by admin | Feb 26, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
In the sport of rodeo, you have to be “all-in.”
It isn’t something you can do halfheartedly and expect to have any success. While there’s a danger in any rodeo sport, on the roughstock side of the arena, especially bull riders, know that if you aren’t all-in when you get in that bucking chute, you’re going to get hurt and maybe get others hurt too who have to try to rescue you.
Most rodeo cowboys would agree that you can’t play at these sports. You have to take it seriously, be fully committed and put all your effort into it.
James using the need for wisdom to teach us something about being committed and all-in with our faith.
James 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
This isn’t an instruction that if we fail at it, we aren’t good enough for God or to make it to Heaven but it’s a strong direction from James that if we are to be firm in our faith when seek help or direction from God.
As Christians or in rodeo, there’s a difference between making mistakes or getting something wrong and not being all-in. We’re still going to mess it up and sometimes it can even be costly. Getting the timing wrong means missing a catch in calf roping or getting hung up and in a dangerous situation during a bull ride. For believers, it can mean engaging in a sin with consequences such as an unplanned pregnancy or lashing out in anger and damaging a relationship the other person no long wants to repair.
God gives us grace for when we get it wrong but James makes it very clear that we need to be singularly focused on our faith. It defines us and there is no other way to live it out.
When we don’t, he describes us as being tossed two and fro like waves in an ocean. As Christians, we understand all our choices and decisions as Christians are directed by God, the Holy Spirit and our attempts to live out what is taught to us in Scripture. When we aren’t committed to our faith wholeheartedly, if we try following our own plan, from God’s perspective, we’re just being tossed around with no solid footing or ability to be on track. The only track we should be on is the one God has for us. Sometimes our direction is more clear than other times, but we should be taking each step on solid ground with a firm intent on letting a Biblical understanding direct our choices.
In this particular example from James, he is telling us that when we are facing struggles and are unsure of what to do, we should ask God for wisdom. But when we ask for it, we’re to approach God firm in our faith and confident He will guide us.
That means being willing to go where He leads us and do what we know He expects us to do.
That wisdom can come from people we know who are more mature in our faith or it can come directly from reading God’s word. If it comes from others, it won’t contradict anything we can find in the Bible.
To help us be firm and all-in, we have to spend time in God’s word studying and learning.
We know you’re all-in as rodeo cowboys but are you all-in for God? We’re here to help you figure it out if you are uncertain how to do it.
by admin | Feb 6, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Whether it’s competing in rodeo, raising cattle or working with horses, there is a lot to learn. The same is true of any job, hobby or interest that we pursue.
If I keep breaking the barrier during team roping but can’t figure out why I always leave that box a split second too soon. Someone with more experience may have advice to help me find that sweet spot between breaking the barrier or hesitating too long.
I’ve got a calf that just doesn’t seem to be putting on weight. I’m going to take supplement advice from a more experienced rancher a few miles down the road or what a veterinarian I know might suggest.
We need wisdom to make right choices or improve.
And when we are faced with a challenge in our personal life, especially when it’s unlike any conflict or struggle we’ve encountered before, we might not have the first clue what to do. James gives us some direction.
James 1:2-5 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. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
First, we learn that we should actually find joy in a trial we face but we have to remember this isn’t an emotion like being happy we’re going through a divorce, we lost our job or we broke our collar bone again and have to miss the next six rodeos—it’s a response to the understanding that God will do something good in that struggle. We can have a joyful attitude in the knowledge God is building us up while we face the current challenge.
James also suggests this response to a trail: pray for wisdom.
There are lots of examples in the Bible about praying for help and deliverance from a struggle but in this lesson from James, he’s specifically telling us to ask God to give us wisdom. That wisdom could be a solution to the struggle, it could be guidance on next steps or it could be clarity on what God is doing in us that we can be joyful about.
If this is specifically what he is directing us toward, we can trust that it is good advice to follow.
We wouldn’t ignore a veterinarian’s suggestion on how to treat a horse’s infected foot. We know the vet knows more than us and can trust his or her advice. A champion bronc rider’s suggestion on how to get your feet to the front is advice we can trust.
James was taught be Jesus and was a significant teacher in the formation of the early church. Then when he tells us to pray for wisdom, I think that would be the wise thing to do.
by admin | Dec 5, 2024 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
As cowboys, whether on the ranching or the rodeo side, you aren’t afraid of hard work and you know how to be tough.
When it comes to difficult personal situations, now matter how tough we are, it isn’t always easy to ‘do the hard thing.’
When is the last time you gave a sincere apology when you messed up? When is the last time you admitted you messed up in the first place? I think pride sometimes makes us feel like doing the right thing is a sign of weakness.
It’s actually just the opposite and it’s Joseph in another part of the Bible’s teachings on the birth of Christ, that shows us this. The verses in the second chapter of Luke are often referred to as “The Christmas Story” but in another part of the teachings about Jesus’s birth in Matthew 1, Jospeh shows us what it really means to do the hard thing.
Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Mary’s pregnancy would only be seen as adultery in this culture without them being able to understand God’s plan. The consequences for Mary would be facing being stoned to death. The consequences for Joseph were tremendous shame but again, in that culture, it would be far more devastating than what we can understand today.
But without yet knowing God’s plan, Joseph already sets a standard that is hard to meet: he is willing to end his betrothal quietly to prevent Mary from shame and potential harm. Once he understands God’s plan, he goes ahead and bears the shame their community would place on them by staying with Mary and doing as God commanded through the angel.
This is what it means for a man to do the hard thing.
Confessing our sin is hard. Admitting a mistake and asking to be forgiven. Paying back a debt months or even years after a friendship was ruined by it. There will be moments ahead for each of us to set aside our pride and even face a little shame or embarrassment in order to “do the hard thing” by doing the right thing.
Do the hard thing anyway. There’s nothing weak about that.
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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