Author: Ian Bothwell

Each of the Ten Commandments is designed to keep us happy.  No one knows us better than our Creator and therefore He knows what is best for us.  When He tells us not to covet He is telling us how to be happy with what we have.  It is miserable to see something another person has and to want it.  Sometimes we talk about “Gateway Drugs.”  We should talk about “Gateway Sins.”  There is no question that little sins lead to big sins.  Coveting is a “Gateway Sin.”   If we did not want what another person has we would not be tempted to steal it or worse, kill them so we could get it.  Thou shall not covet definitely belongs in the Big Ten.

I am amazed at how many people I speak to who are not happy.  We should have happy courses and the first class should be dedicated to paying attention to what God has prescribed for us.  One of the things I notice is how fearful people are.  They talk about how bad the world is getting.  Having been a history minor in college I would like to propose that the world isn’t any badder than ever.  Horrible things have been occurring since Cain killed Abel.   The difference now is the 24 hour news channels. In order to fill up all that time newspeople scour the world for all the horror they can find and then they pump it into our living rooms.  The bad stuff happened before this.  We just didn’t know about it.  Technology enables them to make us miserable.

Please remind yourself every day that Jesus loves you.  Be comforted that your sins are forgiven and rejoice in your citizenship in God’s Kingdom.  It’s a happy kingdom.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Ever so gently and as kindly as possible I whispered to the elderly lady cashier, who had given me five dollars too much in change, and I returned the five to her.  I knew it would have come out of her pay if her cash drawer was short at the end of the day.  However, before you smile and think, “I knew he was honest” allow me to say if it had been a very rude seventeen-year-old, I’m not so sure I would have returned it.  I would have figured she deserved to be stuck for five dollars or even more.

This brings me to the issue of our allowing other people to determine our behavior.  Should I have allowed a rude teen the power to make me dishonest?  This really starts when we are very little.  How often as parents have we heard, “He hit me first.”  Somehow that was a justification for hitting back and, of course, when we hit back, it was always a tad harder.

Not only is it difficult to teach children to turn the other cheek, it is difficult to do so as adults.  In kindergarten we should offer Tongue Biting 101.   “A soft answer turns away wrath.”  Thank you Solomon.  And our Jesus has something to say about this in the Sermon on the Mount.  “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”  Jesus is not telling us to be a doormat.  He also tells us to “shake the dust off our feet and leave.”

Don’t hit back, which is what I wanted to do to that seventeen-year-old.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 12, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This morning I stared at a maple frosted sprinkle-covered doughnut pondering one of life’s great dilemmas – to eat or not to eat.  Just then I spotted an ant.  It wasn’t one of those big guys.  This was one of the really tiny ones you can barely see with seventy year old eyes.  He also came to the doughnut and stared.  He was an ambitious fellow for he decided to eat it.   It must have been like you or me finding a doughnut that is fifty feet high.  There was enough doughnut there to feed him forever.  I wish I could have experienced his joy as he climbed up the side and came out on top.  There was the thick layer of maple frosting with red, yellow and blue sugar logs scattered about.  I felt like singing Big Rock Candy Mountain for him.  There was so much to eat and such limited capacity.

I feel that way when I read Romans.  There is so much to eat, so much to comprehend, so much to ponder while trying to crawl inside Paul’s mind.  Like the ant’s stomach’s limitations, my brain is so limited beside this mountain of inspiration.   Recently I heard someone say Paul was a great philosopher but had limited if any scientific knowledge.  I’m not so sure.  He was educated in occidental thinking as well as eastern.  He had access to Aristotle’s works which contained the best science of his day.  Should Paul be alive today he would despair at the so called conflict of science and faith.  God is a scientist.  God created us not with magic but with knowledge that He Himself allows us to learn and advance in His sciences.  The best minds of the day, when standing by the works of God’s hands, are like my ant standing beside my (not his) doughnut.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

We attended a small private school 8th grade graduation this evening in Worcester, MA.   Just a mile away President Obama was speaking at a large graduation.  You can imagine the security with all the closed roads and helicopters overhead.  As we walked into the lobby of the church a little boy, who looked to be about six, stared at me for a moment, cautiously approached and said, “Are you the President?”   Needless to say he made my evening.

I have heard stories of people doing wonderful things for a child only for the child to ask, “Are you Jesus?”  My event wasn’t nearly that great.  But how grand it is that we do have opportunities to be like Jesus.  We can, if we are watching, find people around us with serious needs.  If we make them happy we make our community a happier place.  If we make our community happier we make our world a happier place.

In Ephesians 2 Paul speaks of God having special work for each of us.  How I wish He would send us an email with instructions.  He is more subtle than that.  He infuses us with His Spirit tooling us for the tasks.  Often we do it and we don’t even know we have done so.  Someday we will find out specifically what it was and then we will be the happy ones knowing we did our best.  In the meantime it seems to be that our task is to be tooled and ready.  Ask for His guidance and somewhere, sometime we will do something for eternity that no one else could ever have done.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 12, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I’m on a new med and partial loss of smell seems to be one of the side effects.  I have noted that while there are disadvantages to this there also seem to be benefits.  My wife came into the room and complained about what the dog had done and I honestly could not notice.  One of the disadvantages is after shave lotion.  I am using way too much and I reek on my way to church.  And the lilacs, whose scent I love, were nothing to me this year.

My dog is a real sniffer.  We don’t go for walks.  We go for sniffs. It takes so long to get around the block I am not sure if I get any exercise.  Sometimes when she finds something wonderful to sniff she will look at me and seem to say, “Come here and check this out.  It’s intoxicating.”  I’m glad my nose is never that good.

In the ancient Jewish sanctuary there was an altar of incense.  While it represented the prayers of the people ascending to God it also had a very practical purpose.  As holy as the place was it smelled like a butcher shop with all the sacrifices and the blood that was daily sprinkled on the veil between the Holy and Most Holy places.  In the Song of Solomon we read, “Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out.”  While this was written by a human for a human I can easily see how it would apply to God’s love for us.  Our names are to Him “like perfume poured out.”  It is like that when you deeply love someone.  Their name sates our senses.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 11, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

It has been one of those days.  We all have them.   This was mine. My lawn mower broke, the lever to release the hood of my car stopped working and two bolts simultaneously fell out of the bottom of the chair at my computer and thus dumped me on the floor.  Nice day.  Actually it really is a nice day because I could create a list of a hundred things that did work today.  So the glass isn’t even half empty.  It is just a smidgen empty.  So much the quality of life is the result of that which we choose to focus upon.

But life seems more interesting when we trouble talk.  Misery loves company and since we all have those days you really don’t want to hear me speak about the good things that are happening.  It is the broken things that make us shake our heads and make us want to hear more.  We are perverse creatures.  The evening news isn’t filled with all the things in the world that went right today.  Imagine how interested we would be if we saw a headline that read, “Canada had a great day.”   Networks flourish on supplying us with bad-news stories and often they don’t even have any facts.  Someone stares into the camera with a microphone telling us what might have happened.  We seem to love it.

Actually some of the networks now finish the evening news with a feel good story. When the camera comes back to Bryan Williams sometimes he is a bit misty as he signs off.  So I figured I would finish this with the best feel good story of all time.  Jesus loves you.  Yes you.  Nothing could be finer.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 10, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I was reading and came across a word I didn’t know.  That’s normal.  So I looked it up.  But I couldn’t understand the words in the definition of the word I didn’t know.  So I began looking up the words in the definitions of the first word only to discover I did not understand the words defining the words that defined my first word.   With my self-esteem shattered I gave up and still do not know the meaning of the first word.  Therefore, I promise not to attempt to use it lest everyone realize just how illiterate I am.  Please don’t unsubscribe to my mailing list because I am too ignorant for you to waste your time reading.

I feel like Peter trying to understand Paul.  “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand.”  II Peter 3:15-16

If you struggle with some passages in Romans or Hebrews do not despair.  You are not alone.  Fortunately we are not saved by how much knowledge we have.  That would be righteousness by smarts.  Obviously there are beings in heaven still grappling with the intricacies of salvation.  In Ephesians 3 Paul speaks about our experiences here teaching authorities in heavenly realms.  We grow impatient because we do not understand why Jesus doesn’t return and why there is a continuation of so much pain on earth.  We are not alone in not grasping the entirety of all that is at stake.

One thing is for sure.  Jesus will return for us the very second He can.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 9, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

A dream of some scientists is to bring back (de-extinct) the passenger pigeon by injecting band-tailed pigeon embryos with primordially edited germ cells.        De-extinction is a fascinating idea with overt shades of Jurassic Park.   In regards to man God has long held a de-extinction program. With Adam and Eve’s failure came the extinction of perfect God-imaged creatures.  With sin came the decay and death of the noblest finest thing God ever made.  Adam and Eve could only stand at the gate of Eden and remember what was.  Jesus was morally perfect, but He was not physically perfect.  He was, according to Hebrews, subject to all the weaknesses of fallen man.

The plan of redemption has always been the de-extinction of the perfect Adam and Eve.   In I Corinthians 15 Paul speaks of this corruption putting on incorruption.  He is talking about de-extinction.  What is exciting about this is the non-exclusiveness of God’s plan.   This plan has never had restricted membership.  According to the close of Matthew, Jesus commanded His disciples to recruit members from every tribe, nation and race.

Just imagine yourself with the ability to will away all your bad features and will into existence perfect replacement parts.  Look in the mirror and think just how good you could and will look while still being you. Think of yourself with a noble mind thinking pure unselfish thoughts.  Think of yourself with an eternity at your disposal that you might dedicate the time needed to master skills you only now can dream about.  Think of yourself never forgetting a face or a name.  Think of yourself being de-extinct.

De-extinction is the theme of the plan of redemption.  This is so much more than grand.  This makes grand look like a feeble word.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 2, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I watched a group of seven-year-olds today gathered for what appeared to be an end of the school year party.  They were full of so much vitality.  The energy in the room was electric. One overly zealous parent kept hushing them down and telling them not to run around and jump up and down.  It was like gathering a group of children together and telling them not to be children.  It was a party.   It was a party for seven-year-olds!  Why did they have to hush and why couldn’t they run around and jump up and down?

I remembered going to church and hearing about all the things we were not to be doing.  Don’t wear jewelry, don’t wear make-up, don’t eat meat, don’t eat sugar, don’t use salt, don’t use mustard, don’t use ketchup, don’t dance, don’t listen to jazz, don’t listen to Elvis, don’t listen to the Beach Boys, don’t eat cheese, don’t wear a wedding ring, don’t go to movies, don’t, don’t, don’t.

Where were the dos?  Where was the joy?   Idle words were frowned upon; every minute was to be accountable.  One felt guilty for laughing or for taking a nap.  And we wondered why we couldn’t keep young people in the church.  It was like telling ourselves not to be human. I realize I am about to sound like a libertarian, a bad thing in the eyes of the brethren, but whatever happened to everything is lawful as long as it does no harm to another?  We never read the verses where Jesus told us what went into our mouths didn’t matter it was what came out.  Matthew 15

Verily I say unto you, be happy, be joyful, smile, laugh, be pretty, be generous, be forgiving, be like Jesus.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 3, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I had a student who professed he had little faith in anything.  According to him he was a practical man who had to personally experience things.  He seemed puzzled when I asked him to explain the difference between a one dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill.  Because we can obtain twenty times something with the twenty dollar bill than we can with a one dollar bill certainly there has to be a difference in their value.  But they are both made of the same kind of paper and are the same size and weight.  There is no intrinsic difference.  The only differences are the ink patterns.  My practical student displays faith every time he purchases something.  He has faith in the power of the United States Federal Reserve Bank.

Next, I asked if he ever flew anywhere.  To do so requires faith in the competence and sobriety of the pilots, the mechanics, the air traffic controllers, the manufacturer of the fuel, the structural engineers and the weather prognosticators.  Flying is truly an act of faith.

Everyday life in our modern world requires faith.  So why not place ourselves by faith into the hands of the One who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.  Why not believe Him when He says, “I love you.”   He is more trustworthy than any monetary system or any airline team.  Trust Him who said, “I am the resurrection and the life” and then gave viable evidence by raising Lazarus back to life.  Jesus said, “He who believes in me shall never die.”   I like that.  I like that a lot.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 4, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org