Roger Bothwell

We have a fox who has decided he or she likes our yard. Just ten feet from our patio he has dug a den. Almost every night we get pictures of him moving about. We have a trail camera that is activated by motion. It is very novel and quite fun to have him here but we are concerned about our dog. She is fascinated by the den and every morning sticks her head in the hole. It seems fine for now but we are not sure what will happen if he is a she and we have kits this spring. How defensive a mother can be! Tomorrow our vet is coming to update all our dog’s shots just in case there is a problem.

It never hurts to prepare for mishaps. God gave us brains so we can take care of ourselves. That is why the Psalmist wrote in 119, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Horrific, unexpected temptations can suddenly appear and we need all the help we can get. Storing God’s Word is a great asset to have on hand. See Paul’s list of preparations for warfare in Ephesians 6.

We had a teacher in high school who refused to purchase any kind of insurance because he thought it would be denial of trust in God’s care. While we admired his faith we also were aware that bad things happen to good people and one should do all possible to be ready for mishaps. Sometimes we can allow presumption to replace common sense. Jesus did not jump off the temple just because there is a text about angels caring for us in all our ways. Jesus knew the word “all” meant being reasonable and sane.

I think I should create a Hall of Fame and fill it with interesting souls I’ve met on the road to paradise.  The first person I nominate is an old guy I met at the beginning of my ministry.  He was in his eighties when I first met him.  He needed a fresh new Band-Aid every day to hold up his left (or was it his right?) eyelid. He is memorable because of the number of times I went to his home to pray with him for deliverance from snuff.  His family, very conservative folk, told him he couldn’t go to heaven as long as he dipped into his little round tin.  He started using when he was six or seven years old and had used for eighty years. The days I went to pray with him he was victorious but if I missed a day he dipped. He wanted so much not to disappoint his family and Jesus.
 
At risk of offending some of the saints, during his funeral I was tempted to slip a small round tin into his coffin.  Perhaps at the risk of offending some of my readers I want to say I am sure I will see him again.  I do so with great assurance because of something Jesus said in Matthew 15.  “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”  Paul added his perspective in Romans 14, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
 
My old friend loved the Lord dearly.  He is safe in Jesus’ hands.  I wonder what he will look like without the Band-aid.

John 17:24 contains a fascinating concept.  Jesus prayed, “‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”  Before the creation of the world it was decided in heaven’s councils that Jesus would go to the cross to redeem mankind.  The fall was not a secret to the Godhead but would be an enormous disappointment to them.  When Jesus breathed into Adam the breath of life Jesus knew what He would have to do to enable Adam’s immortality.  The cross would be horrendous. The cross would be torture beyond physical pain.  It would necessitate Jesus’ separating from the Father so He could pay the price for sin.  Jesus’ cross was His glory.
 
How often it is that we complain when given a difficult assignment.  When given a great task that will require sacrifice and suffering the glory that follows is enormous.  When a soldier is greatly honored with a Congressional Medal of Honor it is because he or she has gone way beyond what a normal man or woman would do.  For the rest of his/her life the glory of their pain and sacrifice will be remembered. 
 
Let us never complain about trials and sacrifices.  Our successful accomplishment of them and overcoming will forever be our glory.  It is no wonder Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”

I sat down this afternoon with my high school senior year annual.  It has been decades since I cracked it open.  I wasn’t surprised that I could not remember the names and faces of those in the classes below seniors.  We were so important as seniors the other peons didn’t exist.  But what amazed me was I could not remember those in my class, some of which I think were in my class all four years.  By each picture there is a written message.  The messages basically all say the same thing. “Don’t forget the good times we had.”   I did.
 
There was one message that really puzzles me.  It starts off with “Dearest Roger, It has been swell knowing you this year. Really. Lovingly Yours, Gayle” It is beside a picture of some girl named, Linda.  Wow.  Who’s Gayle?  Who’s Linda?  Are they the same person?  If anything happened surely I would remember!!  I’m not that senile.
 
If this memory loss could happen after fifty years what will it be like to live forever?  So I am going to cover myself now by asking you to forgive me if we meet once every millennium or so and I have no recollection of you.  I’m sorry.  It must be in my DNA.
 
I get the idea that forgetting is a big thing in heaven.  “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  Hebrews 8:12.   God sets the standard and if we are to be like Him we also will forget each other’s sins.  There will be no grudges in heaven.  Heaven is a Grudge Free Zone.   And most importantly we will forgive ourselves.  Often that is much more difficult than forgiving someone else.

We had some serious wind this morning.  The roar of it moving through the maples and pines totally drowned out all other sounds.  But of greater interest was our resident Sharp-shinned Hawk.  He was hovering above me face into the wind and without a steady beat of his wings held his place without being blown away.   As an old pilot who has had his share of being blown all over the sky I was amazed.  How could he do it?  By what configuration of his wings could he maintain position in that fierce wind? 
 
My mind immediately went to Job 39, a magnificent poetic rebuke by God, where God asks Job question after question about nature.  In verse 26 God asked, “Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings towards the south?”  My hawk was heading west but the question was the same.  My wisdom was confounded.
 
There is so much that confounds me.  The list grows longer with the passing of years.  For so many things I have run out of logic and have surrendered to the truth that there is an eternity of things yet to learn.  Stephen Hawking, physicist and mathematician, has, after a lifetime of inquiry, stated there is effect without cause.  There was no beginning to the universe.  There was no first cause.  It just is.   I am fascinated because it seems to my feeble intellect that he finally has said what Christians have been saying about the creator God.  He had no beginning.  He just is.  And because He is, He intelligently designed us.  We have been accused of not being scientists but metaphysicians.  Now both Hawking and we are positioned by some kind of faith.  We are both in the same camp – ALMOST.

The card reader on my computer stopped working.  I tried everything my non-nerd brain could think to try.  I rebooted.  I restored my system to an earlier date.  I ran an antiviral program.  I turned it off and waited two minutes before turning it on again. All of this was to no avail.  Alas, I pulled all the plugs and wires and took it to a computer repair shop. I think you know what happened.  I thought it only happened with cars.  When the tech plugged in the computer the card reader worked. The only conclusion we could come up with was that by completely severing all power we allowed for a total reset.
 
So I thought maybe this is a good illustration of our relationship with Christ.  When it stops working we should completely disengage from God and then come back for a totally new start.  Then I realized this is a horrible illustration.  This is nuts.  It is true; rededication of our lives to Christ is a good idea.  But, we should NEVER sever our relationship so we then can renew it and thus enhance it.  That doesn’t make good sense.  It is akin to Romans 6 where people suggested they should sin more so grace could abound.
 
It’s like saying I should stop loving my wife for a week so when I start again it will be a stronger and better love.  We just can’t turn love on and off as if it were a light bulb.  Love is an integral part of our being.  With love we establish and maintain relationships.  It is love that brought us into this world and love that transports us to the next. 

According to Hebrew tradition there are 613 laws in the Torah.  Three hundred and sixty-five, one for each day of the year, are negative (the don’ts) and 248 are positive (the dos).   This does not mean principles were not understood.  In Mark 12 after Jesus had responded to a teacher of the law the man said, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  But it is indicative that obedience to law is paramount in the Jewish experience.
 
Thus the rich young ruler’s question to Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?”  Jesus’ response was very traditional.  He told the young man to keep the commandments.  The young man claimed to have done so all his life but he was still spiritually hungry.  After the young man departed Jesus’ comments about how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom led up to this exchange. “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’”
 
There it is from Jesus’ own mouth. If it were up to us we would never make it.  It is impossible. But He will not leave us despondent and heartbroken.  He adds that all things are possible with God.  Don’t fail to notice the word “all.”   That encompasses the very worst of us.  Can God save Hitler?  He can and would if Hitler had asked.  Stand back and be amazed!

It must be time for the Oscars because I hear people asking, “Who are you wearing.”  My favorite response was, “J. C. Penney.”  It is a great question to ask any time of the year.  And considering what Paul wrote in Galatians the answer is Christ.  Galatians 3:26 -7 says, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
 
This is a favorite theme of Paul.  He must have had a secret desire to be a fashion designer because in Romans 13:14 he wrote, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”   And in Ephesians 6 he has a whole wardrobe for us.  He starts with a breastplate of righteousness.  He tells us what shoes to wear and ends with a helmet.  Now that’s not something you would see on the red carpet in Hollywood.  Or maybe so. 
 
Paul wants us to be ready for anything Satan hurls at us and when we are wearing Christ we are ready.  In Romans 8 we read that nothing can harm us.  No powers of darkness nor angels of darkness are a match for us because we are more than conquerors in Christ.  Paul saw some really rough times.   He was stoned, shipwrecked and bitten by a snake.  Not to worry.  He had Christ. 
 
Jesus told us not to fear those that can harm our bodies.  Our bodies, unlike our heavenly identity, are temporary clothes.  When we are worn out, wrinkled and maybe torn apart by God’s enemies we will toss off this corruptible and put on a whole new body and wardrobe that will never tear or even fade. See I Corinthians 15.  
 
So who are you wearing?

I’m sitting here staring at a blank computer screen unable to think of anything to write about.  My face is illuminated by light from the screen.  There is just nothing there.  Wait a moment.  I have an idea.  According to the Book of Revelation in heaven there is a record of my sins.  But, according to the promise in John 5 about my not being judged because of Jesus’ mercy, my sins are blotted out. Blots are messy and if John understood the delete key on a computer I’m sure he would have said deleted instead of blotted.  Therefore, I am going to assume my page is like my blank computer screen reflecting only light.  I like that idea.  Considering the challenge of filling a page with text can be quite daunting, I have never been happy with a blank screen, but now I am.  The blanker the better.  Hmm.  If something is blank can it be blanker or blankest?  The thing is blank is sufficient. I would be being piggy if I wanted blanker.
 
One of my earliest memory verses as a child was I John 1:9.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  One thing is for sure I am a good confessor.  I’m the best.  As soon as I realize something is wrong I confess.  It isn’t because I think I will be thrown out if I don’t get right to it.  No.  A good parent doesn’t throw a child out of the family every time they do something wrong.  No, I am quick to confess because I don’t want to cause Jesus any grief because of me.  Love makes us want to please our lover.

It’s not every day one is cursed by a gypsy.  It wasn’t me.  It was my wife.  I was sitting in a park in St. Petersburg, Russia.  It was a glorious day and my wife had drifted off a way to take a picture when a 50ish woman, garishly dressed with bangles and beads, approached me and took my hand.  Turning it palm side up she began slowly chanting something in Russian.  About this time my wife returned and intervened before I was relieved of my wallet.  As my wife shooed the sorceress away she was rewarded with a spewing of words and arms waving signs of incantations finished off with a spit on the ground.  We didn’t need to know Russian to imagine what was just said.  For the next week I carefully watched my wife scanning her for any disturbing signs of deterioration or incoherency.  The palm reader would be highly disappointed as my wife just keeps getting better and better with each passing day.
 
Don’t you just love Romans 8?  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? . . . For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
That is just about the best thing anyone has ever written.  Praise God.