Category: devotional

I just had a fascinating conversation where the other person said, “My father taught me to take a stand.  Something is either right or wrong.  There is no middle ground.  If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”  “But,” I said, “what if you discover you were wrong.”  “Then,” she said, “at least I stood for something.” It seems the virtue wasn’t knowing truth but being intransigent.  I am so thankful I am not married to that person.  She had learned something from her father and she was not going to change.  Taking a position was to her a righteous position.

She is not the first person like this that I have known.  One such person was someone who prided himself on the number of Bible studies he gave so others could learn his truth.  The irony was he wasn’t open to change but he wanted those to whom he gave Bible studies to change.

The older I get the less I know.  I don’t think it is the result of senility.  I think it is the result of meeting righteous people who see life differently than I.  I rejoice in the Biblical truth that we are saved by grace and not by knowing the right things.  I do so hope in heaven when Jesus tells us the TRUTH we all will come to realize we all had it wrong.

If we were all like my intransigent lady we would destroy the world because peace talks, negotiations and compromises would be impossible.  The only thing left would be to agree to disagree or to destroy the other.  I fear we would choose the latter.   Only God who knows everything can stand firmly without changing.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 18, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In the musical “The Music Man” there is a wonderful song called, “The Wells Fargo Wagon.”   The words are “The Wells Fargo wagon is a-comin down the street. Oh, please let it be for me.  I wish – I wish I knew what it could be.”  Every time the big brown UPS truck comes up my street my brain sings that song.  I kind of like it because it’s a fun song.  It reflects an immature childishness of wanting something.  Just something.  Nothing in particular.  That bothers me a bit. Because I am sated with things.  I am like the Laodicean church in Revelation.  I have need of nothing.   I can only wear one pair of shoes at a time.  I have a pair.

The world has two billion people who really need things – essentials.  Here I sit in a warm home surrounded by my books and electronics.  My fridge is adequately full and yet I want more.  I could beat on myself for this.  But I teach psychology and I know it is just being a human being.  I am sure Bill Gates has moments when he wants more.  He cannot help himself.  He’s human.

This is why it is essential that we give.  We must give to counterbalance this primitive selfishness that lurks beneath our thin shell of being civilized.  Perhaps it feels so good to give because we have a moment of knowing we are not just animals.  We are sons and daughters of the living God who made us to be like Him and He is a giver.  He gives us everything we need each day.  And so we give.  When someone gives us something, we receive and we just gave them an opportunity to also be a giver.  We both grew.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 17, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In my human development class I start my lectures talking about prenatal development and end the semester talking about nursing homes and hospice care.  I am sure to point out to my young students that they can be very smart and well informed but they are not yet wise.  You have to be old before wisdom arrives.  So one of my students put up his hand and said, “Tell us something wise.”  After the laughter I said, “If you like to tell funny stories about people be sure you are a member of that group.  Then you have the privilege.  White people should not tell black jokes.  Gentiles should not tell Jewish jokes.  As for me, I can tell old short bald guy jokes.”   Recently I heard someone make a crack about people with doctorates.  I tell lots of them.  But this person did not have the right.  His attempt at humor made him look envious.

We, according to Paul, are saints.  His first letter to the church at Corinth was addressed to the saints.  If you have made Jesus the Lord of your life you qualify and with membership comes the right to tell jokes about saints.

Just think of the joy and privileges that come with membership in the greatest group that will ever be assembled.  In Revelation 7:9 it says our group will be so big it will be numberless.  How grand.   After I am done crying because of the joy, I want to spend the next hundred years laughing.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 16, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This weekend I heard someone say, “The reason I come to church is to increase my chances of being saved.”  I wanted to cry.  This came from the mouth of a regular church goer.  Then I wanted to scream.  What are we doing wrong?  What are we not saying?  Have we not all heard John 3:16-17 over and over?  Are we so dull?

I have come to believe the French philosopher Henri Bergson, “The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”  The wonder of God’s love, the free gift of salvation is incomprehensible to us who have been taught to believe we only get what we work for.  And so we hear.  We hear week after week (if you are in the right place) but we just don’t get it.  Jesus’ words take on real meaning.  Jesus said, “They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.”  Mark 4:12.

Back to “if we are in the right place.”  I experienced being the pastor of a congregation that ever so slowly got it.  I moved.  A new pastor came.  I returned for a visit.  They no longer knew.  It is difficult to hang on to it if one is constantly bombarded with all the things one has to do to “get ready.”  The subtly of works just sucks us back into its torture chamber.  I had a colleague who continually preached that we were “saved by relationship.”  No!  We are saved by grace.  The relationship follows as fruit.

Please, I beg of you to concentrate on the real truth of Christmas.  The baby in Bethlehem was a gift who brought us the most wonderful gift of all – Grace.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 15, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

When my students give me excuses for late papers I have no idea if they are telling the truth.  Since I am employed to be a teacher and not a judge I choose to believe them.  I’m sure that many walk away thinking I am a big patsy.  That’s okay.  I would rather err on the side of the student than on the other side.  After all the result is only the shape of a symbol on a piece of paper.  I haven’t always been that way but I think as one ages one begins to prioritize what is really important.  If a paper is a class late it is not the end of the world nor will it take away from the quality of my life while it might add to the quality of the student’s life.

It’s difficult to make excuses to God because He was watching all along and He does know the truth.  That’s scary.  He knows more truth about us than we know about ourselves because we tend to rationalize things to make ourselves feel better.

Solomon said, “For God will judge us for everything we do, including every hidden thing, good or bad.”  How very frightening that would be if Jesus had not come and said, “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life.” John 5

How awesome it is that even though He knows the truth about us He still loves us.  Never make excuses to God.  It’s futile.  Bite the bullet, admit guilt and then accept His grace.  Our Father loves to give us grace.  It makes Him happy.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 12, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Every once in awhile one comes upon a quotation that tastes so good.  Today I read the following from John Steinbeck and my mind won’t let it go. He wrote, “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

Some of the most miserable people I have ever known are people obsessed with being perfect.  Often they are so very hard on themselves that it spills over into their being hard on others.  Self-introspection is good to a degree but like all things it can get out of balance.    Either they never learned or somewhere along the way forgot that Jesus is our perfection.  It is a gift of His grace.  Yes, I know about Jesus comment in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye therefore perfect as you Father in heaven is perfect.” It is a grand goal.  But it is not a goal designed to make us miserable over what we have not obtained.  Paul wrote, “I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be.”  Philippians 3:12  The Living Bible

So there it is.  Press toward the goal.  But don’t make yourself miserable thinking you will not be saved if you don’t make it.  Guess what.  You won’t make it.  So relax.  As Steinbeck says be a good person.  Being a good person is a great way to live.  Being good doesn’t mean you will not err.  I committed a big error today.  I will not tell on myself.  But I knew. And it did not ruin my day.  I will just work on it without thinking it disqualified me from eternal life.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 11, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This afternoon I sat at a vantage point where I could study the graffiti on the sides of about twenty coal cars. Some of it was surprisingly good art; not that I’m a critic.  However, some were very colorful and the designs were intricate and not just haphazard spray painting.  There were a lot of tags which consisted of overlaying initials.  I assume it was the artist’s initials or at least their personal logo.  Two of the cars had lovely landscapes with mountains, lakes, trees and clouds.

“Why,” I asked myself, “why this compulsion to paint in public places?”  Then I realized these makers of graffiti were little different than any of us.  No one wants to spend decades here without leaving a mark, without making a difference.  Some of us leave books, some of us leave children, some leave legacies by giving large sums of monies to schools and hospitals in exchange for having their name on a building.  We want to know that we count for something other than just being a consumer of the world’s precious resources.

One of the great rewards of Christianity is the permanence of self.  According to the Book of Revelation our names are recorded in heaven and for eternity we will enhance the value of that name by personal growth in the sciences, arts and literature.  The universe is endless.  There is no danger that we will fill it.  Opportunities for incredible developments from the depths of our enormous intellects will continue to amaze.  Never worry about leaving your mark.  You will and it will be out of this world.

As I pondered the coal cars I realized one could do worse than being a decorator of train cars.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 9, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I am rapidly growing to hate Beryl Ives.  I’m sure he was a nice man but I have an earworm of him singing Feliz Navidad and he is driving me mad.   An earworm is a short piece of something audio, usually music, that continuously plays over and over in your mind.  Researchers tell us that 92% of us experience an earworm once a week.  I am so glad I am in the 8% who do not.  Experts recommend chewing gum.  Somehow it involves the tongue and jaw muscles that we use to form sounds and our mind responds by stopping the earworm.

It would be so grand if we had complete control over our minds.  If we could choose our dreams or select which fifteen snippet we want as an earworm life would be even better than it is.  When my sons were small we had tapes of someone singing verses of Scripture.  We would sing (that is a generous term for the noise I made) them at night before they went to bed.  To this day they can remember them.  They would make perfect earworms.

A great song for an earworm would be “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”  Psalm 119:11.  “He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”  Psalm 91:11   “If God be for us who can be against us.”  Romans 8:31.   Then if we had total control over our minds we could turn the earworm off and replace it with another before it became irritating like Beryl Ives is to me right now.

Anyone have a stick of Juicy Fruit?

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 11, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

A thousand news worthy things happened in the world today.  A hundred personal things happened to each of us today.  If the world was asked, “How was your day world?”  The world could have selected the hundred really wonderful things that happened and respond, “It was a great day today.”  Or it could have selected the hundred really rotten things that happened today and say, “Today was horrible.”

That very same question could be asked of us.  And our answer would be based upon which ten things we selected out of the hundred things that occurred.  Now it is true some horrific event or some spectacularly great event could have happened today that would totally dominate our answer.   But it is a rare day for that to occur.  95% of the time the choice is ours.  Whether we had a great day or a rotten day depends on what we decide to think about.

With Jesus in our lives we have additional help in selecting the good things because it is God’s will for us to live the abundant life.  The abundant life Jesus promises us is not about our bank account.  It is about the joy of loving others and seeing that love produce good things.  I have yet to feel bad about doing something unselfish for someone.  I always am rewarded by knowing life is better for someone.  It can be something as small as a smile or a compliment or a thank you or some word of appreciation.   When we validate others our personal stock goes up.

When we do this, we become Jesus-like.  He is a validator.  He says to us, “You are the kind of person I want to live with forever.”   Wow!  That is major validation.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 10, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I would like to sing the praises of procrastination.  The wind prevails from the west so the street gutter in front of my house has over filled with maple and oak leaves.  Just last evening I finally said to myself that when I awaken in the morning I would rouse myself to action against the forces of nature and clean the gutter; after all it is December 8.  I should not have waited so long.  Now comes the good part.  Early this morning as I was coming down the stairs toward the kitchen I heard what sounded like a heavy truck out front.  Lo and behold it was the city cleaning my gutter.  My tax dollars at work!  What would have taken me at least two hours or more and a possible heart attack because of lugging the leaves away was done in less than five minutes and my heart is still intact!

My neighbors had cleaned their gutters with much blowing and lugging away.   My gutter was cleaned by persistent patience.  I am feeling a bit smug.  I am about ready to adopt a new ethic.  “What does not have to be done today can wait until tomorrow.”

As grand as this sounds, (to some) it really doesn’t work when thinking about eternal life.  Paul said it so well in II Corinthians, “This is the day of salvation.” There are two reasons for this.  Number one is we have no guarantee there will be a tomorrow for us.  And secondly, why would we want to live a lesser quality of life?  Making Jesus our Lord and Savior makes life so much better.  It reduces stress, it takes away our worries and concerns about the future.  And it also helps make us better people.  Why wait?  Don’t wait.  Procrastination is only good for raking leaves.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Dec. 9, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org