Category: devotional

Most of us have seen interviews of people released from prison because DNA testing revealed they were innocent.  The exhilaration of freedom and exoneration must be like waking up from some horrible nightmare to discover it is a new day and the sun has come out.   It is bad enough to be found guilty when you are guilty let alone being judged guilty when you really didn’t do it.   There is a wonderful verse in Colossians 1.  Speaking of God’s love for us Paul wrote, “He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”   Once we accept His grace we are not just forgiven, the scars, the blemishes and the ravages of sin are so completely gone no one can even accuse us of anything.

Paul, as Saul, had the blood of martyrs on his hands.  Here is a man who experienced so much grace and he wants us to share his joy.  To the Romans he wrote, “With God on our side, who can be against us.”  He then goes through a list including everything in heaven and hell and they are powerless to accuse us of anything.  Revel in this passage.  “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Did you really read it?  Or once you recognized the passage did you sort of skip over to this paragraph?  Often we do that.  But this merits a very slow reading.  Let it pour over your brain like maple syrup on pancakes.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 28, 2012

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All of us can dress like a king.   Paul said, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Romans 13:14.  Apparently Paul liked this illustration because he used it in two of his other letters – once to the Colossians and once to the Galatians.  Paul liked nice clothes for what could be nicer than, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Colossians 3:12

That’s a very chic wardrobe.  You can go to the closet and say, “What shall I wear today?  Compassion?  Hum, I think today I will wear Patience.”  Well, that will not work.  You don’t have to choose, you just wear them all and you will be the best dressed person in the world.  You will be ripe for the cover of all or any fashion magazine because these are timeless classics that never go out of style.

Paul said to the Galatians, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” 3:27   It is exciting to think that we can wear the righteousness of Christ. All of the blunders, stupidity and deliberate acts will no longer matter because in Christ we are as perfect as He is perfect.  I wish that meant we would no longer do all the blunders, stupidity and deliberate acts.  It doesn’t.  It means we are legally covered as long as we are committed to growing in Him.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 27, 2016

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I was only five-years-old and psychologically traumatized.  We didn’t have a fireplace so Santa had knocked on the door and dragged his bag of goodies into our small house.  I was so excited I raced out onto the street and looked up onto the roof.  “The reindeer must be on the backside,” I told myself as I rushed back inside. It was then that it happened.  All I did was pull open his sack and reach inside. The big guy, the jolly (?) old man with the red suit slapped my hand.  Stepping back  I exclaimed, “You wouldn’t do that if my daddy was here.”

I am very sure that was the last time my father ever struck me.  My mother could never say, “Just wait until your father comes home.”   If I needed it she did it (a rubber spatula) because she knew he never would do anything other than sit with me on the backstairs and talk.

Frequently I hear people who have experienced a traumatizing loss say something about God punishing them.  I wonder about their God.  The writer of Hebrews wrote, “For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”  There is a difference between discipline and abuse.  Our heavenly Father will never abuse us.  The abuse we receive in life comes from the enemy of our souls who is delighted when we blame our Father.  However, our heavenly Father does on occasion find it necessary for our character development to punish us.  But it will always be the mildest, gentlest, most loving discipline possible with never a single degree of severity more than we need.   After all, our Father is there.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 31, 2014

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I’m sitting here looking at an ad in GQ magazine for a thousand dollar pair of jeans.  Both legs have frayed holes in them and they look like they have been tied to the back of a car and dragged twenty miles down a gravel road.   Are people really that gullible?  Surely one could get such a ragged pair of jeans in the throw away bin at the Salvation Army.  It must be something akin to the Emperor’s clothes.  If enough people say it’s cool and chic, someone will buy them.

But wait a minute.  Couldn’t someone make a similar accusation against God?  Jesus came and paid a horrendous price for us and what did He get?   He paid for a bunch of losers.  Thieves, boasters, prideful arrogant alcoholics, drug addicted cruel self-seekers, liars and murderers are what He bought.  I’m not so sure God is a savvy shopper.  Honestly, He has lousy taste when it comes to His friends. Even His enemies picked up on that.  They said, “When the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, how is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?”  One of His closest friends was a woman of ill-repute.  Why He would even eat with you and me!  That’s getting pretty low.

Ah, but there is a difference.  The thousand dollar pair of jeans will only continue to deteriorate, but all of us reprobates will change.  Someday we will be everything He longs for us to be.  Someday we will be so much like Him we will get confused and think we are seeing Him when we are seeing each other.  So, just maybe, He really is a savvy shopper.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 23, 2016

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When our younger son was three years old, he and his mother were having one of those days we want to forget.  I clearly remember hearing her say to him, “Why don’t you act your age?”  I slipped up behind her, put my arms around her and whispered in her ear, “He is.”  Tonight, 40 years later, we went out to eat and he picked up the check.  He was acting his age.

I was tempted to play the “I’ll Pay” game, but I resisted by allowing him the dignity of “acting his age.”  So often we are tempted to play that game with Jesus.  He has already picked up the check but there is something inside us that wants to argue that we should do something.   We can do something.  We can allow Jesus to “act His age.”  Sometimes when someone picks up the check we say, “Well, at least let me pay the tip.”  Sorry, that doesn’t work with Jesus.  He has more than covered everything necessary.  And so I said to my son, “Thanks Michael.”  That same response works with Jesus.  “Thanks Jesus.”

I was reminded of a conversation I overheard once at a car dealership.  There was one of those super high powered spec cars on the showroom floor.  Audi probably only made six of them total.  There was no price tag so I heard a man say to a salesman, “How much for that?”  The salesman smiled and said, “Believe me.  You can’t afford it. The only way you could have that car is if Audi gave it to you.”

There it was, the story of our salvation.  So let’s act our age around the eternal one. We are the children, no matter how wrinkled and gray.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 22, 2016

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They start the day after Thanksgiving.  Radio stations devoted entirely to holiday music fill our lives with traditional sounds.  There seem to be two kinds.  The first kind play the Rudolf, Jingle Bells and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer genre.  The second kind lean toward the more sacred or the more classical.  Sometimes I think I cannot bear another playing of Feliz Navidad.  My apologies to my Spanish speaking friends.  I really did like it the first 300 times.  One of my favorite songs of the second kind is The Evening Prayer lullaby from Hansel and Gretel.  It really doesn’t have a strong connection to Christmas but is often played during the holidays.

The lyrics are as follows, “When at night I go to sleep, fourteen angels watch do keep: two my head are guarding, two my feet are guiding, two are on my right hand, two are on my left hand, two who warmly cover, two who o’er me hover, two to whom ‘tis given to guide my steps to heaven.”  I encourage you to listen to it on any one of many renditions on YouTube.com.

This world is not a fair place but our heavenly Father watches and cares and will someday make all things right.  Christmas is to remind us of that Father who gave us His only Son to mend this broken world.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 21, 2016

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When our grandson arrived this morning, he had just driven all night from North Carolina.  As would be expected he immediately fell asleep.  Silently I picked up his glasses noting that like most college boys his glasses were fingerprint smeared.  When he awoke and put them on his world was vivid and clear because grandpa did his thing.  Jesus tells us to call God, Father, but on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel God looks more like a grandfather.  My thoughts paraphrased Jesus’ words, “If we as human grandfathers know how to clean our children’s glasses, how much more will our Heavenly Grandfather enable us to see more clearly.”   Matthew 7:11 – sort of.

In Proverbs 4:18 Solomon wrote, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.”   Isn’t it interesting that as we age our physical eyesight grows dim but our understanding of life and its challenges becomes clearer?   I once heard an aged man say, “If I had it to do over again I wouldn’t change a thing.”  Honestly, I thought, how could you be so dull?  Didn’t you learn anything along the way?  You had to have made mistakes.  We all do.  Would you really do it all the same?  The wise learn from their mistakes.

Life is all about learning.  Eternal life is all about learning forever.  I have many really bright friends. I can hardly wait to talk to them when they are 200 or 300 or more.  I know I will be more wowed by their comprehension and cognitive powers because I am wowed now. Until then I pray that our Heavenly Grandpa will continue to daily clean the smudges off the glasses of our minds.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 20, 2016

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One afternoon when our older son was only three years old we were heading south from Nairobi when suddenly a giraffe started running alongside our car.  Its lanky trot was beautiful to behold when Eric exclaimed, “Never in all my life have I seen something like that.”  Well, me either.  But my lifespan and his were just a tad different.   Jesus’ promise to us of eternal life (see John 3:16) presents an interesting possible scenario.  We are three thousand years old when we get to see an amazing super nova explosion. Turning to a traveling companion who predates us by a million or so years I say, “Never in all my life have I ever seen something like that.”  Laughing at my innocent youth he says, “Actually, neither have I. ”  Didn’t Paul say something to Timothy about not allowing others to despise our youth?

So much about life is relative.  I have a friend with a very old chocolate lab.  The gray muzzled guy has had a long life of sixteen years.  Jesus pointed out a poor widow who gave a mite to the temple and told us she gave so much more than the rich who gave out of their wealth. While teaching in Russia one of my students invited us home.  He and his wife were very proud of their home.  It was a very large metal culvert converted for living by building a wall on each end.  For them it was a mansion compared to most of their neighbors.

The next time we are feeling pretty good about our goodness we need to remind ourselves that Jesus was perfect and our righteousness is like filthy rags.  (Isaiah 64:6)  But the good news is despite that.  He covers us!!  Merry Christmas to us!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 18, 2016

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When I got to work this morning I spotted a leftover bagel on my desk from the previous day.  It felt pretty hard as I raised it to my mouth.  I was amazed at how quickly it had turned into a rock.  Just 24 hours before it was nice and soft and just plain yummy.  Yet this morning I had to gnaw through what seemed to be a concrete shell before finding anything near soft.  Giving up I dropped it in my metal wastebasket and was jolted by a major clunk as it hit bottom.  How could anything so nice turn so quickly?

When I was a pastor I saw people marry the most wonderful person in the world only to wake up the next year with a monster in their bed.

In the case of the bagel it was all about environment.  Had I protected it I’m sure it would still have been edible.  I had not. The dry winter air sucked the moisture right out of that ring-shaped bread roll.  As a psychology professor I think there is much truth here for how we turn out.

Environment is extremely important to the final product of a human being.  We can be fortunate and be in a nurturing place that fosters good character development and the use of our talents.  Unfortunately the opposite can be true and people around us can suck out all the goodness we ever had.  Good people can turn stale.  But the reverse happens all the time.  Selfish backbiting people give their hearts to Jesus and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit transforms them into human treasures.  We cannot over emphasize the power we have over who we become.  While children cannot choose who they have to be around adults can.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 9, 2008

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Is it just me or do you also have difficulty getting things back after you have loaned them out?   If I had kept records through the years I’m sure I would have less than a 20% return rate.  That 20% would be money.  Books are something else.  I don’t understand how really good, honest, trustworthy people can see a book on their table and not have a compulsion to return it.  Alas, I have adopted the concept that once something is loaned, it’s gone.  It is always a serendipity if it returns.   All of which, reminds me of John 3:16.

God did not loan us Jesus.  He gave Him to us. He is ours and we are His.  He didn’t come with a library card dated return by 31 AD.  He wasn’t a loaner because we were being repaired.  We were totaled.  We needed something permanent.  Now here’s where it gets really good.  We were given the top of the line.  This was a gift that couldn’t get any better.  Just read here from Hebrews 1 to see what an extra-ordinary gift we have received.  “God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high: . .”

That tiny baby in Bethlehem was Emmanuel from the moment of His conception.  God did not prepare a vessel and fill it at birth.  It was God Himself from the very beginning.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 16, 2016

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