Soul and Spirit

Tips: Back Seat Driving

How to be the good kind of back seat driver

Ever pressed that imaginary brake pedal on the passenger side? Do you often feel your blood pressure rising as you sit powerless at the mercy of an inferior driver? How come, when you point out an obvious error, drivers always repay you with annoyance?

Believe it or not, no matter how frustrated you feel, your driver feels equally frustrated, if not more. Here are some ways to become a better backseat driver.

[…]

There’s nothing wrong with vigilance as a passenger. In fact, keeping an eye on the road makes the road a safer place. “Back seat driver” is a generally negative label these days, but you can turn those negatives into positives by offering constructive advice at proper times, in a way that also conveys some appreciation.

The author makes some good points. Be sure to check out the full article.

Dead in Eritrea

Compass Direct News is reporting that Christian deaths are mounting in Eritrean prisons.

Three Christians incarcerated in military prisons for their faith have died in the past four months in Eritrea, including the death on Friday (Jan. 16) of a 42-year-old man in solitary confinement, according to a Christian support organization.

Sources told Open Doors that Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom died at the Mitire Military Confinement center from torture and complications from diabetes. Asgedom was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera. His death followed the revelation this month of another death in the same prison.

Mogos Hagos Kiflom, 37, was said to have died as a result of torture he endured for refusing to recant his faith, according to Open Doors, but the exact date of his death was unknown.

Possibly the Biggest Virus

Nasty worm wriggles…into your computer?

A nasty worm has wriggled into millions of computers and continues to spread, leaving security experts wondering whether the attack is a harbinger of evil deeds to come.

US software protection firm F-Secure says a computer worm known as “Conficker” or “Downadup” had infected more than nine million computers by Tuesday and was spreading at a rate of one million machines daily.

The malicious software had yet to do any noticeable damage, prompting debate as to whether it is impotent, waiting to detonate, or a test run by cybercriminals intent on profiting from the weakness in the future.

“This is enormous; possibly the biggest virus we have ever seen,” said software security specialist David Perry of Trend Micro.

[…]

Perry urges people to harden passwords by mixing in numbers, punctuation marks, and upper-case letters. Doing so makes it millions of times harder for passwords to be deduced, according to Perry.

OK, it’s time for me to start methodically (or is it methodicly?) changing and hardening more of my passwords…starting the with the one in my browser.

You should, too!

Transition

Another orderly and peaceful and smooth transition of power

OK, some of my scattered thoughts while listening to inauguration coverage on the radio for a while earlier this morning.

President Obama is no great orator, but then neither is President Bush. It’s OK.

President Obama’s inaugural speech included plenty of statements that sounded as though President Bush hadn’t been doing a bunch of things President Obama mentioned were now going to happen.

I wonder what will be President Obama’s first Executive Order.

And what about his birth certificate?

Kudos to Rick Warren for mentioning the God of Israel and excluding Allah of the Muslims. And for praying in Jesus’ Name. I must confess to being surprised by both. Seems like there was something else, but I don’t recall.

Who messed up the administering of the Presidential oath of office: Chief Justice Roberts or President Obama?

That was quite the “poem” that gal had!

And the prayer after it had more rhyming in it. (Yep, I still say real poetry rhymes!) And that prayer! Well, never mind. I’m white…and I’ll let it rest at that. 😀

So what was with letting some music trump the United States Constitution? Or perhaps the Constitution doesn’t require that the Presidential oath of office be administered by noon. Because if it does, and since the oath was a few minutes after noon, is George W. Bush still President? 😯

And speaking of that music — I thought it sounded like funeral music! Which struck me as somewhat ominous given it was “forcing” the oath to wait til after noon.

Oh, and did I hear a news commentator actually refer to one of the Obama girls as, “Cute as a bug”?! 😯 I hope that doesn’t get branded as racist.

Well, let me close with some positives and some good news:

  • President Bush didn’t hold on to power.
  • By all appearances, it was another orderly and peaceful and smooth transition of power. Thank you, God! (And thank you, too, President Bush.)
  • Like President Reagan before him, President Bush survived the “death-in-office curse” on US Presidents elected in years divisible by 20 (beginning with 1840). Thank you, God!
  • Terrorists didn’t succeed in striking such a juicy target as the inauguration. Thank you, God! (And thanks also to all individuals and agencies working on preventing such a strike.)
  • President Obama is younger than I am!

President Bush, bless God.

President Obama, bless God.

America, bless God.

And may it please God to bless America and President Obama and President Bush.

Amen.

Christians Adrift

This is not the faith of our fathers!

Half of Americans who call themselves “Christian” don’t believe Satan exists and fully one-third are confident that Jesus sinned while on Earth, according to a new Barna Group poll.

Another 40 percent say they do not have a responsibility to share their Christian faith with others, and 25 percent “dismiss the idea that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches,” the organization reports.

Pollster George Barna said the results have huge implications.

“Americans are increasingly comfortable picking and choosing what they deem to be helpful and accurate theological views and have become comfortable discarding the rest of the teachings in the Bible,” he said.

[…]

By a margin of 71 percent to 26 percent adults “noted that they are personally more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set of beliefs taught by a particular church,” the report said.

Nearly two-thirds of “born again Christians” adopted that stance.

Revive us again!

And what are we — what am I — to do about it?

Shall I truly give up in passing the faith along Read it all

Above all, love God!