10/01/2026
Sometimes the most positive-sounding encouraging posts, advice or teaching can actually be misleading and pointing you away from Jesus.
There was a young man, higher functioning, on the spectrum, that would come to rodeos and bull ridings, full of stories of past rides, detailed facts about people he knew in the industry and full confidence in what he was telling a cowboy what the bull he drew was going to do.
Not a lick of it was true, but it sounded good and if no one had warned you or you didn't know enough about the industry to see through it, you actually could get on a bull with some dangerous expectations and end up hurt. I remember one experienced cowboy who had never been to this venue before being pretty ticked off when he realized the kid had been lying to him. He didn't realize there was a kind of autism at play but following the kid's advice could have cost him his ride.
Whatever their reasons, there are so many false teachers out there when it comes to the Christian faith. The Bible warns about it but when we think of wolves in sheep's clothing, we think of someone truly evil out to do us personal harm by leading us away from Jesus. There are plenty of those. But we often don't think of the good-intentioned person out there whose worst motivation is harvesting "likes" and "shares" for his personal ego or pride. Some are monetized and profit off of the attention a great-sounding post can get them even if, while encouraging, it takes everyone's eyes right off of Jesus. The false encouragement puts the attention back on themselves and their own success instead of God's plan for them. Some really aren't intentionally doing harm, they're just careless, but it's still false teaching and can cause harm to a person's growth as a Christian. Our own traveling partner can fill our heads with false teaching because he just wants to build you up and encourage you, but doesn't have a clear understanding if what he's saying is even true to scripture.
It's different than misunderstanding a verse and making a mistake. That doesn't mean the person was careless or being reckless with Scripture and when it's brought to their attention, that person is going to change how they teach the verse.
But the false teachers get away with it because so many of us don't open our own Bibles.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
It sounds good to me, so I'm going to accept that as true. It makes me feel good about myself, I'm going to accept that as true. It helps me get my mind in the game and make me think I can win the rodeo, I'm going to accept that as true. When we don't have at least some foundational ideas of what the Bible teaches, we can easily let ourselves be led astray.
It isn't like the Bible doesn't warn us and there are consequences for those who teach falsely.
2 Peter 2: 1-3 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
But it's our own fault if we don't spend time in God's word and surround ourselves with teachers, preachers and more mature believers who we know and trust are grounded in God's word.
We're capable of mistakes at Cowboys of the Cross, but we have a small team of cowboys from the horse, ranch and rodeo industries who all have a genuine desire to teach correctly so that you're pointed toward a firm understanding of God's plan of salvation and that we can help you grow more like Christ and in your understanding of Scripture. Our website has more than 275 devotions and testimonies to help you and we're here for you any time you have questions, need prayer or just someone to talk to with a Biblical perspective.
