by admin | Jun 4, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross Racing to get to a rodeo or stock sale on time, some of us have experienced mercy at the hands of a law enforcement officer who chose to let us off with a warning.
Mercy from God is not receiving a punishment we deserve. Be sending Jesus to die for our sins and take the punishment we deserve, God shows us His greatest of mercies.
James 2: 12-13 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
When James tells us to live like we are being judged by the law that gives freedom, he is talking about the gospel and God’s mercy and grace given to those of us who believe. We repent of our sin with the understanding Jesus died to take the punishment our sins deserve so that if we believe in his life, death and resurrection and ask to be forgiven, we are able to have an eternity in Heaven. God no longer judges us for our sin. That is true freedom, far greater than a cop overlooking a speeding fine and the fact we aren’t wearing a seat belt. We can breathe a sigh of relief that our efforts to get to the rodeo haven’t cost us a couple hundred dollars but true freedom comes in knowing God will receive us into Heaven no matter what mistakes we’ve made because of our saving faith in Jesus.
But if we’ve been shown that kind of mercy, how can we not extend mercy to others instead of our own personal judgments?
Because of the previous verses in James, there’s an emphasis on how the poor are treated and the need for them to receive mercy from Christians, not judgment.
This still extends to all aspects of our life and James is encouraging us to be sure that we show mercy to everyone, all the time. That’s tough to do and why God, who can show endless grace and mercy, will still extend it to us.
We know that even if we mess up pretty bad after we’ve come to a saving faith in Jesus, God will still welcome us into Heaven through His grace. James warns us that even as Christians welcomed to Heaven, there are still consequences from God for us acting without mercy to others.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
What we show others, we should expect to be shown to us.
Would you rather sit in judgment of someone you don’t think deserves to be helped or would you rather honor God, who saved you from an eternity in hell, by showing mercy to someone.
That can be through forgiving a friend or family member who wronged you, helping pay someone’s entry fees who you would rather judge for blowing all his money at the bar the night before or giving money to the man begging at the intersection while the light is red and you’re late now anyway because the cop pulled you over.
Cowboys of the Cross is a rodeo/bull riding ministry that leads cowboy church services at events and maintains an online presence to share the gospel and make disciples among the ranch and rodeo community. They can be found at CowboysOfTheCross.com
by admin | Jun 2, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Have you ever been made to feel like you didn’t measure up? A lot of cowboys have been through this, especially from the rodeo side of the industry. To reach their goals, many jump from job to job and paycheck to paycheck to be able to stay on the road. They drive older, unreliable vehicles and ask to help tear down after the rodeo in exchange for the producer paying their fees.
Most within the industry gets it and will do what they can to help someone else that’s struggling. But back at our jobs or at school or among our extended families, we hear the “loser” comments behind our backs. Worse, we get hit with them spoken right to us.
And while I would like to think this doesn’t happen, there’s a reason many churches have notices on their websites about “coming as your are” or “dressed as your are.” I know a cowboy who quit going to church because to him, coming in starched jeans, cleaned up boots and a button-down shirt was coming dressed in his best, but he was actually told by a deacon in a suit to dress better for service. Be assured, this is rare and most churches are welcoming.
James 2: 1-11 (1 to 5 shown) My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
Our society still does this today. Maybe it’s because we think they can do something for us that a poor person can’t, but we’re drawn to the people who have more and the wealthy seem to get warmer welcomes in a crowd. While many are generous with their wealth, many also use their wealth and other rich connections to get further ahead. A rodeo cowboy is drawn to the successful champion and would rather be seen standing next to him than to the new guy who has his spurs on upside down.
For Christians, James is being straightforward in telling us not to show favoritism. And worse, he tells us when we separate out someone because they have less than us, we’re guilty of evil thoughts for judging them as lesser people. He later tells us it’s a sin to show favoritism.
Our real wealth comes in our faith and in those terms, we can all have equal chances at being rich in faith. The person with the new barn and growing cattle herd has just as much to gain in Heaven as the cowboy living out of his car, eating a gas station hot dog.
Further into the verses and we see reminders of the Old Testament law and how they kept the systems fair. We’re reminded to let the courts and governments set the rules society follows but that our place is to care for the people God puts in our path and to treat them they way we would want to be treated. That includes the welfare mom or the immigrant. It isn’t for us to personally judge and condemn them for their situations, but to help them when we see where we can provide help. It would be breaking the law to hire someone without a work visas but it isn’t wrong for us to give that person a bag of groceries if we know their children aren’t getting enough to eat. It isn’t right for us to condemn the welfare mom who has a package of cookies as a treat for her kids on the checkout belt but comes up short on her food stamps. If we have the extra, we can cover those cookies and hand her the orange juice we just paid for in our cart.
by admin | May 22, 2025 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Daryl Skeeter Spaulding / Cowboys for Christ chaplain
The greatest rancher of all time in the Bible was King Solomon. His kingdom stretched many places surrounding Israel. He had the command of the entire region and a multitude of personal staff that no other ever achieved. How would you like to manage and feed that bunch?
Let’s have a look at how he did it. We find it in 1 Kings 4:22-26. “Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors (5 ½ tons) of the finest flour and sixty cors (11 tons) of meal, ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice foul. For he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and had peace on all sides. During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their fig tree. Solomon had four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses”. (Bold letters and parentheses are added.)
That’s a lot of livestock, not to mention the waterfowl!!! Plus, all wheat and corn for the refining of flour and meal. Solomon was a ranching and farming mogul. It would have been a sportsman’s paradise. He both grew/raised the daily provisions and imported it from the countries under his influence. The definition of “daily” is what really struck me.
But what really made Solomon such a great man? This guy was about 20 years old when King David placed him on the throne. And now King Solomon was in charge before David passed. There are some indicators in Scripture that Solomon was not David’s first choice for his replacement. Being 20 years old with the world setting on his shoulders, does not exactly breathe confidence. This young King knew this as well. Solomon had a dream when God asked him a question. 1 Kings 3:5-15.
Starting with verse 5 we read— At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him,” Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for- both wealth and honor – so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” Then Solomon awoke-and he realized it had been a dream.
This is what made King Solomon so great!!! He wanted wisdom from Almighty God above anything else. I want my heart and attitude to be like this and I hope you do as well. Wouldn’t this attitude be great for every government official?
But let’s start with ourselves today. The first thing is to have a relationship with Almighty God through faith in Jesus Christ, reading the Bible daily and finding a good fellowship at church to do life with. All of this will lead to the wisdom we need to live a life pleasing to God.
by admin | May 6, 2025 | James
By Scott HIlgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Ever said something in anger or frustration that you regret at home or to someone you work with after a day where everything went wrong trying to get the branding done or after the fourth weekend of not making a check at the rodeo?
We all know cowboys, or at least of them, who have died in the arena and left a wife and children behind. After the initial fund raising efforts to help with medical costs or funeral expenses, how long after have we moved on with our lives and forgotten those families. If they never have a reason to be at a rodeo again, they quickly fall “out of sight, out of mind.”
And there aren’t many of us that haven’t been tempted by the party lifestyle that surrounds the rodeo industry.
James has already taught us the importance of doing what scripture tell us to and now he’s giving us three specific examples of what we should do if our religion, our Christian faith, is real.
James 1: 26-27 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
We hold our tongues.
We help widows and orphans.
We keep ourselves morally pure.
This isn’t a comprehensive list of what it takes to live out our faith but these are very specific examples from almost 2,000 years ago that James is pulling from the culture at that time. These were issues facing Christians then.
Isn’t it amazing how relevant the Bible is because these are still ways for us to live out our faith today?
And while these are just some of examples what Jesus and the Bible teach or show us are ways to live out our saving faith in Jesus Christ, they aren’t easy. Especially if you look at widows and orphans as representing the people who are most vulnerable or most in need in our culture.
A widow at that time was likely to be poor but in our lives around us, some of us right now are struggling with poverty or are one missed truck payment or a bad hay season away from bankruptcy as we are already hanging on by a thread. We know people whose lives have taken such a bad turn that they have taken their own lives. We have sex trafficking, addictions and mental illnesses that affect people sometimes at arm’s length from us and sometimes in our own homes.
It can overwhelm us if we feel the need or pressure to save every vulnerable person we know while keeping a tight watch that every word we speak is for good and every action we take is morally right. Praise God that He is in control, that we have grace for when we fail to meet these standards but most importantly, that our religion, our faith, is real enough that we have the desire to at least try.
by admin | Apr 24, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
There’s an expression about taking a good look at yourself in the mirror. It’s usually said angrily and means the person being yelled at has done something wrong, often hypocritically, but doesn’t seem to get it.
James tells us something just as direct about looking at ourselves in the mirror but with a different point about our faith.
James 1: 22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
James wants us to take God’s word seriously and uses the example of us looking at our own reflection and then forgetting what we look to tell us how foolish it is to learn from God’s word and then do nothing about it.
In rodeo, this would be like a judge reading the rule book and then ignoring everything in it as he worked the rodeo.
Or a bronc rider being shown how to set his saddle but forgetting he needed a screwdriver and not being able to figure out how to adjust the stirrups after getting his new saddle.
James is stressing the importance of not just reading and learning about what’s in the Bible but acting on it.
What good does it do to know what Jesus wants of us if we don’t act on it? Most importantly, we can’t benefit from the Gospel if we don’t take action on it. Jesus and Paul, through scripture, tell us how to have eternal life, but it takes believing in who Jesus was and is, repenting and asking to be forgiven of our sin. All of these things are actions in response to what we learn from scripture.
But once we’ve embraced a saving faith in Jesus, when our salvation is real, we have a desire to follow Jesus and live out what the Bible teaches us.
James uses an exaggerated example of forgetting what we look like immediately after walking away from our reflection in a mirror as an example of how foolish it is for us to believe the Bible is real and do nothing with it.
When Jesus commands us in Matthew to love others, he wants us to do that. When Jesus shows us how to pray to God through what we know as “The Lord’s Prayer,” he expects us to pray to God. James is stressing to us the need to actively pursue following what God’s word tells us in the Bible.
He also reminds us how perfect that word is, another reason that it would be crazy not to follow it and do it what it instructs.
It certainly isn’t easy to live it all out perfectly but whether you’re a rodeo cowboy or a traditional cowboy on a ranch, who better to take action on the hard stuff than you?
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