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.

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.

By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross

Has someone ever made you feel worthless? It could have been a bad relationship, it could have been a teacher or family member but many of us have experienced this feeling and for some, it can bad enough to have a negative impact on their whole life.

If we’re lucky, it’s a temporary feeling and can even be brought on by ourselves during a very bad week. Maybe we’re trying to train a dog or fighting to get a horse to stop being afraid of a plastic bag and we’ve just gotten nowhere this week in the time we have. Then one of our kids gets angry with us because we disciplined them, our wife misunderstands something and went to bed angry and we just stripped a bolt trying to fix an oil leak. It’s pretty easy to feel worthless after all those events pile up.

God doesn’t want us to feel that way and uses James to help teach that.

James 1:9-11 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. 10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

James is first speaking to those believers who have very little but calls attention to the understanding that as believers, they do in fact have a high position—they are saved through faith in Jesus and are assured eternity in Heaven.

Now, imagine you’re a wealthy Christian and that wealth is important to you. You’re proud that you worked hard for it, saved where you could and made good financial decisions and investments that have left you able to support missions while living in a great house. In verse 10, imagine taking that wealth and offering it to God in front of everyone you know, but God turns it away saying it means nothing to Him. That would be a truly humiliating experience.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross

Even demons believe in God but do our lives demonstrate that we have a saving faith in Jesus?

If you look around during the opening sequence of a rodeo, you can see evidence of faith everywhere. People in the bleachers stand with their hats off and bow their heads in prayer as the announcer often leads a scripted prayer or uses “The Cowboy Prayer” that most of us have heard dozens to more than a hundred times. You can see the rodeo cowboys’ crosses on necklaces dangling out from under their shirts as gravity pulls them free in their forward-leaning positions as they pray. You might see some take a knee on the arena ground and point to the sky after a win or even just a safe dismount or run in a gesture toward God.

But if you walk through the parking lot after the performance, you can just as easily see the sinful side of some of those same cowboys as no one watches their language without the spectators and especially kids around as beer and weed come out. If you know what you’re looking for, you’ll see a handshake that exchanges money or a baggy. Later, some will hook up with buckle bunnies at a bar somewhere or get into a fight. Those are just some of the visible sins that can help create a negative stereotype for rodeo cowboys.

And of course, it isn’t like that with everyone. There’s still a huge family component to the sport but for many, that opening prayer will be the only time that family prays all week.

And also, of course, there are devout Christians in the mix who, like any Christian trying to follow Jesus, struggle with their sins but are dedicated to growing in their faith.

Real faith that leads to action.

And that’s what James is talking about in all of James 2:14-26.

James 2:14-18 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.