Author: Ian Bothwell

Just once I would like to attend a funeral where the pastor would say, “Even though Uncle Charlie spent most of his life as a lying, cheating, neglectful parent and someone who couldn’t always be trusted, he will be with us in heaven by the grace of Jesus.”  The truth is all of us are Uncle Charlie in some fashion (just change the list of sins) and none of us will ever see heaven if it wasn’t for the grace of Jesus.  How often we spout heresy at funerals by saying such things as, “Surely Uncle Charlie will be in heaven because he was such a good man.”  Uncle Charlie’s goodness or lack of goodness is not the Gospel.

So often we believe Uncle Charlie was saved by grace but once that occurred he then had to “do all the right things” to stay saved.  We are fearful that if we don’t take this stance then people will continue on in their rottenness and something seems wrong about that.  Well, there is something wrong with that.  Paul puts it so very well in II Corinthians 5:14.  “For Christ’s love compels us . . .”

There it is.  After Uncle Charlie accepted Jesus, he ceased what he had been and what followed was a life filled with love for Jesus.  When we love someone we don’t want to disappoint them.  Continuing to be rotten would be very disappointing to Jesus.  The point of being saved is for us to have a better life and that can’t happen if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to begin to direct us toward better behavior.

We try to be faithful not to be saved but because the “love of Christ compels” us to be so.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 6, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This past Christmas Eve our woodstove added its cheer to our home.  It was most pleasant to watch the flames move behind the glass window.  It was especially nice to push in the damper and watch the flames slow down to a graceful mesmerizing dance. When it was time for more wood I picked up a nice piece of hardwood and placed it beside another already burning log.  If I placed it near but not touching the burning log I wondered how long it would take for the hardwood to blaze.  It took several minutes but finally the hardwood could no longer resist and it added its warmth to the room.

I thought of hardnosed people living in the same home with gentle loving people.  How long can the hardnosed folk resist?  Who becomes like the other?  Perhaps it is the gentle person who changes?  Is it possible for both to co-exist and neither bow to the atmosphere created by the other?

During the years when I was a pastor I saw many people want so much for their spouse to join them in coming to church.  Unfortunately I saw some people just give up and they lost their walk with the Lord.  Fortunately I also saw it work the other way.  Little by little I saw husbands and wives (usually husbands) come to church on special occasions at first and then sporadically and then regularly.  The burning love and care of the spouse and others welcoming them into the church family ultimately caused them both to blaze.  It is an endeavor by more than one, but the main person is the one burning brightly in the same home.  No pressure, no nagging, no preaching, no urging, just loving seemed to work best.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 3, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Literally tens of millions of dollars are being spent by politicians telling us true and untrue horrible things about their opponents.  Lest we have the false idea that negative advertising is something new, let us remind ourselves it has been around a very long time.  Before Adam and Eve lost their place in Eden Lucifer had been actively smearing God’s good name.  Revelation 12:17 speaks of it beginning in heaven itself.  Then it continued in Eden when Lucifer told Eve God didn’t want her to grow and become wise.

Lucifer then became a campaign of horror and destruction blaming God for the resulting death and despair.  Hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. are now called “Acts of God.”  Lucifer has been very effective in blaming God for things.  There is a huge religion in the world that proclaims all things that occur are the will of Allah.  After all they say if God didn’t will something to occur He would stop it.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  A million things a day happen that are not God’s will.

Jesus tried to teach us the truth.  He told us to call God, “Our Father.”   He was hoping we might understand that real fathers while disciplining their children would never ever do anything to harm them.  Unfortunately even that doesn’t always seem true because some fathers do unlovingly harm their very own children.  The next time we are barraged by negative campaigning just remember who started it.  What is sad is that we seem to be gullible enough to pay attention and sometimes actually believe it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 4, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I opened an old book this evening and found pressed between the crisp yellow-edged pages two violets. The book is very old and had belonged to my mother.  Immediately a torrent of questions poured out of my mind.  Where did she get them?  Who gave them to her?  How long ago did she so carefully spread those precious purple petals to perpetually preserve them?  Did she ever return to see them?  Were they from my father?  One of my sisters?  Me?  Had I come running in from the backyard to present them to the most beautiful person I knew?  Had she kissed me and kept them safely in that old book?  I would like to think it was that way but I have no memory of such.  I just know that most little boys think their mothers are God’s angels.  I was no exception.

Had Jesus ever brought flowers to Mary?  Surely He must have done so.  In the Sermon on the Mount He speaks of lilies.  While He spoke of them did He smile as He remembered their fragrance mingling with the scent of fresh wood shavings on their carpenter’s floor?  Life is mostly a conglomeration of memories.  Since the events of life are both good and bad the quality of our lives depends upon what we choose to remember.  One of my friends once came to me and spilled out a horror story of how her husband had abused her.  When I asked her when this occurred she gave me a date that was twenty three years gone by.   Need I say more?

The memories are ours.  The power is ours.   Forgiving and forgetting is the key to the abundant life He promised.  What is left is quality?

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 3, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

One of the more intriguing verses of Scripture is Luke 2:52 which speaks of Jesus, as a child, growing in wisdom.  When He was thirteen He wowed the scholars in Jerusalem with His expansive understanding of Scripture.  Yet He lived in a poor village that could not have afforded an entire Old Testament.  The scrolls were passed one by one from village to village.  Time with each scroll was very limited.  He must have had a prodigious memory.  When He realized He might not see a particular scroll again for a long time He must have diligently applied Himself to committing it to memory.

Adolescence is a time for figuring out who we are and what are our gifts.  When Jesus attended Jerusalem after His Bar Mitzvah, He was faced with the task of understanding His true identity.  Filled with stories from Joseph and Mary and His knowledge of Scripture He assembled the pieces.  It was an amazing secret to carry about during His teen and early manhood years.  He couldn’t speak of it because the ridicule from unbelieving peers and others would have been vicious.   The religious experience around Him was encumbered with a layer of rules designed to keep believers from transgressing the core commandments. The conflict with parents, local rabbis, siblings and within Himself had to be monumental as He sorted out the man made traditions from the principles of Scripture.

Hebrews 4 tells us He experienced all our temptations. Those formative years were crucial to who He was. There is not a child, adolescent or adult anywhere He does not understand.  The Word became flesh and He experienced everything except old age.  We didn’t let Him get there.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 2, 2012

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I have always thought the American flag is beautiful.  I love the color combinations of red, white and blue.  I love the stripes and stars.  I wonder if everyone thinks their country’s flag is beautiful.  I have seen many flags that I think are (I want to use the word “ugly” but I will restrain myself.) unpleasant to the eye.  I wonder about this because I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  One’s flag is pregnant with meaning.  It is about home and family.  It is about safety and the place that nurtures you.  We bring to a flag deep emotions and pride.  Can all those factors make any combination of colors beautiful when placed on a flag?

I always thought my mother was beautiful.  Was that because she was beautiful or because she was my mother?  I really don’t know.  I cannot answer.  Sometimes we see a husband and wife where one is very attractive and the other very plain.  We wonder how the plain one managed to catch the good looking one.  Sometimes we are fortunate enough to get to know them and then we understand.  When we first met them we only looked at the surface.  Later we came to see extraordinary beauty from both of them.  They belonged together.

Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation.”  It’s all in the message.  Which means I must be looking good because I am sharing with you the most fabulous good news of all time.  Jesus loves you dearly and offers you the free gift of forgiveness, redemption and eternity.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 1, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful with a brand new layer of eight inches of snow.  However, one of my most unfavorite persons is the city snowplower.  While our driveway has eight inches of soft fluffy snow the end of my driveway has what seems like a two to three foot wall of icy compacted cement.   But this Sunday morning was different.  When I opened my garage door our driveway with the Berlin Wall at the entrance was completely cleared.  There were tracks of a snowblower in the little snow that was left.  We have a secret Santa.  It is now Monday night and I still do not know who was this incredible gifter.  My wife says she saw someone with a scarf over his face.  Who was that masked man?  Recently I have become the recipient of many nice things.  After church this weekend I was offered a load of firewood.  He was not wearing a mask.

The news is so full of terror and horror it is easy to forget that our communities are filled with caring, generous people.  Brian Williams, the news anchor for NBC, finishes each evening’s broadcast featuring something good.  Last week as he closed he said, “The world is full of good people.  We just need to tell their stories.”   So I thought I should share two of them.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 31, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I sat in church watching a small child eat a box of Animal Crackers.  I must confess I wish he had offered me one.  I remember being his size and wishing I could have had Animal Crackers.  I wasn’t allowed to eat in church.  It would have been possible to have had them.  They have been around that long.  Actually, my parents could have had them when they were small.  They have been around since 1902.   I wonder how many billions of those little crackers (actually more like a cookie) have been consumed by grateful little kids.  I remember trying to make a case for church consumption because they were made in the image of creatures God made on the sixth day of creation.  My logic never prevailed.  Maybe it was the circus pictured box.

I’m sure it never occurred to that little guy to offer me one.  To him I must look like his vision of Methuselah.  Surely old people couldn’t like Animal Crackers.  They do.  There are certain things for everyone.  In I Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of putting away childish things.  But he was speaking of ideas like being good enough to be saved and thinking we are His special children as opposed to everyone else.  Those are childish ideas that need to be shed by mature minds that honestly look in the mirror and know they cannot be so, except for our dishonest conceit.  Paul wasn’t speaking of some special childhood things.  Dare I confess that I still have my teddy bear?

One evening I entered a hospital room to visit an old friend who wasn’t going to come home again.  His wife was feeding him from a half-gallon container of Breyers vanilla ice cream.  How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 30, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

My wife keeps a running Scrabble game with our older son.  They do it electronically on their cell phones.  It is a nice way to stay in close contact and it keeps him from forgetting he has parents who love him very much.  The old adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder isn’t always true.  Sometimes out of sight is out of mind.

It’s a good idea to keep one’s children aware of how much they are loved no matter how old they are.  Being loved is essential to our health and vitality.  Our heavenly Father is very aware of this and continually sends us gifts to remind us of how much He cares for us.  Those gifts come in many ways.  We only have to be aware of the things around us.  When we are paying attention we receive all kinds of serendipities.

The onus is also on us to check in with Him.  Even if it is a short “Good Morning, Lord” when we wake up or a “Good Night, Father” as we hit the pillow.  Granted more contact than that would be most advantageous to the relationship but it’s something.  It keeps us in contact and available for the bigger, longer experiences He wants to share with us.  Reading His mail to us really helps – you know – those letters called Matthew, Luke, and John.  They are filled with news straight from His heart to ours.

Maybe just as my wife keeps a game going with our son, we could keep a game going with our Father.  It could be called, “Count the Serendipities.”  See if we can find more than yesterday.  I promise you, they are there.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 29, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The burn is less than two seconds as the shiny slim steel needle skillfully stealthfully slips though my skin into a vein.  A burst of red rushes into the clear tube then turns pink and then clear as the life-saving fluid flows into my hungry body.  The bottle hangs over my head as its contents became part of me.  Antibodies, battling antibodies will seek and destroy any foreign life they find.  Only my cells will they ignore. Antibodies from over twenty thousand other people will course through my veins battling to keep me alive.

Tonight I am alive.  Tomorrow night I will be alive.  For the next thirty days I will be alive until once again that shiny slim steel needle will once again tear through my skin in search of a vein.  For five years now this has been my ritual.  For five years now I live because of the wonders of modern medicine.  For five years now I am in debt to the thousands of people who share their antibodies that I can continue to celebrate life with my incredible wife, sons and grandchildren and write to you about the love of our Creator God who gives us knowledge of that wonderful thing He made that Friday in His very image.

Someday I will no longer need that shiny slim steel needle.  In I Corinthians Paul promises that this corruption will put on incorruption, this mortal shall put on immortality and I along with you and millions others will exchange this form for an eternal tribute to His love.  But until that day I shall write to you about the grandest God who ever could be – for He is the one who made Himself poor by giving us His only Son so shiny slim steel needles will only be a memory.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 28, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org