Of Tools and Talent

As we near the end of the year catalogs have started appearing in the mail.  One that arrived today is filled with ridiculously expensive items.  One of which is a manual typewriter for 200 dollars.  While I have not recently been to our Salvation Army store in town I am going to guess one could most likely find a manual typewriter for ten dollars or maybe less.  The description in the catalog makes it sound as if one just laid their fingers on the keys Pulitzer Prize winning prose would flow all over the paper.  This is akin to giving someone a brush and a set of oil paints and coming back the next day to collect a comparable Monet.  Or how about giving one a gift certificate for the tool section of Sears and expecting a new home?

Giving someone a Bible is not going to make them a saint.  Actually even reading the Bible will not make someone a saint.  Satan has it memorized.  I don’t think it has done much for His character.

Having the tools and/or talent doesn’t produce quality.  Quality comes from serious application of mind and talent.  Paul told Timothy, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  I once heard a commencement speaker use this text to mean study itself would result in God’s approval.  I don’t think that is what Paul meant.  I don’t think he meant study biology, study philosophy, study German.  The topic of study was “How can I be a good discerner of God’s message.”   It will not be the result of random verse hunting. It comes with careful, prayerful application to context (never forget context) and asking for the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 16, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Jesus Is Color

Because our bedroom windows face the rising sun, the room can get extremely bright at five in the morning during the summer.  Thus we have light blocking shades.  No light pierces that barrier but it does slice through the cracks between the edges of the shades and the window frames.  There is something about light that will not be denied.   Jesus called Himself the Light of the World.  He said, “You have seen me you have seen the Father.”  For thousands of years Satan managed to distort the true character of God.  God was depicted as being harsh, vindictive and capricious. Nothing could be further from the truth.  When Jesus came that all changed.  Jesus taught us to pray by beginning with “Our Father.”  That was revolutionary.

Light is color.  Jesus is color.  The Father is color.  The black and white world of crushing those who did not measure up was past.   Jesus ushered in a world of forgiveness and redemption for God’s children.  Satan hates Jesus for exposing the heresy he had foisted upon mankind.  The challenge was to pervert the truth.  Tell people they are saved by grace and add the word “But.”  Everything that follows “But” negates what preceded it.  “Yes,” Satan said, “you are saved by grace, “But” you have to do this or do that.  With the Galatians it was circumcision.  However, you can substitute anything for circumcision.  It all cancels the Good News.  Paul wrote, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”  We know who it was.  It was God’s enemy, our enemy.  If he can’t live forever then he wants to make sure we don’t.  But light will not be denied.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 15, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

The Mayonnaise Jar

It all started days ago when I thoughtlessly put the mayonnaise jar back in the fridge with the lid unscrewed.  It finished today when I lifted the jar out of the fridge holding only the lid.  Fortunately the jar was plastic and not glass, but that contributed to what followed. The impact on the floor enabled the plastic to collapse and pop back propelling a huge amount of mayonnaise onto the front of a cupboard.  It stuck like wind-driven snow against the side of a building.  I love my dog. It wasn’t long until the cupboard was spotless and I never had to lift a finger. Ah, life has its moments and this was one of them.  She is such a good dog.

This isn’t the first mess I have made in life.  Some have been much messier and more difficult to clean up.  Ah, that is what Jesus is all about.  He has come after me so many times cleaning up.  What is amazing about this is many of the people involved can remember the stories with great detail, often enhanced for effect, but Jesus doesn’t remember them at all.  Someday when I ask Him about some of them He will say, “What, I don’t recall.”  How I wish people were like Jesus.  Perhaps the biggest cross we have to bear is unforgetting “friends.”

Jesus is so much better than that.  Jesus is so much better than anyone.  He is the ultimate cleaner. “If we confess He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  How grand.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 14, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The Apple Turnover

All of a sudden this afternoon I really wanted an apple turnover.  I have no idea from where this came.  I was driving, not by apple trees, not by a bakery, and soon I found myself swinging into a supermarket parking lot.  I am puzzled because I am not prone to sudden urges of appetite and I know I am not pregnant.  On occasion I do long for a plate of cooked bananas smothered in peanut sauce.  It is a staple in Uganda.

The Psalmist in number 42 wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”  How grand it would be if we could make our worship experiences so appetizing and so satisfying that people longed for the weekends to arrive so they could attend church.  It would be especially good if we could do that for our young people.  So often we have an abundance of small children in church and a famine of teens.  Our greatest evangelism challenge isn’t bringing lost sheep into the fold.  It is keeping the lambs from disappearing out the back gate.  So often we spend hundreds of thousands on public evangelism and a pittance on Christian education.

Often I hear remarks like this, “If we had contemporary music our youth would stay.”   While I do think music is important I think this does not give our young people credit for thinking.   If we challenged them intellectually with a message of God’s love that meets their everyday needs, I believe they would stay with us.  Our teens are people and people long to be loved.  Let our love be the fence that keeps them in the fold.

The apple turnover was really good.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 18, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our Identifier

Before taking my car for its annual state inspection today, I looked in the glove box for the registration.  They will not inspect the car without it and it wasn’t there.  Thus began the search.  I looked and looked throughout the car and house to no avail.  Finally in desperation I looked in the glove box of the other car.  It was there.  Why?  How did it get in the wrong car?  Neither my wife nor I know.  Actually at this point it doesn’t matter.   What was important is I found it. It is important for it identifies that this very car belongs to me.

In Genesis God asked Abraham to circumcise his family and it was a sign that Abraham and his family belonged to Jehovah.  It’s fascinating to make note of the various ways people use to declare their identity to a group.  Some use tattoos.  Some have special handshakes.  Others have secret code words.  The one that I like the very best in mentioned in Matthew 7.  Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”  How do people know we belong to Jesus?  The answer is by the way we behave.

Please note He didn’t say we should put a fish on the back of our car nor hang a cross from our neck.  I am not condemning those who do that.  It’s just that we should remember the real identifier.  Be a good, honest, fair, decent person.  I am not a card carrying Christian.  I just want to help people and improve their lives.  It is more than saying, “I’m praying for you.”  It is actually doing something tangible to make life better.  See James 2.  He is great on this topic.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 19, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

“God Saved Me”

The evening’s news was headlined by the horror of the terrorist attack in the mall in Nairobi. One of the women who escaped reported that “Bullets were flying everywhere. God saved me.”

Sixty-five plus people were killed.  Obviously God did not save them. This supposed fickleness of God has bothered me all my life.  Does He really save some and not others?  Or is it random chance?  If He does save some, why some?  Does He love some more than others?  Maybe none of the other 65 was a Christian?  Does He only save Christians?  If so being a Christian would turn into having a life insurance policy?  There are situations where an accident only involves persons from the same church. An example would be a busload of teens where some are killed some are not.  The question becomes much more difficult to answer.  Our answers rarely end up saying anything nice about God.  He ends up looking fickle, discriminating, selfish and uncaring.

So what’s the answer?  There is an element of His care.  Psalm 91 speaks of thousands falling around us and we are left standing.  We pray and our prayers are answered: sometimes yes and sometimes no.  That is the bothersome issue.  Why the “no” answers?  I don’t know. I wish I did.  The older I become the less I seem to know.  However, this I do know.  We need to be careful we do not inadvertently make God look bad.  We try to say nice things but we end up trashing Him.

I know I must trust Him.  Proverbs 3 says, “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on your own understanding.”  My “understanding.”  That’s the hard part.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 24, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

“Err”

Our local high school band practices outside on October evenings.  The traditional band sounds float up our hill.  Even from a distance I can hear them getting better and better each night.  When they start I can’t identify any particular song but after a couple of weeks familiar tunes fill the moonlit evenings.  Practice and improvement is our human experience.  Only the abnormally gifted do things well on the first attempt.  The rest of us try and err, try and err.  I don’t think the sound “err” is by chance.  “Err” is what we feel as we try.  Anything worth knowing, any skill worth doing requires work.

Salvation requires work.  The good part for us is Jesus did the work for us, which causes us to ask is there anything for me to do.  Regarding salvation the answer is “No.”   However, what follows can be very difficult.  What follows is character development. After being saved we begin the journey of change from a self-centered, egotistical being to one willing to make major sacrifices for others.  It isn’t easy. After decades we still have moments when the old man (Paul’s name in Romans for us when we began) rears its ugly head.

This evening an overly enthusiastic political volunteer stood in the middle of a crosswalk waving his sign.  In Massachusetts we have to stop when someone is in the crosswalk.  I stopped.  But I thought, “Hey idiot, you just lost a vote for your candidate.”  Really now.  I should be past that by now.  But alas I was reminded the old man is still there ready to rear his ugliness merely because I was inconvenienced.  Practice.  Practice.  I need more practice.  “err.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 10, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Jesus’ Cereal and Milk

I am a creature of habit.  Almost every morning I have a bowl of cereal.  So you can imagine my consternation this morning to discover we were milkless.  I opened the fridge only to discover an empty shelf. How can one possibly eat cereal without milk?  I certainly can’t.  So we had waffles.  It was not at all the same; even the blueberries and sliced peaches tasted different without milk.  Habits are good.  Habits create stability and order in our lives. Tomorrow will be an adventure but there are some things about tomorrow that need to be the same.  Cereal and milk need to be one of those same things.

Habits come in three categories.  There are harmful habits, good habits and neutral habits.  Educating ourselves is the key to understanding which is which.  Habits can be active or passive.  We can actively do something or we can neglect doing something.  Probably in church one would expect to hear about the passive habits of what we don’t do.  We often call them sins of omission.  Most of us are not bad people as much as we are neglectful people.

It would have been grand if there had been a biographer recording Jesus’ daily activities so we could copy them.  Luke 5:16 mentions one, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 22:39 also says, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.”  It would seem this was very important to Him and being so for Him how much so it is for us. I have a feeling He never had a prayerless day.  Going prayerless was just not an option for Him.  It was His cereal and milk.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 9, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

“I Know You”

Usually I enjoy talking about the more grace-filled statements of Jesus like John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” but today I noted what has to be Jesus’ most frightening statement.  It is found in the Sermon on the Mount.  “Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”  Matthew 7.

Those words “I never knew you” have to be the worst thing anyone could ever hear.  It is so natural for us to want to take credit for the good things we do and have it count for something. If we write something we copyright it so another cannot take credit.  If we give money to a school we want a building named after us.  We want our picture taken and have it published.  We are someone great.  Therefore, it only makes sense we would want God to be thrilled with our goodness.  But, He isn’t thrilled unless we do it secretly.  “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”  Matthew 6

Lest I leave you feeling a bit paranoid and fearful, please don’t be afraid.  You will never ever hear “I never knew you” because that is for the self-absorbed.  For those of us who long to be with Jesus and accept His gift,  salvation is a SURE thing.  Smile because good things are ahead.  Jesus knows you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 8, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Summer Has Passed

Gray days – soothing days – the soft patter of rain washing the leaves one last time before their final descent displaying their true colors minus chlorophyll.  Greens are replaced by reds, rusts and yellows.  Soon the leaves will be a blanket protecting the fallen but not yet eaten acorns.   Chipmunks and squirrels are making final preparations for the coming storms that will pile a blanket of white over the reds and yellows. It is a busy time with obvious changes every morning.  Summer is passed.

One of Scriptures most poignant passages is Jeremiah 8:20.  Painfully it reads, “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”  It falls in the context of a people negligent to the importance of their souls’ conditions.  I fear if Jeremiah were with us today his message would be little different.  We too fill our hours with activities that do not enhance our characters.  Hi-Def this and Hi-Def that occupy our minds with invented tales, mostly violent, to tantalize our imaginations.  We read the New York Times best sellers instead of John.  We spend more time on Facebook than pondering how to understand the power of the Sermon on the Mount, one of the most challenging documents ever written.  We twitter our thoughts. We text more than we pray.

Spring will most surely appear again.  But we have no guarantees we will be here to see it.  If we are, it will be by God’s grace giving us yet another summer to prepare.  He is so good and so patient because He desperately wants to save as many as possible.  The irony is salvation is not a mysterious process revealed only to a few.  It is a gift offered to all.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 7, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org