BLACK OR WHITE?
Zechariah 6:6
"The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward the south country."
Are zebras white with black stripes or are they black with white stripes? If you're thinking that zebras just have a coat of two colors and that they don't have a "background" color at all, think again. Embryologists tell us that the zebra's background color is black and that their stripes and bellies are white additions.
But scientists are now trying to find out why zebras have stripes at all. The best they can tell, the stripes may make zebras less appetizing to large biting flies that often carry fatal diseases. Using painted horses, Swedish scientists found that zebra stripes disrupt light patterns that tsetse flies and horseflies use to find food and water.
One of the authors of the study, evolutionary ecologist Susanne Åkesson, said the study is being used to show that the zebra's stripes are a result of evolution and natural selection.
As we've seen so many times before, she will not see this as an example of an ingenious design by a Master Designer. Evolutionists are taught to believe in no design and no designer. Creationists, on the other hand, accept what common sense tells us. We can't help but see a most magnificent design in what God has created.
Since the Bible has not been proved wrong about anything, we can know for certain that zebras were painted, as it were, by an Artist who cares for all His creatures – especially us!
Thank You, Jesus, for creating the zebra, a creature that reminds me of the Bible verse: "And with his stripes we are healed." Just as You provided for the zebra in this life, so have You provided for me in the life to come. Amen.
BRITAIN'S DINOSAURS
Genesis 8:19
"Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark."
Many lines of evidence support the Bible's claim that Noah saved two of every kind of creature on the Ark, including dinosaurs. This means that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time rather than separated by millions of years, as evolutionists claim. Long before modern science discovered dinosaurs, many histories offered descriptions of these creatures.
Britain's history contains hundreds of stories about the large reptiles we now call dinosaurs. Even if many of these accounts are not accurate, it is unlikely that so many similar stories were invented. According to ancient historical accounts, a large reptile killed and ate King Morvidus in about 336 B.C. In 1405, villagers near Sudbury drove what they called a large dragon into a swamp after the creature terrorized the area. It had killed and eaten a shepherd, then proceeded to eat the sheep. It was said that it had a huge body, a crested head with sharp teeth and a long tail. As recently as a hundred years ago, the older Welsh residents of Penllin in Glamorgan reported winged reptiles that lived in a colony in the nearby woods. They were described as brightly colored and reportedly stole the villagers' chickens.
It would appear that the reason most dinosaurs became extinct after the Flood has as much to do with human expansion as it does with a cooler, dryer Earth. But these widespread stories are just what we would expect if the biblical history is true.
Dear Father, I praise You for Your mercy that saved mankind twice. Amen.
BUILT-IN ERROR CORRECTION
Proverbs 3:11-12
"My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."
It sounds like science fiction to suggest that if someone typed your name into a computer and misspelled it, the computer would find and correct it. This would need a very sophisticated software program.
But did you know there is an even more sophisticated information storage and transmission system in each of your cells – your genetic code? Not only does your genetic code store far more information in a microscopic space than can our largest computers, it also has a built-in error correction system. Scientists have discovered a number of key enzymes within the cell that have just one job: find and correct errors in the genetic code. Those errors can creep into the code because of radiation, certain chemicals, or other outside forces. The enzymes faithfully correct any errors, preventing mutations – the same mutations that scientists thought could cause evolution. One expert on enzymes has stated that science has no explanation for how such sophistication could have evolved. Neither is there any explanation for how life could have continued without this genetic proof-reading and correction capability.
Only our Creator could have been wise enough to design an information system that can correct its own errors. Even we human beings have not figured out how to do this with our much simpler computers. Certainly, blind chance could never do what the best of human intelligence can do!
Dear Father, just as You have designed a chemical system to remedy errors in our genetics, Your plan of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atoning work gives the full remedy for sin, including a new life. Grant me Your Holy Spirit so that I may be enabled to better live that new life You give me. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
CANADA'S FOSSIL FOREST
Ecclesiastes 11:3
"If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be."
Axel Heiberg Island in Northern Canada is the closest point of land to the North Pole. The landscape is completely barren today, but long ago a dense forest of large meta-sequoia trees grew there. At that time, the climate must have been like Florida today. The stumps of these "fossil trees" have not mineralized and are still wood – that is, cellulose. They are claimed to be 45 million years old.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University studied the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of the cellulose. These lightweight isotopes are normally quickly lost by evaporation from dead wood, but to their surprise, the researchers discovered an unusually high content. This means that their rate of evaporation was extremely low. In other words, not only did the trees grow in a humid climate, but this climate continued a long time after the trees were destroyed. Further, cellulose is quickly broken down by bacterial action if exposed to air so that the trees were buried rapidly, deeply and a lot more recently than 45 million years ago.
Creation Moments happened to be present when a sample of this wood was used to calibrate the equipment at a well-known Carbon 14 dating laboratory. Believing the wood to be 45 million years old, it should contain no Carbon 14 but, in fact, it did and dated at only 41 thousand years!
Heavenly Father, You have given us so much evidence for a recent creation and Your sustaining hand upon it. Please open the eyes of those who would willfully ignore these signs. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
CATERPILLARS REMEMBER
Matthew 6:19
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal."
The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a moth or butterfly completely restructures the creature internally and externally. Scientists at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. wondered whether that included the caterpillar's brain as well.
To find out, they placed tobacco hornworm caterpillars inside a hollow tube shaped like a Y. Scientists then put a bad-smelling gas in one of the arms of the Y. When a caterpillar went down that arm of the tube it received a mild shock. Since the caterpillars go through several molts, researchers performed the experiment on caterpillars at various stages of their moltings.
They found that caterpillars that underwent the experience before their fifth and final molt did not remember their experience with the gas after metamorphosis. However, 77 percent of those caterpillars that encountered the gas and experienced a shock after their final molt remembered their dislike of the gas after metamorphosis. Scientists point out that caterpillars, moths and butterflies are not social creatures. This means they have more need for memory because there is no division of labor among them.
Just because the Bible associates moths with decay doesn't mean that God didn't provide them with all they need to live successful lives. To God, no creature is unimportant.
Father, I thank You that You are generous with Your gifts. Let me never forget Your goodness. Amen.
CHICKADEE-DEE-DEE DANGER
Psalm 9:20
"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."
Millions of North Americans are familiar with the call of the Black-Capped chickadee: "Chicka-dee". However, most bird-watchers know that the little chickadee communicates danger with its "chickadee-dee-dee" call. Bird-watchers also know that chickens use different warnings for dangers from the air or from the ground.
Scientists decided to see if chickadees used specialized calls for different dangers. In their first experiments they used a stuffed hawk to see what the chickadees in an outdoor aviary would do. However, they were only fooled once, and after that researchers had to use live hawks. After studying over 5,000 responses, a pattern emerged. Small, agile raptors like hawks are more dangerous to chickadees than, say, a large, horned owl, which the chickadees can easily evade. When confronted by a smaller raptor, the birds' "chicka" call added up to four "dee"s in rapid succession, instead of two more leisurely "dee"s. Even more "dee"s might be added if the chickadees evaluated the danger as greater. Most frightening to the little birds was a pygmy owl that rated 23 "dee"s.
God cares for all His creatures and, knowing that predation would enter the creation with man's sin, provided them with ways to warn each other. He also gave man His Word to warn us how to avoid sin and how to escape from it through Jesus Christ, should we become entrapped.
I thank You, Lord, for Your protection from all the dangers we face, especially the danger of our sin. Amen.
CHOCOLATE CHILI?
Genesis 1:29
"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."
It has been written against, outlawed, and is the original "food of the gods." Modern science is finding that chocolate seems to offer some positive health benefits.
When Cortéz and his soldiers came to the New World, Montezuma offered them his people's favorite hot chocolate. But Montezuma's people didn't add sugar to the chocolate. Instead, they added ground-up hot peppers. This was real hot chocolate! The Spanish thought it was terrible stuff. Luckily for chocolate lovers, they did take some of the beans back to Europe. There it dawned on someone to leave out the peppers and add sugar instead. By the eighteenth-century, chocolate houses had become so popular that brewers of alcoholic beverages demanded legal restrictions against chocolate because it was ruining their business.
Today, Americans eat an average of 10 pounds of chocolate per person per year. Chocolate also contains a mild anti-depressant as well as theobromine, a unique substance that perks you up and calms you down at the same time. And contrary to popular thought, chocolate is not addicting.
While chocolate may seem a trivial subject, it has given those who like it a lot of enjoyment. It is one of those gifts God has given us that makes life a little more enjoyable – but is totally unnecessary. And this offers us a lesson about His gracious thoughts toward man.
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, You made all that is. I thank You that You have made some things which we don't require, but which cause us to rejoice in Your generosity. Help me never to misuse Your good gifts. Amen.
CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT RELEASED ONE DAY TOO EARLY
Genesis 8:22
"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
On the last day of March, 2014, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report warning that the effects of climate change are already occurring on all continents. They went on to predict that mankind would face catastrophic consequences if we don't take drastic measures right now. But as you'll see in a moment, the report was released one day too early.
Why do we say that? Because April 1st would have been a far more suitable date for a foolish announcement with no substance to back it up. The announcement was a brash attempt to "sell" climate change by stressing the sheer number of "experts" who prepared the report.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, stressed that "none of this [the report] would be possible without the dedication of the Co-Chairs of Working Group II and the hundreds of scientists and experts who volunteered their time to produce this report, as well as the more than 1,700 expert reviewers worldwide who contributed their invaluable oversight."
After the IPCC was caught cooking the books in November of 2009, in 2011 and on other occasions, Creation Moments can't help but be skeptical of any report that tries to convince us it is true by citing the number of scientists who participated in its preparation. The truth is, there are thousands of scientists who are skeptical of man-made climate change. But like creationists, they are ignored and ridiculed.
Heavenly Father, I know that so-called climate change is not something to be feared. I also know I can trust You to preserve our planet until the day that Your Son returns. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
CLIMATE MODELS WILDLY EXAGGERATED
Genesis 8:22
"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
What scares you more – the polar ice caps melting and a worldwide cataclysm or the increased prices of everything you buy because of exaggerated global-warming claims? What upsets thinking people are all of the false and preposterous claims about global warming they hear on the nightly news.
A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change compared 117 climate predictions made in the 1990s to the actual amount of warming. Out of 117 predictions, only three were roughly accurate, while 114 seriously overestimated the amount of warming. On average, the predictions forecasted two times more global warming than actually occurred.
"It's a real problem," said climate scientist John Christy, a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "It shows that there really is something that needs to be fixed in the climate models." He added, "I looked at seventy-three climate models going back to 1979 and every single one predicted more warming than happened in the real world."
Exaggeration and scare tactics seem to be the name of their game. Remember how in 1972, Arctic specialist Bernt Balchen said that a general warming trend over the North Pole is melting the polar ice cap and may produce an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2000? This and many other failed predictions reveal that climate science forecasting is even less reliable than the weatherman on your TV.
No, Christians need not fear anything, especially global warming!
Lord, help us to be responsible stewards of this planet You have given us. And yet, make us mindful of the fact that the Earth is not to be worshiped, for You alone are worthy of our praise! In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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