Air Prayer

I’ve refered to him as the man of sorrow and the agnostic Calivinist, he is in fact my father and I received an amazing phone call from him the other night. He said he just called to let me know that he’d read through all of my postings on this site and was very proud and respected me for the journey I had taken and shared through this site. I was stunned. Some of what I wrote under the assumption that it would never be read by family. After all I cleverly hid my words in a blog on the Internet. Who’d ever think to look there?
However, true to his nature, he didn’t take offense at anything I wrote but instead took my words in the spirit in which they were intended. Something I don’t often get to experience. My response was genuine, and without any pretense of hiding behind humor; thank you.

I told him that it’s still my hope that he will join the journey one of these days and I relayed as such to him. I can’t remember the response I got exactly but it wasn’t “NO!” So from now on, whether he likes it or not, I shall refer to him as the man of hope.

Thanks again, Dad. I love you.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:1-5

I worked some more on my RV-4 elevator. I spent most of the day getting very little accomplished on it. It’s almost ready to rivet. I need to get some smaller nails for the close quarter dimpler I have. You use a pop rivet tool, some dies, and a nail to dimple a rivet hole. Once these last few holes are dimpled it’s ready to start riveting the elevator spar to the skin.

I also did some work on my RV-7 horizontal stabilizer skeleton. I alodined the ribs and spars and other raw aluminum stock that goes on there. I have found that the best method when using alodine is to just pour it in a basin and soak the pieces in it. I tried a trick using a long plastic bag to alodine the longer parts but had mixed results. When it comes time to alodine the vertical pieces I may look at a different technique. Here are some pictures of the final product. You can see I need to refine my technique. It’s good enough though and won’t be seen by the general public anyway.

Forward side

Aft side

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

– William Shakespeare

Would that I could write such as thus.

I’ve been pondering my position on salvation lately after some discourse with a friend over the Internet. I cannot move myself away from the position I have taken. Why should I? I can find no good reason. This was once upon a time a position I fought tooth and nail against and simply could not bring myself to believe. I believe it now. My friend is now in the same position I was in a little over a year ago. The debate is: did I choose God, or was I chosen by God?

The Bible provides enough ammunition for both sides of the debate. Or so it would appear. I have come to find that I didn’t really understand the Bible until I realized that I was chosen by God. Scripture makes more sense as a whole with this new understanding. For instance, how does the man who believes that he chose to follow God explain the following verses from Titus 3:

“Indeed, we, too, were once stupid, disobedient, and misled. We were slaves to many kinds of lusts and pleasures. We were mean and jealous. We were hated, and we hated each other. However, when God our Savior made his kindness and love for humanity appear, he saved us, but not because of anything we had done to gain his approval. Instead, because of his mercy he saved us through the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and renewal. God poured a generous amount of the Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Savior. As a result, God in his kindness has given us his approval and we have become heirs who have the confidence that we have everlasting life.”
(God’s Word translation)

“Not because of anything we had done…” What does that mean? Does that only refer to Mosaic Law? Or does it refer to our choosing God? Don’t you do something when you take a decision?

This is the fundamental problem with Arminianism. If we choose to accept God through Jesus, then how do we explain all the verses that talk about God choosing His special people? Choosing His disciples? The Bible speaks of God’s choice again and again. Yes there are passages about people here and there choosing to follow God. But how did they come to make that choice? Let’s face it, sin is fun! Lust, debauchery, drunkeness…what’s not to enjoy? Sin is pleasurable to the physical body. What could possibly make us want to turn away from that pleasure, deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus?

God regenerating the heart of man and giving him the option of choosing God. That’s the only answer I can come up with. Can someone show me where this is wrong?

I started work on the empenage of the RV-7 today. As compared to the RV-4 the RV-7 is like building a lego airplane. Progress for today was to mount the spar stiffener and the elevator hinges. This involved putting clecos in every third hole and then reaming all the other holes to final size (#30). I then moved the clecos to the reamed holes and reamed all the remaining holes.

Here’s a picture of the progress for today.