Category: devotional

My black Ford pickup is definitely not green.  It gets terrible gas mileage. I can hear it going ka-ching as I drive around town.  This weekend I drove it almost to New York City and on the way back I knew exactly where I would have to refuel.   I should not have planned so well.  The best laid plans of mice and men go astray.  This time it was a traffic tie-up.  About fifty miles from my intended fill-up we came to a complete stop in wall to wall traffic for as far ahead as I could see.  Now the anxiety began.  Quickly turning off the air conditioning I realized if we sat and idled for an hour we were in trouble.  I suddenly felt like one of the five foolish virgins that ran out of oil because the bridegroom did not appear when planned.

I am happy to report I was more fortunate than the foolish virgins. After idling only a half an hour and crawling along about a mile I spotted a Shell sign hidden among a grove of leafy oaks and maples.  Phew!  As many times as I made that trip I had never seen that sign before.  Isn’t it wonderful to feel rescued?  Things we haven’t planned for occur and suddenly we find ourselves in a very disadvantaged place.

Psalm 50 verse 15 says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.”   I’m not sure that text has much to do with gasoline but I do know it has lots to do with life’s more serious issues.  When we are feeling at our wits’ end and nothing much is going right, ask for help.   He might not answer it the way we want because there is a good chance He has something completely better.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 1, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Another bear has been spotted in our neighborhood.  I am in the habit of walking my dog last thing at night which usually is after 11 P.M.   Not wanting to stop that, I have started carrying the metal-headed driver from my golf bag.  I realize there is almost no chance the bear would bother us and that the golf club would be useless but it’s a nice placebo.  Last night there was a lot of lightning in the area.  I had a dilemma.  Should I be walking around with a lightning rod in my hand or forgo the club and just shout big and loud if the bear appeared?   Now I know some of you are thinking, just don’t go.  But then I would have to get up at and go downstairs  at 3 a.m. to let the dog out.   Choices.  Choices.  Sometimes the smallest of things requires so many choices.

Life is a series of choices.  We make thousands of them everyday.   Driving to work requires tons of choices.  How fast, when to pull out, can I make that light, do I need gas, where to park, on and on it goes.  Fortunately we train ourselves to make most of those decisions automatically.  Our subconscious governs most of them.  Have you ever driven home and suddenly realized you had no recollection of driving?  You were so focused on something else.

One of my goals is to automatically do the kindest most loving thing.  Today a student irritated me by trying his best to get around a degree requirement.  He was spending more energy trying to finagle than he would have spent just doing the work.  My automatic response was not kind and loving.   Ah, there is so much character work left to do.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 2, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

In Paradise Lost Milton speaks of Lucifer’s intelligence as being of the highest order. All through the writings of Shakespeare and Charles Dickens the good guys are usually portrayed as being a bit simple while the wicked, clever, conniving characters are intellectually bright. The hero is usually a dufus who is rescued by some quirk of fate or God’s intervention.

I would like to register my complaint. In Matthew 22 and 23 when Jesus does intellectual battle with the finest minds of His day Jesus bests them every time. Paul was surely one of the most intelligent men who ever lived. Romans and Galatians are testimonies to that. Daniel and his three friends were tested by Nebuchadnezzar and found to be ten times intellectually superior to all the other students. See Daniel 1:20. God defeats Satan in the Book of Job. God wins in the book of Revelation.

Maybe this literary tendency exists because we cannot write plots with a scheming good guy. We equate secret plans with clever twists as being diabolical. Maybe it has something to do with always telling the truth. What the world needs is a literary hero who is smart, clever, bright, kind and scheming while being brilliant enough to do it without ever telling a lie. Now that would take some writing. Hopefully someone who reads this will take up the challenge and give the world a really smart good guy.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 3, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

I put four new shock absorbers on my car.  After 130,000 miles it seemed like the right thing to do.  Wow.  It rides like a brand new vehicle.  As those thousands of miles rolled along little by little, the ride ever so slowly worsened.  I didn’t notice.  It’s sort of like those pounds around the middle.  I saw a small lady carrying around a really big toddler.  When I questioned her about it she laughed and said when she started carrying him he only weighed six pounds and five ounces and since she carried him every day she didn’t notice his weight gain. Isn’t it fascinating how things creep up on us?  It happens so subtly we don’t notice.  Then one day we see a photo of ourselves and go, “Oh, look at me. I’m a tub!”

Could it be the same thing could happen to us if we neglect relationships?  We get too busy to call our parents or we get too busy to spend any quality time with God.  As the days roll by we don’t notice the change in our attitudes and erosion of character.

Thinking about shock absorbers made me wonder what absorbed the shock in heaven when Adam and Eve, made in God’s image, failed to be faithful and ate of the forbidden tree.  There was even more shock when Jesus announced His plan for rescuing Adam and Eve.   Heaven must have been appalled when Jesus was born in a filthy animal stall and horrified beyond belief at what happened on Calvary.  I seriously doubt there was much of anything that could absorb those shocks.

Perhaps the biggest shock of all is our salvation.  Really now.  Not one of us deserves it.  We are children of grace.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 17, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Surely everyone who enters the seminary must dream of being a great preacher.  We watch great preachers and we imitate style, mannerisms and techniques. Each culture grows their own and flocks to be fed by the great ones.  My generation saw Billy Graham and I knew a hundred young men who dreamed of being the next Graham.  It is an interesting combination of mixed motives.  They truly and honestly want to serve the Lord and yet are filled with guilt over wanting to be famous and powerful.  There is a strong dose of politician in every great preacher.  The difference is not as large as we might wish.  Jesus spoke of it when he said, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to walk in long robes, and to have salutations in the marketplaces.” Mark 12:38.  It is a dangerous moment for preachers when the service is over and they greet people as they depart.  People tell them nice things and the great temptation is to believe them.

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest.  Certainly Paul had to come fairly close to that standard even though he did bomb in Athens.  I think the most eloquent of the Old Testament preachers must have been Jonah. This man did not want to go to Nineveh.  It was a foreign city.  Yet when he finally got there he was so successful the entire city repented.  This is amazing because he was then depressed over his success.

People are strange creatures filled with so many wonders and faults.  Yet God chooses us to proclaim His good news.  While we all cannot be Billy Grahams, each of us can, and I will use the old saying, light up the corner where we are.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 27, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

Not long ago a young mother came to my office.  She had a cute little boy in tow.  He was fascinated by the junk that fills my space.  After she sat down she said, “I desperately want to do something to serve the Lord.  What career would you suggest?”  “How old is he?” I asked.  “Four,” she responded.  “Well,” I said, “it appears to me that you are serving the Lord and you will be so occupied for the next fourteen years.”

I cannot imagine any career that is more important than serving the Lord by being a good mother or father.  What title, what job name could one put on one’s door, could be more important than Mom or Dad?   I love being a teacher but I am under no illusion that my job is the most important job in the world.   Our new President has no task more important than to be a good dad to his two daughters.   How horrible to save the whole world and to lose one’s children.

We do not need to receive a pay check from a church in order to serve God. We serve Him everyday in the routine chores of life.  Loving a child, feeding a family, being a responsible role model, faithfully going to work, reading to your child at night, tucking them in with a kiss; this is serving the Lord.

Jesus said, “When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 22, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

When I was a little boy and learned to read I set out on my first journey through Scripture.  There was much I did not understand as is still the case.  But I clearly remember getting to Exodus 24 and was amazed that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders of Israel saw God.  Verse 9 says, they “saw the God of Israel.  Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.”   I was so envious.  I wanted to do that.  I had been told in Bible class no one could see God, but there it was.

About a year later I got to Colossians 2:9.  Paul wrote, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”   When I finished reading the Gospels, I suddenly realized my desire had been fulfilled.   Jesus is just like God the Father.  When I read all those stories about Jesus feeding people, healing people, raising people to life and loving them I knew I had seen God.  That is what God is like.

Hooray.  God was wonderful.   He was approachable.   I continued to read and got to Hebrews 4 and learned I could come to Him boldly. I didn’t have to crawl to Him on my stomach.  He was my Father.  As I continued reading it just kept getting better and better.  Finally after about two years I got to Revelation 3:21 and read, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne.”   Now that I am an old man I am still just as thrilled by this thought as I was as a boy.

Do you want to see God?  Read the Gospels.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 21, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

My wife and I had just finished playing a Scrabble-like game and I quietly said, “I think I will take the dog for a walk.”   What happened next was unreal because the dog was stretched out on her side snoring.  Snoring! Instantly her head was up followed by her body and a burst of barking as she ran to the door.  “Let’s go, slowpoke.  Do you or do you not want to walk? I need to mark the neighborhood as mine.”

God is like that.  He monitors everything we say.  It doesn’t matter how busy He is caring for a zillion galaxies.  Actually better than my dog that needs to hear me articulate, God monitors our thoughts.  Yes, God is an eavesdropper and a stalker.  He can’t help Himself.  It’s His nature.  When you love someone you want to know all about them.  When I am riding in the car I often say to my wife, “What’s ya thinkin?”  It isn’t that I can’t stand the silence.  I can always turn on the radio if I want noise.  No, I really want to know what she is thinking.

I hate to break this to you, but you really don’t have any secrets.  Now that is scary.  At least we can keep secrets from other humans.  However, the last verse of Ecclesiastes says God will bring all of our secrets before judgment, but in Acts 3 Peter tells us God will blot out our sins.  So the only secrets to be told are those really good things you did for people without telling anyone.  And I think if you talk to God about it He will honor your request to keep those secret if that is what you want.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 13, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

My computer is slow this evening because my virus protection program is conducting a full scan of all systems as it looks for infections and other harmful intruders.   I found myself wishing we had such a system to scan our bodies for infections and harmful intruders and then I realized we do have scanners at medical centers that do just that.  However what about our mental situation?   Our memories, habits, tendencies, passions and appetites are hidden all throughout our brains.   Maybe it would not be such a good idea to have a scanner that would find the harmful intruders there.   Most likely the overwhelming number we discover would be so discouraging we would just give up.

David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  He had already asked God to “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”   He was asking for a scan, a purge and a new hard drive.  I am sure God did exactly what David asked for.  God is like that. Unfortunately by the end of the next day David was infected again.

In Romans Paul struggles with this.   He calls it his new man and his old man.  Each day he found it necessary to kill off the old man and replace him with a new one fashioned after the mind of Jesus.   It almost drove Paul insane when he realized the next day the old man had hammered his way out of his coffin and needed to once again be dealt with.  See Psalms 51 and Romans 5 through 8.

Don’t be distressed.  Paul also tells us in I Corinthians 15 that this corruption will put on incorruption.  On resurrection morning we don’t just get a cleansed hard drive, we get a brand new one that is absolutely pure. How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org

One of my best blessings is I am surrounded by some very smart people.  One does not necessarily have to be very bright if one is willing to acknowledge one’s limitations and then be willing to ask for lots of help.  That’s me.  An example of this is this past weekend my computer lost its ability to post things on the Internet.  I lost my File Protocol Transfer.  I could not figure out how to repair whatever had gone wrong.  So today I mentioned it to one of my smartest friends.  Without a moment’s hesitation he said, “Use a restore date.”  Awesome!  As soon as he said it I knew it would work.   It worked.  As I said, “It is nice to be surrounded by very bright people.”

The restore program he prescribed is a marvelous feature that allows us to reset the computer’s operating system to a date prior to one’s problem.   As it was doing its thing I was thinking about how grand it would be if we had such a function in life.  After we mess up something we could just click a button and go back to yesterday and start again.  Not only could we restore broken relationships we could get rich.  Stocks either go up or go down.  If we invested today and it went down.  We could just go back to yesterday and short the stock.  Instead of making money watching it go up we would make money watching it go down.  However, as we all know life does not work that way.

So that brings me back to surrounding ourselves with smart friends.  If we are willing to take wise counsel we will not need so many restores because we will make good decisions the first time.  It really goes back to what your mother told you when you were small.  Run with the right crowd!

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 23, 2009

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

rogerbothwell.org