House in 06 after some storm damage.
Home Owners Association
Deanna and I were raised in the country with plenty of place to roam. As a child, I spent the day wandering wherever my feet ( bike, horse or eventually car) would carry me, usually to the golf course to hunt errant golf balls to sell back to the golfers or to the river to catch something to sell at my uncles pet store. It was a good life. During College and seminary we lived in sight of downtown LA, but never stayed home, to confining. When we began ministry we moved back to the same area and got a house out on a high point on the edge of a dry lake. My cross country trips to church on my Honda Scrambler MC made the ride to work an adventure. THEN we moved to Arizona. We had a nice parsonage in town that was more than adequate, but it was definitely inner-city. Wandering here for the boys was greatly limited and for my daughter totally redistricted! (she is still unhappy about that but I will bet she changes her mind as Tori gets tall enough to open the front door). Ours was an older neighborhood originally built in the county so there was no HOA to tell me what to do, which was a really good thing, trust me. After 19 years we saw that it was going to be possible for us to get our own home and I began to look. That’s when I found out about HOA’s. Each little community had written into the sales agreement a requirement that you submit to the whim of the HOA board. They would command what you could park in your yard and where, what you could put in the back yard, how high it could be, how to arrange the stuff in the garage and how long the garage door could be open! No way could I live like that. I grant them the right to enforce it if I was to buy in their community, but I chose not to. I found another place where I felt right at home, a couple of acres on a county island that no one wanted because of the terrain. It backed up onto state trust land and a mountain so development was unlikely and there was NO HOA! Here, every man does what is right in his own sight within county deed restriction limits. My kind of place: I won’t tell you what to do if you don’t tell me! We built our dream house here and have been here for 13 years. The state turned the back yard into a 14,000 acre Mountain Preserve so it can never be developed and because of the washes, no one can build any closer to me than is already here. It is perfect for me. This comes to mind as I read something this morning.
1CO 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The thought came to me: can a person claim the blood of Christ for forgiveness and NOT give himself up to that same blood? Is it that kind of an exchange? If we claim the blood, do we claim the life? The book says were bought with a price. To gain God’s forgiveness and eternal life and the indwelling Spirit of Christ, must I give up my will to Him as the president of my HOA or can I just have all the benefits and privileges of forgiveness and eternal life and still do everything my way? I didn’t move into an area that had a HOA to avoid the inevitable conflict. Can it really be any different with God? Who really owns this house anyway?
Deanna and I were raised in the country with plenty of place to roam. As a child, I spent the day wandering wherever my feet ( bike, horse or eventually car) would carry me, usually to the golf course to hunt errant golf balls to sell back to the golfers or to the river to catch something to sell at my uncles pet store. It was a good life. During College and seminary we lived in sight of downtown LA, but never stayed home, to confining. When we began ministry we moved back to the same area and got a house out on a high point on the edge of a dry lake. My cross country trips to church on my Honda Scrambler MC made the ride to work an adventure. THEN we moved to Arizona. We had a nice parsonage in town that was more than adequate, but it was definitely inner-city. Wandering here for the boys was greatly limited and for my daughter totally redistricted! (she is still unhappy about that but I will bet she changes her mind as Tori gets tall enough to open the front door). Ours was an older neighborhood originally built in the county so there was no HOA to tell me what to do, which was a really good thing, trust me. After 19 years we saw that it was going to be possible for us to get our own home and I began to look. That’s when I found out about HOA’s. Each little community had written into the sales agreement a requirement that you submit to the whim of the HOA board. They would command what you could park in your yard and where, what you could put in the back yard, how high it could be, how to arrange the stuff in the garage and how long the garage door could be open! No way could I live like that. I grant them the right to enforce it if I was to buy in their community, but I chose not to. I found another place where I felt right at home, a couple of acres on a county island that no one wanted because of the terrain. It backed up onto state trust land and a mountain so development was unlikely and there was NO HOA! Here, every man does what is right in his own sight within county deed restriction limits. My kind of place: I won’t tell you what to do if you don’t tell me! We built our dream house here and have been here for 13 years. The state turned the back yard into a 14,000 acre Mountain Preserve so it can never be developed and because of the washes, no one can build any closer to me than is already here. It is perfect for me. This comes to mind as I read something this morning.
1CO 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The thought came to me: can a person claim the blood of Christ for forgiveness and NOT give himself up to that same blood? Is it that kind of an exchange? If we claim the blood, do we claim the life? The book says were bought with a price. To gain God’s forgiveness and eternal life and the indwelling Spirit of Christ, must I give up my will to Him as the president of my HOA or can I just have all the benefits and privileges of forgiveness and eternal life and still do everything my way? I didn’t move into an area that had a HOA to avoid the inevitable conflict. Can it really be any different with God? Who really owns this house anyway?
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1 comment:
And that is one of my gripes against "The Sinners Prayer" I think.
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