Category: devotional

At first I was a bit taken back and then amused.  There was an elderly lady (someone older than me) in the supermarket with a lip ring and a diamond stud in the side of her nose.  I have gotten used to seeing that in young people but really now – Granny?  I probably should not tell you what text jumped to my mind.  It reveals that I am not such a nice person.  It was Proverbs 11:22, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.”

There are some things that just don’t go together.  Ferrari pickup trucks, breeding a Chihuahua with a Great Dane, marrying a Jihadist to a Jew are just a few things that pop into my mind. According to Paul there are a few things that do not go with being a Christian.  He lists them in Galatians 5. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

That is a very depressing list.  So let’s feed our souls with Paul’s list of things that do go along with being a Christian.  It is also in Galatians 5.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”   Now that’s much better.  If things are good let’s think about them.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 4, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There is a fascinating clause in Ephesians 3:10.   Paul makes reference to “. . . the principalities and powers in heavenly places. . .”  This evening’s network news reported that astronomers have upped the number of stars accessible to our instruments.  The number is now a three followed by twenty-six zeros.  That looks like this 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  Are we impressed yet?  Or is it so incomprehensible that it is just a string of zeros?

I have no desire to take advantage of your time by filling this message with my fantasies, but it is so difficult not to wonder just what Paul meant.  Is there some form of government and leadership on each of the worlds God has made?   “. . . his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. . .”  Hebrews 1:2.  It is obvious that Paul certainly did not think we were alone.

Diplomacy in our State Department is the fine art of representing our nation to other nations.  Might this be our eternal task?  To glorify God by being diplomats that bear physical witness to our redemption.  We, like no other beings, can personally speak of grace.  With us it is not an academic topic.  Salvation is not a subject for sermons or lectures in a classroom.  With us it is personal.  Those who have personally been rescued from some horror can speak with moving power that cannot be replicated by the greatest of actors.

One of my students mentioned the possibility of finally visiting everywhere and becoming bored at some point in eternity.  I am most anxious to find him tomorrow and give him an opportunity to pronounce the number three followed by twenty-six zeros.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 3, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I have just developed a serious case of printer envy.  I along with one of my colleagues took pictures of our students.  We want the pictures for a display in our department.  Her pictures are about twice as good as mine.  Hers look professional and mine look like a grade school project.  Both of us are using Canon cameras, Canon paper and Canon printers.  But her printer has five different ink cartridges and mine only has four.  The difference in the picture quality is dramatic.

My question is.  Is it okay for me to want a printer like hers as long as I don’t long for her printer?  Am I or am I not violating the “Thou shall not covet”?   I don’t think I am.  I believe the commandment was designed to keep me from scheming how to get something from another person.  I am not to want someone’s job or someone’s wife, something that can’t be replicated.

The entire issue of commandment keeping is all about love for someone other than myself.  It’s the heart of God’s law.  God is not interested in giving us commandments to see if we are obedient.  He is interested in protecting us from harming ourselves and others. This is why obedience becomes the fruit of our experience with Jesus.  With Jesus living in us we lose the desire to do anything that would bring harm.  We can go through the day and do anything we want to do because we only want to do what is beneficial.   This is what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5 and 6.  We have tremendous freedom in Christ and can prosper and do well as long as we allow Him to influence our wants and needs.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 2, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Do you ever see or hear something so unbelievable you question its veracity?  Me, too.  Try this one. In the November 29 issue of Time magazine you will find this number.  Ninety percent of all children in the United States will eat at a McDonalds at least once a month.  I mentioned this to one of my classes today and they couldn’t believe it.  But as astounding as it is I would assume the publishers of Time magazine would have verified this before printing it.  So I am going to believe it.

Now if I should believe the publishers of Time should I not also believe the Creator of the world when He says some pretty unbelievable things such as He forgives all our sins if we will only ask?  Or how about believing that He is coming again in the clouds of heaven to redeem us and at the same time resurrect those who have died believing in Him?  How about believing that we are saved by grace and not by our labors?  I could go on with some more pretty amazing promises from Scripture but, my point is obvious.  The editors of Time are fallible people like you and me and yet I choose to believe them.  I do this knowing that next week’s edition might possibly print a retraction acknowledging that they overstated the McDonalds thing.

One thing I can be absolutely sure of there will NEVER be a published retraction of John 3:16-17.  Nor will there be one from I Thessalonians 4 or I John 1:9 or John 14.  There are some things that are so sure, so real, so positive that choosing to believe them is a very smart thing to do.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 1, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There are some verses of Scripture that are so outstanding they jump off the page yelling, “Look at me.  Memorize me.”  Colossians 2:9 & 10 are two of them.  Paul wrote, “For in him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  And you are complete in him . . .”   Jesus is fully God.  Hebrews 1 tells us Jesus is the exact representation of God and all the worlds (plural) were created by Jesus.  Then Paul adds we are complete in Him.

There is no character defect that He cannot repair.  There is no deficiency of character that He cannot supply.  There is no sin He cannot forgive.  There is no lack of personality that He cannot add to us.  There is no skill needed that He cannot provide for us when we need it.  Every excellence can be developed in us by the indwelling of His Spirit.  We are COMPLETE in Him.  It really doesn’t get any better than this.

What is so exciting about this is we need never to be ashamed of what we are. We can come boldly before His throne and request what we need and then not worry about it.  When we need it, it will be there.  We don’t have to beg.  We don’t have to nag Him.  We don’t have to remind Him of our need.  He knows everything.  He knows we asked.  We don’t have to exhibit all the gifts all the time because we don’t need them all the time.  But they are there and He knows the precise moment when we need them.  This is trusting in Him.  This is knowing that with Him in us life is and will continue to be a growing experience.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 30, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Being that the Boston Celtics are in the finals against their historic rival the Lakers I am semi-engaged in what is happening.  I say semi because I have never been enamored with ten very tall guys throwing a ball through a hoop.   I have a theory about basketball.  We should give each team 100 points and then play for five minutes.  This week while watching one of the games I heard a new term.  By telling you this I am revealing how ignorant I am, but oh well.  I heard the commentators talking about one of the players getting a triple-double.   I didn’t have a clue.  But I do know how to use Google.  A triple-double is when one player tallies double digits in three areas.  For example, 26 points, 12 assists and 16 rebounds.  Magic Johnson holds the record for 30 triple-doubles during a playoff series.

Obviously one has to be very good to achieve such status.  Hebrews 11 has always fascinated me.  Paul records a list of God’s greats.  These are the triple-double quality people.  It is exciting to note the list is not closed.  Hebrews 12:1 says, “Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, . . .”  When it’s foggy I think of God’s cloud of witnesses.

There are so many millions of droplets of water.  Heaven’s list is huge and you and I have the opportunity to be included.  Someone is probably saying, “Not me.”  Yes, you.  All you need is perfection and that is a gift from Jesus.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 11, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I never thought I would ever meet an apple pie I did not like.  However, this weekend I did just that.  First of all, let me say my wife did not make it.  If she had I would have eaten it with relish and never ever speak of this.  I have learned a few things in 48 years of marriage.  So I am safe to say this was a BAD apple pie.  The apples were those sugary things that come out of a can.  The crust was (How can I put this?) cardboard that had been used as a shipping container for cheap goods from China.  One of the things I was thankful for this past Thursday was I did not have to eat it.  That’s one of the advantages of being a big person and not having to clean off your plate because children are starving in Africa. (I never did figure out why I had to overeat because children somewhere on earth were undereating.)

Will Rogers once said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.”  I’d like to introduce him to someone I know.  I cannot imagine that Jesus liked everyone He met.  I do believe He loved everyone but liking and loving are two very different things.  It is safe to say He did not like the religious establishment in Jerusalem.  If He did He had a strange way of showing it. Please read Matthew 23.  I don’t think we have to like everyone along life’s way.  However, we should indeed care about their well being and help them when they are in need.

Some people are crusty on the outside.  But I am sure Jesus sees something wonderful on their inside.  That’s the way He is.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 29, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I first saw him literally shuffling into our local market.  He was hard to miss; cashmere sport jacket, wool scarf, Stetson hat, white mustache, white hair flowing out from under the hat, bushy eyebrows, glasses on the tip of his nose and a twinkle in his blue eyes.  I asked him how he was and I never said another word for the next twenty-five minutes while my wife shopped and then came and pulled me away from him.  He was as British as one can be; eighty-eight years old, lonely, a widower for the past two years.  I heard all about WWII in London; bomb shelters, Yanks, airmen, uniforms and officers.

I have met others like him.  As he spoke of the war there was vibrancy in his eyes. Some men love war.  I think they are the ones who never hit the beaches. They are the ones whose lives were full of the adventure of new places, meeting new people, learning new skills and not having to go to a 9 to 5 job.   Theodore Roosevelt glamorized war and was continually enamored with it until his son died in combat.  Suddenly it wasn’t so wonderful anymore.  There is a dear price to pay for the handsome uniforms and the adrenaline rush.

As I left him he said, “You Yanks are really quite boring.”  I guess I was. I never said one interesting thing.  All I said was “How are you?” and “I have to go.”  Truthfully I would like to have listened to more of his stories.  People really are the most interesting animal on earth.  God must be interesting; after all we are made in His image.  He must have some great stories to tell.  He knows them all.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 27, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I am very proud of my wife.  On Tuesday morning one of her students failed to show up for class.  It was not just an ordinary class but one in which students had to cooperatively present a project.  We are very close now to the end of the semester and every class counts.  So she gave the students that were present a reading assignment and she took off for the dormitory.  Finding out at the desk which room belonged to her errant student she promptly went down the hall and knocked on the door, hard.  Inside she heard a sleepy voice say, “Come in.”  Need I even talk about the shock of that student.  God could not have startled her more.  The student actually got to the classroom before my wife got back.

Jesus said, “If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray?”   It’s all about care.  It’s saying to that student and the others, “You paid for your education and I am not going to let you throw it away.”   With Jesus it’s quite a bit more important.  Jesus says, “I paid for your salvation and I am not going to let you throw it away.”

God chases us.  Jonah tried to hide and that didn’t work and neither can we hide.  God just keeps after us.  Sometimes we do need a wake-up call.   We allow life to stupefy us into almost not hearing Him wooing us.  But if we will pause and listen His voice is there.  He might even be saying to us, “Get to class!”

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 26, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This afternoon I watched a clerk in a drugstore cough on her customers.  I wonder how many people will become ill because they went to the drugstore to purchase something to make themselves healthier.  She reminded me of me and all my colleagues who sometime stand behind a pulpit.  There we are advocating a Christ-like life without ourselves measuring up to the standard we promote.  To stand before others proclaiming the need to live by high standards requires one of three things.  A. Ignorance on one’s own faults.  B. Hypocrisy.  C. Confidence in the grace of God that covers our lack of personal righteousness.

I was informed yesterday that someone told someone (Don’t you just love the grapevine?) that I was a heretic.  I thought that interesting because we are all heretics in the eyes of those who don’t agree with us.  So that was nothing new.  There are thousands of opinions in the world and thus all of us are heretics in the eyes of thousands. It’s a good thing we no longer burn heretics at the stake because the air would constantly be full of smoke. But I was curious and asked, “How so?”

“He doesn’t believe in obedience. He believes we can be saved without obeying God’s law.”  Actually there is a bit of truth in that.  But it is not really accurate.  Here’s what I believe.  Obedience has little or nothing to do with our salvation.  Salvation is a gift from start to finish.  However those who are saved will obey for three reasons.  A. They are extremely grateful for their salvation.  B. Once saved Jesus’ lives in us and motivates and enables us to obey because God’s law is written on our hearts.  And C. it’s the smart thing to do.

I’m truly sorry for coughing on you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 25, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org