By: Mitch Price
About a lifetime ago, in the house I grew up in, we had a fence that surrounded our horse pasture, and part of our yard. On a regular basis my friends and I would bravely navigate the top rail of the fence in a myriad of different games and adventures. The fence was a typical 3-rail fence made out of 1”X10”s for the cross pieces and 6” posts to connect them. Because it was my house and my fence, and quite frankly because I got the most practice on them, I would usually propose a competition to see who could go the furthest without falling off, or who could navigate 5 sections the fastest, or something similar. More times than not, because I had become an expert fence walker, I came away as the victor. I came to know the fence pretty well. I knew which boards were warped, and how to counter-balance to get past them. I knew which posts were wobbly and learned how to bend my knees a bit more on that section to stay up. I was the self-appointed King of Fence Walking. (I’ll call myself The Fabulous Fence Walker if I ever decide to go “Pro” with it.)
Recently someone had mentioned in conversation that they were “on the fence” about the issue we were talking about. I was struck at the oddity of that statement given, and not just because of my expertise with fence walking. It occurred to me that attempting to stay on the fence as a kid, in a game, is fun and an admirable achievement. But, as an adult, with real-world situations, staying on the fence isn’t quite so admirable. Now I know that there are times where we simply don’t have enough information to make an informed decision, and I guess that’s okay, but shouldn’t we strive to get off the fence in as many areas of our thinking as possible?
As I thought about it later, I wondered how that related to being on the fence about the existence of God, and more specifically the claim that Jesus is God. Having been in ministry for a lot of years now, I have heard lots of people say, in one way or another, “I’m still on the fence about God, and am not ready to choose to surrender my life to Him yet.” What they fail to realize is that they have already made a choice; the choice to NOT surrender to Him. John 3:18 says “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”.
If I accomplish nothing else in this lifetime, I hope that my words and actions encourage others to realize this: There is no fence! You have either decided to make Jesus your Lord and Savior, and to spend eternity in heaven with Him, or you continue to go it alone, forever separated from a loving God. I pray that you choose Jesus!
~ Pastor Mitch