by admin | May 11, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
When we don’t understand what hope is, we set ourselves up to lose it.
“If this situation doesn’t turn around soon, I’m going to lose my truck. I hope I find work soon.”
“That’s two dead calves this spring already, I hope there aren’t any issues with the rest.”
That’s the most common way we’re used to hearing the word, “hope” get used but it sets us up for discouragement when the job doesn’t come and the truck gets repossessed or you lose two more calves in a ridiculously bad calving season.
We put our hope in relationships or friends and family but people are going to fail and we’re going to get let down. As Christians, if we don’t understand what hope is according to scripture, we can get discouraged with God too.
It isn’t easy to change our perspectives but for Christians, our hope is placed in Jesus. That isn’t the same as hoping for a good outcome. “I hope you understand what I’m saying” means I desire a positive outcome that this is helpful. “I hope this job interview goes well” but it still could be a total disaster. With that use of the word hope, there are no guarantees and we can end up feeling defeated.
Hope in Jesus is different. That is something we can be confident in. When we have a saving faith in him, there are no guarantees that life here won’t be hard at times but we are guaranteed a perfect eternity in Heaven. What it means to put our hope in Jesus is that we can face this world’s struggles with the confidence that something amazing is waiting for us in an perfect eternity in Heaven.
1 Peter 3-8 gives some of the explanation.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Peter is showing us that we are going to face struggles here but that when we persevere with our thoughts focused on Jesus, he is glorified through our struggles while God preserves our salvation so that when we leave this world, we move on to that perfect eternity.
We place our hope in Jesus, using the word, “hope” in a completely different context—that we know our salvation is secured no matter what happens to us here.
by admin | Apr 27, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
How do you measure success?
When you run a beef operation, do you consider it successful when you’ve gambled right on when to sell and it paid off at the highest market prices of the season?
Is a finals jacket the target you set for yourself and now that you’ve got two, you can retire from team roping and just keep a couple horses around for fun?
We often look to the success of others to measure whether or not we think we’re successful too. This person seems to have a happy family, that person makes $80,000 a year. But then we can get stuck trying to figure out what is enough. There can always be another goal, the bar can always be raised higher.
It’s okay to pursue success. God asks us to give our best to everything we do.
But here’s the twist—are we chasing our goals or are we pursuing what God would have us do?
As Christian cowboys, it’s okay to celebrate that finals buckle or that record year of profit, but if we haven’t done it in a way that give God glory, that success can end up becoming pretty empty as we find ourselves looking for something more and feeling unfulfilled.
As Jesus knew his time was coming to die for us on that cross, he prayed for the disciples and the people who had come to a saving faith through him and in that prayer, he began by asking God to glorify him, not so that he would get that glory, but that all the work he did for God on Earth would point others to God and give God that glory.
John 17: 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
Jesus was here to bring us all salvation by choosing to believe in him, repent of our sins and ask to be forgiven so that we could be saved through his sacrifice on the cross, taking the punishment that is otherwise meant for our sins. In that process, he worked many miracles, taught thousands and changed immeasurable lives but all of it was to bring glory to God until it was his time to die and ascend to Heaven.
When we have a saving faith in Jesus, there is nothing more we need to do to be made right with God, but we will experience a desire to become more like Jesus and to follow the instructions and commands the are given to us in Scripture. That means seeking out what God has for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
When we start to understand this, measuring success becomes less important when it becomes about doing what God has prepared for us to do. In this way, even what seems like failure to how we used to measure success can bring glory to God.
by admin | Apr 13, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Josh McCarthy / Cowboys of the Cross
I heard a good example that explains Christianity but I’m going to put my own spin on it.
Christianity is like a saddle; it’s as simple as leather, rawhide and wood but as complex as all the work that goes into carving the tree, tooling the leather, engraving the silver on the conchos and everything else in between to make a good, custom saddle. When it comes to things like Christ dying on the cross, taking the wrath for all the sins of everyone who would believe in Him on Good Friday or God raising Christ from the dead, which is what we just celebrated on Easter Sunday, it is as simple as the statements I just made and also way more complex than we could understand.
But the good news of the gospel is as simple as these passages in Romans that show us who we are, who Jesus is and why it matters that we celebrate His resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We are all sinners. We have violated God’s law and because of that we are separated from God and apart from God’s grace, we are God’s enemies.
Romans 5:8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were still haters of God, He sent Christ to take the punishment for our sins.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We all deserve death for even the smallest sin we’ve committed but through faith in Christ, He takes that sin and suffered the punishment for it on the cross. Through His grace, He gives us the gift of being adopted sons and daughters of God instead of His enemies.
Romans 8:1
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Jesus took the punishment of all past, present and future sin for all who believe in Him. If you believe in Jesus, God has given you freedom from the punishment of your sins. This should lead us to live a life of gratitude and a desire to follow His commands.
Romans 10:9
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This is why we celebrate Easter because if we are Christians we do believe that God raised Jesus from the dead to prove that Jesus is who He said He was i.e. the Son of God, the second person of the trinity that came to take away the sins of all those that would believe and save sinners like you and me from an eternity suffering in Hell and by His grace giving us the gift of Easter.
by admin | Jan 19, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
A couple weekends ago at a Bull Riders and Outlaws event I was leading cowboy church at, I watched as a young bull rider, Silas Turnmire, was asked by a little boy Donny Almeraz, to put his bell on his new rope. Silas stopped getting himself read to give the little cowboy a hand and showed him how to do it.
What does Silas get for helping young Donny, barely old enough to be a junior bull rider?
What does Donny get from Silas?
The obvious is help getting his new bull rope set up.
But if Silas, as a Christian, is intentional about what and why he helps someone else, the young cowboy gets to see a glimpse of Jesus.
While imprisoned for his beliefs, Paul wrote Philippians to the church in Philippi and in the first part of the second chapter, was encouraging the church to imitate Christ’s humility to others.
Philippians 2:3-4 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
I’ve been around enough to see some rodeo cowboys and bull riders make it to the top and watched them come back to smaller deals in their hometowns or to make a guest appearance at show run by a producer at whose events they used to ride. But what happens is, you no longer see them just hanging out with the other guys, many who they once knew. Instead, you see them talking to the producers and stock contractors who the top hand now sees as the only other big shots there. The guys they used to hang out with are now accompanied by newer riders who suddenly feel intimidated to even approach the guy who might have bucked off at that same arena just as often as the new guys are as they learn the sport.
I’ve also seen the champion bull rider come back to an old venue and get behind the chutes to spot or pull another guy’s rope or if he’s entered, getting some bull rider he doesn’t even know, to pull his rope.
Both can leave an impression that last but which offers more to others?
Jesus was equal to God in power and could do anything. What did he do? He still looked to his Father for help and served others as if they were more important than him.
John 13:12-17 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
There’s a lot to unpack in these verses but for what we’re talking about in this situation, we’re seeing Jesus, who they know is their Lord, showing humility and setting the example of serving others. If he can humble himself, how can we not?
So if I know you’re a Christian, which actions point me to Jesus? And if I don’t know anything about Jesus, but I see you humbling yourself and being kind to people you don’t even know or that I think are beneath you in status, that gives me some hints that there’s a reason you’re different. You as a Christian are hopefully going to talk openly about Jesus and have a chance to talk to me about him.
Attaching that bell for the young kid may be a really simple illustration from something that took no time or thought at all for Silas, but if we see ourselves as Christians before anything else we are or do, then we take actions like that knowing it can both point others to Christ and bring glory to God.
by admin | Dec 15, 2022 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
People who oppose Christianity will sometimes look for contradictions in scripture to prove to them it isn’t true. I did when I was trying to decide what I believed. What they find instead are contradictions to how they want to live their lives. Either way, they walk away from it.
I think that’s one of the biggest struggles for the cowboy crowd: they see it as a book of rules asking them to live their lives differently so they reject it. At best, they decide for themselves, contradicting scripture they will never read, that as long as they believe in God and judge themselves a decent enough human being, they’ll be there in Heaven.
I was raised in church
My grandaddy was a preacher
I talk to God every day in the barn.
I know my blessings come from God.
I go to a good church.
I read my Bible and go to cowboy church at the rodeos.
I believe Jesus was born in that manger
I believe in God and am a good person.
My family are Christians.
None of this saves you from God’s judgment.
James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
James tells us even the demons believe in God. Clearly it takes something else for us to get to Heaven.
They’re missing what it means to have a saving faith in Jesus and while they judge themselves to be good enough, fail to grasp they’re not going to pass God’s final judgment without a life transformed by Jesus.
Instead, a life condemned to Hell is waiting for them, no matter how ‘good’ they believe they are.
But the Bible isn’t a book full of rules you have to follow to get to Heaven. The Bible guides us to how to live more like Jesus but most importantly, it points to him and how to be saved from God’s judgement. Once we have that salvation, we don’t suddenly stop being who are, but God still immediately sees us as made completely new, without sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We would rather hold on to our old selves than be made new by a saving faith in Jesus. Instead of worrying about what we lose or give up to be a Christian, we should be chasing after that perfect eternity in Heaven harder than we chase after a championship buckle. Without Jesus, the buckle might be the best reward you ever receive.
With Jesus comes a perfect eternity and a life here that becomes more about what we are becoming and less about who we are holding onto. And while following Jesus becomes the priority, it makes every other part of your life better from the wins to the losses. You get so much more than you think you’re giving up; here and especially after.
Recent Comments