Category: devotional

Jesus’ disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them how to pray.   To be able to communicate with the Lord of the Universe is a way to open our minds to an understanding of our origins, being and future.  We are curious creatures.  We want to know.  Real prayer is not a Santa Claus list of needs and wants.  Real prayer is the melding of our finite minds with the infinite mind of God Himself.

Each of us brings to any relationship a history of us.  For me to truly know you I must know your parents, your siblings, your culture, and your sins.  It is all these and more that make us us.  Your prayer life and mine are very different.  It would be erroneous for me to describe to you my prayer life and say, “This is the way to do it.”  All I can tell you is this is how prayer works or doesn’t work for me.  Prayer is as unique as DNA is unique to each of us.  As a forensic scientist can identify us by our particular code so God can identify us by our yearnings and cries.  He does not need us to begin each prayer with, “Dear God, this is ….. calling.”  He knows who is calling Him because He knows the very distinctness of our content.

Paul wrote, “When I was a child I thought as a child.”  He could have said, “When I was a child I prayed as a child. But now that I am a man I pray like a man.”  Jesus said, “We have not because we ask not.”  Ask.  Don’t beg.  The one who knows you better than you know you, hears and will open to you what you really need.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 28, 2015

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

rogerbothwell.org

 

The first time you have to negotiate a roundabout it is intimidating and scary.  But once you get the hang of it they are a wonderful way to keep intersecting traffic flowing.  As long as everyone follows the rules they work quite well.  One of the features I like is if you miss your exit all you have to do is go around the circle and your exit will be there again. I have been known to go around three times because I missed my exit twice.  If I had missed again it would still be there for yet another try. Roundabouts are much like life.  If we mess-up and miss something we can usually try it again.  The old adage about opportunity only knocking once must have been thought up prior to the invention of roundabouts.

I qualified the going around again with the word “usually.”  Sometimes we crash and there isn’t another attempt available.  And sometimes in life a few things do only come once.  However, most people are resilient.  The effects of a defeat slowly ebb and we get on with life.  To be a teacher in Massachusetts students have to take state exams.  They are not easy.  I had a student who tried twelve times before she finally passed.  She should get a reward for tenacity.

The sooner one accepts Jesus into their life, better is the life that follows.  The wisest thing is to let Him in as soon as possible.  But, should we fail to take the opportunity we can know tomorrow will give us yet another try.  God is that way.  He loves us too much to limit our opportunities.  Some might think, “Well, then I can wait.”  That’s foolish.  Why gamble with eternity and why live in a “shanty” when one can live in a “mansion”?

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 28, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Imagine yourself driving in bumper to bumper traffic going 80 miles an hour.  Slowing down creates major hazards as people behind you try to merge into lanes on either side to get by.  It is safer to drive with the pack.  Suddenly as you round a corner there is a black and white car with blue lights sitting by the side of the road.  Your heart skips a beat, your knees weaken, and your hands break out in an instant sweat.  You know he’s got you.  Of course he has everyone else and he can only stop one or two or three if he is an over-achiever.  As you pass him you keep watching in the rear view mirror wondering if you are going to be the one he selects.  There is safety in numbers.  That’s why (we think) fish swim in schools.

If we are the unlucky one pulled over we will most likely say, “But, officer, everyone was doing it.”  That is an interesting defense used by teens when caught doing something they shouldn’t.  “But, mom, everyone does it.”   I wonder if someone yelled up to Noah, “But, Noah, we were all doing it.”

The Marine Corp has an interesting recruiting slogan.  “We are looking for a few good men.”  That’s what God is doing.  While God is full of grace and will save as many of us as He can, He is also looking for some Enochs and Jobs.  He wants to be able to single out some individuals and say, “Have you considered my servant ….?   Put your name in that blank.   One might think that would be the cause for pride but quite to the contrary.  Such a woman or man would also be amazingly humble – not one of the crowd.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 27, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

At first I thought I was on Candid Camera but alas I wasn’t.  I should have been.  It was a warm day and a small frappe from McDonalds sounded perfect.  As the teenage girl passed it out the drive-by window I failed to notice all the caramel sauce wasn’t inside the plastic container. There I sat with one hand smeared with sauce.  In a fraction of a moment I had it on my steering wheel, on my shirt, on the gear shift (I don’t know how I did that.) and on my face.  I definitely got a whole lot more than I paid for.  I was a mess.  I was like Eve.  She got so much more than she thought she was going to get.  It was true that she gained knowledge.  The serpent did not lie about that.  She gained knowledge about pain, heartbreak and death.  What a mess ensued.

Satan is always very liberal with his giving.  He tempts us with something.  We get it and a mess we hadn’t counted on comes with it.  Satan is happy to give us something that would normally be good if the consequences in that particular context are hellish.  He knows God has a plan for each of us and he is devoted to ruining God’s dream for us.  Time and again God has to abandon Plan A and go to Plan B and then to Plan C.  Each change diminishes God’s dream.  But the good news is God never gives up.  He has Plan Triple Z ready just in case we keep making bad choices.  The good news is Plan Triple Z still includes eternal life with lots of time to grow.  Thank you Jesus.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 26, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

By now, if you have not had a bucket of ice water dumped on your head, you have at least seen videos of others reveling in the chilling joy of a miniature Arctic Ocean cascading over their domes.  The ALS challenge has spread across the world faster than a speeding bullet.  Sorry Superman something is faster than you.  It is called the Internet.  I have a friend who teaches school in what has to be one of the remotest towns in America yet he has Internet service and can read this devotional as soon as my neighbor across the street.  My friend Rob lives in Gambell, Alaska, a tiny town on the western edge of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. He really knows about ice water.  He doesn’t need a bucket.

Communication has come a long way since Jesus preached to and passed out bread and fish to 5,000 men plus women and children.  It is with confidence that we can say that the Gospel has gone to the entire world.  For anyone anywhere it is a mouse click away.  But just because someone is able to hear the Good News or has heard about the Good News doesn’t mean they understand the Good News.  I know people who have gone to church all their lives who don’t understand the Good News.  They can tell you Bible stories and recite memory verses but they still worry about not being good enough to be saved.  That is tragic.  The Good News is not one of us will ever be worthy (good enough).

In Revelation 5 there is a search for one worthy to open the book sealed with seven seals.  There was only one.  That was Jesus.  It is an inspiring chapter.  Please read it sometime today.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 25, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

There she sat, calmly looking at us through the glass door of our woodstove.  She did not seem upset and obviously had no idea of her precarious situation.  She was a sparrow that had come down the stovepipe into our family room.  The odds on her finding her way back up the pipe and out to freedom seemed very minimal.  My wife rescued her and set her free.  The last we saw her was on a branch of a Japanese maple.

We live in a world rife with weapons designed to kill millions.  There are groups who think they will be doing God a great service if they can use them.  How they can think this is beyond my comprehension. Obviously their Allah is not the same God as our loving heavenly Father.  The reason is while they think Jesus was a prophet they do not see Him as a duplicate character of our Father.   Jesus did say, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”

While I do not want to spread fear and upset the tranquility of our lives, it would be Pollyannaish to ignore reality.  No, we should not be having our children jump under their school desks like some of us did in the 60’s.  But neither should we be thinking something horrible is impossible.  We don’t want to be like a sparrow calmly sitting in a stove.  Eternity is a topic worthy of our consideration and Jesus is the one and only hope for a world almost out of control.

We must also remember that Jesus offers us peace.  He did say, “Peace I leave with you. . . . Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 17, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This afternoon I watched a small flock of sparrows trying, without success, to get food out of our birdfeeder. It is one of those feeders with a door that closes if too much weight is on the perch.  Sometimes it keeps the squirrels out but not usually.  They are smart enough to eventually thwart it.  The birds were flocking onto the perch thus making too much weight and thus closing the door.  No one could eat because too many were trying to eat.  This would be a good illustration regarding too many people eating off the government.  But that would be getting into politics so I will not go there.  Instead we can use the sparrows to talk about the disastrous effects of selfishness.

At first I wanted to excuse the sparrows because they were ignorant and did not know any better but people do.  However, on second thought most people don’t understand. When we live in a “me first, me first” culture, some end up with too much and some end up with too little.  Oops, that is also getting into politics.

Let’s try this.  The key to happiness is service.  The more we do for others the happier our lives.  This is a major construct of Christianity.  Jesus did not call us to be rulers of others but to care for others.  This results in the abundant life that He promised us in John 10:10.  If someone is sitting home alone feeling neglected the solution is getting involved with others.  This can happen in a family, in a church, in a civic club or in a hospital doing volunteer work.  The idea is to get the focus off of self and unto others.

If only I could have gotten the sparrows to understand.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 20, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org.

 

Some evenings are just about perfect.  Try to imagine a small New England town park.  Add to it being with your best friend, 78 degrees, a clear sky with a half moon, katydids in the trees, an ice cream truck, small children laughing and playing on the newly mown grass. Add to this idyllic scene one of best country bands ever, playing from the town gazebo.  Watch a couple of old babes trying to revive their youth by dancing on the lawn to the classics about Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and, of course, sweet Georgia.  If one closed their eyes they could have been serenaded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Blake Shelton and be on the road again with Willie Nelson.  Sorry, there was no Dolly Parton, it was an all male band.  The mosquitoes were few and the summer breeze was an evening zephyr.

We were sorry it had to come to an end.  Heaven isn’t going to be all classical music or hymns.  God is very eclectic, if He weren’t, He wouldn’t have passed out such a wide variety of gifts.  But I don’t imagine the songs there will be about heartaches and tears on pillows and drinking beer sitting on the end of the dock and Folsom Prison.  Actually, the evening was quite grand knowing there would be no more prisons or tears.

Sometimes we get a taste of the abundant life.  No, that is a wrong thing to say.  Jesus would have us feast on the abundant life.   He promised, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”  That is not just for the future.  That is also for now.  Don’t miss out.  Make Jesus the Lord of your life right now.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 21, 2015

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Today I wrote a check for twelve months of car/home insurance.  Ouch.  As I did so I remembered one of my high school/academy teachers who didn’t believe in insurance because he returned his tithe to God, who promised to rebuke the devourer.  I wonder what he would have done if he lived in Massachusetts where auto insurance is required by law?  To my knowledge he never had an accident nor did his house ever burn down. Was it random chance or did God honor his faith?  It’s one of the questions I have to ask God someday.

I thought about not paying for my house insurance for my former teacher’s reason.  Was my purchase of house insurance an act of disbelief in God’s promise? I don’t think so.  I had to pay because I believe God expects us to do as much as we can to protect ourselves and He will do the rest.  Actually it was He who made sure I had the funds to purchase the insurance.

Was my professor being foolish?  I don’t think so.  I believe God treats each of us in a unique manner.  He knows our thoughts.  He knows our levels of faith and why and how we arrive at our conclusions.  Thus for me it would be foolish not to purchase insurance.  But, what about people who have watched in agony as their children die because the parents would not seek modern medical care and trusted in prayer?  God didn’t save their children because of their parent’s faith.  So the issue is murky in my mind.  There are so many issues about which I wish I knew more and someday I shall know.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have all the answers?

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 21. 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The well-known phrase “If you think education is expense try ignorance” is playing out around the world.  In Liberia ignorant people stormed an HIV clinic and carried away infected patients.  How can we begin to assess the price this is going to cost mankind?  In the Middle East extremists are beheading people, burying people alive, crucifying people and doing other horrors in the name of Allah.  Paul was one of those extremists and he said in I Timothy 1:13, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.”

Paul was an extremely well-educated man, who could hardly be classified as ignorant.  Yet, he orchestrated the stoning of Stephen.  Paul knew Scripture but, he didn’t know God.  He never knew God until He met Jesus.  To the Ephesians he wrote regarding those who don’t know Jesus, “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

He also wrote in Ephesians 4, “. . . we all reach unity in the faith in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  Ignorance is expensive because it retards our growth.  When we learn about Jesus we can grow into the whole measure of being like Him.  That knowledge equips us for an eternity of becoming.  Let’s shed the “I want to go to heaven for material things.”  Let’s want to go to heaven that we might understand the deepest secrets of the universe and that we might be everything God wanted us to be when He first said, “Let us make man in OUR image.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 19, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org