by admin | Dec 5, 2024 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
As cowboys, whether on the ranching or the rodeo side, you aren’t afraid of hard work and you know how to be tough.
When it comes to difficult personal situations, now matter how tough we are, it isn’t always easy to ‘do the hard thing.’
When is the last time you gave a sincere apology when you messed up? When is the last time you admitted you messed up in the first place? I think pride sometimes makes us feel like doing the right thing is a sign of weakness.
It’s actually just the opposite and it’s Joseph in another part of the Bible’s teachings on the birth of Christ, that shows us this. The verses in the second chapter of Luke are often referred to as “The Christmas Story” but in another part of the teachings about Jesus’s birth in Matthew 1, Jospeh shows us what it really means to do the hard thing.
Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Mary’s pregnancy would only be seen as adultery in this culture without them being able to understand God’s plan. The consequences for Mary would be facing being stoned to death. The consequences for Joseph were tremendous shame but again, in that culture, it would be far more devastating than what we can understand today.
But without yet knowing God’s plan, Joseph already sets a standard that is hard to meet: he is willing to end his betrothal quietly to prevent Mary from shame and potential harm. Once he understands God’s plan, he goes ahead and bears the shame their community would place on them by staying with Mary and doing as God commanded through the angel.
This is what it means for a man to do the hard thing.
Confessing our sin is hard. Admitting a mistake and asking to be forgiven. Paying back a debt months or even years after a friendship was ruined by it. There will be moments ahead for each of us to set aside our pride and even face a little shame or embarrassment in order to “do the hard thing” by doing the right thing.
Do the hard thing anyway. There’s nothing weak about that.
by admin | Dec 12, 2021 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
From nativity scenes to Christmas specials, we have the idea that the three wise men, or Magi, were there with the shepherds to see the baby Jesus in the stable.
Scripture tells us something different.
These men, called magi, were likely priests from an eastern culture like Persia, led by what appeared to be a star, to see the king they had heard about.
King Herod, like most, did not fully understand that Jesus was not here to replace his rule, but for a much greater purpose that would pave the way for all to be able to find salvation through his eventual death on a cross. He asked the Magi to report back to him the location of this king, lying about his intent to have the baby killed.
The Magi were warned in a dream to not return to Herod who was left without the location of Jesus.
Instead, what we have is a very grim part of the Christmas story in which Herod then ordered all children two years or younger to be killed.
Matthew 2:16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Verse 11 told us the ‘wise men’ arrived to see Jesus at a house, not a stable, and in this verse, we see it was as much as two years after Jesus was born.
Those who work in the rodeo and horse industries know how animal rights activists have extremely wrong ideas about the treatment of animals.
Much of their information is passed on from person to person and without digging in to learn from accurate information, they simply believe what they have been told, without question.
The lesson for us in this story about the wise men is the importance of taking our Biblical knowledge directly from scripture.
What we assume we know from what is passed on by others isn’t always true. It’s how most people generally overlook the fact that when we die, we don’t actually ‘get our wings’ or become angels.
Psalm 8:5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
The “them” being referred to in the Psalm is humans, while Genesis 1:25 describes the types of angels God created and 1 Corinthians 6:3 references people judging angels. The distinction is clear that people and angels are never the same.
Following these common misunderstandings about the Bible don’t cause harm to God’s plan for our salvation, but they show us the need to not just rely on what we think we know about the Bible, but to dig in for ourselves to all that God’s word has to offer us.
The Christmas story is a far more beautiful story when we understand it correctly and how it shows us just how much God loves us. We need to understand the story starts with the birth we are celebrating but it leads to Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection so that through faith in who Jesus was and is and by asking to be forgiven of the sins that separate us from God, we can be given an eternal home with him in Heaven–not as angles but as the perfect creation God made us to be.
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