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Hedge-Hopping Christians

by Jerry Ousley  
9/03/2010 / Christian Living

"Shhhhh; be quiet," I said to my brother with my right index finger raised to my mouth. We were sneaking up on a neighbor boy who lived two houses down from ours. It required us to go through our next door neighbor's yard but she was an elderly lady who enjoyed the play of children. But we were not playing, at least in our young minds; this was serious stuff. The neighbor boy Doug had attacked us first by throwing stones at us. When he ran out of rocks he had retreated back to the safety of his own yard. Their backyard was surrounded by a hedge about three feet tall. My brother and I had crossed our neighbor's yard being very careful so as not to be seen and there, as quietly as possible, we plotted our counter attack.

We had gathered up the rocks he had thrown at us and our pockets were full of them. Now all we had to do was to watch for him to move into the right position and we'd let him have it with his own rocks! Finally Doug arrived at the place we had pre-determined signaling our offensive attack and we stood to our feet and starting bombarding him with the rocks he had thrown at us.

In the course of our offensive attack I flung one of the stones so hard that my entire body was moving along with the rock and before I knew what had happened I fell through the hedge. Suddenly I found myself in enemy territory! I wasted no time in crossing back over and then we fled back to no man's land (our neighbor lady's yard) then into the safety of our own yard.

I told this story to set the stage to talk about hedges. Did you know that God has placed a hedge around each of His children? He did for Job. "Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land." (Job 1:10). This was a conversation that took place between the devil and God regarding Job. Okay, we know that God placed a hedge around Job because the Bible says so, but what about us? Psalm 34:7 tells us, "The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them." We don't' have a hedge of bushes around us but there are angels keeping watch and guarding over us.

I know that it doesn't seem like we have angels watching over us. We still have problems that crop up one after another. To really understand our present situation we must realize that there are times when, like with Job, God lets down the hedge. In other words, He allows the devil to strike hard against us. In those times we must stand strong with faith in the Lord. Why does God do that? The answer is really simple; God, in His infinite foreknowledge, already knows what we will resist and what we will fall prey too. But we don't always possess that knowledge. Just like with Job, when God lowers the hedge it may seem like He's trying to test us, but in reality He is allowing the devil to tempt us so that we can know where we are strong and where we need to do some work. On the surface it seemed that God lowered the hedge around Job allowing the devil to bring such devastation on Him, just to see if the man would stand true to God. But our Lord already knew the answer to this question. So it wasn't for His benefit, but for Job's. The act of lowering the hedge allows us to learn especially if we understand what God is doing and why He is doing it.

On the other hand there are many Christians who are a lot like me and my brother, hunkered down behind Doug's hedge. Rather than moving to the security of the middle ground where the Holy Spirit will further surround us because of the presence of God, we get as close as we can to the edge. We want to see how far we can go and still remain a Christian. When people do that and get into trouble (like I did when I fell through the hedge) they sometimes actually hop over and become hedge-hopping Christians. In other words they are Christians when it's convenient and stand on the other side; when it will benefit them. Let's move as close as we can to the center drawing close into the presence of God and we won't become hedge-hopping Christians.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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