Category: devotional

I first saw him literally shuffling into our local market.  He was hard to miss; cashmere sport jacket, wool scarf, Stetson hat, white mustache, white hair flowing out from under the hat, bushy eyebrows, glasses on the tip of his nose and a twinkle in his blue eyes.  I asked him how he was and I never said another word for the next twenty-five minutes while my wife shopped and then came and pulled me away from him.  He was as British as one can be; eighty-eight years old, lonely, a widower for the past two years.  I heard all about WWII in London; bomb shelters, Yanks, airmen, uniforms and officers.

I have met others like him.  As he spoke of the war there was vibrancy in his eyes. Some men love war.  I think they are the ones who never hit the beaches. They are the ones whose lives were full of the adventure of new places, meeting new people, learning new skills and not having to go to a 9 to 5 job.   Theodore Roosevelt glamorized war and was continually enamored with it until his son died in combat.  Suddenly it wasn’t so wonderful anymore.  There is a dear price to pay for the handsome uniforms and the adrenaline rush.

As I left him he said, “You Yanks are really quite boring.”  I guess I was. I never said one interesting thing.  All I said was “How are you?” and “I have to go.”  Truthfully I would like to have listened to more of his stories.  People really are the most interesting animal on earth.  God must be interesting; after all we are made in His image.  He must have some great stories to tell.  He knows them all.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 27, 2010

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Having very few items of much value my wife and I rarely think about something being taken.  However, in the past few weeks our home has had a steady stream of workers doing remodeling tasks.  Not believing anyone would actually take something, we did decide not to create a temptation.

Therefore, we decided to hide one item that has sentimental value and is small enough to “walk away.”  Now comes the really interesting part.  We cannot remember where we hid it!  Doesn’t that take the cake?  Two old people rummaging about in their own home looking for something they hid just a couple weeks ago.   I think we have reached the stage of life when we can hide our own Easter eggs on Good Friday and be genuinely surprised on          Sunday Morning when we find them.

Ever since I was a very little boy I have systematically learned memory verses from Scripture.  The text “Thy Word have I hid in my hard that I might not sin against thee” was one of the very first verses I learned.  I still know it is      Psalm 119:11.  Understanding that it should be a long time until my wife or I suffer long-term memory loss, as opposed to short-term memory loss, it should be quite a while before I forget that verse.  I cannot think of anything more valuable to retain than God’s Word.  However, to retain one first has to learn.  There are so many situations in life that stimulate the memory of     God’s Word.  Just this very morning one of my students commented about something he owned that instantly brought to mind, “Thou shall not covet.”  I won’t mention what wonder he owned that almost made me break           Exodus 20:17.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 23, 2010

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If the wind blows just right four times a day we can hear a deep throated whistle blast from our downtown fire station.  It has been this way for decades back into the past century.  Eight A.M. signals the beginning of the workday.  Noon signals lunch.  Six P.M. signals the end of the workday and 9 P.M. reminds people to tend to stoves and lanterns before going to bed.

It’s nice.  It’s a tie to a past that seems to be rushing away from us.  The sound of the blast from the firehouse almost makes one think if one went down to the firehouse one would see firemen busy putting big fire horses up for the night under the watchful eye of a Dalmatian.

People need to remember. We need to be reminded of our roots.  It’s a value system grounded in hard work and simplicity.  Our traditions tell us who we are.  We are not refugees in a sea of angst.  We are travelers with purpose and goals.  We care about community and neighbors.  The neighborhood school isn’t there merely for our children but for all children with dreams and ambitions.  The local little league baseball teams or the football or soccer leagues get us out of our electronically sequestered lives and we see and talk to real people just like ourselves.

Families need traditions and customs that tie each to each.  Modernity fills us with so many weekday responsibilities we must make efforts to make Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays special.   Sitting around the table actually looking at each other as we talk and eat, going to church, taking a weekend jaunt together, these are the things our children will remember and cherish after we are gone.  These give us identity.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2010

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This afternoon I watched a clerk in a drugstore cough on her customers.  I wonder how many people will become ill because they went to the drugstore to purchase something to make themselves healthier.  She reminded me of me and all my colleagues who sometime stand behind a pulpit.  There we are advocating a Christ-like life without ourselves measuring up to the standard we promote.  To stand before others proclaiming the need to live by high standards requires one of three things.  A. Ignorance on one’s own faults.  B. Hypocrisy.  C. Confidence in the grace of God that covers our lack of personal righteousness.

I was informed yesterday that someone told someone (Don’t you just love the grapevine?) that I was a heretic.  I thought that interesting because we are all heretics in the eyes of those who don’t agree with us.  So that was nothing new.  There are thousands of opinions in the world and thus all of us are heretics in the eyes of thousands. It’s a good thing we no longer burn heretics at the stake because the air would constantly be full of smoke. But I was curious and asked, “How so?”

“He doesn’t believe in obedience. He believes we can be saved without obeying God’s law.”  Actually there is a bit of truth in that.  But it is not really accurate.  Here’s what I believe.  Obedience has little or nothing to do with our salvation.  Salvation is a gift from start to finish.  However those who are saved will obey for three reasons.  A. They are extremely grateful for their salvation.  B. Once saved Jesus’ lives in us and motivates and enables us to obey because God’s law is written on our hearts.  And C. it’s the smart thing to do.

I’m truly sorry for coughing on you.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 25, 2010

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We have this old wooden bear standing near our bird feeder.  It stands on its hind legs.  Knowing that our grandchildren would be here during the holidays, my wife put an old hooded coat on the bear.  Sure enough the birds quickly became used to the coat and continued to feed from the bear’s wooden paws.  Now comes the neat part.  One by one our grandchildren put on the old hooded coat and stood in front of the wooden bear. The birds seemed a bit cautious, something was different; never-the-less juncos, titmice and chickadees came and fed from the children’s hands. It was an exciting moment.

Birds are not the only creatures that can be conditioned.  Humans are especially prone to conditioning. It doesn’t take us long to change our behaviors, our sense of fashion, style and speech.  If we are told, enough times, that something is beautiful, we actually begin to think it is beautiful.  Many of us pride ourselves on being independent thinkers, but the truth is we are not as independent as we suppose.  Paul certainly understood this and thus warned us in Romans 12 not to be conformed to the world.  Ever so slowly our sense of right and wrong, our sense of decency, our moral code is modified.  Psalm 1:1 encourages us not to walk by, stand by and ultimately sit down in sinful places and ways.

The way to guard against such change is to continually focus on our benchmark – Scripture.  If we daily feed our minds on the purity of God’s Word we can perceive the lower standards about us.   However, should we fail to keep our eye on the benchmark, we will change.  It is our nature to do so.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 29, 2010

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When I was a very little boy, before we moved to the country, we lived in a city row house with just enough room between the house beside us to accommodate a walkway and a small patch of ground.   The patch had no grass. It was perfect for playing marbles.  I don’t really remember the rules of the game but there were three small holes I had dug and it had something to do with using a shooter to knock other marbles into the holes.  The very best part of my day was when my father would come home from school. He would get down on his hands and knees and play marbles with me.  I would smooth the dirt, rub the marbles clean on my pants, sit on the steps of the porch and wait for his car, our car, an old black prewar something.  I don’t know what it was.

How strange it is that so many decades later I am still waiting for my Father.  I have grown up in a church that is waiting.  The entire concept of waiting is embedded in its name. I have watched my friends and family engaged in this waiting process.  We speak of it almost weekly.  It is based upon the promises of Jesus.  I wonder if in some undesigned way the waiting has kept us from truly appreciating the now.   We almost want the world to get worse and worse so Jesus will return and take us to our Father.  Catastrophes are almost welcomed.

If I read carefully what Jesus said, I wonder if we have missed the promises that once we make Him the Lord of our lives, the blessings and benefits of citizenship in the Kingdom of the Father are not merely the future but are the now.   See John 5.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 1, 2010

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Each day I receive via email a daily devotional published by an Islamic organization.  Last week one was entitled, “How to earn Allah’s favor.”  If anyone ever wanted an answer to the question, “What is the difference between Islam and Christianity?” this was it.

We do not have to earn God’s favor.  If we did it would be impossible because God requires perfection.  God, according to Jesus, is a loving father who woos us.  The incredible part of this is “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:10.  The wonder of Christianity is this; it is not a religion of people in search of God.  It is just the reverse.  God has consistently sought opportunities to reveal Himself to us.  According to Hebrews 1  His best effort was the incarnation of Jesus.  When we see Jesus we see the Father.  John 14.  This is what God is really like.

But what about that perfection thing?  We can’t do it.  Here is the beauty.  Jesus did it!  “By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.  It is so amazing.  It is incredible and it makes Christianity absolutely distinct from every other religion in the world.  We do not have to earn God’s favor.  We already have it.  Does that mean everyone will be saved?  Alas, no.  Millions will refuse the gift.  God’s heart has been, is and will be broken over and over because He longs to save all.   But what joy we can provide Him. Accept the gift and heaven rejoices.  You gotta love this!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 11, 2010

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In Paradise Lost John Milton wrote, “Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought the better fight, who single hast maintained against revolted multitudes the cause of truth, in word mightier than they in arms, and for the testimony of truth hast born universal reproach, far worse to bear than violence; for this was all thy care to stand approved in sight of God, though worlds judged thee perverse.”  Of a few such men we know, Martin Luther, Thomas More, Wycliffe and others.

I am tempted to say the world has only seen these few but Hebrews 12:1 tells us God has a cloud of greats.  When I drive up my hill into fog, a low cloud, I see tens of millions droplets of water.  What joy will come to those who chose integrity over position, power or reputation.  To tell the truth, to cheat no one, to harm no one but perhaps self by taking such a stand has to be in the face of threats, loss of loves, loss of honor, loss of life itself has to be monumental in the course of one’s life.  What more could compensate than the words written above by Milton.

Milton’s words reflect Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 when the master commended his servant for faithful service.  Wouldn’t it be grand to hear “Well done”?  Paul expected it for each of us.  In Romans 8:37 Paul assures us we are more than conquerors in Christ.  With Jesus’ help we can and shall join the cloud in Hebrews 12.  What could be more meaningful in life than to stand approved before God?  The judgment of worlds means nothing when we have that privilege.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 26, 2010

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At least six times each week I use a back road into our college.  Today I saw a new “No Passing Zone” sign.  I asked my wife how long it has been there.  “Years” was her response.  “Years!!!”  So much for being observant.  At least I am not alone.  One of the psychology texts I use explains how our minds protect themselves from being over-stimulated.  Our senses are continually feeding our brains billions of bits of data.  To avoid overload our brains subconsciously sort out what to notice.  We can see something hundreds of times and our brains reject any input–visual, auditory, etc.  No two people see the same event.  Everything is filtered.

I have some friends who see God working continually in their lives.  I have other friends who are just the opposite.  For these folk God isn’t much interested in them.  The difference isn’t with God.  He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow.  The difference is our personal filter.  He is there whether we see Him or not.  Psalm 138 says it so well, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.”

There is a great old song that goes like this.  “Open my eyes that I might see glimpses of truth thou hast for me. . . Open my eyes, illumine me.” Paul assures us we do not yet see things clearly.   In I Corinthians 13 he tells us we are looking into a steamy mirror.  However, the Good News is little by little the steam evaporates.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 12, 2010

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We spent the weekend at the home of friends in the Finger Lakes Region of New York.  They have a veranda with a million dollar view of one of the lakes surrounded by lush verdant forest.  Perhaps I have a touch of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder because I was persistently annoyed by the top of one dead tree that stuck up above a perfect layer of green.  I wanted to take a chain saw and go down the hillside and eliminate it.  When I finally mentioned it my host was horrified.   “You can’t,” he exclaimed. “It’s my hawk stick!”   He’s an avid birdwatcher and apparently raptors love to sit atop that one dead treetop giving both the hawk and my host great views.

It was amazing.  Once I realized the dead tree had a valuable purpose I no longer wanted to cut it down.  It was useful.  It provided something the living trees did not.  Solomon was right again.  There is a purpose for everything.  Actually, it’s a lesson I have discovered about people.  Have you ever met someone whom you deemed to be useless?  I’m ashamed to mention this because that is so wrong.  But I have been guilty.  It was only after I knew more about the person that I realized they had a gift, they had purpose, they had someone they loved and it was none of my business to make such a judgment.   There is no such thing as a useless person.  Just because I wasn’t perceptive enough to discern their value was a judgment about me and not them.  I need to remind myself that I have come across individuals who most likely thought I was useless.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 16, 2010

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