Author: Ian Bothwell

My computer is slow this evening because my virus protection program is conducting a full scan of all systems as it looks for infections and other harmful intruders.   I found myself wishing we had such a system to scan our bodies for infections and harmful intruders and then I realized we do have scanners at medical centers that do just that.  However what about our mental situation?   Our memories, habits, tendencies, passions and appetites are hidden all throughout our brains.   Maybe it would not be such a good idea to have a scanner that would find the harmful intruders there.   Most likely the overwhelming number we discover would be so discouraging we would just give up.

David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  He had already asked God to “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”   He was asking for a scan, a purge and a new hard drive.  I am sure God did exactly what David asked for.  God is like that. Unfortunately by the end of the next day David was infected again.

In Romans Paul struggles with this.   He calls it his new man and his old man.  Each day he found it necessary to kill off the old man and replace him with a new one fashioned after the mind of Jesus.   It almost drove Paul insane when he realized the next day the old man had hammered his way out of his coffin and needed to once again be dealt with.  See Psalms 51 and Romans 5 through 8.

Don’t be distressed.  Paul also tells us in I Corinthians 15 that this corruption will put on incorruption.  On resurrection morning we don’t just get a cleansed hard drive, we get a brand new one that is absolutely pure. How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

One of my best blessings is I am surrounded by some very smart people.  One does not necessarily have to be very bright if one is willing to acknowledge one’s limitations and then be willing to ask for lots of help.  That’s me.  An example of this is this past weekend my computer lost its ability to post things on the Internet.  I lost my File Protocol Transfer.  I could not figure out how to repair whatever had gone wrong.  So today I mentioned it to one of my smartest friends.  Without a moment’s hesitation he said, “Use a restore date.”  Awesome!  As soon as he said it I knew it would work.   It worked.  As I said, “It is nice to be surrounded by very bright people.”

The restore program he prescribed is a marvelous feature that allows us to reset the computer’s operating system to a date prior to one’s problem.   As it was doing its thing I was thinking about how grand it would be if we had such a function in life.  After we mess up something we could just click a button and go back to yesterday and start again.  Not only could we restore broken relationships we could get rich.  Stocks either go up or go down.  If we invested today and it went down.  We could just go back to yesterday and short the stock.  Instead of making money watching it go up we would make money watching it go down.  However, as we all know life does not work that way.

So that brings me back to surrounding ourselves with smart friends.  If we are willing to take wise counsel we will not need so many restores because we will make good decisions the first time.  It really goes back to what your mother told you when you were small.  Run with the right crowd!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 23, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

Its name is Tata.  No, not “Tada” as in announcing something wonderful. It’s far from that.  It’s India’s two thousand dollar car that is missing almost everything except wheels (you actually get a steering one) and a seat and it is glued together.  Oh, it does have one wiper blade and top speed is 65. As I was reading about it I could not help thinking of one of my all-time favorite Bible verses.  Jeremiah 12:5, “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?”  Don’t you love the imagery?  Can’t you see yourself running with horses?

One night about 25 years ago I was running down the middle of the runway at the Angwin, Ca. airport and suddenly found myself in the dark running in the midst of a herd of deer.  It was one of the most memorable moments of my life.   Jeremiah is stirring us to be so strong in the Lord we can run with the big boys.  We can match the spiritual and intellectual prowess of anyone.  We can preach with the Grahams of the world and proclaim the word with best of scholars.  Paul once said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Philippians 4:13.  That is an awesome verse.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with grace, humility, power and strength there is no doubt that we can indeed run with the horses.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 26, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

One of my grad students came to class distressed.  When I gave her the opportunity to vent she told a sad tale.  It seems her school had fifteenopenings for the girls’ varsity basketball team.   Sixteen girls tried out. The school cut one girl.  She was shattered. My grad student, the girl’s teacher, could not understand why the coach couldn’t have just added one more girl to the team considering there are always ten people on the bench.  Why not eleven?  It was a good question.  My guess would be the coach would answer, “This is the way it is.  We have always had fifteen players.” It reminds us that it often takes very little effort to do the kind, thoughtful thing.  While it is important to have routines and follow procedures, it is also more important to alter those procedures when the cost is minimal and the reward great.  What could be more important than the feelings, the self-esteem and the dream of a young person?

Jesus said, “Come unto me all you that are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  Jesus is so inclusive.  He never excludes anyone who wants in.  One of my favorite authors writing about the storm on the sea said, “The disciples cried out, ’Lord save us: we perish.’  Never did a soul utter that cry unheeded.”   I just thrill when I read Revelation 7:9.  It is a scene of the redeemed in heaven and John said, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”

With our Jesus there is always room for one more.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

When the French government did not support the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 we heard much murmuring about how ungrateful were the French.  After all didn’t American troops push the Nazis from French soil in WWII?  Restaurants were selling Freedom Fries instead of French Fries.  How quickly we forget our history.  During this time I did not hear one radio or television commentator mention that almost 6,000 French troops fought with George Washington against the British at Yorktown in 1781 resulting in General Cornwallis’s surrender.   Without the French we might be singing “God Save The Queen” instead of the “Star Spangled Banner.”

How very important it is for us to know our past.  This is true for our nation and also for our personal walk.  We can only go wisely into the future if we understand how God has led us in the past.  In the Old Testament we find the patriarchs building altars to commemorate great moments with God.   We have memorials both physical and chronological.  God even put a time memorial in the midst of the Ten Commandments that men would remember we are created and are not the product of lightning striking some primordial pool of slime.

We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries to mark the milestones of life. Each year we celebrate both the death and resurrection of our Jesus.  I have friends who can tell me the very day they accepted Jesus as their savior. Sometimes I envy them that because I grew up loving Jesus.   I cannot remember a time when He was not important to me.  Some of my friends tell me they envy me that.  So it is that each of us has a unique experience that we should ponder lest we forget just how very important Jesus is to us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 24, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

From the beginning of time the normal built-in human need for a relationship with God has been exploited by power-hungry, greedy people.  If you can convince someone you have more access to God than they, you can control their behavior and better yet their pocketbook.  Charismatic people, able to captivate the attention and loyalty of those less socially apt, establish themselves as a priesthood, a channel to God.  We see this in all cultures.  We see this in large organizations and small groups following one man and sacrificing themselves for his or her personal gain, whether it be financial or physical.  Surely there is a special place in hell for these pretenders.  Jesus certainly took them on.  See Matthew 22 and 23 to see how Jesus felt about them and the names he called them.

Jesus was hated by the religious establishment because He told people to go into their closets and talk to God.  They did not need some ordained, vested individual with some fancy title.  God hears the prayers of the quiet and the meek and the needy.  God is anxious to quietly walk with those who see Him in the face of a child or in the depths of Orion.  The priests realized if people did what Jesus advised they would no longer be needed and they would actually have to get a real job.  Jesus had to go.  When Jesus cleansed the temple He hit them in their wallets, a most unforgiveable sin.

When I read anti-religious polemics my heart aches.  For most of what is said is true.  Men and churches have abused the masses.  It must make God very sad to know He is used to benefit greed.  Oh that we should so live that those about us can learn that a walk with God is a personal walk of freedom.   Please see Galatians 5 and 6.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 25, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

Here I sit with a handful of rat poison. My wife, the woman who loves me, the love of my life for over fifty years, brought it to me with a glass of water. She is encouraging me to swallow it. The question is quite Shakespearean.  Should I take it and be or not take it and not be?  Coumadin or its generic, Warfarin Sodium, is often used to kill rodents.  Once ingested, it can cause the animal to hemorrhage to death.  However, if used judiciously with humans, it can retard the formation of blood clots, contributing to a healthy recovery from surgery.

One of life’s great lessons is the realization there are very few absolutes in life.  When I was young I had difficulty with Solomon’s comments in Ecclesiastes 3 regarding there being a time for everything.  Surely, I thought there could not be a time for things God declared to be sin.  As the decades have swiftly raced by, I have come to realize the key is understanding the definition of sin.  Sin isn’t merely breaking the ten commandments.  Sin can be eating a gallon of ice cream before going to bed. There is no mention of that on the stone tablets.   Sin is anything that harms.  Love is anything that fosters ultimate goodness.  Most of the world’s great philosophers agree there is one ultimate ethic.  It is to do the loving thing.  Paul grasps this in I Corinthians 13 where he says, “Though I give my body to be burned, if I do not do it for love it is useless.”   Thoughtful motive is everything.  This is why Jesus forbids us from judging each other.  We have no ability to properly evaluate the motives of another.  Only the God who knows our every thought can do so with justice.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 22, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

I awakened during the night to the sound of rain, hard rain, washing-the-earth clean rain.  I didn’t know the time.  It was just dark and wet on the other side of that thin plate of glass.  On my side it was warm and safe from the elements.  I knew our resident chipmunks were in their burrows below the slate on the patio.   The squirrels were snug in their tree top nests, but what of the birds?   Some of our resident feathered friends have already raised families this year and have started on a second batch.  As the wind pushed their homes back and forth I knew the parents had tightly packed their featherless babes securely under their wings.

Could I not but think of Jesus speaking of Jerusalem?  In Matthew 23 He wept as He spoke of His wanting to protect His people like a hen protects her young but they would not have it.  It would be so easy to smugly sit back thinking His lesson was only for Israel.  But that would fail to note that the lessons of scripture are for each generation.  How often has God wanted to bless and shower us with good things but we would not have it because we insist on thinking we are above His laws.  We think we are modern and His warnings are for times past.  We are sophisticated.  Every generation has thought that of themselves. We cannot flaunt His word and then expect Him to bail us out when the fruit of our stupidity matures.  It is true that He will forgive us.  He always forgives.   Yet He still allows us to harvest our crop.

It was a hard rain that put me back to sleep as I determined to pay more attention to the One who wants to protect us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

I sometimes worry that there will not be any good stories to read in heaven. A good story requires a really vile villain.  The badder the better.   It makes us champion the good guy hoping that he wins.  We want the bad guy to collect his due.  A good story puts the protagonist in jeopardy and makes us wonder how he or she will escape.  The last time I heard a sermon about heaven I heard there would be no bad guys in heaven and all danger would be removed.  We would always be safe.  So what will we do for good summer reading?

Since there will be universal travel available, maybe all books will be travel adventures.  But how can they be adventures if there isn’t some intrigue?  I do enjoy a good philosophy book but not all the time.  The adventures of Marco Polo or Vasco da Gama are exciting to read because of bands of robbers and storms on the sea.  What’s to read if they traveled with American Express cards?

Maybe we will read about our personal adventures prior to heaven, but that will soon grow old.  Someone once told me we would not remember anything from here and my response was “Then what is the use of this?”   The more I try to ponder the future the more dumbfounded I become.  I cannot imagine a world without death.  If things didn’t die we would have to neuter all our pets lest we be overrun with puppies.  So I am just going to trust Jesus to have it all figured out  or us.  Paul did write in I Corinthians 2:9, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 2, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I arrived at a four way stop just a second after two other cars seemed to arrive simultaneously.   Of course I waited.  It wasn’t my turn.  The other two both decided it was their right of way.  So I had a front row seat as I watched two very nice cars smash into each other.  Both of the drivers got out of their cars and each was hot.  I left.  I realize I was a witness and should have stayed but I wasn’t about to get punched out by both of them by saying they were both wrong.

In Romans 12:10 Paul tells us to “prefer one another.”  In the paraphrase The Message it says, “Practice playing second fiddle.”  It is quite obvious the accident would not have occurred had either of them practiced Paul’s counsel.   It isn’t always an easy thing to do.  We do so like to be the first.  We like to shine.  When people talk we wait for them to take a breath so we can jump in and tell our story which, of course, is always a bigger and better story.

One can understand this behavior among those who don’t know any better but how sad it is to see it in church.   One night on the television program American Idol one of the contestants commented on how very good one of his competitors was.  One of the judges reprimanded him for not being competitive.  Needless to say Paul would have been appalled.  One of life’s great joys is to treasure the talents of one’s friends.  I have discovered along the way my life is rich because I have rich friends.  By rich I mean multitalented and very smart.  Surround yourself with good friends and help them shine.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 30, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org