Category: devotional

When I was a boy the world was so big.  I could not conceive of anything bigger.  However, one day my Dad took me to an airport to see an airplane that flew without a propeller.  It had the giant letters TWA on the tail and it flew hundreds of miles an hour. The world grew smaller that day. Recently we watched Olympic events in China with all the clarity and detail of being there.  Within hours each of us could be in China if we needed to be. Our world has become small.  However, that is for us, the privileged.

Tonight a small boy sits on the edge of the Serengeti watching his father’s cattle.   It is his turn to stay awake to warn the family if lions or hyenas approach.  His sky is clear and crisp as the Milky Way stretches across his view.  His world is the same as was his father’s father.  It is still big. Will it be the same for his son? It is most doubtful.  Even his world is shrinking. We live on a little planet with great universal significance. Without our Bibles it would be the ultimate self-absorption to think such a thought, but our Bible, the Word of God, assures us that the Creator of all those stars seen by the cattle-watching boy has visited us and we killed Him. How bizarre is that?  We killed the One who made us!  Yet He lives and has promised to forgive us and return and take us to His Father’s house, which really, really, really is a very big place that will never grow small.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 25, 2008.Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

While browsing the musty stacks of a used book store my eye stopped on the spine of a book entitled, Truth for Our Time.   Upon opening it I saw it was published in 1888.  “Could it be,” I thought, “that the truth for 1888 is different than the truth for 2008?”   I knew that John Dewey, the first great American philosopher, believed truth is simply what works best in a time.  Could this author be taking the same position as Dewey?  Is something moral in one age and immoral in another?   The State of Texas recently seriously disrupted the lives of over 400 children because of a position of modern morality.  Yet those same moral leaders most likely go to church and hear sermons about God’s men Abraham, Isaac, David and Solomon; all of them polygamists.  The Ten Commandments clearly tell us not to kill yet some of our government’s most ardent supporters of war are conservative Christians.

Clearly morality is not so clear, which raises the question, “Are there immutable principles for all places and all times?”  It’s a serious question for serious times.  Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two laws.  We must love God and love our neighbors.  But how do I show my love for God?  In Matthew 25:45 Jesus said, “If you have done it unto the least of them you have done it unto me.”  So there is really only one law.  Paul seems to agree.  In Galatians 5:14 he tells us the sum of the whole law is our care for each other.  This is a truth for our time; a truth for all time.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 10, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

He had an interesting barn-like home nestled in the woods.  He was an artist who somehow got along with very little income.  He was the stereotypical starving artist.  I always loved to visit him because we would sit on the porch and rock in his chair to the sounds of the woods.  One afternoon he said to me, “I have never been much of a success but I have to admit I love living here just sculpting.”

I need someone to define success for it seemed to me he was amazingly successful.   He got up each morning and lived his passion.  He made beautiful art.  He had little or no stress.  It seemed to me he was the most successful man I knew as opposed to many of my friends who were trapped in the rat race trying to live up to our culture’s definition of success.  His income was simple but his needs were simple.  While my friends were trapped in rush hour traffic on an eight-lane highway he was sitting on his porch with a good book.  How ironic that financially he wasn’t worth anything but was so rich.

We need to stop letting the world define “the good life” for us.   In Romans 12:2 Paul tells us not to be conformed to the world.  When we are thirteen years old peer pressure is everything.   As adults let’s be ourselves and forget what others think we should do.  God made each of an original and being unique we should have our own unique definition of success. “That means we will not compare ourselves with each other. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.”

Galatians 5:26  The Message

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 3, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

I had a few moments yesterday to talk with a Fed-Ex delivery driver. Naturally our conversation turned to the economy and he told me his average day’s deliveries are 50% of what they were six months ago, indicating a major economic slowdown.   Afterward I wondered if we could develop a national economic index by monitoring Fed-Ex and UPS package deliveries.

Perhaps there already is one.

Later I wondered if we could develop a spiritual index indicating the health of one’s relationship with God.  We have a tendency to use numbers for all manner of measurements.  Perhaps we could keep a running tally on the number of minutes we spend each day watching television verses the number of minutes we spend in prayer or Bible study.   How many minutes a day do we talk to others about National Inquirer or Entertainment Today material verses the number of minutes we speak of a new spiritual insight obtained from our time spent in Bible study?

Actually that kind of activity would most likely ruin a real spiritual walk by turning it into a numbers game and perhaps a competition with others for bigger numbers which would most likely foster some sort of perverted pride like the Pharisee who prayed aloud on the corner.   Perhaps the best spiritual index would our joy at being able to participate in divine nature and our eagerness to share that joy with others.  Do you remember the restored leper at the close of Mark 1?   Jesus told him not to tell until he had been officially declared well by the local priest.   He couldn’t wait. Immediately he told everyone who would listen.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 1, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Several years ago one of my church members confessed to me, his pastor, that

he had committed a crime that was currently being investigated in the small

town where we lived.  He told me he had a hard time sleeping because he

imagined every sound he heard was the police coming to shackle him.  When he

would pass a police car on the highway his hands would instantly grow wet on

the steering wheel and his knees would go weak.  He was a paranoid

psychological wreck.  The only way he was going to find peace was to make

things right.

 

His predicament reminded me of Proverbs 28:1, “The wicked flee when no one

pursues.”  There are amazing benefits to be had by living an honest life.

Not only will God bless such a life but you don’t have to worry about being

caught.  If you cheat on your income tax you hold your breath every time you

open the mailbox thinking today is the day you get the letter from Uncle Sam

informing you of an impending audit.   If you are speeding down the highway

you cannot enjoy the scenery.  You have to have one eye on the rear view

mirror and be tensed to hit the brake whenever any government-looking car

appears.

 

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

but his delight is in the law of the LORD.  He shall be like a tree planted

by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, . . . and

whatever he does shall prosper.”  Psalm 1:1

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Daytime television is full of small claims court programs and having never

been to a real one I decided this morning to observe a real life small

claims court in our little city.  I was sitting toward the front trying to

hear every word when I heard the door open behind me.  Almost instantly in a

very clear, loud and authoritative voice the judge commanded, “Take off your

hat in the presence of the United States flag!”   I turned just in time to

see a young man quickly strip his hat from his head.

 

“Wow,” I thought.  “I wish we could have such respect for coming into God’s

presence.”  I realize it is a sign of old age to be distressed over the

apparel of some who come to church.  Yes, I have heard the arguments about

God wanting us and taking us as we are.  We sing songs like, “Just As I Am.”

I understand.  But somewhere along the way as people get to know our

heavenly Father as the Almighty Supreme Ruler of the Universe it seems there

would be a growth in respect.  If I were invited to the White House to meet

the President of the United States I would not appear in shorts and

flip-flops. (They wouldn’t let me in!)

 

One of the most powerful moments in the great film “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Reverend Sykes says to the little girl protagonist, “Stand up Jean Louise,

your father is passing by.”

 

This is not an issue of God not wanting us or God not accepting us.  It is a

matter of respect.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 7, 2008.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

I took the long way to school this morning.  I left a few minutes early so I

could poke along and savor the autumn colors.  Opening the car window,  I

filled my lungs with the scent of fallen leaves mixed with fallen apples as

I passed an already harvested orchard.  Remembering Jesus and His disciples

harvesting a handful of grain while passing a field,  I pulled over and kicked

around in the grass under the fruitless trees until I found a really nice

apple the harvesters had left behind.  Rubbing it until it was nice and

shiny,  I took a big juicy bite.  It was grand.  Actually it was a Cortland.

 

I enjoy doing things Jesus did.  I allowed my mind to run a bit wild and

imagined Jesus standing among the trees polishing up an apple.  Truly there

are many ways we can do what He did and He is anxious to help us.  We can

perform miracles of love that can transform lives by our being attentive to

the needs of those about us.  If we are having difficulty with that, upon

our request,  the Holy Spirit will heighten our sensitivities and actually

give us the resources to come to the aid of others.

 

When Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you that was in Jesus” he was calling

us to a higher plain of daily living.  He was telling us that we could think

better thoughts than our norm and act in ways far beyond our usual level of

giving.  Tomorrow you and I can be something so much better than what we are

today.  And should we be so, the entire world will be a better place.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 30, 2008.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

While waiting at a traffic signal this morning,  I was suddenly struck in the eye

by a sparkling beam of light .  At first I wondered if someone was playing with a

laser, but the mystery was easily solved when I looked in the rearview mirror.

There was a lady driving the car that was waiting behind me.  She

had her left hand raised to shield her eyes from the morning sun.  The

angled sun was shining in her windshield and her diamond ring was dazzling

in the morning light.  A shaft of sunlight had bounced into and out of her

ring and through my back window into my rearview mirror and into my eye. I

can assuredly say that has never happened to me before this.

 

As the signal changed and I drove away I knew that she had no idea that

light from her struck me.  “Ah,” I wondered, “how often, if ever, does the

light of God’s presence shine from us unto another without our ever knowing?

Just how many people will be saved or have been influenced for good and we

will never know?”   Most likely it has happened to all of us and we will

only know when in the Kingdom those we have affected will approach us and

share with us what had occurred and oh how happy we will be.

 

Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good

works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  I have always loved the fact that

our good works are not to glorify us but our Father in heaven.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 18, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

The President of the United States receives over 10,000 letters each day.  Virtually all are opened and read by a mail team.   But what if the President is your old college roommate and you wanted send him a reminder of the promise he made to you, that should he be elected President one day, you would be given a cabinet position?  That kind of letter would most likely never get past the mail team.  But neither you nor the President want others reading personal stuff.  Therefore, all family and friends of the President are given a series of numbers to write on the outside of the envelope.  This secret code moves the letter unopened to the President’s desk.  Friends and family have direct access.

I have always loved John 15:14 where Jesus says, “I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.”   Now, combine this with Galatians 4:7 which reads, “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”   That makes us both friends and family with God Himself.  Therefore, our communication with God does not go through a reading committee of angels.  We have direct access.  The code is found in John 16:22, Jesus said, “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”

People who have the President’s code have to keep it a secret.  We are commissioned to tell.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 30, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

She’s a sweet old dog.  It’s taken most all of the eight years since we brought her home to stop being a puppy.  She still gets excited when the doorbell rings but life has changed.  No longer do I have to call her to know where she is.  I just need to look down for she will be just a few feet away.  When I come home at night she follows me not only from room to room but also from chair to chair.  If I get up in the night and put my feet to the floor often they land on her side.  The house is never empty.

As I look at her I realize how quickly these eight years have gone and before another eight shall pass I will have to place her in the back yard beside another such faithful friend.  We can keep nothing nor can we keep anyone.  A moment of parting will come from everyone we love.  Shakespeare once wrote, “This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong. To love well which thou must leave ere long.

I once knew a man who would not allow himself to love because he feared the moment of parting. When I presided over his graveside service there were only a few present and no one wept for he who gives not love receives no love.   To love and be loved is true wealth.

Will I miss this old dog when she is gone?   Of course I will, but that day of pain has been more than compensated for by thousands of days of love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 28, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574