Category: devotional

Yesterday was one of our hottest days yet this year.  I wouldn’t bother to mention it except a young man stopped by and asked if he could please plow the snow out of my driveway this coming winter.  Now how could I say no to such an enterprising forward-looking young man?  But what about the young man who plowed us out last winter?   That is not a problem.  They were both at my door.  It seems my last year’s plower is going to college in Boston this fall and he is transferring his business to his friend.  I have to tell you I was impressed.  We hear so much about the lazy irresponsibility of today’s youth and all they want to do is eat pizza and play video games.   Obviously that isn’t true.  There before me stood two healthy looking young men preparing for the future.  How very refreshing.

Looking forward, planning for the future and being responsibly concerned about tomorrow is an admirable attribute.  One of the first stories I ever read all by myself was of the ants and the grasshopper.   The ants toiled all summer while the grasshopper played his fiddle.  When the winter came the ants were snug and well fed while the grasshopper was cold and hungry.  Looking at the larger picture of our lives we need to think long-term.  While three score and ten might seem like forever when we are twenty, it is nothing when we are three score plus or when three score and ten is in the rearview mirror.

Jesus and His gift to us is the ultimate plan for the future.  God in His incredible love has already cared for our future.  All He needs from us is cooperation.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 11, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

The following is bad news for us multitaskers.  Some of us pride ourselves on the ability to do several things at once.  The bad news is the latest psychological studies have concluded that we really can’t walk and chew gum at the same time–at least do it well.  What is it that enables multitaskers to be good at doing several things at once.  I’m afraid the answer is nothing.  Sorry.  I realize this is a blow to our pride and we might want to argue with the researchers.  But for now if we want to get more done we need to try doing less.  Ouch!

This brings me to all my friends who have their morning devotions while driving to work.  If we really want to get the maximum benefit from our time with God we have to close out the rest of the world.  That must be why we were taught as children to close our eyes when we pray; obviously not a great idea while driving.  Praying in the shower still might work since we don’t have to do anything except stand there and let the water run on us.

The Psalmist must have had this figured out. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”  And Psalm 4:4 reads, “Commune with your heart upon your bed and be still.”  That must be written for young people.  When I am in any prone position I immediately fall asleep.

I know if I want to really help a student I have to give him or her my undivided attention.  Grading papers while they are pouring out their heart just doesn’t work. So why should it be any different when I am talking with God?  Surely the King of the Universe deserves my undivided attention.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 9, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Patriot’s Day is celebrated every April in Massachusetts.  It is a day to remember those courageous men and women who defied the world’s most powerful colonial empire.  The result of that defiance is, of course, The United States of America.  Massachusetts is rich in heritage.  Every town square has its monuments dedicated  to the memory of those who sacrificed blood and often life that we might live in freedom.  The little college where my wife and I teach is the site of a brutal massacre conducted during King Phillip’s War.  We have our monument.

It is important to remember events and people.  Monuments give us a sense of who we are.  Each of us is the product of past heroes and good-for-nothings. Hopefully there were more of heroes than the other kind.   Not only do we have monuments of stone but we have monuments in time.   Patriot’s Day is a monument in time.   July the 4th is a monument in time.  Easter is a monument in time.  Good Friday is a monument in time.

In Genesis 2 God established a monument in time.  Moses wrote, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”   Being that the Jesus who died on the cross is the very same being that created our world (see Hebrews 1) each seventh day is a memorial in time to celebrate God’s creative power, His responsibility and His amazing love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 20, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

My wife and I spent a marvelous morning at Kykuit, the Hudson River home of the Rockefeller family.   While the house is magnificent, it is the gardens that take one’s breath away.  It is the way everyone should live.  But everybody can’t because somebody has to care for all those gardens.  If we all lived like that who would we hire to care for our places?  The Rose Garden, the fountains, the private nine-hole golf course, the topiaries, the ancient elms and beeches, and the carriage house are all beautiful.  The carriage house contains the carriages the family owned prior to the automobile and finally a dozen or so cars from the first Tin-Lizzy to the cars used by Nelson Rockefeller when he was governor of New York.

One of the early cars was electric.  Not a favorite of someone who amassed a fortune selling gasoline.  As I looked at it I wondered what our world would be like today if all the innovation that was poured into the development of the internal combustion engine had been focused on electric cars.  Would we have global warming?  Would the Middle East play such a pivotal role in world politics?  Would the Rockefellers ever own such a home?

It would be so easy with our hindsight to shake our fingers.  But that is unfair.  People in different times, with different information, with different insights have little right to condemn those of another era.  According to Jesus we really should not judge people that live in our era let alone those of times past.  Recently I heard a sermon really condemning the leadership of Israel for crucifying Jesus and I wondered what it must have been like for the High Priest to watch an uneducated carpenter tear away the very reasons for the existence of a priesthood.   When Jesus told them to go into their closets and pray to “Our Father” the priests became superfluous.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 27, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Yesterday along with friends we stopped for a picnic.  As we walked to the outdoor table we noticed a very pretty Irish Setter kind of dog lying by a car.  At first I thought he was chained but soon a man came and asked how long the dog had been there.  We didn’t know.  The man then said, “I was so scared.  I thought he was lost.”  They had gone for a walk and when the dog lost sight of his master he went back to the car to wait.  Smart dog.

I think sometimes we humans underestimate the intelligence of the rest of God’s creatures.  They most likely know much more than we think they know.  The dog by the car didn’t seem distressed.  It calmly watched us set out our picnic.  It knew where it was and knew his master would be back.  It was merely a matter of time.

It should be like that with us.  The world is falling apart and we are waiting for our Master’s return.  I hope we are doing it calmly.  Worry and stress truly eat away at the quality of our lives.  Jesus gave us so many promises of His care and that He would return.   He said, “I go to prepare a place for you and if I do that I will come again so you can be with me.”  He will not disappoint.  He will do as He says.  So let’s calmly wait and watch what unfolds around us.

There are so many things we can learn from our animals. They love us but sometimes I must confess my dog wants so much to be the alpha female in the house she can be a pest.  I love it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 29, 2009

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

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I am trying to write this but my dog keeps pestering me.  Last evening we took her swimming and another Black Lab named Cyrus gave her a tennis ball.  You would have thought he had given her the moon.  She was ecstatic.  We couldn’t get her to come home until he went home.  That tennis ball has become the object of much attention.  Because I will not throw it for her, I am trying to write this, she is throwing it for herself and then running to retrieve it before it rolls under the couch.  When it does I have to get up and lift the couch so she can retrieve it.  If I don’t I am barked at until I catch on.  She wonders about my intelligence and why I can’t learn faster.

My dog and God have that same characteristic in common.  He cannot understand why I don’t learn faster.  For decades He has been trying to teach me all kinds of useful habits.  And for decades I have been resisting.  I eat things I shouldn’t.  I don’t get enough rest.  I read and watch things that rot my brain.  I don’t spend enough time in His Word.  It really isn’t that I don’t know better.  It’s that I just do the things I want to do regardless of the resulting effects.

I know I can’t be the only one in this sorry state.  I see people smoking. Now how can anyone in this age not know what that does?  My newspaper runs stories about alcohol related fatal auto accidents.  Really now, does anyone not know drinking and driving is a recipe for disaster?

The more I think about it the more I understand God and my dog are not alike.  He knows I know.  She wonders.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We had a serendipity this summer.  Last winter the most serious ice storm we had ever seen destroyed our woods.  Now we have a beautiful area filled with Jewel Weed.  With the trees gone a whole new ecosystem has taken over.  While we were most disappointed to lose our trees we have been amply rewarded with thousands of little orange flowers. The name weed seems to be a misnomer.  It couldn’t have been any prettier had we planted them.

I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna, the little girl that refused to see bad in anything.   However this is truly an unexpected blessing.  God has touched the earth and it has responded with vibrant life.  We should be wary of calling something a weed.  I have seen students shock me with their success.  They come into college as stumbling scholars and four years later graduate with honors.  It is an awesome thing to see.

Actually it isn’t so bad to be like Pollyanna.  So much of life isn’t what happens to us but how we choose to react.  In the original Pollyanna story the missionary barrel only contained crutches when she was hoping for a doll.  She was immediately thankful that she did not need them.  Our attitudes create our environment.  We feed on the remarks of others and they in turn feed off our remarks.  In Proverbs 15 Solomon told us a soft answer turns away wrath.  He also infers that a cheerful attitude turns away gloom and doom.

So go out and enjoy the dandelions.   Actually they are really pretty both in the flower stage and in the round ball of seeds stage.  Just don’t notice the leaves.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 5, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

A lot of the federal stimulus money is being spent on repairing roads here in Massachusetts.  There are lots of detours.  Obviously it makes me happy to ride on smoother roads but this morning on my way to school it really became too much when I had to take a detour while on a detour.  I began to wonder if I had to go to Connecticut and back to get to Massachusetts.

It is much like our lives.  We make plans and goals but soon discover achieving them often requires detours.   In Ephesians 2:10 Paul wrote, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”   God has plans for us and if we cooperate with His leading we will end up accomplishing marvelous things.  However, often our selfish will leads us off track.   But God doesn’t give up on us; not at all.  He has plan B for us.  It is still wonderful, perhaps not as grand as plan A, but still really good.   I sometimes wonder if I am on Plan Triple Z.  Then I stop and say to myself.  “Hey, Bub, life is really good.  You are in the classroom everyday teaching God’s young people.  What more do you want?”  I do think I am on a detour but I have to say it’s a great detour.

Sometimes God has to do drastic things to get us where He wants us.  We would never go there of our own choosing.  He had to knock Paul off his horse on the road to Damascus.   We have to acknowledge the detour that followed was a tremendous string of incredible missionary journeys.  The grand part is God never gives up on us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 3, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

In mid-July New England roadsides are lined with day lilies.  I cannot tell you how beautiful they are.  My vocabulary isn’t expansive enough to describe how they turn mundane old roads into showcases of botanical loveliness.  I wish I could import them to all of your roads.  I almost suffer from luxury guilt.  Please note I said “almost.”  I refuse to allow guilt to spoil these days of wonder.

Guilt is one of Satan’s most effective tools.  He tempts us to do wrong.  We listen to him and do it and then he attacks us for listening to him.  At this point I could think of some very bad names to call him.  In regard to luxury guilt, he tries to destroy the joy of God’s gifts by making us feel guilty for having something others do not have.  When people are the sole survivor of an accident they often suffer survivor guilt.  Why should they be the one left?

One of the gifts of God’s grace is to remove from our mental loads all guilt.  We have enough responsibility in life just meeting our obligations.  We certainly do not need guilt to be piled on top.   Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”   The way He does that is to lift the heavy burden of guilt.  Folks, I don’t care what you have done.  Jesus’ message is for you.  The only sin Jesus can’t forgive is the one you refuse to confess.  The unforgiveable sin of which the Bible speaks is grieving the Holy Spirit.  And how do we do that?  By not listening to Him when He convicts us of sin.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 17, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I am sitting here with an old friend, Dagwood Bumstead.  I have known Dagwood since before I could read.  I would look at the pictures and little by little I figured out the words.  Somehow Dagwood and Blondie haven’t aged.  They raised Alexander and Cookie as I grew and then I passed them.  The kids stayed frozen in their teen years.  I wanted to name my first dog Daisy but was overruled by my older sisters.  Blondie is such a great looking woman I often wondered how Dagwood got her.  I actually had a boss that could easily have been Mr. Dithers.  There is something wonderful about having something so permanent in one’s life.  On Sunday mornings, like the Bumsteads, I have no age.  For a few moments I am part of their world.

Constancy in an ever-changing world is remarkably soothing. Everyone needs some kind of psychological anchor.  We need to come back to something solid. We need something that doesn’t change.  Our heavenly Father is like that. Malachi 3:6 is a great promise.  God assures us that He doesn’t change. What He was He is.  What He is He will be. It is a blessing when we can have that kind of biological parent, but just in case you don’t, be sure you have a Father in heaven who is real and permanent.

At the close of Matthew Jesus promised that He would be with us always.   Always is a good word.  As the decades have gone by my vision of my heavenly Father has changed.  He has grown more personal. But it was me that changed not Him.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 22, 2009

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

Rogerbothwell.org