Harvard Classics

I have a set of books called “Harvard Classics – The Five Foot Shelf of Books.”   It is a collection of the greatest literature of the world.  It comes with a daily reading guide that suggests reading selections for the day.   I have all 51 books but my volume #7 does not match the set.  My set is blue and my volume #7 is brown.   Am I being anal because this bothers me?  On Amazon.com I can get a matching #7 for a very reasonable price of less than ten dollars including shipping.  My problem is why?  I already have #7.  The only reason I would purchase this is because of some mental quirk.  When I look at the set it is not perfect. This is ridiculous.  I need to see a shrink.

However, there is much to be said in favor of perfection.  In Hebrews 2 Paul tells us that because Jesus was perfect He is now able to be our high priest and save us by His grace. “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

I have known sincere, serious Christians who have been miserable because they were trying so hard to be perfect because they believed it was the only way to be saved.  However, the Gospel is very clear about our salvation.  It is a gift.  Accept it and live and then together with the Holy Spirit’s help, out of gratitude, strive to be like Jesus.  Enjoy the teamwork.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

Secondhand Cars and Houses

I am a believer in secondhand cars and houses.  Let someone else take the depreciation on the car and let someone else plant the grass and the shrubbery.  I am even wearing a secondhand shirt.  I have even performed marriages for couples who are getting a secondhand wife and a secondhand husband.  There is much to be said for experience and learning not to repeat certain mistakes.

There is one thing I am not high on.  That is secondhand spiritual experiences.  It doesn’t work to be a fan or devotee to another person’s experience.  I have heard people say, “If Pastor Soandso says it.  It has to be true.”   I’m sure Pastor Soandso is a good woman or man and what she or he said works for them.  But what is important is for each of us to build our own relationship with God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into understanding.  First and foremost, we should be followers of Jesus and not another human.  The only way this can happen is spending the time necessary to build that relationship with God.

Reading the Bible for oneself, praying over a passage, opening up one’s thought processes to new ideas is the way to make this occur.  Find what works for you.  It could be reading an entire book of the Bible through at one sitting.  It could be reading each day until a verse speaks to you.  That might result in reading chapters or maybe reading just one verse.  When you find that verse stop reading.  Make it your marching orders for the day.  Write it on a card and come back to it several times.  The result is you and God will develop a fresh one-on-one experience.  It is yours.  It is not secondhand.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 5, 3015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

Once in the Past Never-Forgetters

This past weekend I was searching for a particular book.  I was very sure it was on my desk.  I looked and looked to no avail.  Finally I gave up and found another copy in the basement.  What is disturbing about this is I just now looked up at the shelf above my computer screen and there’s the book!  My wife did not take it and put it back.  No one else has been here.  This is pathetic.  I used to think old people’s senses eroded very slowly.  So why are mine slaloming?

Here are some other things that are leaving me.  People’s names – I am not talking about someone I met ten years ago and haven’t seen since.  I’m thinking about, what’s his name, with whom I graduated from high school.  Directions – I come to an intersection and don’t have a clue if Dunkin Donuts is to my right or left.  (Actually this is New England.  There is most likely one both to the right and one to the left.) Birthdays – well to be honest I never learned them in the first place.  Parking – I am so thankful for the panic button on the key.  It works.  The Minor Prophets in the Old Testament – I have to sing the song I learned in kindergarten to know where Obadiah is.

I know that God will restore me someday.  But in the meantime I seriously wonder about His sense of humor.  Does He chuckle just a bit at us once upon a time never-forgetters?   If He does it is in total love as He thinks of the brains He will someday give us.

We are going to a retirement party this evening for – I can’t remember who – just so the food is good.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 11, 2013

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

On Not Venting

I got really irritated with my credit union.  They started to nickel and dime me.   I have been with them for over twenty years and have never had an overdraft.  I didn’t this time.  It was just some silly fee they charged me.  It was nothing much but it was the idea of the thing.  So I went all ready to vent.  However, when I arrived there were a couple of what looked like teenagers as tellers and someone behind a desk who looked fairly unimportant from the way he was dressed.  I realized venting to any of these people would have been quite useless.  They didn’t do the crime and they had no authority.  So I held my tongue and very nicely and politely closed the account.  As I left I wondered how often we say things to make ourselves feel better and then regret the nastiness after we leave.  So I left not feeling bad.  I never said anything nasty.

James, Jesus’ brother, wrote in chapter 3 of his small epistle, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”   It is such good counsel.  I will sleep well tonight with no regrets.  Truthfully I have never been let down if I follow God’s counsel.  The only times life gets confused is when I forget to do or say what I know is God’s will.

So here comes the moral of the story, which you are bright enough to have already figured out; so I will not insult you by now detailing it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2013

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

God Loves Variety

One of my favorite things is not raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens.  It is late afternoon sun shining through the petals in our flower garden.  The accompanying long shadows add an artistic touch only duplicated at dawn from the other side.  If our world was not tilted on its axis we would not only have no seasons we could choose to live where late afternoon sun was continual.  There would be 12 hour days and 12 hour nights on the equator and continual day on the poles.  However, I must say I do love the variety of the seasons.  New England is a grand place because of the variety.  We used to live where there were no seasons and honestly I got a bit bored with 12 hour days and 12 hour nights and 60 to 80 degree days 365 days a year.  Variety is such a wonderful thing.

It is my impression that God loves variety.  There are so many different kinds of birds.  And of course there are so many different kinds of people. We come in so many shades and so many kinds of facial features.  Have you ever found someone that looks like you?  Some time ago I was in a waiting room sitting across from a man that looked just like my father.  I wanted to go over and hug him.  I think he grew uncomfortable because I kept staring.

God made each of us so very unique. Out of the billions of people that have lived and live now there has never been one exactly like you.  That is why God wants to save each of us.  If we are lost there will forever be an empty place in God’s heart.  You are not replaceable.  You are the apple of His eye.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2013

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

If Only We Listened

This afternoon one of my friends told me a wonderful story about his father. His father (a dedicated Christian) was in the German Army on the Russian Front during WWII.  He was at an airfield where German soldiers were being evacuated as quickly as possible because the Russian soldiers had them surrounded and were coming in for the slaughter.  The available planes could only carry 30 soldiers.  They could see the Russian forces as they lined up to be counted off for the very last plane.  His father was number 31. But when the counter was distracted he pushed the man in front of him to squeeze closer so he could cross the line.  As he was getting in the plane the wind from the prop blew his hat away.  It was a major offense for a German soldier not to have his full uniform so he paused for a moment to contemplate whether to run for the hat or get on the plane which had started to taxi.  At that moment he was pushed into the plane and the door slammed shut.  And now comes the great part of the story.  There was no one behind him to push him and slam the door!  For over a year I had been his father’s pastor and had never heard this exciting story.

Sometimes when I am part of a congregation I look around and wonder what stories each person has.  During our lives each of us has had some very remarkable things occur.  If we were better listeners we could hear more great stories.  Unfortunately when someone is telling us a good story we can hardly wait for them to take a breath so we can tell our bigger fish story.  Our lives would be so much richer if we just listened more than we talk.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 15, 2013

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

The Slow Effects of Time

I had to have the air conditioner in my 12-year-old car recharged today.  It is about 95 degrees on the east coast and I just noticed the AC need.  Years have gone by and it slowly weakened without our noticing and then came a heat wave.  The weakness became very obvious.  This isn’t much different than so many other things about us.  We can neglect exercising and not really notice it until we suddenly are confronted with a rigorous task that leaves us panting and even worse chest pain.  We can eat just a bit more than we need each day and not notice until one day our cotton clothes look like Spandex.  We can neglect our walk with God and not notice until suddenly we come face to face with a serious personal loss and we have little faith or spiritual fortitude to carry the day.

This would be a good time to talk about the Grasshopper and the Ants. The ants knew hard times were coming and prepared.  As for the grasshopper we all know what he didn’t do.

We can be very blessed and live what appears to some to be a charmed life.  However, I do not wish to be a prophet of doom, I am just someone who has lived long enough to know that bad things happen to all of us.  You might be the best Christian in the world but it is not an insurance policy against personal loss.  Hard times will come.  You will have days that devastate you and challenge your deepest faith.  Once again I could now insult your intelligence and tell you what you need to do.  But you are bright.  You know not to let dust collect on your Bible.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 19, 2013

PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Stop Blaming God

If I have heard it once I have heard it a dozen times through the years.  Well meaning loving people not knowing what to say regarding my leukemia say something like, “God must know that you needed this or He is testing you.”

Please stop!!  As well-meaning as people are they are defaming our heavenly Father.  Jesus is very clear about this.  Luke 11, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

Satan must smugly chuckle each time we say something like this regarding bad things that happen to us.   Have I asked for healing?  Of course I have. Does God answer by fostering the disease?  If so, He is an imposter who has been totally misrepresented by Jesus.  I don’t think so.

My boys were born in Uganda where we had to teach them to beware of snakes.  Perhaps we over-taught because one son especially dislikes them.  When we moved to Georgia one afternoon we found a very large eastern diamondback.  When I brought it into the house it would have been reprehensible and despicable of me to put it in his face.  Jesus has made this as plain as can be.  God does not serve up snakes and scorpions.  We live in a world where bad things happen.  They do not come from our heavenly Father.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2013

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

Over a decade ago a wonderful family with a little boy and girl moved next door. The children were a delightfully new addition to the neighborhood.  The endlessly energetic little guy took to calling me, “Mr. Roger.”  The result being that he lived in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. He was intensely curious and wanted to visit not to talk but to look around in our house. We loved it.  One late summer evening when he was supposed to be in bed, I was standing in the street looking for the first appearance of a particular planet and I heard someone calling, “Mr. Roger, Mr. Roger what are you doing?”  Turning to respond I saw him hanging out his second story window with a stuffed toy under one arm.  It didn’t take long before his mom came to pull him back inside.

The point of this is yesterday I saw him driving a car.  No, he did not have a large stuffed toy propped up on the dashboard!  Actually he is now taller than I.  My reaction was one of joy for him and perhaps a selfish bit of sorrow.  He doesn’t call me Mr. Roger anymore.  He lives in his neighborhood now instead of mine.

Life is one gigantic irony.  We rejoice, and rightfully so, at the growth and development of not only our children but also of our friends and self.  Birthdays are remembered to honor the changes and to remind ourselves of the honored’s accomplishments.  Yet, there is pain at our coming loses.  The more one loves, the more one has to lose.  The life, death and resurrection of Jesus and His promises to us concerning our lives, deaths and resurrections are not just a passing philosophical notion.  They are a necessity that makes it all worthwhile.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 30, 2013

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

“Let’s Go Places”

Huge corporations like car companies spend enormous amounts of money advertising.  Those commercials are the product of vast market research and are tested on groups of people before being broadcasted over television  networks.  We, as Christians, spend large sums of money on evangelism.  We want to obey Jesus’ command at the end of Matthew and take the Good News to all the world.  We are in the marketing business.  It seems that it would make good sense to pay attention to the marketing strategies used by those huge companies.

Toyota’s most current slogan is “Let’s Go Places.”  It has a short snappy appeal.  We like to travel and see new sights and hear new sounds.  If we can make the connection of going places with Toyota all the better for Toyota.  Therefore, I want to plagiarize Toyota’s slogan and encourage you to be sure to make and keep your connection with Jesus because by doing so you will be “Going Places.”  Many of those places will be out of this world but many will be right here on planet earth.

Jesus will take you to a place of peace and rest from trying to save yourself.  He does that for you.  He will give you rest from guilt.  He might have a special task for you and thus guide you to a faraway place so you can do His will.  So often we speak of Christianity in terms of eternal life.  Let’s also add the idea of unlimited travel to places where no man has gone before.

Love Jesus and as Dr. Seuss said, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”  Heaven will be filled with travel agents. Can you imagine the number of frequent flier miles you will accumulate on a trip across just one galaxy?

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 29, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org