Author: Ian Bothwell

I was sitting in Applebee’s with my wife reading my email on my phone.   I wasn’t offending her because she was scrolling through Facebook on her phone.  I thought this is stupid.  This was an opportunity for quality time conversation with the person I love most.  Were we doing this because after 50 plus years of marriage we have run out of things to talk about?   Then I looked about and saw both people at the table next to us texting.  And I noticed the couple two tables away doing the same.  One might assume it must be more interesting to talk to people you are not with.

I also have a Bible program on my phone so I don’t have to carry my Bible to church.  However, while using it during a sermon I suddenly got an electronic text from someone on the other side of the church chastising me for not paying attention.

Actually texting isn’t as new as we might think.  Three thousand five hundred years ago God texted Moses and God has been texting us ever since.  Our Bibles are God’s text to us.  As old as the Bible is, the miracle of it is, it is still relevant.  The inherent principles are eternal.  It is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.  That comes from Paul’s texting to a young pastor named Timothy.  In Hebrews 1 Paul wrote that God has communicated with us in various times and various ways.  For us the text is the Good News.  You will never ever get a more important text than the one from our Father assuring us that we are extremely loved.

Once again I carry my Bible to church.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 3, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I love sandwiches.  When I was a little guy my favorite sandwich was peanut butter with pickles.  I could barely wait for lunch at school so I could have my sandwich.  One of the great things about a peanut butter sandwich is you can spread the peanut butter clear out to the edges.  A fried egg sandwich is even better because it hangs out over the edges.  Many kinds of sandwiches require one to eat three or four bites of just bread before you get to the internal goodies.  Those are not my favorite kind.

They remind me of many books.  One has to read several pages before it starts to taste good.  You have to chew on the setup and the background before you really begin to feed on the story.  I had to read a hundred pages before I got into The Brothers Karamazov.  That’s a lot of edge bread.

The story of Jesus can be like a good peanut butter sandwich if one starts with some of the miracle stories, especially if you are very young.  But like a sandwich with the goodies farther in one has to have a bit of maturity to grasp the Sermon on the Mount. (I still don’t. I need to keep eating.)   The stories of Paul’s travels are a good way to begin but the real meat isn’t in Acts.  It is in Ephesians and Galatians.  The stories in Acts are like the bites of bread on the edge. They are good but not the really good stuff in the middle.

If you sometimes find yourself wanting to understand more but quickly bog down, keep reading.  I promise you, you will get past the edges and ultimately discover the absolute wonder at the heart of it all.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 2, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We took our walk this evening after sundown and darkness had settled in for the night. This is a great time of the year.  Many of our neighbors have already decorated their homes for the holidays with a vast array of lights.  We do not have street lights so the homes are extra beautiful with no competing light.  One house has brightly lit angels in the yard.

As we walked along I thought of a passage in II Chronicles 3 talking about Solomon decorating the home He built for the Lord.  “He decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.”

The luminosity in our neighborhood is beautiful.  I also thought of something Paul wrote to Timothy about decorating our lives.  Instead of lots of external gold he counseled us to decorate our lives with good works and modesty.  Just think about how beautiful people are that are kind and unselfish.  In college one of the guys had a large purple birthmark on his face.  One year at Thanksgiving he announced that he was having it removed.  We were dumbfounded.  He was so kind and so Christ-like we saw no need for him to do that.  We thought he was handsome because of the kind of person he was.  We ceased to see the birthmark because he was so decorated with good works.  He was a quality person.

This is the season for decorating.  This is the season to be thankful, generous, forgiving and kind.  This is the season to be beautiful.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 1, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I know someone who just cannot bring himself to believe in our Christian Good News.  He is a thoughtful person.  He is not turned off by our call to a high standard of living nor is he reluctant to be sacrificial in giving.  He understands that a Christ-like life style is a blueprint for a happy life.  He understands that we live in a world where bad things can happen to anyone.  Good people are not exempt from diseases and accidents.  What he objects to is the absurd idea that a being so powerful, so wise and so omnipresent could become one of us.  The universe is so vast, so endless.  It is filled with trillions of galaxies, each filled with trillions of solar systems containing an endless amount of opportunities for intelligent life on Goldilocks planets. We are a mere speck of cosmic dust in a wonder of gigantic proportion.  Too him, for us to believe that we are so significant that the Creative Force would become a human baby and spend thirty some years with us, only to have us mercilessly slaughter Him, is egotism to the nth degree.

He believes our inflated idea that we become God’s sons and daughters giving us a future inheritance equal with God Himself, is simply out of proportion to reason.

I have to agree with my doubting friend.  The story of redemption, the story of Bethlehem, the story of Calvary, the promises of resurrection and eternal growth are outrageously beyond reason.  He believes the Good News should be called the Outrageous News.  But just because it is too good to be proportional doesn’t make it untrue.  It just makes it all the more stunning.  It does not nullify but enhances our grasp of just how much we are loved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 1, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Robert Frost wrote, “Not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days before the coming of the snow.”  “The desolate, deserted trees, the faded earth, the heavy sky.”  “These dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; She (my sorrow) loves the bare, the withered tree . . .”

I am so glad we live on a tilted earth.  Without the tilt we would live without the seasons.   For six years my wife and I lived almost on the equator at 4,000 feet of elevation.  It was delightfully the same every day.  We never saw it colder than 62 nor warmer than 82.  I missed the crispness of 40 degree mornings.  I missed the tang of winter on my nose.  I missed scoping a thin sheet of ice from the birdbath and peering at the out-of-focus world on the other side.

There are those who describe heaven as a monotonous place of perfect everything.  Will we never see the skeletons of maples reaching high above the earth against a gray sky?   However, astronomers tell us there are thousands of Goldilocks planets in our galaxy.  Surely some are tilted and some will have autumn for us to leaf peep and walk with our feet scuffling through noisy piles of brown leaves.

Eternity is filled with an endless variety for us to be endlessly mentally stimulated to learn and understand the beauty of life.  How grand to see layer upon layer into its quarks, hadrons and leptons.  God is a scientist and to be like Him is to quest the depth of how and what things are.  We know why.  That was answered at Calvary.  All is for love.  There is nothing more profound. Understanding love will be our most intriguing enigma.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 17, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I’m feeling very smug this evening.  We just drove by our supermarket and the place is packed.  There are people driving around the parking lot looking for a spot.  I can only imagine what it is like in the store.  The reason for my smugness is we went at 8 a.m. and had the store to ourselves; one of the perks of being old and almost retired.

Don’t you just hate smug people?  I do.  Therefore, I should be experiencing self-loathing.  But I’m not.  Smugness isn’t nearly as offensive to me when it is I who is the smug one.  So let me be very offensive to the rest of you who had to be at work this morning and were not able to go early to the grocery store.  Here goes.  My church is better than your church because Jesus loves my church more than He loves yours.  We are going to heaven for sure and maybe you will get there.  It depends on just how merciful God is.  You see we had the “Truth” and you didn’t and that makes a huge difference.  And even if you get there we will have bigger and better mansions than you.  You will be on the other side of the tracks.

There.  Have I offended you?  As foolish as all of that was, it reflects how we sometimes act even if we give lip service to not being that way.  I have had people knock on my door and tell me my baptism wasn’t any good because an elder from their church didn’t perform it.  Wow.  Talk about smug!

I know Jesus loves smug people.  But He despises their smugness and saves them despite it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 26, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

When I was a small boy a man with a large grinding wheel came down our street.  The wheel was on a wheelbarrow kind of pushcart with a treadle.  His voice was loud and clear as he called out for us to bring him our dull knives. My mother hurried from the kitchen with two knives and a dime.  It was wonderful to watch as sparks sprayed over his leather apron.  I had never seen anything like this before and long after he had gone I thought how wonderful it would be to have such a job. I imagined the joy of honing knives to a keen edge as I made fireworks for the neighborhood children.

In a way I used to imagine being a preacher was a similar task.  One could thunder in a pulpit producing light to hone the spiritual lives of the saints.  I probably started off that way.  But as the years passed by I learned to value the still small voice that moved across a congregation honing in a non-thunderous way.  I learned the quieter the congregation the more they were listening.  One does little pondering while making noise.

Perhaps the best moments producing the keenest edge to our spiritual intellect come not from gatherings of the masses but those one on one encounters with Jesus.  I have come to appreciate the words to the hymn, “I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and the voice I hear falling on my ear the Son of God discloses.  And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own.  And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 25, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

It has been said that Socrates was the wisest man in Athens because he knew that he knew nothing.  Probably the smartest we ever are is when we graduate from high school.  From there on it is downhill as we learn all the things there are that we do not know and what we thought we knew wasn’t correct.  One thing Socrates surely did not understand was how to get along with people.  He alienated so many people in Athens, even his wife, they condemned him to death.

Paul was educated in western thought and knew all about Socrates.  Perhaps he was imitating Socrates when he said in I Corinthians 2, “I came among you determined to know nothing except our crucified Christ.”  He said he came not with the wisdom of the world or other forms of rationale.   He knew the deep things of God were foolishness to those who are not in tune with God’s Spirit.  Apart from the subtle working of God’s Spirit on someone’s mind it is impossible for us to convince them of God’s plan for their redemption.

There have been times when people have come to me after a sermon and said, “Thank you for saying ….”  I finally understand.  That would be wonderful that I was such a good teacher.   The problem is I knew I never said what they said I said.  I have often wondered if the gift of tongues is not in the tongue of the speaker but in the ear of the hearer.   God is hungry to save and he does so despite us.   All the things we think we know, all the theories, definitions and schema, are nothing without God’s intervention in the minds of our hearers or readers.

“I came among you determined to know nothing except our crucified Christ.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 26, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.orog

 

If you are not a sports fan you probably missed something quite impressive that happened this past weekend.  Actually it started a week ago.  A young football player for the New England Patriots rushed over 200 yards and scored four touchdowns in a single game.  It was such a remarkable feat he was featured on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.  However, on Friday he was late coming to practice.  The young sports hero learned an important lesson in discipline and humility.  Because he was late he was not allowed to practice.  Because he did not practice he did not play on Sunday.  He was made to stand in full uniform and watch the Patriots win without him.  I think he will be on time to all upcoming practice sessions.

While I am not so naïve to think character building was his coach’s main purpose, that would be winning games, it is a fact that games cannot be won without discipline and teamwork.  It isn’t all about one person.  Life is that way for all of us.  None of us succeed all by ourselves. We are aided by teams of people.  The self-made man wasn’t self-made.  Yes, he went to work every day.  But, he went in a car he did not build on roads he did not build using gas he did not refine.  He ate food he did not grow and wore clothing he did not sew.  He solved problems with information given to him by others who came before him.  We build on the shoulders of the giants who preceded us.

Neither will we be saved by our own efforts.  We are not self-saved.  Eternal life is a gift to all who will accept it.  We are Jesus-made forgiven saints.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 25, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There were at least twenty of us driving our cars at a dutiful 65 miles per hour when suddenly a car whizzed past us doing at least 80.  He never saw it until it was too late.  The blue lights came on as he sped past the state trooper we were following.

I know we are not supposed to follow the herd.  We have all heard sermons about the people who wouldn’t get into Noah’s ark because it wasn’t the popular thing to do.  But once in a while we should slow down enough to ask just why the herd is doing what it is doing.  It isn’t always advantageous to be different. The herd isn’t always stupid and blind.  While it is true sometimes the herd gets it wrong, but not always.  Usually there are good reasons for why things are the way they are.  Before we declare the herd to be senseless sheep we should take a few history classes.  History courses aren’t in the curriculum merely to make us hate school.  If they are taught correctly they will keep us from making the same mistakes our forbearers made.

Robert Frost wrote, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out.”  I would like to add, “Before I tear down a wall I’d ask to know why the wall was first built.”  Taboos and traditions are/were there for a reason. God’s commandments were given for a reason.  They are not there to keep us from having fun.  It is just the opposite.  They are there to guide us to the abundant life promised us by Jesus in John 10:10.  If only we could get our young to know that.  But maybe we can’t because we don’t get it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 24, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 945474

Rogerbothwell.org