All right! Wait a minute, Wilbur, I believe that... This little story here is about a couple good buddies of mine. Well, they work in the rodeo. That older fella there, in the fancy clothes? Well, that's Wilbur, one of the best clowns that ever played the circuit. And his partner there, well, that's young Billy, his nephew. Anyway, every summer, Billy would team up with the old man, and they'd tour with the rodeo as clowns. You know, making people laugh and forget all about their worries and stuff. Those two loved each other something fierce. And they always had a real good time. But this particular summer, old Billy had something else on his mind. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you now one of our top contestants here today. The last year's Sierra Circuit all-around champion, Skip Harper. Be our next bronc rider out. skip harper and here he's out of the chute now has a good start on that horse and is making a great ride it looks like it's going to be good all the way to the whistle yes sir billy had himself a real honest to goodness idol you see he thought if he could rope and ride like skip if he could be number one why that was bound to make him a real man skip harper of 85 scored You can see why he's a Sierra Circuit all-around champion. Don't tell me. Let me guess. You're in a hurry. Would you mind telling me what's so all-fired-up important? Skip Harper's here. He's going to give us some pointers on high ropes and stuff. Give some pointers? That doesn't sound like Skip to me. Well, there's a bunch of people here from a TV station. They're doing something on him, so he's going to give us some pointers. Oh, I see. TV, huh? Don't you like him? He's a great guy. It isn't that I dislike him. I just think you could choose a better hero. Oh, come on, Uncle Wilbur. Skip's got everything. He's a real champion, and nobody pushes him around like... Like what? Nothing. I gotta get going. I gotta get to him before Jeff Murdoch does. Now, wait a minute. What's Jeff got to do with all this? The kids' rodeo finals are coming up next week, right? Right. And I've been waiting all year to win those finals. Jeff's my only real competition. I gotta get to Skip first. Now, Billy, there's some things more... I know, I know. You've told me a zillion times. there are some things that are more important in life than winning. And then you start preaching again. Gotta go. Wish me luck. Attaboy, Jeff. Hey, take him tight. Hey Billy you wasting time Come on Don let nothing get in the way of winning Come on now, Billy. Billy, come on. Hey, nice work. Way to take those poles. You see how he did that, Billy? Now, you can't be afraid of him. I'm not afraid. What's that? I'm not afraid. Good, then take him nice and close. Go on, unsaddle. Feel pretty good, huh? I sure do. On TV and everything. Luck, that's all. That's not what Skip said. He said... I know what he said. I was there, remember? Well, it wasn't luck. Okay. Let's have another race. Around those poles again. No, not around those dumb poles. The big one. Huh? What are you talking about? I challenge you to the suicide race. Are you crazy or something? Both our horses are worn out. And besides, Skip said we shouldn't even think about the suicide race till we both get a lot more experience. Let's face it. A chicken and a pansy. A pansy, huh? The big TV star's a chicken. Well, come on, I'll show you. Yes, sir, old Billy's blood was a-boiling. He was a better writer than Jeff ever thought of being. He was sure of it. And now he was going to set out and prove it. I'm going to go. real good. But pretty soon Billy found himself starting to fall behind a bit. Oh, my God. ones of us. Suicide race? Yeah, that's what we call it. You see, we start right about over here. We charge up over those rocks. You mean where those boys are? Oh, no. What are those kids up to? I out I Oh, my God. He would have got into you anyway. Just proving who's number one. I won that race. You call this winning? I call it cheating, cutting me off like that. I didn't do nothing. Does this look like nothing? Let me take a look at it. What can I say? That corner belonged to anyone. If you weren't man enough to fight for it. Man enough, I'll show you. Here, you guys. What are you doing? Here, come here. Here. Hey, hey. That's enough now, here. Come here. Break it up. Break it up. Break it up. Now, that's enough. Here. Just cool it. Get into you guys. You said not to let anything get in the way of winning. How's it look, Wilbur? Well, not too bad. It'll probably be all right in a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks. The finals are this Saturday. What were you two doing up there in the suicide race anyway? He was cheating. You saw the whole thing, Billy. I won the race. That's what you saw. Yeah, but we also saw how you won it. Winning that way isn't really winning, Billy. I'm going to be number one, just like you. All-around champion. And nobody's going to get in my way. Well, needless to say, old Billy, he was pretty bugged. You see, he wanted to win, but not like that. He felt terrible, you know, real sick about what he'd done, and nothing he said or did seemed to take away that rotten feeling of guilt. But Wilbur, he loved that boy and knew exactly what Billy needed, you know, to become clean and free down deep inside. I picked that up a couple months ago. It's a collection of paintings about the life of Jesus. You see, someone had already paid the price. Someone had already taken the punishment for what Billy had done wrong. and not only about the horse, no siree, but for all the things he'd ever done wrong. You see, look at here. See, they started by giving him 40 lashes of the whip. You mean like a bull whip? No, it was more like a bunch of little whips, see, and it had little sharp, jagged rocks on the end of every one of them. You mean so it would cut in? Uh-huh, indeed. And then the guards played a little game with him. They hung a robe on him and they blindfolded him and then they started hitting him from every direction as hard as they could What they do that for Well, I told you, it was a little game with them, see? They said, if you're the son of God, name the man that hit you. See, for them, it was fun. That's stupid. Remember, Billy, Jesus chose to go through with this. He could have walked away from it any time. Now, you remember that crown of thorns right here I was telling you about? Yeah. You see, they jammed that down on his head real hard. And then after all that blood had stuck to his back and the robe had stuck to it, they just ripped it off, you know, like a sore sticking to a Band-Aid. You know what? After that, they nailed those big old spikes down on his hands, and they nailed him to that cross, and they also did it to his feet. and they took that cross and they dropped it in a hole with him on there for the whole town to see he was hanging there in the hot sun for six hours hot sun on him and he was bleeding and thirsty and naked and the crowd around below for the most part was making fun of him that's how he chose to die for us. But why? He did it for you and for me. You see, he took the punishment that I deserve and you deserve. He paid the price for our sins on that cross. But Billy, he didn't stay in the grave. He rose from the dead to prove that he really was the son of God. But you still have to choose him to make his death count for you. Well, from that moment on, Billy somehow knew he'd never be the same again. How's your horse? What do you care? He won't make it. That's how he is. I'm really sorry. Sure you are. No, I really mean it. Yeah, I bet you do. No, really, I'm sorry for making your horse fall. I wanted to win awful bad, but... But what? Well, there's no excuse for what I did. That's easy for you to say. You've got a horse. So do you, if you want it. Huh? What do you mean? We could share my horse. Your horse? We maybe could switch off in between events. Are you serious? Yes, I'm serious. All right. We'll have to take them out so you can get used to them. Yes, sir. Billy learned that there was a lot more to life than being number one. You see, he learned that the most important thing was being right with God. And on that day, Billy made the biggest decision of his life. He prayed and asked Jesus to forgive him of all of his sins and to come into his heart as his Lord and Savior. And you know something? You can do it too.
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