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.
by admin | Jun 19, 2025 | James
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.
James is telling us that when our saving faith in Jesus is real, it leads us to carry out “deeds” which are the actions we take as we follow what Jesus and others teach us in the Bible. Helping someone in need, speaking words that lift people up, refraining from anger and immorality.
None of these earn us salvation but they are proof that we’re saved because when our faith is real, we want to be more like Jesus and actually live out what the Bible teaches us. A cross around our necks can show us that we have faith, but how we conduct ourselves shows our faith is alive and real.
Wearing crosses and acknowledging God by pointing upward after a win can show that we have faith, that we at least believe in God, but James reminds us that even demons believe God is real. When our faith has saved us by truly believing Jesus was the son of God, died for our sins and was resurrected so that with repentance and asking to be forgiven of our sins, then we are going to live out our faith.
Just the act of receiving salvation requires more than faith. We have to believe but we also have to take the actions of repenting of our sin and asking to be forgiven.
James puts it bluntly that when there are no actions to back up our faith, our faith is dead. It’s actually as useless as telling a hungry person who can’t afford food, to go find something to eat. If we find ourselves wondering if we are really saved, by looking at our lives and seeing if we have a desire to know what’s in the Bible and that we’re trying to live it out; that can be proof to ourselves that we have a genuine saving faith in Jesus.
If there are actions to back up why we wear that cross or have it as a tattoo on our arm, others can see that our faith is real and alive. It can help others to want to know how to find an eternity in Heaven when they see our faith in action.
It’s okay to wear the cross or have the tattoo, there just are going to be Christ-like actions to back it up when our faith is real.
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