The Dutchman lives in a town in central California called Modesto. It was to be named for it’s founder a one Mr. Ralston. He was too humble to allow that so the town was renamed Modesto for his modesty. That spirit of modesty is sadly lacking around these parts.

I wish I were more like Job. I wish I could make that covenant with my eyes not to look upon a girl with lust. I’ve been living life for 40 years now and still haven’t been able to make that covenant. Ladies, you are enchanting creatures and we men simply cannot take our minds off of you. God made women just right. Has mankind made anything more attractive or beautiful than the female form? The female form is exquisite, enticing, comforting.

Even so I wish women would understand what their forms do to men. I implore all Godly women to dress modestly. Something you may think is cute may reveal portions of your body that should only be revealed to your husband. Save your most precious gifts for him (and all that those words imply.) A flash of cleavage or inner thigh can set even the most Godly men on a course of thought that neither they nor you appreciate. I can’t begin to tell you how much cleavage, how many bellybuttons, or lower back tattoos I’ve see — at church!

Another reason I’ve left the two churches I was attending and found a very conservative reformed church. The elders of my current church are always reminding heads of households that EVERYONE needs to dress modestly but women especially because men are so visual. Paul appealed to women to dress in a way “which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.” (See 1 Timothy 2:9-11)

I make the same appeal. Adorn yourself in a way to be ready to do good works for the Lord. Helping a Christian brother to not commit adultery in his heart is a wonderful work! Something every Christian sister can do every day.

I attended our church’s Reformation Day celebration this past Friday night. What a blast. The theme was the Scottish reformation. Our pastor dressed as John Knox. We had a lot of highlanders and one lowlander (me, because I’m so short, heh, heh.)

Anyway, at one point in the little service we had a bagpiper began playing Amazing Grace and lead us out of the make-shift chapel we were meeting in. We all began singing but when the piper and the paster left the building, the singing started to die off. I was still singing in my baritone-profundo and so were most of the women but the men just stopped. Wha? What has happend to us men?

In the old days men sang as they worked. Men sang stories to their children. Men sang in bars and pubs. Men even sang as they went off to war. Come on men, we cannot abandong singing to the women. In my opinion, there is nothing as grand, as heartening, and sometimes as chilling as the sound of a large group of men singing with all their heart.

Singing is not childish or feminine. I don’t know when we began to think this but I believe this is how many men feel about singing. Women and children sing sweetly to be sure but there is power in a man’s voice. There is strength in the voices of several men. There is the echo of God’s voice in the sound of a hundred or more men singing praise with all their heart. I am certain that our adversary flees at the sound of Godly men raising their voices to the Lord.

So next time you are at church, or prayer meeting, or church camp, raise your voice when the singing starts. Your voice isn’t bad. You are not singing a solo you are joining the chorus with all those who sing with you. God’s ears hear your voice along with all those who went before you. The very next chance you have join in song with Godly men everywhere and put our adversary to flight!

Though technically it is tomorrow, my wife and I are celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary today. It’s been an amazing trip. We came from being two good church-going kids to sinking into sin, repentance, and now sanctification. God has been more kind to us that either of us deserve. I couldn’t tell you why but I’m extremely grateful. My wife is an amazing woman. I’m looking forward to many more years with her.

I’ve spent almost the entire day trying to upgrade Symantec Antivirus 9.0 to 10.0 on one of our servers at work. You see, when I’m not a reformed Christian aviator, I’m a server and network geek. I spent the whole day getting nowhere. Three installs with subtle differences in each approach yielded nothing.

Some of my co-workers were pretty annoying today too. Nobody wanting to step up to the plate and take responsibility for a system problem that’s completely unrelated to anything I do. So I stepped up, made a couple of phone calls that anyone could have made and found the problem in short order — a server problem at another site.

Finally this fancy new VPN appliance we bought for a branch office isn’t working as well as I’d hoped. It requires user intervention to establish the connection with the main site. It needs to be automatic. It does not appear to work automatically. Frustrating.

So… why am I so happy? I am, I really am. Not like Paxil happy, just content, not worried, going with the flow, cool. I have a feeling my God is playing a big part in this. If I rest in Him and allow Him to have control of my life things just seem to work out. It really frustrates the people around me.

“How can you be so relaxed??” they demand to know. “What do you mean you just ‘figured it out’? How??”

I’ve found that God even helps me with my little petty mundane problems if I just lift them up to Him. God has ordered me to work. So I work. If I work as if working for Him (which admittedly I don’t always do) He helps me. He helps me because I am doing his will. I’m not out there scouring the streets for converts or feeding thousands of people. I just try to perform my own quiet service to Him and those He has created. Perhaps they will see me and jealously wish to have what I have. Perhaps they will ask and I will tell them. If it is God’s will, they will believe and be my companions forever.

It could happen.

Took my wife and kids (and the dog) boating today. We rented a 20′ Four Winns up at Lake Don Pedro. What a blast! The kids really enjoyed themselves. My wife really dug being out on the water once it warmed up a little. At one point we shut off the motor and just drifted for about an hour in a big bay. We ate lunch and just lazed around on the boat. A lifestyle I could get used to. One we could all get used to! After about 4 hours the kids were done. That’s when we started cruising the lake to see the sights. My youngest zonked out, the dog thew up, but my wife and I had a great time sightseeing.

I’ve been browsing some of the blogs here on Blogger. Many of them are just plain stupid. Not content-wise, people can say whatever they want, but you people that fancy yourselves web designers, uh, please stop. Some of these blogs are just plain painful to look at. They might have great content but I’ll never know. Others are just wierd. Either they are kids after a first-time experimentation with alcohol or they are just picking words out at random. Not quite poetry. Still others are kind of like my blog: some boring person blathering their experiences, opinions, and what-have-you on the Internet.

Interesting day here in the Central Valley. Thunderstorms pushed in all the way from the country’s mid section by Hurricane Rita. Not here in Modesto but all around us. I went flying this morning to look at the clouds. There was a lot of wind shear within 5 miles of the airport so I thought it prudent not to venture too far away. Shot a couple of landings and then headed off to work. Finally got my intercom problems wrung out too. Looks like I can give rides on Saturday after all.