Daily Devotional – August 17

Christian Truth

What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and MIND (Luke 10:27). Christians are not to park their brains at the church door but are called to be thinking Christians. Here are some questions that can help you when discussing issues such as evolution.

1. What do you mean by__(Evolution or other terms)____?
2. How do you know what you are saying is true?
3. What difference does that make in your life? Or, So What?
4. What if you’re wrong?
5. What would you accept as evidence that you may be wrong?

Use these questions wisely. You can use them in two ways - as a hammer or pry bar. We want the pry bar. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, we are called to destroy speculations, not people!

We, as Christians, need to be soft-hearted toward people and hard-headed in our thinking.

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

~ 2 Corinthians 10:5

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 16

Biology

A hermit crab cannot make its own shell to live in but has to find an empty shell to occupy. Once found, he backs into the shell; his twisted body is ideally designed to fit into a spiral shell. The crab uses his two back legs to grip the inside of the shell, keeping him firmly in place. The two front legs are used for walking, with the right one being much larger than the left. This right claw can be used as a “door” when he wants to blockade himself inside the shell. When the hermit crab gets too large for his shell, he leaves it and finds another larger shell to live in.

Often, a hermit crab carries a sea anemone on his shell. Sea anemones are covered with stinging cells, which release poison and kill the crab’s enemies when touched. When a hermit crab has to move to a new home, he will “plant” the anemone on his new shell. How did the hermit crab get his spirally curved body that fits perfectly in a shell? How did he get his extra-large right claw that acts as a door to his home? And how did he discover that it was good to have a sea anemone living on his shell? How does evolution explain these features? It is much easier to explain them if we accept that God created the hermit crab with these special features.

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests…

~ Matthew 8:20a

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 15

Paleontology

Noah took two of every kind of land animal on board the Ark, including dinosaurs. After getting off the Ark, these dinosaurs spread around the world. The ancient histories of many cultures document dinosaur encounters.

Britain’s history contains hundreds of stories about large reptiles called dragons.

• According to one account, a large reptile killed and ate King Morvidus in 336 B.C.
• Just over 100 years ago, elderly Welsh folk told of a colony of winged serpents (pterosaurs?) that lived in the woods around Penllin Castle in Glamorgan. These “winged serpents were the terror of old and young alike…they were described as very beautiful,… looked as if they were covered with jewels of all sorts…when angry, they flew over people’s heads… they were as bad for poultry as foxes...they were terrors in farmyards.”
• In 1405, after an unsuccessful attempt by local archers to kill the dragon with its impenetrable hide, the villagers near Sudbury drove into a swamp a “dragon vast in body with a crested head, teeth like a saw, and a tail extending to an enormous length. Having slaughtered the shepherd of a flock, it devoured many sheep.” After the Flood, people also spread across the Earth, but who would want these terrifying creatures living near their village? Many dinosaurs likely went extinct due to human expansion. When we put on our biblical glasses, it is no surprise to find these types of widespread “dragon” reports. Dinosaurs definitely did not go extinct 65 million years ago!

Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

~ Genesis 8:19

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 14

Biology

Freshwater mussels have a very unusual and complex life cycle. One part of their life cycle requires the use of a fish as a host. But how does the mussel get its larvae into the fish? One mussel found in the waters of North America, the “snuff box mussel,” uses an amazing method. This mussel does what many sport fishermen do; it catches a fish, and then releases it.

When the mussel is ready to release its larvae for the next stage in its reproductive life cycle, it catches a host fish by closing its shell on its head or snout and holds onto the fish until the larvae are released and attach themselves to the fish’s gills. Then the mussel releases the fish. Weeks later, the larvae have grown and dropped off the fish to continue the mussel’s life cycle. How does evolution explain this? How does a mussel that has no eyes grab a logperch fish? The best explanation is that God designed this specific life cycle to reveal His cleverness to us.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised….

~ 1 Chronicles 16:25

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 13

Biology

Did you know that the lampsillis mussel has its own fishing lure? These mussels live in streams and lakes. When it is time to send out its larvae, it pushes part of its soft body out of its shell. This fleshy mantle mimics a little minnow – it even has “eyes.” The lure movement is also astonishingly like a live minnow, even gulping with its mouth.

When a “host fish.” a largemouth bass, comes close to the mussel and “takes the bait.” the mussel shoots a cloud of larvae into the fish’s mouth where they clamp onto its gills. Here the larvae stay for weeks sucking the blood from the host fish; finally, they drop off when they are large enough to survive as adult mussels.

How can a mussel evolve the right lure for the host fish? How can a mussel that has no eyes know what the lure needs to look like or when a bass will come to its lure? If the mussel did not shoot its larvae into the host fish, then it would go extinct. Throwing the word like “evolution” at this amazing process does not explain how it could have developed. It had to be designed to work the way it did from the beginning, or it would not work at all.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

~ Psalm 72:19

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 12

History

What do Australian Aborigines and people of India have in common? Apparently, they are related. Recent genetic testing found strong DNA similarities between them. The large number of similar genetic markers across the genome gives a clear signal that the people of India and Australia intermarried 4,000 - 5,000 years ago. This would also help explain the many linguistic similarities between the peoples of southern India and many of the Aboriginal tribes. How is this viewed from a biblical perspective? After the Flood of Noah’s time, the people built a tower of Babel and then were dispersed (Genesis 10, 11). The dispersion of the people from the tower of Babel may have happened several hundred years after the Flood (over 4,000 years ago). As a result, some groups of people would have settled in India, and others traveled further on to Australia. Modern DNA testing confirms this migration and the corresponding dates. Science finally catches up with the Bible.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

~ Genesis 11:9

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 11

Biblical Accuracy

Dr. Duane Gish, author of Dinosaurs by Design, documents a few of more than 270 stories from various cultures around the world that talk about a devastating worldwide flood. Here are just a few examples:

• Hawaii – Long after the death of the first man, Kuniuhonna, the world became a wicked, terrible place to live. There was one good man left; his name was Nu-u. He made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. The waters came up over all the Earth and killed all the people. Only Nu-u and his family were saved.
• China – Fuhi is considered the “father of their civilization,” Fuhi, his wife, three sons, and three daughters escaped a great flood. He and his family were the only people left alive on Earth. After the great flood, they repopulated the Earth.
• Babylonia – Ancient documents list 10 great kings that lived before a great flood came to destroy the Earth. One man survived this flood, and all people on Earth descended from this one man.
• Toltec – The Toltec Indians of Mexico tell of a “first world” that lasted for 1716 years before a great flood covered even the highest mountains. A few men escaped this flood in a “closed chest.” Following the flood, the men built a great tower to provide safety. Their languages, however, were confused and they wandered to other parts of the world.
• Genesis- God sent a worldwide Flood to judge the sinfulness of man. One righteous family of eight was saved by building a boat and bringing animals on board. At the end of the Flood, the boat rested on top of a high mountain. They came down from the mountain and repopulated the world.

All of the 270 cultural stories have similarities to the Genesis Flood account described in the Bible because they all came from the same original source – people’s knowledge of this real event. The stories just became distorted over time.

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

~ Genesis 8:18-19

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 10

Biology

Who cleans up the seal and penguin colonies? The snowy sheathbill bird. This white bird looks like a cross between a pigeon and domesticated hen and is widespread across the Antarctica region. It hangs out in the seal and penguin colonies during breeding season. What we think is disgusting, they think is delicious.

Sheathbills eat dead seals, penguins and their droppings. These birds are the clean-up crew, making the colony a healthier place. By removing dead animals, these birds limit the spread of diseases. God’s attention to every detail of life is apparent in His creative details for making healthy seal and penguin colonies at the far ends of the Earth.

The birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

~ Jeremiah 12:9

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 9

Biology

A scientist pondered what she was seeing on the oleander shrub. She had been looking at a shrub and noticed a fly moving around, but upon closer examination, it looked like ants hitching a ride on the fly’s wings. But the ants looked too symmetrical, so she got out her microscope. She was astounded to discover one ant “painted” on each wing of the fruit fly (Goniurellia tridens).

Not only was there a perfect representation of an ant on each wing, but it was so well done that each “painting” displayed an ant’s head, thorax, and abdomen (the three parts of an insect), six legs and two antennae. When frightened, the fruit fly fluttered its wings, causing the two ant-like images to move back and forth, confusing a predator and allowing the fruit fly to dart away. How do evolutionists explain how these images got “painted” on the wings? They don’t – they simply state that “evolution did it.” Did the fruit fly have the mental ability to “paint” these images with its DNA code? When we see perfectly designed images with precise detail, we know there must be a designer, and that designer is God.

Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

~ Psalm 123:1

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

References for this devotional.

Daily Devotional – August 8

Microbiology

The molecules of life are never random arrangements of parts. If we think of a protein molecule (the most common molecule of life) as a strand of beads made up of 20 different colors, each color must be placed in exactly the correct location. There are 300 such specifically arranged strands in even a minimally complex cell. The odds of even one of these 300 “necklaces” happening by chance is once in 10125 tries.1 This is more than every electron, proton, and neutron in the entire universe. This is clearly impossible.

Michael Denton, an Australian scientist, has written that even the simplest cell would require at least 100 functional protein “necklaces” to appear simultaneously and start interacting with each other in perfect coordination.2 Since just one protein is as unlikely as 1/10125, the odds of 100 such proteins is 1/102000. That is a one followed by 2000 zeros! It is abundantly clear that life has a designer of unimaginable intelligence and ability!

Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever: To Him who alone does great wonders.

~ Psalm 136:3,4

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

References for this devotional.