Roger Bothwell

Are you as irritated as I when the phone rings and you get up out of your easy chair, rush across the room, only to listen to a recorded message telling you that you have been called in response to an inquiry you made?  You know you never made any such inquiry.
 
In the mornings when I record the day’s devotional on our 800 line* I sometimes discover on the messages left behind that one of those machines called our machine.  In order for it to send its message it first has to listen to ours.  Only then can it leave its message.  I am amused at the idea of the machines talking to each other.  I wish their machine would as a result of listening to our machine repent.  If so then it would stop calling you and me.  A hundred years from now, if Jesus has not yet returned, we can send our personal robot to church in our self driving cars to listen to the robot the pastor sent.  Upon returning home our robot can deliver to us a word for word recitation of the morning sermon.
 
Sometimes I get the feeling that even though we are in church in the flesh that the same routines and the same prayers are not much different from robots.  If we have a friend to friend relationship with God I doubt if saying the same thing over and over really works.  Imagine an evening out with friends where you said the very same things with the very same words that you said the week before and the week before that. Jesus did say to us in John 15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

I’m finishing up a most interesting biography of the Wright brothers and I am very impressed with the extraordinary amount of work and risk of life itself that went into their amazing feat, which had defied so many others who had tried.   Many biographies are real snoozers while this one is a page turner.
 
I imagine that most of us think a biography of our lives would be very interesting, while an unfortunate few might think otherwise about themselves.  All of us are authors.  Each of us, even though we never put pen to paper, are busy authoring an autobiography.  We are a walking collection of experiences and memories, good and bad.
 
The joy of writing an autobiography is our power of choice as to which stories about ourselves we wish to remember or share.  I know some people seem to think because they have given their lives to God that they are no longer in charge.  They think they have stopped writing an autobiography and that God is writing a biography for them.  So often they speak of some decision they have made and they say God told them to do such and such.  What is nice about this is they have ceased to be responsible for what they do.  However it turns out, they can blame God.  If it is a good outcome they rejoice and are thankful.  If the results are not so good they say God is trying to teach them something.

I believe God gave us a mind and the freedom to use that mind. I believe each of us is writing an autobiography. God is not the author of our lives but He is an excellent writing coach.

Something caught my eye today while reading I Kings.  In chapter 7 we find the specs for the construction of Solomon’s magnificent temple.  When we get to verses 23 ff. we find the details for the giant laver in the courtyard.  Verse 23 reads as follows, “He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.”  Obviously the writer of Kings (We are not sure who that was.) wasn’t a mathematician or was into rounding off numbers.  I am not a mathematician so if I am wrong on this will a real mathematician please correct me.  If the laver was a perfect circle and I am sure it was, then the laver was either 31.4 cubits around and 10 cubits across or it was 30 cubits around and 9.55414  cubits across not 10.
 
Before someone gets sweaty about the Bible not being perfectly accurate please let me point out the function of Scripture.  It is not and was not intended to be a scientific or mathematical record of God’s dealings with His people.  The Books of I and II Kings and other books were historical records of God’s interactions with Israel.  In them we find stories of His guiding and often His frustration with humans.   In II Timothy 3 Paul said this about Scripture.  “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
 
The Bible is all about Jesus and grace and redemption and love and forgiveness and character building and nobility and hope and unselfishness.  It was never intended to be a math or science book.

Oh, she was an ugly little girl.  She was probably six-years-old and very ugly.  There was nothing wrong with her hair and nothing wrong with her eyes and cheeks.  Her nose was a nice normal nose. But she was an ugly little girl because of her mouth.  We were in an ice cream store when she came in with her grandfather.  He bought her a nice cup of chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and cherries.  As he handed it to her she decided she wanted sprinkles. But it was already paid for and he tried to explain.  Oh, dear.  I’m so glad you were not there to have to witness what happened next.  This was when she turned ugly.  Out of her mouth came a series of “I want.”  Next she was lying on the floor screaming that she wanted sprinkles.  Oh, she was an ugly little girl.
 
Strange isn’t it how selfishness makes us ugly.  Ugliness happens when we only think about ourselves.  Divas are not beautiful.  They only think they are.  I have never met anyone who wanted to be ugly.  People spend billions on cosmetics and stylish clothes trying to be appealing when all they need is a smile and a kindness extended to another.
 
There is a wonderful song in the musical Annie.  The words go like this.  “Check out ourselves ‘cause you know you’re never fully dressed without a smile!  Your clothes may be Chanel, Gucci your shoes crocodile, But baby you’re never fully dressed without a smile.” 
 
If only that ugly little girl had smiled and said, “Thank you grandpa for the ice cream,” she would have been so beautiful.  Alas, hopefully she will learn.

In the beginning of the twentieth century one in every four trees on the Appalachian Mountains was an American Chestnut tree.  Historical records here in Leominster, Massachusetts record seeing the mountain range here in Leominster being white in the springtime when the chestnut trees were in bloom.  Today there are only young chestnut trees which grow to about five feet and then they die from the blight that wiped out literally billions of trees in the first half of the twentieth century.  There is one mature left in New Hampshire and small groves in Michigan, Wisconsin and California.
 
This afternoon during a walk in the forest I stopped by one of the five footers, soon to die, and rued its coming death.  It will never reach its potential.  It is like us.  Man was created with endless potential and then the blight came.  Now we get only so smart and then we die.  In this life we never will reach what we could be.  God needs to use the old army recruiting slogan “Be all that you can be” as an appeal to accept the gift of Jesus’ grace.  It is only by living forever that we will be all that we can be. But wait, if we live forever and continue to develop forever then we will never be all that we can be, because tomorrow will bring new opportunities and new experiences.
 
Is there something you wish you could do?  Have you ever longed to play the piano, organ or some other instrument and never had the time to learn?   What about golf?  Sure you will slice and hook in heaven.  It isn’t a sin.
 
Accept the gift.  Be all you can be.

According to today’s Associated Press report, “Dozens of bills opposed by Gov. Paul LePage have become law because he misinterpreted the Maine Constitution and didn’t veto the measures in time, the state’s highest court said Thursday.”  And so we add another chapter to human history the results of what was either misunderstanding or procrastination.
 
Genesis 7:16 tells us after the animals and Noah’s family were loaded “the Lord shut them up.”  The Lord in His kindness to Noah did not give him access to opening the door so Noah didn’t have to say “No” to the latecomers.  The Lord had been very patient, 120 years patient, with the masses.  Finally, the day came when it was too late.  Just as the law said to Gov. LePage, “It’s too late” God said to the masses, “It’s too late.”
 
About halfway through a semester I can predict with about 75% accuracy which student will not have their term paper done on time.  There are certain personality types that are late for most things including not being on time for class each evening.  Last weekend while I was preaching three people arrived for church when I was two minutes from my conclusion.  I wanted to stop and do Porky Pig’s famous, “That’s all folks.”  I restrained myself.
 
God is still patient and loving.  But don’t misunderstand that to mean it is never too late.  Peter wrote, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 

I have a set of books called “Harvard Classics – The Five Foot Shelf of Books.”   It is a collection of the greatest literature of the world.  It comes with a daily reading guide that suggests reading selections for the day.   I have all 51 books but my volume #7 does not match the set.  My set is blue and my volume #7 is brown.   Am I being anal because this bothers me?  On Amazon.com I can get a matching #7 for a very reasonable price of less than ten dollars including shipping.  My problem is why?  I already have #7.  The only reason I would purchase this is because of some mental quirk.  When I look at the set it is not perfect. This is ridiculous.  I need to see a shrink.
 
However, there is much to be said in favor of perfection.  In Hebrews 2 Paul tells us that because Jesus was perfect He is now able to be our high priest and save us by His grace. “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
 
I have known sincere, serious Christians who have been miserable because they were trying so hard to be perfect because they believed it was the only way to be saved.  However, the Gospel is very clear about our salvation.  It is a gift.  Accept it and live and then together with the Holy Spirit’s help, out of gratitude, strive to be like Jesus.  Enjoy the teamwork.

I am a believer in secondhand cars and houses.  Let someone else take the depreciation on the car and let someone else plant the grass and the shrubbery.  I am even wearing a secondhand shirt.  I have even performed marriages for couples who are getting a secondhand wife and a secondhand husband.  There is much to be said for experience and learning not to repeat certain mistakes.
 
There is one thing I am not high on.  That is secondhand spiritual experiences.  It doesn’t work to be a fan or devotee to another person’s experience.  I have heard people say, “If Pastor Soandso says it.  It has to be true.”   I’m sure Pastor Soandso is a good woman or man and what she or he said works for them.  But what is important is for each of us to build our own relationship with God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into understanding.  First and foremost, we should be followers of Jesus and not another human.  The only way this can happen is spending the time necessary to build that relationship with God.
 
Reading the Bible for oneself, praying over a passage, opening up one’s thought processes to new ideas is the way to make this occur.  Find what works for you.  It could be reading an entire book of the Bible through at one sitting.  It could be reading each day until a verse speaks to you.  That might result in reading chapters or maybe reading just one verse.  When you find that verse stop reading.  Make it your marching orders for the day.  Write it on a card and come back to it several times.  The result is you and God will develop a fresh one-on-one experience.  It is yours.  It is not secondhand.

After going the same direction on our evening walk for about a hundred times, this evening I decided to go the opposite way.  My dog was very confused.  The resistance began at the end of the driveway and continued for almost the entire mile.  Every time we stopped for her to sniff she tried to reverse course when the sniffing ended.  She finally stopped wanting to go back when we rounded the last corner and she could finally see home ahead. 
 
For over a half a century I have been encouraging people to repent.  “Repent” meaning to reverse course in life.  Maybe it is less difficult for a human than a dog, but I doubt it.  Actually, I believe it is more difficult for us.  To let go of isms and ologies is very difficult.  I have watched Christians struggle to undo a history of hearing sermon after sermon telling them they have to do this and that to be saved, then suddenly try to “by faith let go and let Jesus.” It is easier said than done.  Repenting of a past understanding of the Gospel is not an easy task.
 
How much more difficult must it be for someone coming from a non-Christian background to repent of ingrained biases and habits that were forged in childhood. It is so easy for someone like me to stand up and say “repent” and then go home and not think about the burden I have just cast upon some sin-weary soul.
 
Just as my dog struggled to walk the opposite direction, we must understand and be patient with people who have set upon a new course in life.  The challenge of being like Jesus is not easy.  Words are easy.  Repenting can be very tough.

According to Leviticus 16 before the high priest could officiate on the Day of Atonement he had to change into the simple white linen garment of a common priest.  The symbolism was prophetic regarding the nature of Jesus’ coming to earth.  Jesus came, not as a king or ruler but, as a common man. In Philippians 2 Paul wrote, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
 
According to the book of Hebrews Jesus became our high priest after His ascension.  He is a unique priest.  He was our sacrifice.  Now He is our priest. There is no one and never has been any being in the universe that by personal experience so understands us. Notice how Paul says, “He made Himself nothing.”  Someday when we have the opportunity to see a replay of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem (You can be sure every detail is carefully preserved in Heaven’s libraries.) we will be shocked at the gruesome details of that wretched stable.  We are told Lucifer was taken aback and thought a mistake had been surely made.  How could the glorious King of the Universe so degrade Himself?

The next time we think someone isn’t giving us the respect we think we should have, let us remember Philippians 2 where Paul admonishes us to “let this mind be in you.”  He was speaking of Jesus’ mind.  Jesus “was treated as we deserve that we might be treated as He deserves.”