A fellow in Haiti wanted to sell his house for $2,000. He found a buyer, but the man could scrape together only half the asking price. So, the owner agreed to sell for that amount but with one reservation: he would continue to own one nail above the front door.
A couple of years later, the first guy decided he wanted to repurchase the house. The new owner declined, saying, “I like this house; I don’t want to sell.”
The previous owner found the carcass of a dead dog on the street and hung it from the nail he still owned above the front door. Soon the stench became so strong no one could go in or out of the house, and the family had to leave. They sold the house to the former owner.
A Haitian pastor told that story and then said, “If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making our lives unfit for Christ’s habitation.”
Well, you and I think that was a cute little story, but surely it has no application to our lives. Right?
–I sure am enjoying my new life in Christ. Bible study is great, my new friends at church are wonderful, and I’m loving the new relationships. I wish I’d done this years ago. Some nights I’m down at the church til 10 o’clock with my friends there. Sometimes we are praying, studying the Bible, or working on various projects. I hope no one finds out what I’m watching on the internet at home. I know it’s called pornography, but it’s such a little thing and as long as no one knows, what can be wrong with it?