Author: Ian Bothwell

There is an abandoned railroad tunnel not far from our college.  One’s eyes adjust to the dimming light as one treks into its heart of darkness but soon even the keenest of eyes find it difficult to make out what might be painted on the old rock walls.  Eventually there is not enough light to even see one’s own hand held before one’s face.  But then as one nears the opposite end, the light increases, the shadows decrease and how glorious it is to step out into the light.

Tunnels are like human’s experience with God.  Adam and Eve started in the light of Eden.  God came and walked and talked with them.  They knew who He was and what He was like.  But after sin they lost that privilege and following generations walked deeper into the darkness of forgetting His loving nature.   Men fashioned God into their twisted image and He became, in human minds, a vengeful being filled with human traits. People did terrible things to each other and perceived it to be God’s will.  Lucifer lied to people about God, smeared God’s good name. Lucifer did evil things and blamed it on God.  For thousands of years the truth about God was lost in the shadows of human sin, greed, selfishness and aggression.

Then something absolutely amazing happened.  Angels appeared in the sky outside a small village and sang gloriously about a birth.  It was time to tell the truth about God.  It was time to flood the world with the light of His true nature and to stop blaming the corruption of the world on Him.   Jesus came.  He and He alone was and is a photograph of the Father.  Emmanuel, God with us.  If we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father.  Please see Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 17, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

It had been 39 years since the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup.  On June 15, 2011 the drought came to an end.  It was a phenomenal series for Boston’s goalie.  He stopped 37 attempts on goal. Vancouver just couldn’t get that puck past him.

I need a goalie like that.  Satan is out there taking his best shots at me and way too often he scores.   He dekes me time after time.  Every day he scores a hat trick.  The problem being that I try to be my own goalie.  My personal pride tells me, “Oh yeah, I can do this.”  Ah, pride does indeed go before a fall.  Just when I think it’s coming straight in he wraps it around into the net from behind.  I need help.   I should get smart.  Even though I have almost logged my three score and ten I am a rookie compared to Satan who has thousands of years of experience deking people.

According to the end of Jude, God is able to keep us from falling. It’s a matter of teamwork. We need to allow God to do for us what He is really good at doing.   He is good at fending off temptations. In John 14 Jesus promised that He would send us help.  He would not leave us orphaned but would send a Comforter to supply all that we need.  Psalm after Psalm promises if we call upon God when things get tough He will be instantly at our side.  He is never begrudging about our requests.  He loves it when we acknowledge our need.  That gives Him permission to come to our aid.  Satan can’t get anything past Him.

Yeah, that’s who I need for a goalie!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 16, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I have a friend with a small black convertible.  It’s not much use in New England from Thanksgiving through May, so it’s put into storage for the winter.  One would think nothing could go wrong with it sitting safely through the snowy months.  However, this week it started leaking hydraulic fluid from one of the rear shocks.  It appears that one of the seals dried up during the winter because it wasn’t being used.  And so goes the old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”   Next winter my friend will bounce on the corners of the car every once in a while.

That adage is true for more than machinery.  It is also true for our bodies.  If we don’t exercise we lose strength, endurance and muscle tone.  If we don’t challenge our minds we lose mental agility.  If we don’t feed our souls with good nutritious inspiring material we cease being attuned to such and thus miss much.  The more we miss the more we spiral down and become like the average Joe Blow, who is so spiritually blind he sees nothing uplifting.

Balanced usage, well thought out, well planned usage builds strength and agility.  When we are tuned in we see God’s power everywhere.  God actually expects us to do so.  In Romans 1:20 we read, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”  Please note that last phrase.  There is no excuse for not seeing. We are expected to be aware.  Seeing should be believing. The more we do it the easier it becomes.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

While sitting on the porch of a home in a small town in the Napa Valley I looked up to see a street sweeping machine work its way along the curb.   “Humm,” I thought, “the street isn’t dirty.”  It had been nine months since the leaves had fallen and the locals seem to take pride in their community and pick up any fallen piece of paper.   About thirty minutes later I watched the same machine with the same driver do it again.  To my amazement about thirty minutes later he came by for the third time.  I thought, “Either this guy has a clean fetish or not enough to do and wants to collect a paycheck for working all day.”

I used to know a guy very much like that street sweeper.  He just couldn’t bring himself to believe that Jesus really did forgive his sins.   He would claim the promise in 1 John 1 that tells us, if we confess, God will forgive and cleanse us.  He would pray, ask for forgiveness and be fine for a short while.  But Satan taunted him into thinking he was being presumptuous to think he could be saved.  His sins were so bad he was unforgivable.  His very short lived freedom from guilt was soon overwhelmed with the depressive body and soul destruction of guilt.  Soon he was praying again for God to forgive him of those very same sins of which he had already been cleansed. The joy of salvation continually eluded him.  He kept sweeping the same street over and over and over.

We must not allow our feelings to negate the truth that God means what He says and is a promise keeper.   When He says He forgives He means it.  He is faithful and just.  Put the street sweeper in the garage.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 14, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our brains are wonderful computers instantly analyzing billions of bits of data as they unfold before us.  Our brains constantly work in the background calculating speed, distance and space as we drive.  While on my way to our college Thursday morning my brain issued an instant terror alert.  As I started up a hill I noted a mail delivery truck coming down the hill.  I watched as he pulled halfway off the road to open a mailbox. The terror occurred when I saw a 100,000 pound 18 wheeler coming 50 plus mph down the hill behind the mail truck.  There was no possible way he could slow down. Those two trucks and my car were going to get to the same small piece of road at the very same instant. If he was not going to flatten the mail truck he had to come into center of the road.  I would have to go for the ditch if I was ever to make another brain calculation. I’m not sure how many heart beats I missed as he chose the middle of the two lane road.  I still cannot understand how I still have a driver’s side mirror.  It was over in an instant. All I could see were his tail lights receding in that mirror I still had.

These brains we have can do some marvelous things.  Each day they quietly make thousands of decisions as to how we are to nourish ourselves, physically, mentally and spiritually.  They safely guide us through a maze of activities, many of which have great potential for harm.  Not only do they house who we are they hold the potential for who we can be.

The real terror alert should be an awareness that we might miss our full potential.  And what might that be?  To grow into the very likeness of God Himself.  See Philippians 2.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2011

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

Rogerbothwell.org

The drug store wants me to carry a rewards card so I get a discount on some things. The auto parts store wants me to carry a rewards card and so does the pizza shop, donut store, hardware store, grocery store, and barbershop.  Now my wallet is already fat with a credit card, driver’s license, health care card, library card, gift card to Barnes and Noble and my AARP card for discounts of which I have yet to use after carrying it for five years. If I were to carry all those reward cards surely I would need to use a hand truck.  In all fairness I must state that most of them will give me the rewards if I tell them my phone number which verifies I do have a card.  I just refuse to carry it.

I unabashedly ask for my “old people’s discount” everywhere. I get my tithe back.   I love rewards.  It is a characteristic that strongly contributes to my following Jesus because Hebrews 11:6 clearly states, “He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.”  I don’t have to carry a card.  I don’t even have to give Him my phone number.

However, I do have to diligently seek Him.  But wait a minute.  In Revelation 3:20 it says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”  Apparently I have to diligently find my way to the door.  That shouldn’t be too difficult.  But there is something more here. If I diligently spend time studying His word there is no doubt that the rewards are rich, satisfying and endless.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 11, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I saw some children playing outside this dusk.   How is it that such a normal activity has become rare?  How wonderful it used to be to play until dark or until someone’s mother stood on the porch and called for her children to come inside.  Hide and Seek was my favorite.  One had the option of hiding so one could not be found or hiding close to home base so you could race to the base before the person who was “it.”  If you hid really well the only way to get you to come out was the call, “Allee, allee, in free.”

“Allee, allee, in free.”  This is the message of Jesus.  People try to hide from Him and He calls out, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

“Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”

“Whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Please note the continued use of “whosoever.”  The New Testament is filled with the use of this word.  Please note there are no gender, no racial, no educational, no age and no national restrictions.

Jesus is calling out “Allee, allee, in free.”

This is one of those cases when free wasn’t free. Jesus paid a huge price to be able to make this offer.  He is “it.”   He is the one who hunts the hiders.  He wants to catch us and make us “it” so we can also become hunters of the hiders.   Before He left He gave the great Gospel Commission for us to go and hunt hiders.  It is our privilege to join Him in the greatest quest of all time; find the hiders.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 9, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In the latter part of 2009 a mother of four was admitted to a hospital in Phoenix.   She was in the first trimester of a pregnancy and the right side of her heart had ceased to function.  After careful and prayerful consideration Sister Margaret McBride, the hospital administrator, granted permission for the baby to be aborted.  It was the only way to save the mother who had four children at home who needed her.  Sister McBride is a highly respected member of the Sisters of Mercy and had an unblemished record but she had broken church law.  The Bishop of the Phoenix diocese forthwith excommunicated her taking away her rights to communion and any other sacrament.

I mention this because it is a classic example of following the letter of the law and forgetting the spirit of the law.   In Mark 2 Jesus commends David for feeding his men the shewbread from the temple because his men were in need of food.  It was a clear violation of temple law.  Only the priests were to eat the shewbread. David’s men with all the notches on their spear shafts could hardly be considered priests.  Over and over Jesus sought to have us understand that people are more important than laws.  Laws are made to protect people and when they do the opposite principles come into operation. In Galatians Paul says the entire law is summed up in how we treat others.

Solomon once said there is a time to kill.  Sister McBride’s dilemma was which one was to die, the mother or the developing baby.   If we think this was an easy decision it is only because we have never had to do so.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 10, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

We are in the midst of a presidential campaign and silliness will abound in the coming months prior to November.  Each side will listen ever so carefully to the other side waiting for a phrase or sentence to yank out of context.   It will be turned into a sound bite and pushed in our face as the central doctrine of their opponent.  I am sure each of us could easily be made to look worse than we are by our enemies using this worn out tactic.

Unfortunately it doesn’t happen just to politicians but also to God.  People search the Bible, not to find truth, but to find a phrase or a text to yank out of context so they might build a case against God and seek to confuse us.

We can never over stress the importance of context.   A text out of context rarely states reality or the intent of the author/speaker.  Truth, as it is,is often difficult to come by, let alone have others deliberately distort. The number one rule for Bible study is to step back and look at the whole.  What is the overall message?  If we find something that appears to be in opposition to that overall message we must be very careful before we seek to build a new truth.

The overall message of Scripture is quite simple.  There is an enemy seeking to destroy us.  We have a Savior.  God is love.  We can live forever if we so chose.  We can with divine help grow and become so much more than we are today.  It really is that simple.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 8, 2008

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I was sitting in a beautiful church.  I could not imagine what it cost. The pipe organ alone cost more than most church buildings.  The stained glass windows were awesome.  Each window told a Bible story.  And yet as I left I was uninspired.  The sparse congregation barely sang the hymns and the sermon was mediocre at best.  While walking to my car I remembered a church on the slopes of Mount Kenya where we attended a  campmeeting.  The roof was rusted, corrugated metal and the sides were vertical wooden slates filled with knot holes.  There was no pulpit and the people sat on planks on blocks.  When it rained, and it did every day, I had to stop preaching because the sound on the roof was mesmerizingly deafening.  The best part was the music.  The music leader would hold up an empty orange Fanta bottle by the lip on the top of the bottle and beat out rhythms by striking it with the side of a coin.  Oh how the people would sing.  It was a foretaste of heaven.

Obviously great worship experiences don’t have to occur in great cathedrals. Emily Dickenson once wrote,

“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church — I keep it, staying at Home — With a Bobolink for a Chorister — And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –I just wear my Wings —

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church, Our little Sexton — sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –And the sermon is never long,

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last — I’m going, all along.”

How absolutely grand!!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 8, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org