Roger Bothwell

Perhaps in an attempt to make the world a better place, if only in our fantasies, we have filled our culture with a host of fictional super heroes.  Summer movies, comic books, novels, television series entertain us with good guys, often existentially conflicted, fighting evil. It is not just little boys who long for super powers to right wrong. As fictional as it all is there was a super hero who walked among us.  He could have jumped off a tall building, He chose not to.  He never punched anyone though He was struck over and over.  His only episodes of rage occurred when He saw political and religious powers abusing the poor and even then He never struck anyone.  He used extraordinary power to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and life to the dead.  He maintained remarkable self-composure by not calling angels to come to His rescue. He did psychological battle with His arch foe.  He allowed that foe the privilege of literally grinding Him into dirt in a battle over His and our futures.
 
If Charles Dickens had written of the cross surely he would have used his famous passage from “The Tale of Two Cities” for Jesus instead of Sydney Carton. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”   And where is Jesus now?  According to Hebrews 1, He is sitting on the throne of glory.  And what is He doing?  He is trying His best to woo us into His love.  Jesus is the ultimate super hero.  There is none even closely like Him.

This afternoon I stood in front of a glass box containing a manikin fortune teller.  For a dollar I could put my hand on the glass and the seer would read my palm by comparing my life line, etc. to a preprogrammed template.  Obviously I kept my dollar safely tucked in my wallet.  I need it for the children’s offering in church this coming weekend.  Anyway, I already know my future.  I am going to live a long, long, long time.  Actually I am going to live forever.  I am going to be extremely wealthy.  Jesus promises in John 14 that He has a place prepared for me. I am going on a long journey to the center of the universe.  I am going to be extremely healthy with a new body.  See I Corinthians 15.   My future is already planned out so I don’t need the swami in the glass box nor any other pretender.
 
If you would like I can read your future.  If you make Jesus the Lord of your life you will have already crossed over from death to life.  See John 5.  “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”   And if you have not made Jesus the Lord of your life I am sorry to say I also know your future and it isn’t very bright.
 
If you would also like to join me in being a fortune teller feel free to do so.  It is not a private club.  It is just a matter of reading and accepting the promises from a loving Father who always keeps His promises.

Having gone for a walk in the forest this afternoon we all had to detick when we got home. It’s very difficult to walk in the forest without harvesting a crop that is ready to eat you.  The coyotes and bears move away from you but the ticks just love a warm meal.  You are that meal.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the bite but some of them, the really tiny ones, can leave you with a variety of nasty diseases.
 
This is like spending a day in the workplace.  It’s tough doing so without picking up some pretty nasty sins. Jesus is the only person I know of that could mingle with such as us and not come away contaminated.  Yet even He felt the need for prayerful reinforcement and thus would spend nights in prayer.  I wish I understood what that meant.  So often we think of prayer as talking to God but I don’t know how to do that without being repetitious.  Just listen to the prayers in church.  Each week they are basically the same.  The clichés and metaphors are the same no matter who is praying.   They are just rearranged and put in a different order.  Often times when someone prays for a long time they are usually saying the same thing over and over just using different words.   So I am intrigued when I read Luke 6:12, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
 
One thing He did not have to do is “detick.”  But He did need those hours in prayer so He did not need to “detick.”  Meaningful prayer is a fascinating topic most of us need to spend more time pondering.

Two of my granddaughters are sitting close by me watching a Netflix program on a laptop.   Each of them is also playing a game on their cell-phones.  At first the seeming duality of their interest span intrigued me but then I realized this is not new.  It is only different.  How many times have I been in church, totally bored, and thus read my Bible?  Somehow that seemed kosher.  But I have also sent text messages back and forth to someone on the other side of the congregation.  Often we excuse ourselves by tricking ourselves into thinking we are good multi-taskers.  I am not sure there is such a thing as a multi-tasker. Instead I think we get good at tasking in rapid sequence, quickly turning our attention back and forth.  The result being that we don’t do either task very well.
 
Then again multi-tasking is recommended in Scripture.  Paul wrote I Thessalonians 5, “Pray without ceasing.”  He knew we had lives to live and work to do.  And yes, I understand, he was talking about a life-style of being in company with God.   The wonder of the human mind is that we can drive and listen to the radio.  We are marvelous beings made in the image of a God who can monitor every being in His vast universe.  God is the ultimate multi-tasker able to attend to our every need.  Never fear that He is too busy to hear you.  Not only can He hear, He is anxious to hear you.  You can turn off the car radio and talk with Him as you drive.  You can make Him happy and in turn He will make you happy.   It is a win-win.

Our house is full of grandchildren for the week.  I think my wife’s face is going to crack from smiling so much.  Five of six are here.  The sixth, the oldest, has joined the world of work.  Alas, the end of her childhood has come.  I can imagine God’s house filled with us, His children.  There will be so much noise and chatter as we share with each other the joys of eternal life.  I do so hope God’s face doesn’t crack from smiling so much.  He will most likely be in danger of such for His happiness at the end of sin and our final redemption will be over the top. It is something He has waited for since that sad day described in Revelation 12. “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” 
  
We will not fill the empty places left behind.  As anyone who has ever lost a child knows, nothing fills the void.  However, another child fills a new room in our hearts.  We will fill new places that Jesus has prepared for us.  John 14.   And once again the universe will be “at one ment,” a great break down of the word “atonement.”
 
Heaven isn’t about streets of gold.  It is about love and family and knowing those we love are safe.  I do hope my wife’s face doesn’t break this week.

Laura Bassett and her English soccer team were on their way to the final game of the 2015 World Cup when the ultimate nightmare became a reality.  In an attempt to clear the ball from the area near her net she inadvertently kicked the ball into her own net giving the Japanese team their ticket to the final game in Vancouver against the United States.  It is difficult to imagine her self-loathing and remorse.  She has become the poster child for all of us who have time and again not only failed at something important but actually destroyed our own dreams.
 
Often I have heard people speak about Satan tempting them.  I would like to take the stance that all Satan has to do to defeat us is to be patient.  It is merely a matter of time until we score one for the enemy.  We don’t need anything other than our own human nature.
 
Paul, who was so ardent to be Christ-like, wrote in Romans 7, “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!”
 
Dear Laura, welcome to the human race.  The only difference between you and the rest of us is the world was watching when you became one of us.  We know you will mentally play and replay that fateful moment over and over for years to come.  But please forgive yourself; one of the hardest things to do.  If anyone doesn’t understand that only means they are afraid of the truth about themselves.

Surely people are the most interesting thing God has created.  We come in an infinite array of shapes, colors, weights, ages and intelligence. This afternoon I watched a wisp of an elderly lady dine.  Her dyed hair did not disguise her life experience.  What amazed me were her three trips back to a soup bar, her three large bread sticks, a full sized cheese burger and fries and two large colas.  I’m sure I weigh twice what she does and I could never have handled all that food.
 
People watching is so much more interesting than bird watching or any other kind of watching.  Stars are predictable but people can be most surprising.  Someone asked me what I thought we would do for eternity and my response was people watching, angel watching, alien watching, etc.  There will be so many beings to interview.
 
I’m sure for the disciples Jesus watching was filled with surprises.  When they expected Him to chase away children instead He invited them to come to Him.  When they expected Him to shun lepers instead He touched them.  When they thought He would snub the woman at the well, she was the first person to whom He revealed His true identity.  When they thought He would foster the favor of the religious establishment instead He indicted them for hypocrisy.   Jesus watching will also be incredible for us because according to Hebrews , “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”   That is definitely worth watching.

If they had been red-winged blackbirds we would have been bloodied.  Instead they were robins and we were merely royally scolded.  We had come too close to a baby just out of the nest.  I must say they put up a significant defense.  The little guy was flapping his wings but going nowhere and mom and dad were doing all they could to facilitate his flight. 
 
Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and wept for His people as He said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”  Little has changed.  He still longs for us to allow Him to gather us in.   He wants to come and take us home and yet, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  II Peter 3:9.
 
God longs for us to take flight and soar to new realms.  It is not a matter of waiting until some future time.  Just as those parent robins were urging their baby to fly God is calling us to new levels of achievement and righteousness.  Our lives are not to be humdrum but to be exciting adventures in development.  It does not matter how old we are, opportunities abound for new growth in our intellectual and spiritual facets.  He promised to send us His Holy Spirit to live within and thus continually be updating our talents and understandings.  In Hebrews 1 we are promised angels to attend this growth as they bring us care packages from His throne room.  This is a great family.

It was in the late 1940s when the circus came to town with its elephants, bears and tigers.  They took the animals off the train cars and walked them through town to a big tent.  It was all very exciting.  These were the days way before being politically correct and the circus came with a side show.  There was a fat lady, a midget, a tall skinny guy, a snake charmer and for two cents you could see the tattooed lady from far away Borneo. (She was probably from Brooklyn.) My mother would have had a fit if she had known my father had taken me inside.
 
It all came back to me this afternoon at Denny’s.  A scantily clad tattooed woman paraded by our table.  I didn’t even have to pay two cents.  She looked askance at me for staring.  But really isn’t that what she wanted? 
 
Most of the time I wish to be invisible but there are times when I do want to be seen.  Those are the times I want people to see Jesus.  I’m not too wild about that when just walking down the street but if I am in the classroom or with a group of friends I do so hope my demeanor would radiate the love and kindness of the One I wish to be like.  He told us people will know who we are if we have love for one another.   While I do not have any tattoos there is one I wish I had.  No not a picture of a sailing ship or my dog.  I wish to have Jesus tattooed on my heart.  Just maybe someone will know.

He was one street-smart, battle-scarred yellow cat.   His half chewed off ears told tales of territorial battles won and lost.  He definitely knew his way around.  He was a veteran of life with all his missing parts to display his valor.  As I approached he stealthfully backed under a bush.  He was way too smart to challenge a four thousand pound car.  Being brave doesn’t mean stupidly taking on something that outclasses you.  Being smart is a vital component to being brave and intelligence separates the courageous from the foolish.
 
Psalm1:1 is great counsel for the truly brave.  “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.”  One should only place oneself in such jeopardy for a noble cause, not just to taste and see, one should flee at first opportunity.  One cannot expect to mingle and play in mud without getting soiled.  Jesus was able to pull that off.  “This man eats with sinners.”  However, Jesus also spent entire nights in prayer fortifying Himself to do daily battle with one determined to destroy Him.
 
As I was thinking about that old yellow cat I found myself hoping not all our scars will be removed in heaven. It would be boring if we were all uniformly the same without reminders of victories won.  While it is true we shall all be saved by Jesus, it should also be true that we should have identifying scars of valor obtained in the cause of righteousness.