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.
by admin | Oct 23, 2024 | Truth
PART TWO OF THREE
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
How we think and act on information is influenced by our culture, our attitudes, our upbringing and the people we put in our lives. For Christians, how we think about the world around us needs to be one that’s influenced by our faith in Jesus and knowledge of scripture.
That’s called a “world view.”
It’s how owning a gun can be natural to many Americans but in Canada and England, far fewer people even think about owning one. As similar as the countries are, there are different worldviews influenced by their cultures.
Our world view as Christians MUST be grounded in scripture and influenced by a desire to live the way Jesus wants us to live.
There is no other way.
Having a Christian world view means we are going to want to seek out what is true.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Paul is encouraging us to look for what is right and good in the world around us and focus on that.
We live in a time where false information spreads like wildfire across social media platforms. When we aren’t operating from a Christian world view, we are going to have strong opinions about issues that affect us that aren’t shaped by truth. The false information is put out there by people who are putting their own interests first, wanting to shape how you think about the issue, person, circumstance or situation they are talking about, often for political or financial gain. They’ve formed their opinion without a Christian world view and often can’t be trusted. Their motivations are to get you to think the way they do. Some don’t even believe what they have shared or put out there. They simply say what they think you want to hear to collect views, clicks and likes for financial gain.
When we share information, are we doing the same thing? Are we sharing something because we want it to be true and want to sway others to believe it too or are we sharing something that we know is true. There’s a big difference and for Christians, it should only be because we know it is true. As Paul said, what’s noble and true are what we should be focused on.
As Christians, we need to be people other Christians can trust as well when we seek advice or wisdom on how to act on the information around us.
In the age of social media, it’s hard to know what is true sometimes. We have such strong opinions, particularly about politics right now, that we believe anything that supports our view without checking the sources or having any reason to know it’s true other than to us, it is something we want to believe is true. We are to the point where we are making life choices and ending friendships over believing information that isn’t real. In a way, that’s like living in a false reality.
It’s okay for you and I to look at the same facts and truths and come to a different opinion about it. As long as we’re doing our best to apply the Bible and seeking godly wisdom to know how to respond to the truths we are pursuing, we can still come to a different conclusion from someone else. Whether dealing with other Christians or not, as long as we still treat people we disagree with the same same way Jesus would, we still maintain our integrity and are still interacting with the world around us based on a Christian approach to knowledge that is real.
And when we’re focused on what is real, noble and praiseworthy to God, God is glorified and our hearts are more at peace with the world around us.
by admin | Oct 23, 2024 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Whether on the ranching, rodeo or horseman side, a cowboy is known for being tough, independent and taking care of work and life on his own. There are times when there’s no way around it and we just need some help, but otherwise, it’s seen as being weak to not be able to take care of ourselves, our animals and our families.
For Christians, we have to look at it a little differently by letting go of at least some of our pride. People who don’t have a saving faith in Jesus just see their strength as their own and their circumstances are whatever they made them.
With Jesus, we realize that nothing we do is accomplished without him. That can hurt our egos a little until we start to understand better what it means to “walk with Jesus.”
John 15:3-5 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
These verses are most often taught to show us that when our faith in Jesus is real, we produce fruit through having Jesus as a deep part of our lives. Fruit are the good, God-honoring actions and attitudes we produce in our lives and when we have been saved through our faith in Jesus and our repentance of sin, he abides in us. We can’t help it and as a result, everything we do is through Jesus.
More of the verses teach us that without Jesus, we are eternally separated from God, unable to do anything in this life that would be seen as fruit—actions and attitudes that honor God.
While life can still be difficult and we can face struggles and challenges we haven’t even imagined yet, if we take the time to think through these verses, we can realize we aren’t alone in our struggle and we’re going to have the strength we need from having Jesus in us.
Ephesians gives us something similar that we can also found encouraging.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God created us to to good works, which is also another word for fruit. Even when we struggle, God has plans for us that are already set out. That means we have Christ going through it all with us. When we are following what God wants us to do, Christ is there to give us the strength to do it, working along side us as we saw in John.
That means we can pursue what God wants us to do with every expectation of it working out the way God intends it to. Life can still be hard and not go the way we want it to, but God will use us in ways that build up His kingdom. There is hope and purpose for us if we can understand and accept that as true.
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