Ride Tough Rodeo Ministries

04/03/2026

This is an image sent back from the Artemis II. That little sliver on the right is the Earth in half day/night from 77,000 miles away.

Now, I want to ask you something. How many miles are on your vehicle? There's a good chance if you go to your window you'll look out to see that old pickup or car with more than 77,000 miles.

As we eagerly await Jesus to return for us. Let's recall his final command in Acts before he ascended to Heaven.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth”.

77,000 miles is a little more than 3x times around the earth.

Jesus' final command wasnt to drive 77,000 miles to a church parking lot (even though not forsaking the gathering together is commanded of us in Hebrews)...we're commanded to GO!

Folks, we're already GOING someplace! Is the Holy Spirit going with us?

The tools we have are sitting in pur drives. Whether that takes us five miles to town, or 500 miles to a rodeo. That old vehicle in your drive that drives us crazy with expensive oil changes - it's our mission tool.

We don't need NASA or a billion dollar rocket - nor do we need to be spiritual rocket scientists to complete our mission.

We're told His Word will not return void. If we're His - we just need to put our hands on the wheel, and our foot on the gas. Because IF we're His the Holy Spirit isn't riding shotgun! He lives within us.

Grab a few bibles...commandeer them from a motel room if you need to. And GO! Put that old vehicle in park someplace and get out....
....and go LOVE on someone!

03/27/2026

03/26/2026

STOP BUCKING, AND GO HOME!

It never fails. Every rodeo I’ve ever been to, there’s always one bull that doesn’t get it—after 8 seconds, it’s over. Time to head back through the gate and rest in the back pen.

Bullfighters wave. Pickup men throw ropes. Doesn’t matter. He just won’t give it up.
Somebody up on the catwalk finally yells… “Go home!”

And if we’re being honest—that’s us. Saved or not. We’ve got plans that run long when God said 8 seconds would do. For the saved, it’s vanity. We drift. A great 8 seconds turns into time spent outside His will. And we need to get back to Him.

For the lost—it’s more dangerous. Because when the lights go out, there’s no gate waiting. Right now, the pen still holds both. That’s grace.

But eternity doesn’t work that way.

So where are you today? Still out in the arena when you shouldn’t be?
Let this be the bullfighter waving you home—

Stop bucking. Go home. Be fed by the Spirit.

03/24/2026

Every arena in life will test you. But God will carry you. - Cory

"Even to your old age and gray hair I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you." Isaiah 46:4 NIV

( 📷 @ Cimarron River Stampede )

01/22/2026

Well, according to the weather people we're set to get between an inch and 10 feet of snow here on the plains of Kansas. Like always - only the Lord really knows.

I hope everyone out there is well and warm.

Have you ever looked back on life and just wished you could draw a horse again? If you're a bronc rider - that's probably very literal. But for most maybe that's a day or a situation. Maybe it's not even a bad day. For those who strive to do their best even that 90 point day everyone cheered for YOU realize you left two points in the arena and missed a 92.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with healthy ambition. In scripture we're told to work as unto the Lord. So, if we have gifts and talents - we're supposed to use them as if we're working FOR the Lord. So we need to give the Lord our best effort with all humility. But we'll still look back and realize we can be better.

The key is to understanding what grace truly means. The Jesus we serve was a 50 point rider who could bend the will of the beasts for that other 50 points. And he put 100 point rides up every day he walked this Earth.

YOU and I on our BEST day will not be Jesus. And while he washed away our sin and brought us back in with our Father. We're toiling in a world where the best of us are just flesh.

So, either on our good or bad days. We really need to thank the Lord that he will put good horses under riders who are beat up and hurting sometimes - or who can get a rein length wrong, or blow a stirrup - or even make a shameful choice out in a parking lot late in the evening.

You have to love a Father God who will keep running horses in for us to slide down on - even when our bodies and spirits are broken. But we have to remember the price He paid to get us back home with Him. You and I have taken many blows, and broken bones. But we've never taken nails and death on a cross by choice and raised a few days later. I don't know about you. But I have enough trouble defeating my flesh - let alone death itself.

Thank you Jesus for letting us jump in with you and get down the road. Keep showing us grace please. We're unworthy of your forgiveness. Please keep pointing us to our arenas in life and stay with us as we choose courage to face our fears in serving you. Be our 90 point ride that glorifies you and leads others to see YOU in us so that they can feel what a true champion, you Jesus, is.

Everyone stay warm and dry. Love you all! Go love on someone and be a little Jesus maybe they've never seen.

Cory

(With Father Joe/Cheyenne)

09/15/2025

Boldy speaking the Truth about Jesus comes with a price. But we must love Him unto death. Even if the cost means OUR death. Because even that grim price of martyrdom is a homecoming for our Savior. Even in death He proclaims victory!

Charlie Kirk went to dangerous places in our midst. And he spoke the Truth of Christ and the faith to those made in God's image...but swept up in the demonic nature of lies. I pray for the salvation of all those who are lost and without Christ. We have to keep spreading the Word. We're promised in scripture that it will not return void.

Tough week. But go love on someone today, tomorrow, and this week. Even if that love is hard. Love. It's one thing Satan can't do in the truest form - to speak the Truth in Love.

09/03/2025

Shaken, but Not Moved

Nine years ago today, a 5.6 earthquake hit around Pawnee, Oklahoma. I was home in Kansas when it happened, and it knocked me out of bed. It felt like the whole earth got up and started walking away. The sound was like a subway train roaring through the basement for what felt like an entire minute.

It was raw power. And it makes me consider how often we deny a much more powerful God. We take for granted so many of the natural elements in our world. Yet there is One who created them all, and One who controls them all.

This is the same God who flooded the whole earth. The same God who will guide the terrors of the end times. And yet—this same God knows the very number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7). His power is matched by His compassion.

We struggle to hold onto both truth and grace, but that’s exactly what God’s love is made of. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). One without the other is a half-gospel.

The truth is this: there is no eternity with God apart from Christ’s salvation. But the grace is this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He was raised on the third day, and He lives today.

But hear this—Jesus is not just a name to know about; He is a Savior to know personally. No amount of good works or self-improvement can get us to heaven. It is Christ’s sacrifice that does the work.

You can never BE the man.
You have to KNOW the man.

Go love on someone today! - Cory

08/27/2025

Don’t Settle for Mediocrity

We don’t usually like Greatness. It makes us uncomfortable because it demands real change and personal investment. “Good enough” feels easier—we can relate to it, settle for it, and even pat ourselves on the back for it.

But who ever called believers to be mediocre?

Jesus didn’t live a “just good enough” life. He lived full bore in a sinful world—yet never sinned. He did everything the religious leaders should have recognized, but instead they worshiped themselves and settled for mediocrity.

It takes being willing to be nailed to a cross just to be “good.” But it takes Greatness to willingly die on that cross—and then rise again. That’s sacrificial greatness.

The truth is, the only great man to ever walk this earth was Jesus. The rest of us are sinners who desperately need Him. But He doesn't just save us—He calls us champions with Him.

So don’t settle for mediocrity. Saddle up. Climb on the horse. Ride with Jesus. Live for something greater!

📖 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” — Romans 8:37

08/26/2025

Last night I had a dream. I'd gone out to visit a bullrider friend of mine who I hadn't seen in quite awhile. When I got there - there were all kinds of people around. A lot of guys I knew, and some women and children milling around outside. I didn't see my old bullrider friend, but I knew a lot of his buddies hanging around. So we spent time catching up like we had many times at rodeos.

Pretty soon I see my old bullrider friend coming walking toward us. And before he can get there a young boy walks up to him and stops him and says,

"Hey, pastor, I wanted to talk to you about something." And my old friend threw his arm around this kid, and they walked away to chat together.

I just stood there grinning. And then I woke up.

Heck of a dream on my 48th birthday. I'll take it as my birthday gift from the Lord.

08/24/2025

You can’t fight a bull from the stands. You’re not in the battle if no shots are being fired at you. Being wounded is part of the good fight. The Devil doesn’t waste time trying to stop anyone who isn’t a threat.

So take your hits. Catch your breath. Live with your wounds. But remember—if you belong to the Lord, the Victor is at your back. Keep pressing forward!

08/22/2025

Maybe this won’t make me popular—but I don’t care. I have no interest in values that don’t strive toward Christ-likeness, whether they’re traditional, modern, or anything else. I say this as a man whose family and personal background have sacrificed deeply for this country.

I love America with a devotion that’s hard to put into words. But I’ve learned it’s unwise to dwell too long in the muck of politics or culture when the Christian faith must always remain the top priority.

As much as I like to envision Jesus as relatable—and He does meet us where we are with compassion—we must be careful not to form Him into our image. Our calling is to conform to His.

Jesus isn’t an American. He is the Messiah. And as deeply as I love this nation, if He is greater than an American—then my heart longs to be that. One day, I want to leave this place behind and spend eternity with Him, under the flag of heaven, after the final battle has been fought and won.

We may be one nation under God for now—but ultimately, all who belong to Him will stand before His throne in heaven.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. Like so many of our brave soldiers, He laid down His life for His friends. But unlike any other, He rose again and shattered the chains of sin.

God bless America. And thank you, Jesus—not only for walking among us, but for refusing to be bound by being just one of us.

08/21/2025

Today would have been my father-in-law Jim’s birthday. We lost both of Stacie’s folks in 2016 when they were taken in a head-on collision. They went to heaven instantly—together.

I truly loved my father-in-law. He welcomed me into his family when I was just a 15-year-old boy dating his eldest daughter. Jim wasn’t a man of many words or big speeches, but he defined the term salt of the earth.

What he gave me was the “pasture” to roam and grow. And brother, did I test those fences sometimes! But Jim was always consistent. More than anything, he was a man of hope. After Carolyn, my mother-in-law, was in her first head-on accident in 1998—a wreck that claimed her own mother’s life—she hovered near death for weeks. Jim stayed strong and hopeful, faithfully at her side for months as she recovered.

Some of my best memories of him are simple: Jim sitting with his Bible open, writing notes. He was a mechanic, and he knew clear instructions mattered. After their passing, I inherited both of their Bibles. When I opened Jim’s case, the very first thing I saw was a notebook page sitting on top, already opened—titled “What the Bible Says About Marriage.”

Jim never sat me down for “the talk” about dating his daughter. He never gave a speech when I married her, either. Instead, he lived his faith out loud. He gave me space, got me to church more times than I can count, and carried a hope I can hardly imagine one man holding. In the end, he taught me without many words. And truth be told—he’s still teaching me.

The first thing I found from him after his death were his handwritten notes on what the Bible says about marriage. That’s who Jim was. You don’t have to have the words when you have the Word of God. Jim knew that.

So today, to honor my father-in-law on his birthday, I’m sharing his notes with you. Please feel free to copy them and share them as well.

Happy birthday in heaven, Jim! Thanks for loving on me.

– Cory