Category: devotional

I’m sitting here with a piece from a jigsaw puzzle I picked up off the street while walking my lab this afternoon.   Somewhere in my neighborhood there is a puzzle that cannot be finished because I have the missing piece. There are so many theological and philosophical puzzles that are an enigma because we do not have all the pieces of the puzzles.  The problem of pain, a loving God in a world of suffering, did dinosaurs and men live on earth at the same time, who wrote Hebrews, ifJesus is coming again why is He waiting; these are just a few.  Paul says we are looking through a glass darkly.  He’s right. We, with our finite minds, continue to try to understand the mind of an infinite God and we don’t have all the pieces.

Throughout the ages God, a self-revealing God, continues to share a few.  In times past He spoke through the prophets but then He revealed Himself via the birth of Jesus.  Jesus was and still is the finest vision of God’s true nature.  Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”  Our continued problem is we see Jesus through the eyes of a tax collector, a fisherman, a physician and a homesick missionary.  Each of them were limited in their ways to express what they saw and remembered.  Therefore, we continue to see God through a foggy glass.

As we grow, as we seek, God is delighted to find opportunities to give us glimpses and insights.  Hopefully, I understand more now than I did when I was forty or fifty.   Note I didn’t say twenty because then I knew it all.   Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given.”  I’m asking.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 9, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Like most American cities Leominster, Massachusetts is a rich blend of a variety of cultures and occasionally there are some misunderstandings as each group makes adjustments to accommodate the others.  The more we understand each other the more we live in harmony.  Nothing causes more difficulty than one group wanting everyone to be like them.  I have noted similar problems when reading the Bible.  We sometimes err by thinking the writers of the Bible were like us when nothing could be further from the truth.  Not only do we have the cultural differences of various groups of people but horrendous differences in chronology.  Just as our great grandparents would suffer culture shock if they could resurrect now, so we think far differently than people that lived two and three thousand years ago.

Often we err by looking at the Bible as one book written at one place in one time.  There are over 1500 years between Moses and John.  Also it is easy to project Christian values upon Old Testament characters.  But to do that falsely colors the stories.  Abraham and company were not Christians.  They weren’t even Jews.  The Jews were the descendants of Judah, the grandson of Abraham.  There is the issue of the occidental mind and the eastern mind.  Paul was an extremely unique individual educated in both arenas of thought.  His letters are an amalgamation of two worlds, two cultures, two philosophies and one very special way to salvation.

How fascinating that God chose to reveal Himself to us via shepherds, politicians, fishermen, farmers, tax collectors, historians, warriors, a philosopher, a physician and a scholar.  And the sum of it is an amazing story of God’s love for all cultures, all people and not just our little group.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 8, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: . .”  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”  In my dictionary the definition of create is “to use imagination to invent things.”   In His likeness God gave us the power to create.  We are constantly producing new things and new art.  We are continually creating knowledge and literature.  It is the hallmark of the human race.  Without the power to create we would have no freedom.  We would be confined to the ancient paths set out for us with no power to really think or choose.

God is a creator.  If He only made the things that He had made before, He would be a manufacturer.  Life and planets would be nothing more than clones.  God would be a prisoner in the universe bored by thinking the same old thoughts over and over.  He would be reduced to a fabulously complicated computer program.  He is so much more.  He is a lover.  He is a nurturer.  He dazzles with His creations.  It is we who have uglified His handiwork.  Yet we also create beautiful new things.  I live near an amazing art museum.  When I first enter I think I want to stay all day but after an hour or so I need to leave.   It is not because my feet hurt.  There are plenty of places to sit down.  It is my brain that hurts.  It is over stimulated by the richness of ideas and beauty.

I am doubtful about God’s physical appearance being very much like us.  But I have no doubt regarding the gift of creativity that He has shared.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 7, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

One of our friends invited us to his high school drama production.  Each year he works diligently with his students preparing a really great production.  We went a bit early to be sure to get good seats.  We need not have hurried.  When we walked in the door there were two premium seats with signs that said in big letters, “Reserved – Bothwell.”  How grand.  We felt important.

In Revelation 14:9 we understand that a third of the angels of heaven accompanied Lucifer when he left heaven.  That certainly left a lot of empty seats in God’s throne room.  And how will those seats be filled?  I cannot but think they are now reserved for the redeemed.  Just as Jesus said there is a place for us in His Father’s house (John 14) it makes good sense to follow that with an understanding we also have a seat in the throne room – a reserved seat with our names engraved for eternity.

I have a friend who for the past several years has served in the House of Representatives in Washington.  He does not have to search for a seat each time he attends.  His seat is well marked.  It is his.  Just so we need not fear there will not be a place for us.  Our seat is well marked and we will use that seat each time we attend of God’s events.

Unlike today where my reserved seat partially blocked the view of a little guy behind me there will be no blocked views in God’s throne room.  Some years ago upon entering a large room I asked the attendant for an unobtrusive seat in the back.  He stared at me and said, “We have no such seats.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 6, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

On our way to Philadelphia we came up behind a car being very poorly driven.  The driver changed lanes several times without signaling and when we passed him he was on his cell-phone.  The real surprise was the business name on the side of the car was Farmers Insurance.  So much for being a role model.  I realize not one of us is perfect but this was excessively bad.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  That could be a source of major discouragement. It is setting the bar so high we can’t even see it let alone get there.  Perhaps the issue is one’s definition of perfection. John Dewey, the great American philosopher, urges us to understand that perfection is a process.  He proposes that no matter how good someone has been if he ceases to grow he is a bad person.  And a person with a morally unworthy past, who is moving to be better, is a good person.  I like this concept but fear for the elderly.   I have watched some very kind, generous people age into someone not nice to be around.  Surely we can take comfort in the knowledge that God knows the condition of their aging minds and treats them with love and understanding.

For those of us who think we are still mentally running on all eight cylinders our challenge, our goal, our destination is to be a better person today than we were yesterday.  A comforting promise is found in John 15.   Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will abide with and in us so we do not have to do it alone.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 4, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

For four million dollars we could have purchased thirty seconds of airtime to advertise whatever we like during this year’s Super Bowl.  When someone spends that much they definitely want to maximize the experience with the most creative and interesting advertising possible.  Or to put it more crudely, “Get the most bang for your buck.”

I was wondering how we would use thirty seconds to advertise Christianity.   Would we show a reenactment of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead?   Would we show Jesus restoring fingers and facial features to a decayed leper?  Would we show Jesus on the Cross or perhaps better Sunday morning coming from the tomb?   Perhaps we would broadcast a few of His fabulous promises?   Or we could read highlights from the Sermon on the Mount.

It would be very difficult to reduce the grandeur of the Gospel to thirty seconds when one is advertising the gift of eternal life.    Better than all the above is a single individual living a kind, loving, unselfish life.  We are walking commercials for the best product ever conceived.  Our lives, the brief and extended contacts we have with others, our influence makes more of a difference than we can imagine.   Temporary lives become eternal lives because  of us.  We are God’s ads and He spent so much more than four million dollars to have us on His side.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 3, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Our brains are most amazing memory organs.  From the moment we are born, daily it stores billions of bits of data.  The challenge of those first years is for our brains to sort the enormous intake.  Little by little as the years go by it gets very good at categorizing stimuli.  Soon it begins to form the story of a life.  That’s why there can never be another like you because even a twin with the same DNA will experience different stimuli thus forming a unique person all its own.  Decades later when we try to remember our childhood experiences we will unconsciously select the memories that harmonize with the self we have become. That is why it is most interesting to listen carefully to the stories people tell of their youth and childhood.  It tells us much about who they now think they are.  Events that cannot be synchronized are not discarded they are just not remembered even though they are there.

Other than God’s miracle of mitosis over which we had no control we are self made.  There is no one to blame other than the person we see in the mirror.  No amount of resurrecting repressed memories can excuse who we are and what we do.  When we come to God for grace, forgiveness and salvation there is no room for excuses.  There is no blaming moms, dads or uncles.  The joy is we don’t have to blame anyone.  God isn’t looking for shared responsibility.   He is looking for a contrite heart and an openness to begin anew.  He is looking for a heart that cries out Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

And the answer is (no drum roll needed) “Jesus Christ, our Lord.”  Verse 25.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 2, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

The English language abounds in four letter words.  Some are not so nice but there are others that are wonderful like “glad,” “hope” and “love.”  There is one that increasingly bothers me more and more.  It is “them.”   “Them” as in “those people.”  I guess it is not so bad when we want to say something nice about “them” but it seems more times than not it is not that way.

“Them” are not “us.”  “Them” are “those guys” who are not quite as good as we are. “Them” usually have sinister motives and are not quite as “human” as we are.  “Them” are outsiders who can only be trusted if watched carefully.

Paul grew up in a “them/us” culture.  He has much to say about this human disease.  “. . . He (Jesus) came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household . . .” Ephesians 2:17-19  In Colossians 3:10-11 he wrote, “. . . (we) have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Who are the “them” in our lives and what can we do to make them “us.”  Could it be the change needed is not in “them” but in “us?”  Jesus fed two crowds.  The one was Jewish and the other was gentile. They both got the same meal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 1, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I bought my dog a bag of beef sticks for snacks.  I had planned to keep them in a drawer in my desk but when I opened the bag a cloud of garlic aroma wafted from that bag with such intensity my eyes rolled back into my head.  I gave her a couple and later decided to play Dagwood Bumstead by taking a nap on our couch.  I wasn’t too long zoned out to the world when I was startled to consciousness by an overwhelming foul cloud.  Opening my eyes I found myself staring into two dark eyes a few inches from my nose.  She wanted more as she gave me that “cocked head, pathetic, adorable, poor me” look.  When you love someone or something, people and pets take on a completely different perspective.  I got her another one.

You know the old saying one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.  Well there is a corollary saying, “One man’s stench is another man’s perfume.”  Just stop at a perfume sample counter at the mall.  Some are great and some are, well, not so great.  We are not very consistent about smells.  If we are hungry almost anything food smells great.  If we are nauseous the best smells in the world make us even sicker.

I am sure sometimes our behaviors and attitudes reek in the courts of heaven.  Yet, His love for us enables Him to continually reach out to us.  He does not offer perfume to mask our odor.  Instead He offers a transformation of being.  By His grace and with His power we are enabled to do sweet smelling acts of love as we become more and more like Him.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 31, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Sundays were wonderful when I was a boy.  It was my day with my dad.   When the weather was nice we headed for the mountains with our dog.  When it was cold and messy we went to the movies.  Those were the days when they screened cliffhangers.  For quite a while I thought they were awesome.  The hero would be left dangling in the most precarious situations possible with no way of escape and the film would end.   We had to come back next week to see how he got away.  As I got older I caught on that the beginning of next week’s episode was not nearly as frightening as had been portrayed.

In the years that passed I have met innumerable people who are cliffhangers.  They say they are Christians but refuse to accept the gift of salvation.  They are still trying to earn it and are never sure if they are good enough or have done enough.  If you ask them if they are saved they respond with “I hope so.”  What a miserable way to live!  They want Jesus to come but are scared they will be left behind.  So where is the joy of salvation?  Where is the peace that Jesus promises?

Life is one great cliffhanger.

Why is it so difficult just to trust Him and take Him at His word?  He promised, “He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”   It’s a promise the enemy doesn’t want us to think about.  If we really do accept it, life ceases to be a cliffhanger.  We don’t have to come back next week to know what is going to happen.   We know and it’s great.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 30, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org