Author: Ian Bothwell

You should not see my car right now.  It is supposed to be shiny maroon but instead it is a dull gray. There are no shiny spots because all is crusted with winter salt. When I sit in it I think I can actually hear the salt eating away at the chassis and body.  It’s ten years old and still does not show any rust.  I wonder how much longer I will be so fortunate.  Perhaps I am the recipient of a two and a half thousand year old promise.  “I will prevent pests (rust) from devouring your crops (car), and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty.”  Malachi 3:11

I would like to think so. In Malachi 3 God promises to pour blessings out of the windows of heaven on us if we are faithful.  Someone might easily say it has nothing to do with that.  The reason is it is a well-made car.  There seems to always be a way to take credit away from God.  Perhaps God wants it that way.  It would be so easy for Him to do things that would be positively beyond doubt.  But He seems to want us to demonstrate faith.  Faith seems to be essential to our spiritual growth.  When a woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment she was instantly healed and He said, “Your faith has made you well.”  Again He said to a man whose sight was restored, “You faith has enabled you to see.”  And in Mark 9 He told a father that only faith could help his son, to which the man said, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

Could it be in our scientific age of inductive reasoning that we too often explain things away and cheat God of His glory and ourselves of wondrous blessings that would come if we only believed?

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 24, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

While waiting for a slice of pizza to cool down enough so as to not sear my mouth and make my tongue feel like fuzz for the next week, I said to my wife, “I like lukewarm pizza, not hot pizza–sort of how I like lukewarm Christians and not hot Christians.”

“Oh, no,” she responded.  “You don’t like hot religious people but you really like hot Christians.”

She was spot on.  I made the terrible error of confusing real Christianity with religion.  I love hot Christians.  I love people who are genuine, caring, honest, unselfish and willing to sacrifice for others.  It is religious people who make me want to leave the room.  I’m talking about people who use religious argot and want to turn every conversation into a theological discourse.  I’m talking about people who believe their value system is the only value system in the world and universe because it is God’s value system.  There is little opportunity for variance because they have “the truth.”

So let’s forget them and go back to hot Christians.  I love Christians who sizzle Christ-likeness. Jesus had a really difficult time stomaching religious people.  See Matthew 23.  He was very comfortable with real people who knew they had needs, people who recognized their failures and wanted help to do better.

It’s a good thing my wife straightened me out on this considering Revelation 3:16, “So then because you art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.”   God really does want us to be the best we can. He just longs for us to be genuinely caring in how we interface with others.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 23, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I’m fascinated with our obsession with winners.  During the Olympics we watch people who have trained for years, honed their skills to the finest and yet because they finish one thousandth of a second behind the bronze medalist we don’t even hear their names.  They are the “also rans.” One thousandth of a second is less than a heartbeat.  It is time so brief we humans can only measure it with electronics.  Yet it is the difference between being honored for excellence and obscurity.  We just don’t pay much attention to losers.  How many of us can remember the names of those who lost the last five presidential elections?  Yet these were men millions deemed capable of leading our nation.

It’s not that way in heaven.  Us losers–you and me,who have all sinned and come short (Romans 3:23)–are treated like winners.  Paul writes about our being more than conquerors. (Romans 8:37).   We are not obscure in the halls of heaven.  Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Revelation 13).  God’s system is upside down compared to ours.  His values are not our values.  The first is last and the last first.  Sit at the bottom of the table and He will move us to the head of the table.  He will invite each of us to sit with Him in His throne.  The whole story is so unlike our nature.

If we ever wondered if all this is true, it has to be, because it isn’t the way humans would design it.  Humans would only let the perfect ones have the prize.  Well, I guess that is the way it is.  Fortunately, for us it is the perfection of Jesus that counts for us.  We win.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 22, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Who can resist a good sale, especially when it is something we use?  There it was a forty-pound bag of birdseed chock-full of sunflower seeds and other goodies.  Best of all it was half what I usually pay.  I was one happy camper until our birds deserted us.  They don’t like it.  I wonder if the seed was very old and stale and thus on sale. My bargain didn’t turn out to be such a good deal.   I went and got the good stuff and am trying to woo them back.  The squirrels will enjoy the stale stuff.

This brings me to church attendance.  If one never hears a fresh idea, if Sabbath School or Sunday School lessons are just a repeat of things we have heard all our lives, if sermons seem to be a rehash of last year’s fare, it is difficult to shovel the driveway and slip down the hill on a cold winter morning.  Now that I have said that, allow me to say that despite our appetite for fresh mental stimulation, the tried and true story of the cross still refreshes no matter how often it is told.  I need, we need the constant reassurance that God loves us despite our ridiculous failures.  “Tell Me The Old Old Story” is a pretty good hymn with a great message.

However, let’s go back to our need for something new.  At the close of Hebrews 5 Paul speaks of learning on the milk of the Word but eventually needing meat.  People like birds will go where they are being fed that which is nourishing and palatable.  Sometimes we even need to hear things we don’t particularly like but “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 14, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Many years ago one of my African students failed to turn in an assignment.  When I asked him about it, he said, “It was God’s will.”  “How is that?” I asked.  He responded, “If God wanted me to do it He would have gotten me out of bed and made me write it.”  Today I heard the opposite side of that story.  Today a student did not turn in a book report and said, “Sorry sir, but, the devil kept me from writing it by keeping me busy.”

I do not want to disregard God’s or Satan’s influence in our lives, but personal responsibility is a part of character development. It seems to be our nature to look for someone to blame for our failures.  If we can’t find another human, then we start looking at God or Satan.  If that doesn’t fit our theology we convince ourselves we are ill, therefore, excusing ourselves. My point is we search to blame someone or something other than ourselves.   Adam started it.  “The woman you gave me.  She made me do it.”  Eve followed by blaming it on the serpent. Had God inquired of the serpent I am sure it would have said, “Satan made me do it.”  And Satan would have responded, “God, you made me do it.”

One of my heroes was Harry Truman.  “The buck stops here!”  It is so refreshing to hear someone accept blame for something that went wrong.  Not so long ago I heard an administrator apologize for something one of his team member’s failure. My respect for that administrator soared.

If we are to receive God’s grace in the Day of Judgment, we have to be bold and say, “Lord, I failed you. I am sorry.”  And He will say, “Welcome home.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 11, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

While going through old papers, one of our friends in California came across a forty-seven-year-old newspaper from Andrews University.  Thoughtfully she mailed it to me thinking I might be interested since my picture was on the front page. I doubt if anyone in my present circle of friends would recognize me if my name wasn’t also there.  If it is true that we totally exchange all our cells every seven years or so that means I have had almost seven different bodies since that picture was taken.   Since I have in the past year or so gotten a new knee and a new hip that brings the score up to eight for those parts.  That person in the picture was me but isn’t me.  So the question arises who are we or what are we.  If that was me but isn’t me who is me?

For all of us, “Who am I” is one of life’s great questions.  I am my mind. But what is that and how does it differ from my brain?  Perhaps my brain is a house where my mind lives. Am I but a collection of memories, attitudes, ideas and a temperament?  Are these what God saves when this mortal shell stops breathing?  If I read 1 Corinthians 15 correctly Paul says we are but a seed to be buried that will yield an incredible being as unlike the seed as a big red juicy watermelon is different from the black watermelon seeds we spit into the grass on a hot summer afternoon.  It does appear that resurrection is really recreation.  Or should I say creation, since what appears is not like what died?

When I was 22 and a graduate of the seminary I had answers.  No more.  Now I wait for the God, who promises to do far more than I can imagine, to give me the real answers.  See Ephesians 3:20.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 19, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Unlike our 50.6 degree evening right now, on one 15.2 degree evening this last weekend my lab and I were out enjoying the crispest and clearest of winter nights.  The sky was so deeply black I am sure one could have seen a 7th magnitude star though we are only supposed to see 6th magnitude stars with our unaided eye.   But this night we were stunned by Sirius.  Even having once lived on the equator in a land with no light pollution, I have never seen it brighter.  Normally Sirius is -1.46 magnitude but this night it must have been brighter.  It is our 6th closest neighboring sun at 8.6 light-years distance.  If the moon had not been at half, I think Sirius would have cast a perceptible shadow.  The light that filled our eyes this night in 2011, left Sirius in September, 2002.   It might have exploded last year and no longer be there but we will not know that until 2019!

I find myself thinking if God turns on the light and the heat it must be for some creature’s benefit other than us.  To think God made the stars for us is about the most egocentric thing we could think in our self-conceit.  My do we ever think WE are important!   Yet, I have actually heard that from a pulpit.

Hebrews 1:2 is one of my favorite verses about Jesus.  It says, “In these last days (God has) spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; . . .”   Our Jesus, our creator, the one who took responsibility for us after we disappointed all heaven, made Sirius.  If that was all He made He would be worthy of our worship.  But He also made the other 100 trillion suns in our medium size galaxy

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 18, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

It’s about time to hang the buckets on the sugar maples.  When the temperature during the day goes above freezing and at night drops below freezing, the trees become gigantic pumps pushing gallons of leaf-making sap upward into the branches.  Soon I will see my wife drilling holes in our trees. (I don’t do it. She’s the Little Red Hen and I’m the one who eats from all her labor.)  She will boil down the sap on our woodstove. The house smells so wonderful when this is happening.  The essence of maple permeates everything.  I have had my students tell me they can smell it on my clothes.

In 2 Corinthians 2 Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”  I love the imagery of Christians being a sweet aroma in our homes, our workplaces and our communities.  When I was a boy I lived close to Hershey, Pennsylvania.  It was always such a treat to drive through town and smell chocolate in the air.  We also had a large bread factory near our home.  I loved it when we would drive past it with the windows down.  If you did not salivate something was wrong with you.

Someone ran over a skunk last night close to our neighborhood.  From a distance (a long distance) the smell is almost sweet.  It is only when you get too much that it becomes offensive.   This is just like a Christian who gently and meekly radiates a Christ-filled life.  It’s great.  But, when you get too much, when the person becomes pushy, trying to force ideas, then they become pretty offensive.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 17, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I found myself having a very pleasant conversation with a good friend. Suddenly I saw someone enter the room who I deemed to be more important. Quickly I terminated the conversation so I could associate with the more important person.  It was not until later in the day that I pondered what I had done and I was filled with remorse.  It sounds so very crass when I tell you about it.  But the truth is consciously I did not think, “That person is more important than this one.”  It was a subconscious social reaction whose meaning did not surface until later.  I just did it without thinking.

There is more than one thing wrong here.  First, I did it without thinking. Big mistake.  We should think before we do.  Second, there is no such thing as one person being more important than another.  Rank is a mythical social construction that implies one person has more value than another.  It reminded me of taking a cruise and being told there would be no place in the lifeboats for the men until women and children were safely cared for.  I was rudely reminded that an undereducated eighty-year-old woman would have more value than a fifty-year-old male Nobel Prize winning brain surgeon.

Perhaps it is the cross of Jesus that puts this into some perspective.  The creator of the universe died so we can live.  He took our place so we can take His place.  No, I’m sorry.  This isn’t working for me.  I don’t get it. There is no possible way this logically works.  That sacrifice is totally out of proportion.  When I see Him face to face I will be even more confounded.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 16, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

So many organizations rushed to Haiti to supply free medical help to victims of the earthquake that already established hospitals and clinics have gone bankrupt for lack of paying patients. In Africa free American food is rushed to famine stricken nations only to have farmers, who have labored all year to produce their crops, have the price fall out from under them because of our help.  Helping people can be a serious challenge.  How do you help someone without harming another or harming the very person you are helping?  There are times I see opportunities to help a student pass a class only to realize I have enabled their indolence and have reinforced bad habits.  While supplying grace to one situation I have contributed to an attitude that one need not really work hard and learn.

And so it is with grace. How can I steel myself against sin when I know that God will always forgive?  I can guess what you are thinking.  God knows our hearts and knows we are working the system; therefore, we will not get the grace we need.  But there is forgiveness for willful sin.  We can deliberately do wrong only to discover the consequences were much worse than we had anticipated and thus enter into a genuine repentant state.  Yeah.  We can.

The quest to be genuinely Christ-like and to always do the right thing for the right motive is an immense challenge I have been questing for all my life.  When I am totally honest with myself I know I need grace, lots of grace.  So how can God help us without harming us?  In His wisdom He does it very carefully because He understands our hearts are amazingly deceitful – deceiving ourselves.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 10, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org