Daily Devotional – September 30

Biblical Accuracy

There are more than 100 specific prophecies concerning Babylon. Three thousand years ago, ancient Babylon had magnificent hanging gardens with outer walls rising 200 feet tall and 187 feet thick, with regularly spaced towers 300 feet high defending the city! These walls enclosed an area of 196 square miles. By comparison, the Great Wall of China is much longer, but it is not nearly as tall or strong. The ancient historian Herodotus wrote that the fields around Babylon were so fertile he hesitated to write about them lest people think him insane. In Jeremiah 51:58, 62, God made a specific prediction concerning this massive fortress of the ancient world, “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken…It shall be desolate forever.”

Today, Babylon is a trackless wasteland containing huge mounds of rubble. Nothing grows there. Not even a blade of grass survives in this barren desert. Babylon lies in total ruin. The area can best be described as “totally desolate.” Over 2300 years ago, the mighty Alexander the Great decided he would rebuild Babylon. He determined that this would be a great spot for the capital of his mighty empire. He issued supplies to his soldiers to rebuild Babylon, but immediately after declaring his decision to rebuild Babylon, Alexander the Great was struck dead. A coincidence? God stated that Babylon would never be rebuilt, and what God declares, happens!

...thy word is truth.

~ John 17:17b

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: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

~ Colossians 1:16-17

“[Evolution] is not only deceptive, but it threatens to be mischievous in a high degree…In all its bearing upon scriptural truth, the evolutionary theory is in direct opposition to it. If God’s Word is true, evolution is a lie. I will not mince the matter, this is not the time for soft speaking.” - Charles Spurgeon, 19th Century evangelist and pastor, from his sermon, ‘Hideous Discovery’, July 25, 1886.

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

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Daily Devotional – September 29

Biology

What bird makes the longest non-stop migration? The Bar-tailed Godwit flies non-stop for five or more days from Alaska to New Zealand/Australia - approximately 7,000 miles. During the day, they analyze polarized light to get the Sun’s position even when it is cloudy. By night, they follow the stars, which means they know how the constellations move in both the northern and southern hemisphere! But as amazing as their navigational ability is, their endurance is even more awe-inspiring.

Just before they migrate from Alaska, they gorge themselves on clams and other creatures in the coastal mudflats. Fat builds up in thick rolls under their skin, increasing their total weight by 55%. Yet, even the type of fat these birds produce is unique. This fat is low in water content and very concentrated. As soon as they stop eating, a very unusual change takes place. The birds’ internal organs -- the intestines, kidney and liver – all shrivel up. Now the fat fills in the empty space and the birds’ bodies are once again streamlined for flight. How would the first Godwit that migrated from Alaska to Australia know that it needed to shrivel its organs in order to pack on the fat? Can you shrivel your organs and survive? This is truly a uniquely God-designed creature.

Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.

~ Isaiah 40:28

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

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Daily Devotional – September 28

Geology

One of the many evidences supporting a worldwide Flood is the frequent finding of oval-shaped petrified trees. Why is this significant?

Almost every museum display on the formation of fossils shows the slow accumulation of sediment around organisms to form the fossils. It seems likely that petrified trees formed in this way would have turned to solid rock long before they were buried under millions of pounds of sediment (dirt). So, if evolutionary processes produced petrified trees - they would almost all be circular in cross section.

On the other hand, if petrified trees exist because enormous mats of vegetation were deeply buried during the worldwide Flood of Noah, millions of pounds of sediment would have pushed down on the trees before they became fossilized. Thus, many would have been flattened by the weight of rapidly accumulating sediment before they became petrified. In other words, because fossilization is a process that has been shown to occur quite rapidly (within decades, not millions of years), the trees could have been flattened into an oval shape before they were fossilized. This is exactly what we find in many locations.

Observational evidence supports the reality of a recent worldwide Flood upon our planet.

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken….

~ Psalm 18:7

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

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Daily Devotional – September 27

Paleontology

One of the greatest mysteries of evolution is not how things change but why things don’t change for the better. Mutations are real, and random changes deteriorate the DNA coding as each new generation makes copies of itself. It is inevitable that any organism will change over time as these copying mistakes destroy useful information within an organism. Thus, the result is downward deterioration, not upward advancement. But even more startling is the idea that any creature could remain unchanged for hundreds of millions of generations. Yet, this unchanging nature of creatures in the fossil record (called stasis) is quite common. Small changes over time have been made but not enough for a current species to be unrecognizable from its fossilized form.

It is widely taught that birds exist because of small changes in dinosaurs over time. In other words, over millions of years, dinosaurs turned into birds. Yet, dinosaur bones have been found buried with a host of other creatures - such as crocodiles, dragonflies, redwood trees, grass, clams, and birds. They look essentially identical to modern living examples, so we call them “living fossils.” Dinosaurs evolved into birds while other creatures remained unchanged?! God’s word is clear; He created birds on Day 5 and dinosaurs on Day 6 of creation week. Dinosaurs did not evolve into birds!

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.

~ Genesis 1:24

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

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Daily Devotional – September 26

Geology

One of the great mysteries in geology is the inselberg, like Ayers Rock in central Australia. The German word inselberg means a hill jutting up from a plain, like an island in a placid sea or “island mountain.” From a distance, that is exactly how an inselberg looks, like an island rising from a flat sea. They are found on all continents. Some famous inselbergs are Sugarloaf towering 1,300 feet high out of the Rio de Janeiro harbor in Brazil or Stone Mountain in Georgia standing 825 feet above the land.

Inselbergs are said to be millions of years old, but if that were true they should have eroded down to nothing, yet they are still steepsided. From a biblical perspective, the retreating waters of the Flood of Noah’s day explain inselbergs. The retreating floodwaters would have scoured soft sediment away, planing the surrounding land off flat. As the waters decreased, they become channelized in places, cutting away the land but leaving isolated remnants with steep sides, that is, the tall inselberg structures. The Genesis Flood explains this and many other “mysterious” landforms that are found worldwide.

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

~ Genesis 7:20

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

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Daily Devotional – September 25

Microbiology

From the time of the ancient Greeks, up through the middle of the 19th century, it was widely taught that life formed all by itself via the “spontaneous generation of life.” Scientists throughout this period insisted that observation confirmed this “fact of science” as they watched mold appearing on food and maggots crawling out of raw dead meat. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the father of microbiology, proved spontaneous generation was wrong- dead things do not make living things.

Pasteur showed that it was invisible microorganisms that explained things like the formation of alcohol within beer, the spoilage of milk, and the spread of disease. As a result, he developed pasteurization of milk, vaccinations for the prevention of diseases, and sterilization procedures. Literally millions of lives have been saved because of his work. Louis Pasteur performed experiments that proved that microorganisms can never create themselves. From his experiments with boiled broth in flasks, he discovered the Law of Biogenesis, that life comes from life. Nothing developed in sterilized, sealed flasks while open flasks developed microorganisms. Dead, sterile broth is dead; it can not make a living microorganism. You can still see one of his sealed flasks of broth on display at the Pasteur Foundation in Paris; nothing has grown in it since the 1860s.

But what was the inspiration behind his developments? Pasteur realized that life could not have made itself but only exists as a result of the creation by God. It is ironic that Pasteur proved the spontaneous generation of life wrong in the same year that Charles Darwin published Origin of the Species, 1859, that said spontaneous generation was right. Darwin spent the last decades of his life campaigning to convince others that life developed and advanced all by itself without God. Pasteur used reproducible experimentation to develop a law of science, the Law of Biogenesis - that life comes from life, just as God said in Scripture. Darwin used unobserved speculation to convince a world, anxious to get rid of accountability to their Creator, that life made itself and bacteria turned into people while Pasteur used the scientific method. Be very careful which side of this controversy you find yourself supporting.

[Solomon] spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.

~ I Kings 4:33, 34

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

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Daily Devotional – September 24

History

As difficult as it is to imagine, during the Ice Age, people were measuring and mapping the globe. The Piri Reis map, dating from 1513, has an accurate rendering of Antarctica and its coastline. It was not until 1949 that sonar mapping discovered where the coastline is located - underneath 5000 feet of solid ice. Yet, this map and another drawn by Oronteus Finaeus in 1531 showed Antarctica with mountain ranges, rivers, and bays prior to becoming covered by thousands of feet of snow and ice.

These two maps were a compilation of information that was moved from the Library of Alexandria in Egypt to Turkey before that great ancient depository of knowledge was destroyed by fire. The Turkish cartographers wrote on these maps that their source maps were made by the ancient seafarers, Phoenicians. Antarctica was officially “discovered” by the Russians in 1818 AD, or should I say, rediscovered! During the Ice Age, the very warm ocean floodwaters (from the fountains of the deep, volcanism, and plate tectonics) would have kept the coastline of Antarctica free from ice for centuries. Eventually, as the oceans continued to cool, great ice sheets covered it, as we find it today.

The one and only Ice Age took place just after the Flood (2348 BC) and is believed to have lasted about 700 years - 500 years to build up and 200 years to melt down. This would have provided ample time for the ancient explorers to sail the seas and map the globe before Antarctica was permanently covered by ice. These maps provide EXTREMELY convincing evidence that the biblical understanding of Earth’s history is correct.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

~ Psalm 107:23

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

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Daily Devotional – September 23

Biology

Have you considered the shark? You may have been aware of the shark’s ability to smell. But, did you know, they are able to detect the smell of blood from miles away? Are you aware, however, of their ability to sense electricity in the water? On a shark’s snout are located nerve receptors called the ampullae of Lorenzini. These tiny receptor holes allow the shark to pick up the electricity given off by a beating heart. These tiny sensory receptors work with the shark’s brain to give an exact location of a possible meal.

Theoretically, it has been determined that a shark could locate the position of a 9-volt battery over 1,000 miles away! Man has not even come close to copying such a wonder!

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever.

~ Psalm 118:1

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

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Daily Devotional – September 22

Design

Moles are made for life underground. They are one of the most efficient excavating mammals on the planet - spending their entire lives digging underground tunnels. Tunnels near the surface are used for searching for earthworms, grubs and insects while deeper tunnels (10 feet deep) are used for living areas. Moles have voracious appetites and eat an equivalent of their body weight each day.

These animals are perfectly designed for digging with the following characteristics:

• Compact bodies
• Large front paws with broad, sharp, hard claws that face backwards, so they can dig with breast-stroke style motion • Short, stubby tail that can be used as a lever
• Cone-shaped muzzle for probing insects in the dirt
• An ultra-sensitive nose to help find insects
• Velvety, thick fur that stands straight up, allowing the fur to move in any direction without rubbing the wrong way and trapping dirt within the velvety coat
• Small eyes that can be covered with thin skin while digging
• External ears are ridges in the skin covered with fur, preventing dirt from entering the ears
• Nostrils that open sideways, not forward, so dirt doesn’t plug them God created the mole with all these features so that it could be a successful tunnel digger.

And the earth was full of His praise.

~ Habakkuk 3:3b

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

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Daily Devotional – September 21

Geology

When traveling in the western states, you may come across crossbedding. Cross-bedding is found in sedimentary rock; it is a series of visible layers within the rock that suddenly change direction. Most layers are horizontal; however, cross-bedding has layers that are at a distinct angle to the horizon. Cross-bedding is found most often in sandstone. Cross-beds exist because of Noah’s Flood.

Desert sand dunes have steep faces with sand beds at an angle greater than 25 degrees. If the sand bed angle is less than 25 degrees, most likely it was water-deposited. By measuring the angle of the sand layers in these cross beds, we can determine if the sandstone came from an ancient desert or a flood. You can do an experiment to establish whether a cross-bedded sand dune was created by wind or water. First, establish the horizon, lay a protractor on that, and determine the angle of the crossbed. If the angle of the sand bed is greater than 25 degrees, it formed in a dry environment. If the angle of the sand bed is less than 25 degrees, the sand was most likely laid down in a flood environment. If you do not have a protractor with you, take a picture and do the measurements at home. It is the wide extent of cross-bedding throughout sandstone layers of the western United States that testify to the worldwide nature of the Flood that laid these rock layers down. So, the next time you visit national parks in the West, take along your protractor, and do the protractor test. Sedimentary rock layers with cross-bedding are a testimony to Noah’s Flood!

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

~ Psalm 139:17-18

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

References for this devotional.