Kingdom Cowboy

Discipline Is Not a Dirty Word

by Doug Hobelman on 01/30/13

Recently Cindy and I were invited to help during the Freedom Weekend that was held at Beaver Crossing, Nebraska. We really enjoyed our time with Eric, Kari, and all the Christian brothers and sisters that call Hope Center their home church. There is truly a genuine work of God going on in the Body of Christ there.  I was asked by Walt to teach the session on "The Healing of the Father Wound". Most of the messages I normally put together provide opportunity for me to share something that I have experienced personally.  I have some experiences regarding the father wound that I could have shared however, when I began to prepare for the teaching, I sensed God wanted to do something different. What developed was some teaching on discipline in the process of healing. The discipline of God in healing of the father wound is not something that most people want to hear about or be exposed to.  It would have been a lot easier (at least temporarily) to have ignored His direction to deliver what would be more palatable and pleasurable for the hearers.  Father knows best. Sometimes what the Father wants to deliver because he knows best isn't going to be the thing that makes me look the best. That's okay. I'm learning that the Body of Christ doesn't exist for me to do my thing, but my life and my gifts exist to benefit the Body of Christ and the purposes of my Lord, my Savior, and my King. Since that is the case I don't really need to show-out that good, I just need to be obedient. I shared what I had recently read in the book "Faraway Horses" written by Buck Branaman. Buck is what you would call a natural horseman. He was the on site expert and Robert Redford's double for the movie "The Horse Whisperer".  As a child he and his brother performed professionally as trick ropers at rodeos across the country. They were child celebrities in their day and were known as the Sugar Pops kids because they were featured on the Sugar Pops breakfast cereal box. In "Faraway Horses" Buck explained the physical and mental abuse that he and his brother experienced at home. Once the abuse was discovered they were taken from their father and placed with a couple that cared for them as children should be cared for. Buck describes on page 50 one of the best explanation of discipline that I have every heard. He said, "Discipline isn't a dirty word. Discipline is the one thing that separates us from chaos and anarchy. Discipline implies training. It's the precursor to good behavior, and it never comes from bad behavior. People who associate discipline with punishment are wrong. With discipline punishment is unnecessary. Without discipline it would be easy to become the kind of man my dad was".  He goes on to show the difference between the abuse of his father and the benefit of discipline that came from his caring foster dad. The element of healthy discipline is corrupted and missing in The Abusive Father - The Passive Father - The Absent Father and The Want-To-Be Best Friend - Father. Nobody wants to talk about discipline because of the known abuse many have experienced that was described as discipline. The perpetrator of abuse, passivity, absence, or neglect will always justified his action as if it's for the good of the receiver. What is really being delivered to the receiver is a wounding of the soul. The world's view of discipline has carried over into the church impacting our concept of it that many now describe as forced law, legalism, punishment, or abuse. We have defined it poorly. God's discipline and a healthy modeling of Christ like, fatherly discipline would be better described as redirection and training, requiring relationship in action. If we want to restore and recover we must grasp God's definition of discipline and experience it for ourselves, by yielding to Him. Without it we won't lay hold of the complete healing of the father wound that our Savior and Healer has for us. In Hebrews 12:4-11 The Message (MSG) we find Godly discipline explained. "In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through - all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children. My dear child; don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God". END OF SCRIPTURE. The only way to truly experience more than a patch on our emotional wounds is to surrender our life including the area that is wounded, to God so he can heal and redirect, shape, and train the area of our soul that has struggled to survive as a victim. When we give him permission to remove the rebel that has defiantly defended the wounded area of our soul, we can then experience his supernatural redirection, training, and shaping in intimate relationship with Him, that can bring complete healing, and lasting wholeness. When we yield to the Father to redirect and shape our life it might not be all cake, ice cream, and party whistles, but we will know we are loved. The process isn't necessarily fun but the outcome is spiritually and emotionally healthier!

 

 

 

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The Cross & The Switchblade

by Doug Hobelman on 01/10/13

Many years ago I read a book called the Cross and the Switchblade. It was a powerful story of God's work through one man. Learning about his ministry to the lost had a substantial impact on my early Christian life. Some of you are probably familiar with David Wilkerson's story. Led of God, he began to preach to the gangs, the prostitutes, and the drug addicts in the inner city of New York. One of the converts was a vicious gang member that today is actively involved as an Evangelist. I recently heard Nicky Cruz speaking on a Christian TV program. Something he said really got my attention. He said that if David Wilkerson had never gone to the ghetto, David would have gone to heaven because he had believed in Jesus Christ and was born again, but Nicky and many others would have been lost forever in hell, without God. The action of one mans love and obedience provides us a picture of faith working through love, being walked out in real life. I believe that the devil has deceived and paralyzed many of us into laying hold of a self preserving - self indulging focus. We would do good to seriously look at our spiritual life and practice to see if it is more about our little kingdom or about the Kingdom of God. Have we been spared eternal destruction so we can live our life on this earth or His life on this earth? Our lives consisting of family, work-ministry, friends, church or leisure, all potential distractions that can ultimately engage us so that we end up leaving others behind, lost for eternity? Robert Morris of Gateway Church teaches about First Fruits - Giving to God first. I'm convinced that life surrender to God has everything to do with hearing and acting on the Lord's leading first in every area of our life - not just in our finances. Spiritually it means offering a sacrifice to God first in intimate relationship with Him, and then feeding ourselves spiritual, second. Surrendering our soul (mind, emotions, and will) first to the Lord better prepares us to experience what we need to have a healthy soul, second. Physically offering our bodies first to Jesus Christ as a living sacrifice prepares us to practice self control and wisdom to ingest healthy food with His blessing. Financially yielding all our things and money to him first, willing to sow a seed according to his leading each day, prepares us to experience the financial provision and blessing of the Lord. Surrendering our social life to the Lord first including all our relationships to His Lordship, prepares us to experience healthy fellowship with family and friends. As we yield our life purpose, our work, our destiny, our ministry to His Lordship, prioritizing his value of reaching the lost first, we can expect to experience an abundant outpouring of his favor. FIRST THINGS FIRST HAS TO DO WITH PURSUING HIS HEART FIRST IN ALL THINGS BEFORE WE PURSUE OUR DESIRE IN ALL THINGS. What would be the effect of my life on this earth if everyday I spent the first 30 minutes of my day doing this? 5 FOR THE SPIRITUAL -  Worshiping and praising Jesus and acknowledging Him as Savior, Lord, and King in my spiritual life before I began to feed myself spiritually. 5 FOR THE SOUL - Acknowledge his Lordship over my mind, emotions, and will praying that he would lead me into the freedom of a Spirit controlled and renewed soul this day. 5 FOR THE PHYSICAL - Yield to His Lordship over my body and offer myself as a living sacrifice, praying that he will lead me into keeping my body sanctified, and even nurtured with the right care and food, to live healthy. 5 FOR THE FINANCIAL -  I would lay all my possession, gifts, abilities, and money down, surrendered in worship to him, sowing financial into the Kingdom of God as he directs me to, each day. Then I would pray for His wisdom to be imparted for me to walk successful and productive in this life, for his glory. 5 FOR THE SOCIAL - Surrender all my family, friends and relationships to Him, praying that each one of them will also fulfill His purpose for their life in this earth. This not only sets me up for happier relationships but it keeps me free from being codependent. 5 FOR LIFE PURPOSE - Acknowledging his rule and reign over my life purpose which includes work, ministry, and destiny, I would ask him to organize my fruitfulness, and spiritual impact on the lost in the world first, before I engage my personal focus on work, ministry, or life purpose. What would our lives look like if we took 30 minutes a day -5 minutes in each of the 6 categories of life and took care of first things first?

 

 

 

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A Columbine Victim's Father Speaks Out

by Doug Hobelman on 12/19/12

Thirteen years ago: A Columbine victimes father speaks out. On May 27, 1999, Darrell Scott, the father of a Columbine school shooting victim, testified before a U.S. House subcommittee on crime. Others witnesses that day included now-Attorney General Eric Holder, Dr. John Lott, then-professor at University of Chicago and Wayne LaPierre, president of the National Rifle Association. Scott's testimony: READ THE REST BY GOING TO FACEBOOK AND ENTER fast horses project

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The First Touch

by Doug Hobelman on 12/16/12

Smiling, I looked through the bars of the pen, excited to see,

A prospect, with one ear half - cocked, cautiously peering at me.

He didn't look too bad, fair conformation, with cow horse possibilities,

I walked through the gate, to make introduction, and to shoot the breeze.

All was quiet-pleasantly serene - as I strolled into the round pen,

He was like a slumbering badger, before being pulled from his den.

Nothing separated us, for just a moment, and then as quick as a flash,

A black forest arose - the colt vamoosed, in a streak and a dash.

Briars and brush now remaining - wild animals and spooks ruled,

Milling the round pen, in a frantic panic, his mind greatly fooled.

He'll have nothing to do with me, the good guy, no sir ree George,

So I poured the coals to the fire, fanning the flames, stoking the forge.

I chop away at the mental brush with my rope -  for him to break though,

If he only knew me as I truly am - my oh my, what must I do?

Pressing on, I search for a way on, lest he never amount to much,

there were many like him before - now long gone -  that resisted my touch.

My rope cuts through the forest, lighting fire and life to his pace,

He moves out, but you can still see the tightness - a strain on his face.

He decides to attack - charging - not ready to give without a fight,

I block him with a blow of my coils, sending him off to the far right.

In one direction, and then the other, I push to break through the thick briar,

A few more times around - no slowing down - when will he begin to tire?

Then I catch a slight glimpse of softness, a yielding, and a lick of the lip,

I take a step back, giving room and rest - there he relaxes, dropping his hip.

As quick as it had come, the forest disappeared, leaving pure open range,

Gone are the spooks and the forest - oh so glad - it's a welcomed change.

Is this the same panther, that fought for his life to begin with?_________

A man - hating bronc - abhorring the touch - now just a myth? _________

I fought through the resistance - my sacrifice -  in hope he would break through,

A fierce battle, to save him from the slaughter - that's what good masters do.

Now I understand tough love -  a firm response - the extended hand of my heavenly boss,

Jesus Christ' s death set me free from my briars - through the work of Cavalry' s cross.

He makes a way for us - to break through the black forest - our mental crutch,

 He clears the path, so we can respect, know his love, and experience His first touch.

Doug Hobelman  12/14/20

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The Last Word

by Doug Hobelman on 12/11/12

In the last chapter of the Old Testament, yes of the Bible I am speaking,

Talks of the day of the Lord, like a furnace, then too late, for the seeking.

A great fire blazing, the arrogant and evildoer, dry wheat stubble,

Every root and branch of them will be gone, only smoldering rubble.

But for all that revere His name, fresh hope and a new day will come,

In His righteousness arising, healing meant for all, received by some.

We the receiver, saved by the gift of grace, no more hold on us to sin,

Set free like a black baldy calf, we will run, buck, and make many a spin.

The Lord says we will trample the wicked, to them a great defeat,

The devil and his troops only soot and ashes, there the ones under feet.

Remember the Law of Moses, the decrees, Israel's future and promise,

One was coming, a prophet named Elijah; you sure didn't want to miss.

Again we bring up the day of the Lord, some think not too far away,

It will be great and it will be terrible, the Word of God does say.

But that prophet, he comes with a message to change every heart,

For fathers and children, a hope, a promise, and a brand new start.

Elijah, and John the Baptist, they have lived and died, their words complete.

And Jesus died on the cross to restore us to the Father, to set purpose to our feet.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are simply men and fathers answering the call,

The orphan's ambassador, with the heart and resolve, we set foot to recover them all.

Doug Hobelman  11-16-2012

 

 

 

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