SOLD!

SOLD!
When I was a teen-ager I would go with my father to farm aution sales - usually in the last quarter of the year. There were often sad reasons for the sale - health, bad "luck", etc.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the Autioneer was saying - I never did. But at the end of each of his unintelligible speels he would shout "SOLD".
One day Papa sent me alone to bid on a two-section harrow. He had a broken leg, and could not go. He told me he figured the harrow would be worth about $40.00. A farmer was bidding against me, and we were going up in increments of one dollar a nod. When we reached forty dollars, I had no way of knowing how high the other fellow would go. I stopped, and it "SOLD" for forty-one dollars. I still wonder just how much higher I would have had to go to get the harrow.
The face of the man who was having to sell his items would get longer each time the selling price was announced. Sometimes his wife would cry.
Those things had meant a lot to them. They had worked hard for them. They had, no doubt tried everything in the book to avoid having to sell out. This was the "last ditch" as far as they were concerned.
No one seemed to care - it was a bargain, as far as they were concerned.
Once in a while, the owner would jump in and bid against another man when he felt an item was going too low. He refused to sell at such a low price. That was his privilege to do. Until he heard "SOLD!", it was still his to do with as he pleased. If he waited until the autioneer yelled, he lost his claim to the item - forever....
Jesus mentioned "selling" a few times in His teachings to His Disciples, and it always meant that a person gives up his claim to whatever is on the "block".
Luke 18:22 --- Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Matthew 13:44 -- treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, --- goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, --- seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.


In these discourses, Jesus was using natural things to illustrate Spiritual things. The term "SELL OUT" has a Spiritual signifigance to a Christian. It would seem that Jesus was saying that we will have to relinquish our "right to" and "control of" our own life, and all that pertains to it, if we expect our Christian life to be a success.
Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said .., Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Luke 9:23 And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
On the surface, this doesn't sound so bad. But there is more than meets the eye at first glance.
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disci ple.
To lose control of our lives is a painful, fearful thing that we avoid as long as possible. Nobody wants to do it.
Yet that is what God seems to asking us to do - deliberately "sell out" to His control - His desires - His decisions - His directions.
It is not a "one shot deal" either, but is more like the life of a Nazarite. Every morning he had the same restrictions on his life as he had yesterday.
There is no "vacation" time.
But it is STRICTLY VOLUNTARY ON OUR PART. No one is going to FORCE us to sell out to God. Neither will anyone FORCE a reward upon us.
LORD, I NEED SOME ASSISTANCE WITH THIS