Author: Ian Bothwell

The Lord made some people gardeners.  The Bothwells were not some of them.  We do not grow food.  We eat it.  For a short time when our boys were very little in Africa we had a small garden cut out in the midst of a patch of elephant grass.  At no time in our lives in America have we grown eatables.  We have gathered wild blueberries and asparagus where God planted them.  So this year when my wife decided to grow a tomato plant in a tub we were pretty much garden virgins.  You can imagine our dismay when a ground hog started munching on it.  But my wife fortified the plant with chicken wire and we now have tomatoes.  It was a rare day this afternoon when I walked by it, plucked a nice round red juicy fruit (or is it a vegetable?) and ate it right there on the spot.

They certainly do taste better than the ones from the supermarket.  It brings new meaning to Genesis 1:11- 12.  It was the third day of creation. “The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.”

Now I am wondering if brussel sprouts and okra taste good if they come fresh from the garden.  But alas, I think it is too late for us to become gardeners.  We do live in New England and the growing season really isn’t very long.  Maybe in heaven God will put a garden area in my back yard with no weeds.  I hope I don’t disappoint Him if I fail to use it and instead buy my veggies from a neighbor with a squash patch.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 24, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

Do you ever feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football?   Opportunities appear before you and you take a deep breath and go for it only to have Lucy yank it away at the last minute.  So you pick yourself up, brush yourself off and keep on keeping on, waiting for, hoping for another opportunity.  Maybe, just maybe, the next time Lucy will forget to yank the ball.  Do you ever look at the news and see masses of people and wonder what opportunities they have or have not had?  It is so easy to be critical of illegal immigrants but maybe this was their only chance.

Those of us who were born hearing the Gospel often smugly write off the billions who have never heard.   Or if they did hear they heard it through us flawed messengers who failed to make it attractive.  The Good News is so wonderful when rightly presented.  However, our actions so outweigh our words, we nullify attempts to share with others.  Instead of being the one trying to kick the football we become Lucy.  We are the one who yank it away just when someone begins to consider.

During the time it took to read this far another thousand people died without hearing the Good News.  Are they lost?  Do they not have an opportunity to rejoice with us on resurrection morning?  There is a text in Romans 1 that hints to us there might be many more opportunities in this universe than we know.  God can’t be put in our small mental box.  He is way too big and far more loving than we.  I believe He is the God of opportunities.  Lots of opportunities.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 21, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I bought a time machine.  It is a wonderful device by which I am digitizing 45 years of slides.  Before me on my computer screen are these two very thin dark haired people with two little boys.  Who are they?  They are very good looking and appear to be very happy.  Oh!  I know who they are.  It’s us – my wife and boys.  Wow.  We looked good.  So what happened?

Even though the slides have lost much of their original color and are often covered with dust spots there is the wonder of Photoshop.  A few clicks of the auto color button and the pictures look like I took them yesterday.  A few clicks of the replace button and the dust specks disappear.  Oh, this is grand.  I wanted to say this was as easy as getting the spots off my record in heaven.  But this is much easier.  This photo process cost a few dollars while the spots on my record required the cross of Jesus.  That was the most expensive price ever paid for anything.

Hopefully, though we might not look as good on the outside as we did decades ago, we are much better looking on the inside.  Hopefully our characters have been steadily improving and behavior-wise we are much nicer, much kinder, much more generous people than we were.  Sometimes we shudder when we think of some of the things we did and said to others.  Hopefully, should we be in similar situations we would react in a much more loving way.   This growth is what life is all about.  To be more today than we were yesterday and yet more tomorrow.  Here’s looking forward to the day when we will never again need to be Photoshopped.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 20, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

One of my richest blessings in life is I have always been surrounded by very smart people.  One of my aspirations has always been to be the least informed person in the room thus giving me the opportunity to learn something new and wonderful from each person around me.  To be hungry to know is a great blessing.  I have friends who are wonderful artists and some who are scientists and some who are theologians and some who understand psychology.  It is a treat to be with them. There is so much to gain.

My father was a teacher and he would read to me.  Perhaps that is what made me hungry to absorb all I could.   We had a set of World Book Encyclopedia and I would take A or D or K, it didn’t matter which one, and turn each page looking at the pictures and wishing I could know all those things.  You could imagine my excitement the day I first read Colossians 2:3. “In him are stored all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  To know God, to spend time with Him, is the secret to an ever-expanding understanding of life and the mysteries of being.  He knows all that is known and because He is a creator He continues to think new thoughts and create new knowledge.   Spending eternity with Him means we get to share not only His old ideas but also His new ideas.

Someone once tried to convince me that God knows all that can ever be known or thought and I could not accept that.   It would mean He would be bored.  But He can never be bored because forever He will be thinking of new ways to bless us and shower us with His mercies.  See Ephesians 2.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 19, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I had lunch today at McDonalds and ended up sitting in a booth behind two quite elderly silver-haired ladies who were very engaged in a rousing discussion.  It was very easy to hear and I was amused at the exchange.  I can’t print much of it here but I will quote to you this great line.  “I know the old biddy is trying to get him.  But I won’t allow it.  He’s mine!”

Ah, hope springs eternal.  As well it should.  As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”  Never stop living for the future and I mean both here and then.  Unfortunately, I do know some people who have stopped living for now and have all of their hopes and plans in the “Then.”   Everybody needs something to look forward to “now” and “then.”  I think we start to run out of steam and can’t do as much as we used to.  Okay.  We understand.  But that is not an excuse to do nothing.

In Ephesians 2 Paul tells us that God has specific things for us to do.  We don’t know if they were for us in our twenties, thirties or nineties.  How distressing it would be if we gave up in our seventies and found out when we are in heaven that we missed the really big task that God had for us.  “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” “It’s ain’t over ‘til it’s over” and as long as God gives us a mind with which to think and ponder we should be creatively planning things to do with our families and our communities.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 18, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We had only driven about a mile when my wife noticed a tiny spider clinging to a strand of web that was connected to the passenger side mirror.  There he was in a forty mile an hour wind holding on for dear life.  Nothing would do except we had to pull over while my wife rolled down her window and helped the little guy back into the safety of the case that holds the mirror.  Only then could we proceed.  I was fascinated because my wife really dislikes spiders.

At first I wanted to compare this to God and us.  Romans 5:10, “If, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”  But then I realized it was not a good analogy.  God loves us despite our sins.  Our sins He definitely hates.  But He does not see us and our sins as one in the same.   In His Fatherly care He is able to separate us from our behavior.  That in itself is amazing. It is the spider itself my wife dislikes even though she actually understands their presence makes our home a better place.  They catch and eat all kinds of flying, biting, stinging things.

So why was she so concerned about the little guy clinging in the wind?  Perhaps she admired its tenacity.  It certainly wasn’t giving up.  All it needed for survival was a break.  It needed someone to intervene.  And so we did.  Often times it is that way with us.  Times get tough and we hang on for dear life hoping for a break. When it comes to our eternal future we got the biggest break anyone could imagine.  God intervened and we are saved.  Amazing.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 29, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

When most of us are asked to define sin we respond with 1 John 3:4.  “Sin is the transgression of the law.”  Which is correct, it is.  But if we stop there we don’t really grasp the impact of what Paul means when in Ephesians 2:1 he said we were dead in our trespasses and sins.  The Greek word Paul used for sin was “hamartia” which means missing the target.   The target isn’t merely obeying the Ten Commandments.  The target is the old army slogan, “Be all that you can be.”  That is huge.  Sin isn’t merely an act or lack of, it is a state of being.

I once had a church member who told me he had gone an entire week without sinning.  He very carefully reviewed all of his waking activities, compared them with the Ten Commandments and decided he had a perfect week.  But was he the best citizen he could be, was he the best husband and father that he could be, was he the best employee, was he the best _____ ?  (You fill in the blank.)   Of course he wasn’t.  I didn’t shatter his pride, a gross sin, because I didn’t want to argue with him.  How can one deal with such a narrow mind?

But you are thinking, if that’s what sin is then we are all lost.  Not one of us is all we can be. And that is exactly Paul’s point in Ephesians 2.  We are dead in our sin.  All of us.  But by God’s abundant grace we have been quickened, raised, to a new life.  It was all God’s idea and all His doing.  We have nothing of which to brag about.  All we can do is praise God for His love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 27, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

Last weekend we sat through an 80 minute sermon on the state of the dead.  He started preaching at 11:40.   At 12:50 I leaned over to my wife and said, “He hasn’t even gotten to the resurrection yet.  Let’s go.”  “No,” she said, “I have to know how long he can go.”  At one point he said, “This is a long subject.”  A man sitting beside me said out loud, “It sure is.”  He finally sat down at 1:00 without ever getting to the resurrection.  I believe there is a text about the “patience of the saints.”  Yes, it is Revelation 14:12.  On the way out an elderly lady (someone older than me) took my hand and said, “Come back again.  It isn’t always like this.  He is a good young man.”

I was delighted with the “patience of the saints.”  Only one family left and they had small children.  Everyone else politely listened because they cared about the young man.  Often times the best way we can show our love and appreciation for someone is to quietly endure their impositions and idiosyncrasies. While I did feel the need to stand up and stretch the truth is I didn’t have a very pressing schedule for the afternoon.  The imposition was minor to say the least.   I think it has a lot to do with what you are used to.  I like 30 minute sermons.  Recently someone told me if I didn’t speak for 45 minutes the saints would feel cheated.  But I sat down at 25 minutes because I was finished.  To have lingered would have been redundant.

The entire process is very arrogant.  Why would one person think others should sit and quietly listen to him?  Paul called it the “foolishness of preaching that somehow pleases God.  I Corinthians 1:21.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 15, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, Ca 94574

Rogerbothwell,org

If we keep our eyes open we can find truly delightful moments as life passes by.   Yesterday afternoon as my wife and I were driving on a residential street we saw two of the most precious little girls standing at the end of their sidewalk at the curb.  They looked like they were 4 and 6 years of age.  The mail truck was coming toward them and they were bouncing up and down with smiles so big you would have thought their faces would crack.  They were clapping.  I’m sure the mailman must have been happy to see such a welcome.  Did he have a birthday card or a package from Sears or Amazon.com?  Was the mailman their daddy?  Whatever it was they couldn’t contain their joy.  Their joy became my joy.

There are so many things in life that are contagious and I am not referring to germs and illnesses.  A genuine smile is catchy.  Yawning is infectious.  A pleasant demeanor is transmittable.  Generosity and sharing are communicable.  It is amazing how we can and do have power over our environment.  Nothing spoils a gathering like gloom and doom.  But someone with hope and an energetic vision can overcome the downers and fill a space with so much happiness.

At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us a model for happiness.  We call them the Beatitudes.   The word “blessed” can just as well be translated “happy”.   “Happy are the peacemakers.”  “Happy are the poor in spirit.”  Each one is our Creator’s secret to a contagious life of joy.  Granted it is a bit more difficult for us as adults than two sweet little girls by the side of the curb, but none-the-less we can do it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 14, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

After the mail came today I sat down in “my” chair to browse one of the just arrived magazines.  I don’t recall much after settling into the comfort of one of my best friends.  About forty minutes later I heard a door close as my wife came near.  I had the strangest experience.  Sometimes when we take a nap, it’s just a nap and when we awake the day goes on.  But this nap was different.  Just two hours before I had lunch with the conference president. When I awoke from this nap, it was if a whole day had passed.  My day after the nap was starting all over as if someone had pressed a reboot button.   I reboot my computer often.  Rebooting is wonderful.  All manner of computer snags can be resolved by just rebooting.

Beginning a relationship with Jesus is like rebooting one’s life and not just the day.  We learn to forgive and negative feelings about past experiences go away.   We learn to look for good things in others and old friendship are revitalized.  We receive external power from the Holy Spirit and begin to experience victory over old temptations.  We realize that instead of twenty or so more years of life we have an eternity of life ahead of us.  It is the greatest reboot ever.

I often wonder why it is so difficult for some people to accept what Jesus offers.  Perhaps it is because we have been taught that if something sounds too good to be true, it isn’t.  This time it is true.  One of the things I learned in statistics class is rare events occur that do not fit the pattern.  Jesus is one of those rarities.  He is the ultimate reboot.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 13, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org