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(Pharisaic) Hedges and Fences
...... at each other. It has been a loud and hard lesson to learn, but how we live really has an effect on the world we live in and people take notice!
We can either put up hedges which need maintenance and upkeep and are a delight to see when they are cared for or in our lives or we can put up fences which distance us from the world and become a judgement on the world. We all like friends we can relate to and be real with not holier-than-thou people who keep up a fa'e of holiness. Putting up fences make me less approachable and more unreachable. The Pharisees had many fences to "keep them from sin" and they were fenced in and bound to them and by them.
Pharisees had the most law because they figured that if they did not keep the law they would suffer the consequences of disobeying God. For this reason they decided to make more laws to protect them from being tempted to break the original law of God. If there were grey areas new laws were made to clarify old ones, it was never ending. These laws were to prevent them from coming anywhere close to temptation and gave them a sense of holiness not because they just kept the law of God but also because they were trying to keep the man-made laws that were thought up to keep them as far away from sin as possible!
So in their minds they were holy and blameless above and beyond the law of God. In effect going beyond the call of duty! This sounds good doesn't it' Yet ultimately it turned to bite them in the heel. No one can keep the law of God and that is why we need divine redemption because nothing in us can save us. Humanism will never be salvation to us. The Pharisees started out wanting to please God and ended up displeasing Him because though they had made it harder for themselves to sin against the law they had now nurtured pride for this achievement in their hearts!
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Many of us today are just as Pharisaic and want to be noted as spiritual and above reproach, praying longer, studying more diligently, fasting more often and tithing the greatest amounts. There is nothing wrong with any of these things but ultimately what other people see is either hedges or fences in our lives. Both need time invested in them and yet they can conjure up different responses from the world. The differences between hedges and fences is in their motivation, the idea of pleasing God can be executed in two very different ways depending on our focus, either ourselves (selfishness) or God (Godliness). One is holier than thou and judgemental, demanding that others follow to the letter of the law, and the other is humble and upright but realistic and vulnerable and without care for reputation.
Which one am I building up in my life' Hedges or fences' I think that many times we call a fence a hedge. Time will tell what will survive and last into eternity as an offering dedicated to God and what will just be a work of dedication to self.
My prayer is that God would search my heart and allow me to see the fences that need to be pulled down to make way for hedges.
for more....www.god-life.com ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aleck is a missionary and teacher, find out more at www.god-life.com
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