Author: Ian Bothwell

Life is full of confounding things.  Often times when a publically-traded company announces they made a billion dollars this past quarter the stock goes down.   Traders dump it because they expected it to make two billion. Or it is sold off because they were so successful traders don’t believe they can do it again next quarter.  Sometimes the opposite is true.  A company loses money and the stock goes up.  Why isn’t a two by four really two inches by four inches?  Why does a golf course have 18 holes?

Actually those are fairly easy to explain.   The tough ones are why are you you?  Why aren’t you someone else?  How is it that Jesus’ righteousness can be our righteousness?   Where do my sins go when God forgives me?  Why do some people ruin their own lives by hating someone?  Can’t they see their hatred is harming themselves and not the person they hate?  The most confounding of all is the Gospel.  Why did God so love the world that He gave us His son?

We want so much for life to have meaning we invent stories in an attempt to make sense out of nonsense.  We quote Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” and sometimes unwittingly think the bad occurred because God wanted it to.  He never wants bad things to happen to His children.  He is a good Father.   What Paul means is God is smart enough to take the broken pieces of our lives and do something wonderful with them.  Satan smashes and God fixes.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2008.

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

I paid for my new knee.   I put a check in an envelope and slipped it into a slot at our local post office.  It felt good as I walked away knowing it’s mine.   For the last month it has been on loan from the surgeon.  (It is doing terrific.  Thanks for asking. I can now walk up and down stairs if I so desire.  Sometimes I baby myself and do them one at a time.)  As I sat down earlier today to write the check I wondered what would happen if I didn’t pay for it.   Would repo guys come in the middle of the night and take it back?  Ouch, that hurts just thinking about it.  I am still amazed thinking about living in a time when we get new parts.  We can even get a transplanted face.  Humm.  This old one is looking pretty haggard and wrinkled.

I am sure you have noticed it is hard to look bad if you are smiling.  I would love to be artistic enough to draw the faces of my friends as I see them.  The pictures would be so different from what photography would produce.  None of my friends would look like their photographs.  They are all much more illustrious and fascinating.  They overwhelm me with their stunning presences.  Often I wonder what Jesus sees when He looks at us. I doubt if he notices the broken blood vein on the side of my nose.  That isn’t important because this body is but the seed that blossoms on resurrection morning into something so grand that the world has never seen. This will not be my last new knee.  I will get that one on resurrection morning.  Please see I Corinthians 15.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 22, 2008.

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

He was a typical little boy sitting in a grocery cart.  He wanted to touch and pickup everything within range.  Why not?  That is what packaging is designed to do.  Packages are colorful and have nice pictures on them specifically to get our attention.  Instead of his mom giving him something to occupy him she just kept telling him in shorter and shorter phrases to keep his hands in the cart.   As I walked by she looked up, smiled and greeted me in a sweet voice diametrically opposed to the one she was using with her little boy.

Why do we do that?  I was nothing to her.  I was just a face pushing a cart by the cereal.  That little boy was, I assume, the heart and soul of her life.  I have no doubt, should she have to, she would die for him.   Yet, he was getting her worst and I, a stranger, was getting her best.  Please, please, if you have to be rude be rude to strangers.  If you have only a limited amount of love and niceness, then save it for your children and spouse.  Don’t waste it on people you will never see again.  Now I am not advocating public rudeness but I am sure you get my point.  The people closest to us should get our best.

There is a scene in one of the old Rocky movies where the bar keeper tells Paulie to give Rocky his best.  Rightfully so Paulie says, “Hey, what about me?  I come in here every day and you never give me your best.”   Good point, Paulie.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2008.

Photograph by Belle Deesse.

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

Our campus was without phone service, the Internet and e-mail service today. I was more than a bit amused to get home this evening and to discover the

campus IT department sent an email to everyone on campus telling us there was no e-mail service.

Obviously communication is everything.  Without it nothing happens.  The exchange of ideas, intentions, desires, dreams, plans, appointments, reasons and motives is essential.   In God’s desire to communicate to us He has used and does use a multitude of devices and means.  In Hebrews 1 we read, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”

God really does want us to hear Him.  He has so much to say to us.  Everyday He tries via a variety of tools.  The most effective ever was Jesus.  Jesus told us how to live.  He told us the future.  He is coming again to take us to a place He prepared for us.  He told us He is exactly like the Father. We don’t have to spend time or money exploring strange and exotic ways to meet with God.  It is very simple.  Study the life of Jesus.  Spend time in the Gospels.  Prayfully read the Gospel of John and you will hear His voice. God is way too smart to send us a message via a medium that doesn’t work!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 28, 2008.

Photo by Belle Deesse.

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

This evening my sister handed me her camera wondering why it did not work.  She just put new batteries inside and yet it was dead.  I checked to see if she had the batteries in the right direction.  (I have made that mistake a few times in life.)  But she had done it correctly.  After fussing with it for a while I decided to get another set of new batteries and bingo everything came to life.  It works.  The new batteries she had used were dead.

As I held the batteries in hand I remembered a marvelous passage in Jeremiah.  He is taunting his people about serving useless Gods.    He wrote, “Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Metal smiths are put to shame by their idols.  Their statues are false gods. They can’t breathe. They are worthless jokes.”  Jeremiah 10:14-15.

At the very beginning of the Ten Commandments God tells us not to have anyother gods before Him.   When I was young and ignorant I thought this was indicative of God’s egotism.  Later I understood the real reason He commands us not to do that.  Other gods are as powerless as those batteries.  Once again God’s wisdom reigns.  He tells if we are hungry don’t go over there because there is nothing over there to eat. “Come to me.  I am the bread of life.  Don’t go over there if you are thirsty. I am the water that satisfies forever.”

We serve such a practical loving God. His commandments are there to protect us and to help us avoid major pitfalls. Only He is power and life. Don’twaste yourself any other place.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 3, 2008.

Cliffs of Moher photograph by FX Extreme.

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

 

Have you ever gotten a new perspective on someone after really getting to know them?  You thought you knew them, but once you got closer you suddenly realized your former perspective was hearsay.   Your ideas about the person were secondhand and not at all what you recently discovered.  This happens to me sometimes with positive results and sometimes with not so positive results.  There are some people I really admire and I don’t want to get to know them well lest I change my mind.

I think most people think they know who Jesus is, but little of their knowledge is from personal contact.   They listen to teachers or their pastor and thus think they know all about Jesus.  I would like to propose that no one really knows Jesus until they have a one on one experience.  I know when I was young I used to think Jesus was always a really nice guy that everyone loved.  Then I read Matthew 23 and gasped when I saw him boldly calling the religious leaders snakes, frauds and murderers.  He wasn’t the gentle Jesus meek and mild I thought I knew.  While He was indeed compassionate with the weak and abused He really got angry with the “righteous”.  See Mark 2.

The more I experienced Jesus for myself the more my admiration grew.  The more I wished I had that kind of courage.  He was a man’s man who wasn’t afraid to do the right thing.  If all you know about Jesus is what your teachers or what I have told you, please remedy that.  He’s waiting for a one on one relationship with you.  You’ll like what you discover.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 1, 2008.

Photograph by Samim Hasan.

Spring of Life Ministry, St. Helena, CA 94574

Have you ever thought you had a warranty on something only to discover to your horror you had to pay for the repair or replacement?   You didn’t read the fine print and they got you right in the wallet.   If so, I have a text for you.  Romans 11:29 says, “God’s gifts and call are irrevocable.”  NIV. The King James says, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Repentance of course means turned around.  Therefore, in this verse, God doesn’t change His mind.  Once we have His gifts and receive His calling He will not take them back.  The paraphrase, The Message, says, “God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty-never canceled, never rescinded.”

This is one of the most wonderful promises in the Bible.  God is consistent. He means what He says.  He will not take back things He has given us and this includes the greatest gift of all, eternal life.  Now just to calm someone who is alarmed thinking this is “once saved always saved” we must remember you can always return a gift.  You don’t have to keep it.  The point Paul is making is if you are lost it is your doing – not God’s.   He is not going to force anyone to keep salvation.  God is into freedom.  We have the freedom to let Jesus into our lives with the miraculous overhaul that accompanies that or we can ask Him to leave.   We can then continue on destroying ourselves.

If we accept the gift and decide to keep it by allowing Jesus to work out His perfection in us we never ever have to fear again.   God will NOT change His mind.  We are saved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 17, 2008

Spring of Life, St. Helena, CA 94574

When we are very small we are good because being bad results in pain or loss.  Unfortunately some people never change their reason for being good. Fortunately some people learn to be good for the sake of love.  They do not want to disappoint those they care about.  This is a very good reason for being good.  There is another reason for being good.  Reason is the reason. As we mature we understand God’s will is for us to thrive, and the only things He requests of us are for our own good.  There are the dos.  Take good care of one’s self and one can avoid all manner of the ills.   There are the don’ts.  If we avoid certain rotten behaviors, we avoid the rotten fruit.

One of my students interrupted my lecture on why we are good because he wanted to know which was the best reason for being good.  I quickly noted that being good to avoid punishment might work but certainly has no particular moral value.  Fear works.  Fear also erodes the quality of life. That left love or reason.  I like reason.  Reason helps us understand God’s rationale and helps us understand God is not arbitrary.   However, I also like love.  There is something noble about love that has elements beyond our own personal happiness.  Love begets goodness for the sake of another.

John 3:16 does not say, “For God so reasoned it best to sacrifice Himself for us.”  Which by the way would be a good text.   Instead God’s emphasis is on love.  Love grows and reason grows.  Love and reason fertilizes our growth into His image.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 20, 2008.

Spring of Life, St. Helena, CA 94574

 

I had a small computer technical problem this evening and called tech support.   Upon his request I gave the tech support person control of my computer.  In a few moments my computer mouse arrow started whizzing about my screen and as fast as I could barely comprehend, windows were opening and closing, menus appeared and disappeared, commands were typed in little boxes and everything started working properly.   He terminated his control of my machine and I was once again sole commander of my domain.

At first I thought it would be grand if the Holy Spirit would take over our lives like that and aid us in solving our human problems.   How grand just to sit back and watch His divine power make everything right.  But then I paused and thought, “No.”   While it was wonderful to have my computer working, I did not learn anything.  If the same thing goes wrong again, I have no way of repairing it other than to once again call tech support.  He whizzed through windows and menus and I couldn’t note where he was and what he did.   What we need from the Holy Spirit is not just a repair but also knowledge.  We need to know how to avoid future difficulties and should we err, it is very helpful to know what to do to remedy the situation.

God declares us faultless as we come before His throne.  See Jude verse 24. But He is also interested in our growth.  He wants us to learn.  He wants us to become more like Him each day.  He will not only fix He will educate.

How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 15, 2008

Spring of Life, St. Helena, CA

 

One of the greatest verses of Scripture is I Corinthians 13:2.  “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”

We have all seen great scholars able to answer any theological question.  Perhaps we ourselves are excellent students of the Word able to give Bible studies without any media devices to project texts on a screen.  We have been taught to go from text to text building doctrine and feeling good that we know “The Truth.”  There is almost a temptation to think that truth saves.  The more we know, the surer is our grasp on eternal life.  Being “righter” than some other group means we are closer to the Kingdom.  While I certainly do not want to put down on study and properly discerning the Word of truth, it appears that Paul does not think this is the most important aspect of being a follower of Jesus.

I am under the impression there will be many great scholars lost.  Truth is important.  But truth does not save.  Jesus saves.  When we allow that to happen wonderful changes begin inside our being.  Selfishness begins to transform into care for others and relationships change.  Characteristics of God go from bud to blossom and people are blessed by our presence.  Rules are replaced by principles and as Paul intimates, if I have love I’ve finally become somebody.  And who is that somebody?  That somebody is the best thing in the universe.  We become sons and daughters of the living God.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 2, 2008.

Photograph by Sebastian Voortman.

Spring of Life, St. Helena, CA 94574