Author: Ian Bothwell

My eyes were dilated this morning for my yearly exam.  As I left the office I was given a pair of throwaway sunglasses.  I was stupid.  I didn’t put them on and walked out the front door.  It was a clear day.  Ouch. The power of light is not something to be trifled with.  You should have seen how quickly I put them on.

I immediately thought of Moses coming down Mt. Sinai having been with the Lord. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. . . When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.”  Exodus 34.  Only this time it wasn’t me that was shining.  It was just the opposite.

In Hebrews 1 we are told God spoke to humanity in many different forms.  Each time He shared more light about Himself with His people.  Finally He sent Jesus who was the ultimate revelation of God – the Light of the World. The Children of Israel came out of slavery in a land filled with gods.  Most of the Israelites were illiterate and their view of God was tainted by the exposure to paganism.  The only way for them to know the truth was to actually see Jesus.   Thus there were many flawed ideas about God before Jesus came. If we are to know what God is really like we must study the Gospels and Paul.  They knew the truth about God because He walked with us as one of us for over thirty years.  As one of us the light was bright without harming us.  The light was life itself.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 22, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I just finished watching a local auto dealer’s television commercial featuring a small and not so good looking child.  From the age of the dealer, who also appeared, she must be one of his grandchildren who he thinks is adorable.  Through the years I have several times observed this same behavior of using little children in commercials.  One can only draw one conclusion. Love really is blind.  Love equals cute and cute demands to be displayed.  Now, I would not know this from personal experience because my six grandchildren really are incredibly gifted mentally and physically.  I only know this from my observation of other grandparents and their not so perfect grandchildren.

Thus it strikes me that our heavenly Father who is incredibly in love with us must therefore think we are good looking.  If God was selling cars on planets across the galaxy for sure He would be using us in His commercials. So the next time you look in the mirror and are confronted with a host of physical issues like a gigantic nose or skin blemishes don’t be disheartened.  God thinks you are beautiful and/or handsome.  And when it comes to our characters He loves us so much once we ask for forgiveness He observes us as never having sinned.  Now that is amazing.  We become perfect in Christ.

I love being a Christian.  It comes with such a vast array of benefits.  Our guilt is removed, we are given eternal life, we are adopted into the heavenly family, we become citizens of His kingdom, we become princes and princesses of the universe and we are more splendid to look at than any movie star.  So the next time you look in the mirror wink at yourself because you are so beautiful.  Joe Cocker had it right.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 21, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

When I was very little my father would set up a movie projector in our small living room.  He would attach a white bed sheet to a wall and we would watch orchestras play Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.  Now via the wonders of technology we can on Youtube watch such wonders with the press of a few keys.  One of my favorites is Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.  There is a magnificent performance of Pictures with only a piano (no orchestration) played by Khatia Buniastishvili.  After watching I read an online review of her performance.  The reviewer scathed her for playing it with her own interpretation.  There are passages where she rushes and other passages where she is very slow.  Music is best when it flows from an artist and is not exactly like a past playing.

It is grand to attend church and listen to a sermon on a topic we have heard for years because each preacher adds to it the flavor of his or her personal experience. If we wanted it exactly the same each time we could stay home and read it over for ourselves.  Humans are marvelous creatures because we are so very unique.  Each of us brings different feelings and interpretations to experiences.  If God had wanted us to be clones it would have been easy to have done so.  However, while we are created in His image we bring to life an unlimited amount of varied colors.   Meeting new people is a treat because each time is a brand new experience.  As with music and stories each of us radiates a picture of God like no other.  God is revealed to the world with more facets than possible on any diamond.  Best of all, God is delighted to shine out of our uniquenesses.  (Is there such a word?  There is now.)

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 25, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

Each morning I retrieve the memory disk from our trail camera to see who or what visited us during the night.  It time stamps the pictures.  Last night at 10 PM a mourning dove took a bath in a water tray on our patio.  Strange.   Why?   We have mourning doves at the water at all hours during the day but not at night.   This must have been an avian woman at the well.  In John 4 Jesus met a woman coming at noon to draw water.  The other women came in the cool of the evening or morning to avoid carrying water during the heat of the day.  She most likely did not feel very welcome when the others were there.  Do I have an outcast dove?

Paul has some very specific counsel for us regarding people who feel left out. “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”  Romans 12:16.   Who do we invite to our homes?  Who do we choose to sit near in church?  Who during potlucks do we seek out?   There is a real danger in following Paul’s counsel.  We just might be condescending.  “Look how wonderful I am.  I eat with the masses!”  Should we feel that way, they will know it.  We can’t hide it.  It is then that we need to remind ourselves that the King of Glory came to be one of us.  Talk about lowering one’s self!  That was the ultimate.   See Philippians 2.

In almost every group there are those who feel unworthy.  If we really want to be like Jesus we should seek them out and draw them into our circle of love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 27, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

Life isn’t fair.  But you already knew that and didn’t need me to tell you.  I was reminded this morning while getting a haircut.  I could complain about the person who came in with a magnificent white mane while my barber was scanning my head for hairs to clip.  But that wasn’t the thing that really got to me.  It was my barber.  She is a wisp of a thing.  If she sneezed the laws of physics would guarantee she would fly backwards across the room and slam into a wall.  The unfairness was her continued conversation about all the places in the area to get ice cream and which are the best.  It is spring and once again they are open.  She takes her 80 year old mother and together they eat their way around the circuit.  I assumed she only got the kiddy cones but no she assured me she always got large.  Now that is unfair.  My waistline barely accommodates a one dollar cone from Burger King.

Once I had a church member complain that the thief on the cross got a free ride to heaven.  He thought that was so unfair considering how good he, the complainer, had been all his life.  Really?  Somewhere he failed to catch on that a righteous life is the best life.  If there was no heaven or no hell the person who lives righteously wins.  And furthermore, we all get a free ride to heaven.  I do agree life isn’t fair.  How is it fair that someone who never sinned died so the rest of us sinners get eternal life?  No, life isn’t fair and especially eternal life isn’t fair and I am so glad.  See John 3:16-17.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 28, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

This afternoon I wandered past the deli section of our supermarket and spotted a roll of Lebanon baloney (bologna).  It most likely is one of the unhealthiest things ever processed for human consumption.  But despite its nutritional value, or lack of, I paused for a moment of nostalgia.  My fatherloved Lebanon baloney.  His idea of a great meal was a Lebanon baloney sandwich made with spongy white Wonder Bread layered inside with yellow mustard.  This was then washed down with an ice cold Pepsi that had been in the freezer right up to the moment before freezing solid.  Wow.  It is no wonder he did not live as long as I am old.  Sometimes I am tempted to imbibe.  Fortunately my head rules over my heart.

My Dad was educated.  He was a graduate of Shippensburg State University and was a special needs teacher.  He taught his students about healthful living and the food pyramid.  He was a living example that just because you know something it doesn’t take the place of actually acting upon that information.

Some of the world’s foremost New Testament scholars are Jewish.  They know more about the text and content of the Gospels and writings of Paul than most Christians.  But knowledge is not going to save them.  I grew up in a church that valued being more right than other Christians.  One day the light bulb went on and I realized being more right about things isn’t what Christianity is all about.  Being a Christian is about being Christ-like.  It is trusting Jesus to save us and then living the kindest, most generous, most caring life possible.  “Truth” doesn’t save.  Jesus does!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 16, 2016

PO box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 2 Marc Antony rises to speak at Caesar’s funeral and says, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”  Thomas Jefferson was brilliant.  He was encyclopedic in his knowledge of science, philosophy and government.  He along with a handful of brilliant men gave us America. Winston Churchill stirred the hearts of his countrymen and fortified them to resist in the darkest of times.  Yet, so often I hear that both men were spendthrifts with little control over their wallets.  Why do we do this?  Why do we say things like this?  Is it to reassure ourselves that even great men are not perfect?  Why when speaking of Judas do we always talk of the betrayal and rarely speak of his genuine love for Jesus?  Why when speaking of Noah do we refer to him as a drunk and rarely, if ever, speak of him as the savior of humanity?

Even as I write I realize I am doing it.  In a backhanded way I am reminding you of these great men’s faults lest you forget they were not perfect.  Jonah must have been a powerful preacher but rarely do we hear about his oratory.

In Romans 12 Paul wrote, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”  If we did surely we would not be sure to speak of another’s failures.  I know a man who calls me friend and yet every time he sees me he speaks of one of my failures.  I really don’t need him to do that.  I know and remember them well.  I confess I am happy to rarely see him.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I was in Walmart this week and was suddenly enveloped in a cloud so potent I almost gasped for a breath of fresh air.  He looked like he was 15 and apparently he had just taken a shower and finished off with some manly body wash.  He was a walking advertisement for Old Spice or some other manly fragrance.  I wondered how that was working out for him.  I looked around for a female 15 year-old thinking he might be on a date treating his sweetie to a trip to Walmart.  Pretty classy place for a date.  But he seemed unattached.  Maybe he was on the prowl.

Being that I had just read II Corinthians 2, I subsequently thought of the following, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved.”

What a great idea.  Paul wants us to be a pleasing presence because Jesus is in our hearts.  So, why is it then that I am often put off by the scent of some so-called Christians.  I am uncomfortable with their holy vocabulary and better than I attitude.  I should be careful here, because some people like Old Spice and others like Polo.  Perhaps the aroma of Christ comes with different fragrances to appeal to different kinds of people.  Just as one size does not fit all so one fragrance does not appeal to all.  That’s why Jesus needs all of us.  There is someone out there who needs you or me and no one else will do.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I received two birthday cards yesterday, one from my sister and one from a dear friend.  They are exactly the same other than the personalizations inside.  Since both of the senders will read this I want to assure them that it is okay, because it is the personalization that makes the card so special.  It’s like people are to God.  People are basically all the same.  If not, it would be impossible to write a psychology textbook.  Psychology is only possible because of our samenesses.  God has created billions of us.  However, we are basically the same no matter what race or gender.  Normal people (two standard deviations on either side of the mean) act and think alike.  I doubt if I have ever thought an original thought because somewhere in time and space someone has already thought that thought.

But then there are the personalizations.  Each of us is unique enough to make us special for God.  God has never had persons like us.  Perhaps there have been a trillion humans since Adam and Eve and never has there been another so like you and me.  It’s the personalizations that matter.  That is why God will forever mourn the eternal lose of someone who fails to accept the gift of eternal life.  Every parent knows when they lose a child that no other child will ever fill the void left behind.  I once heard someone try to console a grieving parent by saying, “You can have another.”  Really?

Even if you have a hundred doppelgangers it does not make you replaceable because it isn’t your cheekbones God loves.  It is your soul, your personality, your you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

I am so thankful for the option in my email program that allows me to preassign certain senders to the junk graveyard.   I along with you probably receive over a hundred emails a day, of which 80% are unwanted.  It would be awful if we had to decide on each one each day whether or not to read it.  I love getting email from my friends and I love being able to only pay attention to the emails that matter.

In II Corinthians 3 Paul refers to us as letters.  He wrote, “ You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

I love the concept that we can be a letter from Christ to our friends and family.  How utterly awful to be junk mail.  We all know people who, when showing up, make us groan inside because we know some unpleasantness is about to descend upon us.  That’s junk mail.  But it is so grand to think that we can bring genuine joy and peace to people merely by showing up.  When that is the case we are letters from Christ.

Some of you might be thinking, “Did he just say some people are junk?”  No.  That’s not what I intended.  But, I did intend to say that the message some people bring is junk.  With Jesus in our hearts we can light up a room and chase the gloom of ridicule away.  Jesus makes us positive and it just spills out.  We can’t help it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 14, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org