Study Desk

"This is the good news we tell you, God promised our ancestors a cowboy who would save us all.

God had said he wouldn't leave his boy in a grave on boot hill to rot. He said, 'I'm passing along to you the blessings I promised to David.'

"When David's ride for God was done, he fell asleep and was buried with his granddaddies. His body has decayed.

Any cowboy who believes in Jesus will be in good standing with God. This is something the code of Moses could never accomplish.

'All y'all who made fun of me, the true God, better look out because you're being loaded on the kill truck. I am doing things that are amazing, and most people wouldn't even believe it if someone told them it was happening.'"

There were a lot of Jews and Jewish converts who believed what they said and became believers. The two cowboys urged all of 'em to continue to ride and rely on the grace of God.

Just like before, Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish church in Iconium, and God spoke through them so powerfully that many Jews and Greeks became believers.

So Paul and Barnabas camped there for quite some time. They preached boldly about how to ride for God's outfit, and God proved what they were saying was right by allowing them to do some great signs and amazing feats.

They reckoned Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and Paul was Hermes since he's the one who did most of the talking.

"Amigos! What in the world are y'all doing? We ain't gods. We're just a couple of cowboys sent to gather the strays for the Boss with the good news. Quit paying attention to statues made by human hands and bow down and worship the living God. He made the heavens and the seas and everything in 'em.

Up until recently, God had let folks go their own ways,

On their way through, they stopped and checked with all the cowboys who had started riding for God. They encouraged them to be strong and faithful. They reminded them it ain't easy to cowboy for God's outfit and there would be hard times gathering remnants out of the brush.

Finally, they got on a boat and headed back to Antioch in Syria where they'd first began their journey. The believers in Antioch had trusted these two cowboys to go out and gather remnants and lean on the grace of God.

When they got back to Antioch, they called all the cowboys in the outfit there together and told them about everything that had happened. They were especially excited about telling them how God opened the gate to his outfit and let mavericks in too.

While Paul and Barnabas were still in Antioch in Syria, some cowboys showed up from the country around Jerusalem. These cowboys began giving clinics on how to ride for God, but they were telling people, "You've got to have the tip of your pickle clipped like the code of Moses says if you want to be saved. If you ain't got a clipped pickle, then you ain't saved."

The cowboys saddled up and headed for Jerusalem. They stopped in Phoenicia and Samaria to visit those who had previously been gathered and were now cowboying for God's outfit. They told them, much to everyone gladness, the unbranded mavericks were also being allowed to ride for God and were being saved.

Everyone spoke for a long time and then Pete stood up and said, "Brothers, you all know God chose me a long time ago to go out and gather the unbranded Gentiles. He was pulling them into his herd, and they believed in him.

God knows all people's hearts, and he branded these mavericks with the Holy Spirit just like he did us.

So here's my question, cowboys. Why are y'all now bucking the way God does things and putting a load on the new cowboys' backs that we couldn't carry ourselves? We couldn't follow the code of Moses either, but you want these new cowboys to do what can't be done? That's insane!

We are saved by what Jesus did, not by what we do. That's the grace of God. And we are all saved the same way."