by admin | Mar 24, 2026 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Anyone who gets on the back of a bull or a bucking horse knows they only have so much control over what is about to happen when that chute gate opens. Anyone who runs a cattle operation knows they only have so much control over their operation to affect the prices come market day.
In the Book of James, James wants us to understand it’s God who is in control and it is Him we need to recognize is in control of those outcomes, including a 90-point ride or a buck off and a record market price or a devastating wildfire that burns through the pasture.
James 4:13-17 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
James offers some pretty strong words to make us think about our place in our own plans when we have no knowledge about what tomorrow is going to bring.
Wildfires have been raging through Nebraska recently and we’ve seen them burn their way through Texas multiple times in recent years. Just a year ago, I found myself grabbing what I could and feeling my own home with the glow of an approaching wildfire in the night sky. I had been watching television and expecting to get up the next morning getting ready to do cowboy church at a rodeo. Instead, I spent the night in a friend’s spare room waiting for word on whether or not my home survived. Praise God, the high winds we were having shifted the fire north into an unpopulated area until it was brought under control as the winds finally gave up.
It’s a helpless feeling but a hard reminder that, good or bad outcomes, God is in control. James tells us that it is His will we should be seeking in everything we do. He doesn’t call it sin, but instead, choosing a harsher word by calling it arrogant and evil for us to boast to others about our plans.
What makes it arrogant is to think we can control our outcomes. That doesn’t mean we don’t work hard toward an outcome. It doesn’t mean we don’t plan out how much feed we think we might need to pick up to make it through until the spring pasture greens up enough to move the cattle. We plan these things with understanding that we are only here for a short time while God has been in control for generations before us and for as many generations as this Earth has left. We need to seek and follow God’s direction through each decision we make.
He ends the section of scripture with a warning that knowing what God wants us to do and ignoring it is sinful.
by admin | Mar 4, 2026 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
If you’ve competed in the roughstock side of rodeo, you know what it’s like to be judged. In that context, the judge is using his knowledge and a rule book to decide what points to award you or, if the book still has a mark-out rule, to disqualify you for missing it.
That same judge could decide to issue you a fine if you cuss within earshot of the crowd, your dog gets loose in the arena, you have an eagle feather in your hat or you’re wearing an unapproved sponsor patch. There are consequences for not following the rules and the judge gets to determine if the rule was broken and hands out the fine or ban. The rest of us may have our own opinions about the rules or the fine that was given but the judge makes the call.
As Christians, we have a rule book to follow in the form of the Bible and James cautions us against judging others, recognizing God is the only judge.
James 4:11-12 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Now, the Bible is far more significant in our lives than a rule book. Those with a saving faith in Jesus know obeying rules do not get us into Heaven. It’s only through repentance and asking to be forgiven of our sins that our belief in Jesus saves us from God’s punishment for our sins by Jesus’s death on the cross, taking the punishment in our place.
It’s because of what Jesus did for us that we want to follow what the Bible teaches but it can be easy to forget the sins we’ve been forgiven from when we see someone else that isn’t measuring up to what the Bible teaches us.
We become judges and it often shows up in the form of us running our mouths about the person’s mistake, slandering them and judging them for what they have done.
It’s important to understand the judging someone is not the same thing has talking to them about their sin. If we can’t help someone understand how their sin separates them from God and will lead them to hell without Jesus, we can’t ever share the gospel. Pointing out to someone that cheating on his wife is a sin isn’t judging them when it is between the two of us and is about pointing them to Jesus. That is offering them hope, not condemnation. When we condemn a person and no longer offer them forgiveness for what they’ve done, now we’ve judged them because we’ve not just identified the sin but we’ve held it against them.
That’s God’s place and a very arrogant place to put ourselves as James is saying.
When we use the rules and teachings we find in the Bible and hold it against a person for failing to live up to it, we’ve put ourselves in God’s position. James is basically saying, “how dare you?”
When we have a saving faith in Jesus, we’ve been forgiven all our sins and God no longer holds it against us. If we’ve been given that when we deserve punishment, how can we judge someone else and punish them?
That judgment, remembering we mean also condemning the person, can show up in the form of us gossiping and slandering the person among others who know them, it can be in the form of taking our revenge against them if their sin was against us personally or it can simply be in our attitude toward them in hearts where we look down on them for what they’ve done.
What they need from us is the same forgiveness we’ve been given through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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