Category: devotional

One evening I welcomed to my house two guests, the world famous concert violinist, LeRoy Peterson, and his wife Carol, who announced to me that we had a porcupine in the backyard.   Sure enough it was a big one snoozing on the bottom branch of one of our trees. It is rather exciting but now I had a major problem.  When will it be safe to allow my dog outside?  For a few of the coming nights I think I will take her out under my careful watchful eye.   She will be puzzled why she cannot just roam the yard like usual.

Often times God tells us not to go somewhere and in our limited intelligence we cannot see why not.   Because we are filled with self-importance and trust our own judgment we disobey Him and not long after we begin to reap the results.   We should have listened.    I’m sure my dog will say to me, “Hey, stop following me.  I’m okay.  This is my yard.  I have been out here a thousand times.”   She just can’t understand the pain that awaits her if she crosses paths with that porcupine.

God always has our best interest at heart.  There is nothing He asks us to stay away from that is not harmful.   Good parents hate things that harm their children.  That is why God hates sin.   If it’s good for you He wants you to have it.  It is just that simple.  Psalm 119:105 says it so well. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  Just as I know dangers my dog doesn’t know, so God knows dangers we don’t know.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 21, 2008.

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

I’m sitting here watching the Kennedy Center Honors.  As I watch the honorees receive standing ovations and the accolades of friends it occurred to me the real honor, the real joy were the years of accomplishment.  It was the doing. It was the work. It was the learning. It was the talent used that was/is the real honor.  It would be empty to have others honor you if you did not know you put in the sweat, long hours and often tears. The joy is the work and the satisfaction of doing something well.  Long ago I had a young man in his twenties come to my office and pour out his heart because he wasn’t being recognized for his talent.  I told him it was three decades too soon to be making such a speech and if it was recognition he was looking for there was a great chance he would never find it.  But if he would forget the fame and put his hand to the plow, the recognition would come when and if it had been earned.

God has given us talents. Real happiness in life isn’t having others tell you how wonderful you are.  It is knowing you have taken the talent you have been given and used it to the best of your strength.  Jesus’ parable of the man who gave his servants talents comes to mind.  Two used them but the third buried his.  It was not a happy day for the third when his master returned.  Forget the accolades.

Live the abundant life by using what we have. The joy is in the doing regardless if any other human ever knows. You will know and God will know and that’s a great audience.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 31, 2008.

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

 

I am wondering if one’s theology forms the basis of one’s disposition or is it the other way around?  Harsh people seem to have a harsh God and gentle people seem to serve a God of mercy and grace.   Do we form God in our image or do we allow the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels to educate us as toGod’s true nature?  Do the biased glasses that taint all we see not even allow us to see God’s true nature even in the New Testament accounts?

I was taken back today by a stark truth blurted out in the midst of a classroom discussion.  A student who had taken a strong position on the side of what he thought was justice said to another student, “Easy for you tosay. You have a father!”

Ouch.  There it was.  It wasn’t merely the absence of a caring father.  It was the total absence of a father.  As I looked over my class I wondered how many other students could have said the same.  Or would have substituted the descriptor “caring” with “vindictive” or worse.

It is not so easy revealing the true character of God.  Not so easy because I also wear biased glasses and have not one student with my background.  God is such a private personal thing.  I wonder at my audacity to try yet I do and shall continue to do.  Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and tell.” John wrote, “We tell you what we saw with our own eyes and handled with our own hands.”  It’s always best when it is personal.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 25, 2008

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

I have six FM presets on my car radio.  One is classical, one is jazz, one is news, one is pop, one is religious and another is talk radio.   The music ones fascinate me because with just eight notes musicians create a zillion songs and compositions.  Why is it that some kinds of music inspire us and others make us ill?   Some is beautiful and some is cacophony.  One man’s praise is another man’s dissonance.

This past week my house was filled with six grandchildren.  The human sounds on top of the television, the computer, the Wii, the door bell, the phone ringing and the dog wanting out were something to behold.  I’m sure a visitor to my home would have fled from the chaos.  But to me it was a symphony of life and love.  I can’t get enough of children crying and laughing.  It’s a good sound that I never want to end.  It’s only noise when it is someone else’s children!

God listens to the universe.  Experts estimate there are roughly 6800 languages just on our little planet.  Add to that the languages from other worlds and God has a lot of sounds to sort out.  Prayers ascend to His throne from a multitude of intelligent beings and His infinite knowledge and presence enables Him to individually care for every request.  I am sure He thinks it is a good sound and that He never wants it to end because it is from His children.

Paul wrote, “I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men . . . that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 22, 2008

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

There is a great tree in my yard that towered over all others.  Now it lies upon its side waiting for the chainsaw to cut it into small pieces for my woodstove.  As it brought us days of shade and cool now it will bring us days of warmth and then it will be gone.  As I gaze upon its length my thoughts turn to Solomon’s frame of thought in Ecclesiastics. Everything no matter how noble or ignoble ends up in the same place.  All great things come down.  It is only a matter of time.  Whether one is a great corporate executive or the one who cleaned his office at three in the morning, the end is the same.  He wrote, “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” He also said, “A living dog is better than a dead lion.”  Perhaps.  It all depends upon whether or not the dog is suffering.   All in all this is a pretty morose line of thought bordering upon a pessimism that would herald, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.”

Jesus certainly would not countenance such despair.  His message was one of promise that there is more after this.  He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  And Paul wrote, “If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.”  Too bad Solomon didn’t know Jesus. Hooray that we do!

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 19, 2008

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

 

In case you didn’t know Chia Pet seeds are slimy like frog eggs.  And how do I know this?  They are on my kitchen counter.  They are on my dining room table. Actually they are all over my house.  Yes, it is true.  We actually got a Chia Pet and will watch with wonder as this clay donkey grows green hair in strangely arranged patterns.  I have this feeling it will look like someone with trichotillomania.

Surely Jesus would make a parable out of Chia Pets since He likes talking about seed sowing.  I do so wish spreading the seed Jesus referred to was as easy as spreading Chia Pet seeds around our house.   The great Gospel Commission at the end of Matthew is all about each of us spreading seed.  It is a very sensitive thing.   I was in a class in a public university and witnessed a very committed Christian trying to witness to his fellow classmates.  What I saw was a room full of people who were quite turned off. The harder he tried the more obnoxious he became.  Ever since, I have been challenged not to hide my faith but to somehow not repeat what I saw him do.

I have come to be very thankful that Jesus doesn’t ask us to harvest.  He asks us to be seed sowers and to watch the Holy Spirit nurture the growth. He will harvest.  It is a pretty good system.  Our responsibility is fairly limited as is our ability to do much more than that.  Just as in Jesus’ parable the seed falls on rich ground and on rock.   Effective seed sowing is the way we treat people and not so much handing them a pamphlet.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 27, 2008

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

 

Have you ever come to the end of a day and realized you did nothing useful or productive all day long?  Wonderful, isn’t it?   I know I am supposed to be horrified and say how terrible, but I can’t.   Our culture drives us to be productive.

We, at least I, grew up hearing lectures about not wasting time and that we are accountable to God for every minute.   For decades I was driven to be busy, to come to the end of every day knowing I worked hard.   Working hard is good.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  But if God wanted us to be driven all day He wouldn’t have invented easy chairs.  I have one that is better than any sleeping pill.  Just to sit in it is an invitation to disappear into slumber.

Right from the beginning God told us to take it easy at least one day a week.  Check out Genesis one and two.  He told us to lay aside our weekday occupations and to slow down.  In Ecclesiastics Solomon reminds us that the person who works sixty hours a week and the person who works twenty hours a week eventually end up in the same cemetery.  Only maybe the person who worked sixty hours a week got there first.

Once again I would like to assure you I am not making an appeal for us to be indolent and to neglect our responsibilities.  Quite to the contrary.  I am just speaking out for moderation and balance.  Work is good but so is rest. Again in Ecclesiastics three, Solomon wrote there is a time for every purpose under heaven. Getting back to coming to the end of a day and having not done anything useful.  Well that really is a waste.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 2, 2008

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

 

I am dozing in front of my computer.  I am semi-awake.  It has been a while since I have touched the keyboard or the mouse and the computer’s screen saver has come on.  I am getting a wonderful slide show of my grandchildren. One by one in marvelous situations they appear for a few seconds in front of my happy eyes. It brings me great joy just to look at them, let alone have opportunities to be with them.  When they come to Old Farm Road I do a lot of watching.  They have no idea, absolutely no concept of how much they are loved.  They are busy growing and learning and finding out who they are. They have no thoughts of wonder about what Papa is thinking.  The thought that there is someone in the world who would die for them never enters their innocent minds, nor should it.

I have come to understand that the difference between me and my grandchildren and God and us is He is not dozing in front of a computer.  He needs no screen saver nor does He need special holiday visits.  He just watches us go about our busy lives with little regard to the incredible attention we receive. Fortunately we do have a written record of His love and that He really did die for us.  That’s the Good News.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.”

The world is us not just our planet.  He has a universe full of rock and gas spheres.  They are not overly lovable.  However, now that I have said that I am not so sure we are always overly loveable. Yet despite our often obnoxiousness, His love never ceases.  He is incredible.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 8, 2008.

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

 

Wouldn’t Ezekiel be shocked if he woke up this week to discover people living in a time when talk about replacing body parts wasn’t mere poetry but reality?  The promise for a new body part first appeared in Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

If he spent the week with me he would marvel at my brand new right knee. He would have seen me up and walking in less than 24 hours and back in the classroom teaching in exactly one week.   No wheelchair, no walker, no cane needed, just a happy rejoicing spirit in my new gift.   I am awed.

Now about that new heart he was talking about.  I don’t want to appear greedy but I also want one of those.  It would be very nice to have a brand new heart not damaged by decades of collected cholesterol but I am more interested in that poetic heart to which he refers.   Wouldn’t it be grand to have a heart like Jesus?  To be sensitive to the needs of others, to get angry at things that really deserve our anger and not merely because our pride was hurt is a major goal.  Our churches should be transplant centers where we leave the old worn out, useless parts behind and go forth each week with renewed commitment, values, goals and ideas for making the lives of those about us better just because we are near.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 23, 2008

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

I had to take my pickup to the doctor.  After he transplanted some new parts he said to me, “Mr. Bothwell, you had this truck in here two years ago and since then you have only driven it 3000 miles.  You have to drive this truck more or you will be replacing lots of parts.  Trucks are not made to sit.”

“Oh dear,” I thought.  “I have a couch potato truck.  It’s losing its health for lack of exercise.”  This weekend I need to go to New York City.  I will take it and stretch its muscles.

Isn’t it fascinating that even machinery doesn’t do well when it does nothing?  Christians are certainly no exception to this.  If we do not exercise our faith and reach for the goal of being more like Jesus we will lose our spiritual health.  Couch Potato Christians grow lazy and complacent. It’s essential that we actively seek out those who need our help, those who are hurting, those who have not experienced the joy of salvation and do what we can to remedy the problems.  By doing thus we will be blessed.  It is always a double blessing.  The person we help is blessed and we grow in grace.

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 10, 2008

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