Behind the Bucking Chutes
Christianity is like a saddle
By Josh McCarthy / Cowboys of the Cross
I heard a good example that explains Christianity but I’m going to put my own spin on it.
Christianity is like a saddle; it’s as simple as leather, rawhide and wood but as complex as all the work that goes into carving the tree, tooling the leather, engraving the silver on the conchos and everything else in between to make a good, custom saddle. When it comes to things like Christ dying on the cross, taking the wrath for all the sins of everyone who would believe in Him on Good Friday or God raising Christ from the dead, which is what we just celebrated on Easter Sunday, it is as simple as the statements I just made and also way more complex than we could understand.
But the good news of the gospel is as simple as these passages in Romans that show us who we are, who Jesus is and why it matters that we celebrate His resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We are all sinners. We have violated God’s law and because of that we are separated from God and apart from God’s grace, we are God’s enemies.
Romans 5:8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were still haters of God, He sent Christ to take the punishment for our sins.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We all deserve death for even the smallest sin we’ve committed but through faith in Christ, He takes that sin and suffered the punishment for it on the cross. Through His grace, He gives us the gift of being adopted sons and daughters of God instead of His enemies.
Romans 8:1
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Jesus took the punishment of all past, present and future sin for all who believe in Him. If you believe in Jesus, God has given you freedom from the punishment of your sins. This should lead us to live a life of gratitude and a desire to follow His commands.
Romans 10:9
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This is why we celebrate Easter because if we are Christians we do believe that God raised Jesus from the dead to prove that Jesus is who He said He was i.e. the Son of God, the second person of the trinity that came to take away the sins of all those that would believe and save sinners like you and me from an eternity suffering in Hell and by His grace giving us the gift of Easter.
Mud season can remind us how dumb it is to cling to our sin
By Josh McCarthy / Cowboys of the Cross
“[March] is a busy time of year. Feedlots are full, calving is starting, and the lambing crew is still getting
the jugs ready. Cowboys are still wearing their winter long johns and five-buckle overshoes. It’s too soon
to take the mud and snows off the pickup. The days are getting longer, but nobody knows why. The
horses still have their hairy side out. It’s usually the last month you can stick a tractor up to the axle.
What most people do in March, is look forward to April.” – Baxter Black
If you’re in ranching, it’s the time of year that Baxter Black would call the month of mud. It’s when you
can get the first signs of warmer spring weather that can quickly change to a whiteout snow storm
that’ll take a week to dry out only to do it again. That kind of weather means a lot of mud and usually
doctoring sick calves in the process. One thing I was reminded of tromping through the feedlots the
other day was verses in Hebrews 12.
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every
weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
Especially the part about weight and sin clinging closely, it reminded me of the mud. Mud sticks to
everything; it’ll suck your boots right off your feet and makes it impossible for man or beast to move
around. It weighs you down and I don’t know anyone in their right mind that would say this time of year
that what we really need is just a little more mud around this place. We know that’s crazy but if you
think about it, that’s how we treat our sin.
When we give into our temptations, that promise fleeting pleasure. It’s like finding that biggest mud hole on the ranch and diving head first into it and loving it instead of what is actually good or helpful for us.
When we desire sin, we don’t see it for the mud hole it is. We believe the lie and see it as the best thing
since sliced bread.
This diving into the mud isn’t just something that happens before we become Christians. This is a struggle
for believers as well. Hebrews is addressing Christians when it says “lay aside every weight, and sin that
clings so closely,” And I’ll be honest, I struggle with this just like anybody else. As I write, I’m reminded of
my sin that clings so closely but praise God, we have a mighty Savior in Jesus Christ that doesn’t leave us
in the mud.
Psalm 40:2 says “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a
firm place to stand.”
If we are Christians, then Christ saved us from our past, present and future sins. He has given us the
foundation of faith in Christ and the Gospel. He has extended grace to us and loves us enough to not
leave us in the mud of our sin even on days when we want to nose dive right into it.
Hebrews 12:2-3 “2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider
Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Newborn calves and Christians have much in common
By Josh McCarthy / Cowboys of the Cross
It’s calving time where I am and we’re just starting what cowboy poet, Baxter Black called the month of Mud so for anyone in the cattle business that means long days, short nights and plenty of time in five buckle overshoes. It really helps if a new calf will just jump up and start sucking, getting that colostrum and milk he needs to survive. The example of a new born calf is similar to that of a Christian . 1Peter 2 tells us, “2Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation”
The pure spiritual milk is the Bible as Christians we are to desire reading God’s word and applying it to our lives. Much the same way a new born calf needs milk or it will die, a Christian not reading his Bible regularly will be starved spiritually. I’ve had calves that’ll jump right up after birth and get all excited and root around every part of that cow but never latch on. if they don’t get help, they’ll end up like the seeds on rocky soil in Matthew 13 “5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.”
We need the root of God’s word. Sometimes a person will go to a church service or some type of
meeting, get all emotional and decide to “give their life to Jesus.” They might pray a prayer and feel really good for a few days but they’re like that calf that jumps up but doesn’t latch on, the moment is done, it’s back to normal life and they fade and become spiritually starved. I’ve seen it where for some reason a calf isn’t sucking, you’ll come up on him and the cow will have a big ol tight bag and the calf can barely move, if you don’t get busy quick that calf will die. The same thing will happen to Christians we just talked about–he gets all excited at the meeting but then never reads his Bible or gets involved in a local church. He will starve spiritually which is why the Bible is so important.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
These passages show us the importance of the Bible and hearing it preached at a local church on
Sundays. so I would encourage all of you to take it seriously, study it regularly, and take it in and apply it to your daily lives so you won’t spiritually starve.
If someone warns you about a bronc you listen; listen to God’s warnings
By Josh McCarthy / Cowboys of the Cross
There’s an old hymn we’ll sing in church every now and then called trust and obey.
Maybe you’ve heard it, if someone were to ask me what I thought God was trying to teach me at this
point in my Christian walk it would be exactly that, to trust and obey.
Say you’re entered in the bronc riding and one of the top guys stops to give you advice chances are
you’re going to pay attention, trust his advice and try to put his teaching into practice during your next
ride. Or how about when one of the top hands on the outfit gives you some tips along with some
warnings about certain parts of the job that only come with experience. If we would trust and obey that
kind of advice how much more should we trust and obey God and His Word when it comes to things like
being saved from our sins and how God expects us to live life every day.
We all need to trust and obey God including His warnings like the ones in 1 Corinthians 6 that says
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor
thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Or Romans 6
For the wages of sin is death,
These warnings have been a help to me in my Christian walk on days when I’m tempted and want to just
assume God will have grace so I can live however I want.
If we would listen to the warnings of an experienced mentor on things like bronc riding or cowboyin’
how much more should we listen to Gods warnings.
To go along with those warnings, we also need to trust and obey the good promises of a loving and
gracious God like Romans 10
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
Or what about John 6
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes
in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37All that the
Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out
God desires all to trust and obey Him. If we come to Him in faith, heed His warnings and trust His
promises namely believing that Jesus Christ is God that He took the punishment for your sins by His
death on the cross and rose again three days later to defeat sin and death. He will save you from your
sins and give you the gift of eternal life with Him. Trust and obey that today.
Helping set up a bull rope can be a bigger deal than you think
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
A couple weekends ago at a Bull Riders and Outlaws event I was leading cowboy church at, I watched as a young bull rider, Silas Turnmire, was asked by a little boy Donny Almeraz, to put his bell on his new rope. Silas stopped getting himself read to give the little cowboy a hand and showed him how to do it.
What does Silas get for helping young Donny, barely old enough to be a junior bull rider?
What does Donny get from Silas?
The obvious is help getting his new bull rope set up.
But if Silas, as a Christian, is intentional about what and why he helps someone else, the young cowboy gets to see a glimpse of Jesus.
While imprisoned for his beliefs, Paul wrote Philippians to the church in Philippi and in the first part of the second chapter, was encouraging the church to imitate Christ’s humility to others.
Philippians 2:3-4 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
I’ve been around enough to see some rodeo cowboys and bull riders make it to the top and watched them come back to smaller deals in their hometowns or to make a guest appearance at show run by a producer at whose events they used to ride. But what happens is, you no longer see them just hanging out with the other guys, many who they once knew. Instead, you see them talking to the producers and stock contractors who the top hand now sees as the only other big shots there. The guys they used to hang out with are now accompanied by newer riders who suddenly feel intimidated to even approach the guy who might have bucked off at that same arena just as often as the new guys are as they learn the sport.
I’ve also seen the champion bull rider come back to an old venue and get behind the chutes to spot or pull another guy’s rope or if he’s entered, getting some bull rider he doesn’t even know, to pull his rope.
Both can leave an impression that last but which offers more to others?
Jesus was equal to God in power and could do anything. What did he do? He still looked to his Father for help and served others as if they were more important than him.
John 13:12-17 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
There’s a lot to unpack in these verses but for what we’re talking about in this situation, we’re seeing Jesus, who they know is their Lord, showing humility and setting the example of serving others. If he can humble himself, how can we not?
So if I know you’re a Christian, which actions point me to Jesus? And if I don’t know anything about Jesus, but I see you humbling yourself and being kind to people you don’t even know or that I think are beneath you in status, that gives me some hints that there’s a reason you’re different. You as a Christian are hopefully going to talk openly about Jesus and have a chance to talk to me about him.
Attaching that bell for the young kid may be a really simple illustration from something that took no time or thought at all for Silas, but if we see ourselves as Christians before anything else we are or do, then we take actions like that knowing it can both point others to Christ and bring glory to God.
Grace can lift us up when we fail to meet a goal
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
As we get rolling on the new year, some of you have set resolutions and goals. I’m not here to say don’t do that, I’m here to say, don’t set yourself up for failure.
Resolutions and goals can be traditional like hitting the gym harder or deciding to win a buckle, event or qualify for a finals. They can also be something harder as a Christian resolving to end an activity, habit or lifestyle choice that is a sin issue for you.
Not a bad idea at all for us to want to fight against sin in our life. It’s often seen as evidence that our salvation in Jesus Christ is real, when we desire to move away from sin and be more like him.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
So right away, we see an encouragement that sin is no longer in control of our lives because we’re not under law.
What that means for Christians is that once we have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, there is no longer anything else we have to do to be right with God and gain entry to Heaven when we die.
Before Jesus, the Jews had complicated rules that had to be followed in order to be in right standing with God. Then Jesus came so that not just the Israelites, but all of us, could be made right before God and gain entry to Heaven. Many of the rules the Israelites followed involved sacrifices. Jesus came to be a final sacrifice and through his death, he took on the punishment that otherwise would be given by God for any sin we have and that would otherwise keep us from his presence in Heaven and instead be left condemned to Hell. By believing Jesus was the Son of God, died for our sins, also was resurrected, we can be saved from God’s punishment of sin by truly being repentant of our sin and asking to be forgiven.
THEN we have grace, the second part of what is mentioned in the verse from Romans. We are no longer going to be judged by God and there is nothing else we have to do to earn more from Him. Jesus gave himself to give us everything.
It doesn’t give us permission to live sinful lives and do whatever we want to do, but it gives us grace for when we mess it up. It means if we fail at a resolution, fail to make a change, fail to fully conquer a sin we struggle with or fail to live up to any standard we or others set for us, God loves us the same and, through what Jesus did for, sees us as perfect and is waiting to welcome us to Heaven.
You are free to set your goals, make your resolutions, but you’re also free to fail WITHOUT discouragement. Jesus loves you more than you could ever hate your biggest mistake or failure. That’s why he died for you. YOU.
If you haven’t found that saving faith in Jesus, you don’t have to wait for midnight to have it, you can repent and be forgiven right now.
If you are a Christian, well, go get it with the confidence that win or lose, you get it all in the end.
Happy New Year from all of us at Cowboys Of the Cross. We look forward to every opportunity you give us this year to try to serve you, minister to you or otherwise help you know Jesus or become more like him. We’re all works in progress right alongside you.
What we find in scripture contradicts how we want to be
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
People who oppose Christianity will sometimes look for contradictions in scripture to prove to them it isn’t true. I did when I was trying to decide what I believed. What they find instead are contradictions to how they want to live their lives. Either way, they walk away from it.
I think that’s one of the biggest struggles for the cowboy crowd: they see it as a book of rules asking them to live their lives differently so they reject it. At best, they decide for themselves, contradicting scripture they will never read, that as long as they believe in God and judge themselves a decent enough human being, they’ll be there in Heaven.
I was raised in church
My grandaddy was a preacher
I talk to God every day in the barn.
I know my blessings come from God.
I go to a good church.
I read my Bible and go to cowboy church at the rodeos.
I believe Jesus was born in that manger
I believe in God and am a good person.
My family are Christians.
None of this saves you from God’s judgment.
James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
James tells us even the demons believe in God. Clearly it takes something else for us to get to Heaven.
They’re missing what it means to have a saving faith in Jesus and while they judge themselves to be good enough, fail to grasp they’re not going to pass God’s final judgment without a life transformed by Jesus.
Instead, a life condemned to Hell is waiting for them, no matter how ‘good’ they believe they are.
But the Bible isn’t a book full of rules you have to follow to get to Heaven. The Bible guides us to how to live more like Jesus but most importantly, it points to him and how to be saved from God’s judgement. Once we have that salvation, we don’t suddenly stop being who are, but God still immediately sees us as made completely new, without sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We would rather hold on to our old selves than be made new by a saving faith in Jesus. Instead of worrying about what we lose or give up to be a Christian, we should be chasing after that perfect eternity in Heaven harder than we chase after a championship buckle. Without Jesus, the buckle might be the best reward you ever receive.
With Jesus comes a perfect eternity and a life here that becomes more about what we are becoming and less about who we are holding onto. And while following Jesus becomes the priority, it makes every other part of your life better from the wins to the losses. You get so much more than you think you’re giving up; here and especially after.
Increasing the difficulty level, from milk to solid food
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
To get better at something, you sometimes have to increase your level of difficulty setting.
I sometimes get to lead cowboy church at a bull riding practice pen on Sunday afternoons. Most recently, a guy showed up with another bull rider who had never been on a bull before. He asked if he could get on the biggest bull they had. He didn’t do it in front of everyone to call attention to himself and there was no one there for him to impress. If he was going to try bull riding, this guy decided he needed to be all-in.
That illustrates one simple point we know from different teachings in scripture about the need to be committed, serious and all-in when it comes to our faith.
But here’s where it takes an important turn.
The producer and stock contractor was frustrated because he has an amateur division of bull riders who never turn out to practice. They typically buck the more rank bulls at the practice pen with the purpose being to help the riders get better. The frustration comes when these guys have ridden 50 or more bulls at the amateur level and won’t come to the pen to get on stock that is actually less likely to hurt them and more likely to help the build their skills.
Many seem to just seem content keeping it easy. Many of us do the same thing with our Christianity.
Hebrews 5 12-14 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
In these verses, the author, possibly Paul, is urging Christians to move from milk to solid food, meaning he wants to see them growing in their knowledge of Jesus Christ and what he had to teach.
Back at the practice pen, the new guy had an amazing experience and while he wishes he had wore a helmet, indicated he would the next time. He jumped into the sport at a harder level and even though he got banged up a little, he’s coming back for more.
You’re only going to learn so much getting on the jump-kicker bulls, you stand a better chance of falling off underneath one and getting hurt and unless you get on some ranker stock, you’re never going to get past that level.
We know as Christians that we will never be perfect like Jesus here in this life. But we know that we’re going through a process that will help us to become more like him, called sanctification. We can sit back and rest in our salvation and resist digging into God’s word and trying to apply it to our lives and situations and God will still welcome us.
But why would we want to settle and not have the chance to be at least a little more like Jesus now?
That’s why Paul urges us to get off milk and onto solid food, practicing what we’re learning and become more Christ-like as we train ourselves here and now for eternity in Heaven.
Back at the practice pen, we’re training ourselves to move up into professional competition where some will become world champions at the NFR or PBR. In our faith, we’re training ourselves to be more like Jesus.
We can understand the basics in scripture, milk, or we can dig in and let God’s word change us as we understand it more, being fed solid food. Solid food is what prepares us to deal with the challenges and consequences of living in
Or we can just keep getting on jump kickers and never be more than an amateur bull rider.
Losing the rodeo, again, can be a reason to be thankful
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
It’s the Thanksgiving season when families gather and give thanks for all they have in a giant meal together.
When the holiday is focused on a big meal, it also causes us to focus on thoughts around provision and ideas around the theme of the fall harvest of crops and how fortunate we are to have som much to eat.
When we look at what we can be thankful for, a lot of it leads us to thoughts about what’s been provided. Cattle prices are good, we’re thankful. If feed prices are low, we’re thankful.
The Thanksgiving season prompts us to be thankful for what we have or are given. We often use the term “blessed” and that is part of what leads us to associating being thankful for the good things we have.
“I was blessed to win the rodeo last night.”
“I won the year end buckle, #blessed.”
Search the hashtag “Blessed” on social media sites and there will be thousands of those kinds of statements from Christians and non-Christians alike across every lifestyle.
So do we ever consider it a blessing when we enter a rodeo eight times in a row and lose each time, or when something far worse happens?
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
This verse tells us a lot about the state of mind Christians should maintain. We should always be rejoicing, understanding the salvation God has given us through Jesus Christ.
We should always be thoughtful about praying. When we see a situation unfold, pray. When we have a worry, pray. When we are making a decision, pray. When something good happens, pray—giving thanks.
When something bad happens, pray—giving thanks.
It says all circumstances.
But here’s what James has to say about why a bad situation is worth both being joyful and praising and thanking God.
James 1: 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
God can use the worst of our circumstances to continue building our faith and our ability and willingness to persevere through the trial or struggle, to bring about Christian maturity in us—to make us more like Jesus Christ.
Anything that makes us more like Jesus should be worth thanking God for when we learn to value who Jesus is and put our hope and faith in him.
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul who wrote the letter, is telling us that because of our saving faith in Jesus, it’s God’s will for us to rejoice, pray and give thanks in everything.
As the holiday season gives us a reason to think about our blessings and give thanks, be encouraged if you’re going through something challenging or that feels impossible, that God isn’t going to let it do anything but make you more like Jesus and that’s something to be thankful for.
We want good teaching when learning to rodeo, we must want the same from Christian teaching
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
There was a weekly bull riding that used be held on Tuesday nights that I would get to go and lead cowboy church at. A young man there knew everyone, never entered but always talked about the other events he had been at and won.
It was explained to me pretty quickly that he had some kind of social disorder and was making it up. The details he gave and his knowledge was incredible as he would describe being right at one of the entry-level PBR events with JB Mauney and others who, at the time, were working their way up.
Most people just went along with it and would let him tell his stories and occasionally someone knew would come along. It became a problem when he was giving advice to one of the new guys on how to take a bull that he really didn’t know anything about. That guy was pretty upset that no one had warned him not to listen.
It can be easy to be fooled but even easier when we’re being told ideas we want to hear. For example, who wants to hear Bible verses that tell us to expect hardship to go along with being a Christian? We especially don’t want to hear that when we’re struggling and want encouragement.
In what was just that, an encouraging part of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he warns that as Timothy is out there trying to teach communities about Jesus, others are out there delivering messages that sound good but cause people to miss the important truths—truths like how to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Worse, Paul points out people will put effort into seeking out what they want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
This warning came to Timothy almost 2,000 years ago yet in our culture today, there is all kinds of false and bad teaching to be found. It’s profitable to only give people what they want to hear and avoid teaching verses, for example, about sacrifice and denying ourselves.
We have to take time to discern what’s right or wrong and real but when something sounds so close to the truth or has elements of the truth in it, how can you tell when it’s coming from a church or ministry?
Well, we have our Bibles for that and can test anything we’re being taught against Scripture. If you’re still not sure, you can ask others that you know and trust.
And the more time we spend learning real Biblical truths, we can still find all kinds of hope and encouragement in the God’s promises to us in the Old Testament or the messages of a perfect eternity found in Jesus Christ.