WHAT IS THE PRICE WE PAY FOR ONE NAIL ? – Azusa StreetRiders International

On a recent trip to Haiti, I heard a Haitian pastor illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ. His parable:

A certain man wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn’t afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.

After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

The Haitian pastor’s conclusion: “If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.” – Dale A. Hays

This message was preached over 25 years ago by a young man by the name of Bro Brian Buyers in a time where I was in the deepest valley I ever walked. I came to realize that night that I had always had that one nail on the back porch and whenever the devil or my flesh wanted to pull me down into that miry clay (that was on many occasions) all they had to do was walk out to that nail, on my porch and hang that one thing I was unwilling to give up to the Lord. I have always believed whatever we hold in the dark place within our heart, in secret has the right to persecute us with.

I learned the hard way I wish I could go back and change the hand of time regrettably I cannot however I can throw a red flag and say do not let that one thing, that one nail haunt you time and time again. Put it down through the Grace of Jesus Christ and once you have do so leave it there.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them:
because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1 John 4:4-6