.
 
Salvation is a glorious thing that will never end.  God’s measureless love is as huge as His universe. Therefore we must never fear He will change His mind.  “God is changeless in his love.”  Psalm 59:10.   Our world is sated with mercy and white.

Coming from someone who declared himself to be a Pharisee of Pharisees (See Acts 23) Galatians 5 is a doctrinal 8.9 earthquake.  It is an arrow piercing the core of our human nature that wants to do it ourselves.  When we are small and watching our parents do something we often cry out, “Let me. Let me.”  But we can’t.  Salvation is way beyond our skill set.  In the passage below taken from Galatians 5, Paul speaks specifically of circumcision because that was the issue of the day.  However, the foundation of Paul’s argument is the inherent principle.  That means we can supply any “work” in place of the word circumcision.  It could be food, tithing, etc.  Not that those are not important.  They are.   The point is they are not contributors to our salvation.  They are the fruit of salvation.
 
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. . . For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
 
Please note the “only” thing that counts.  It is a constant theme for Paul.  Please check out I Corinthians 13.  If I have not love I am only a clanging symbol.   Galatians 5 is Paul’s Emancipation Proclamation. It is a declaration of freedom.

All this week Friendly’s restaurant in our little city is providing huge sundaes free in honor of the Patriots’ Super Bowl win this past Sunday.  There is a catch.  You have to ask.  There are no signs on the door or anywhere.  It’s one of those things you have to know.  We’ve already taken advantage yesterday and today.  I think I’ve reached my sugar limit and won’t go tomorrow.
 
As I was spooning down hot fudge and vanilla ice cream this afternoon I thought of Jesus’ sayings in the Sermon on the Mount, “Ask and it will be given to you.”  Matthew 7:7  “How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Matthew 7:11 And in Matthew 6:8 He said, “Be not you therefore like unto them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before ye ask him.”  
 
This is fascinating.  Before we ask our Father knows our needs and yet we are instructed to ask.  Could this possibly have something to do with God’s battle with Satan?   Satan accused God of pampering Job.  Satan said God gave Him everything.  Could it be that if we ask, God can respond to Satan’s accusation by saying we asked?
 
Whatever the reason, unlike Friendly’s that doesn’t tell unless we ask, God tells us what we can have?  The Bible is full of promises for care, food, forgiveness, peace of mind and many other blessings.  God is a great parent and if what we ask is good for us, we can be sure it will be given.   If we ask for things that will ultimately harm us, the answer is no.   Check out the story of Hezekiah asking for fifteen more years of life.  That didn’t work out very well.

Being that I live in New England and being that the New England Patriots football team won the Super Bowl on Sunday and being that almost at the end of the third quarter they were down 25 points and being that no one had ever made a comeback to win being so far in the hole and being that the Atlanta Falcons were playing superbly, one would assume I would use that event as the foundation for today’s devotional, drawing the obvious lesson that no matter how big the mountain is before you, you should never ever give up, because miracles can happen and because this paragraph is one sentence with 131 words, I am not going to mention the Super Bowl because you are most likely not a Patriot’s fan. 
 
According to the dictionary a fan is an enthusiastic admirer, an enthusiast, an aficionado, a follower, a devotee or a supporter.  I want to say we should be fans of Jesus but there is something about that that seems shallow.  Loving Jesus is so much beyond being a fan.  Loving Jesus is making a life commitment to service and surrender of self.  When Thomas said in John 11, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” he was speaking of something so important and meaningful it was from the core of his being.  Blessed is the person who loves something worth more than life itself. 
 
I am not a fan of Jesus Christ because the word fan does not come near doing justice to the depths of love I feel when I contemplate the cross and the hellish experience of what happened to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  To die for Jesus is gain.  “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  Jim Elliot.

I was browsing a hymnal looking for just the right song to match my sermon this weekend when I spotted the old favorite, In Times Like These.  What a great song.  Ruth Jones, wrote it in 1944. WWII was raging and the Normandy Invasion was in June.  She wrote the words, melody and harmony while ironing – some people are so very gifted. 
 
“In times like these you need a Savior.
 In times like these you need an anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the solid Rock!
 
 This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He’s the One.”
 
It seems like we have been at war somewhere in the world ever since.  Has there ever been a time when In Times Like These wasn’t appropriate?  Every morning seems to bring us something unsettling and even startling.  I often wonder how people manage who don’t have Jesus in their lives.  He brings amazing comfort.  His promise “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” could not be more appropriate and calming.
 
Sometimes we look at photographs of earth taken from afar in space and we look so isolated and so alone hurtling through nothingness.  Thankfully appearances can be deceiving.  We are not alone.  We are watched, nurtured and loved by the one who spoke us into existence.  In Romans 8 Paul points out the logic that if God gave us His only Son will He not then give us all the things we need. 
 
He is our Rock not only times like these but in all times and anywhere.  With His help our anchor will hold.  That’s a promise.

JFK once said the secret of success is to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are and give good counsel. He said he wanted to be the dumbest person in the room.   Some people make the mistake of doing just the opposite and thus they never grow. 
 
Who counsels God?  If God knows all then who can argue, who can disagree, and who could change His mind?  I realize this sounds like one of those sophomoric questions designed for who knows what.  But, I was reading Genesis 18 where Abram argued with God over the fate of Sodom.  One might say that was not an argument, that was a negotiation.  So I went to Exodus 32.  God is threatening to kill the Israelites because of the golden calf.  Moses stepped in with the following result, “Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”
 
It appears that God is open to hear our ideas.  However, there is I Samuel 15:29, “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”  One might say in the above situations God never changed, He was giving Abram and Moses an opportunity to grow.  But that would mean God wasn’t dealing with them in good faith.
 
We also have Isaiah 1:18, ‘“Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord.”  Apparently Isaiah had a different relationship with the Lord than Samuel.  What we do know is God made us in His image and has given us rational powers.  We know He calls us to be His sons and daughters.  Good fathers don’t just order their children around they dialogue with them.  What a joy it is to talk with Him.

Things are not always the reality of their billing.  The line at the supermarket said, “Express Line – 14 items or less.” What was not true was the word “Express.”  The four people in line in front of me each had only two or three items.  The problem was the snail that was checking us out.  Not only was she the slowest moving human I have ever seen she was very nice.  She was so nice she was calling everyone “dear” and “deary.”  I was “deary.”  She seemed to genuinely care about us and wanted to know if we were well, did we find everything we were looking for, how was the weather outside and to top it off she was showing us pictures of her grandchildren.  I loved it that everyone was patient and kind to her.  But it wasn’t express.
 
There are so many things that are not what they are stated to be.  It started in Eden.  “Eat this fruit and you will be like God.  You will not die.”  It continues throughout history.  “We will be the master race.”  “Die a martyr and go straight to paradise with x-number of virgins.” “We are God’s special children.”  “God hates sinners.”  It goes on and on.
 
The need for us to spend time with God’s Word finding His love and care, finding His mercy and forgiveness, finding our purpose in life and finding that we can trust Him implicitly, is vital for our mental health and assurance that once we are part of God’s family the only way out is for us to leave.  There are some things that are actually better than stated and the big one is being a child of the Creator of the Universe.

One of my undergraduate students from Haiti came to class this morning looking like he had just stepped off the cover of GQ magazine.  His suit was well tailored, double vented with creases on his trousers that would cut your finger.  His tie matched a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his jacket and all was spotless.  The first words out of my mouth were “You look hirable.” 
 
It is so easy to judge someone by their appearance.  It is such a natural thing to do that James, Jesus’ brother, speaks of it in chapter 2.  “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.  If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
 
One of my favorite stories about Jesus is he touched the leper while the leper was still a leper.  Jesus honored everyone.  He could sit with Nicodemus or with Zacchaeus.   Of course they were both well dressed so let’s remember the demoniacs of Gergesenes. Both were disgusting to look at but in Jesus’ eyes they were his first two missionaries sent out to preach.
 
If we are to be like Jesus, everyone no matter how they appear, is a soul for the Kingdom.  Jesus saves to the uttermost.  Hebrews 7:25.

In my case this morning I am happy to say the inside perfectly matched the outside.  He is a fine, fine young man.   He really is hirable.