The Secrets of the Universe

Have you ever wondered about that pyramid and eye on the back of a dollar bill?  It harkens to secret societies, orders and clubs where grownups enjoy playing childish games that make us feel like we belong to something unique and special.  Secret handshakes and code words feed a human hunger to feel good about oneself because we know something others don’t know, even if it is stuff we made up.  It is the child taunting with “I know a secret.”

These groups have been around for thousands of years.  Paul was aware of them and had little use for them.  In Colossians 2 he wrote, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

If you are wanting to know the secrets of the universe and have the mysteries of life opened to you, Paul wrote, “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

There are no deep dark secrets of the universe that God does not want us to know.  He longs for us to be like Him and as we grow closer He opens to us the treasures of wisdom found in Christ.  He knows that the more we know the more we will be like Him because the more we know the more we will understand the logic underlying the cross and the sacrifice. The more we do that the more we will detest the evil that brought so much heartache to His very good universe.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 10, 2016

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Romans 12:9-10

Romans 12 is a treasure house of practical suggestions for Christian living.  In this amazing chapter Paul, the theologian, becomes Paul, the psychologist.   Randomly I put my finger on the page and found, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (NIV)  If one were looking for a topic for a presentation there are at least five in these two verses.  I was curious how they were paraphrased by Eugene Petersen in The Message and found the following, “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.”

That first idea about loving from your center and not faking is often a serious challenge because everyone we meet is not lovable.  Fortunately Paul doesn’t tell us to like everyone.  Liking and loving are very different.  Liking is enjoying another’s company.  Loving is wanting the best for them.  We can always want the best for someone even though they are obnoxious and unpleasant.

It is the last idea that fascinates me.  “Practice playing second fiddle.”  How often do we not mind another excelling just as long as we excel just a little bit more than they do?  How often do we wait for someone to take a breath so we can jump in with a bigger “fish” story?  Paul hits me in the solar plexus with this one.  I love telling stories and I am my favorite topic.  However, I must add here that in II Corinthians 11 Paul doesn’t seem to mind regaling us with a litany of his adventures.  Only Jesus was and is perfect.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 9, 2016

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Digging to China

When I was very small I dug a large hole in our backyard.  It was large to me.  Most likely it was very small.  When my Dad asked why, I explained that I was digging my way to China because there were hungry children there and I wanted to drop food to them.  Being very kind to me and being the school teacher that he was, he took me inside where we had a globe.  (I still have it.)  He very carefully showed me that my hole would not come out in China but instead in the southern Indian Ocean.  I immediately realized I must stop digging or all the water in the Indian Ocean would fall into my hole and flood Pennsylvania.

Often I hear people speak with great authority about the nature of God.  I have even been told where heaven is. I hear how old the earth is and what happened to the dinosaurs.  I hear explanations for human behavior and am amazed at the certainty of the speaker.  And yet often I cannot explain my own behavior.  Perhaps it makes people feel secure and good about themselves if they can claim to be an authority in some area.

I am suspicious that most of us are like a little boy digging a hole in the backyard.  We think we have it all worked out and we could not be more wrong.  But, lest I leave you with the impression that I am totally ignorant I would like to claim a sure knowledge of something shared with me by Paul.  I want to join Paul in saying, “I know in whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”  II Timothy 1:12.    That is security.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 4, 2016

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Savor The Day

My dog has absolutely no sense of savoring her food.  I open a can, put it in her bowl, toss the can, and when I look back her bowl is empty.  And of course she wants more. This is ridiculous.  It’s good looking food.  Chunky and laden with smooth gravy.  It looks so good I want to get a spoon.  If only she would learn to savor it, it would last so much longer and be so much more gratifying.  I want to say she just doesn’t know how to savor but when you rub her tummy she is the poster girl of savoring.  Tummy rubbing could go on all day.

Life is best when it is savored.  When my son went to first grade, he came home after the first day and announced that tomorrow he would be in second grade.  The next day he came home and announced that tomorrow he would be in third grade. That is when his mother and I stepped in with a big “NO.”   Life was not meant to be rushed along.  The world does not need twelve year old doctors.  Twelve year olds need to learn to savor the joys of enriched learning.

Many of my friends speak of wanting Jesus to come so this period of life would be over.  While I am not a masochist thinking we should enjoy pain, it would be grand if we could approach each day with a wonder for the experiences and lessons to be learned.  Maybe it is only on the latter side of this life that we realize that each day is a gift.  Do young people cry when listening to “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof?  Or is that reserved for parents and grandparents?

“This is the day the Lord has given.  Rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 1, 2016

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So Much Yet to Learn

The longest held scientific theory ever was that of a geocentric universe.  It worked.  Sailors used it for centuries to move about the earth.  The idea that the stars and sun rotated about us had to be right.  Everyone saw the sun come up in the morning and go down at night.  Then came Copernicus and Galileo.  And science changed.  True science is not about absolutes.  True science is having the best understanding of current data.

Albert Einstein in an endeavor to understand the nature of the universe declared there was a cosmological constant.  Years later he called it his “greatest mistake.” What if we approached religion with the same openness?  What if instead of declaring we are right and others are wrong, we said, what I believe is the best understanding of what I yet know about God?

Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”  I have met those who say that means I have truth and more truth will be added.  But what if it meant some of what I thought was truth needs to be revised in the new light?  This can be a bit frightening.  We need a psychological and spiritual anchor for mental health.  However, might it be more mentally healthy to live with some ambiguity than to live being positively in error?

I don’t want to sound like everything is up for grabs.  There are absolutes.  God is love.  Jesus died for us.  We are saved by grace.  That grace enables us to begin living for eternity right now.  These are key, but they are dimly lit understandings of deeper intellectual and spiritual treasures yet to be grasped.  There is so much to learn.  There is so much joy ahead.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 28, 2016

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Photon Puzzle Solved

Yesterday I wondered why some photons go through glass and some bounce back giving us a reflection. It is wonderful to have smart friends. I have a scientist friend who has explained to me that if the glass were perfect all the photons would pass through but the imperfections in the glass, when struck by photons, cause some photons to bounce back into the room.  Thus I see myself.

And so it is that all of God’s light cannot pass into us because we are also not perfect.  Our sinful nature, our selfishness, our lewd desires render us impotent to understand all that God wants us to know.  He holds nothing back.  He floods us with love, mercy and knowledge but we just don’t get it.  Lest we start hating ourselves for this it is not all our fault.  So much of what we are we inherited.  Adam and Eve, after sin, did not have perfection to pass on to Cain.  That didn’t work out so well.  How quickly sin changed us.  Much of what we are is the product of thousands of generations of imperfect, selfish people.

Now I do not want to get overly Freudian here and place all the blame for my problems on grandpa and grandma.  God understands our plight and thus makes external power available to us.  “Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling” is a magnificent promise.  (Jude)  (Since there isn’t a Jude 2 I didn’t bother with the reference.)

The good news is in I Corinthians 15 we are told this imperfection will put on perfection.  Which I think means we will be totally open to God’s light and will learn an incredible amount of new things forever and ever.  Oh how smart we will be!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 27, 2016

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On Photons and Light

I’m puzzled.  It is night and when I go outside I can look in a window and see what is happening inside. This means photons are passing through the glass.  When I come back inside and look out the window I can not only see outside but I see a reflection of myself indicating that not all of the inside light is going out.  Some of the photons are bouncing back into the room.  I am wondering why?  Is it random or is there a difference in the photons that pass through glass from the photons that bounce back.  Not being a physicist I don’t know.  I was just wondering.

But it did make me reflect (pun intended) on some of my students who seem to let little light pass through their foreheads.  I lot of it seems to bounce back.   Lest I sound overly negative I happily say most of the light goes into most of my students and if it doesn’t I try again and again.   Good pedagogical process tells us students need to hear something three times for them to remember it.  So I often repeat myself.

All which brings us to God striving to get us to understand how much He loves us, how much He wants us to rejoice in His immense mercy, how much He wants us to allow His Spirit to move inside to motivate and strengthen us to be like Jesus, how much He wants to use us to further the cause of a better world, how much He wants to bring sin to its ultimate end.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 26, 2016

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Our Singing Bush

We don’t have a burning bush in our neighborhood but we do have a singing bush.  We have a large very thickly branched bush that even without foliage can provide shelter for birds.  A large family of sparrows has decided to winter inside its mass of large twigs.  One can walk past it and not see the birds inside, but they chatter up a cacophonous chorus.  I love it but I must admit sometimes I wish it were a burning bush.

When Moses was eighty years old, when most people aren’t thinking so much about the future as remembering the past, suddenly while watching a bush burn he got a whole new set of marching orders.   His best and most incredible years were yet to come.

Some people are fortunate in life and know right from the beginning what they are here for.  Others find their purpose later on and some very unfortunate souls never find it.  However, find it or not, every person has a heaven ordained plan for their part in God’s Kingdom.  In Ephesians 2 Paul speaks of God having something special for each of us.  Since we do not have burning bushes to tell us where to go and what to do when we get there, the secret of success is to surrender each morning with the prayer.

“Today Lord, I am yours. Open your doors and shove me through and I will do my best for you.”  He will be so happy to guide and shove. The real joy is, although we might never realize what we were to do, one day He personally will tell us what it was and what we did and He will say those marvelous words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 21, 2016

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One’s Direction Is Every Thing

The weather app on my phone said it was 17 degrees with strong gusty winds from the northwest.  I must have been crazy thinking myself rugged and hardy.  So out the door we went, my dog and I.  The first half mile wasn’t bad at all.  The wind was at my back and my scarf had my neck and ears well protected.  Then I rounded two corners to head home.  Now the wind was fiercely in my face.  Oh what a difference one’s direction makes.  I should have known better.  A few years ago I was flying over the Tehachapi Mountains going north out of the Mohave Desert, when I looked down and I saw cars and semis were passing me.  Even though my airspeed indicator read 135mph I wasn’t going anywhere.  One’s direction is everything.

I have a friend who lives on an island west of Alaska where it snows sideways.  He, upon reading this, will think I am a wuss for even talking about what would be a pleasant afternoon stroll for him, but for me it was brutal getting home.  Even my dog picked up her pace.

But one’s direction IS everything.  Sometimes our walk in life is a breeze with the wind at our back.  But other times life hits us fiercely in the face and honestly it threatens to be defeating.  It is then that the promise of Jesus means everything.  He said, “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end.”  We never have to make it on our own.  He will get us safely home.  He never said it wouldn’t be difficult.  He did say take up our cross and follow Him.  But as tough as it can get He is tougher.  Home is a promise.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 20, 2016

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“I Can’t Stop Eating This Stuff”

We stopped at a Dollar Store and I bought a box of peanut brittle.  If it had cost more than a dollar I most likely would not have purchased it.  I hadn’t eaten peanut brittle in decades.  Since then I have been back to the Dollar Store three more times and have emptied their supply of that “I can’t stop eating this stuff.”  The mistake I make is eating the first tiny piece.  It throws a switch in my brain and I am drawn back like a moth to a candle.  I refuse to stop at the Dollar Store lest they get some more because I don’t want any more.

I grew up singing a marvelous hymn entitled, “Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah.”  It contains the words, “Bread of heaven feed me till I want no more.”  Is that even possible?”  There was a day mentioned in all four of the Gospels when the masses just would not go home.  They were listening to Jesus and they forgot to eat they were so enthralled.  Finally He fed them bread and fish. I’m sure it was the best they had ever had but it was nothing compared to the bread of heaven He had been feeding them all day long.

I want some of that bread.  Can you imagine hearing words from the Creator Himself?  I know we have the Gospels.  But those are Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s and John’s words.  And not even that.  Most of us read them translated.   Can you imagine the first Sabbath morning sermon in heaven?  Surely the Pastor will be Jesus.  He will not have to stop at noon or one or two or at all.  Bread of Heaven feed me till I want no more.  That will most likely be never!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 19, 2016

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