Come & See: 10 Cowboy Devotions to Strengthen Your Ride With ChristSample

Around 2009, I was the pastor of a small cowboy church in West Texas. Our church was doing the concession stand at the local high school rodeo. We also had a little booth where we gave away some free Bibles as well as information about our church. While everyone else was working the concession stand, I worked the booth.

The dad of one of the rodeo contestants walked up and eyed the Bibles. He picked one up and asked if it was a cowboy Bible. I told him that it was one of the easier translations to read. I offered it to him to take home. What happened next changed my life.

He said, “I’ve got a lot of those ‘easier to read’ translations at the house. Just because someone puts a cowboy on the cover, that doesn’t mean it’s written in a way a simple cowboy can understand. When you find a Bible written for cowboys, I’ll read it.”

Those words stayed with me all day, and they’re still with me to this day. That night I went home and started paraphrasing the New Testament in the words of a cowboy. I started with the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Gospels ain’t just words on a page. They guide us through the dusty trails of Jesus’s life, His teachings, and His sacrifice. Each Gospel is a trailhead, invitin’ us to ride closer to Jesus, see Him with fresh eyes, and follow His lead.

The Simplified Cowboy Version, or the SCV, is not a Bible. It’s not a translation from the original language. It’s just a study aid. My goal, prayer, and desire is that a cowboy would take the Simplified Cowboy Version, read it, and then wonder, "is this really what the Bible says?" Then they would get a real Bible and read it. That’s the goal. That’s my bull’s-eye. I hope you hit it.

Finding Excitement in the Mundane

Before Jesus was born, Joseph had asked for Mary’s hand in marriage. Joseph had been honorable toward Mary, and she was unspoiled. But before they could get hitched, Mary became pregnant through the power of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 1:18

Come on, admit it. The first Gospel book starts off with a boring genealogical list. Within the first seventeen verses, we’re lost. Who are these people, and what does it really matter?

Well, while it may seem mundane or boring, there are many really cool things in the list. For example, there are five women in Jesus’s genealogy, and you won’t believe their stories!

Tamar was not a Jew. She was abandoned by her father-in-law, Judah, after being married to two of his sons and having no kids. She dresses up like a prostitute and gets pregnant by Judah, then blackmails him.

Rahab was a member of what is portrayed as a hostile indigenous population called the Canaanites, which was Israel’s greatest enemy at the time. She was a prostitute who hid two Jewish spies during the fall of Jericho. She lied to protect them, and only her family was saved when Israel conquered the city.

Ruth was a member of a group called Moabites who were known for their worship of false gods and sexual immorality. After her husband and his family died, she left all she knew so she could stay with her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi. Times were rough, but one of Naomi’s relatives, Boaz, married her. Oh, and her new mother-in-law is the prostitute Rahab.

Bathsheba was bathing on her roof when King David saw her from his palace. He “wanted” her; and what the king wants, the king gets. There were two problems, though. One, she got pregnant. Two, she was married to one of David’s mighty men. David ordered that particular mighty man, Uriah, to the front lines of the war, so he died. David then married her, but because of his actions, their firstborn son died. Their next son was Solomon; he became king and the wealthiest and wisest man ever to walk the earth (besides Jesus, of course).

Mary was probably twelve to fourteen years old, but because of her faithfulness to God, He chose her to be the only virgin in history to give birth . . . to the Son of God—conceived not of man, but of the Spirit of God.

Cowboy Call:

God has a habit of using ordinary people in extraordinary ways. It doesn’t matter if you’re twelve or 112. It doesn’t matter if you’re educated or not. God can and wants to work through you. Get ready, and the time will come.