Our Only Hope

I’m in the doghouse along with our dog.  She decided to unwrap a just wrapped present.  No.  I was just informed it had been extra nicely wrapped at a department store. The dog did it about two feet from me but I was totally oblivious.  I was sitting here staring at the computer screen trying to decide what to write about this evening. The sounds of paper shredding never registered on my feeble mind. When the caretaker of the presents came back into the room and discovered the deed, well, it would be better if I did not mention this again.  The present is presently being rewrapped.

Was this a sin of omission?  I claim it was for me.  However, concerning the dog, that was definitely a sin of commission.  She can’t claim insanity, but she could claim ignorance.  However ignorance is not a legal excuse.  She could deny doing it but unfortunately for her there was ribbon hanging out her mouth and she has present breath.  CSI would definitely get her convicted.

Her trying to claim not being guilty would be as ludicrous as our trying to tell God we are innocent.  He most likely has video tape of our whole lives and would merely say to the recording angel, “Roll the tape.”  We have been had.  There is no place to run to.  There is no place to hide.  If we wait to say we are sorry until we are confronted with the evidence, our begging for forgiveness will be too late.  It would be obvious we were not sorry we did the deeds but were only trying to get off the hook.

It’s always best to follow John’s counsel in 1 John 1:9 and confess now.  If we do He will freely forgive us of all unrighteousness.   It’s the only hope we have.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 16, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Bench Warmers

One of life’s greatest ironies is that really good people don’t think they are so good.   It is the semi-good people who think they are good.  They really aren’t nearly as good as they think they are.  People who think they are good are blind to the reality of their own foibles and deficient character.   Really good people know their weaknesses.  They understand that most of the good things they do are tainted by selfishness and a desire to atone for not being what they want to be.  Often I find myself being most comfortable with people who make little or no pretense of being good as opposed to being with people who just don’t get it.

Less I sound too harsh let me back off a bit and say that most semi-good people are on their way to being good.  They just need to recognize their real limitations.  They are on their way to the discovery that only Jesus was good.   The rest of us are bench warmers.

Paul got it.  In Romans he pours out his despair at his inability to be the man he longed to be.  See Chapter 7.    I read II Peter 1 where we are promised with exceedingly great and precious promises that we, right now, can participate in the divine nature of God.   What does that mean?   I know what it doesn’t mean, at least for now.   It doesn’t mean I can go about healing the blind, restoring health to broken limbs and enabling heart broken families to once again have a child restored to life.  Perhaps that is in the offing for some.  For me it would be the ruination of my character as my inflated idea of my importance took me to hell.

There is so much to learn!

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 2, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94575

Rogerbothwell.org

Our Light Bulb Snowman

In our town square (actually a triangle) there is a light bulb snowman.  If you tune your FM dial to 107.1 static-filled Christmas music fills your car.   When you drive about 500 feet you are out of range.  While passing by this evening I thought about the coverage of our personal influence and how wide or how narrow it might be.  Some people are like giant broadcasting towers with gigantic coverage like WLS from Chicago that transmits with 50,000 watts of power.  Late at night you can hear it all over the country.   Then there are those like our light bulb snowman with very limited range.

Some people are bothered because they think they are like the light bulb snowman.  However, the truth of one’s influence is rarely known by the influencer.  We might think we have never made an impact on anyone but we might have been that tiny pebble thrown in a pond that sends a ripple over the water’s entire surface.  One of the great rewards of heaven will be an opportunity to read the records of our influence.  It will not be for any personal glory but for the satisfaction of knowing we did make a difference.

Everyone one wants to make a difference.  I just wish everyone wanted to make a positive difference.  We can.  In Ephesians 2 Paul refers to the work God has for each of us.  There is something special for each of us.  If we allow, He will work it out in and through us.  It will make a difference for all eternity.  How exciting it will be to discover just what it was.  The important thing to remember is our influence is very wide and very important.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 15, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The Grinch Lives in Leominster

I have discovered where the Grinch (or Grinches) live.   He lives in my little city.   My neighbor at the bottom of my hill has for years been putting up a beautiful display of artistic elves carrying presents.  He must have been working on it most of the year because this year it was splendid and bigger than ever.   This year he must have had over twenty elves and the labor involved had to be huge.  Notice I wrote in the past tense.  They are no more.  Last night some ignorant oaf, most likely inebriated, trashed them.  We were anxious for our grandchildren to arrive to enjoy them.  Now they are gone for no one to enjoy.  It is difficult for me to imagine the feeling of my neighbor artist when he went outside this morning.

Why is it that some people want to destroy things?  Could it be that they don’t know how to make anything so instead they destroy out of jealousy?   Can you imagine what the world would be like if it were populated with mostly that kind of people?  There do seem to be groups of people in the world bent on destruction instead building something positive.  How very sad.

Fortunately there are more good people than bad, more builders than destroyers, more lovers than haters.  It just seems like there are more bad because what they do is so blatantly in our faces.  Unfortunately Time and other news magazines put pictures of the really bad guys on their covers.  How disgusting is that?!  It only inspires other bad guys to follow suit.  Billy the Kid was a jerk.  Why does our folk lore include him and others like him?   Maybe we are the sick ones.

The Bible tells us to think on good things.  Ouch, I just didn’t do that!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 14, 2010.

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

“I’m Sorry”

It was fifty years ago that Brenda Lee filled our airways with “I’m Sorry.”  If you want to hear it again it’s on YouTube.com.  This past year has been a significant year for “I’m Sorrys.”  We have heard it from politicians, late-night comedians, athletes and I wish we had heard it from people who get other people to blow themselves to pieces.  “I’m sorry” are good words if they are from a truly repentant heart and not just from an “I got caught” heart.

“I’m sorry” can be used as a weapon.  I once had someone come to me and apologize for saying terrible things about me.  Since I did not know what she had said, she had to tell me.  I’m sorry was a great opportunity for her to say it to my face and what was I to do?  She was apologizing!  I had to stand there and take it and then say, “Oh, I forgive you.”  I had not known about it and most likely never would have known about it.  She got me. Sometimes the best “I’m sorrys” are just for God to hear unless you know for certain the other person knows what you said.

Then there are the people we hurt and we were not aware.  We did it in naiveté.  I’m sure it happens often so I want to say, “I’m sorry” to anyone who I hurt intentionally or unintentionally.   “I’m sorry” are words God loves to hear.   He waits for them and instantly pounces upon the opportunity to put our name in the Lamb’s Book of Life mentioned in Revelation.  He forgives liars, thieves, murderers, adulterers, slanderers and any other thing we can think of.  God is an all purpose forgiver.  How grand!  Just say, “I’m sorry.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 1, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

No Problem

The battery died in my handheld garage door opener.  No problem.  Sears is just ten minutes away where the helpful salesman sold me the wrong battery even though I had the handheld device with me.  He must have been a holiday temp.  Another trip to Sears where I swapped the battery for the right one.  Back home only to discover because the battery had been dead the opener needed reprogramming to learn the right code.  No problem.  I drug in the stepladder and climbed up with the instruction manual.  Press the green button and a green light will come on for thirty seconds, press the button on the handheld device until the green light blinks.  The green light didn’t blink.  It just went off meaning that I had just erased the codes for the cars.  Now nothing worked.  No problem I could call the Sears hotline for help.  After pressing six keys on the phone after Sears answered, I finally got to a real human.   It wasn’t the right human.  No problem. She could connect me with the right human.   He wasn’t the right one.  No problem.  He could connect me to the right lady.  She told me to climb the ladder, press the green button until the green light came on and then press the button on the handheld device.  I told her I did that all ready.  No problem.  Do it again.  It still didn’t work.  “Sorry Mr. Bothwell.  That’s all I know to tell you.  Have a great day.”  Really? So there I sat with my handheld device in hand and nothing worked.  Then my feeble mind said, “Reverse the battery.”  I did and all went well after I climbed the ladder and pressed the green button.  No problem.

The next time you have to call Heaven for help, I promise you will not have to go through several angels to get to the right department.   The very first one will say, “No problem.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 21, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Eating Worms

Our dog is having a bad time tonight.  We have glass covered bookcases and she keeps seeing another dog inside the bookcase.  When I open the case that other dog goes away.  When the glass comes down the dog comes back. It is very troubling and cause for concerned growling.  It’s hard to rest with that other dog invading her space.

This is an easy analogy.  When we spend time looking at ourselves, unless we are quite taken with ourselves, life becomes troubled.  One or more of several things can happen.  Number one – we can begin to concentrate on our imperfections and become discouraged with our lack of progress in overcoming.  Or number two – we can start feeling sorry for ourselves thinking we are not getting all the good things we deserve.  Or number three – we can think others are expecting too much from us. Or number four – we can start thinking people are out to get us.   The list could go on depending on our personalities.  The point is looking at ourselves is rarely productive.  Life works best when instead we spend our productive hours looking for opportunities to do our job better or to find inventive ways to make others lives happier.

I’m reminded of the old nursery rhyme that goes like this.  “Nobody loves me.  Everybody hates me.  Guess I’ll go eat worms.  Long, thin, slimy ones; short, fat, juicy ones, itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.”   Just in case you ever get to feeling like that allow me to remind you that “Nobody loves me” just isn’t true.  We are very loved.  And we can always count on that love.  It endures despite our sometimes unloveableness.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 9, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

The End of the Semester

On a fairly regular basis I hear the questions, “Why doesn’t Jesus return?  What is He waiting for?”  If they were teachers at the end of a semester they would know the answer. II Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

It’s that most unwonderful time of the year when my desk piles high with term papers, essays, book reports, quizzes and finals.  Yuck!  First of all, it is amazingly boring to read thirty-five papers on ADHD.  Secondly, the writing is usually bad.  If it is good one grows suspicious and puts a few words from the paper into the Google search bar.  It is very disheartening to get a positive strike.

If it is so difficult for evil men such as I to give bad grades to my students, how much more so must it be difficult for our heavenly Father to close the door of eternity on His children?  I want all my students to get A’s. I am not one of those demented teachers who thinks they are tough (Why is that admirable?) if they don’t give many, if any, A’s.  I think that can be translated into, “They did not teach the assigned material very well.”  It is a matter of understanding that the students need this material that they might successfully meet life’s challenges.

Some teachers say they don’t give grades; students earn them.  Actually, I do hope it is a combination of both ideas.  While we are not talking about salvation which is a gift there is also the idea that those who have received much grace know how to be graceful.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 10, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

The Evolution of the Eye

I listened very carefully today to an evolutionist explain how life forms mutated over the course of millions of years.  The life forms that survived to reproduce were those with favorable mutations that made it superior to those that perished.  It was the survival of the fittest. I like that argument. It sounds very logical.  The argument I heard explained how the first parts of an eye came into being and it was millions of years and millions of adaptations that finally enabled that organ to see.  What I do not understand is why the parts of the eye continued to develop if for millions of years the eye was not functional.  If it was not working for millions of years it would not have contributed anything to the survival of the life form and therefore would not have been retained for further development.   At least that is how my mind sees it.  No pun intended.

It has become fashionable in some scientific arenas to scoff at creationists.  We are looked down upon as beings with inferior intellect.  But really now, doesn’t it make more sense to believe the eye is the product of an intelligent creator?  They would say, “No.”  I would say “Yes.”  And my “Yes” is just as good as their “No” because we are both making statements of faith.  He has faith in a non-logical process and I have faith in a loving Father God.   I do like mine better.   I’m sorry. Now I am sounding snobby and that puts me in the same category as the evolutionist who thinks he is more intelligent.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 12, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Enjoy the Joy – A Good Place to Be

I have a friend who is almost terrified that in the Day of Judgment God will produce a record or evidence of some unknown sin and the result will be the loss of his eternal life. He tells me he regularly searches his past trying to remember some misdeed he has not yet confessed. He breaks my heart. There is little if any of the joy of salvation in his life. I hope he never hears my concept of sin or he will go over the edge.  I believe all of us are filled with unknown sins.  It is part of our selfish nature.  I see it often regarding the gossipy things I both say and hear about others.  Recently I heard someone who is very perfectionistic in his theology speak unlovingly of someone who did not share his theology.  Sin permeates us.

I wish I could convince my friend that all of us will be lost if God is in the business of proving us unworthy.  There is only one who is worthy.  In Revelation 5 John weeps because there is no one worthy to open a book.  Then came the good news there was someone.  Verse 12 says, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

God isn’t keeping records to prove us to be sinners.  That is very evident.  He is storing evidence to prove we accepted the gift of salvation.  None of the redeemed are worthy except in Jesus.  That includes the nicest, kindest, gentlest person you have ever known. My friend must stop worrying, relax and enjoy the joy of being held SAFELY in Jesus’ hand.  It’s a good place to be.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 8, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org