I have experience with putting up fences. At our ranch we have installed over 3600 t-posts and strung the barbed wire to them to fence apart pastures for grazing. We also use electric fence. Whenever we had someone come to work for us, they had to grab the electric fence so they would know it was something they needed to be less afraid of than a cow with horns coming at them.
We had an electric fence put up around an area where we put piglets. One day, it was time for us to give the piglets their shots. I went out with my little cooler full of syringes, needles, and medicine. I turned off the solar charger that puts power to the fence, and turned around to get set up. My husband came out and “turned off” the fence, but had actually turned it back on! One of the guys grabbed a piglet, and I reached over to get the shot, and grabbed the electric fence and got zapped. Another guys shouted, “Look at that, she’s riding the lightning!” I can look back on it now and laugh. Then, not so much.
Many western states in America are fence out states. These laws were a series of statutes established in the late nineteenth century. One of the interesting aspects of this law pertains to livestock. Is it the property owner’s responsibility to fence the livestock in, or the neighbor’s responsibility to fence them out? Hence the law of fence out. If the fence is on a joint property boundary, then the fence they put up becomes my responsibility to keep maintained as well.
Good fences make for good neighbors.
Putting up and maintaining fences is hard work. You need the proper tools and supplies to get it done right. You also need to dress properly for stringing barbed wire. We once had a young kid in his 20’s hired to help, and told him he needed to wear jeans, boots, and have a pair of sturdy gloves. He showed up for work wearing shorts and flip flops and no gloves. We sent him home. We can’t have someone get hurt because they did not pay attention.
They same holds true for us. God set fences in place through His Word that keeps us from getting hurt if we stay within the boundaries He has established. He tells us what is required so that we don’t show up without the proper tools and supplies. Or better yet, it would be like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Boundary lines have been set by the Lord and the enemy cannot cross them. But you still have the free will to show up in shorts and flip flops and give the enemy permission to cross what God has established. In doing so, you will get hurt. We need to pay attention to what God is telling us, because He loves us and wants only the best for us. He knows how hard the upcoming day is going to be, so He gives us clear instructions to follow so that we can remain mindful of His presence, and therefore will not get hurt.
Granted, even when I was properly dressed, barbed wire is nasty business, and I still got poked, scratched, and had to mend clothes where they caught and tore. But it would have been worse otherwise. God did not tell us that there would be no trials in our lives. He told us if we stay close to Him and follow His Word, we will be okay. We might get poked, scratched and have hearts to mend when they caught and tore, but it is not a permanent hurt. It can be fixed and repaired. God fences us out and fences us in, because His love covers every alternative.
So please listen and “stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and bless you.” (Jude 21 [TLB])
But you will still have to ride the lightning, because you want to be less afraid of a little zap than getting charged at by the devil with horns!
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God Still Speaks 
Great post.
Here, in rural Newfoundland, most homes have white picket fences around them.
Historically, these fences were constructed to keep wandering livestock out of people’s gardens. 🌷🌼
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Our Scottish Highland cows would laugh at white picket fences. One toss of the horns and that would be that. Thanks for your kind words too!
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This is an awesome post! Nathan is always talking about fences, do they keep in or keep out. I met him in Idaho and I was shocked that if you hit a stray cow, horse or some livestock it is the drivers responsibility to make restitution. That is so foreign to me and I’m assuming CO is the same way. So thankful for God’s boundaries, they provide life and freedom not restriction and sorrow. Love, hugs and blessings!!!!
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I have the answer to Nathan’s question. Yes. Thanks for being so good to me!
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Amen! “You hem me in, behind and before.”- Psalm 139 (NIV). Sounds like King David describing God’s fences. The phrase, “Good fences make good neighbors” comes from a Robert Frost poem. I forget the title, but it’s all about meeting up with his neighbor every year to repair the stone fence between their properties. Speaking of electric fences, or hot wires, as we call them here. I knew a teenager once–a flip flops and tee shirt type–who stepped outside the barn one night to relief himself. He couldn’t see the electric fence in the dark. Well, you know what happened. 💥😳
PS. If the last two sentences are too much for this clean cut blog, please edit them out. Blessings!
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Oh no sir, they are staying in! Thank you for all these additions!
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This truly blessed me this morning. Fences!!!
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Blessings to you in abundant measure!
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Being a dog owner for many years in a rural area I appreciate the value of a good fence. What brilliant analogy you have blessed me with today, thank you.
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I am so happy that God used me to bring you a blessing, that means I got blessed too! Blessings for everyone!
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In Him there are plenty to go around us all!😁
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“Boundary lines have been set by the Lord and the enemy cannot cross them.” Deuteronomy 28 outlines the boundaries pretty clearly, blessings and cursings – we choose to cross the line or not. GREAT insights – as always. Yes, God still Speaks.
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You are so good to me!
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🎶Don’t fence me in.🎶. Unless you are God ✝. PS: If you recognize the musical reference, you are as old as i.
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Yes I do recognize it, so yes I am.
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As someone who “rode the lightening” as a teenager and then young 20’s and suffered the consequences of not paying attention to God’s fences, I appreciate this post. I can’t change the past, but I wish someone had come alongside me when I was fooling around with things I shouldn’t have been and had said to me, “Yes, I understand that what you are doing gives you pleasure, but let me show you what is waiting down the road for you.” I had no input from my disinterested and social-climbing parents, my church offered nothing, the Episcopal priest there didn’t take me aside and ask how things were between me and Jesus (I was a regular altar server, he should have taken some interest).
So I jumped the fence and ran off like a wild calf. Four years later I was looking for the door out of the Fool’s Paradise that I had willingly entered. I am thankful to our Lord that in kindness to me He brought me to the ministry of a street evangelist who was working with druggies hanging out at 21st and Atlantic Ave in Virginia Beach. Christ used this man to save my life, and no, that is not hyperbole. I was a mess and close to suicide. Fifty years later, I am thankful.
Great post, and I love the picture!!
God bless!
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Wow, thanks for sharing your testimony, what a great addition to this post!
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I don’t know what Oregon was (fence in or fence out) but I know that there are signs all over Eastern Oregon that says Open Range. We had to be careful not to hit someone’s cow if it was in the road! If you hit the cow, it was your responsibility to pay for it! Somehow that doesn’t seem right with cattle all over the place but that’s the way it is in most of Eastern Oregon!
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I know, right?
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🥰🥰🥰🥰
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