Daily Devotional – July 21

Biology

Corals mainly live in shallow tropical waters that are well lighted. The coral polyp is an animal that builds a limestone cup and hides in it during the day. When we pick up a piece of coral, we are picking up the multiple, connected limestone cups. Each cup is where the coral polyp lives. The coral polyp is a tiny soft-bodied creature that comes out at night and waves its tentacles to catch the passing microscopic plankton.

Corals experience three environmental threats: hot sunshine, powerful waves, and coatings of sand. How do corals protect themselves?

1. Coral reefs are found in tropical, sun-drenched oceans and during low tides, the corals can become too hot. To solve that problem, the corals secrete mucus that acts as a sunscreen.
2. Corals live along the shores that experience pounding, powerful waves (especially during stormy seasons) that could easily break up the coral. To solve that problem, corals build strong foundations to withstand pounding waves.
3. Corals live near sandy beaches so they can easily become coated and even covered with sand. To solve that problem, the coral polyps use their tentacles to clean the sand off of their limestone housing.

Who was the original problem solver for these corals? God Himself - He is the One that cares for His creation.

And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:

~ Acts 4:24

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 20

Botany

Water does not flow uphill. So, how does water get to the leaves high up in a tree? Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees tower some 35 stories or 379 feet above the ground.1 Some of these redwoods move as much as 160 gallons of water a day up out of the ground. As you stand near the base of these trees, listen closely for the sound of their mechanical machinery pumping the water to the top. You won’t hear a sound. So, how do they move all that water?

God has set up a wonderful design in trees – osmosis, capillary action and transpiration. Even though wood seems to be solid, it has thousands of microscopic interior tubes stretching from the roots to the top of the tree. Water enters the roots because of osmosis; higher pressure moves water molecules into the lower pressure area in the roots. Then, capillary action takes place, moving the water upwards. Dip a corner of a paper towel in water and notice the water creeping up the fibers. Working with osmosis and capillary action is transpiration. As sunlight strikes the leaves, the water molecules evaporate, transforming liquid water to a gas. This vapor “flies” into the air while the next water molecule in line starts heating up. The long chain of water molecules is pulled to the very top of the tree as each one at the top evaporates. On a hot summer day, water molecules can travel up the tree at 25 mph. All this goes on silently, year after year. There are no mechanical parts, and when something breaks down, the tree has mechanisms to repair itself. We cannot say the same when we pipe water to the top of a tall building. When we see such an advanced plumbing system, we know there must be a plumbing engineer!

As poet Joyce Kilmer famously stated, “… only God can make a tree.”

...stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

~ Job 37:14b

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

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Daily Devotional – July 19

Anatomy

Teeth are surprisingly tough; we can bite and chew food for decades without cracking. A tooth’s dentine is covered with tooth enamel. How can enamel, which by itself is brittle like glass, survive our chewing and biting process without cracking? Researchers have found that the design of the tooth enamel prevents cracks in three ways:

1. Tufts are crack-like flaws deep within the tooth where the enamel and dentine meet. Under the stress of biting or chewing, these tufts distribute the stress - suppressing the growth of cracks.
2. Enamel is made up of rods that criss-cross each other like basket weave. This hinders cracks from spreading.
3. If a crack expands, the tooth fills in the space with material extended from the tufts - which glues the cracked walls and stops further expansion.

Our teeth are extremely tough structures built from brittle materials - yet, they are able to withstand a lifetime of biting and chewing because of their design. When we see a design, we know there must be a designer. The tooth’s designer is Jesus.

Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep .…

~ Song of Solomon 6:6

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 18

Biblical Accuracy

Did you realize that North American alligator almost went extinct in the 1960s? In response to this situation, alligators were put on the endangered species list in 1967. But this alone did not help in saving them as their numbers continued to decrease. Then an interesting plan was set in place – alligator farms! Alligator farmers started going out into the wild to collect alligator eggs. They raised these gators in captivity for two years and promised to return 20% of the adults back into the wild. The remaining 80% were sold for hides and meat. The result, alligator meat and hides became less expensive – making poaching unprofitable.

The alligator population has increased to such an extent, today that today they are off the endangered species list. God has called us to manage and care for His Earth, and He created mankind in His image – with the creativity to do just that. Who would have thought of saving alligators through farming?

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

~ Genesis 1:28

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 17

Biology

Did you know that blind cave fish were designed to go blind! Scientists once thought it was by accident. Cave fish are a generic term for freshwater fish found in - you guessed it, caves. Geneticists have found that blind fish living in caves are almost identical to those in the river outside the cave. The only difference seems to be that the cave fish have smaller eyes, or no eyes, or eyes lighter in color. Actually, for fish living in a dark cave, this is an advantage. A highly developed visual system uses up to 15% more energy and soft eye tissue is easily damaged if bumped into the walls of a cave. Instead, cave fish depend on their sense of smell and sensitivity to water pressure changes. Also, being in a dark cave, eye coloring has no purpose and it takes extra energy to maintain eye color. So if cave fish have eyes, they are lighter in color. Are these changes a mutational degeneration? Actually, cave fish are not regressing, but well designed to live in caves.

Conrad Waddington, a biologist, proposed the idea that many animals have a mechanism allowing environmental changes to switch on genes, when the change would benefit the animal. Such a mechanism is found in blind cave fish - involving a protein called HSP90. When a cave fish embryo experiences subtle factors such as lower electrical conductivity in the water (it is believed that cave water has lower conductivity because the water has less salt), the growing embryo senses these outside conditions and turns off the HSP90 protein. This causes a reduction in fish’s eye size. These eyes have shallow sockets and can even be scaled over. When these same blind cave fish were introduced into water outside the cave, their offspring were born with fully functioning eyes within two generations!

Scientists are discovering that we have “flexible genetics.” This is no surprise to Bible-believing Christians; God has simply pre-programmed creatures with the ability to adapt to different environments.

And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.

~ Habakkuk 3:4

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 16

Biology

What animal looks like it sweats blood? The 7,000-pound hippopotamus. The five-inch-thick hippo skin has sweat glands that ooze a red slime, which later turns brown. This oozing slime protects the hippo in three ways. First, it gives the hippo its own sunblock protection. This is great because hippos spend a lot of time in the sun. In addition, the red slime is an insect repellant. Also, the red slime has antibiotic qualities. Hippos live in less than pure water and have very aggressive daily territorial fights with each other, often resulting in terrible cuts and wounds. To have built-in antibiotics would stop deadly bacteria in their tracks. Where did these glands come from? How many millions of years did it take to get the glands just right? God knew what the hippo would need and provided for his protection from sun, insects and deadly bacteria.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

~ Psalm 100:1

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

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Daily Devotional – July 15

History

What happened to the dinosaurs? The biblical explanation is that the majority were killed during the Flood of Noah. This is the reason why we find their fossilized bones buried in the rock layers that formed during the Flood. Yet, Noah was told to take land-dwelling, air-breathing creatures upon the Ark, and this would have included young, small dinosaurs. These creatures must have gone extinct after the Flood. But why? Let’s look at two modern examples; the demise of the Asian elephant and the tiger.

Today, across Asia, wild elephants are killing hundreds of people every year. Here are some accounts from just the last few years:

• In Thailand, an elephant stomped three rubber plantation workers to death.
• In Nepal, 11 people were killed by elephants in one week while gathering firewood.
• In Vietnam, a herd of elephants killed at least 10 people.

In response, villagers are fighting back, and the elephant population is shrinking with each passing year.

Back in 1819, Singapore was primarily swampland and teeming with tigers. By 1840, tigers were killing 200-300 people a year. As the city grew, 600-800 people a year were reported being killed by tigers, and a certain area was even called “Tiger Resort.” Desperate authorities offered bounties, and by 1930, the last wild tiger was shot in Singapore. It took less than 100 years for the most fearsome predator of mankind to go from killing almost 1000 people per year to complete extinction in an entire region of the world!

The parallel between the extinction of dinosaurs and the localized “extinction” of elephants and tigers is obvious. As the human population grew, dangerous dinosaurs had to be eradicated. What happened to the dinosaurs? They were quite likely hunted into extinction.

[Into the Ark went] every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. ~Genesis 7:14-15

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 14

Biology

Have you considered the chambered nautilus? This South Pacific Ocean creature has a unique shell that is divided into separate gas-filled chambers. The nautilus can sink to the ocean bottom or rise to the surface by changing the gas pressure within the sealed chambers; for example, the nautilus will flood some of the chambers with water to descend. This is exactly how submarines work. Submarines have tanks that can be filled with water or air. When the tanks are filled with air, the submarine rises, if the tanks are filled with water, it sinks.

Evolutionists believe that the nautilus evolved from mollusks that grew extra sections of their shell as floatation devices. Fossil nautiluses, however, look just like today’s nautiluses, showing no intermediate evolutionary change. No one would believe that a submarine happened by accident and chance, so why would anyone believe that “nature’s submarine,” the nautilus, happened by accident and chance? The nautilus simply gives glory to God’s ingenuity.

Thou rulest the raging of the sea….

~ Psalm 89:9

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 13

History

Did dinosaurs recently live in the Amazon? Vance Nelson, researcher/explorer, travels the world finding the untold secrets of planet Earth. On his latest expedition, he traveled to the Amazon River. In 1940, an American explorer traveled through this same region, and he reported that the indigenous people saw a strange creature that lived in the nearby river; the description fitting a sauropod dinosaur. Nelson hired a local, secular archeologist to guide him to the locations of rock art in the jungle.

One cave’s wall depicts a hunting scene with a large animal in the center surrounded by nine hunters with one of the hunters holding a raised spear. Obviously, these hunters were hunting a living creature; this creature had a long neck, small head, big body, and large tail. This is not a picture of a llama but of an animal very much like a longnecked, sauropod dinosaur. This indicates that the indigenous people saw and hunted dinosaurs very recently in the Amazon River Basin. This is one of the many untold secrets of planet Earth. It is not such a secret, after all, that dinosaurs and man lived together in the relatively recent past.

Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God:

~ Job 40:15-19a

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – July 12

Biblical Accuracy

Why do I believe the Bible to be true? One of the reasons is the large number of fulfilled prophecies. No other book can claim that although many have tried. For instance, the Koran has one specific prophecy (that Mohammad would return to Mecca), but it is a selffulfilling prophecy, which the writer was capable of making come true - he did return to Mecca. This is quite different from the prophecy concerning Jesus, who said that HE would return from the grave. Jesus was dead for three days and then came back from the dead. Mohammed’s prophecy was easily fulfilled while Jesus’ prophecy was not humanly possible!

In the same way, other fulfilled prophecies in the Bible prove the Bible true. Consider the prophecies about Sidon and Tyre. The prophecy regarding the city of Sidon was that the people would be decimated, but the city would continue (Ezekiel 28:21-23). The city of Sidon was attacked, and 40,000 were killed, but the city still stands today. What about Tyre? At its height, the prophet declared that the coastal city of Tyre would be destroyed; the walls would be broken down so that, “I will scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets…..They shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water…I will make thee like the top of a rock.…never to be rebuilt and never again to be inhabited? (Ezekiel 26:4-5,12,14 emp. added). At its height, the city of Tyre was besieged by the powerful King Nebuchadnezzar. For 13 years, Tyre held off the attack; finally, the walls were breached, and many were killed. Thousands, however, had fled to an island ½ mile out in the Mediterranean Sea to rebuild their city. Two hundred fifty years later, Alexander the Great came to Tyre and commanded the city to surrender. The people, feeling secure on their island fortress, laughed. So Alexander came up with a bold and daring plan. He would build a causeway across one-half mile of sea to Tyre. Alexander used every timber, stone, and piece of rubble from old Tyre and scraped the site of the city clean – right down to the bedrock. Today Tyre is like the top of a rock, good only for the spreading of nets. “For I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD....” (Ezekiel 26:5).

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

~ Matthew 5:18

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

References for this devotional.