Beyond Amazing

This was my daily devotion for today:

READ: Psalm 19:1-6

"The heavens are the work of Your hands."
Psalm 102:25

In 1977, the United States launched a rocket into space. On board was a small craft called Voyager I, a probe that was jettisoned into space to explore the planets. After Voyager was done sending back photos and data from the planet Jupiter and its neighbors, it didn’t stop working. It just kept going.

Today, almost 30 years later, that tiny vehicle is still going—traveling at a speed of over 38,000 miles per hour. And it’s nearly 9 billion miles from the sun. That’s mind-boggling! Brilliant scientists have sent a ship to the edge of our solar system. It’s astounding. It’s amazing.

But it’s absolutely puny when compared with what God has done. It would be like hearing someone brag to the architect of the Empire State Building that he had traveled to the second floor.

We have barely begun to explore the vastness of God’s creation. But every small step by mankind should continue to put us in absolute awe of God’s power and creativity. Think of this: While we have left the realm of one star with a spaceship, the Creator of the stars “calls them all by name” (Isaiah 40:26). After all, He made them.

Exploring the universe is amazing. But exploring the God who made it all: That’s beyond amazing! ~Dave Branon

I sing the mighty power of God
That made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad
And built the lofty skies. ~Watts

The wonder of it all—just to think that God loves me. ~Shea

Is there Intelligent Life in Outer Space?

For decades, speculation about extraterrestrial life has been boosted by tales of flying saucers and encounters with aliens. Some have even claimed that the “sons of God” and/or the “nephilim” of Genesis 6:4 were aliens.

In 1996, this search for “little green men” was fueled from another source. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and its researchers claimed to have found evidence for simple life-forms in a meteorite, allegedly from Mars, found in Antarctica.

Since then, this “proof” of life in the “Mars rock” has lost much favor among the scientific community. The supposed “nano-fossils” were probably no more than magnetite whiskers plus artifacts of the experimental process.

Despite this, the 2 kg rock ignited a new surge of “Mars fever.” In the next 20 years, the Americans, Europeans, Japanese and Russians plan several new projects to explore our neighboring planet, which is around 48 million (48,ooo,ooo) miles away at its closest approach.

Meanwhile, belief in extraterrestrial intelligence continues to grow with an almost religious fervor.


Sign of Design: It is hard to see logically how evolutionary selection mechanisms are of any use to the theory of life originally arising from simple chemicals until you have self-replicating, programed machinery, such as characterizes all life, already in existance.

God’s Word, or Star Trek?

“The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s, but the earth hath He given to the children of men.”
PSALMS 115:16

In the last 50 years, talk of unidentified flying objects, and beings from other planets has dominated discussions from the Pentagon to the porch.

Do I believe in UFOs with little green men flying around out there? No, not at all. In fact, I don’t think there’s intelligent life in outer space or on other planets.

The evolutionists tell us that because they believe evolution is true, life must have evolved millions of times in the universe. These ideas have captured the imagination of not just the general public, but also large segments of the Church. However, I don’t accept this.

You see, the Bible tells us that God made the earth first. The sun, moon and stars were made for signs and for seasons for the earth. The earth is obviously center stage, on which God made the first man, Adam. And, of course, we know that all human beings who have ever lived are descendants of Adam.

Here’s a point we can’t forget: only descendants of Adam can be saved because Jesus Christ became a man - Paul calls Him the last Adam, a descendant of Adam - so He could die for Adam and all his descendants. If there were other races of people in outer space, there would be no salvation for them.

Is there life in outer space? The world might say yes, and pursue it with high-tech instruments and research money, but when we start from the Bible we have the correct way of thinking about this subject. The Bible may be silent about animal life and plant life in outer space, but there cannot be a race of biological intelligent beings for the reasons given above.

The next time someone tells you there is life on other planets, ask him of her to provide solid proof. When that doesn’t happen, open your Bible and see what the Creator of the universe has to say.

~ AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD Reflections of God's Handiwork
by Ken Ham

Wisdom from the Psalms

This was my daily devotion for today.

Psalm 66:6
"He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him."

Professor Marsh shook his head emphatically. He maintained that the story of the Red Sea was phony. Dr. Reed proposed that maybe they crossed somewhere else. Brother Allwell said true believers knew it happened just as it was written. For hours the men argued and fought. No one changed his mind, nothing was gained, faith was never spoken of, and the promoters of the debate thought, all in all, it was a great success.

What is the big idea? The fact is, the Hebrew people escaped the finest fighting force of its day by crossing a body of water that stopped the Egyptian army. A miracle is a miracle is a miracle. The how is not nearly as important as the fact that it did happen. Our God is a God of miracle and wonder. Praise Him for what He does, rather than for how He does it, and you will find your faith grows by leaps and bounds.

Prayer:
When Your miracles get reduced to topics for debate, I find I lose interest, Father. Refresh me with the strangeness and awe of Your power, Lord. Amen.

Summer tours offered to site of "Noah's Ark"

A new travel website is now promoting summer tours to a Turkish site near Mount Ararat believed by many to be the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark.

Many believe this is Noah's Ark, already found on a mountain
next to Mt. Ararat (courtesy: wyattmuseum.com)

Noah's Ark Holidays, which bills itself as an "ethical travel referral website" is behind the offer, with a pitch for the location in Dogubayazit, Turkey, reading:

"You will be awe-inspired, whether you have a personal faith or not, when you visit the National Park of Noah's Ark. Many experts have examined, tested, researched, taken radar scans and recorded lengths of this incredible boat-shaped object that many people, both non-experts and scientists, believe to be the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark. Read what others have said about it and make your own mind up. It really is a mind boggling story! If it is not Noah's Ark, then what are, what look like the fossilized remains of a boat, the same lengths as the lengths detailed in the Book of Genesis for Noah's Ark doing in the 'Mountains of Ararat'"?

While the website itself is not a travel agency, it does provide a link to one that is conducting the tours embarking from London for a price of about $1,500 for a 10-day excursion. It has already slated three departure dates of July 5, Aug. 5 and Sept. 6.

"You can literally stand and smell the history around you in your nostrils," the site maintains...

The Answers in Genesis website provides an in-depth report attempting to debunk any validity the Dogubayazit site has, and concludes by stating:

"[A]s Christians we need to always exercise due care when claims are made, no matter who makes them, and any claims must always be subjected to the most rigorous scientific scrutiny. If that had happened here, and particularly if the scientific surveys conducted by highly qualified professionals using sophisticated instruments had been more widely publicized and their results taken note of, then these claims would never have received the widespread credence that they have."

Officials with Wyatt Archaeological Research remain unfazed in the face of such criticism...

To read the rest - Click Here

How is Christ like the Ark?

“For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost.”
MATTHEW 18:11

As God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is like the Ark - He came to seek and save that which was lost. Just as Noah and his family were saved by the Ark, rescued by God from the Flood waters below, so anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior will be spared from the coming final judgment of mankind, rescued by God from the fire that will destroy the earth after the Last Days.

Noah and his family had to go through a doorway into the Ark to be saved. So we too have to go through a “doorway” to be saved so we won’t be eternally separated from God. The Son of God, Jesus, stepped into history to pay the penalty for our sin of rebellion. Jesus said, in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in , he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”


Sign of Design: The ugly aspects of nature are because it is a ruined, cursed creation, which, nevertheless, still shows remnats of its original beauty and total goodness.

You old fossil!

"For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished."
2 PETER 3:5-6

Man's sin marred God's perfect world, and not so long after the Creation week judgment came in the form of a flood. A global catastrophe. And yet, this story is high on the myth list in today's world.

The evidence for this tragedy is so obvious, many people miss it.

Actually, I have found that most people think it takes millions of years to make a fossil. This is because they're so indoctrinated by evolutionary ideas. I have an evolutionist's book that explains to me how fish fossils form, for instance. They have a picture of a fish in a pond, and then the fish dies, and then it sinks to the bottom, and slowly over long periods of time it's covered by mud, and then it turns into a fish fossil.

However, there are billions of fish fossils in the earth and they're beautifully preserved. Many of them indicate the fish hadn't rotted at all. If you observe what happens when a fish dies, for instance (I don't recommend this), if you put some cyanide in your aquarium, you'll notice that the fish usually don't sink, they float.

And then, when they start to sink, they're rotting and falling apart. This process would not result in beautifully formed fish fossils like the ones we observe in the earth today. No, these must have been formed quickly, catastrophically.

I like to show people my favorite fossil. It's actually a fossil hat---a petrified hat. A miner left this soft hat in a mine in Australia and when they came back 50 years later, they found it wasn't a soft hat anymore, it was a hard had---it had petrified! And that certainly didn't take millions of years.

Noah's flood catastrophically buried billions of creatures that turned into fossils.


Family: It's not a popular subject today, but sin is followed by judgment. That can come in the form of parental punishment over a broken window. And it most assuredly came in the form of Noah's flood, when God had had enough of people who didn't love Him. The world tells us the lie that following Jesus is hard, but really, not following Him is the hard part.


Prayer: Father, when someone I know laughs at the idea of Noah's ark and flood, help me use that as an opportunity to witness about judgment and salvation. Amen.

~ AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD - Reflections of God's Handiwork
by Ken Ham

Why did God destroy the earth that He had made?

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”
GENESIS 6:5

This verse speaks for itself. Every human being on the face of the earth, except Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives, refused to turn away from sin, violence and corruption. The result was God’s judgment. As harsh as the destruction was, no living person was without excuse.

God also used the Flood to separate and to purify those who believed in Him from those who didn’t. Throughout history and Bible, this cycle has taken place time after time. Separation and purification. Judgment and redemption.

Without God, and without a true knowledge and understanding of Scripture, which provides the true history of the world, man is doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Sign of Design: The human eye actually discriminates better in indirect, lower intensity light, so the intervening layer of nerve fibers, often regarded as evidence of “poor design”, acts as a filter, minimizing excessive light-scattering. It also filters the short-wave ultraviolet (potentially cancer-causing) light.

A Mother’s Strength

I didn't really prepare a post for Mother's Day, but here is a daily devotion about mothers:

A Mother’s Strength

READ: Proverbs 31:26-31

"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness."
—Proverbs 31:26


My wife Carolyn and I were walking in a park one morning when we spotted a mother squirrel scurrying along a power line with her baby in her mouth. She delivered the little squirrel to a new nest she had built in a tree. Then she ran back across the wire to fetch another baby from the old nest and transport it to its new home. Back and forth she scampered until she had deposited all six of her babies in their new home. “Being a mother is hard work!” Carolyn mused.
Indeed it is. The labor to bring a child into the world is only the beginning. How essential it is that she take care of herself spiritually so she can take care of her children! Of all concerns, the care for her soul is the greatest—to grow in wisdom and in the knowledge of God.

Susanna Wesley was a busy mother with 19 children, yet she set aside time each day to meet with God. Some days she spent that time in a chair with her apron over her head, praying. Woe be to the child who disturbed her!

The woman described in Proverbs 31 placed a high value on wisdom, kindness, and a respect for the Lord (vv.26,30). This Mother’s Day, let’s honor the women in our lives who share their wisdom, show us kindness, and who seek above all to honor the Lord.

~ David H. Roper

Though other scenes may be forgot,
While life shall last, this one cannot;
When mother prayed! O peace divine!
My mother’s God today is mine. —Anon.

God bless my mother; . . . all I am I owe to her. —Abraham Lincoln

Here are some other Mother's Day posts:

The Strenuous Life: Motherhood, Part one ~ by Kimi Harris

The Strenuous Life: Motherhood, Part two ~ by Kimi Harris

Mothers the World Needs ~ by Brittney


If I missed anyone, just let me know. :-)

Where is Noah’s Ark today?

“And the Ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”
GENESIS 8:4

The Ark landed on the mountains of Ararat (the Bible does not specify which actual mountain) in the region of Mt. Ararat in modern day Turkey. Many expeditions have searched for the Ark there. There isn’t any conclusive evidence of the Ark’s location, or survival. After all, it landed on the mountains about 4,500 years ago, and could easily have deteriorated or been destroyed.

Some creation scientists and Bible scholars believe the Ark could be preserved, perhaps to be providentially revealed at a future time as a reminder of the past judgment and the judgment to come.


Sign of Design: In Genesis 3:14 we read, “And the Lord God said unto the serpent... ‘upon your belly you shall go, and shall eat dust all the days of your life.’ ” Once again... the Bible has been shown to be accurate in minute detail. ...There is an organ in the roof of the snake’s mouth called “Jacobson’s organ.” This helps the snake to smell in addition to its nose. Its darting forked tongue samples bits of dust by picking them up on the points of the fork, which it presents to its matching pair of sensory organs inside its mouth. Once it has “smelt” them in this way, the tongue must be cleaned so the process can be repeated immediately. Therefore, serpents really do lick dust and eat it.

Just Another Reason to Homeschool

“Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state.”
~ Adolph Hitler

The public education institution has much control over the future of our country. What they teach for hours during the week, can’t be undone in an hour and a half on Sunday. The kids will be taught by the schools and influenced by their peers toward unrighteousness.

Below is an article on a small booklet that is handed out by Planned Parenthood and intended for the kids in our schools.

Rely on normal people, not experts
By Jim Sedlak

May 5, 2006

I was giving a talk in Rapid City, South Dakota the other night. During the talk, I asked the audience to take a look at a book that I carry around with me. The book is being pushed for use by children age 10 and up.

As people thumbed through the book, the reaction was the same as I had received at numerous talks over the last 10 years. There were gasps of disbelief. There were some who quickly put the book down in disgust. And others who couldn't believe that anyone would think the book would be distributed to teens, much less 10-year-olds.

We've found that the gut reaction of regular people is one of the best ways to determine if something is worthwhile or just trash. In community after community across the country the reaction to this particular book has been universal. Normal people hate it. Normal people can't believe anyone would give this book to a child. Normal people want to walk away from it.

One police officer in one community even commented to me, "You know, if I found you down at the park showing this book to 10-year-old children, I would probably arrest you. The least I would do is to make sure you didn't have any access to the children while I was there."

That's how horrible this book is. Normal people just know that.

Everyone knows that -- everyone except the "experts." We seem to have become a nation of so-called experts. Before we do anything we want to know what the experts think about it. Even if something is blatantly outrageous, when we are told the "experts" believe it is great, we slink back into our holes and let the experts have free reign.

Nowhere, it seems, do we do this more than when it comes to our children. Somehow many parents have been convinced that they are not smart enough to raise their children. So, if the school says such-and-such is okay, we believe the school. If psychologists say that children need freedom to do this or detailed education on that, we go along. Surely, we exclaim, the experts know what they are doing...

Read the rest - Here


The schools are going to change our culture for the worst, and won’t be changed from the inside by the Christians who will stand up for their belief. It’s more likely that they would be influenced, rather than be an influence on the rest. It isn’t that Christians can’t make a difference, but are you going to expect a ten year old to change our system? Do you think inexperienced child will stand strong for God against their peers, when adults have such a difficult time dealing with peer pressure themselves? If God is telling you to witness, or even to put your children in public school, do it. He’s got a plan, but make certain it is Him, because the wrong influence can ruin even a good child.

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”
1 CORINTHIANS 15:33

Where is the evidence for Noah’s Flood?

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:”
2 PETER 3:5 - 6

All over the earth, there is evidence of Noah’s Flood, from the sea beds to the mountain tops. Whether you travel by car, train or plane, the physical features of the earth’s terrain clearly indicate a catastrophic past. From canyons and craters, to coal beds and caverns, the whole earth testifies of God’s terrible judgment on sin.

Approximately 75% of the earth’s crust is sedimentary rock. These layers of sand, soil and material, which show evidence of being mostly laid down by water, were once soft like mud, but now hardened like stone. Buried in these sedimentary layers are billions of dead things (fossils of plants and animals) buried very, very quickly. The evidence all over the earth is staring everyone in the face!


Sign of Design: Eyes in different creatures are designed to meet their differing needs. Humans need good resolution and detail, whereas a fly needs speed. We see a fluorescent lamp as flickering at 10 Hz (cycles per second) but it looks stable to us at 20 Hz. A fly can detect a flicker of 200 Hz, so a normal movie would look to it like a slide show!

Dinosaurs? In the Bible?

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 (Gen. 1:24).

Why aren’t dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? I’ve heard this question thousands of times.

You might wonder what dinosaurs have to do with quiet time with God. Let me see if I can answer!

For many years secular science has maintained that dinosaurs lived long before man. Many Christians become so confused about the origin of these “terrible lizards” that they try to push the question out of their minds.

I actually believe dinosaurs are mentioned more than many other animals in the Bible. You see, the word “dinosaur” is not in the Scriptures because it wasn’t invented until the year 1841. Dinosaurs were called dragons before the word “dinosaur” was invented. And the word “dragon” appears in the Old Testament a number of times.

I believe there’s a very detailed description of a dinosaur in the Bible. In Job 40:15 we have a description of an animal called behemoth, which is described as the largest land animal that God made. Now this certainly couldn’t refer to an elephant, hippopotamus, or anything like this.

Actually, as you read on in this description, it says it had a tail like a cedar tree. Now some Christians have thought that this refers to an elephant. But an elephant’s tail looks nothing like a cedar tree. It looks more like a little bit of rope dangling in the wind. If behemoth was a dinosaur, that means Job lived alongside dinosaurs, which means that dinosaurs survived the flood on Noah’s Ark.

These ideas are so radical in our day because we’ve been literally indoctrinated by evolutionary teaching for generations. It is almost universally accepted that dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years before man appeared. And yet the Bible tells us that God made the great land animals on Day 6! All of them!

How can we find out about dinosaurs? The answer’s in Genesis. God created them, and they lived beside people.

~ And God saw that it was Good - Reflections of God's Handiwork
by: Ken Ham


Sign of Design: Overall, doubting Genesis has caused more and more people to doubt the rest of the Bible.

Was Noah’s Flood global?

“And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.”
GENESIS 7:19, 20

Many Christians today claim that the Flood of Noah’s time was only a local flood. Generally, these people want a local flood because they have accepted the evolutionary history of the earth, interpreting the fossils under our feet as the history of the sequential appearance of life over millions of years.

Scientists, at one time, understood the fossils to be mostly the result of the great Flood. Those who now accept the evolutionary millions of years of gradual accumulation of fossils have, in their way of thinking, explained away the evidence for the global Flood. Hence, many Christians compromise and insist on a local flood. Secularists deny the possibility of a worldwide flood at all. If they would think from a biblical perspective, they would see the abundance of evidence for the Flood. As someone once quipped, “I wouldn’t have seen it, if I hadn’t believed it.”

Those who accept the evolutionary timeframe, also rob Adam’s fall of its serious consequences. They put fossils, which testify of disease, suffering and death, before Adam and Eve sinned and brought death and suffering into the world. Such a scenario makes God’s description of His finished creation, “It was very good”, null. In doing this they also undermine the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection.

If the Flood were local, why did Noah have to build an Ark? He could walked to the other side of the mountains and escaped!

More importantly, if the Flood were local people who did not happen to beliving in the vicinity would not have been affected by it. They would have escaped God’s judgment on sin. Jesus said, in MATTHEW 24:37 - 39, that the Flood killed every person not on the Ark. And what did Christ mean when He likened the coming world judgment to the judgment of all men in the days of Noah? (MATT. 24:37 - 39) In 2 PETER 3:5 - 7, the coming judgment by fire is likened to the former judgment by water in Noah’s Flood. A partial judgment in Noah’s day, would mean a partial judgment to come.

If the Flood were only local, how could the waters rise to twenty feet above the mountains, as stated GENESIS 7:20? Water seeks its own level. It could not rise to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world untouched.

If the Flood were local, God would have repeatedly broken His promise never to send such a flood again (God put a rainbow in the sky as a covenant between God and man and the animals that He would never repeat such an event). There have been huge “local” floods in recent times (in Bangladesh, for example), but never another global Flood that killed all life on the land.


Sign of Design: Today’s canyons and the like are the consequences, not so much of God’s creative design, but of the forces He unleashed in divine judgment on sin at the time of Noah.


P.S. Because of problems with Feedburner, I will change my feed back to Blogger's default atom feed. All of my subscribers will be transferred to my other feed.

Where did all the water go?

"... and the waters assuaged; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated."
GENESIS 8:1, 3

As even secular geologists observe, it appears that the continents were at one time “together” and not separated by the vast oceans we see today. The forces involved in the Flood were sufficient to change all of this. Some creation scientists believe this break-up of the continent was part of the mechanism that ultimately caused the Flood.

Scripture indicates that God formed the ocean basins, raising the land out of the water, so that the Flood waters returned to a safe place. Some theologians believe PSALM 104:5 - 9 may refer to this event.

Sign of Design: Most children’s coloring books actually worsen the problem of viewing the early Genesis accounts as real history. Depictions of Eden’s animals invariably exclude those real, once-living creatures - dinosaurs. This reinforces the idea that Genesis does not deal with real history, making it harder for the creation message to penetrate in adulthood.