Jail Break

“Solomon said, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”  During an earthquake in Chile 300 prisoners escaped.  It almost sounds like a story in Acts 16, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”  The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

Well, it isn’t exactly the same.  While Paul and company could have escaped they stayed and the results were terrific.   One thing you have to say about Paul is the man was consistent.   When he was Saul he was a completely committed member of the Sanhedrin with all their rules.  After he became known as Paul his message had a consistent clarity.  Salvation wasn’t about all the rules he lived by as Saul.  He now gave his total being and future into the hands of Jesus.  He truly upset his old colleagues.  Once they realized they couldn’t best him in face to face confrontations, they followed him around and when he moved on they moved in and tried to poison the new Christians with their rules,.   Thus Paul wrote back to the Galatians, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 3, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Sated

This evening my wife baked a dozen muffins.  I ate one.  It was really good.  So I had another.  At this point my head said, “Fine.  Good stuff.  However, that’s enough.”  But my nose and eyes kept looking at the tray saying “Just one more.”  My head said, “Okay.  But that’s all.”  I don’t know how to explain the next half hour.  I must have taken out my brain and put it on the mantel because after that I ate three more.  I don’t feel so well. Why did I eat until I was on the brink of ill?

Why do we do all manner of “pleasurable” activities when we know the results are not going to be good?  God gave us brains to govern but we foolishly surrender to desire.  It’s not that pleasure is bad.  It’s a question of moderation.  The very thing we so desired becomes repugnant.  I really don’t want to see another muffin, at least not for quite some time.

There are the pleasures of the flesh but also pleasures of the mind.  Why could I not be this very moment filled with the pleasure of knowing I had allowed reason to prevail?  The mental joy would not have left me nauseous.  I would sleep better tonight and be more refreshed in the morning.  Alas.

The battle of reason over desire has been the bane of human progress.  What is very disconcerting is often we allow desire to distort our reason and we deceive ourselves into thinking we were reasonable when all we do is create excuses to feed desire.  Listen carefully the next time you hear an argument.  Note how each side invents spurious ideas to defend a passion.  It is not easy being human.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 3, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

M&M’s and Horror Sermons

Only one peanut out of a hundred is selected to be an M&M chocolate peanut.  The other 99 are chopped up for Snickers.  The next time you treat yourself to one please notice the peanut is surrounded by chocolate and never on the edge. How they do that is a secret.

When I was a boy I heard a horror sermon (If we can have horror movies we can also have horror sermons.) that really frightened me.  The preacher told us that only one in a hundred would be saved.  Well, I looked around the church and there were about two hundred people present.  It didn’t take but a millisecond to do the math.  Only two of us were going to make it.  The preacher surely thought he would make it.  That left room for only one.  What chance did I have?  There was no way it would be me.  Obviously you had to be like an M&M peanut.  You had to be perfect.  If I hadn’t been ten years old and needed a ride home I would probably have walked out and never gone back.  What was the use?

My teen years weren’t much better.  There were many more horror sermons telling me all the things I had to do.  I am so thankful one day I woke up and realized that just because someone is a preacher it doesn’t make him right.  As a matter of fact most of what I heard was wrong.  Yes, we did have to be perfect.  But the perfection was a gift.  Jesus did it for me.  My part was to accept it.  Oh, the joy when I finally came to my senses and read the Bible for myself.  John 3:17 – “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”   Please note “through Him” not us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 1, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In Defense of Hypocrisy

This evening while watching a perfect picture in Hi-Definition I remembered the first television my Dad brought home 65 years ago.  It was an amazing 12 inch black and white picture filled with snow.  If the picture wasn’t rolling like a scroll it was slanted sideways. We thought it was wonderful.  A few years passed and our next door neighbor started bragging that he had color television.  It was a piece of plastic attached to the front of his screen.  It was tinted blue on the top and green on the bottom.  It wasn’t too bad for outdoor scenes but looked rather ridiculous for the inside of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo’s apartment.  I guess it was fun to pretend one had color television.

We define the word “hypocrite” as one pretending to be something they are not. Usually it is someone pretending to be better than they are; however, I once knew a student who really was a good kid but he pretended to be bad because he thought it would make him popular.  Traditionally we have been very hard on hypocrites.  Jesus really took them on in Matthew 23.  But I would like to speak in defense of hypocrisy. By pretending we become. If we assume a persona or a role and work on being that, we are slowly transformed.  I am aware in Jeremiah 13 we find the following, “Can a leopard change its’ spots?  Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”  But that is the point.  If we become accustomed to doing good, ever so slowly we do change.

No, I am not preaching humanism.  We still need Jesus for righteousness.  However, we can be better people by consciously practicing being good people.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 1, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Microsoft XP

On April 8 Microsoft Windows will cease supporting its XP operating system. The reason they are giving is they can no longer keep it secure.  There are bad guys out there creating computer viruses that can use the XP operating system to access your computer and do major damage to your precious pictures, financial records and other work files.  The message they are broadcasting is “Do not continue using or you will be sorry.”

3,500 years ago God via Moses sent us some important security information.  He told us not to kill, not to steal, not to tell bad stories about our neighbors and other important warnings.  The message was if you do these things you will be sorry.  Unfortunately Satan jumped in telling us that if we did these things God will be furious with us and severely punish us.  That is just not so.  That is like telling us if we continue to use XP after April 8, Microsoft will send infectious software to wreck our computers.  Obviously that is not so.  What Microsoft is saying is there will be consequences to our continued use, but not caused by them.   God is saying to us there will be ruinous consequences to certain behaviors, not because He is punishing us, but because the ruinous consequences will be the natural results of doing these forbidden things.  They are forbidden because He doesn’t want us to be hurt.  He is a parent telling his children not to play baseball in the middle of an interstate highway.

Smart people will upgrade their computers, or replace them, with newer systems.  Smart people will not steal, not kill or not covet because they are smart.  Be smart listen to the experts.  God is the expert on human behavior.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 31, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Beautiful Old Homes

Our little city is peppered with beautiful old homes.   Victorians and other styles reek with elegance.  Many of them are impeccably maintained with elaborate paint and manicured lawns while others show their years.   They are like people.  We are incredible mansions which God’s spirit wants to inhabit.  Paul calls us temples.  Just like old homes some are well cared for and others have been neglected.  Some are well groomed and exercised and others have spent way too many hours on a couch with a remote control in hand.

As spring comes and dirty snow piles slowly vanish winter’s broken branches and other refuse litter lawns.  Any day now we will have a seventy degree weekend day and snow shovels will be replaced with rakes, edgers and mowers.  Daffodils and crocuses will decorate walkways.  It is a grand time of the year.

As for us we can begin to undo the ravages of the blizzards that gave us a legitimate excuse for not going for that all important daily walk.  After all it really wasn’t safe with the snow narrowed streets and icy footing.  However, those excuses as good as they were have melted away.  God’s temple, you and I, need to vacuum the floor, wash the windows and dust out the cobwebs.  We need to move.

For those of you who live in warm comfortable climates, I know you can totally ignore this because I know you have not allowed yourself to go to pot and you have impeccably cared for yourselves.

The definition of sin is doing anything that is harmful to others or to self.  We definitely don’t want to sin against ourselves let alone the others we live with.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 29, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I Can Hardly Believe It

I couldn’t believe it.  There was a freezer in the supermarket with half gallon containers of ice cream for 85 cents.  The sign read “Being Discontinued.”  Really?  This was good stuff.  It wasn’t a cheap brand or some weird flavor like “Tuna Fish.”  I could barely contain myself for my good fortune as I picked up Chocolate Chip for me and Butter Pecan for my wife.  I am going back tomorrow for more.  But I really doubt if there is any left over.

I couldn’t believe it.  We just switched over to FIOS and I was having serious issues getting my email to work on my laptop.  Just then the phone rang.  It was a technician from Verizon asking if everything was alright.  In less than five minutes he had me up and running.

I couldn’t believe it.  I found gasoline on sale for a dollar a gallon.  No, not really. I was just kidding. (Wishing)

However, I still have a difficult time believing that the Creator of the Universe became one of us and suffered as horribly as He did so we can live forever.  I do believe it but it pushes my faith envelope.  I just don’t understand our value to Him.  Then it is that I look at my wife, my sons and grandchildren.  Would I do the same for them?  Absolutely, yes.  But there is a disturbing text in Romans 5:10. “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”  We aren’t talking about dear ones.  We are talking about enemies.  Hard to believe but none-the-less true.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 26, 2013

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

Rogerbothwell.ord

A Ticket Pocket

While looking at suits I noticed one with four exterior coat pockets.  There were the usual three.  One on each lower side and the handkerchief pocket on the upper left, but there was a fourth on the right side above the lower traditional pocket.  I had no idea what that was.  I assumed it was merely for style.  My education continued.  I learned it is called a ticket pocket.  It is for travelers who ride the train.  When the conductor comes by asking for your ticket, one does not have to go searching inside pockets.  It is outside on the right in the ticket pocket.

If I had such a suit I would write John 5:24 on an index card and put it in the ticket pocket.  “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”  That’s my ticket out of here.  One-way.  I am not interested in a roundtrip.

The irony of this coveted ticket is ironic.  Initially it is a gift with no strings attached.  However, once we have it in our possession something strange occurs inside us.  We become overwhelmed by an obligation of love.  We feel urges to reach out to aid others.  We want to do good things.  The feelings seem to intensify from wants to have-tos.  Have you ever been in a store and you see something that you absolutely have to buy for someone?  It seems to have been made just for them.  It fits their personality and they just have to have it.  This is the way it is with Jesus.  Our urge to be like Him grows into a have-to-be-like-Him.  Love and gratitude do that to us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 28, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The Only Sure Thing

The creators of the very popular computer game Candy Crush went public this morning on the New York Stock Exchange.   Someone told me to be sure to buy stock because this was a sure thing.   If I purchased shares I would be guaranteed to make money.  It opened this morning priced at $22.50 a share.   It closed at $19.00.   Down over 15%.   Phew.  I did not buy any.  We will see what happens as the week moves along.    One of life’s great lessons is there is only one thing that is a sure thing.  Jesus is life’s only surety.   The rest of this world is a fickle place.   Your best friend can become your worst enemy.   Your expensive car can leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.  Your dog can be run over.   Your cat just won’t care.  Your church can decide you are a heretic.   Your spouse can find another.  Your portfolio can crash.  There isn’t any other guarantee other than Jesus.  He said and He meant it.  “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Cain killed his brother Abel. David abandoned one of his mighty men to be killed at the front of a battle. Jesus’ disciples loved Him but they left Him alone in Gethsemane.  Judas kissed Him on that horrible night.  Perhaps the greatest of all life’s challenges is to be faithful no matter what. Jesus was. Our Lord collapsed face into the dirt with his fingernails dug into the soil with Satan pressing Him to surrender because we were not worth it.  Jesus thought we were.  If God so freely gave us His only Son how will He not freely give us anything else we need. Oh, there is one more thing I want to say just in case I did not make it clear.  Jesus is a SURE thing.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 27, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

An Old Friend Returned

In yesterday’s mail I received a book that I had given to one of my African students more than forty years ago.  Somehow that book found its way back to America and into the hands of an old friend in Illinois who posted it to me.  It feels good to hold it in my hands.  It is like being united with an old friend.  Inside the cover is my father-in-law’s name in his handwriting.  I found notes in the margins that I had written.  Unlike what we were taught when we were still illiterate, books are made to write in.  The margins are there for us to dialogue with the author.  What saddened me was no one else had added anything in forty years.  There were no underlinings nor comments that I had not made.  The book is entitled Christ’s Object Lessons.

It is a grand book about the parables of Jesus.  It must have wondered why no one was talking with it. Perhaps it thought everyone knew what it had to say and that it no longer had purpose.  I want to dispel that erroneous thought.  Tonight I shall read a few chapters and add fresh notes to the margins.  I will restore its sense of self-worth and value, for it contains an extremely valuable message.

Books are useless if all they do is decorate our homes. But if we open them and allow them to speak to us they become alive.  They integrate with our thoughts and give us fresh perspectives on life and life’s challenges. My book will be happy this evening as it realizes it is feeding me again and revitalizing my understanding of Jesus’ parables.  I wish it could tell me how it got back to America and into the hands of one of my old friends who cared enough to send it to me.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 26, 2014

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

Rogerbothwell.org