If we leave for the rodeo without our cell phone, we'll run back into the house to get it.
If we're 10 minutes down the road, we'll turn around.
Chances are, we'll notice we don't have it before we leave the driveway because we're going to plug directions into the fairgrounds or arena and use the GPS to either help us find the way or get around any obstacles in our path by letting it route us around a traffic wreck.
It alerts us to speed traps while other apps play music or help us keep in touch with our buddies who are on their way to a different event.
It isn't a cell phone anymore. It's a smart phone and we've come to depend on them to literally help us get through the day.
But how many of us leave the house without our Bible? When we're 10 minutes down the road and realize it's still at home, would we turn around to get it?
Do we even know where our Bible is?
We live in a time when we have more access to God's word than in any other time of our lives but it's possible we live in a time when turn to God's word less than ever.
But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,’” (Matthew 4:4). Before Jesus began to preach and before he called his first disciples, he spent time alone in the wilderness facing temptations from Satan including what he is responding to in this verse. The devil wants him to turn stones into bread but Jesus says he needs more than physical nourishment; he needs God's word.
We now have an entire Bible that we understand is God's word to us.
We struggle to get through a day without the apps on our smart phones to help us, but we are starving for God's word and most of us don't even know it.
That smart phone now is a way we can ensure we never leave home without our Bible again by making use of the Bible apps that are there. Since we know we won't forget our phone or will go back for it, then by having an app on the phone, we can know we will always have it with us.
The next step is to make sure we open it up, whether it is opening a Bible app or opening a physical Bible that we keep in our rigging bag.
It can feel overwhelming at first to understand it all, but just reading a small book of the Bible or just reading a few verses is a step toward it getting easier. CowboysOfTheCross.com has tons of Biblical teaching and just like we live in an age where we have access to more Bibles than any other time, we have access to countless sermons and podcasts that can help us to digest God's word and make sure we are well-fed.
Cowboys of the Cross is a rodeo/bull riding ministry that leads cowboy church services at events and maintains an online presence to share the gospel and make disciples among the ranch and rodeo community. They can be found at CowboysOfTheCross.com.
