Impressive effort, church, presumptuous sin, Victoria

I do not know if he will be hurting physically from overexertion, but Grandpa has dug the waterline for the apartment and shop, laid the line, made up all the connections and mostly backfilled the entire line – by himself. It was a big job. About 150 feet of ditch needed to be dug and I was intending to help get it done, but with revival services every night this week, I did not get the opportunity to do so. I was thoroughly impressed with his efforts.


Grandma went to church with us last night and I think she enjoyed it. She was the last one to take her seat at the start of service and she was the last one out of the building at the end of the service. Victoria absorbed all of her sidebar comments throughout the sermon. Thank you, Victoria. Other than a constant driving lesson on the way to church, it was not totally unpleasant having her along. Mama has constantly reminded me and I know it to be true, that Grandma has a good heart. It is not her heart that I have a problem with.

On Wednesday night, she and Grandpa went to church in Bowie for the first time in months. I have not asked Grandpa if he enjoyed it or not. It is the first time the new pastor of the church would have seen the two of them. I am curious if it will come up in conversation this weekend as we work together. We have been praying for some time for Grandpa to find a church home. We will continue to pray.

Last night, the last night of the revival, the evangelist preached on presumptuous sin; an assassin of revival. This particular disobedience results largely from a lack of fear of or lack of respect for God. It is when we choose to do what we know is wrong (read that sin) but do it anyway thinking that God will somehow understand our justification for doing what we know to be wrong; what we know offends Him; what we know is sin…Guilty as charged.

He used episodes in the life of Saul as examples of presumptuous sin; when Saul offered sacrifices because he was tired of waiting on Samuel, when he failed in God’s directive toward the Amalekites (he was killed by an Amalekite who would not have been alive has he obeyed God), and when he called up the witch at Endor. All were direct violations of a known statute or a direct order form God but Saul justified it by looking at the circumstances and the situation rather than doing what was right – albeit, uncomfortable.

I have to ask myself if using a credit card to make purchases is such an instance when I have made a pledge to God to get out of debt. I will pay the borrowed money off. It will expedite the building project. Mama and I are ready to get the apartment done and have some place of our own. I could justify it. I could make it right. But I have made a promise, a commitment to God. I had better be prepared to keep it – regardless of the inconvenience.

Mama and Victoria thought the visit to the specialist was worth the time. They both really liked the doctor, an allergy, ENT specialist. She recommended a couple medications for Victoria in order to ease the immediate symptoms distressing all of us – mostly her cough – and has recommended follow up with a battery of allergy tests to identify the cause. That should produce some interesting results. I am nearly as anxious as Victoria to hear the outcome.

We are expecting colder weather this weekend. A front is supposed to move into the area tonight lowering the temperatures into the forties at night with the high on Saturday and Sunday only in the fifties. There is a slight chance of rain – and we will take all we can get – on Saturday. That will make working outside pretty comfortable; absent the rain. It is just too bad we are out of money. It might be time to go fishing.

Grandpa could use the rest.