Sunday, August 25, 2019

CREATION MOMENTS: 8.24.19

A Little Bit of Cheese

 

“Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?” I love cheese if I am a little hungry. I am from a land of great cheeses – from light but sharp Wensleydale, to my favorite, the rich, salty tang of Blue Stilton, with its noble cheese mold.
Most of these cheeses actually improve with age. So a five-year-old Cheddar is likely to be richer in flavor than one that was only made last year. So perhaps I would have enjoyed the discovery made recently at an archaeological site at Pokrovnik, on Croatia's Dalmatian coast.
I have brought up teenagers, so I know the difficulty involved in getting them to wash the pots. But archaeologists discovered some ceramic bowls at Pokrovnik that neither the original owners nor modern discoverers had washed. To their surprise, when they examined the residue, there were traces of lipids, which strongly suggests that the bowl may once have contained cheese.
The exciting find is tarnished somewhat by archaeologists insisting on an evolutionary date. They conclude that the bowls were used by farmers 7,200 years ago. However, this is impossible by a biblical timescale. Besides, if these were early farmers settling in the Balkans, then they would have been post-Flood – so we would suggest a date of 2,200 years ago. Either way, the cheese has probably passed its best-before date. Now I'm just waiting for the discovery of a 2,000 year old Ritz Cracker.
A serious point is to see how early civilizations had advanced technology, probably passed down from their ancestors who were on the Ark.

 

 A South African Giant

 

“Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.”

New dinosaur discoveries are always interesting. So, in the week that I write this script, another new dinosaur has been discovered, this time in South Africa. <em>Ledumahadi mafube</em> probably weighed about 12 tons, which would make it about twice the size of an elephant, and was discovered in Free State Province. Discoverers have suggested that it is an ancestor of the sauropod dinosaurs. It is a lot smaller than the sauropod giants, such as brachiosaurus – thought to have been 32 tons.
The ScienceDaily article, announcing this find, has some interesting use of language. The discoverers date this creature at 200 million years ago, whereas brachiosaurus has an evolutionary date of 154 million years. Therefore, ledumahadi is considered older than other sauropods, and the relative shortness and width of its legs led the ScienceDaily writers to suggest that it was an evolutionary experiment with giant body size.
This idea of an evolutionary experiment is interesting because evolutionists insist that evolution proceeds by the natural selection of favorable mutations, which include new genetic information. This reification of a supposed random event underscores the paucity of evolutionary evidence. One researcher commented, The way that these animals solved the usual problems of life, such as eating and moving, was much more dynamic within the group than previously thought. Such a statement suggests a purpose behind the alleged evolutionary changes in dinosaurs, even though they believe in a random purposeless process. But God had His purpose for everything that He had made.

 

 

An Orchid Outwits a Wasp

 

 

“And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

 

Some orchids are remarkable. In a previous Creation Moment, we referred to the bucket orchid and its relationship to the orchid bee. There is a very strange orchid in Australia, called the hammer orchid, which seems to fool wasps.
The thynnid wasp is, itself, quite strange. The females have no wings, but emerge from tiny burrows and climb up a plant to await the male wasp, which flies in, attracted by the female’s scent.
The hammer orchid produces a flower which closely resembles the appearance of the female thynnid and even releases a scent similar to that of the female wasp. So, the male wasp flies in, but instead of a female wasp, he finds the flower awkwardly pivoted, and a little hammer knocks him into the anthers to collect pollen. If he is already coated in pollen, then some of this is rubbed off on to the flower’s stamen.
This process cannot be described as co-evolution because the thynnid wasp gets no advantage. One article on the hammer orchid points out that the male wasp would never confuse the orchid for a female if both were side by side. Therefore, the article stated that natural selection has favored plants which flower just before the females emerge. But an incorrectly timed, pre-evolutionary orchid would not have survived to pass on the supposed evolved genes. Therefore, once again, we see that evolution is impossible as a means of explaining this remarkable design.

 

 

Be Like the Sons of Issachar

 

 

“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment".

 

 

Sometimes there are some tiny passages in the Bible which are easy to overlook but which can open up a wealth of meaning. One such passage is a little verse in 1 Chronicles 12. In verse 32, we read:
Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.
This verse is part of a section discussing David's Mighty Men, focusing on their skills in battle. It seems a little different, then, when those from the tribe of Issachar are labeled as those who know what Israel ought to do. However, this is surely a very important attribute in battle – and especially in spiritual battle. The reason they knew what to do was because they had understanding of the times.
I would suggest that this verse has application to an apologetics ministry like this. We are to apply the truths of creation and Genesis, and in order to do so, we need to have understanding of the times. In these Creation Moments broadcasts, we often relate our teaching to the society that we live in. To do this, we must understand the times. To understand the times, we need to read, to watch, and, most especially, to pray. Let's be like those sons of Issachar in our apologetic work and become mighty men and women for Great David's Greater Son as we proclaim His truth. p. f. t.

 

 

GOD GIVES THE RAT A SECRET

Job 38:4

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding."
A new revolutionary design in metal-cutting blades has been added to the metal-working industry. In use, the new blade is fixed in one position while the metal to be shaped spins on a lathe. This new blade stays sharp six times longer than the old blade design. When cutting titanium, the old-style cutting blades become dull almost the second they are used, but the new blades last up to 30 minutes. This wonderful new blade was developed by two engineers who got the original idea from a rat.

You see, rats' teeth always have a sharp edge. Engineers learned that this is because the teeth are hard on one side and soft on the other. So as they wear, they always keep a sharp edge. Applied to metal-cutting technology, this principle has lowered costs and increased productivity because cutting blades don't have to be changed as often.

Beginning in Job 38, God humbles Job with several chapters of questions about the wise designs found in the animal kingdom. God's message is, "Job, if you think you're so smart, who created all this with such wisdom?"

Even the teeth of the rat are created with such wisdom, and once we learned the principle, our technology was improved. In light of this, how can the claim be made that there is no Creator?

Dear Father, help me not to think that I am wiser or smarter than I really am. Help me to seek Your wisdom and knowledge in Your Word, which is as high as heaven and as real as the creation. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Photo: Common brown rat.
 
DESIGNED TO EAT

Job 36:5

"Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom."
The shark seems to have been designed for one purpose and one purpose only - to eat!

Up to two-thirds of the shark's brain is devoted to its excellent sense of smell that enables it to find food. In its mouth are many rows of sharp teeth, and when one set wears out, another set behind it moves forward as if on a conveyor belt. And speaking of teeth, did you know that sharks are literally covered with thousands, if not millions, of teeth? That's right - sharks don't have scales or a leathery hide. Called dermal denticles, these are true teeth that are covered with dentine and have a central pulp canal. Meshed closely together as they are, they provide the shark with a strong armor.

The shark's stomach is very large and has an unusual spiral valve so that more nutrients can be absorbed in less space. But more remarkable is that they seem to be able to eat anything. The contents of one large shark's stomach included three overcoats, a raincoat, a driver's license, one cow's hoof, deer antlers, twelve lobsters, and a chicken coop with feathers and bones inside!

The awesome shark stands as another example of God's limitless creativity. Nevertheless, it is certainly a fearsome creature, and I, for one, am glad that God did not create us to live in the same environment.

Dear Father, there are indeed many dangers to us in the creation; they often distract me from seeing that You are in charge and can do anything. Renew my vision and my faith. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Photo: Teeth of tiger sharks are serrated to saw through flesh. Courtesy of Stefan Kühn. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
 
MOUSE DOCTOR FINDS WISDOM IN FUNGUS

Daniel 2:22

"He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him."
Fungus grows in the dirt virtually all over the world. After millions of dollars of research on the fungus, looking for a usable drug, medical researchers were ordered to stop their research. But one scientist disobeyed orders. And the result is the most important miracle drug since the discovery of antibiotics!

When Jean-Francois Borel, who describes himself as a "mouse doctor," refused to give up research on a white fungus first identified in soil samples from above the Arctic Circle, organ transplant surgery had virtually stopped. Organs could be transplanted, but the body's rejection of the organ killed over half of all transplant patients within a year of the transplant. Dr. Borel's continuing research led to the discovery of cyclosporine, a chemical which prevents the immune system from rejecting transplanted organs. There are now over 150,000 people living with transplants because of Dr. Borel's discovery. Yet, scientists are still not sure how the cyclosporine works.

Fungus might seem like an odd place to look for wonder drugs. But drug companies have learned that microorganisms in soil produce a wide range of medically interesting chemicals. Each year they test some 30,000 samples to see whether a miracle drug might be hidden in one of them.

So although many scientists say they believe there is no purpose or mind behind nature, they regularly look for purpose in the creation.

Dear Lord, as man searches out the benefits offered by the things You have created, do not allow us to lose sight of our greatest need - a relationship with You. This cannot be found in nature, but only in Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.

Photo: Bracket fungi on a tree stump. Courtesy of André Lage Freitas. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
 
OCCUPATIONAL STUDIES AMONG HONEYBEES

Psalm 19:9-10

"The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."
A recent study involved sticking little numbered tags on the backs of seven thousand living honeybees. The purpose was the age-old question of what determines our behavior: nature or nurture? genes or environment? The honeybees were used to see if their occupation in the hive was based upon what their father did. That is, was it genetic inheritance? Typically, the queen bee mates with over a dozen males before settling down to a year or two of continuous egg-laying. In one study, the queen was allowed to mate only with a "guard bee" and an "undertaker bee," whose job is to dispose of dead bees in the hive.

It was found that the young bee is likely to take up its father's occupation 80 percent of the time. This means that much of the complex social structure of the beehive is passed on in the genes. But the study also left evolutionary scientists with a mystery. There is a wide genetic variation within the normal beehive, so if the whole arrangement evolved, the very cooperative and complex society actually found would not be expected.

The answer is, of course, that when something is clearly so intricately designed there must be a Designer. Some have even admitted that their main objection to believing in creation is that they would have to accept the fact that there is a Creator.

Dear Lord, I pray that I shall never desire to evade You, either by denying my need for Your forgiveness, by denying my sin, or by denying Your work of creation. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

Photo: Honeybee. Courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
 
DELICATE, PRECISE DESIGNS

Matthew 6:28

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:"
When a flower lives in harmony with and is dependent upon, say, an insect for fertilization, this is known as symbiosis. Creation Moments programs have given many examples of this, and each one defies the notion that these relationships could have developed by chance over very long times. We have another example today.

Chicory spaces out the opening of its flowers through the summer on a precisely timed schedule that is in perfect harmony with its pollinators. Early in the season, chicory flowers nearest the bottom of the flower stalk open first and, as they are pollinated, they close, and the next flower up the stem opens and so on. There is a remarkable efficiency to this, but there is more: The flowers usually open only in the cool morning hours, not only to protect the delicate flower from the heat of the sun but also because this is the time the pollinating insects are about. Other flowering plants open their flowers only at night and tend to have white flowers so that they are easily seen in the dark. These are the flowers that are pollinated by night-flying moths.

Such coordinated inter-relationships between the plant and the animal kingdoms could not have developed through accidental situations. They provide more evidence that the wise Creator designed these and all creatures within their relationships from the very beginning!

Dear Lord, in Your design of the creation, You have seen to the needs of all living things. Take from me a mind that thinks that I must do for myself what You will do for me, and replace it with faith in Your promises. Amen.
 
 

 

 

 

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

CREATION MOMENTS: 8.7.19 - PT.2

Creation of Rocks and Minerals

“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.” When God made the Earth on Day One, we are not quite sure what it was like, except that we know it was formless and void. However, because the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters and darkness was on the deep, there are many who have inferred that God originally made this planet as a large, formless sphere of water.
On Day Two, God separated the waters with the firmament of space, placing some water above the firmament and leaving some below.
And on the third day, He made dry land. So this is the day in which land appeared and broke through the waters. This must also mean that God was in the process of making the rocks and minerals from which the land is made.
When examined under a magnifying glass, we can see that rocks are made up of little grains, each of which is comprised of a mineral. Some of these minerals are named in Genesis 2 and others in Ezekiel 28, though neither list is intended to be exhaustive. So this appearance of land on the Third Day was pretty spectacular, as it involved the creation of a great deal of rock.
Deep bedrocks are usually called plutonic rocks. Creationists use this word to describe all the rock which God must have made on the Third Day of Creation, as the foundation for everything else He would place on the Earth.

Did the Building Blocks of Life Begin in Space?

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
What do we do when brilliant experimental research is interpreted according to evolutionary worldviews, which are clearly impossible? Just such a dilemma occurred to me recently as I read a scientific paper that asked the question: Did key building blocks for life come from deep space?
The building blocks to which they refer are phosphates. Phosphates do indeed occur widely in biochemistry. A team of experimenters found a synthetic path for a group of phosphate compounds in an artificial environment that they claimed mimicked the conditions found in that period, when they think the Sun's planets were forming. The experiments that they carried out were done with remarkable care and ingenuity, and they did indeed find a way of making fairly complex phosphates. In my opinion, their experimental innovations were, by themselves, worthy of great credit, and it is their evolutionary application and interpretation that rather detracts from their brilliance.
The compounds were formed in a vacuum chamber cooled to 5K (-450°F). This chamber included ice grains, coated with carbon dioxide and water. The chamber also included phosphine. This mixture was bombarded with high energy electrons to simulate cosmic rays. Eventually, the chamber was found to include compounds such as phosphoric acid, diphosphoric acid and phosphorus oxoacids.
We have, however, already discussed how the standard model of planetary formation by gravitational accretion simply cannot work. We know God created the Solar System on Day Four and the chemicals of life on days three, five and six.
Thank You for the giftings that You have given to brilliant men and women, Lord. We pray for our scientists, that, in their brilliance, they will not neglect to give You the honor and the glory.

DID WE ONCE WALK ON ALL FOURS?

Genesis 1:24

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."
Evolutionists tell us that we used to walk on all fours, just like the apes from which we evolved. While this is fine for the Planet of the Apes science-fiction films, creationists are adamant that such a theory should not appear in school textbooks.

Family physician and author Dr. Robert Peprah-Gyamfi would agree. In his book Seeing God Through the Human Body, he recalls how he was taught in school that humans once walked on all fours. Even before he became a Christian, he didn't believe it for one second. But now, as a Bible-believing creationist, he regards that notion as absolutely ridiculous.

In the book's chapter on the human skeleton, he points out that God "built the human skeletal system as a kind of scaffold that would not only support and protect delicate organs of the body, but also enable us to move from place to place."

He went on to write that evolution is "a preposterous theory that stems from nothing other than unbelief propagated by people who cannot or are not prepared to believe there is a powerful force in the universe, God Almighty, capable of doing anything." He sums it all up with these words: "The whole world may take me for a naïve, crazy person running away from the bare facts. As far as I'm concerned, however, the notion that we once walked on all fours is absolute rubbish."

Don't worry, doctor. There are millions of people who believe exactly as you do!

Heavenly Father, I know that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, each of them walked out on two feet, not four! Amen.

Physician Wasp?

“Creation Moments” programs we’ve talked about wasps that can control crop pests. Natural controls—such as these wasps—show the Creator’s hand in designing the creation. New facts about how wasps control pests make our Creator’s hand even more evident.

There are several thousand species of wasps that lay their eggs inside crop pests or use the pests for food. These wasps have become a popular form of natural pest control among farmers and gardeners.
Researchers have now discovered that the wasps do more than simply feed on the pests or use them as food for their young. Typically the wasps will inject their eggs into worm-like pest larvae. It has been discovered that the wasp eggs are coated with a virus that holds the pest larvae in the immature stage until the developing young wasps have no more need of the egg. The virus appears to move to an organ inside the pest larva and affects the insect’s immune system. It also acts on the larva’s endocrine system to take away the larva’s appetite. So the pest larva destroys less crop, and being starved for food, fails to develop into an adult. This gives the wasp eggs plenty of time to develop into young wasps who will finish off the pest.
Researchers are still trying to discover exactly how the virus’s carefully orchestrated attack strategy works. However, clearly no creature nor the creation itself invented this strategy. It could only have been conceived and built by a Master Biochemist and Physician!
Prayer: I thank You, Lord, that You have built into Your creation natural ways to control creatures that can become unwanted pests. Help us to learn more about the natural controls You have made so that we will be better able to feed a growing population. And with that food, let Your people bring others Your saving Word. Amen

CREATION MOMENTS: 8.7.19

Ancient Cosmology

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Psalm 68:32-33

“Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah: To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.”

One recent supposed evangelical commentator on Genesis begins his work by saying: "If we accept Genesis 1 as ancient cosmology, then we need to interpret it as ancient cosmology rather than translate it into modern cosmology. If we try to turn it into modern cosmology, we are making the text say something that it never said." Thus, he lays the foundation for claiming, irrationally, that those of us who take the text seriously are, in fact, not taking the text seriously!

So what do they mean by an ancient cosmology? They mean a cosmology developed by people from an ancient time.

Their presupposition is that Genesis was developed by people who lived in the Ancient Near East, whose experience was ancient. The commentator explains: "They did not know that stars were suns; they did not know that the earth was spherical and moving through space; they did not know that the sun was much further away than the moon… And God did not think it important to revise their thinking."

So, in a sense, it is God's fault that our views on Genesis are so confused! However, this mention of God shows how false their presuppositions are. Their starting point is that Genesis is not scientific and was written by people. Our starting point is that Genesis was inspired by God, who has given us the only eye-witness account there is of how the universe began. And He decided the best words to use to explain this to us. p. f. t.

Thank You, Lord God, Ancient of Days, that You have made Your word plain. Help us to see through the wiles of men who would hide Your words. Amen.

 

Ancient Understanding
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Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?” One of the reasons given by theistic evolutionists for why they cannot accept that Genesis 1 teaches a 6 x 24-hour creation is that they do not believe God could have communicated how He had made everything to an ancient people. Their understanding would not have been sufficient for modern scientific concepts. One commentator says, We gain nothing by bringing God's revelation into accordance with today's science. In contrast, it makes perfect sense that God communicated his revelation to his immediate audience in terms they understood.The idea is that God actually made life by evolution, but ancient people would not have been able to understand these concepts, so God explained to them the six days scenario instead.
Creation science historian Dr. Terry Mortenson has shown that this presupposition is not correct. He showed that words, concepts and categories were available in ancient Hebrew thought to explain an evolutionary process. Since God is truth, He would have used such language if that indeed were what had happened. Mortenson suggests that an evolutionary Genesis could have read like this:
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, he expanded a small grain of dust and said, Let there be light.And it eventually became so. From this grain of dust, over many great ages he formed the stars and then the sun and finally, after a long age, the earth and the moon.God tells the truth, and we can trust what He says.
Thank You, Lord, that You have not kept us in the dark. You gave us Your truthful account of how You made the world and everything in it. Amen.

 

Ancient Words
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But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
What is meant by the word ancient? There are some who would suggest that a belief that the Earth was created about 4,000 years before the birth of Christ is contrary to Scripture because the Bible calls God the Ancient of Days. If the Earth were less than 7,000 years old, then it would not be ancient.
However, this is not so. The word ancient – like many other words dealing with inexact time periods – is interpreted relative to a fixed point. The error made by theistic evolutionists is that they think that an evolutionary timescale is the fixed point. If the Earth is really 4.5 billion years old, then those who believe it is only 6,000 years old do not believe it is ancient. Their error is that they pick the wrong fixed point.
A better fixed point is one that is rooted in our experience because the word ancient is a relative term. Compared to our own lifespan, 6,000 years is, indeed, very ancient.
Christians who wish to believe in evolution date the writing of Genesis to the Babylonian Exile. We make it even more ancient, maintaining that the words were given by God Himself to Moses, probably through even more ancient patriarchs. That is one reason why we accept the Bible as completely trustworthy.

 

Bacteria that Dissolve Steel
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They work silently and in the dark. While most of earth’s inhabitants need oxygen for life, they merely tolerate it. They prefer to build their own environments where there’s no oxygen. Then they go to work. And they love metal. Using complex chemistry, they begin dissolving metal. They can make a sixteenth-of-an-inch hole through an inch-thick pipe in six months. Stainless steel isn’t so tough—it doesn’t slow them down a bit. Even modern space age metals like titanium can’t stand up to them.

No, we’re not talking about some hideous creatures from outer space. These strange-sounding creatures are called sulfate-reducing bacteria. Each year metal corrosion causes about $167 billion dollars in damage. And a large part of that damage is caused by bacteria destroying metal pipes.
Sulfate-reducing bacteria begin by sealing off their colony from liquid in a pipe or tank. Once sealed off, bacteria begin forming hydrogen gas. Sealed under the biosphere, the hydrogen accumulates and is absorbed by the metal. The absorbed hydrogen begins to corrode and make the metal brittle. Researchers using pipes coated with epoxy couldn’t stop the bugs. It appears that the bugs thought the pigment in epoxy made a great change of diet.
Despite our modern scientific sophistication, moth and rust continue to afflict our efforts. This is God’s way of reminding us that we, along with the creation, are afflicted with sin and are in need of the forgiveness of sins that is ours only through Jesus Christ.
I pray, Lord, that You would keep me mindful of the vanity of placing my trust in my own or others efforts. I know that ultimately You are my only hope for meaning here and in eternity. Forgive me for those times I have trusted in my own wisdom and efforts and grant me Your peace. Amen.</

 

Bee Cologne
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Isaiah 53:5

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Imagine being in a party that&#8217;s all packed into one room and everyone is talking. Under these conditions it's often difficult to hear, or at least, understand what others around you are saying. Now imagine that all of these people look nearly identical. None has any noticeable distinguishing features that make him different from anyone else in the room. Now, to make matters worse, you have been informed that you are to find the person in the room who was not invited to the party.
is the impossible situation that honeybees constantly face. However, the noisy room I have just described is noisy in two ways. Bees not only communicate through sound. They also use scents to communicate. And the hive is full of scents. Yet honeybees are constantly alert to bees who are not members of the hive. Invaders are killed. How can bees so successfully protect the hive?
Entomologists have discovered that members of a hive all carry the same chemical password. The scent must be very distinctive because the hive is filled with smells. It also seems that all honeybees may use a specific combination and subtle variations of only two chemicals. Yet each hive can instantly tell whether another bee carries the specific chemical password.
The complexity of this avenue of beehive defense shows not only a wise and powerful Creator. It also shows us that He cares for what He has created. He cares for You, too. Learn more about the specific details of His love for You in the Bible.

 

Bird Barks and Lizard Growls
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So the donkey said to Balaam, &#8216;Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?&#8217; And he said,
Have you ever noticed that we can usually sense whether an animal is hostile or friendly, simply by its sound? Did you ever wonder about the universal features that allow for important basic information to be shared between animals and humans?
None of us ever had to be taught that a dog, growling deeply and showing its teeth, was trying to threaten us. We’re all familiar with the high-pitched yips that same dog makes to welcome its owner home. Research shows that the motivations expressed by high-pitched and low-pitched sounds are universal among most creatures.
Researchers say that almost all animals bark (the high-pitched sounds) or growl (the low-pitched sounds). They were surprised to learn that animals don’t simply make arbitrary noises. Sound has meaning. Even the higher-pitched voice of birds has a barking mode that can be seen on a graph and heard when a slowed-down recording is played. Animals make lower, harsher sounds when they’re being aggressive. This is the growl. When friendly, an animal makes higher-pitched sounds. The bark seems to mean that an animal is neither hostile nor friendly, simply curious. Human speech follows the same general pattern.
These universal features of communication reflect the work of our Creator who intended for many different kinds of creatures to coexist. He gave us all a universal method for understanding important basic messages like fear, aggression and joy.
I thank You, Lord, for the joy that animals add to our lives. I also thank You that You have made us able to share some basic but important features of communication. However, help me to value, most highly, Your communication to me in Your Holy Word. Amen.

 

When morning gilds the skies,
My heart awaking cries,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

I remember driving along the magnificent Columbia River Gorge in the early morning hours. The light was breaking gloriously through the clouds with rays from the sun in a brilliance of color and formation all over the vast horizon, and I was just wonderfully impressed as I viewed this new “painting” from the Lord! What a blessing! I was on a business trip with a salesman co-worker, and he commented that this was the majesty and glory of God. We began talking about spiritual matters while basking in the marvel and magnificence of it all.

The Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). It says that the invisible attributes of God can be understood from the creation (Romans 1:20). The evidence is all around us. We just need to look and listen.

And when we do that, we receive revelation and illumination. When we quiet our souls and let faith be kindled in hearing Him speak through what has been made, spiritual light bulbs come on inside us. This is God’s provision to mankind, His special creation. We can share in His glory, His radiance and His beauty in relationship with Him.

They looked unto Him and were lightened (radiant) ….

    "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."
     -  Psalm 34:5,8