Walking Towards the Light

Monday, August 31, 2026

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

This passage of an epistle to the Jewish Christians is often called the “roll call of heroes of the faith”.  It could hardly be complete without Abram and Isaac’s journey to Mt. Moriah, where the father was to offer the son as a sacrifice.  What faith must have inhabited Abram’s insides to even entertain such a notion.  Yet, by contrast, the complete story of Abram’s lifelong quest and journey was filled with struggle to trust God.  At times his (so-called) “faith” took a back seat to expediency.  This patriarch of the Jews, essential cog-in-the-wheel of the lineage of God’s promised Messiah, was what you and I are – not just human; Abram was a sinner, loved, cared-for, trusted, and forgiven by the Lord of Heaven’s host.

If faith is the substance, the “stuff” of what lies within each of us, the ideal of where we long to live, and it is also the evidence (the reality) of that life’s possibility, then Abram’s journey is the type of what God has placed within each one of us.  And isn’t that a fact?

Have you had times of sorrow and loss…like Abram?

Did you receive blessings that were unexpected…like Abram?

Were there times when you played loosely with truth or morality…like Abram?

And how about those times you just about hated God for what He led you through…like Abram?

And of course there were battles you had to fight, and hard decisions, and crises from which you had to pack up and just walk away. 

With that list of life’s hard stuff, let’s not leave out those times – good times – when you had that almost inconceivable thought:  “How can life get any better”?  And then you had teenagers…and Sara’s sarcastic laughter didn’t seem so ‘unholy’ after all! 

Did you, in your life’s struggles, knowing you were trying to serve God obediently with all your best strength and effort, still feel like Abram on the death march to Moriah?

If all that rings true, you and I must be related; at the least we’re distant cousins of Abram.  Like fingerprints, our lives are all unique, yet as alike as He who created us in His own image.  Our lives are interlinked like bees of the same hive, and that is all the evidence of the unseen Hand guiding us through the chaotic pathway we call life’s journey. 

To quote Bill and Gloria Gaither, He was there all the time!  He was there, even when you were taking your beloved child, laden with firewood on his back, to the hill of sacrifice, and it hardly looks like the substance of a life you had hoped-for; and yet, you still put one foot in front of the other and moved forward.

And, like Abram, eventually, faith wins out, and your heart settles in calm, steady breaths of renewed hope…and deep-down you know you’re not forgotten…and never will be.

For You Today

If today is one of those days you find yourself caught in wondering how any of what you’re trudging through can possibly be God’s actual plan for your life, take heart and a little leading from Abram…Abraham, the one our Jewish brothers call “father of the faithful”.  And then keep walking towards the light.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Image Pixabay.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^©  

 

God's Design for the Family

Friday, August 28, 2026

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.  Ephesians 5:22-26

Today is my bride’s birthday, so I am dedicating this post in honor of her memory.  In today’s cultural unending ideas and opinions (most strongly held, mind you), nothing I say/write in the next few sentences is going to escape someone’s wrath.  If there are approximately fourteen-gazillion different opinions on what makes up a family, there are at least that many ways you can offend most of the world’s 8.3 billion residents by holding forth a singular form as ideal, or “better” than theirs.  Yet, says the preacher with a level tone who is about to do just that; so, here I go.

A friend posted on Facebook this image of “The Biblical Order of the Family”.  

Under each level of “order” there is a Scripture reference to support the pecking order.  I have no problem with most of it.  Starting at the top of the chart, any Christian who takes the faith seriously would nod in the affirmative that God designed family with Christ as the central and leading influence of a family for the best outcome of that family’s moral and spiritual health and well-being, and for this world’s communal harmony.  Note, please, that I fully support the role of husband as “leader, protector, provider”, and wife as “helper, nurturer, teacher”.  The children’s role of “love, obey, honor” is also good!  (Especially the “obey” part!)

So, preacher, where is the rub?  What’s wrong?  I’m glad you asked.

I do not know where this chart of “Biblical order” came from, nor do I know if there was any accompanying explanation, including footnotes, bibliography, flow charts, or authorship credentials.  But I recognize the demagoguery the image presents.  It has to do with the image presenting a top-down, no discussion needed or allowed, chain-of-command mentality, with the husband as commander in chief.  Now, before you start the engines running on email and chat room responses that would blister the paint on the walls, let me clarify. 

I do not take issue with all the chart’s maxims.  But what I do question is the visual representation of the husband/father over the wife/mother, which (to me) coveys a blank-check kind of authority, which Apostle Paul clearly refutes when he admonishes husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church.  How did Jesus love the church?  He gave his blood to give His bride (the church…us) life!  There is the “rub” for a top-dog, husband/father’s word is final, no questions asked leadership role.  Rather, the husband and wife are to become one, unified, unselfish team.  The one word which describes what both husband and wife are to live, breathe, and commit to in a marriage is servanthood.  Husband as dictator is hardly what God had in mind when he created Adam, and then creating Eve as a lowly subject.  Leadership…yes, but servant…foremost.  As followers of Christ, we serve one Lord, and each other.

There is way too much fleshing out needed here of the skeleton of marital relationship principle for a four-minute post.  So let me just offer an example.  

Elizabeth and I married in 1967, and it was not long after that we settled the principle for our life together – that there were two servants in our relationship.  All decisions were a matter of shared wisdom and responsibility.  We cared about what each other could contribute to our future and our family.  We cared about serving Christ together and serving each other.  We had our differences, and sometimes those different opinions were strongly held.  Elizabeth believed what Apostle Paul wrote about the husband being in the “headship” role; and Russell believed that headship included being held to a higher responsibility and accountability. 

When we could not find a common ground upon which to agree, she would offer a gift to God, by deferring to my choice.  And every time she did that, I recognized what that gift meant – putting aside her preference was an act of faith, that God would honor her submission, and give me wisdom to make a Godly choice.

Of course, not every decision made that way resulted in a Hallmark movie ending, where everything came out like Christmas Day.  Sometimes Russell’s choice would have been better served to do it Elizabeth’s way.  Sometimes those charged with leadership make terrible decisions.  And sometimes followers make terrible decisions. 

But the bottom line is that our marriage began with Reverend Bardsley offering a prayer over our heads, with knees bent at the altar…that prayer where the two become one, and together we commit to honor each other and Christ with our lives.  That marriage bond lasted nearly 58 years, until we said goodbye with family gathered around her bedside, praying.

For You Today

The takeaway here has nothing to do with a flow chart of responsibility suggesting chain-of-command, with Scripture to reinforce the rules.  It is a matter of commitment to Godly principles in every action and intention of our lives to be servants, to each other, and primarily to Christ.

So, husband, wife, ditch the command flow chart, pick up the towel and basin, and SERVE!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Image Pixabay.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^©  

 

The Power of God

Thursday, August 27, 2026

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent.  Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the teacher of the law?  Where is the debater of this age?  Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?  For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.  1 Corinthians 1:18-21

Gordon MacDonald, chancellor of Denver Seminary, tells the story in one of his books, about Charles Berry:        

In the late 1800s, Charles Berry, an English preacher, became the pastor of the great Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. One day Berry described how earlier he had come to Jesus Christ.  There had been a time in Berry's early ministry when he preached a very thin gospel--really no gospel at all.  As did the Corinthians, he looked upon Jesus as merely a noble teacher but not as a divine redeemer.

Late one night during his first pastorate, as he sat in his cozy study, there came a knock.  He opened the door and found a typical Lancashire girl with a shawl over her head and clogs on her feet.

Are you a minister? she asked.  Getting an affirmative answer, she went on breathlessly.  You must come with me quickly. I want you to get my mother in.  Thinking it was a case of some drunken mother out in the streets, Berry said, You must go and get a policeman.   No, said the girl, My mother is dying, and you must come and get her into heaven.

Berry got dressed and followed her for a mile and a half through lonely streets in the night.  He knelt at the woman's side, and he began telling her how good and kind Jesus was and how he'd come to show us how to live. 

Then the desperate woman cut him off.  Mister, she cried, that's no use for the likes of me.  I'm a sinner.  I've lived my life.  Can't you tell me of someone who can have mercy upon me and save my poor soul?  I stood there in the presence of a dying woman, said Berry, and I realized I had nothing to tell her.  In the midst of sin and death, I had no message.  In order to bring something to that dying woman, I leaped back to my mother's knee, to my cradle faith, and I told her the story of the Cross and of a Christ who is able to save to the uttermost.  The tears began to run down the woman's cheeks.  Now you're getting it, she said.  Now you're helping me.  Berry concluded the story by saying, I got her in, and blessed be God, I got in myself.^[1]

For You Today

Salvation is a matter of being right with God.  Do you believe the Gospel?  Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God, and that He is the only way to God? 

There are a lot of religions, and so-called spirituality out there today.  Many folks claim there are many ways…you have to find one that fits for you. 

But I say to you, with what Paul called the “foolishness of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, that there is one size that fits all…His name is Jesus, and there is salvation in no other name.  It is the only name under heaven; given among men whereby ye must be saved ^{(Acts 4:12)}.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^© 

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[1] Gordon MacDonald, The Centerpiece of the Gospel, Preaching Today, Tape No. 137.

 

God's Will For You

 

Correction... in the original post I described 

Danny's illness as AIDS.  I have since 

been made aware of my mistake.  

Danny was suffering from cancer.  

My apologies to the family.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“I just wish I knew what God’s will is for me.”  Over the years I have heard that statement in a variety of different ways, but the message is almost always the same underlying theme – God is such a mystery…who knows what I’m supposed to do.  Unfortunately, there is something of a sub-theme contained in it, a tiny admission of the fear of actually finding out what God wants you to do.  Apostle Paul gives us a one-size-fits-all that really does “fit all”, at least as a first step in the life-long journey of following God to find ourselves resting in the center of His will for us. 

I want to introduce you to the Smith family (yes…that’s their real name), they are friends of mine, who became family in a couple of ways.  I met Dan and Donna Smith in 1985 when we moved to Gainesville, Florida to serve as pastor at Parker Road Baptist Church.  They were easy to get to know, and impossible not to love.  As you can see from the family picture, smiles are not strangers to the entire clan!  Their joy and love for people have been an inspiration to me.  They took us into their friendship in many ways over the years.  In 1989 when it snowed (yes, it snowed IN FLORIDA!) we lost power, and our whole family was sick.  The Smiths had a backup generator and our family slept in their bonus room that week!

As their pastor we shared many moments of joy, and more than a few heartaches.  I officiated at two marriages in their family; one of which involved both our families, when Donna’s Mom, Naomi, married Tony, my wife, Elizabeth’s father.  Dan and Donna’s daughter, Darlene, married Rick[1] in 1989.  

In 1990 the other side of joyful showed up when son Danny died at only 29.  But, even in that early death there was joy, as on the last full day of Danny’s life, lying in a hospital bed in pain, Danny’s mom led him to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.  Fast forward 40 years to the Covid era, within recent years, both Donna and Dan went to be with Danny and Naomi in the presence of Jesus.  For them it was the continuation of what they had known for many years, the working out of what Apostle Paul offered, to rejoice often, give thanks in everything, and pray without ceasing.

Rewind back to the 80’s and let me share with you what Donna told me one day.  Donna served as the church secretary, and we saw each other every day at the office.  Some ordinary days have a lifelong effect because of what is said in a moment’s reflection.  When Danny was in the hospital battling cancer, we were discussing Apostle Paul’s advice, and I asked her how her “praying without ceasing” project was going.  She then dropped a truth-bomb on my life.  She answered, Russell, I’ve got so much dadgum stuff going on in my life, I just never get to say AMEN!

For You Today

You may not have experienced as many hard times as Dan and Donna’s family, or you may have been crushed much more by life’s harshness.  One thing is certain, keeping the prayer line going every waking moment (and trusting Him even when you’re sleeping) is the genuine one-size-fits-all that makes sense for you, and all the other 8.3 billion people on planet earth.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images: Russell Brownworth photo.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^© 

Posted on Facebook God's Will For You 

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[1] They are on the right in the picture. Dan and Donna on the left, and Dede, photographer supreme in the center.

Guide for a Messy Life

August 25, 2026

I have sought you with all my heart; don’t let me wander from your commands.  I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.  Lord, may you be blessed; teach me your statutes.                            Psalm 119:10-12

Our Sunday morning Bible Study gathering is something of a mixed brew.  We work at doing a deep dive into the Scripture; at the same time there are lighter moments with laughter.  And laughter is not the direct opposite of deep study.  It is more like the release valve at the top of a pressure cooker.  Whenever the contents of the sealed cooker gets too much for the container, the valve opens and lets off some steam.  In a class devoted to knowing God and His Word, that valve is certain to show up!

This past Sunday was not unlike others.  The Bible passage in 1 Corinthians was all about the difficulties that first century church was having with attitudes and behavior; that stuff gets personal.  We shared some personal views about an issue, and how the Bible addresses correct behavior.  That led to how we’re supposed to conform our lives to do what Scripture says (not the other way around, changing what the Bible says to fit our lifestyle and opinions). 

Bible study always invites personal opinions, and our class is no exception.  We sometimes chase a rabbit or two.  This week’s hare was bringing your Bible to church.  It’s a bit of a sticky issue.  Some study Bibles weigh-in like a Sumo wrestler.  If you throw a twenty-pound King James version in your purse and try to carry a toddler and a diaper bag with extra bottles, wipes, and eighteen pounds of toys, common sense dictates something’s gotta go.

Among the diverse opinions shared about carrying your Bible:

1.     1.  The actual bound paper with genuine cowhide is a must!

2.     2.  (my friend lifting his phone) “My Bible is inside here”.  (J)

3.     3.  The words are on the screen when the pastor preaches.

Not much of a list, but our discussion did morph into the importance of using the Bible for its intended use – the changing of life by the transforming power of God’s Holy Spirit acting on the hearts and minds of people who read, understand, and then put into action God’s instruction for our very messy lives.

Our class leader for this week, Sam, mentioned that preachers, called upon for a funeral, will sometimes ask for the deceased’s Bible, to hunt through for clues as to what was important to that person.  I immediately thought of the many times I had done just that, especially when I worked as a grief counselor. 

Chasing that hare, we mused on what the preacher would find in our Bibles.  Would it be bookmarks, notes, tracts, grocery lists?  I shared with the class that the one thing a preacher would find in my Bible, if he asked for it, would be coffee stains.  My life is as messy as anyone’s (including yours), and drips from my early morning coffee find their way to the Gospels and Genesis, as well as the Psalms.

If there is one thing I deeply desire when attending or leading a Bible study it is closing-in on a central thought that I can dwell upon, draw through the grid of God’s Word, and arrive at useful matching points that need attention in my life and behavior.  In short, I want to do what the Psalmist did…get that Word deep in my heart, my desires, my soul, so I have the strength to resist sin. 

For You Today

So, if the preacher asks for your Bible someday, what will he find?  And, more importantly, when God looks in your heart, will he find echoes of a life that was typically messy, but bent on seeking His face and longing for His presence?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images: Russell Brownworth photo.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^© 

Posted on Facebook Guide for a Messy Life  

 

HOPE

 

August 24, 2026

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.  Hebrews 10:23

My son’s feline child is named “Hope”.  She is a living, breathing, stalking dichotomy; she sleeps roughly 60 hours each day and for the other 12 minutes she is bouncing off every wall and door in our house.  The energy she stores up sleeping in the bay window seat comes out in the “zoomies”, mostly late at night when the rest of the semi-normal people are trying to sleep.  Hope’s energy rivals what you would find in an exploding star; she’s a feline super-nova telling the rest of the universe to get out of the way – this is MY moment, I’m unstoppable! A few weeks ago, our Sunday School class lesson was on servanthood.  Paul wrote to the Corinthian church that there is no other foundation (no other hope if you will) for God’s plans and work in the universe, than Jesus Christ[1]  With due respect to our feline resident’s delicate psyche’, she is not the real hope for humanity, even though she strongly believes so.

The word “hope” can be used in many ways.  One of those is to express a longing for something, such as, “I hope the mail comes early today.”  We might use the word to express a fear, such as, “I hope that noise I hear under my car’s hood won’t be expensive”.  (How’s that one working out for you?)  That kind of hope has two possibilities, positive or negative (that early mail might include a check!)  Hoping about that engine noise usually turns out less than positive in my experience.  But the hope in which we place our trust in Jesus Christ is not such an “iffy” thing that can go good or bad; rather it is more the expression of certainty.  When we’re certain of the outcome of what the future holds, we say something like, “you can take that to the bank” …or, “you can bet your life on that”.        There is no uncertainty when it comes to Christ’s love for us, or His forgiveness of our sins, or the power He has to extend eternal life.  He doesn’t just give us hope; He IS our hope.

As a pastor serving Jesus Christ, I have met too many people over the last half-century who have a “hope-so” answer to the question “Are you saved?”.  They have placed the weight of where they will spend eternity on a “hope” that has good and bad possibilities, and they’re longing for the good.  They hope they’ve done it ok, lived this life “right enough” so that God will take them to Heaven.  Frankly, that kind of hope (or faith) merely casts a shadow of doubt over God’s ability to forgive our sin and save us from sin’s penalty…death.  That doesn’t make sense; if Jesus died, was buried, and raised again on the third day so our sins can be forgiven, why the doubt?  Why believe Satan’s accusation that he whispers in your ear.  Something like: “Well, sure, God forgave that little white lie about your wife’s new hairstyle, and that one you said when she asked if that outfit made her look fat, but what is forgivable about the way you cheated that retired widow out of $20-grand for that worthless car you sold her?”

We confess such and then doubt.  And that isn’t even close to placing our trust in He who conquered sin and death.  He alone is our hope, the foundation of all God’s promises of Heaven

For You Today

When it comes to our hope and eternity, we can sit back and watch life go by at warp speed like my son’s cat doing her nightly zoomies, or we can sleep like that cat does through life, ignoring the threat of our human frailty passing into eternity.  Or we can place our faith, our life, past, present, and the eternity of our future in His strength – our only foundation, Jesus Christ, our HOPE.

I have it on irrefutable authority that your doubt is not the end of you, because Jesus died to take even that to the cross.  Do you recall one of Jesus’ disciples we call “doubting Thomas”?  One look at the risen Lord and he fell to his knees, and his faith was placed in the only hope the world, the universe, and your heart needs![2]

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

1] Title and Other Images: Russell Brownworth photo.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^© 

Posted on Facebook Hope 

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[1] 1 Corinthians 3:11

[2] John 20:24-29

Acting Foolishly

 

“Foolishly” is an adverb that describes the actions of a fool.  Nobody wants to be called or thought-of as a fool.  However, the libraries of the universe are filled with stories of the foolish ways chosen by mankind.  Essentially the word describes a person’s action when good sense, wisdom, or judgment has been laid aside in favor of one or more of the “seven deadly sins”.

We use kind words these days to avoid being offensive.  We call foolish deeds “unfortunate choices”.  Whatever you choose to call them, the outcome of those foolish decisions is to dishonor God’s trust as King Saul did ^{(1 Samuel 13)}.  The priest/prophet, Samuel, was late arriving at the battlefield to offer a sacrifice on Israel’s behalf.  The army was getting restless; some were even deserting.  So, the king, thinking to protect God’s honor, did what was not his place – he did the priest’s job, and God was not pleased.  The cost was God’s judgment; King Saul would be fired, and David would ascend the throne.

Samuel said to Saul, “You have been foolish. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. It was at this time that the Lord would have permanently established your reign over Israel, but now your reign will not endure. The Lord has found a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord commanded.”  1 Samuel 13:13-14

Who would do such a thing?  Dishonor God by taking charge?  Well, I would, and I have; now don’t you give me that look…you would, and you have also!

For me, it was years ago when I was young and quite inexperienced as a pastor. The church I was serving was somewhat stuck (I thought), languishing in complacency.  They needed (I believed) a stirring, convicting, revival-starting sermon.  So, I cooked one up and served it, steaming-hot.  Near the end of that sermon the heat of my emotions got the better of the preacher, and, to emphasize a point of how our outreach to the community was more important than all the buildings and stuff in them, I did a 1980’s version of a mic-drop…to the floor.  The squelching feedback could be heard by goats and cattle three counties away.  It blistered my own eardrums!  I had made my point, but two deacons in the crowd decided I’d gone too far and walked out of the service.

My (so-called) unfortunate choice (more commonly known as foolishness) was perhaps the worst moment of my entire ministry.  That smallish country church was hardly a kingdom like Saul’s Israel, but my God-dishonoring mistreatment of a piece of God’s property may have illustrated just how much being in-charge was more important to me than being in God’s will.

Until I get to discuss that moment face-to-face with Jesus in Heaven, I will not know the extent of damage I caused that day with my foolish choice.  Perhaps the list of spiritual casualties my sinful moment caused was what led to serving troubled, angry, unstable, on-life-support churches for nearly the rest of my time as a pastor.  Like King Saul, the choice I made also determined the judgment that came my way.  Even at this point, more than forty years later, I sense in my heart during those quiet middle of the night moments, lying awake remembering (as the elderly do) that I crossed a line that day.  I’ve confessed my sin, and am forgiven based upon God’s character and promise, but the nail of sin, withdrawn from the post of my life’s record, still leaves a hole of regret!

For You Today

The postscript to that regret for me (and possibly you) is that God did use King Saul to test David’s commitment and launch him to the throne.  Perhaps the church I left behind also benefitted by God’s use of my “unfortunate choice”!  It will not surprise me if it did; what, after all, is impossible with God?[1]

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Image by Christian Dorn from Pixabay   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible^© 

Posted on Facebook Acting Foolishly

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[1] He replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”  Luke 18:27