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If You're Rich, You Better Watch Out

¹ Take a deep seat all you who are rich. You think you've got it easy, but there's a mess of trouble headed your way. ² Your money will rot and moths will eat your best clothes. ³ Even your gold and silver has corroded with rust and it will be this rust that will testify against what you've done with your money. That rust is gonna spread across you like a burning range fire. You have hoarded your treasure and it has nailed you to the stake. ⁴ You haven't even paid the cowboys who gathered your pastures or the good, hard-working folks who put up your hay. They've spoke words against you to the Lord and the Lord is listening. ⁵ You're full of pleasure and plenty, but all this is just like grain you've been feeding yourself for the slaughter to come. ⁶ You've thrown the weight of your money around and it has crushed those who were living right and working hard.

Patient Suffering

⁷ So be patient cowboys. It's just like a rancher who patiently waits on the spring and fall rains that grow the grass his cows eat. In his patience, he watches his herd grow fat and hearty. ⁸ Park your horse under a strong cedar and have courage as you wait on the Lord to come ridin' back . . . and he ain't far off now. ⁹ Don't moan and complain about what others do and you won't be judged; and the Judge is standing at the gate. ¹⁰ If you want to see what patience and riding the hard trail looks like, all you have to do is peek in at those cowboys who are often called prophets. ¹¹ To ride further and harder than anyone else is an honor. A man don't make a name for himself by sitting around twiddlin' his thumbs. Think about that Job fellow. His life and the trail he rode proved the Lord looks after and cares for those who ride for Him. ¹² And one last thing, pards. Don't be swearing you'll do this or that. Just let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.

Hit Your Knees and Pray

¹³ Have any of you felt like life has bucked you off and stomped a mud hole in you? That fellow should pray. Is anyone feeling mighty blessed? Let loose in song! ¹⁴ Is anybody feeling poorly? He should ask the leaders of the church to pray for him and they will rub some oil on his head in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ No sickness can stand against a faithful prayer. The Lord will then sit 'em tall in the saddle, ready to ride. The Lord is so good that even if that guy has been sinning, all of those sins will be thrown in the brush and forgotten. ¹⁶ So if you've done some things you ain't proud of, go to another cowboy and tell 'em about it and your heart will no longer be heavy. A fellow who rides hard and straight, his prayers are strong and they get the job done. ¹⁷ Shoot! Even Elijah was just a cowboy like us and he prayed God would stove-up the rains and it didn't rain for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Then he hit his knees and prayed and God turned the water back on. Them dry pastures drank deeply and grew once again.

¹⁹ Listen cowboys, if any fellow strays from the narrow trail and someone brings him back, ²⁰ he should know that he has saved him from being drug to the fire. There ain't nothing better you can do for a man than to bring him back to the One who does the forgivin' of sins.