by admin | Aug 11, 2025 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Daryl Skeeter Spaulding / Cowboys for Christ, special to Cowboys of the Cross
To be a cattleman or cattlewoman, you must be an efficient multitasker.
Think about all the skills you have learned from hands on experience or continue to develop to be good at what you love doing. To be successful in this industry you wear many aprons, such as land and water manager, part time veterinarian, equipment operator, carpenter, mechanic, meteorologist and conservationist. Also, being a student of new ways of doing something means reading and studying, which is the goal you are striving for.
Living life with this mindset of continual learning has a Biblical principle to it. It reminds me of a passage
of scripture. The verse is 2 Timothy 2:15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a
workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (NIV)
In my study of this text, I so appreciate the insight I get from multiple study Bibles I keep on my
bookshelf. When it comes to our approach to the Bible we should, read it, study it and memorize it.
The Bible – God’s inspired Word- is our only conclusive source of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding
ultimate realities. Correctly handling the word of truth is likened to a furrow being plowed straight for
planting and then harvesting a crop with a combine. The good workman must be accurate and clear in
his or her exposition of God’s Word, keeping to the road themselves and making it easy for others to
follow.
Another example of being a good cattleman is that you’re always learning to become
better than the day or year before and the reason to be in the Word is to have that better and best
relationship with Christ. That way you know in your heart the day-to-day decisions you make are the
right ones, no matter what the world is telling you contrary to the truth revealed in God’s Word.
The text calls us beyond a casual approach to the scriptures. Developing an attitude to learn so we can
grow into a deeper knowledge of God is sure worth having. The foremost thing you will find is that you are loved; yes, you. From that knowledge as the most fundamental truth, growing in Christ will take on new meaning. Ultimately, that’s an eternal goal worth striving for.
We take seriously what’s important to us, not a single cattleman with money invested
into their land or herd takes a casual approach to their operation. We receive a reward for stretching
ourselves when it comes to achieving growth. I believe it’s important to have knowledgeable resources
to draw from for your business in one hand and a Bible for growing in obedience to Christ in the other
hand. God bless you as you continue to do both.
by admin | Oct 26, 2022 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
There was a weekly bull riding that used be held on Tuesday nights that I would get to go and lead cowboy church at. A young man there knew everyone, never entered but always talked about the other events he had been at and won.
It was explained to me pretty quickly that he had some kind of social disorder and was making it up. The details he gave and his knowledge was incredible as he would describe being right at one of the entry-level PBR events with JB Mauney and others who, at the time, were working their way up.
Most people just went along with it and would let him tell his stories and occasionally someone knew would come along. It became a problem when he was giving advice to one of the new guys on how to take a bull that he really didn’t know anything about. That guy was pretty upset that no one had warned him not to listen.
It can be easy to be fooled but even easier when we’re being told ideas we want to hear. For example, who wants to hear Bible verses that tell us to expect hardship to go along with being a Christian? We especially don’t want to hear that when we’re struggling and want encouragement.
In what was just that, an encouraging part of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he warns that as Timothy is out there trying to teach communities about Jesus, others are out there delivering messages that sound good but cause people to miss the important truths—truths like how to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Worse, Paul points out people will put effort into seeking out what they want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
This warning came to Timothy almost 2,000 years ago yet in our culture today, there is all kinds of false and bad teaching to be found. It’s profitable to only give people what they want to hear and avoid teaching verses, for example, about sacrifice and denying ourselves.
We have to take time to discern what’s right or wrong and real but when something sounds so close to the truth or has elements of the truth in it, how can you tell when it’s coming from a church or ministry?
Well, we have our Bibles for that and can test anything we’re being taught against Scripture. If you’re still not sure, you can ask others that you know and trust.
And the more time we spend learning real Biblical truths, we can still find all kinds of hope and encouragement in the God’s promises to us in the Old Testament or the messages of a perfect eternity found in Jesus Christ.
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