“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”Matthew 7:13-14
When most everyone we know in rodeo and bull riding identifies as a Christian, how is it possible then that only a few will find their way to Heaven?
What Jesus is saying is that a lot of us really don’t know him in the sense that we’ve experienced a real relationship with him where we’ve truly believed in him, his death for us and his resurrection and truly repented of our sin and asked for forgiveness. And if we don’t have a genuine relationship with Jesus, he’ll also say he doesn’t know us.
Matthew 7:22-23On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Whether we do what look like great things or commit terrible sins, those actions don’t give us or destroy a relationship with Jesus, only belief in him, true repentance, confession of our sin and asking to be forgiven can save us. The good we do becomes evidence of our saving faith in Jesus.
Most of us believe a mixture of ideas of what a Christian is, but those ideas aren’t the gospel that God uses to save them. That also means that many of us care so little about our faith that we’re not seeing this potentially soul-saving post. That’s because nothing in us has been changed by Jesus to drive us toward learning more about him and God’s word to us in the Bible.
While we don’t profess to be the best teachers, too many people are not reading their own Bibles and not seeking knowledge from other teachers, whether it be this ministry or anywhere else. That breaks our hearts because we want everyone to experience a real, saving, life-changing relationship with Jesus. In rodeo and bull riding, we’re a family, and because you’re family, we love you and want you to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we know the truth of Jesus’s words and for those verses above to be true, most of the people needing to hear this have scrolled on past and the ones reading it are the ones we’re already blessed to get to know and serve through this ministry
Some of us worry about the future. Some because of difficult circumstances, some because it’s just what we do. Some of us don’t give much thought to anything and plunge forward into whatever comes next. Some face what’s ahead fearlessly with a mature understanding of verses like Matthew 6:25-34 that go to great lengths to assure us not to worry because God will take care of us.
Matthew 6:25-27Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Matthew 6: 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This can feel impossible to some of us and the reality is, it takes a lot of maturity in our faith that some of us may never even reach to be able to let go of worry. But at a minimum, these verses should be a comfort for what they tell us about how much God values us over everything He has created.
But regardless of how we face the coming year, as Christians, there are a couple truths we can focus on. God is in control and His will, will be done. Nothing happens without Him but what He commands us to do through Jesus is this:
John 13-34-35“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Matthew 28: 19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
If we focus on those commands, whatever challenges, trials or struggles we face, we can still see such positivity in the world around us because of what God can do with what we put into it. In and out of the rodeo and bull riding circuits, in and out of the cattle markets, in and out of the job you do or the school you attend, what are YOU going to put into 2022?
From nativity scenes to Christmas specials, we have the idea that the three wise men, or Magi, were there with the shepherds to see the baby Jesus in the stable.
Scripture tells us something different.
These men, called magi, were likely priests from an eastern culture like Persia, led by what appeared to be a star, to see the king they had heard about.
King Herod, like most, did not fully understand that Jesus was not here to replace his rule, but for a much greater purpose that would pave the way for all to be able to find salvation through his eventual death on a cross. He asked the Magi to report back to him the location of this king, lying about his intent to have the baby killed.
The Magi were warned in a dream to not return to Herod who was left without the location of Jesus.
Instead, what we have is a very grim part of the Christmas story in which Herod then ordered all children two years or younger to be killed.
Matthew 2:16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Verse 11 told us the ‘wise men’ arrived to see Jesus at a house, not a stable, and in this verse, we see it was as much as two years after Jesus was born.
Those who work in the rodeo and horse industries know how animal rights activists have extremely wrong ideas about the treatment of animals.
Much of their information is passed on from person to person and without digging in to learn from accurate information, they simply believe what they have been told, without question.
The lesson for us in this story about the wise men is the importance of taking our Biblical knowledge directly from scripture.
What we assume we know from what is passed on by others isn’t always true. It’s how most people generally overlook the fact that when we die, we don’t actually ‘get our wings’ or become angels.
Psalm 8:5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
The “them” being referred to in the Psalm is humans, while Genesis 1:25 describes the types of angels God created and 1 Corinthians 6:3 references people judging angels. The distinction is clear that people and angels are never the same.
Following these common misunderstandings about the Bible don’t cause harm to God’s plan for our salvation, but they show us the need to not just rely on what we think we know about the Bible, but to dig in for ourselves to all that God’s word has to offer us.
The Christmas story is a far more beautiful story when we understand it correctly and how it shows us just how much God loves us. We need to understand the story starts with the birth we are celebrating but it leads to Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection so that through faith in who Jesus was and is and by asking to be forgiven of the sins that separate us from God, we can be given an eternal home with him in Heaven–not as angles but as the perfect creation God made us to be.
Through Cowboys of the Cross, the most visible work I get to do is lead cowboy church, a short service with the contestants and sometimes fans before the start of rodeos and bull ridings. But a small team of us work together producer content for the ministry website and social media.
Most recently, we started doing something called The Short Go—short videos meant to teach and encourage.
But we mean short. We’re trying to work within a two-minute limit and that caused a lot of discussion about how we could do that effectively and still treat the word of God with the care and respect it deserves.
2 Timothy 2:15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
“Rightly handling the word of truth.”
Biblical teaching like that from Paul in his letter to Timothy is what caused a lot of discussion before we started to do these short messages last month.
Social media is pushing millions of people toward consuming short content through apps like TikTok. Instagram, that was started as a photo site is switching to short-format videos. All of it is creating a culture that is consuming information in short chunks when we know Scripture as a whole has incredible depth.
So, could we handle God’s word carefully and correctly in that amount of time? We all know the consequences if we don’t.
James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. However, when we look at a typical church sermon, while it may be 40 minutes long, when someone in the sanctuary is scribbling down notes, it is usually because of a specific point the pastor has made from a specific verse.
That is partly how we’re trying to approach these short messages, by making sure that a clear and correct point is being taught.
We know we’re going to be judged by God if we’re reckless with His word and our genuine desire to teach and reach the cowboy community are strong motivators for us to be careful with this work. But we also see it as part of a bigger picture.
2 Timothy 3:16-17All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Paul shares with Timothy how important Scripture is for absolutely everything from how to live to making sure we’re prepared for everything God would have us do.
Everything we do through Cowboys of the Cross from a cowboy church-style devotions for a newspaper in Bandera Texas to our presence on social media or at rodeos is meant to be a part of that equipping.
Being part of a church community and doing our own Bible study are also huge parts. So even a two-minute message can contribute. We host all our past videos on the Cowboys of the Cross YouTube channel you can find with a simple search and we keep this site updated every other Thursday with new material we hope can be a part of equipping you for whatever God has planned.
There’s recently been a lot of discussion and debate about the tv series Yellowstone, started by an article from RFD TV, about the language in the show.
People seemed evenly split on whether they watch the show or not based on the language and content of the show. But observations were made that when someone complained about the language in online discussions, it led to attacks against them by the people defending the language.
Reading through some of it, the most common comment I kept hearing about the language was that they were just words.
Thing is, many of the people on either side identify themselves as Christians and we do in fact need to be really careful that we understand the significance of words.
Why? Because of numerous verses across the Old and New Testaments of the Bible that tell us how important words are.
One verse to start with is this:
Ephesians 4:29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
It makes it clear that language that isn’t wholesome shouldn’t be spoken. Instead, it directs us to speak words that would work toward making life better for another person. The words we speak should only do good.
Look at just a few ways Proverbs shows us the importance of good words.
Proverbs 16:24“Kind words are like honey–sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”
Proverbs 15:4“Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”
Proverbs 18:4“A person’s words can be life-giving water; words of true wisdom are as refreshing as a bubbling brook.”
Proverbs 20:15“Wise speech is rarer and more valuable than gold and rubies.”
But it gets even more serious in the Book of James which has much to say about words and the importance of controlling our speech because of what it is capable.
James 3:6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
In this verse specifically, James warns us that we can be completely corrupted by our tongue, the words we speak. He describes our tongue as a fire and that we can basically release hell on earth through what we say to people.
Throughout the whole chapter, James warns us that we can speak terrible things and do great harm or we can use words to bring life to others. The most important words we can speak are the words that describe the gospel and how to find a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
This is why it’s important not to downplay the words we speak and the words we listen to. They can influence for good, the gospel and Jesus, or they can influence for evil.
Not words you look to hear from a cowboy with a reputation of toughness to uphold. But that’s not the love I’m talking about. I choose this love.
John 13:34A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Jesus loved me enough to die for me and take the punishment meant for my sins. All I have to do is believe, repent and ask to be forgiven and thanks to his love, I can have an eternal and perfect life in Heaven. His love was an action, not a feeling.
I choose love.
It’s a command from Jesus but in a world where we’re divided, fighting with and hating on each other, does he really need to command me?
I choose love. I choose to say, “Hey buddy, I know you barely scraped your fees together tonight to get jerked down like that. I’ve got some extra, let me buy your Taco Bell.”
I choose love. I choose to hold my tongue when the waitress just gave me attitude and instead, ask how I can pray for her when the check comes.
I choose love. I choose to spend some time coaching a gunsel instead of giving up on him or just laughing when he walks by with his spurs upside down and his chaps on an hour and a half before showtime.
I choose love. I choose to cheer for my rival who is about to win the team roping championship after my horse walked through barbwire this morning.
I choose love. I choose to stop by the hospital and check on the guy who got stomped even though he sucker-punched my traveling partner last week for talking to his girl a little too much after the rodeo.
I choose love. I choose to pray for you even though you may never know I’m doing it. I choose to tell others what is good about you or keep my mouth shut. I choose to help you without you knowing it isn’t convenient.
Do I blow it sometimes? Absolutely. Do I repent and apologize or make amends? I try to. Can I do better? Yep. Grace lets me mess it up but Jesus’s love motivates me to do better. I choose that love. I don’t have to like you to love you. You don’t have to like me for me to love you. This love is action and it’s a lot harder than hate or anger. It takes sacrifice, it takes time. It takes putting someone else first. I choose to do what’s hard. I choose to walk into the stampede of anger.
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