by admin | Nov 14, 2024 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
A question I’ve been asked a lot over the years from the cowboy crowd is, “How do I know what God wants me to do?”
Often times, it has to do with one of two things: sorting out when to retire from the rodeo and find out what else to do in life or what to do about a relationship.
In one case, the young man was sincerely struggling. He was dating a girl and it was getting really serious for him but she was wanting to go back to her husband. He didn’t think her husband was right for her and that he could give her a far better life. He thought she was perfect for him and was hurt deeply that she would leave him after they had moved in together. He didn’t know why God would take her away from him or what he should do to try to convince her to stay.
Now, for must of us, this is pretty straightforward with or without the Bible. You let her go back to her marriage.
But for Christians, this should still be one of the easiest decisions to sort out. Sure, it hurts to lose a relationship that is important to you but the Bible offers lots of teaching against adultery and certainly in Old Testament laws, the punishment for it was severe.
Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
While we know when Jesus came, he turned a lot of these rules upside down. He kept the religious elite from stoning a woman to death for it but he still recognized and called out adultery as a sin.
Not everything in the Bible is as clear as this situation and issues can get complicated on what the Bible teaches about divorce and remarriage with some churches still take a hard stand on this also being adultery.
But for this young man’s dilemma, if he truly wanted to know what God wanted him to do, there are verses that make it clear he has no choice but to let her go back to her husband and no longer interfere in that marriage. Further, if he truly seeks God’s will, he would realize his actions were sinful and they both were in need of repenting.
There are many verses that give us clear direction that can apply to countless daily situations. Jesus commands us to be kind to others, he tells us to share our faith with others, he tells us to live in ways that honor God.
For the situations that are less clear, we still have to seek God’s will first in scripture and prayer but also through the counsel of those we trust to also be digging into God’s word for the direction we are supposed to take.
Our second example, of whether or not it’s time to quite rodeo doesn’t necessarily have clear Bible verse, but with a growing understanding of what is in scripture, we can look at issues about how the sport is affecting our family or personal life, our finances, our health and we can find other verses that might lead us to a decision that it is better for us to pack it in. Other verses could show us how the sport has become an opportunity for us to minister to others and share the gospel and there could be very compelling Biblical reasons that God would want us to stick with it.
Sometimes it’s easy to know what God wants us to do and sometimes it’s hard. Always, there are answers and guidance in scripture.
by admin | Nov 13, 2024 | Truth
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
PART 3 OF 3
Proverbs 12:22 The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.
We may not be intentionally lying but often what we are doing is willingly spreading false information because it supports a strong view and opinion we have. It doesn’t matter to us if the information is correct, we believe it is because it supports what we already think.
God wants us to be trustworthy.
In fact, we need to be trustworthy if we’re going to be able to tell people about Jesus and having any hope of them believing us.
The most important truth we can share is that of who Jesus is and what it means to have a saving faith in him.
1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
How we behave should line up with what we believe in terms of our faith. That needs to come from a solid understanding of what the Bible teaches and unfortunately, many of us these days know more details about false stories that circulate or false gospels (beliefs that sound Biblical but aren’t).
Here’s just a little bit to help you navigate what is real, particularly on social media. Most of this only takes seconds or minutes before
1.First, look to the original source. If it’s something that sounds Christian, look up the preacher or teacher or church it came from and see if their beliefs are rooted in the gospel and right teaching of scripture. That’s why you HAVE to know more of what’s in the Bible yourself to help you catch these things or ask someone you trust to verify it for you.
If it’s from the realm of politics, news and social issues, look at the original sources. Take the time to follow the post back to where it came from. If you can’t find a source, chances are it’s not true at all or at best, is misleading.
Clicks and views equal payments for some people while others just like to cause strife and yes, foreign governments actually have people creating fake content from both political views to cause fighting and disruption because the more divided we are, the more unstable the country is and the harder it is for any president to lead the people.
- Look at the original poster or page if it’s a current issue. Is it new? That’s a good warning sign it was made just to make trouble or generate clicks.
2. Look to see if it is satire. Satire is a form of humor that pokes fun at both liberal and conservative beliefs by exaggerating the truth. But often, if you go to the website or original social media page the content came from, there will be something on the page or the “about us” that will tell you it’s satire.
3. Look for dates on articles. Old articles often recirculate out of context and mislead about what is presently happening.
4. Look for fake profiles. Many people have security settings set that you can’t see much but often a fake profile has very little content or friends from foreign countries despite being the name of someone you know or being made to look like an American profile. Fake profiles often only have a name and profile photo showing. If they are sharing the content, it’s likely not real.
5 Pray. Be prayerful asking God to help you discern the truth. If you don’t know something is true, seek godly counsel from other believers and if it lines up with scripture, that can help us discern. We pray for wisdom and understanding and pray for God’s direction.
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