Daily Devotional – August 27

Biology

Does this sound like the plot from a poor horror movie? A parrot attacks and kills a sheep - even burrowing into the sheep’s body to devour its kidneys while the sheep is still alive! That is what was happening in New Zealand’s high country during the late 1800s. Naturalists were stunned as they discovered that local birds (called keas) were killing and eating thousands of sheep. These parrots normally ate seeds and fruit. Why was this taking place? As sheep were introduced into New Zealand’s highland country, the habitat changed drastically, and the parrot’s old food source was greatly diminished. How they learned to eat meat is not known. The New Zealand kea became so hated that in the hundred year period between 1870 -1970, an estimated 150,000 were killed. Today’s keas are not showing this type of behavior.

In 2002, a British researcher reported that he saw a sheep eating a bird; the sheep had snatched and eaten a grouse in the scrublands. This was not normal behavior for a sheep, for they are herbivores, not carnivores. But that was not the only such report, CNN in 1999 reported that Hussein al-Marqouqi’s sheep ate nine chickens. Also, out of China’s Sichuan province comes a report of a panda killing and eating 26 goats. These types of accounts of plant-eating animals devouring meat are not as uncommon as one might think. After the Fall, certain animals started eating meat; prior to the Fall, all were plant eaters. These reports can give us insights into how animals became carnivores.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

~ Genesis 1:30

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 26

Geology

A brand new island was “born” off the coast of Iceland in 1963. This new island, named Surtsey, was created by an erupting undersea volcano. Within a few months of its formation, this sterile, volcanic rock island was already being transformed into a “mature” island. Wide sandy beaches, gravel banks, impressive cliffs, gullies, channels, and boulders were all being worn by the relentlessly pounding surf. Had no-one been around to see the island form recently, one might say it looks millions of years old.

Iceland’s chief geologist Sigurdur Thorarinsson, was amazed at how old the island looked only months after its formation. Biologists, too, were surprised; the island was colonized by plants quickly. Birds started having chicks there in 1970 (7 years later) - bringing in seeds with their excrement. Growing plants supported insects, that attracted birds, that in turn brought in more plants, and the cycle continued. There is now a fully functioning ecosystem on Surtsey. What happened on Surtsey provides insight into what happened after the Flood of Noah’s day – the rapid redistribution of plants and animals around the world. Surtsey continues to teach us more, for it is also rapidly eroding - about 2.5 acres a year. Within a few centuries, Surtsey could be gone! Surtsey has been full of surprises - teaching us that mature landscapes can form rapidly, biological diversity can develop quickly, and erosion can transform landscapes swiftly.

The waters wear the stones:

~ Job 14:19a

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 25

Design

Scientists have recently unlocked the secret of beautifully color, tropical Indonesian Peacock or Swallowtail (Papilio blumei) butterflies. On their wings are brilliant iridescent bands of bright green. These colors are not produced by pigments but by light bouncing off what looks like the inside of an egg carton (only on the microscopic level). The intensity of colors is produced because there are multiple “eggcarton- shaped” layers alternate with layers of air on a nanostructure level. Scientists have copied the butterfly’s nanostructure design - resulting in the same intense colors being produced.

Now scientists want to bring this butterfly scale technology to market. These artificial structures could be used in paper money or passports to prevent forgery. Scientists have copied what was already present; they recognized a good design when they saw it. The next time you look at your passport, take a look and see if there is a butterfly scale shimmering back at you and think of the ONE who is the real Creator of this technology.

He hath made everything beautiful in his time:

~ Ecclesiastes 3:11a

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 24

History

Often, we think man is more intelligent now than in the past. Have you considered when man began to write?

• One of the great wonders of the ancient world was the library of Alexandria built in 300 B.C. and located in Alexandria, Egypt. This vast library contained over a million scrolls.
• In 900 B.C., King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, “my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end….” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).
• In 2000 B.C., Job wrote, “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book!” (Job 19:23). Here we see Job, writing some 500 years before Moses (1500 B.C.), contemplating printing a book!
• Going back further, we find in Babylon, on one of King Ashurbanipal’s tablets, a comment that he “loved to read the writing of the age before the Flood.” His library had over 100,000 volumes! Arguments that writing did not exist in the time of Moses are not true. Here a king records that he was reading writing prior to the Flood of Noah’s day (2348 B.C.).
• Another Babylonian tablet lists the ten kings of Babylon who lived before the Flood, in the Bible; Noah was the tenth generation from Adam. Man was created intelligent from the beginning! The evolutionary idea that man started as a caveman who was an unintelligent, knuckle-dragging idiot is not true. Man was created intelligent from the beginning.

Man was made in the image of God to communicate, using both speech and writing, from the very beginning. Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!

~ Job 19:23, 24

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 23

History

Of all the fish in the world, the ‘o’opu ‘alamo’o (opu) - native only to the island of Hawaii, is one of the most amazing. This fish only lays its eggs far inland from the ocean in the upper reaches of the Kolekole stream. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae are swept downstream by the swift current of the river and flushed into the warm, clear waters of the Pacific Ocean, where they mature into colorful 5-inch-long fish. To produce the next generation of fish, the female must swim back upstream to lay her eggs in the fresh water of the mountain stream. Here is where the miraculous occurs! Between where the mother lays her eggs and her ocean habitat is the Akaka Waterfall - which plummets 440 feet from a narrow opening on a sheer cliff wall. How can a fish swim up a 440 foot waterfall?

Unique to all the fish in the world, this particular species has a special set of fins fused together to form a suction cup directly between its front pectoral fins. The Opu laboriously attaches its suction cup fins to the water-slickened surface of the falls, and drags itself upward against the force of the flowing water, and reattaches itself again. Moving a fraction of an inch at a time, over many days, she literally free-climbs the 440 foot falls against the flow of the water to the top of the stream where she lays her eggs.

The following question arises; how did this fish learn to do this? Without the suction-cup shaped fins, the climb would be impossible! The Opu had to have the ability to climb with suction cups from the beginning or no more Opu fish. God created the Opu fish to delight us in His creative ability. Only God could create a waterfall climbing fish!

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

~ Colossians 1:16

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 22

Design

One of the most beautiful moths in the world is the Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) from the forests of Southeast Asia. Most people are impressed with this rare moth’s incredible 12-inch wingspan, making it one of the largest living insects of today. The patterns on the moth’s wings are gorgeous. But take a closer look at the moth’s wing tips. They resemble a cobra’s head, complete with staring eyes and a grimacing mouth. What better way to scare off predators than to have a poisonous snake “painted” on your wings!

The Chinese even call this moth “snake’s head moth” in Cantonese. So, here we have a moth scaring off its predators by looking like a cobra. If that’s not amazing enough, the moth even drops to the ground and fans its wings in a movement similar to a snake’s head when threatened. Evolution would have you believe that this moth’s disguise happened by accident and chance over millions of years. Random changes do not produce patterns that look like other animals. So, how do you explain a cobra pattern on a moth? The pattern-maker gave it this defense mechanism from the fall, and that patternmaker is God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

~ John 1:3

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 21

Geology

If there was a worldwide flood, would not sediments have been transported vast distances? As the Flood waters swept over the continents, they would have deposited sedimentary layers. Let’s look at just one example.

The Grand Canyon has a bright white layer of sandstone near the top lip commonly called “the bathtub ring.” This Coconino sandstone layer consists of pure quartz sand averaging 315 feet thick and covering some 200,000 square miles, containing at least 10,000 cubic miles of sand. Where did all this sand come from? Within the Coconino sandstone are sloping sand “waves” pointing southward, indicating that the water flowed from the north. It has been postulated that the source of this sand was northern Utah or Wyoming.

Higher in the strata sequence above the rim of the Grand Canyon is the Navaho Sandstone. It can be seen in Zion National Park, just north of the Grand Canyon. This sandstone also consists of very pure quartz sand, giving it its brilliant white color, and it also has sand “waves” indicating that the sand came from the northeast. Within this sandstone is the mineral zircon, which is easily traced to its source material. It has been postulated that these sand grains in the Navajo Sandstone could have come from the Appalachians of Pennsylvania and New York and farther north into Canada. These sand grains were transported about 1,250 miles across North America. If there was a world-wide flood, sediments would have been transported vast distances, and that is what we are now discovering. This speaks of a global Flood some 4400 years ago.

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

~ 2 Peter 3:6b

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 20

Biology

There is no need for a bug zapper when a chameleon is around. With stealth and patience, the chameleon moves along a branch. His feet are ideally made to grasp branches with little effort. His tail is ever ready to catch the branch should he fall. His eyes are unique, like turrets on a tank, swiveling independently to see in every direction – a full 360 degrees. Each eye is also like a telephoto lens, adjusting and calculating distances with precise accuracy.

When prey is located, both eyes focus on the bug, and Zap! The chameleon’s catapulting tongue shoots out five times faster than the speed of a jet fighter plane being catapulted from the deck of an aircraft carrier – 16 times the acceleration of gravity (16 g). The tongue itself is about twice as long as his body as it is propelled forward. This long tongue is stored on a bone – similar to how a long, sleeved sweater can be pushed up one’s arm. When the chameleon sees the bug, he takes aim, cocks, and fires his tongue forward with a catapult motion. A fraction of a second before contact, a sticky tongue pad forms into a suction cup at the tip of the tongue – complete with finger-like extensions at the tip (like an elephant’s trunk) to wrap around the bug. The bug is caught and brought in for lunch. All this happens faster than the blink of an eye! How many years did the chameleon stumble along trying to develop his feet, eyes, and specialized tongue in order to catch lunch? What we see is marvelous design that should bring us to our knees in worship of the Designer, God.

And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.

~ Psalm 64:9

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 19

Botany

Have you considered how seeds get moved around the Earth? Land plants are stuck in one spot by their roots. They can’t move, so God designed their seeds to be moved around. God’s creativity and imagination in this area is astounding. Seeds are dispersed by wind, water, ingestion, hitchhiking, and exploding into the air. They are designed with parachutes, barbs, airfoils, draglines, airbags, wings, hooks, and rocket shapes. If wind is being used to disperse the seed, how would that seed be designed? Lightweight and maybe with a wing or parachute to give it more lift to float it afar. If water is being used to disperse a seed, the seed is designed waterproof and floatable. If animals are used to disperse seeds, they need to eat the fruit first.

The seeds within the fruit must remain undigested as they pass through digestive systems before being deposited in another place. If hitchhiking, then the seed needs hooks and barbs to attach itself to the animals’ skin, feathers, or fur. If the seed is thrown from the plant, it would involve lots of physics. For instance, once the seeds are ripe, a squirting cucumber literally shoots its seeds as much as 40 feet away!

When you go for a walk in the meadows or woods, look to see God’s creativity in how He designed a stationary plant to move around the world.

Then the earth shall yield her increase.

~ Psalm 67:6

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

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Daily Devotional – August 18

Anatomy

The evolutionary idea of vestigial (or useless) organs, as leftovers from our evolutionary past, has produced tragic consequences. For many years, the thyroid gland (which has no duct to release secretions) mystified doctors. So when people had an enlarged thyroid (goiter), it was simply removed. In the 1870s, Dr. Theodore Kocker noticed some of his patients were going insane a few years after their operation. Through examining his surgical notes, he found that if he had left any thyroid behind, the patients did not go mad. However, the operations continued, and it was another 30 years before the function of thyroxine (the secretion from this gland) was discovered.

Today, we know that the thyroid gland is vitally important for making and storing hormones that help regulate such things as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and growth rate. If we do not have enough of this hormone, we can feel overly tired, cold, or otherwise low in energy. If we have too much of this hormone, it is like a car idling too fast - we are likely to become overly nervous/irritated, have trouble concentrating, have trouble sleeping, and so on. The thyroid gland is hardly a useless, leftover organ! The more scientists study the body, the more they become convinced that the body did not happen by accident and chance but was designed by someone of great intelligence; that someone is God.

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

~ Isaiah 64:8

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.