Author: Ian Bothwell

My parents, who were born in 1911, never saw the Chicago Cubs win a World Series.  Last night we did.  It took 108 years!  Can you imagine what the world was like in 1908?   World War I had not yet occurred.  Henry Ford’s assembly line, the first ever, was not built until 1913.   The Model T came in your choice of colors as long as you chose black.   Cities were concerned about pollution.  What to do with all the horse manure that daily filled their streets was a major political issue.

Last night, in the tenth inning of the seventh game, the miracle happened.  After a short rain delay the Cubs put up two runs in the top of the tenth and Cleveland could only get one run in the bottom of the inning.  The game was over.  For almost eleven decades hope never died.

There is an interesting verse in II Peter.  We read, “They will say, ‘What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.’”  The answer follows in verse 9.   “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”   Well, you say, “Everyone will not repent so that must mean He will never come.”  Peter goes on to assure us the day will come.  It is a matter of patience on our part.  Jesus will come again the very moment when the time is right.  He hates the suffering on earth and will never let it linger one extra second.

Never give up hope.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 3, 2016

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I have this wonderful wooden box filled with cards.  It is great fun to open it and shuffle through old driver’s licenses, (I actually liked my picture on one of them). There are ID cards from the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association, the Audubon Society, Atlantic Union College, Fitchburg State University, Quinnsigamund College and many more.  One of my favorites is a complementary pass for me and a guest to Boston Red Sox games.  I can go in and sit anywhere until the rightful ticket holder shows up.  Then I have to move to another empty seat.  Sometimes I used to sit right behind home plate and no one would come and bump me out.  It is difficult to understand why someone would let a seat like that go empty.  But then again there are seats in heaven’s throne room for everyone and thousands will let it go empty.  What a waste!

It’s a waste of life and opportunity.  It’s a waste of intellect and creativity.  It’s a waste of happiness and fulfillment. God is in the business of saving people He will make every effort and use every tactic available to woo people into the Kingdom.  But there are some hardnosed folk who will resist and resist until they no longer hear the pleading voice beckoning them to come.

Revelation 3:21 says, “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”   Now that is a seat no one in their right mind would ever want to miss.  Please come with me.  I promise I will cheer and shout your name the day I see you sitting with Jesus.  How very grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 31, 2016

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I just discovered my dog eats tomatoes.  Dogs don’t eat tomatoes!  This is truly weird.  What other strange appetites and behaviors are housed inside my beautiful friend?  I thought I knew her well.  Could it be that my wife of 54 years also has secrets?  Probably so; and probably for good reasons.  It’s not always wise to know everything about somebody. Has Ecclesiastics 12:14 ever bothered you?  Or maybe even more so, frightened you?  It says, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”

That seems like a short trip straight to hell.  But hang on.  Don’t despair.  Don’t go to the fridge and pig out on a half gallon of Breyers.   Isaiah 43:25 is a verse for you.  “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”   Now we are talking Good News.   Our heavenly Father knows everything about us.  Jesus said He even knows how many hairs we have or don’t have.  And yet He still loves us.  He still wants to live with us forever.  He must like us.  And He blots out our sins so others can’t snoop and pry.

There is a huge difference between loving and liking.  Loving is wanting the best for us.  Liking is wanting to be with someone.  How grand it is that our heavenly Father who knows all about us not only loves us but likes us.  Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you…that where I am you may be also.”

I wonder what other things my dog likes to eat?

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 1, 2016

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For years one of my sons worked on Wall Street.  For years I listened very carefully to him.  I was always hoping to glean just a tidbit of information that might alert my attention to a particular stock.  I knew better than to ask.  Insider traders go to jail. But I couldn’t resist hoping I could put two and two together for a hot tip.  I never got it.  He was always super careful and I was never able to glean an iota of investment information.

But I am still fascinated by the idea that insider information might be helpful.  Being that I am a family member in God’s family, I listen carefully for insider information.  Maybe I can glean a tidbit of information that might make gaining eternal life a bit easier.  But, wait.  How much easier can it be?  Romans 8:23 says eternal life is a gift.  The last time I checked the dictionary the word gift meant receiving something for free.

Now let me think about this. I am a family member.  I have connections.  Jesus is my Savior and Brother.  If there was a shortcut available surely He would tell me.  But how can there be a shortcut when something is already free?  So I have to conclude my kinship with Jesus isn’t going to make the deal any sweeter.  It’s already as sweet as it can get.  And I can begin reaping the benefits right now.  I Peter 1 says,   “. . . you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  Note the present tense in that promise.  I was about to say, “Sorry, I don’t have any inside information.”  Instead I should be rejoicing that there is no insider information needed!

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 2, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, Ca 94574

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I, like most of you (I imagine), occasionally look at my paycheck stub and sigh over the deductions.  Then I sink into my easy chair to watch the evening network news.  There before my eyes is the video footage of hundreds of thousands of people streaming out of the middle-east fleeing savage carnage that few of us can even begin to comprehend.  I am so thankful to pay taxes for the wonder of our land.  The political zoo that is winding up now for the next year can be amusing but is also an example that anyone can run for president and say anything, no matter how outrageous or untrue.  We call it free speech.  Stop and think about the miracle that not one candidate will be beheaded in the coming months.

It is easy to be thankful when one lives here.  While there is probably an end to the list we could develop, it would be a long list. Once in a while I hear someone say, when asked to mention just one thing they are thankful for, “I have so many I can’t distinguish just one.”   Well, go ahead then and say two or three or four.  Or could it be they have no concept of what life is like for millions not here?

If life is all about being fair, when most of us get to the pearly gates Peter should say to us, “Sorry, you already had your share.”   How wonderful it is to know that life isn’t about fairness.   It is about mercy and love and family.  It’s about redemption from our selfishness and transforming us into a Christ-like creature.  Perhaps one of the very early steps on that journey is being very thankful.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 9, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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It occurred to me this afternoon had Jesus lived into His seventies He would have added a few beatitudes.  “Blessed are the nappers for they shall be refreshed.”  “Blessed are the early risers for they shall see each dawn.”  “Blessed are the grandparents for they shall spoil their grands.”  “Blessed are the walkers for they shall not be stiff.”

Jesus was a great observer of people.  His beatitudes and the entire Sermon  on the Mount is one of the greatest philosophies ever written.  It is intriguingly simple and astonishingly difficult.  There is something for everyone.  His challenge to be perfect as God is perfect takes one’s breath away just by thinking about trying to do so.  Fortunately for us it is not the requirement for salvation.  Yet it is.  The answer to the enigma is how.  Paul answers that for us in his letters to the Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.  Without Paul’s counsel we would be most miserable.  He wrote, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”  Eph. 2.

Jesus’ insight in Matthew 5 regarding sin’s most dangerous state being internal instead of external shocks us with a description of our true human condition and how much help we really need.  Teaching us to turn the other cheek when abused challenges the heartiest among us.  How often do we want to hit back and of course hit back a bit harder.  Kermit once sang, “It’s not easy being green.”  I would like to add it is not easy being a real Christian.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 15, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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It’s time in New England to start building up one’s supply of firewood for the coming winter.  When I take my axe in hand I feel like one of the ants and not the grasshopper who played his fiddle.  I have done my fiddling for the year. It is time to pay attention to the calendar.  It feels very manly to raise the axe overhead and bring it down on a nice round of maple.  It is a game to see if I can hit the mark for which I am aiming.  When I miss I hope no one was watching.  One would not want to hold the round of maple unless they have an excellent surgeon standing by.

It must hark back to Greek class in the seminary so long ago, but I can’t do this without thinking of “hamartia.”   “Hamartia” is one of the first Greek vocabulary words we learned.  It means to miss the mark.  Paul often uses it for the English word “sin.”  There is something almost comforting about “hamartia.”  It might indicate one was trying to do what was right and just missed the standard.  However, Paul does use the word in Hebrews 10:26, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, . . .”  In this verse it doesn’t sound like one is trying and therefore there is no forgiveness.  It is true we are saved by grace and all can be forgiven but we cannot spit on God’s grace by deliberately missing the mark.  Jesus offers to help us with our aim.

Just some thoughts while chopping wood on a September afternoon.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 17, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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It has been my observation through the decades that some of the most gifted people I know are the most unhappy people I know.  They are highly talented or wonderfully skilled and can out do 98% of us.  But it is the 1% who are better than they that frustrate them.  It seems that to be almost the best at something is far worse than being mediocre.  Those of us who are mediocre know better than to dream of having the masses know our names.  But when you are so very close so as to see the top and not get there produces misery.  Perhaps a new beatitude should read, “Happy are the average for they shall be satisfied.”

Regarding those whose characters and behaviors are almost perfect Jesus said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ‘And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; . . .’”  The danger of being too good is thinking we are very good and that will get us in big trouble.

Jesus did admonish us to seek to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.  But we should never ever rely on that as a ticket to heaven.  Paul says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

So if you are part of the 98% of us rejoice and be exceedingly happy with life knowing we are covered by Jesus’ love and we don’t need to worry about making it on our own.  Oh, that also works for the 2%.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 28, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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It was April, 1945 and I sat on a throw rug on our wooden floor listening to a radio that was as tall as I was.  It had beautiful decorative wood carvings over the cloth covering the speaker and the dial was fun to play with because of the wooing and wowing noises that occurred on either side of a clear station.  But this day I was not playing.  I was listening to the voice of Arthur Godfrey and he was crying as he was trying to describe the funeral procession for Franklin D. Roosevelt.  It was my first experience with death.  That night when my father came home from school we talked about death.   This was different from what I had learned in Sabbath School.  I had seen pictures of Jesus on the cross but He lived again on Sunday.  Why, I asked, wouldn’t President Roosevelt be alive again next week?  Maybe he could be like Lazarus and Jesus would call him forth.

My theology hasn’t changed much since I was almost three.  I still believe and I look forward to a great day when Jesus will indeed call forth His children.  Paul wrote, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”  I Thessalonians 4:16.

There was no doubt and there is no doubt now.  Perhaps the only difference is now I know where the promise can be found.  This is what being a Christian is all about.  Death will be destroyed.  No longer will we fear its separating pain.  This is not complicated.  Even a very little guy can get it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 29, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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Recently the president of the Seattle NAACP was scandalized because it was revealed she wasn’t black.  She had been pretending.  I honestly do not know why this was so awful.  Why can’t someone pretend to be what they want to be?  I have been pretending to be something I am not for most of my life.  I was a pastor and pretended to be a good man.  For years I have been a college professor and have been pretending to be knowledgeable about certain areas of knowledge.  The truth is my gift is being able to project confidence because I know a little about a lot of things but I am not an authority on anything.

When I was in college a professor, who I really admired, said to me after I made a presentation, “That was the most interesting nothing I have ever listened to.”  Instead of being hurt, I thanked him because I knew he was telling the truth.

All this brings me to my point.  As human beings, if we want to face the truth about ourselves, we are basically selfish.  There are a few unselfish people in our midst, a few.  But most of us who claim to be Christians are pretending. To be a Christian is to be Christ-like.  That is an insurmountable goal.  But I am committed to pretending because I believe if we pretend to be something long enough we actually become what we desire to be.  Our challenge is to be a better and better Christian pretender.  The wonderful thing about this quest is God promises to help us become.  Enoch was taken to heaven because he became so much like God.  That did not happen overnight. See Genesis 5.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 12, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

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