by admin | Apr 28, 2026 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Have you ever lashed out unfairly at a family member or a friend? Maybe you’ve even taken your frustration out on a rodeo judge who you know really did make the right call or gave you the right score. When we’re under frustrated and feeling pressure from situations that are outside our control, we can sometimes let our guard down and get angry more easily.
James 5:7-11 is taking us near the end of James’s letter but some of what we learn at the very beginning of his book in the Bible comes back to play. He first wanted us to expect trials in our lives but to trust that God would let use them to help us grow in our faith. He also warns us to be more careful about listening harder and being slow to get angry.
Knowing many of the people reading his letter have faced hardship under the control the wealthy landowners have and struggle with being poor, he asks those struggling to remain patient and not turn against each other.
Instead, he asks them to be patient, again trusting in God to see them through their struggles.
James 5: 7-11 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
He uses agricultural language we can still understand today about the importance of patience as we wait on God the way a farmer has to be patient as he waits for the rains to come at the right times to bring about the harvest.
If we lose our patience and grow angry with one another, he warns them that God, described as Judge, is not far away and they could face His judgment for their own actions against each other instead of waiting for Him to take care of the ones who have been abusing their power and creating the hardships.
Job from the Old Testament, who lost absolutely everything and suffered almost unbearably, saw everything eventually restored by God and James reminds those who are suffering of the importance of hanging on and waiting on God.
We don’t know why some find relief in suffering or from their trials and some do not, but we know that all who have a saving faith in Jesus receive a perfect life where there are no trials or suffering when we pass on from this one.
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 | Apr 15, 2026 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
If you’re a large ranch-owner, could James be writing to you if he wrote his letter today? Originally written to the Jewish churches, James takes an often aggressive and harsh-sounding approach to encouraging us to live out what God’s word teaches us.
At the start of James 5, he turns his attention to wealthy landowners that were in control of a lot of Galilee, though his message would apply to all wealthy people, and he takes a strong tone against any who have misused the power their wealth has given them. He gives them a warning.
James 5:1-6 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
When James tells them to week and howl at what miseries are coming, he doesn’t mean an immediate justice for their abuses and actions that have led to defrauding or even the death of some of the poor. James is talking about the eternal consequences that living a wealthy life can lead us to if we abuse that wealth. A person with a saving faith in Jesus, who has repented of sin and been forgiven through the sacrifice on the cross that Jesus made in our place, isn’t going to live like this any more.
But for those who have chosen to continue living this way, abusing their power and taking advantage of the poor, it isn’t likely that they have found the forgiveness of a life in Christ because that life leads to change.
James is writing to those who continue to live their lives focused on themselves with strong language that they have fattened their hearts by living in luxury and face their own day of slaughter, referring to God’s judgment against them. He reminds them that God has heard their cries, meaning God is fully aware of any abuse or sinful living they have enjoyed but that there is a cost to that; without a saving faith in Jesus that moves us away from sin, we face God’s wrath and eternal separation from Him in hell.
It isn’t about having wealth that leads us to God’s judgment, it’s about using our power to our own advantage and not caring for those, like those who work for us.
Most of us our employees but some of us are the ones who employ others, whether it is farm hands and laborers on ranches and farms or the staff of a small or large business we own. Those who own the ranch are naturally going to have the most wealth. That’s okay. But how do you treat the people who work for you or that you trade horses with? James wants us to live a life that reflects Jesus in us, not one that reflects those without a saving faith that are greedily pursuing their own sinful desires.
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.
by admin | Nov 12, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
There’s a great old country song with the lead of the chorus, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.”
James wants us to recognize the seriousness of the harm our pride can do against how much more seriously God wants our devotion to Him.
James 4:5-10 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
This is hard to comprehend if we look at it like our own often broken or struggling relationships. Our jealousy leads to conflict among our friends, family or others we share connections with. It can lead to evil acts like murder as James taught us in the previous verses in James 4.
Since pride can lead to evil acts, it places us in opposition to God. According the Gospel, God’s plan for salvation, it’s our sin that separates us from Him and that without a saving faith in Jesus, leads to God’s judgment and wrath against us. He is jealous of anything we let come between us and His love for us because we were created to worship Him. Adam and Eve chose for there to be sin and the separation it created but God still wants us with Him for eternity.
Those who do not have a saving faith in Jesus are destined to Hell but God loves us enough that He sent Jesus to take the punishment meant for our sins. When we have belief in Jesus and what he did for us, repentance of our sin and by asking to be forgiven, we can have a perfect eternity filled with worship of God waiting for us. God is jealous enough of us to send Jesus to die for us. That’s a different kind of jealousy than what we typically experience in relationships.
When we do have a saving faith, God knows we are still going to sin and that temptation from the devil can cause us to fall away. He will still receive us into Heaven through his grace, after we’ve humbled ourselves and chosen to submit to Jesus as Lord through our salvation, but He wants us to resist the devil and temptation and turn to Him in order to receive that salvation.
Once saved from the judgment of our sin, God still wants our devotion and He will lift us to a higher position. Once in Heaven, we are made perfect, but until then, God wants us to fight sin as seriously as He wants us to be with Him for eternity. To have God jealous for us to want to give us a perfect eternity full of a joy we can’t comprehend–that’s a great kind of jealousy.
by admin | Oct 29, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Who knows that rodeo competitor who talks and acts like he wants to be a cowboy and a winner but also chases trouble. It’s often relationship after relationship that totally screws with his head. He draws out because the girl is angry he’s entered or he bucks off or misses his catch because his head is either on the fight they had or what Disney referred to as twitterpated in Bambi—caught up in the idea of being in love with the girl that he’s lost focus on everything else.
That’s a milder example of what can happen when we try to chase two different and opposite pursuits.
Now imagine if that cowboy had been seeking godly wisdom like James instructs us in Chapter 3 and, out of that wisdom, he knows he was called to compete as a Christian, setting an example for Christ. Becoming a top hand on either end of the arena was how God was going to use him to build relationships with others, first as a cowboy but then as a Christian, that would lead others to a saving faith in Jesus.
Being drawn into a bad relationship with a girl who isn’t a believer to begin with is a common mistake guys make and in this situation, could destroy everything God called that cowboy to do.
James 4: 1-4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James shows us just how important it is to put God first.
When we find ourselves chasing our own passions, we can find our prayers coming up empty because we’re asking God for materialistic wants versus needs that line up with a life spent following God’s direction. It’s when our desires come from pursuing God that we see our prayers answered because our prayers will look very different when we’re not seeking our wants from Him.
James’ examples are much more extreme than our illustration and yet we can see them played out every day just by putting the news on television or reading through the headlines—we can see endless examples of conflicts leading to murder. James wants us to see that by pursuing our own desires and caring deeply about them can lead to chaos. At the least, our jealousy can lead us into conflict.
When we pursue our own desires, James says it’s like we commit adultery against God by putting our relationship with our desires ahead of God’s call on our life. By doing this, we make ourselves an enemy of God and it should give us pause to ask ourselves if we have a genuine saving faith in Jesus. Without that saving faith, we are all enemies of God because our sin separates us from Him and will fall under His judgment and condemnation when we die.
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