by admin | Oct 1, 2025 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Social media gives everyone of us the ability to share our opinions. But does that mean we should? We are out there every chance we get expounding on what we think about issues. I mean, it’s our right after all, even when we don’t even know for sure if we’re right.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
To fear the Lord doesn’t mean to be afraid of God but to approach Him with deep respect for who He is. Part of that is the source of all knowledge we should follow. A fool would ignore godly advice and instruction that they know comes either from their own reading of scripture or someone they know and trust is careful in how they teach it.
Proverbs 12:15 The way of fools seems right to them,
but the wise listen to advice.
For Christians, the first knowledge or biblical truth we should master is the gospel, God’s plan for salvation. When we have a saving faith in Jesus, a desire grows in us to become like Jesus and we do that by seeking knowledge and wisdom from scripture. As we learn, when we know it’s biblically correct, it’s ours to teach to someone else as we build relationships with other believers. We should all have people we know and trust are wise in the biblical counsel we give. As we grow, we should also become that person who others can trust.
We have to always be aware of fools in all things. There are fools sharing all sorts of ideas about every subject and issue you can imagine that can lead someone to harm and into false ideologies. There are Christians who mean well, and some who don’t, that share ideas about their faith that can actually lead us further from Jesus instead of toward him.
We have to be careful who we follow and as Christians, before we post an opinion we are burning to put out there, we should ask ourselves some questions first:
Do I know this is true?
Does it edify (lift another person up)?
If someone believes differently from me but knows I’m a Christian, does this make someone else want to pursue Christianity or does it turn someone away?
If it’s a believer seeing it, does it draw them closer to Jesus or away.
If it doesn’t help, and just adds to all the noise, maybe it’s best left unsaid so we can be thought of as wise and not a fool.
Proverbs 17:28 Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,
and discerning if they hold their tongues.
by admin | Oct 1, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Think about where there is conflict in your life. Some people certainly have more peace than others but we live in a society in which there is always conflict. It can be between two cowboys on the rodeo grounds fighting about a girl they both dated, a group of ranchers fighting the Bureau of Land Management or against a solar panel project on valuable grazing land. Global conflicts that we otherwise would know little about can impact the price of gas here at home.
There’s often someone on the rodeo grounds who always either seems to be in trouble of some kind or he’s someone who is looking to cause it. I think we even celebrate chaos. The person attracting or causing trouble has no shortage of like-minded friends.
That comes from our sin nature. Regardless of what someone believes in terms of their faith, we are all born into sin; we all have the ability from birth to feel anger or even hate. A saving faith in Jesus changes that. It doesn’t remove our ability to sin but it starts us on a path toward becoming more like Jesus. It doesn’t make us better than those living in conflict and conflict of our own is still going to happen. This world isn’t perfect and while we grow more like Jesus as we grow in our faith, sin around us is still going to bring conflict into our lives.
How we, as Christians, approach it is where it all changes.
James 3:13-18 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
If we seek wisdom from God, how we approach conflict changes. Without Jesus, it’s easier to be influenced by bitter jealousy and selfish goals and those attitudes are going to lead us right into conflict. Worse, James says when we seek our own ambitions in a selfish way, our actions progress from being worldly thinking to something that’s even demonic. Just like he shares in James 2 that the words we speak have the power to unleash hell on Earth, how we work to achieve our goals can be the work of hell just as easily. He isn’t kidding around when he tells us to seek godly wisdom as we live out our lives here. Godly wisdom, he tells us, is pure, can lead to peace and giving mercy to others. When our goals line up with what God would want us to do and our actions to achieve them follow God’s instructions for us through scripture, we generate peace around us and demonstrate righteousness.
Producing righteousness means that our pursuit of godly wisdom creates signs of what is good, just and right for others to see. In that way, we can begin to show our saving faith in Jesus is real and transforming us in the hope others would desire this in their lives as well.
It’s up to us as believers to pursue biblical knowledge which is our main source of godly wisdom. If we’re unsure on our own of what God would have us do, we should seek advice from other Christians that we know and trust approach their faith the same way.
Going back to the Old Testament, Proverbs reminds us that as real as the harm that can be done by pursuing our own goals without God, pursuing wisdom leads to results that are more valuable to gems and precious metals.
Proverbs 3:13-15
Blessed are those who find wisdom,
those who gain understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
Living a life our own way can produce evil, living a life following God’s direction can lead to peace in the chaos around us.
If you’ve been surrounded by drama, gossip and the stress from a chaotic breakup that follows you to the rodeo grounds, who wouldn’t want to roll into a performance and just know peace; to be able to get your horse ready or set your bronc saddle without knowing there was going to be some kind of conflict before the show was over?
Why wouldn’t we want to have that peace around us all the time?
by admin | Feb 6, 2025 | James
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Whether it’s competing in rodeo, raising cattle or working with horses, there is a lot to learn. The same is true of any job, hobby or interest that we pursue.
If I keep breaking the barrier during team roping but can’t figure out why I always leave that box a split second too soon. Someone with more experience may have advice to help me find that sweet spot between breaking the barrier or hesitating too long.
I’ve got a calf that just doesn’t seem to be putting on weight. I’m going to take supplement advice from a more experienced rancher a few miles down the road or what a veterinarian I know might suggest.
We need wisdom to make right choices or improve.
And when we are faced with a challenge in our personal life, especially when it’s unlike any conflict or struggle we’ve encountered before, we might not have the first clue what to do. James gives us some direction.
James 1:2-5 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
First, we learn that we should actually find joy in a trial we face but we have to remember this isn’t an emotion like being happy we’re going through a divorce, we lost our job or we broke our collar bone again and have to miss the next six rodeos—it’s a response to the understanding that God will do something good in that struggle. We can have a joyful attitude in the knowledge God is building us up while we face the current challenge.
James also suggests this response to a trail: pray for wisdom.
There are lots of examples in the Bible about praying for help and deliverance from a struggle but in this lesson from James, he’s specifically telling us to ask God to give us wisdom. That wisdom could be a solution to the struggle, it could be guidance on next steps or it could be clarity on what God is doing in us that we can be joyful about.
If this is specifically what he is directing us toward, we can trust that it is good advice to follow.
We wouldn’t ignore a veterinarian’s suggestion on how to treat a horse’s infected foot. We know the vet knows more than us and can trust his or her advice. A champion bronc rider’s suggestion on how to get your feet to the front is advice we can trust.
James was taught be Jesus and was a significant teacher in the formation of the early church. Then when he tells us to pray for wisdom, I think that would be the wise thing to do.
by admin | Jun 17, 2021 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Leaves of three, come and see, so pretty, do touch me. Isn’t that how that goes?
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
Sometimes wisdom comes from personal experience. We really can learn from our mistakes. We can also learn from the experiences of others. We don’t have to touch poison ivy ourselves and experience days of itching rash, we can trust the wisdom of others. That’s where the real saying comes from: leaves of three, leave it be. Someone offered that piece of wisdom to make it easier to avoid the rash. That’s why you hear rodeo contestants asking about what to expect from the stock or bull they drew.
Sure, the unexpected can still happen but seeking advice is both using the wisdom of others and being wise ourselves in doing that.
But when we don’t know what to do, James tells us to seek wisdom from God and more often than what you might realize, His wisdom and the direction you need will be right there in the pages of the Bible. Digging in and knowing what’s in there for yourself is best but just like asking a more experienced competitor for advice on how much reign to give a bronc or what bull rope might work better for you, it’s wise to seek the wisdom of other Christians you know can help point you to the right scripture.
Through Cowboys of the Cross, we’re a small group of men with ties to the rodeo and bull riding, equestrian or ranch cowboy industries, who are here to try to help you gain stronger biblical knowledge and wisdom. We have new content on the this website every other Thursday to teach and encourage you, use social media to do the same and are literally a phone call or text away from you almost 24-7.
We don’t have all the answers but we also have more mature and knowledgeable believers who we turn to when we need wisdom or guidance. As James instructs, first pray to God to ask for His wisdom, but then turn to the pages of the Bible to seek that. If you’re stuck, seek advice from a more mature Christian who you know has wisdom you haven’t gained yet.
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