Roger Bothwell

In Romans 1 Paul speaks of knowing God by seeing the things He has made.  In Hebrews 1 he speaks of knowing God through the ultimate revelation – Jesus.  In Ezekiel 36 we read, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.”  God in nature – the Father, God in history – Jesus, God within us – the Holy Spirit.

The concept of a Trinity taunts our finite intellects and reminds us of our limitations.  Our feeble attempts at a cogent explanation fall so short we have invited unbelievers to accuse us of polytheism, of which we are not.  The problem is our inability to see through Paul’s dark glass.  God is a reveal-er of Himself and in His good wisdom He has chosen to remain a mystery.  While He could He has not removed grounds for doubt.  There must be something to be gained by intellectually grabbling with His existence, the nature of His being, and His purposes to be a good God and yet tolerate acts of despicable horror on earth. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”  Hebrew 11:6

Does growth only come at the expense of careful exploration of ideas so near to understanding that we are motivated to stretch just a bit more and thus receive the rewards promised above?  Is one of life’s great joys the discovery process?  If God answered all our questions, would that turn us into nothing other than intellectual rubber stamps.  Jesus promised us in the Sermon on the Mount that we will see God, but somehow I think there will always be something just beyond the horizon of our thoughts.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 28, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We had a great problem this evening.  While talking with one of our sons in New York on our land line our other son in California called on our mobile phone. It’s a good thing God gave us two ears.  Actually it was an amazingly easy problem to solve. But it did get me thinking about God receiving our calls.  Just what does He do when not two, but two hundred million of His sons and daughters call at the same time. Does He have to put us in line according to the priority of our needs? When I just want to talk and He gets a call from someone in a dire emergency does He have to put me on hold?  Of course I know better.

Psalm 91:15 promises, “He will call upon me and I will answer.” There is no hold with angels providing the elevator music so we know we haven’t been disconnected. There is no “if you speak Spanish press one.” There is no menu. “If you are calling for forgiveness, press 3. If you are calling because you are ill, press 4. If you are calling on behalf of someone other than yourself, press 9.”

Something more amazing than getting instant answers is the promise of Isaiah 65:24, “Before you call I will answer.” That’s great, but does raise the question, “Why bother to call?  He knows. He loves. He answers.” We don’t call to inform Him. We call because we need the personal interaction. It feeds our souls and reinforces our human need for fellowship. The next time you call comprehend the miracle of it all.  He is interacting with you, one on one, at the very same time He is doing the same with five hundred million others not even from our planet.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 30, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I am sitting here drooling over a picture of a 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby CT 500.  It has 650-horsepower, will top 200 mph and will do zero to 60 in 4 seconds.  It is deep red with black stripes.  It is gorgeous.  It is a long way from the 1964 1/2 mustang we had in 1964.   Now some of you are asking, “Why would you want something like that?”  And the answer is “you are obviously not a guy.”  This is a heart-pounder for anyone who shaves or will someday shave his chin.

But how would I use it?  Where can one drive 200 mph other than in Wyoming and that’s a long way from Massachusetts.  One could have great fun at traffic lights embarrassing every teenager in his wannabe.  It’s an ego thing for an old guy.

Often I have prayed for great spiritual power. But how would I use it?  The correct answer should be to win hundreds of thousands for Jesus.  The real answer would most likely be to feed my ego that “I was God’s man of the hour.”  I could pretend to be humble and do the talk show circuit, but would most likely come to ruin and eternal loss loving all the attention and the limelight of the networks.

With great privilege (power) comes great responsibility.  Great responsibility needs great character.  Jesus always used His power for others.  While He said He could have called thousands of angels to come to His side, instead He touched lepers and blind people.  He would never have done what I would do and figure out how to get a 650-horsepower chariot.  He walked.  He went into solitary places where He could spend time with His Father.  He had (has) character.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 31, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

Long I stood in the bread aisle of our supermarket.  There was multigrain bread, oat bread, flax bread, whole wheat bread, white bread, rye bread, pumpernickel bread, raisin bread and cinnamon bread.  But what I wanted was Wonder Bread.  Enough with the healthy bread, I wanted bread you could squeeze into a ball and bounce off the wall.  When I was a kid watching the Howdy Doody Show, Buffalo Bob told us Wonder Bread advertised that it built strong bodies in eight ways.  Later it became twelve ways. It has been decades since I have had a piece of Wonder Bread.  It now sits in my pantry awaiting the right moment.  I am trying to decide if it will be with PB&J or lettuce, tomato and fake bacon.

Jesus made several references to bread.  He actually called Himself “The Bread of Life.”  Jesus is “The Real Wonder Bread” He builds healthy bodies in 10,000 ways.  He also talked about yeast and how pervasive it can be. He warned His disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees.  Often I have seen congregations infected with the yeast of works.  They are fed a diet of grace and along comes a smooth talking preacher who so subtly and probably ignorantly talks about grace and then adds the poisonous word “but”.  Beware of the word “but.”  It comes like this, “We are saved by grace, but …” It works its destructive force so subtly we barely notice it.   A dear friend of mine recently said, “I am so afraid I will be lost for one little sin I don’t know about.”  Ouch!  I wanted to cry.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 1, 2012

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

Rogerbothwe.org

 

Luke 17:20 -21, “When he (Jesus) was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”  Jesus also said in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The Hebrew nation was waiting for the establishment of a political kingdom with the overthrow of the Romans.  For them God’s Kingdom was not yet.  For many Christians today there is the expectation of a physical kingdom established in the future.  For them God’s Kingdom is not yet.  Two thousand years ago John the Baptist preached that the Kingdom of God was at hand.  Was he, the one Jesus declared to be the greatest of all the prophets, wrong?  It seems not.  God’s Kingdom is not only something in a future time and place, it is also a present experience. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we share with God the glories of His presence. There is security, hope becomes a present reality, guilt is taken away, eternal life begins, spiritual understanding grows, compassion for others takes root and flourishes, self is nourished as it recognizes its value by looking at the cross, creativity blooms, intellect expands, patience becomes a mainstay, and our love encompasses those who do not love us.

Contrary to what many television evangelists teach this does not necessarily include bigger bank accounts.  The real Gospel of Prosperity is the prosperity of the soul.  Are we looking for the Kingdom of God?  With a heart open to God let us look in the mirror.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 7, 2012

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I read a great story today about the poet Southey who was so proud of the fact that he never wasted a moment.  He studied Portuguese while he shaved.  He translated Spanish before and during breakfast and on and on.  One day a Quaker lady said to him, “Friend, when does thee do thy thinking?”   I love this story because I was early educated to believe that God would hold me accountable for every waking moment.  Perhaps so, but just quietly being still counts; watching the leaves move and shadows crawl across the lawn is so enriching.  Earlier this week I drove 900 miles on our concrete jungle of intertwining interstates on the East Coast.  There is not much time for thinking about anything other than how not to be involved in an 80 mph accident. How sweet it is to be quietly back home watching those leaves and shadows.

We must never miss the fact that God placed Eve and Adam in a garden.  I wanted to use the adjective quiet but He might have put jays and mockingbirds in Eden.  I am suspicious that some of you might be thinking I am now going to use, “Be still and know that I am God” so I won’t do that.  There is no point in telling you something you already know.  Instead I want to encourage you to put pen to paper or these days I should say fingers to keys, and write yourself a letter.  “But why?” you might ask.  Wouldn’t I already know everything I would write down?  The answer is, “No, you don’t.”  Writers often say when they are finished writing, “I didn’t know I knew that!”

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 14, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

“U.S. Olympic athletes wear uniforms.  How could we not now read Romans 13:14?  “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Dressing properly is very important.  One does not wear a tuxedo to the beach and one would not wear a t-shirt and jeans to visit the President.  Neither should one dress like that to come to worship the Lord of the Universe.  But they do and that is something that totally amazes me. The problem is one of teaching respect and apparently the failure is ours that we have not educated our youth.  However, I notice it spills out into many areas of life.  Very few young people will hold a door open for an elderly lady or drop the adjective “elderly” and it is still true.  I realize this is an “old people’s gripe” and most likely every generation says the same thing about the generation following them.

But back to the real issue.  Dress up with Christ.  With the aid of the Holy Spirit endeavor to be as much like Him as we can.  Each day we should not only be polite onto others but do battle with the desires of our sinful nature.  And should we soil the garment, what shall we do?  Put it on again tomorrow and notice something amazing.  It is clean again.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 15, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Just recently I have discovered the joys of cryptograms.  One that I worked on this morning was a quote from Solomon.  As the letters fell into place I remembered a man who was besotted with the idea that the Bible was a book of cryptic messages from God.  He spent hours each week playing with numbers and the first letter of each verse in various chapters.   What is fascinating is Psalm 119 is a poem where the first eight verses begin with “aleph” and the second eight verses “beth” and so on through the Hebrew alphabet.  But it is not a secret code.  It is a literary device and only works if you read Hebrew.

The Bible does contain mysteries.  Many times Paul speaks of mysteries.  See Ephesians 3 as an example.  However, Paul is not speaking of secret codes. Instead Paul is overwhelmed by the wonder of God’s love and God’s selection of him to be an apostle. God’s messages to us are not hidden for the entertainment of those who enjoy puzzles.

The Bible is God doing all He can to help us understand Him and His plan of salvation.  Hebrews 1 says it so clearly, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”  It doesn’t get any better than that.  We serve a self revealing God who is not hiding in some encrypted text.  Instead He sent us Himself in His Son that we might see He loves us and will indeed rescue us from ourselves.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 20, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Finders Keepers – Not Always

As I pulled a shopping cart out of the BJ’s bin in the parking lot what to my wondering eyes did appear but a box of Hershey bars with almonds.  Someone must have been in a hurry to leave behind such a treasure.  This was “my” day.  It was Friday and it was like getting double manna.  This was meant to be.  I purchased my very first car in Hershey, Pa.  My stepfather worked at Hershey for 40 years. Obviously this was meant to be.  I triumphantly showed it to my wife and she said, “Oh, someone will surely come back for it.  We have to take it in to the desk.”  “What?” I thought. “The person at the desk will take it home tonight.  This is mine.  Finders keepers.  That was the rule I grew up with.”  But as I looked her in the eye I knew better.  There was no use in protesting. Now I could never eat one of those wonderful treasures without feeling guilty. We took it to the lady that checks baskets by the door.

I will never know how many times in the past fifty years this agent from heaven has kept me on the straight and narrow.  When we were in high school one of the teachers told her not to date me lest she spend her life picking me up out of the gutter.  Really!  You can tell I made a good impression on him.  Even my mother maintained my wife kept me out of jail.  I do believe God in His infinite wisdom does send to us the people we need and if we are smart we will not let them go.  I was smart.  At least about this.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 29, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Suddenly our garage door would not stay closed.  Once it got to the bottom it promptly reopened. Over and over I checked to see that the light beam was properly aligned.  It was.  There wasn’t any stick or stone to cause the safety feature to reopen it.  When it was open I did see a dead horsefly dangling overhead from a spider web filament, but thought nothing of it.  After an hour or more it finally dawned on me.  When the door reached the cement floor the dead horsefly was lowered just enough to dangle in the light beam and thus reopen the door.  Duh!  So why did it take me so long to catch on?  Sometimes I am so dull.  The door wasn’t broken.  It was functioning the way it was designed.

Sometimes we have little peccadilloes that annoy other people and even if we know they are there, we think nothing of them.  Maybe we wonder why we didn’t get a promotion we wanted and we never make the connection that we are annoying.  Sometimes we have a habit of eating something we really know we shouldn’t but, “Hey, it’s nothing big.”  Perhaps we make rolling stops at stop signs but, “Hey, I’m almost stopped.”  They are little things that we know are there but we rarely make the connection regarding their impediment to a better life.

The process of life-long development is often paying attention to little things; stepping outside ourselves and looking at ourselves from an exterior perspective. I often wonder how God sees us since He sees and knows everything.  I must confess that sometimes I wish He did not know what I was thinking.  But the alternative isn’t that great.  I’m glad He’s there.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 21, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org