Author: Ian Bothwell

When we were little heaven was all about things.  Mansions, streets of gold, tame lions and tigers were the big thing.  As Paul says in I Corinthians 13 when I was a child I thought as a child.  But now that I am a man all those things seem very unnecessary.  Heaven is about family.  Heaven is about having one’s loved ones safe and having eternity to grow, intellectually, spiritually and creatively.  If I were given that I would be happy in a one room wooden shack with just one dog as my only animal. Actually I could do without the dog but it would be a nice touch.

Being rich is having enough.  The cup running over really isn’t necessary. The widow’s barrel that never went empty was being rich.  The little boy’s basket of bread and fish was being rich.  The widow of Nain getting her son back was being rich.  Even though Martha and Mary lived in the rich little town of Bethany I’m sure that didn’t matter when Lazarus died.  Then Jesus came.

Recently there has been a plethora of articles questioning the value of a college education.  If you are talking about the availability of job opportunities and the student loan debt, the value of a college education is questionable.  If one talks about exposure to ideas, great literature, a greater understanding of history, a vaster comprehension of human development, a broader grasp of the sciences and more discernment of human behavior then the question really is mute.

For Christians being rich is being forgiven, having an assurance of being once again with loved ones who are waiting for the resurrection and knowing that our future has no end because we are loved by the One who made it all.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 25, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

A few years ago one of our church members lost his memory after a horrific motorcycle accident.  We were very hopeful it would return even if it was in small bits and pieces. It did not.  I could not understand how he remembered language.  He could still read and do math but did not know any of his family let alone those of us outside his immediate circle.  The selectiveness of what he knew puzzled me.

I remembered him this week while doing a backup of my computer’s hard drive.  Supposedly I will be able to restore my system and files if I have a crash.  I found myself wishing we could plug our brains into a little box that would store our personalities and our past for restoration in case of a crash.

Basically that is what God does for us.  In I Corinthians 15 Paul speaks of a resurrection and this mortal putting on immortality.  I really don’t think we much want our old bodies back.  Paul speaks of brand new eternal bodies with all our personalities and memories installed in a never dying brain.  That sounds pretty terrific.  I recently had an elementary student ask me if his head were traded with the head of the child sitting at the next desk, would he think the other child’s thoughts.  I assured him he would still only think his own thoughts.  Instead he would have a different body.

Our amazing God, who knows all, knows all our memories and as we age and forget He keeps them safe and secure for us.  So the next time you can’t remember a friend’s name, just relax, this too shall pass.  Old age and forgetfulness is a temporary condition.  How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 23, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

As my dog and I were finishing our evening walk and approached our home I suddenly became aware that I could smell our house about three houses away.  Lest I leave you with the wrong idea that we live in a pig sty allow me to explain.  Yesterday after over a week of work, a crew of house painters finished painting all the outside wood on the house.  Not only did the gallons of oil based paint beautifully cover the eaves, window frames and doors they also filled the atmosphere with their particular fragrance.  I like the smell and hope my neighbors don’t mind until it dissipates.

This is a good week for smells.  Lots of kitchens will be emanating wondrous aromas throughout homes as we get ready for Thursday’s feasts.  Stores are anticipating Black Friday and making sure we are greeted at the door with vanilla or cinnamon or lilac scents.  Smelling good things puts us in a good mood, and hopefully for the merchants, opens our wallets.

I have always imaged that Eden was filled with the fragrances of flowers and heaven will likewise be so scented.  When I go to church I often smell lots of aftershave lotions and perfumes.  That’s good because it compensates for the garlic lovers in our midst.

People have always loved to smell nice things.  When the Magi came to visit Jesus in Bethlehem they brought some very nice smelling gifts.  One of the best scents that God loves is described in II Corinthians 2:15.  “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved . . .” As Jackie Gleason used to say, “How sweet it is!”

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 23, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

My sister, who lived with us for many years, moved to California to be close to her children.  We have been forwarding her mail as we wait for others to get her new address.  Last week we forwarded to her a letter from Dreyfus.  When she received and opened it, the letter inside was an acknowledgment that they had her new address.  After I got over the “duh” moment I realized the logic.  They were checking to make sure someone had not, for fraudulent reasons, changed her address without her knowing.

So many times in life we jump to conclusions about the stupidity of what someone has done.  Usually it is because we don’t know the logic behind the action.  Because we have limited knowledge about what led up to a behavior we, thinking we are so intelligent, conclude the other person was stupid.  Only when we learn all the factors involved do we understand what the person did was the right thing to do.

When Jesus found his disciples on shore after a night of fishless fishing and he told them to cast their net over the side of the boat, I’m sure some of them must have thought, “That’s stupid. We fished all night and got nothing.”   Peter actually objected but finally did what he was told.  The Bible says, “When they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them.”

Even when we don’t understand what God asks us to do, the smart thing would be to do it.  He would never ask us to do something stupid.  We just don’t understand all that is involved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 22, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

As my son and family were leaving the baggage area at Logan airport they were blocked at the door by a man on his cell phone.  Apparently he wasn’t coordinated enough to walk and talk at the same time.  Neither did he seem to be aware that others needed to get by.  Meanwhile others waiting in cars were being urged along by some very intimating state patrolmen.

Unfortunately sometimes we have people blocking the door to our churches.  I have seen well-meaning but poorly acting older people chase our teens away.  They are made to feel unwelcome because of their dress or jewelry or makeup.  Sometimes they are actually verbally assaulted that they are not representative of Christ by looking the way they look.  But really now, when one stops to think about it, what real harm occurs to anyone because someone else is experimenting and has purple hair?  They will grow up and not look like that for the rest of their lives.  Well, perhaps I should take that back.  I have seen older ladies with purplish hair.

Our churches should be places where anyone is welcome.  If a kid shows up with an arrow through his head and enough fake gold chains around his neck that he looks like Mr. T., who does that harm?   Better that they are with us in church than home watching television or playing video games.  Sometimes we excuse our behavior by saying we are holding up the standards.  What standard?   What about the standard of unconditional love.  What about the real sins of us older people?   I mean the vile ones we carry inside – the ones Jesus cares about.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 19, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94547

Rogerbothwell.org

 

One of my favorite things about Jesus was the way He touched people prior to healing them.  In Mark 1 He touched a leper and then said, “I will. Be clean.”  If it had been me it would have been the other way around.  We are very tactile beings and apparently we are not the only creatures God made to be such.  In a recent study at the University of California rats were induced to have a stroke.  The researchers then tickled the rats’ whiskers and discovered something wonderfully amazing.  Neurons that should have died did not.  There was no paralysis where there should have been.  There still needs to be much follow-up research; however, the implications are extremely hopeful.  While it is true, we are not rats and do not respond to things the way they respond, researchers often find correlations.   The message is we might have an opportunity to benefit stroke victims by stroking them until we can get them emergency aid.

In Mark 8 Jesus touched the eyes of a blind man.   In Matthew 8 He touched Peter’s mother-in-law on her hand and immediately her fever vanished.     In  Matthew 9 He took a little girl, thought to be dead, by the hand and she got up. Continuing on in the same chapter two blind men were given sight after He touched their eyes.  In Revelation 7 John speaks of the redeemed as being a huge uncountable multitude.  That is so wonderful.  The exclusionists among us are so very wrong. It isn’t going to be just their special little group.  It is HUGE and Jesus will touch each person one by one.  It will take a while.  Perhaps a century or so but I can wait.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 24, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

So I ask you.  How can a man concentrate on his classroom lecture when a pretty lady comes by the door tossing in kisses?  This is not the first time this has happened.  We teach in the same department and her office is next to mine but she waits until I am really holding forth with some important topic and then she strikes.  I have to tell you even though we are coming up on our 50th anniversary, it is still very distracting.

Life is full of distractions.  When I am in the midst of a task needing concentration a student will stick his head in the door to ask a “quickquestion.”   I hear this so often it really needs to be one word instead of two.  Though it might only take thirty seconds to respond it takes much longer to mentally return to the task at hand.  Our cell phones, iPads and pop ups on computer screens all distract us.

We make a conscious effort to grow spiritually only to be distracted by our children’s needs.  There is soccer practice, or whatever, where they need to be delivered.  As if there is something innately wrong with quiet, our environment so often is filled with background music; usually music we don’t especially like.  The pressures of modern life are one of the biggest distractible foes to personal growth.  One of Satan’s most effective tools is hubbub.   When we are making really good spiritual progress a committee of Satan’s angels meets to discuss our case.   First of their suggestions as to how to thwart us comes, “Just, fill his/her life with lots of responsibilities.  They can be good things.  It doesn’t matter.  Just make it a good distraction.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 29, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I bought a new pair of shoes yesterday and put them on this morning for the first time.   They were as perfect as only something new can be.  As I started down the stairs my dog promptly stepped on one with her 80 pounds and one of her nails gouged into that fine finish.  I think I had them on less than five minutes.  Alas.  It also seems that way when I buy a new car.  That first ding seems to occur in the first few days and months go by before the second one appears.

Can we even begin to imagine God’s reaction to Adam and Eve’s disobedience?  Eden was perfect.  Genesis one finishes with God critiquing His own work.  He said, “That’s very good.”   We have no idea how many millenniums of thought and planning went into this magnificent planet.  It was here that He prepared a perfect home for a perfect couple made in His image.  Angels must have been overwhelmed with the artistic design and scientific balance for life.  Surely there were tears shed all over heaven when the news spread regarding the now flawed paradise.  This was not a gouge mark.  This was not a ding.  This was destruction.  Death had come to Earth.

God Himself would offer that first sacrifice as He explained to them what it represented.  As graphic as that was I doubt if they really got it.  No one really got it until that night in another garden.   Jesus clung to earth begging His Father for another way and if there was no other way to give Him the strength to do it.   He did it.  Now we know.  But do we?  Surely we would be more motivated if we really understood.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 18, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

My exquisite art teacher reminded me this morning of something so true and very important.  When you strike middle C or any other key on a piano all of the other strings on the piano harp vibrate with it.  It literally sets the tone.  It’s just like people.  When we strike a tone others around us respond in kind.  A few months ago someone entered my office to complain about the hostile environment.  I had to admit my surprise.  What hostile environment?  I was surprised but not puzzled.  All I had to do was look at the person’s face and demeanor to know they were telling the truth.  As they moved about striking a tone others around responded in kind.  Primarily we are responsible for what happens around us.  I say primarily because never is something like this always true.  There can be another strong person in the room who is spoiling it for all others.  That’s why one of the most important questions to ask before hiring someone is “What was it like where you worked prior to this?”

Many years ago I had a similar conversation and that person said, “It’s like this everywhere I go.  What’s the matter with people?”   I do believe the key word there is “everywhere”.   Who is the one person present everywhere she went?

Jesus certainly put out the right vibes.  The crowds couldn’t stay away from Him. “The people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and out went them, and came together unto him.” Mark 6.  We have within our power and even more so can have divine power to strike the right note, the positive note to make life better for all around us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 17, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

One of the treasures I have from my father is an old globe he had in his classroom.  It maps wonderfully exotic places like Siam, Rhodesia, Palestine, Gold Coast and Keijo.  Holding a globe and turning it this way and that causes one to wonder about the way things are.   I can untip the axis and do away with the seasons.  There would be perpetual sunshine on the poles making it a very interesting place to live with the sun never rising high in the sky.   I can turn the axis at a 90 degree angle and have the sun come up in the north and go down in the south or vice versa depending on which direction I spin it.  Continents look very unfamiliar when oriented differently.  North America becomes almost unrecognizable when turned on its side and has no state lines.

Perhaps the second most important text in Scripture is “In the beginning God.”  We can be filled with a host of questions about rocks, continental drift and the ring of fire but as long as Genesis 1:1 is we have no fear for the future.  Asteroids can go whizzing past us at 26,000 miles an hour and we know God is still there and all will ultimately be well.

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visits him?”  Psalm 8.  And the answer is we are the sons and daughters of this Most High God who but breathes and worlds come into existence.  How grand for us.  We are so blessed.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 16, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94547

Rogerbothwell.org