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 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?
by admin | Apr 9, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
The best sermons are lived, not preached.” That’s a phrase that people have shared in faith-based conversations and it’s often been in some form of a viral meme the cowboy crowd has shared numerous times over the years across social media.
It sounds good and I don’t disagree with it entirely, but it’s more complicated than that. Both are not just important, but essential. The gospel, how someone comes to a saving faith in Jesus, needs to be preached clearly and we should be looking for opportunities to share it. Our words and actions, how we live our lives, how we treat others and what we say to people can show others that we believe differently from them because most of how the Bible teaches us to live goes against human nature and the culture we live in.
James 1: 19-21 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
In rodeo, everyone knows who the hothead is, especially the judges. Same with your crew at work or on the ranch. While there’s a difference between getting cheated by a judge on a score or just thinking we were cheated from disagreeing with the call, you know the hothead is going to going to nose to nose with the judge either in the arena or at intermission.
James wants us to listen, hold our tongues and hold back our anger. Literally taking a breath and counting to 10 before we speak or act can give us that moment to cool down and not act out of anger. And being quick to hear gives us a chance both to listen to someone’s perspective whether we agree with them or not and more importantly, give us a chance to hear from God through the Holy Spirit. If we pause and let God direct our steps, He’s going to direct us away from an angry response. If we buck up right away, it only escalates into something that isn’t God-honoring and makes it nearly impossible for us to ever share the gospel.
Acting on anger comes from within ourselves and it comes out of sinful nature. It doesn’t produce anything good. James wants us to produce the “the righteousness of God.” Those are actions that come out of response to what God asks us, primarily through His word in the Bible.
He instructs us to set aside sin and seek God’s word and instruction and to receive it with meekness. Remember, meekness is strength under control. It is anything but weak. We control our anger and humble ourselves to accept God’s word and instruction and something far more important than the sinful way we might want to respond to a situation by getting angry and acting on that anger.
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 | Mar 24, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
When we imagine the Old West, it’s often pictures of whiskey drinking, gambling, saloon brawls, gunfights in the streets and brothels. In rodeo, you don’t have to look too far to find some of the same. Buckle bunnies abound, usually in the form of young women roaming the rodeo and bar scene in search of a cowboy to take home or go home with. Drugs and alcohol can be found in the parking lot and while I’ve never seen a full-on brawl, there are times, I’ve certainly seen guys bust each other up.
That isn’t all there is to rodeo and while stereotypes exist for a reason, there are strong family values and a real community that looks out for one another.
Yet the sinful side is there and it doesn’t take much to find it.
James 1:12-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Sin often comes in the form of pleasure. Sins can feel good physically and emotionally. Heck, sometimes it does feel good, at least in the moment, to tell someone the hurtful thoughts you have toward them or to haul off and deck the guy who just ticked you off for the last time. That’s what makes so many sins tempting.
James is reminding us of something important here though. Temptation is on us. Adam and Eve chose for there to be sin in the world by defying God that very first time. We live with the consequences of that sin and can only be free of God’s judgment of it through a saving faith in Jesus. From other parts of scripture, we know that God, being perfect, will not tolerate sin in His presence and will judge it. The consequences of being tempted and then acting on our sin is, as James puts it, is death. Without a saving faith in Jesus, we are eternally separated from God in hell as God’s punishment for our unforgiven sin. But it remains our choice to put our hope in Jesus’s death on the cross, where he took the full punishment meant for our sins so that by believing in him, repenting of our sin and asking to be forgiven, we can be saved from that punishment.
James makes us aware that God, who is perfect, will never sin or be tempted by it but that we, as sinful people, will be drawn to it. It is entirely up to us to resist temptation and fight against sin. Paul teaches us in Philippians that we can accomplish anything through Jesus and that includes resisting sin.
God wants us to find that saving faith in Jesus and isn’t going to tempt us away from that. It’s up to us to choose. We can live in the wild west or we can live in the Christian community. Both can literally be found in the rodeo industry and figuratively, they can be found anywhere we live. The temptations of sin will always be there, but there will also be a community ready to help us avoid temptation and seek Jesus.
Recent Comments