I think there are a lot of parallel in leading an obedient life and correctly flying an airplane. If you pitch your nose up too much, you may climb for a while but eventually you are going to stall and fall like a rock, even with all the power you can muster. Isaiah 14:12. If you pitch your nose down too much, you impact the ground real fast. The goal is to stay true to your heading and not getting blown off course, flying as straight and level as you can most of the time, despite being buffeted by the wind and other adverse weather conditions, stay alert and watchful to avoid collision with other traffic, follow the prescribed traffic pattern, do not be rebellious and decide to make up your own traffic pattern, communicate with traffic controller and do exactly as they tell you, make decisive corrections when necessary, and you will arrive at the correct destination in one piece, presume that you didn't run out of fuel because of lack of planning due to failure to read the manual.

Since I started flight training, talking to friends has involved the subject of JFK Jr. plane crash on July 16, 1999. Here is the technical report until I find the official version on the NTSB website. As to the non-technical details and more of celebrity gossips, check this out. I remembered the news coverage and has always wondered why didn't he pursue instrument rating when money was no objection for him. Apparently he was, just didn't have it at the time of the fatal accident.

Flying has been my dream and getting my private pilot license has been an item on my new year resolution for a few years. I finally took the plunge and started my training with Lone Star Flyers based out of Addison airport. My instructor Torrey Zook and I regularly fly in a 2008 Cessna 172S N6137Q and sometimes a 2007 Cessna 172S N286SA, both rented from Landmark Aviation, a Fixed Based Operator (FBO) out of Addision. I have either bought and downloaded so far:

• Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
• Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM)
• Cessna 172S Pilot Operating Handbook (POH)
• A David Clark H10-13S headset, a knee board, a CX-2 Pathfinder Flight Computer, a rotating plotter, all from Addison Pilot Shop.
• Sporty's Learn To Fly Course (Online)

For $95, I obtained my third class airmen medical certificate from one of the Aviation Medical Examiners (AME).

I also obtained aircraft renters liability insurance because the insurance that came with the rental airplane only covers damages to that airplane, not damages to hangar, other airplanes or property while I am piloting the rental airplane.

I used both a hard copy logbook which Jeppesen gave me for free and the free online version from ZuluLog.

I am planning on getting me the Ground School Workbook for Private Pilots and the Flight Training Workbook for Private Pilots, both recommended by my instructor.

Among the flight schools, I narrowed it down to ATP Flight School, American Flyers, Lone Star Flyers and Monarch Air. I picked Lone Star Flyers, one that I felt most comfortable with after contacting each.

I would say the biggest difference so far between learning to fly an airplane and learning to drive a car is weather. I used not to pay much attention to the weather, no matter how ominous the clouds. Not anymore, having to read weather forecast to determine Visual Flight Rule (VFR) conditions before taking off each time.

I will always be tremendously grateful that I will never have to experience what my parents had to on this day 37 years ago. Imagine as a young woman who just got married last August, last December the army told you your husband, an army medic, has gone missing-in-action when communist forces overran a town. Your boss told you last month to pack up what's needed in the office and burn everything else in preparation to leave the country. You decided not to leave the country because your parents didn't want you to, crying because they didn't think they would ever see you again. And you also wanted to stay to find out your husband's fate. So you spent all day yesterday and all last night going through your stuffs, burning any and every letter, photograph, anything that could possibly link you to any American or the current government, hoping to avoid being summarily shot by the communist forces that will take over anytime now. Imagine as a young man, you have been marching through the jungle everyday for the last four months. You lost a couple of teeth hurriedly chewing on that sugar cane because your body so desperately wanted some sugar. Today could be your last day being alive with all these snakes crawling everywhere around you. At any moment you could get blown up by one of the mines that littered the jungles. Or you could fall into one of thousand of booby traps that had been set all over places during the last twenty years and be pierced through. Worst of all, neither of my parents had known Messiah and the hope he offers.

I love today's portion of my one-year bible. I take note of Deuteronomy 4:29: "... you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul." Seeking G-d with all your heart and soul, not with all your mind and certainly not in your strength. The second gem is in Deuteronomy 4:35 and repeated in 4:39: "[y]ou were shown these things so that you might know that the L-rd is G-d; besides him there is no other" and "[a]knowledge and take to heart this day that the L-rd is G-d in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other." The Psalm portion, 68:5, contains my favorite promise that I pray and claim everyday for the families of our men and women in uniform who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, that G-d himself is "[a] father to the fatherless, a defender of widows." And finally, I am reminded that "[w]hoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." Proverbs 11:28.

We as believers in Yeshua are required to walk by faith and not by sight, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Corinthians 5:7, 4:18. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. I Timothy 6:7. Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. I Samuel 2:7. You may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' Deuteronomy 8:17. But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth. Deuteronomy 8:18. We would do well to remember that the command "do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it." Proverbs 23:4. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Proverbs 23:5.

Reading daily devotional Drawing Near by John MacArthur and he cited this passage: "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me." John 6:37. So every single one that the Father gives to Jesus will come to Jesus. Then I continue to read: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." John 6:44. Not a single one can come unless the Father draws him to Jesus. Together only those the Father draws can come and everyone who the Father gives to Jesus will come. Are there two sets of people whom the Father gives to and draws to Jesus? Again, I am fully aware of II Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

Reading my One-Year bible daily portion today and believe that Matthew 15:11 should be read in narrow context of Matthew 15:20 regarding human traditions or rituals instead of dietary law. Jesus came to fulfill the law and not to abolish it. Matthew 5:17.

I wonder what's the counsel to balance out Psalm 46:10? The Bible seems to be littered with one example after another of people not waiting on G-d and making hasty decisions. Moses out of righteous anger took matter into his own hand without waiting on G-d. Exodus 2:12. King Saul lacked faith in the prophet Samuel, and thus indirectly G-d, did thing that seemed urgently needed at the time but was in fact being disobedient to G-d. I Samuel 13:9. Peter thought he was doing his Savior a service. John 18:10.

On the other hand, Joseph from the moment he became second-in-command in Egypt, through the seven years of plentiful, the Bible had no record of him inquiring about his aged father, whom he loved and knew loved him very much. It could be that the Bible just not had it recorded. But he was never chastised for it. In fact, it was not until the second year of famine that he disclosed himself to his brothers. Genesis 45:6. Jesus, before the age of 12, basically Bar Mitzvah age, being himself fully G-d at all times, submitted to his earthly parents' authority and waited until he was an adult himself. Luke 2:43.

Patiently waiting on G-d and doing the right thing at the right time is necessary in the life of a true believer who seeks to live in obedience!

I read from my One-Year bible daily portion this morning: "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Matthew 11:27. Only those to whom the Son chooses to reveal the Father would know Him. Can we ask G-d why He didn't choose one and choose the other? Who are we to question G-d? Will the clay say to the potter, "What are you doing?" Isaiah 45:9. Aren't we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of G-d? Romans 3:23. And the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23. Granted that "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." II Peter 3:9. But isn't G-d Himself said "as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9. So taken together the whole counsel of G-d's Words, we have to acknowledge that G-d gave us free will to choose but also there are things that He predetermines according to His will that we lack the capacity to understand why or the ability to ask Him why.

It just now dawns on me 14 days into this year that I will have quite a few things to celebrate this year, G-d willing.

1. I will complete Biblical Hebrew III, the last class in the Biblical Hebrew language program at Baruch HaShem. After which there is no more class but only Torah reading practice sessions before each Shabbat service.
2. I will graduate from law school.
3. I will have been with my current employer Arrow S3 for 5 years.
4. I will also have been a homeowner for 5 years.
5. I will have been a Kiva lender for 5 years.

I can never thank G-d enough. Great is His faithfulness. His mercies are new every morning. His lovingkindness is everlasting through all generations.

Read through my daily portion of my One-Year Bible this morning and came across Genesis 18:8 where it appeared that Abraham set before G-d a meal that had some curds, milk and the calf (meat). Wonders if Exodus 23:19 should be interpreted more strictly as it is literally written, taking in the whole counsel of G-d's words, rather than the blanket prohibition of mixing dairy and meat altogether. And run the risk of adding into G-d's words what G-d Himself did not command in violation of Deuteronomy 4:2.