Category: devotional

The glow of the computer screen is the only light in my room this evening.  I am trying to write but a huge house fly is attracted to the light of the screen and I just can’t concentrate.  Every time I think I am ready to start writing it buzzes in circles and figure eights as it dive bombs the screen.  I am having malicious, murderous thoughts regarding this filthy invader from who knows where.  Now it is walking on the screen following the text as it comes up on the screen.  This is almost as bad as one being in your room at night while you are trying to fall asleep.  You are almost in dreamland when one lands on your face and promptly walks across your lips.  Yuck.

It is interesting what we get used to.  I have seen Masai children with flies lined up side by side drinking from their eyes.  The children were not concerned at all.  It is very much that way for all of us regarding bad habits or sins.  The first time we are tempted we are disturbed but should we entertain them or tolerate them being a part of our lives we soon grow unconcerned.  It is no big deal.  But the truth is they are bad habits or sins because they are harmful and just because we have grown accustomed does not mean they stop harming us or others.  Not only do we become accustomed to them we grow to love them as an old friend.

Be wise today.  Read Proverbs 1 and 2.  It is excellent counsel regarding making right choices and not allowing a persistent sin to nag you into compliance and lead you to ultimate destruction.

Now if I can only kill this ….. fly!!

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 28, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

House sparrows count.  They know the difference between two and three.  Our squirrel-proof birdfeeder (it isn’t) closes when three sparrows sit on the perch.  Two sparrows can feed as much as they want, but when a third sparrow tries to land, resulting in closure for all, the two sparrows already there will chase the third away.  The feeder will stay open for one cardinal and one sparrow.  But when a second sparrow tries to land the one sparrow will chase it away.  Two is good.  Three is bad.

Since I am skeptical about the ability of most sparrows to count I have to conclude that my sparrows are smarter than your sparrows just as my dad can beat up your dad and my church is better than your church.

Aren’t we amazing creatures?  It usually has to be about us and how smart we are and how intellectually needy others are.  We are the center of the universe. Me first.  My grandchildren are more everything than yours.  This must have driven Jesus crazy as he observed the behavior not only of His nation but of His disciples.  Thus, Jesus calls us to servant ministry and for Paul to say in Romans 12, “Love must be sincere. . . . Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.”  It is difficult to do this and remain self-centered.

It’s nice to be somebody.  It’s even nicer to be nobody.  It’s a difficult lesson to learn.  But once learned life becomes so much richer.  As Jesus said, “The first shall be last and the last first.”  Matthew 20.  “Ask not what your neighbor can do for you, ask what you can do for your neighbor.”  It works on every level of life.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 25, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

 

According to Ephesians 2 each of us has a specific task to do for God.  For most of us it is a mystery deeply woven into God’s grand scheme for His entire universe and His specific plan for our being here.  It is difficult for us to imagine how someone as insignificant as each of us thinks we are can have an effect on something as large and important as the plan of salvation. Yet we do.  The interesting thing about this is I’m not sure anyone ever knows.

Elijah was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament and he spent a huge amount of time in a state of depression wondering about himself.   John the Baptist, who according to Jesus was the greatest prophet ever, languished in prison doubting himself and even doubting if Jesus really were the Messiah.  He sent his disciples to check on Jesus and to report back to him about what was happening.

If ever you have moments of doubt about your usefulness for God, you are in excellent company.  Perhaps the person who does not and thinks they are God’s answer to the present is the one in jeopardy.  Our task is to be willing.  God will take care of the when and where for us.  After it occurs we will most likely not notice.  But God noticed and will someday let you know just how very valuable you are to Him.  You count.  You are somebody.  If you were not Jesus would not have died for you.  He did.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  There it is.  Ephesians 2:10

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 24, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

The names of stores are fascinating.  In the 1940’s when I was a little guy there were Five and Dime stores when everything inside only cost a nickel or a dime.  There are still a few Five and Dimes around but the name doesn’t have anything to do with their prices. Now we have Dollar Stores and Five Below that do still reflect prices.  Forever 21 is a creative name appealing to a woman’s desire not to get old.  I wonder why Target is Target?  Sears was because of Mr. Sears and J.C. Penney was about a man and not prices.  Today I looked at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Beyond must mean we have other stuff.  But I was reminded of Buzz Lightyear’s famous line, “To infinity and beyond” which I have always liked.  It should be the name for a church.

Church names are intriguing.  In a few words they want to tell you about themselves.  There is the Church of God.  That sort of leaves everyone else out.  There is the Church of Christ.  That’s exclusive.  The Jewish Synagogue identifies the worshippers as descendants of Judah.  Lutherans are followers of Martin Luther’s theology.  The Catholic Church means universal.  That gives the Church of God name serious competition.  There are Jehovah Witnesses, They do try to witness when they come to our doors.  There are Seventh-day Adventists who are Christians that believe Jesus is returning (advent) and they go to church on Saturday, the seventh day of the week.

Names tell us a lot about who we are.  We have Greek, Italian, Swedish and Chinese names.  So when we use the name “Christian” to describe ourselves we are trying to say something about who we are.  I hope we don’t disappoint.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 22, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

Someday the game show Jeopardy will post the following answer, “Clyde Tombaugh.”  And they will accept the following question, “Who is the first human being to fly beyond our solar system?”   Today, after a nine and a half year journey of flying over 51,000 miles an hour, the New Horizons space craft will fly by Pluto.  Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, is aboard.  At least his ashes are aboard.

The question Jeopardy will accept will be wrong.  Mr. Tombaugh’s ashes will not have gone where no man has gone before.  According to the Old Testament Enoch, Moses and Elijah have already made the trek and they did it while being alive.  Then there is the New Testament.  We have Revelation 5:9 speaking of twenty-four elders around God’s throne who sing, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; . . .”  Many scholars believe they are those resurrected with Jesus.  See Matthew 27, “The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

There is no doubt that NASA’s flying Mr. Tombaugh’s ashes past Pluto is a significant event in human history but it does not come close to God’s resurrection and according to Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”   That’s us.  You and me.  How grand.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2015

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

I’m trying to decide which season I enjoy the most.  While I enjoy the warm days of summer when I go to the grocery store in the summer, people appear in all manner of undress.  Maybe one in fifty is attractive.  The rest should be wearing many more garments to cover up tattoos and rolls of flesh indicating they have been to the grocery store too many times.  I like winter time because it is all covered up.

Genesis 2:25 says, “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”  That was because they were perfect and looked really good.  If people looked that good today I’m sure the super market would be even more revealing.  Genesis 3:7 says, “They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”  Oh for a produce department that sold fig leaves.

There are a lot of things about people that need to be covered up.  Too often people expose way too much about their personal life.  I shudder inside when in church and before the morning prayer someone asks for prayer requests.  Way too much is often said while asking for prayers.  “Pray for my sister’s son who is an axe murderer.”  I really didn’t need to know that!

I realize there is a cathartic need to stop harboring pain but that is one of the functions of real prayer – private prayer.  I John 1:9 admonishes us to confess our sins, but that is to the great loving silent Father who knows how to keep secrets.   Best of all He is available during all seasons of the year.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 22, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

It’s summer time and New England’s lily-laden roadsides are decorated with farm stands overflowing with sweet corn, tomatoes, squash and a wonderful assortment of God’s bounty.  Yesterday I stopped and bought tomatoes.  They are so much better than the hothouse tomatoes at the supermarket.  I grew up sprinkling salt on tomatoes but I had a friend who introduced me to the joy of sprinkling them with sugar.  Last evening as I was looking at those tiny white tomato seeds I remembered what Paul had to say in I Corinthians 15 about what we will look like after resurrection morning.  Paul said, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’  How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.”

That little white tomato seed doesn’t look anything like the luxuriant green vine and the sumptuous, roundish, red tomato that fills one’s hand and drips with lush red juice that flavors a great sandwich.  So don’t bother looking in the mirror and thinking what you see is what you will look like in heaven.  You are going to be so fine.  No Mister or Miss Universe will ever come close to the glorious you.  Another joy will be that as different as we will be we will recognize each other.  Perhaps we might need a reintroduction.  The last time I saw my grandma she was 90.  That’s all I remember.  When I see her again she will not look 90.  Perhaps 900?!

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 20, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

The word is synecdoche. It is a literary term meaning a part of something representing the whole. In a way we can apply it to our human tendency to generalize about something using very limited data.  If we have a bad experience with a particular person it is not uncommon for us to paint with a very broad brush all the people of that particular person’s group.  With very limited exposure to something we often speak about it with great authority.  It is equally easy to make assumptions about the world we live in by hearing or watching a few news stories. We don’t think about the fact that news organizations pick the most radical, most gruesome events to talk about so as to attract us to watch their network.  It is easy then to think the whole world or our entire country is like those stories.  Politicians don’t help because they want us to think things are bad so we will elect them so they can fix the horror they have made up.

We are so anxious for Jesus to come we often exaggerate (not consciously) how bad the world has become.  But if we only stop to remember our history lessons or the history of only the 20th century we cannot think we are now worse off.  World War I and World War II killed scores of millions of people.  Polio and other diseases were rampant.  Crime is not worse now than it has been in the past.  History reveals the world has always been a mess.  Furthermore, surely the second coming of Jesus is not dependent upon the amount of evil in the world.  Perhaps it is just the opposite.  Perhaps God is waiting for a people to have grown so much like Him He just has to come to take them home.  Isn’t that what happened to Enoch?

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 14, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

I just finished writing a letter of recommendation for a former student.  Mark Twain once said recommendations should be filled out by our enemies because they will tell the truth about us.  When reading letters of recommendations one must pretty much ignore what is written and instead view what is missing.

There is an interesting story in Zechariah 3 that begins like this. “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.”  Apparently Joshua was being judged and needed a recommendation.  Satan was present and only needed to tell the truth.  It seems that the great liar need not lie when speaking about us.  The truth is bad enough to ensure our demise.  However, the story continues, “The LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!’ Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’ Then he said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.’ Then I said, ‘Put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by.”

Without lying about how good we are, Jesus, who never lies, takes away our filth and covers us with goodness.  We are then presented before the Father.   Just like any good letter of recommendation, notice what is missing.  Wow.  I love this story.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:9

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 19, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org

 

In Galatians 5 Paul is very emphatic regarding our adding anything of value toward the payment for eternal life.  He wants to make sure we understand that salvation is not a 50% payment of effort on our part with Christ making up the other half.  We can’t add even 1%.  He said, “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”  If we are trying then we have fallen from grace!  That is very strong language.  Then if that is not enough he also says, “I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.” (Circumcision was the specific issue but the principle involved could be anything we try to use to be justified.) He is not speaking of merely the Ten Commandments when he says “the whole law.”  He means all of Leviticus which would make life very different from how we now live.

Lest someone misunderstand Paul and think that Jesus than gives us license for any behavior Paul goes on to say, “But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  He then goes on to describe the characteristics of people in love with their Savior.   “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

This is not complicated. Let’s see if we can reduce it to one sentence a child can grasp.   Jesus saves us and we respond with love because we want to be like Him.  That’s it!

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2016

PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

rogerbothwell.org