by admin | May 13, 2026 | James
You go to buy a truck from a used card lot but when you get there, the mileage is higher than what you saw in their online advertisement and you can clearly see it’s leaking power steering fluid when the salesman told you there were no leaks before you drove an hour to the lot to drive it.
Maybe it still looks like a good deal, but the trust is gone. What else is wrong that you haven’t noticed yet?
What happens when you enter a rodeo knowing there’s $4,000 in added money but you get there, win the deal and get shorted because the gate money was bad that night and the producer cut the added money in half to make up his losses? The trust is gone and his next $4,000 event is the same night as a $1,000-added deal a half-hour further away with a producer who has always paid out what was offered. What about a finals that when you get there after competing all year has half the prizes and money they bragged would be up for grabs all season? There’s a reasonable chance you’re buying a card for another association the next year.
Integrity counts and James tells us we better take it seriously.
James 5: 12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.
James appears to be reinforcing what Jesus himself taught about oaths in what we know as The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.
Matthew 5:34-37 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
James tells us that if we swear we will do something, we come under God’s judgment when we fail to do it and Jesus tells us that our dishonesty comes from Satan. It makes sense that James warns us then that God would condemn us for our dishonesty.
They both break it down very simply. Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.” We should be so trustworthy that our yes or no answer to someone is all we need. We shouldn’t need to swear an oath to add weight behind a promise we make. If we fail to live up to that promise, we’ve made it even worse.
Now, it’s important to remember grace in this situation. When we have a saving faith in Jesus, God no longer condemns us for our sin, but we’re also told in Romans 6:1-2 to not continue to sin so that there can receive more of God’s grace.
Sometimes we’re backed into a corner or something unforeseen has happened and we give in to the temptation to sin by not going through with what we said we would do or we simply are unable to do it. Yes, God’s grace and forgiveness covers us, but when our saving faith is real, there will be repentance. It can be a simple confession that we failed with a sincere apology for being dishonest or we can take steps to make things right.
All of those steps can help restore our integrity.
As Christians, we need to be trustworthy. We have the most important piece of knowledge an unsaved person can receive and that’s the Gospel; God’s plan for salvation and the difference between an eternity in Heaven or Hell. If we can’t be trusted, how can we convince someone that we’re speaking the truth about their salvation?
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 | 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.
by admin | Jul 17, 2025 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Daryl Skeeter Spaulding / Cowboys for Christ
I feed my horse every morning before I head out for work. A few things come to mind that have really
been a blessing in my early morning adventure.
First, it’s been such a delight to be out there before dawn. The stars and the moon are truly amazing
without cloud cover and it’s a wonder to behold. When I look up there is no doubt in my mind that I’m
looking at God’s creation. Genesis 1:16 recalls the creation of sun, moon and stars. We can’t have a
bright moon without the sun and on a clear night the sky comes ALIVE!!! Almighty God really knew what
He was doing. The Big Dipper is one of my favorite constellations to gaze at. It will point you right to the
North Star. If you follow the two stars that make up the end of the dipper you will see it. It’s faint, so you
must train your eyes to look for it.
Secondly, I’ve been reading my Bible while I have my horse in one of the outdoor feeding stalls enjoying
his breakfast. It takes him about 20 minutes to finish his feed. I spend that time with my
Bible opened laying across the fence rail. If it’s still dark, I use a head lamp so I can read. I have found so many amazing
passages of scripture. Some whole chapters are exciting to read. Then I find these nuggets tucked in a
sentence that just catches my eye. One such instance is about having a willing heart and mind to serve
the Lord that’s found in 2 Chronicles 28:21. When I read that, I asked the Lord to give me a true heart of
worship and a willing mind to follow Him. That’s what I want!!!
Thirdly, one dark morning due to heavy cloud cover, I did not find my horse up at the feeding stalls like
usual. The light from the barn wasn’t much help. I thought to myself, “where is he”? as I went through
the gate and then looked for him momentarily. I was getting ready to pound on the gate with the brass
latch that we keep the gate closed with, it’s how I call him up when I need to. Then, I heard him nicker, I
know that nicker of his. He stepped out of the shadow. He was up there the whole time; I just didn’t see
him in the dark.
From time to time, I’ve heard the Holy Spirit whisper or nicker at me at just the right moment. It’s
always when I wasn’t expecting it. Most often it’s a particular verse in the Bible I’ve memorized, a
worship song on the radio or hymn I heard in church. I can’t necessarily explain it but it’s a faith builder
for sure.
This is why it’s so important to be in God’s Word as a regular habit, just because you love being in it. We
find proof of this in Romans 10: 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing the word of Christ. Jesus
also promised us the Holy Spirit in John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Helper, to be with you forever. And a little down in verse 26 we read, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all
that I have said to you. (All scripture is ESV)
Do yourself a favor; spend time in God’s Word and you just might hear the Holy Spirit nicker at you.
by admin | Jun 30, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
James aggressively raises the bar when it comes to expecting Christians to live out their faith.
There’s something about a cowboy and bad relationships that seems pretty common. There are great exceptions but many go from one relationship to another where the girl he picks manages to make him feel bad about himself—useless.
Sometimes our families or an employer can do it and sometimes we can do it to ourselves where a buck off streak or a series of misses on the roping side of the arena, lead a rodeo cowboy to think he’s becoming a failure.
If we read James without a fuller understanding of the Bible, he can make us feel pretty useless too.
James 2:20 “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”
There’s not much explanation needed here as James makes it clear our faith is pointless if we don’t live it out.
He then proceeds to give us some examples from what we have as the Old Testament to show us what genuine faith looks like.
James 2:21-26 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
James uses the accounts of Abraham and Rahab to show what faith in action looks like. Abraham had been asked by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God didn’t require him to go through with it, but his willingness proved his faith. James uses it as an example to show us that if our faith is real, we will do what God asks. Now, we have both and Old and New Testament to help us know what God and Jesus ask of us.
Rahab was a prostitute who hid spies as Joshua was preparing to lead the Israelites to take the city of Jericho as commanded by God. Rahab showed that she believed God was the true god by hiding and allowing the spies to escape discovery and help carry out God’s plan. She demonstrated her faith by her actions.
Our actions can’t save us from God’s wrath, but when our salvation is real, our desire to follow Jesus and what he commands become proof that out faith is real. We don’t ever have to do anything more than believe Jesus was and is who he said, repent and ask to be forgiven, to be saved. James tells us that is dead faith; useless. But if we’re wondering how to tell if we are truly saved, one piece of evidence is our desire to live out what we learn from the Bible.
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