You wouldn’t leave home without your smart phone but what about your Bible?

You wouldn’t leave home without your smart phone but what about your Bible?

by | Nov 16, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes

By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross

If we leave for the rodeo without our cell phone, we’ll run back into the house to get it. If we’re 10 minutes down the road, we’ll turn around. Chances are, we’ll notice we don’t have it before we leave the driveway because we’re going to plug directions into the fairgrounds or arena and use the GPS to either help us find the way or get around any obstacles in our path by letting it route us around a traffic wreck. It alerts us to speed traps while other apps play music or help us keep in touch with our buddies who are on their way to a different event.

It isn’t a cell phone anymore. It’s a smart phone and we’ve come to depend on them to literally help us get through the day.

But how many of us leave the house without our Bible? When we’re 10 minutes down the road and realize it’s still at home, would we turn around to get it?

How about this? Do we even know where our Bible is?

And what about that smart phone in our pocket? There’s an app for almost every version and translation of the Bible out there.

We live in a time when we have more access to God’s word than in any other time of our lives but it’s possible we live in a time when turn to God’s word less than ever.

Matthew 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Before Jesus began to preach and before he called his first disciples, he spent time alone in the wilderness facing temptations from Satan including what he is responding to in this verse. The devil wants him to turn stones into bread but Jesus says he needs more than physical nourishment; he needs God’s word.

We now have an entire Bible that we understand is God’s word to us.

We struggle to get through a day without the apps on our smart phones to help us, but we are starving for God’s word and most of us don’t even know it.

That smart phone now is a way we can ensure we never leave home without our Bible again by making use of the Bible apps that are there. Since we know we won’t forget our phone or will go back for it, then by having an app on the phone, we can know we will always have it with us.

The next step is to make sure we open it up, whether it is opening the app or opening a physical Bible that we keep in our rigging bag.

It can feel overwhelming at first to understand it all, but just reading a small book of the Bible or just reading a few verses is a step toward it getting easier. CowboysOfTheCross.come has tons of Biblical teaching and just like we live in an age where we have access to more Bibles than any other time, we have access to countless sermons and podcasts that can help us to digest God’s word and make sure we are well-fed.

Motivated by a win or by God’s direction

Motivated by a win or by God’s direction

by | Nov 2, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes

By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross

What is your motivation when you pray?

In church culture, it’s normal for us to ask how to pray for one another, especially if we’re part of a Bible study or small group. And it’s biblical to do that. The book of Acts is just one place that makes it clear we’re supposed to pray for each other.

But we train ourselves to ask God for our needs without checking our motives and those motives can sometimes get in the way.

James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

We forget that God wants us to give Him glory. We forget that the Bible is full of instructions about putting others first over our own needs. We forget that as Christians, we’re in a process of becoming more like Jesus and less like our selfish selves.

When we pray to win a rodeo, why are we wanting that win? Are we chasing a buckle that we can be proud of or to bring ourselves the glory of the win?

It is totally okay to want these things but a more Biblical perspective is to use our victories to bring attention to God. Talking about our win opens the door to tell others about how we know we couldn’t have done it without God, for example.

And a loss? Same opportunity. Someone will likely come up to you to tell you it was a good effort or to offer some advice on what to do. Any conversation can open the door to turn it to God.

“Man, I just keep asking God to help me get better at keeping my chin tucked and if nothing else, I got that right tonight, so praise Him for even the small things.”

That’s just one way it can look to give God glory.

We can’t know what God’s plan is and praying for that win may not bring it about. If it doesn’t, our motivation still needs to line up with what’s in scripture.

Are my needs for myself because I want that year-end buckle before I retire or do I need this check to help my mom with a medical bill or to put food on the table for my family?

This isn’t to say we shouldn’t tell God what we feel we need.

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We’re told not to worry because God is going to take care of us but being thankful for our current circumstances, good or bad, we’re also supposed to tell God what we feel we need.

Then we have to trust that God is going to meet our needs but sometimes it’s the struggle that we need to help us grow and learn to rely on Him.

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