Christmas – Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem
Luke 2:1-7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.
While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Posted in Biblical Accounts, Christian, Holiday
Christmas – Jesus’ Birth Foretold
Luke 1:26-38 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Posted in Biblical Accounts, Christian, Holiday
Christmas – Prophecies of the Birth of Christ
During this Christmas season, I have decided to give Biblical accounts of the Birth of Christ, starting with the Biblical prophecies foretelling the Birth of Christ.
Isaiah 7:14 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Micah 5:2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
Isaiah 7:14 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Posted in Biblical Accounts, Christian, Holiday
What is the Safest Free Website Hosting Service Available to the Public?
This is a good question. Unfortunately, there really is no “safest, free” web hosting service out there. However, I will discuss the good, bad, and the ugly of using a “free” web hosting service.
Please remember anytime you use a “free” online service, the service itself is not really free. Why? Well because they have your data. Today, data is like a product to sell. People can sell data they collect to people like advertisers and private companies who can make use of it (for good reasons…or bad reasons).
Unfortunately this data is usually personal information you provided through a “free” e-mail account, “free” instant messaging service, “free” video call (e.g., Skype), “free” web hosting account, “free” file storage (who puts their personal files [like photos] on a random, who-knows-who-really-owns-it server anyway?), “free” video hosting service (e.g., YouTube), etc. You get the idea.
The companies that provide free web hosting services are very likely selling your data to other companies. In addition, this is why if you do anything personal on your “free” web hosting account, it really is not private.
The Good
- No technical knowledge of hosting websites needed to get started
- No worry about making backups (if using a good provider; I would still make my own backups to be on the safe side)
- No worry about server maintenance (e.g., replacing failed hardware, restoring a server operating system because of a successful hacking attempt, managing server upgrades, etc.)
The Bad
- No control over how much disk space you can have (since it is free, you cannot demand them to give you more disk space than they already provided you with)
- No control over how much bandwidth you can have (since it is free, you cannot demand them to give you more bandwidth than they already provided you with)
- No control over service outages (they probably will just silently fix the issues with little to no notifications about what happened)
- They usually will not be very reliable, since they are not making much money (from web ads) if any money at all.
- You probably will not know who really is running the free web hosting service. While that is not necessarily a problem, I personally would want to know who is hosting my web sites.
The Ugly
- No control over your data (they have your website data you do not!)
- Anyone at the company (or individual hosting free accounts) can snoop in your website data that you have uploaded to their servers.
- Your “free” web hosting service with _all_ of your data could be deactivated and erased with no prior notice for _any_ reason they deem acceptable.
- Your data may also be stored permanently in backups the free hosting service makes, which means when you delete data off their servers; it really is not deleted, since they can restore your deleted data from a backup!
- They can up and “disappear” overnight, taking your websites with them (in other words, do not be hosting your business website on a “free” web hosting service!). Since they are “free”, they have no obligations to any of their users.
You may want to consider carefully reading the “Terms of Service” agreement for “free” web hosting providers to see how they deal with their users’ privacy.
Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers