Author: Ian Bothwell

It’s eight o’clock in the evening here in Massachusetts.  It’s July and it is eighty degrees.  There is no breeze.  Leaves are hanging still.  Sunflowers are starting to lose their vibrancy because it has been many days since we had any serious rain that would concern someone with a convertible.  I was thinking about John 3 this afternoon.  Jesus told Nicodemus that God’s Spirit moved like the wind among the trees.  What of an evening like this when there is no breeze?  What of an era like this when there seems to be so little of God’s Spirit among the church?  Hum?  Perhaps I am being too harsh and overly critical.  Usually that is our problem.   We are parochial.  If we don’t personally see something then it isn’t happening anywhere.

This might have something to do with our desire to be at the center of anything worthwhile.  When someone tells me they were deeply moved last week in church my response is, “Oh, that’s nice.”  Rarely do I stop and ask, “What was it?  What was said?  What was the point?”  Instead it’s just a “that’s nice.”  Since I didn’t hear it or even worse because I didn’t say it, it really didn’t matter much.  Horrors.

But honestly I must say from my very narrow and limited view I don’t see much happening among God’s people.  Paul wrote in Colossians, “(I) do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”   I like that prayer. This night I pray this for you and I do so desire that you do so for me.

Perhaps there is a mighty breeze all around me.  Perhaps the dearth of fresh air is only located where I am sitting.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There are Oreo cookies, peanut butter cookies and sugar cookies, but yesterday we had amazing cookies.  Chocolate chips held together by the best cookie dough in the world.  They were Goldilocks cookies; baked not too little and not too long.  They were baked JUST right.  They were placed on the table beside a fresh fruit salad and a marvelous plate of fresh veggies.  It was the perfect summer evening fare.

As good as the blueberries were I keep thinking about those amazing Goldie Locks cookies.  They were like Scripture; hundreds of promises held together by the best stories.  There is the story of Jonah with the promise that wherever we go God is there, even if we don’t want Him to be there; He is watching and waiting for us to cry for help and help is immediately on its way.  There is the story of Zaccheaus.  Jesus wants to come to our house.   Then there is the hungry crowd that Jesus fed from a little boy’s basket.  God is able to supply all our needs.   I could go on and on.

The message is powerful.  If we will read the stories we will taste the goodness of the Lord.  Reading the Gospel of John is a feast all on its own.  Chapter after chapter reveals a new picture of Jesus.  In chapter one He is the Creator of all. In chapter nine He is the Light of the World.  In chapter ten He is the Good Shepherd.  In chapter eleven He is the Resurrection and the Life. The really good part about this kind of feast is that it is calorie free.  Those Goldilocks cookies were great but they were rich in calories. Alas. Only Jesus is perfect.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 11, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There is something indescribably delicious about a hot muggy summer afternoon that slowly transitions when a thunderstorm cools off the day. Maples leaves, bigger than oak and birch leaves, are the first to catch the approaching zephyr. Glancing up one notices a slight graying of the afternoon’s cumulous clouds.  Shapes and forms multiply overhead and deepen in color as far away sounds of thunder announce intentions.

When my Dad and I would hear the first rumblings of an approaching downpour he would tell me angels were rearranging the furniture in heaven.  I liked it when he told me fun stories.  I knew better but it was fun to hear.  My father was full of strange and wonderful tales about our ancestors.   He often talked about his grandmother who packed a pearl-handled six-shooter on her hip.   I knew it wasn’t true but I would beg him for more and he was good to deliver.

Stories give substance to our ideas, beliefs and values.  Stories help us fit into the world about us. Instead of telling people how to live and what to do it is better to tell them a good story and let them figure out the meaning.   The lessons stick because they were generated in the minds of the listeners.  Jesus knew that and was a great storyteller.  Some of them were true.  Some of them were made up.  The point was not the veracity of the tale but the meaning that would permanently change the life of the hearer. Jesus loved metaphors and effectively used them as when he warned his disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 10, 2008

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

Rogerbothwell.org

We have a grandson and a granddaughter staying with us for three weeks and I am enjoying the grandfather thing.  This evening while my wife was teachingI was in charge.  It’s hot and muggy so I took them to an air-conditioned bookstore.  It was most interesting to watch them split up and head for their areas of interest.  In just a few minutes I found Josh curled up on a chair with a book about monsters.  Definitely a male thing!  Rachael spread out on the floor surrounding herself with cookbooks filled luscious pictures of food.  We had a great time.

When we finally headed for the car I asked if they wanted to eat.  “Nope,” they said, “not hungry.  Too hot.”  Naively I took them at their word.  We went home and got something to drink and were having a great evening and then grandma got home and found out I had not fed them.  Wow, had I ever messed up!  I quickly discovered being a grandfather wasn’t quite as easy as I thought.  Next time, if I am permitted a next time, I will do better.

Do you ever have the best of intentions backfire?  Most likely we all have. Fortunately God knows our hearts and intentions and treats us accordingly. While I certainly do not want to under stress the sometimes bad results of our good intentions gone wrong, I do want to point out how wonderful it is to have a lovely heavenly Father who can read our minds and who knows the truth about us.   In the eyes of heaven intentions are of greater value than actions.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2008

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

Rogerbothwell.org

It was a classic July day in Massachusetts.   Hot, humid and muggy.  All one needed to do to work up a sweat was lift a bottle of cold root beer to one’s parched lips. Even the flies were perched and panting instead of pestering.  A mosquito diving for my arm collapsed on the ground before drilling and drinking from my veins.  There were no sounds of mowers or chainsaws.  There was the faint sound of “The Turkey in the Straw” coming from a few streets away as an ice cream man sought to capitalize on the stifling heat wave.  The hydrangeas sagging and wilted were begging for water.  My dog was complaining that these days were named after her.  Why should she get the blame?

But wait.  Did I see a maple leaf move?   Did our red, white and blue stir?  Did I hear the faintest rumble coming from the west?  Yes.  It was going to happen.  The temperature dropped from 99 to 98 and then to 96.  The promise was in the air.  The very top of the oak by the mailbox ever so slowly bent just a bit as the rumble from the west turned up the volume and became a low guttural growl.  The temperature was down to 90 and dropping.

Oh, the sweetness of those first cool drops.  Sometimes it’s grand not to have too much hair as those friendly refreshing drops splashed on top and erased the memory of the swelter.  I love hot July days in New England.  There will have to be storms in heaven or at least on some far off planet we can visit.  It wouldn’t be paradise without the coolness of rain.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 8, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

It is not often while visiting someone I keep changing chairs.  Actually, it only happened once.  The home, where I was making a pastoral visit, reeked with the smell of cats.  My nostrils were assaulted the moment the door was opened to welcome me inside.  The décor was fascinating.  Right in the middle of the room where we sat was a well used cat-litter box filled with what appeared to be breaded cutlets.  One of the cats that should have been named Lucifer never stopped stalking me.  It craftily slunk along the top of the claw-shredded sofa positioning itself for, what I was convinced, a murderous leap onto my face; thus the reason for my continual moving from chair to chair.   Each move only challenged the cat to reposition itself for a new way to bring about my demise.   When I arrived home that evening my wife crunched up her nose and said, “Phew, you stink like a cat box.”  I did.  But I was still alive.

Ever after I have had a new appreciation for I Peter 5:8.  “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.”  Craftily he positions himself for a major assault upon our character.  We recognize what is developing and safeguard ourselves by changing our environment only to have him begin anew with a revised strategy.  This is not a game.  He truly is seeking our demise.  He knows he is lost.  It galls him to think that we can have what he stupidly threw away.  Let us not kid ourselves.  He is real.  He hates us with a malignancy.  The Good News is we are never alone in the battle.  Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always.”   That is really Good News.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 7, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

There are only three things by which kingdoms are governed – love, fear or wealth. For many years my wife and I lived in a land governed by fear.  Men do bad things in the night.  Mornings bring new revelations designed to keep people in their place.  Most of the world’s population is governed by fear.  Whatever we might think of it on a moral level, it works – for awhile.  At least until it is replaced by another fear monger who promised better.

When we examine the universal controversy that rages about and in us, God’s Kingdom is governed by love – and that is His dilemma.   While being all powerful God will not and cannot, because of His basic nature, apply the tactics available to His enemy.  If we want to know what God is really like all we need do is look at Jesus.  Even though He could command the armies of heaven to come to His aid, never once did He allow such, to do so would have given His enemy the right to say, “See you are no different than I.”   While winning a battle God would have lost the war. This entire struggle has been about the character of God and the contrast to His enemy who hates, destroys, tortures and lusts for ultimate control.

Can you imagine the horror if Satan wins?  The good news is he has already lost.  When he spearheaded the crucifixion of Jesus, he was so sure Jesus would give up thinking we were not worth the sacrifice. Jesus did not give up and Satan was horrified because he knew Jesus won.  His primary goal now is to deprive God from having you and me.  That will not be.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 5, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

One of the smartest things I ever did was to marry someone who is much smarter than I.  That pretty much guaranteed my children would be smarter than I.  I truly do not mind being the dumbest person in the room.  I can come to the close of each day and say, “There I learned something new today.”   When I go to church I want to learn something new from my pastor. Give me something to mentally chew on.  I am so blessed to be a teacher. Everyday I learn new things from my students.

I am disgusted when I am with people who don’t seem to know how to express themselves with anything other than gutter language.  Don’t they realize how stupid they sound using the same imagineless terms over and over?  It’s as if they aren’t bright enough to buy a thesaurus and add new words to their vocabulary. Recently I sat down and browsed through HBO’s comedy specials. How very disappointing.  I was disappointed with the content of the supposed humor and disappointed with the audience’s laughter when foul language is used.  The only thing I can figure is the audience is very dull or drunk or feels social pressure to laugh at stuff that isn’t really funny.

This morning we went for breakfast with two very smart people.  There was a piano and a guitar present.  Before long my friends were filling the diner with wonderful music. How grand. The other people in the diner seemed as pleased as I.  One last thought on this.  If you want to be in company with someone very smart, spend your time with Jesus.  I guarantee you will get a daily IQ boost.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 5, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The bumper sticker read, “Freedom Isn’t Free.”  I think it refers to our Flanders Fields and Arlingtons.  However, there is yet another meaning to that bumper sticker – the tyranny of freedom.  Freedom isn’t free. It comes with responsibility.  Freedom means if we are adults with the right and power to choose we cannot blame our parents for what we are.  Real freedom means stepping up to the plate and saying, “I did it.”  The tyranny of freedom is we were forced by no one other than our own passions and will.  If we did it, we do not hide in the bushes and blame another.  Adam, our noble ancestor, hid in the bushes and attempted to blame both God and Eve.  What a man!  If there is shame to be had we will acknowledge our failures or overt acts of transgression.  This is freedom.

It is the fourth of July and for these 24 hours we hear the words “freedom” and “liberty” over and over.   Galatians 5 is Paul’s great appeal for us to take the freedom Christ offers and to use it for righteousness.   To do otherwise is to give it away and to become slaves to ourselves and our self-deceptions.

Righteous living, righteous choices expand our freedom.  Each victory by our choices and behaviors prepares us for the ultimate freedom of roaming the universe as God’s child with never a fear that we will pollute those we shall meet.  Ultimate freedom awaits those who choose wisely.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 4, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our good news is my blood cooperated in the University of Penn labs and so I will be white mouse number nine in a research study that so far has had a 100% remission rate for those with my type of leukemia.  When I mention that there are only fourteen slots in the study, I am most always asked how did you get in?   The answer is “I have friends in high places.”

It never hurts to have important powerful friends.  I grew up with this one particular friend.  I first met Him when I was very small.  I sang a song about Him.  “Jesus Loves Me This I Know.”  Soon afterwards I learned another song about Him.  “What A Friend We Have In Jesus.”  Talk about friends in high places.  It doesn’t get any higher than that.

Christianity is especially unique in its core doctrine of developing a personal relationship with God.  While He indeed is one to revere, worship and hold in awe, there is this friendship issue with Jesus and His insistence that we call His Father “Our Father.”  Sometimes people miss this and say such things as, “Other faiths also have high moral codes.” That is very true.  They do.  While morality is indeed extremely important it is not the core belief.  The core is God is a Father who pursues us, woos us and sacrifices self for us.  Christianity is a love story.  It is about a heaven filled with caring beings who want the best for us.  It is about grace and forgiveness and personal growth.  It is restoration to the perfection of Adam and Eve when God said, “Let’s make man in our image.”   He wants us to be His friends as well as His children.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 3, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org