Category: devotional

There was a time in my theological past when the word “perfection” was a dirty word.  I had seen it take its toll on a vast number of young people who believed perfection was the criteria for salvation.  Being honest and non-hypocritical these young people just called it quits and walked away from the church because they knew perfection wasn’t going to happen in their lives.  They sat through sermons where Jesus’ wonderful admonition in the Sermon on the Mount to be perfect was used a club to get them to measure up to some impossible goal that the speaker himself could not attain.

Goals are important.  Lives without goals rarely accomplish anything worthy of note.  I doubt if anyone ever won any Olympic medal without having the gold medal as an objective.  Jesus understood this.  He came that we might have the abundant life and reaching beyond ourselves contributes to a better life.  The problem arose when we inadvertently or advertently thought He was talking about salvation.  He wasn’t.  According to Jesus, salvation is a gift.  It always was and it will always be a gift.   Matthew 5:48, “Be ye perfect” is instruction for better living.  It is a commencement address. It is “rah rah” get on with your life.  Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.

What happened was young people were told we are saved by grace but then in order to stay saved we have to overcome every defect.  Ephesians 2 was lost along the way.  Paul says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 19, 2008.

Photograph by Simon Wilkes.

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

I am starting to be concerned.  My wife has taken to watching a channel that features renovating houses.  Builders take ordinary houses and turn them into works of art and wonder.  Since we live in an ordinary house I am wondering what is going on in her head.  Even though she says she is just curious,  I know that what we behold affects our thinking and desires.  If this continues I would not be surprised to hear talk about redoing the kitchen or the bathroom.

It is a rule of nature that what we behold becomes part of us.  When we are young we are especially vulnerable to external influences and we never completely grow out of it.  When I am reading a good book I think about it as I ride back and forth to work.  When I associate with my friends I note it does not take me long before I am talking like them and even dressing like them.

John was a teen when he started following Jesus.  It is no wonder his gospel is so different from the first three.  It is filled with promises of Jesus’ love.  Those three years he was with Jesus molded him into the likeness of his Master.   It is the same for us.   If we really want to be like Jesus we have to spend time with Him.  We have to read about Him.  We have to talk to Him and without our being consciously aware we will be changed.  It’s the law. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  It happens.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 11, 2008

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

When Buzz Lightyear, a lead character in Toy Story, proclaimed, “To infinity  and beyond” my mind swirled with what could be beyond infinity.  The concept of infinity fills me with frustrated consternation.   I am so limited by the finite.  While I can imagine going forward forever I am completely bamboozled when I try to extend infinity into the past.  My mind wants everything to have a beginning.  I can comprehend space having no beginning because space is nothing but God is, always was and always will be. Truthfully I want a God I do not comprehend.  He is so much bigger than any of our comprehensions. What does excite me about the concept of an infinite God is that infinity allows, makes it possible, for God to give each of us His undivided attention.  Infinity releases God from limitations.  Infinity places God everywhere all the time.  Infinity gives God all the resources necessary to meet the needs of everything everywhere. The very idea of each of us having the full attention of God could well feed our natural tendency to be self-centered, egotistical and narcissistic. But it does help to call Him Father and to encourage us to always live in His presence.

As Jonah discovered, one cannot run away from Him. “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.    If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;  even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”   Psalm 139.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 4, 2008

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

There is a place in my forest (I fanaticize that it is mine.  It belongs to the State of Massachusetts.  I guess that makes it mine.) where a stream cascades down a small rock ledge into a pool filled with crystal clear water that is presently hosting a few red and yellow leaves.  The leaves are neither on the top or bottom but are suspended in the motion of the water. Occasionally the sun pierces through the leaves as the wind moves the overhead branches and the sunlight catches facets in the moving water.  For fleeting fractions of moments one seems to see deep into the pool only to quickly lose the vision of suspended gold.

As I gaze into it I am filled with the same feelings I often get when reading Scripture.  There are so many mysteries in the Bible.  I do not understand infinity backwards.  I cannot grasp Jesus’ dual nature.  I do not begin to know why God loves me.  I do not understand the beginning of iniquity in heaven.  My list could go on.  As I read I have these fractions of moments when my limited intelligence almost grasps some new deep truth. For a fleeting second my brain almost sees and then as if tantalizing me with truth it is gone.

In I Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of seeing through a glass darkly.  I have these moments of clarity only to once again become mystified by the enormity of the God who loves us and who died for us.  The gift seems so outrageously out of proportion it leaves me in a state of wonder.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 17, 2008.

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

Life is full of confounding things.  Often times when a publically-traded company announces they made a billion dollars this past quarter the stock goes down.   Traders dump it because they expected it to make two billion. Or it is sold off because they were so successful traders don’t believe they can do it again next quarter.  Sometimes the opposite is true.  A company loses money and the stock goes up.  Why isn’t a two by four really two inches by four inches?  Why does a golf course have 18 holes?

Actually those are fairly easy to explain.   The tough ones are why are you you?  Why aren’t you someone else?  How is it that Jesus’ righteousness can be our righteousness?   Where do my sins go when God forgives me?  Why do some people ruin their own lives by hating someone?  Can’t they see their hatred is harming themselves and not the person they hate?  The most confounding of all is the Gospel.  Why did God so love the world that He gave us His son?

We want so much for life to have meaning we invent stories in an attempt to make sense out of nonsense.  We quote Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” and sometimes unwittingly think the bad occurred because God wanted it to.  He never wants bad things to happen to His children.  He is a good Father.   What Paul means is God is smart enough to take the broken pieces of our lives and do something wonderful with them.  Satan smashes and God fixes.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2008.

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

I paid for my new knee.   I put a check in an envelope and slipped it into a slot at our local post office.  It felt good as I walked away knowing it’s mine.   For the last month it has been on loan from the surgeon.  (It is doing terrific.  Thanks for asking. I can now walk up and down stairs if I so desire.  Sometimes I baby myself and do them one at a time.)  As I sat down earlier today to write the check I wondered what would happen if I didn’t pay for it.   Would repo guys come in the middle of the night and take it back?  Ouch, that hurts just thinking about it.  I am still amazed thinking about living in a time when we get new parts.  We can even get a transplanted face.  Humm.  This old one is looking pretty haggard and wrinkled.

I am sure you have noticed it is hard to look bad if you are smiling.  I would love to be artistic enough to draw the faces of my friends as I see them.  The pictures would be so different from what photography would produce.  None of my friends would look like their photographs.  They are all much more illustrious and fascinating.  They overwhelm me with their stunning presences.  Often I wonder what Jesus sees when He looks at us. I doubt if he notices the broken blood vein on the side of my nose.  That isn’t important because this body is but the seed that blossoms on resurrection morning into something so grand that the world has never seen. This will not be my last new knee.  I will get that one on resurrection morning.  Please see I Corinthians 15.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 22, 2008.

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

He was a typical little boy sitting in a grocery cart.  He wanted to touch and pickup everything within range.  Why not?  That is what packaging is designed to do.  Packages are colorful and have nice pictures on them specifically to get our attention.  Instead of his mom giving him something to occupy him she just kept telling him in shorter and shorter phrases to keep his hands in the cart.   As I walked by she looked up, smiled and greeted me in a sweet voice diametrically opposed to the one she was using with her little boy.

Why do we do that?  I was nothing to her.  I was just a face pushing a cart by the cereal.  That little boy was, I assume, the heart and soul of her life.  I have no doubt, should she have to, she would die for him.   Yet, he was getting her worst and I, a stranger, was getting her best.  Please, please, if you have to be rude be rude to strangers.  If you have only a limited amount of love and niceness, then save it for your children and spouse.  Don’t waste it on people you will never see again.  Now I am not advocating public rudeness but I am sure you get my point.  The people closest to us should get our best.

There is a scene in one of the old Rocky movies where the bar keeper tells Paulie to give Rocky his best.  Rightfully so Paulie says, “Hey, what about me?  I come in here every day and you never give me your best.”   Good point, Paulie.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2008.

Photograph by Belle Deesse.

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

Our campus was without phone service, the Internet and e-mail service today. I was more than a bit amused to get home this evening and to discover the

campus IT department sent an email to everyone on campus telling us there was no e-mail service.

Obviously communication is everything.  Without it nothing happens.  The exchange of ideas, intentions, desires, dreams, plans, appointments, reasons and motives is essential.   In God’s desire to communicate to us He has used and does use a multitude of devices and means.  In Hebrews 1 we read, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”

God really does want us to hear Him.  He has so much to say to us.  Everyday He tries via a variety of tools.  The most effective ever was Jesus.  Jesus told us how to live.  He told us the future.  He is coming again to take us to a place He prepared for us.  He told us He is exactly like the Father. We don’t have to spend time or money exploring strange and exotic ways to meet with God.  It is very simple.  Study the life of Jesus.  Spend time in the Gospels.  Prayfully read the Gospel of John and you will hear His voice. God is way too smart to send us a message via a medium that doesn’t work!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 28, 2008.

Photo by Belle Deesse.

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

This evening my sister handed me her camera wondering why it did not work.  She just put new batteries inside and yet it was dead.  I checked to see if she had the batteries in the right direction.  (I have made that mistake a few times in life.)  But she had done it correctly.  After fussing with it for a while I decided to get another set of new batteries and bingo everything came to life.  It works.  The new batteries she had used were dead.

As I held the batteries in hand I remembered a marvelous passage in Jeremiah.  He is taunting his people about serving useless Gods.    He wrote, “Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Metal smiths are put to shame by their idols.  Their statues are false gods. They can’t breathe. They are worthless jokes.”  Jeremiah 10:14-15.

At the very beginning of the Ten Commandments God tells us not to have anyother gods before Him.   When I was young and ignorant I thought this was indicative of God’s egotism.  Later I understood the real reason He commands us not to do that.  Other gods are as powerless as those batteries.  Once again God’s wisdom reigns.  He tells if we are hungry don’t go over there because there is nothing over there to eat. “Come to me.  I am the bread of life.  Don’t go over there if you are thirsty. I am the water that satisfies forever.”

We serve such a practical loving God. His commandments are there to protect us and to help us avoid major pitfalls. Only He is power and life. Don’twaste yourself any other place.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 3, 2008.

Cliffs of Moher photograph by FX Extreme.

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

 

Have you ever gotten a new perspective on someone after really getting to know them?  You thought you knew them, but once you got closer you suddenly realized your former perspective was hearsay.   Your ideas about the person were secondhand and not at all what you recently discovered.  This happens to me sometimes with positive results and sometimes with not so positive results.  There are some people I really admire and I don’t want to get to know them well lest I change my mind.

I think most people think they know who Jesus is, but little of their knowledge is from personal contact.   They listen to teachers or their pastor and thus think they know all about Jesus.  I would like to propose that no one really knows Jesus until they have a one on one experience.  I know when I was young I used to think Jesus was always a really nice guy that everyone loved.  Then I read Matthew 23 and gasped when I saw him boldly calling the religious leaders snakes, frauds and murderers.  He wasn’t the gentle Jesus meek and mild I thought I knew.  While He was indeed compassionate with the weak and abused He really got angry with the “righteous”.  See Mark 2.

The more I experienced Jesus for myself the more my admiration grew.  The more I wished I had that kind of courage.  He was a man’s man who wasn’t afraid to do the right thing.  If all you know about Jesus is what your teachers or what I have told you, please remedy that.  He’s waiting for a one on one relationship with you.  You’ll like what you discover.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 1, 2008.

Photograph by Samim Hasan.

Spring of Life Ministry, St. Helena, CA 94574