Author: Ian Bothwell

This morning I witnessed one of the most thoughtless acts of indifference I have ever seen.  As I started to pump gas into my car another man finished and went inside.  In a few moments he returned to his car with a handful of lottery scratcher tickets.  By this time there were two cars waiting behind his car to pull up to the pumps.  He was totally oblivious and sat in his car and scratched his tickets without moving his car away from the gas pump.

I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that he was so self-absorbed with his lottery tickets that he never noticed the other cars.  Alternative explanations are even worse.   When I finished and drove away he was still sitting in the same place.

Could it be that I am so wrapped up with me and my concerns that I don’t notice others?  I hope not.  I wonder if anyone noticed Zacchaeus in that tree except Jesus.  The good thing to note is Jesus saw him.  He paused looked up and called him by name.  That must have been a thrill for Zacchaeus.  Our names are important and this Great Man knew his.  Then the thrill got even bigger.  He invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ home for dinner. Zacchaeus would never have invited Jesus to his home.  Not because he didn’t want Him.  He just never would have dreamed that would happen to someone like himself.

Out of all the amazing things we can say about Jesus one of the more important was His notice of and concern for others.  A woman touched the hem of His robe.  Jesus noticed.  Do you have a care or concern today?  I guarantee that Jesus has noticed and cares.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 4, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

On the last day of May in 1880 Queen Sunandha of Siam and her daughter drown when the royal boat capsized.  Many bystanders could have rescued them but were unable to help because it was forbidden on the punishment of death to physically touch members of the royal family.  It is a classic story of laws becoming more important than principles.  The law was made to protect the royal family from overly fond admirers harming them in a quest to touch them.  (See the story of the woman who wanted to touch Jesus’ robe.  Matthew 9)

Jesus’ struggled with the religious establishment who had fallen into the same trap.  Many of His miracles performed on the Sabbath were an attempt to teach them the principle of human need and care.  This was the important issue.  It is fascinating that they knew the law condensed to two principles – love your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.  (See Matthew 22)   In Galatians 5:14 Paul says, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Yet they were obsessed with rules.

Once we understand and begin to live by principles we experience a marvelous life of freedom.  When I love you I only want the best for you and would never desire to harm you.  I don’t even think about the Law.  I am free to do anything I desire because what I desire is to benefit you and all those around me.  It is a wonderful way to live.  Just think about getting up in the morning and doing anything you want to do and not fearing you would upset God.  Being a real Christian is an incredible way to live.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 3, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I have to admit Malachi 3:10 reads like a contract and while I have to say in my particular case, God has always kept His end of the deal.  “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”   Well, the “not be room enough to store it” is a hyperbole.  I can say without a moment’s hesitation there has always been ENOUGH.   And what more can a person ask for in life?  I can only wear one pair of shoes at a time.  I don’t need a closet full.  As a matter of fact my black dress shoes are over twenty years old and have been resoled so many times the shoe repairman told me never to bring them back again.

But I do know some people who, if they are telling me the truth, did keep their part of the Malachi 3:10 contract and they experienced tremendous financial loss.  This forces me to reexamine the “contract.”  Could it be that God is rewarding people in other ways than money?  Perhaps He pays off by making sure we are eternally cared for.

Or is the “contract” the wrong way of looking at it?  Perhaps it is a relationship thing where I say, “God I trust you with everything I have.  I trust you with my home, my income, my family and most of all with my soul.”  And whatever happens will always be for my best interest.  When I someday have the opportunity to see all the details of life’s events, the back story, I will then know His promise was to do the best for us and He did.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 2, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Have you ever looked at an 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of plain white paper?  A piece of paper like that should be good for lots of things.  But what if it had had a tiny red dot near one of the corners?  When you looked at the paper, was that tiny red dot all you could see?  Did you have to force yourself to be conscious of the 99.9999% of the paper that was still plain white?

We often do the same thing with people.  Someone can be a good person who has done much to help others.  The person can be generous, kind, unselfish and giving.  But let us detect one small flaw and suddenly that is all we can see.

Why do we do this?  Is it because we are aware of the multitude of flaws in ourselves and subconsciously we don’t want others to be perfect?  Do we feel better about ourselves by pointing out the flaws of others?  Have you ever said, “Well, I’m not so bad.  So and so does such and such.”

They did this to Jesus.  They wanted so badly to pull Him down to their scummy level that they finally found a flaw.  He associated with bad people.  Therefore, they reasoned, He must be bad, too.  After all, don’t “birds of a feather flock together?”

Shame on them.  Shame on us.  Let us rejoice when we have a good person in our midst.  Lord, give us generous hearts for others.  Aid us in treating them as we want to be treated.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 28, 2002

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

I have a very thin scar where they put in my new knee.  There are no little pin points on either side of the scar because the doctor did not stitch it shut.  He glued it.   I have a few crowns on my teeth that were glued in place.  Last week a Honda hit me while I was waiting at a traffic light.  It wasn’t hard, but it left a small tear in my bumper.  As soon as it gets warm enough outside I am going to glue it back.   Glue is wonderful stuff.

I have met some people who know how to solve problems.  They know how to hold families, churches and organizations together.  They are the glue of society.  They know exactly what to do after someone else has broken something important. They are fixers.

Death came to the home of Jesus’ friend Lazarus.  Jesus knew what to do.  He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus come forth.”  Lazarus came forth.  It was wonderful for Mary and Martha.  It was a death knell for Lucifer.  Lucifer claimed the dead belonged to him.  He tore that family apart and determined to keep it that way because he hates us to be happy.  Jesus glued that family back together.  And so it will be for the entire world and universe.  The hater of all that is good rent the beautiful tapestry of God’s Kingdom.  He filled it with horror and sorrow.  But Jesus meant it when He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Jesus will glue whole every broken family, every torn life and reputation, every broken heart will be new again with the glue of Jesus power and love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 27, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I sat through a Power Point presentation today that said absolutely nothing.  When it was over I had to conclude that the presenter had been told to give a report and to justify his salary he got very creative using nothing.   At first I wanted to say that is what God did on Creation Day.   He got very creative using nothing, except God ended up with a marvelous product unlike the Power Point presenter.  But upon second thought perhaps God did not make us out of nothing.  We can turn matter into energy.  Perhaps God does just the opposite and takes energy and turns it into matter.  Move over Albert E.  The Creator is in the house.

“By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”  Psalm 33:6 doesn’t mean it was magic.  It was science and we came from His omniscience.  He didn’t say “Abracadabra” and it happened.  He said, “Let us make man in our image.”   Our making required so much knowledge and design that our finest researchers are still just beginning to open the secrets of   knowledge required to breathe the breath of life into us.

Nothing comes from nothing.  One would have to wait forever for something to come from nothing and even then it would still be nothing.   Now isn’t that something.  Yes, we are something and it’s a very special something.  We are the sons and daughters of that Creator designed to live forever and do some creating of our own.  He has made us thinkers just like Himself.  Now if only that Power Point presenter could have been a thinker I would have had a better day.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 26, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

On the campus was a small crab apple tree.  Through all the New England winter storms it had held onto its crop until one late February day.  On that day at least 25 robins appeared and feasted.  It was beautiful.  You should have heard the chatter.  It was a festive occasion.  They were dressed in their finest red aprons.  The sun was smiling as they fluttered and talked.  Some had stayed for the winter but others had just arrived from the south.  Oh, they had much to tell each other about their journeys!  It took all morning and early afternoon for them to clean up the table, the dishes and take out the trash.

In Matthew 6:26 Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

After several months of real New England weather, to watch these robins celebrate life was a delight.  God does feed the birds and so extravagantly.  And are you not much more valuable than they?

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 3, 2003

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

Rogerbothwell.org

One of the most profound things Jesus taught us is found in the Lord’s Prayer.  “Forgive us our debts (trespasses) as we forgive our debtors (trespassers).”  As a child I thought of this in legalistic terms.  If I wanted God to forgive me I needed to forgive others.  If I did not then He would not.  Forgiving others was a “work” on my part to receive His grace.  As Paul says, “When I was a child I thought as a child.  Now that I am an adult I should cease my childish understanding.”

Jesus’ counsel is not about heaven’s record keeping.  It is about the quality of our lives here and now.  Forgiving means letting go of hurts.  Forgiving means I can stop licking my wounds. It means stop hating.  Hating is a terrible thing. Hating is getting up in the morning and taking a poison pill and thinking I am hurting someone else.

Jesus also tells us to pray for our enemies; a very difficult thing to do.  Well, that is if I am praying for them to be well and prosper.  It is easy to pray for them to have something horrible happen to them.  (God isn’t interested in answering those kinds of prayers.) The truth is we cannot hate without harming ourselves.  This is true be it a family member, a neighbor or a politician.  Christians who pass on political hate mail are only harming themselves by feeding on cyanide and trying to feed it to others.

Jesus made us.  Jesus invented and designed our minds.  We cannot ignore His counsel and expect to do well any more than we can expect our car to continue to run if it has a gasoline engine and we put in diesel.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 24, 2015

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

Rogerbothwel.org

 

Our kitchen clock is running out of time.  It is still plugged into the wall but it is just not keeping up.  The hour hand has gone around 495,900 times since it was given to us as a wedding present.   The linens and towels were gone a long time ago so that clock has been a champ.  The silverware still looks good but it was destined to outlast us.  The silverware has spent most of the 52 years in a dark drawer but the kitchen clock has watched my wife cook for two boys and six grandchildren and one ageing husband.

I am so thankful I have outlasted the clock.  But my (our) time is limited.  The cover of last week’s Time magazine featured a baby with the subheading “This baby could live to be 142 years old.”   Even with the most advanced medical care that would be it because of something called “The Hayflick Limit.”  It appears that anatomists can only get human cells to divide 40 to 60 times.  Each mitosis slightly shortens the telomeres until division becomes impossible.

Therefore I Corinthians 15 makes so much sense.  Until this corruption puts on incorruption and this mortality puts on immortality artificial joints and organs will not be the solution for our desire to live forever.  That can only happen by the intervention of the One who not only made us but will also resurrect us.   Jesus, and Jesus alone, can make the promise of John 3:16 a reality.  Modern science is wonderful but alas will always be limited by inherent weaknesses of our flesh.  It is so exciting to know that our Creator God isn’t a magician but the ultimate scientist with all the necessary answers.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 24, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In September 2015 the Federal Government gave every fourth-grader a free pass for their entire family for an entire year to all of our national parks.  This is exciting because there are so many extraordinary places to experience.  There are 58 national parks spread from Maine to Hawaii.  This is a great excuse to take that longed for trip to Alaska.  There are 8 parks up there.   Sorry Idaho.  As lovely as you are this isn’t going to bring any fourth-grader to experience your beauty since you don’t have any.  However, I could point out there are 19 parks in little old Massachusetts.  But I won’t.

The one national park I always tell people they should have on their bucket list is Yosemite.  It suddenly occurs to me that once Jesus fulfills His promises to us, ones like John 3:16, a bucket list becomes meaningless.  We will never run out of years, vitality, or opportunities to visit any place in the universe.  We will get a free pass that will not expire in one year and will not be limited to fourth-graders.

Instead of a bucket list we will have to have a recommendation list to pass on to our friends.  With an infinite number of places to go it will be impossible to see everything.  Thus we might miss something really special if our friends don’t tell us about it.

I really like the idea of not running out of vitality.  I love it when my grandchildren visit.  But I must admit after they visit I am bushed.  There is nothing like a good soft chair with a good “ahh” escaping from my lips.  With unlimited vitality I will keep up.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 23, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org