Methodist Church launches app for iPhone

The Methodist Church has become the first major denomination in Britain to launch its own application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The new app will allow users to view Bible studies and daily prayers.

It is hoped it might appeal to both believers and those who might be more cautious about attending church.

The app may also offer an alternative for people who want a daily dose of scripture, but are not keen on carrying a Bible on their daily commute.

The Methodist Church stresses that technology should complement, not replace traditional worship.

However, they believe the download will be popular and are already planning the next version.

Apps, which are pieces of computer software downloaded from the internet onto mobile phones, have become increasingly creative in recent years.

The Methodist Church is already engaged in new media with its Twitter account, various blogs and online Bible studies.

Little John the Baptist

Matt..18:4-5
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And who ever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. "

Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with their cat.

He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work. A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back To the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.

She called out, "Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!"

Johnny looked up at her and said, "He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

Visitation

The way you deal with visitation and interact with your former spouse will affect your children. Take care that you communicate with your spouse in a way that is friendly and without blame for the sake of the children.

If you are struggling with visitation issues, here are some suggestions to better handle these difficulties:

"There are no good answers for visitation," says Dr. Bob Barnes. "It's not God's plan. It's not ideal. The best-case scenario is for you to decide that regardless of your ex, you are going to try to cooperate and compromise.

"Your ex may always want you to drop the children off and pick them up and never participates in the transportation. It's not fair, but you are not dealing with the nurturing of your ex anymore. You are dealing with the nurturing of your children. You don't want your children to arrive under strain all the time because you and your ex are furious with each other. The children lose here.

"You have to decide that you are going to go the extra mile. Maybe you've gone the extra mile for eight years now, and you are tired of it. Do it for the Lord's sake and for the children."

If you are angry or frustrated with your former spouse and you show it, then you are teaching your children to be angry and frustrated when things are unfair or things don't go their way.

"The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him" (Proverbs 20:7).

FOSS and Option for the Poor

a repost from Fr. Stephen Cuyos , MSC. Fr. Stephen Cuyos is a Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) priest, who blogs about his faith and ministry, about the use of new technologies and social media for evangelization, as well as his advocacy for Linux and Free/Open Source Software.

Christians worldwide are called to follow Jesus’ example of showing preferential concern for the poor. This means that as Christ’s followers, they are called to respond to the needs of all, especially the marginalized and the most vulnerable. The philosophy of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is based on cooperation, common good and mutual benefit, and is in many ways consistent with the Catholic Church’s preferential option for the poor

Option for the poor is rooted in the biblical notion of justice and common good, where God calls us to be advocates for the voiceless and powerless in society. It means that we need to look at the world from the perspective of the poor and to work for justice and equitable sharing in the world community. In the area of computers, it means that we need to break down an oppressive system that forces billions of people to use closed, proprietary formats and subscribe to sky-high licensing fees. It is both a matter of justice and common good that structures and systems be put in place to address the needs of the poor to have access to free software and open formats.

The use of FOSS can help poor people to empower themselves. This is because FOSS allows its users to learn how software works by providing both the binary and source codes as well as the freedom to run, copy, modify and share the software. Proprietary megacorporations, on the other hand, label it a crime to modify or make copies of their overly expensive software.

It is said that the moral test of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. In the area of computers, the best way to treat the most vulnerable members of society is to share free and open source software with them and collaborate with them in improving old applications and developing new ones for the common good of all.

What can Christians do to promote FOSS? The best answer to this question is found in the Manifesto of the Eleutheros project, which proposes, among other things, that Christians should:

• increase their awareness of the importance of Free Software and Open Formats and Protocols, as well as their ethical values
• propose that only Open Formats and Protocols are used, by all Catholic Organizations to store or manage any kind of digital data
• propose that, whenever it is possible, Free Software is used instead of proprietary software in all Catholic Organizations
• request that, without exception, teaching of programming and basic Information Technology in all Catholic Schools and Universities is performed using Free Software

This is not an easy task, I know. But we will get there, one FOSS application at a time. As Christians we must never stop exploring and examining how software is developed and used, especially in terms of how they affect the poor.

Let your old computer have a second life

a repost from Why Linux is Better

Windows requires more and more hardware power as its version number increases (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP, etc.). So if you want to keep running Windows, you need to constantly buy new hardware. But I can't see any good reason for so fast an evolution. Of course, many people need a lot of computer power and new hardware and technologies are really helping them. But for most users, who surf the web, read and write emails, write text files and slides, what's the point of buying a new computer every 2, 3 or 4 years, apart from letting computer vendors earn more money? What is exactly the profound reason why your computer can't do any more of what it did perfectly well 5 years ago?

Ubuntu Linux runs perfectly well on older hardware, on which Windows XP would. Ubuntu Linux will run very well on it and allow you to perform usual tasks (surfing the web, writing documents, etc.) just fine. The very computer that delivers this page to you is not very young and runs Ubuntu Linux: if you can read this, then it is up and running (and if the website loads slowly, blame my Internet connection only).

Why does your Windows get slower day after day?

a repost from Why Linux is Better

Windows has a number of design flaws, resulting in it becoming slower and slower and not lasting very long. You've probably heard more than once someone say "My computer is getting sluggish, I'm gonna reinstall". Reinstalling Windows solves the problem... until next time.

You may think this is just how computers work: they're very new technology, and not really stable yet. Well, try Ubuntu Linux and you'll be surprised. Five years from now, your system will be just as fast and responsive as the day you installed it, not to mention that you won't have any viruses, adware, trojans, worms, etc., that would force you to reinstall anyway.

I have managed to convince many people to switch to Ubuntu Linux, while keeping Windows on their hard disk, because they needed to use some piece of software that Ubuntu Linux doesn't have (eg Autocad), so they use both systems. Since the day they switched, most of them have reinstalled Windows about once in a year or two; but Ubuntu Linux didn't let them down, and is still running perfectly well and is still snappy today.

Ubuntu lets you spend more time working, less time reinstalling over and over again.

Spend Time Together

Be there for your children! You have to be there emotionally as well as physically. Children can sense if you are only giving them your presence; they want and need all of your attention.

"I drew a lot closer to my kids," says Lee. "I really made myself available to them. The first Christmas we had, which was only three months after my wife left, was a wonderful Christmas. The children and I had anticipated dreading it, but we built new memories; we started some new traditions; and we stayed up until three o'clock in the morning.

"I realized how important it was just to be there. I found that with kids you can't sit down and say, 'Let's talk about it' and expect them to immediately open up. You have to give them your presence, and maybe three or four hours into an innocent evening of fun, they will open up with their feelings and concerns. Sometimes it's three in the morning! So you have to change your lifestyle a little bit to be available for them."

Enjoy the time you spend with your children. Think of activities you can do that involve talking and laughing together—play a card game, have an ice cream sundae party, have a make-your-own pizza night, clean the basement together while listening to upbeat music, or ask each other getting-to-know-you questions, such as "What's your favorite …?

"For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always right and good for us because it means we will share in his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10 NLT).