Creation Moments on Oneplace.com

How long does it take to petrify wood? Scientists who believe in those millions and billions of years that evolutionists are always talking about have never tested the answer to this question. They simply assumed that it must take hundreds or thousands of years to petrify wood. It wasn't until the 1970s that scientists bothered to explore this question.Bone, wood, and other once-living materials become petrified when silica replaces the original organic material. It has always been assumed that silica is not very active at temperatures below the boiling point of water. And for the same reason, silica rock formations were thought to take thousands of years to form.In the early 1970s, a paper was published showing that silica crystals could be grown in backyard conditions in only three years! This means that wood or bone can turn into stone within a few years. It also means that rock formations once thought to take thousands of years to form could have been formed in a relatively short time. All that's needed are silica and water.Here is an example of how belief in evolution has retarded science. If no one had ever questioned the long ages claimed by evolution, we would still be ignorant about how silica works in nature around us. This research also helps uphold the Bible's claims that the Earth and life have only been around for thousands, not millions, of years. The truth of God's Word remains unchallenged!1 Corinthians 10:4“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I thank You that Your Word to us can be trusted. Man's word can mislead, for men are easily misled. Help me to apply Your Word to my life so that I may be led by You and not by human error. Amen.REF.: Chittick, Donald E. The Controversy. Multnomah Press. Image: Lizard perched on petrified tree, Envato. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Today, it is considered scholarly to reject the Bible's account of a worldwide flood. Some try to compromise by saying that the flood recorded in the Bible was only a local event. The problem with these scholarly claims is that there were too many witnesses who disagree with them.We can test these scholars' claims. If the Bible's account of a worldwide flood is true, it was witnessed by every person on earth. The story of this event would have been passed down to their descendants and spread across the whole face of the earth.Researchers have catalogued some 270 stories of an ancient, destructive flood in various cultures around the world. A large majority of these stories have been shown to predate any Christian influence. As one would expect, details differ after such a long time. What's remarkable, though, is that where the details of these stories agree with the Bible, they also tend to agree with each other. For example, the ancient Greek flood hero was told to build and stock an ark because the god Zeus wished to destroy humanity. The Aztec story of a universal flood says it took place 1,716 years after the creation of the world—almost the same as the Bible's date! The Babylonian flood story shares seven major details with the Bible's account. Similar stories are found around the world, including Australia, India, Scandinavia, and China.The universality of the flood stories and their similarity to the Bible cannot be explained unless they are based on an event that actually took place.2 Peter 3:5-6“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:”Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, I thank You that Your Word is sure and true and that it has been accurately preserved to our day. Help me to live Your Word in my life and tell others about the wonderful things You have done. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Roth, Ariel A. Flood stories—can they be ignored? Origins, v. 17. Image: Manabozho in the flood, R. C. Armour, PD, via Wikimedia Commons. + British Museum Flood Tablet (from the Epic of Gilgamesh), Photograph by Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. + Manu and Saptarishi, PD, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

The world is a frightening place without God. This alarm can be seen today in fears that modern people often confuse with science.Years ago, stories of gloom and doom about a greenhouse heating of the earth were starting to fill the media. We at Creation Moments looked at the scientific basis for these claims. We wanted to know if the greenhouse warming of the earth was a true threat or just another fear of a godless people. We then published the conclusion that the thin and conflicting evidence for greenhouse warming most likely came from the heat island effect of growing cities around some of the temperature-measuring sites.Knowing the elegance with which God designed everything in creation, creationists suspected that God probably designed the earth with built-in thermostats that help keep it from warming up too much. When the Pacific Ocean warms more than normal, it sends increasing amounts of water vapor into the air. If heating continues, the water vapor will actually cause the heating to increase until vapor is forced higher into the atmosphere, creating icy cirrus clouds. These clouds reflect enough incoming sunlight to shut down the temperature increase and return things to normal.We are called to be good stewards of the earth. We can be good stewards in joyful service, freed from the fears that afflict those who don't know God.Jeremiah 10:2“Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.”Prayer: Dear Father, it is very easy for us to pick up the fears of those around us who don't know Your personal love and care. Forgive me when I, too, have shared the fears of the unbelieving world and strengthen my faith. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Clouds keep ocean temperatures down. Science News, v. 139. Image: Stratocumulus clouds over pacific ocean, ISS Expedition 34 CrewImage Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, Derivative work including grading, lens profile correction and noise removal, Julian Herzog, PD, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Many textbooks tell young people today that birds are modified reptiles. Suppose, they say, that millions of years ago the scales on some reptiles began to fray along the edges. In time, they say, the frayed scales turned into feathers and birds were born.The elegance and beauty of the feather make this story hard to believe. Can sticking a feather on a lizard produce a peacock? The bird's feather is only a small part of the complete flying system of the bird. Even with very careful planning and redesigning, a reptile doesn't have what it takes.A bird needs massive breast muscles for flight. In some birds, 30% of the body weight of the bird is breast muscle. By comparison, in humans, breast muscles are only about 1% of body weight. A bird also needs an extremely high metabolism and blood pressure to deliver the energy those muscles need for flight. Birds have a higher metabolism than any other creature; they also have the necessary high blood pressure. Finally, as is well known, birds need light skeletons. The man-o'-war has a wingspan of seven feet. But its entire skeleton weighs only a few ounces—less than its feathers!Even the most clever rebuilding of a reptile cannot produce a bird. In fact, birds have very little in common with reptiles. The entire being of the bird, from body to brain, has been specially designed for flight by a Creator who clearly knows everything there is to know about flight.Job 39:26“Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?”Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, the beauty, grace, and huge variety of birds You have created are some of the most beautiful creatures on earth. As I thank You for them, fill me with new wonder over the wonderful work of Your hands. Amen.REF.: Vandeman, George. The miracle of flight. Signs of the Times.  To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Spider silk begins as a liquid protein made by silk glands on the spider's abdomen. Spiders make many kinds of silk for different uses. As the liquid silk is forced through the spider's spinnerets, it begins to dry. The spinnerets pull and stretch the silk, creating just the right kind of silk for the spider's use. Though the result seems thin and weak to us, ounce for ounce, spider silk is stronger than steel.Web-building spiders make two types of silk for their traps. The basic structure of the web is made of strong, nonsticky silk. Then the spider adds a sticky, elastic silk to trap its prey. Some webs are irregular, others are flat and sheet-like, while still others are shaped like funnels. All of us have admired the beautiful orb web.However, spiders also have many other ways in which they use their silk. The ogre-faced spider makes a net that it throws around its intended victim. The European water spider builds its web underwater. It stores its air supply in the web. The lasso spider twirls a single strand of silk over its head. A tiny drop of sticky silk at the end of the lasso captures its prey when the lasso is thrown. Probably the most creative use of silk is by the young of some species. When they hatch, they produce long loops of silk that catch the wind and send them floating off to new places.The spider's skill in producing and using silk had to come from Someone wiser and more clever than the spider. Clearly, the spider has been well-equipped and instructed by its Creator.Romans 11:33“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”Prayer: Father, I thank You for the intelligence and wisdom You have so freely given to Your creatures. Help me to treasure, most of all, Your wisdom in the work of Jesus Christ for my salvation so that my life, too, may glorify You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Pinkston, William S., Jr. BIOLOGY for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press. Image: 257-11 Pardosa spp ballooning, WanderingMogwai, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons + Ballooning spider, Cho M, Neubauer P, Fahrenson C, Rechenberg I (2018), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikipedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

How many different scents do you think your nose is able to smell? The answer is about 10,000. How does your nose tell the difference between a rose and a skunk? Until only recently, scientists really weren't sure.Now we know that humans and mammals detect smells by using at least 1,000 different genes. These genes are located in every cell in your body, but they are active only in your nose. This discovery, say scientists, gives them their first insight into how smell works. Before this, said one scientist, “We had almost no knowledge of the olfactory system and this really opens up the molecular study of smell in a very fascinating way.”They say that each of the different genes seems designed to respond to a small group of odors. As each group of genes does its part, the entire system is able to recognize everything we can smell. These genes pass signals from the nerve cells in the nose to a small region of the brain called the olfactory bulb. Now that smell genes are identified, researchers say they can begin to understand how odors are detected and how the brain interprets those signals.Our sense of smell relies on a very elegant and sophisticated system. Imagine, 1,000 genes lie at the heart of that system. Each one of those genes is information—a programmed code that is designed to make sense of what we smell. Information, programming and decoding are all terms that assume that we have a highly intelligent Creator who designed our sense of smell!Genesis 27:27“And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed:”Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, I thank You for my ability to detect scents. As scientists continue to learn how You have designed our sense of smell, cause them to recognize Your genius and so be drawn to the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen.REF.: Scientists find genes that let nose make scents of what it smells. Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Image: Head Olfactory Nerve Labeled, Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons, background replaced. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Mastodons were distant relatives of the elephant. Modern science says that one of the main parts of their diet was conifer needles. Supposedly, they died out at the end of the Ice Age because conifers became scarce as the world warmed.Now the discovery of the last meal of one mastodon calls this theory into question. Living bacteria have been found in a mastodon that died during the Ice Age. The bugs were found in the remains of a mastodon's last meal, preserved with a skeleton that was discovered while preparing a golf course in Ohio. Scientists think the bacteria normally lived inside the mastodon, working as part of the mastodon's digestive process.What scientists discovered about the mastodons' diet could upset some theories about what drove them to extinction. The scientists said the four-ton mastodon had spent its last day eating a salad of swamp grass, moss, and leaves, a bit of seed, and a garnish of water lily. What was left of these plants, as well as the bacteria, were separated from a mass of reddish-brown matter found near the mastodon's ribs and vertebrae.Scientists who believe in evolution claim that the animal died 11,000 years ago. But how sure can we be about that? After all, evolutionary scientists were wrong about the mastodon's diet. As a result, their theories about why mastodons became extinct seem to be wrong. The facts that the bacteria were still alive and the stomach contents were not fully decayed tell us that this evolutionary date, too, is greatly exaggerated.Joshua 24:15“…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”Prayer: Dear Lord, so many people prefer to reject Your Word and then do their own speculating about things You have clearly revealed to us. I ask that through Your Holy Spirit, You would help me not to speculate where Your Word has spoken so clearly. Amen.Image: Mastodon excavation, Burning Tree Golf Course, Ohio, James St. John, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Could the giant flying fox be a primate? In the 18th century, scientists weren't quite sure what to do with bats. Some wanted to classify them as primates, while others thought they should have their own category. Since 1780, all 950 known species of bats have been classified in their own category. The bat order is divided into microbats and megabats. Microbats have an average wingspan of less than a foot. Megabats are larger. The giant flying fox has a wingspan of six feet!The evolutionary link between microbats and megabats is dissolving as scientists learn more about them. Although megabats and microbats are very clearly bats, they are constructed in importantly different ways. Microbats rely mainly on echolocation to navigate. Megabats have very large eyes, so that they can see like owls in low light. The nerves that connect the eyes of microbats to the brain cross. As a result, the image from the right eye goes to the left brain, and the left eye feeds its image to the right brain. However, megabats are wired with both eyes feeding into both sides of the brain. This arrangement is otherwise unique to primates!If bats evolved, these new findings mean that bats must have evolved at least twice! It also means that some bats evolved from monkey-like creatures!It makes far more sense to admire God's unlimited creativity. We can logically reason that God gave His larger bats eyesight like that of a monkey, because their needs are similar.1 Corinthians 2:9-10“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”Prayer: Dear Father, I thank You that what You have made is so pleasing to the mind and to the eye. I ask that our growing scientific knowledge would continue to make it more difficult to deny You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: The eyes have it: megabats are primates. Discover. Image: Grey headed flying fox, Andrew Mercer (www.baldwhiteguy.co.nz), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

A revolutionary design in metal-cutting blades has changed the metal-working industry. These blades don't cut like a knife. Instead, the blade is fixed in one position while the metal to be shaped spins on a lathe. This new-style blade stays sharp six times longer than the old blade design. And where titanium used to make the old-style cutting blades dull almost the second they were used, the new blades last up to 30 minutes.This wonderful new blade was developed by two engineers who got the original idea from a rat. You see, rats' teeth always have a sharp edge. Engineers learned that this is because their teeth are hard on one side and soft on the other. So as they wear, they always keep a sharp edge. Using this principle for metal-cutting has lowered costs and increased productivity, since the blades don't have to be changed as often.Beginning in Job 39, God humbles Job with several chapters of questions about the wise designs found in the animal kingdom. God's message is, “Job, if you think you're so smart, who created all of this with such wisdom?”Even rats' teeth are created with such wisdom that, once we learned the principle, our technology was greatly improved. In view of this, it doesn't seem at all scientific to say that there is no Creator!Job 38:4“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”Prayer: Dear Father, help me not to think that I am wiser or smarter than I really am. Help me to seek Your wisdom and knowledge in Your Word, which is as high as heaven and as real as the creation. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Self-sharpening blade has edge. Science Digest. Image: White domesticated rat, Envato + Rat teeth (overgrown), Alexey Krasavin, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Many cultures around the world have legends about creation and a great Flood that have been handed down from generations in the distant past. Most of these creation and Flood stories support the biblical story of creation and the Flood.The Wallam Olum is the story of creation and the history of the Delaware Indians. It predates the coming of white people or Christianity to North America. The Delaware creation legend reveals an all-powerful creator who began by creating an earth without dry land, and the heavens, including the sun, moon, and stars. After dividing the waters from the land, he made all living things, including the first mother. This world was full of joy and had no sorrow until the snake brought wickedness. It concludes by saying that all this happened beyond the great ocean.The Delaware story of the Flood begins with the world filled with evil because of the activity of the evil snake. While the Delaware legend blames the Flood on the snake, a few were saved through the Flood at an island called “Nana,” a name very similar to Noah.While the Wallam Olum is not Genesis, the similarities with Genesis are too many and too exact to be accidental. Similar legends from all over the globe have the same or similar details that they, too, share with Genesis. This can only be explained by the fact that the Bible is accurate in describing how all cultures have shared this common history together.Acts 17:26“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, fill me and all believers with a greater concern and spirit of sacrifice to do what is needed to bring the good news of salvation to those who are without it. For Jesus' sake. Amen.REF: Branscome, Gary R. The Delaware Indians and the Creator. Bible-Science Newsletter. Image: Left: Leni Lenape Indians print 1702 HSP, Thomas Campanius Holm, PD, Wikimedia Commons. Right: Excerpt from Walam Olum. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Some people talk to their plants. But what do you say to a bacterium? Evidently, the soybean plant knows just what to say to make bacteria its close friend and helper.Symbiosis means a relationship between two different creatures in which they both help each other. Plants need nitrogen for healthy growth. However, while there is more than enough nitrogen in the air, plants normally can't make use of that nitrogen. Legumes, like soybeans, link up with bacteria that are able to take nitrogen from the air and turn it into a form of nitrogen that plants, including the soybean, can use. In return, the plant creates a nice home for the bacteria in nodes in its roots and provides the bacteria with food.The bacteria need a great deal of oxygen and energy to fix nitrogen into the soil. The oxygen is supplied by heme. If that name reminds you of the hemoglobin that carries oxygen in blood, you're on the right track. That's why the heme in the nodules turns them reddish. Who makes the heme, the soybean, or the bacteria? When alone, neither creature has any heme. Researchers have learned that the plant performs the first part of the chemistry needed to make heme and the bacterium finishes the job. The plant and the bacterium actually communicate chemically with each other so that production goes smoothly!Communication between such different creatures, allowing them to perform sophisticated chemistry to improve both of their lives, shows how inadequate evolution is to explain life. This arrangement surely glorifies the Creator!Ephesians 2:8-9“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”Prayer: Dear Father, without Your communication to me in Your Word, my life would be without the cleansing benefits of my Lord and Savior's blood. I thank You that my salvation is without my effort, which could never be enough. Amen.REF: Pennisi, E. Intimate chemistry of a symbiotic odd couple. Science News. Image: Root Nodule (Electron microscope image of a cross section through a soybean. Bacteria Bradyrhizobium japonicum symbiosis), Louisa Howard, Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility, PD, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Contrary to what the theory of evolution says, the history of life found in the fossil record does not show simpler kinds of living things gradually becoming more complex. Nor does the fossil record show a few kinds of life gradually becoming more kinds of life. The fossil record doesn't even show one example of either of these claims that are universally accepted by evolutionists.Life appears suddenly in the fossil record. And the living things found in the earliest rocks are completely developed and well equipped for life. Trilobites had fully formed eyes that were apparently more sophisticated than many creatures today. They appear without ancestors.According to evolution, one of the greatest steps forward by living things was the development of skeletons. The first evolutionary step toward skeletons started with the development of calcium shells by marine creatures. Yet the fossil record shows that creatures with calcium shells simply appear fully formed, as do creatures with internal skeletons. One question that troubles evolutionists is why creatures suddenly decided they needed skeletons. Incidentally, the astonishing variety of creatures in the oldest rocks shows a greater variety than is alive today.Of course, the sudden appearance of fully formed, well-equipped life agrees nicely with the Bible's claim that all life was created fully formed by God. When the evidence from science agrees so well with the Bible, those who insist on evolution do so only by faith—a faith that is against the Bible.Exodus 20:11“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day…”Prayer: Dear Lord, in their pride people rage against Your truth. Use me as Your instrument to make the testimony of Your truth more clearly heard so that fewer are lost to a false faith. Amen.REF: When life got hard. Science News, v. 138. Image: Trilobites Schizochroal Eye, Tomleetaiwan, PD, Wikimedia Commons, circled. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Do your eyes ever play tricks on you? Our eyes regularly play tricks on us with the help of our brains.Repeated research has shown that the images we see are not exactly what our eyes see. Our eyes and brains work together to construct the images we call sight. It's not that our eyes are out to hoodwink us. Most of the time, our eyes are working to help us. Working together, our brain and eyes add logical details to the images we see. Each of us has a blind spot in our vision because there are no vision cells where the optic nerve is. Instead of showing us a spot of nothing at the blind point in our field of vision, our brain invents an image from surrounding details. Your brain pulls the same trick on you when you proofread your completed manuscript. While others can still find typos, you may not. Your brain knows what you are saying, and so it automatically shows you a repaired version, making many of your typing errors invisible.Your pupils can reveal your thoughts. Studies show that when seeing unpleasant scenes, the pupils retract. Pleasant or interesting scenes cause the pupils to open wider.Charles Darwin wrote, “To suppose that the eye, with all of its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” We don't often agree with Charles Darwin, but this time we do!Psalm 139:14“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”Prayer: Dear Father, I thank You that the excellence of Your work in making us is so noteworthy that even those who want to deny You cannot easily do it. Teach me how to use this to lead others to Christ. In His Name. Amen.REF: McCutcheon, M. The Compass in Your Nose… Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher. Image: Blind spot test, RWhitwam, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

The nervous system of an insect is infinitely more complex than our most sophisticated computer-driven robots. Robots can only solve the simplest problems. While an insect has no difficulty walking, a walking robot is limited to an uncluttered, flat floor where it clumsily clanks about until something goes wrong.An Indiana high school student recently had a better idea. He collected syringes for pistons and voltage converters from old computer printers, along with other spare parts. If he had simply assembled them and wired the result into his computer, he would have done well to produce the usual, clumsy robot walker. In an effort to build a better walking robot, he wired crayfish nerve cells that control walking between the robot and his computer. His computer acted as the brain while the nerve cells processed the signal as a real animal would. His robot walked more like a living creature and earned him national attention.As a result of the student's success, researchers have built robot insects with simple, computer-simulated neural networks like those in the crayfish nerve cell. The result has been robot bugs that walk much more like real insects, although not well enough to fool anyone.Such is the excellence of the work of the Creator. A few cells from a crayfish's nervous system can do so much more than all of our most sophisticated computers and programs!Psalm 8:1“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”Prayer: Lord, Your work is excellent in every aspect. I thank You for that and I pray that through Your Holy Spirit You would help me to be excellent at everything I do. Let all my actions be for Your glory and not for mine. Amen.REF.: Elizabeth Pennisi. "Robots Go Buggy." Science News, Vol. 140. Image: HEX BUG DELTA 03, midorisyu, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

I remember reading in grade school that the human appendix is a useless organ. My textbook said that scientists thought that the appendix was once used to help digest the tree bark that our supposed ape-like ancestors ate. Does the human body have "extra" parts? Do we have organs that we no longer use because we have evolved away from needing them?Atheists have argued that our "useless" organs prove that we weren't created. No Creator, they said, would make useless organs that can threaten our health. Creationists responded that since our knowledge of the human body is incomplete, we cannot say that an organ is useless simply because we are ignorant of its job.In the 1890s, scientists said that the human body has about 180 organs that are useless leftovers of our past evolution. As a result, doctors used to be quick to remove a child's tonsils. Today, we know that our tonsils have several jobs and are an important part of our immune system. Our appendix has been found to serve as a backup for other organs. If your spleen is damaged, your appendix will take over some of its functions. Wisdom teeth are important in chewing food, especially when the diet includes more coarse materials.The argument over whether we have extra parts left over from evolution has been completely won by creationists. Today, science recognizes that we have no useless leftovers from evolution.1 Peter 2:15-16“For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.”Prayer: Heavenly Father, You know all things, and we know so little. Help me to realize my error when I imagine that I know things about which I am in fact ignorant. Through Your Word, enlighten me with truth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. Vestigial Organs: A Brief Summary of the Latest Research.  To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

The swiftly moving bat cuts almost invisibly through the darkness, silent to all but those who can hear its ultrasonic radar. What chance does a poor night-flying cricket—prized as a tasty bat snack—have?Let's treat this problem as if you were the Creator, faced with the problem of giving your night-flying cricket a chance against its predator. Of course, you could design the cricket so that it would stay in its hiding place at night, but then you wouldn't have a night-flying cricket. You could give the cricket the ability to hear the bat's radar, but that alone won't help the cricket if he can't get to safety.The solution our true Creator has invented to help the cricket preserve its life is another example of His engineering excellence. He has built the cricket with a single-celled bat detector that is wired into the cricket's nervous system. The detector is triggered by the frequency that bats use for navigation. When triggered, the cell fires off up to 500 impulses per second. These impulses automatically cause the cricket to steer away from the source of the ultrasound. The most impressive engineering fact about this bat detector is that it only works if the cricket is in flight and therefore vulnerable to bats. When crickets are safe from bats—resting, hiding, eating or preening—the bat detector cell doesn't fire any warning at all!The precise elegance that the Creator has designed into the cricket for its protection is a witness to His wisdom in caring for all He that has created. Learn more about that wisdom in the Bible.Psalm 119:154“Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.”Prayer: Dear Father, Your love is so great that it extends to all that You have made. Your love for me is deeper than I can ever know, but I thank You that I can know that You so loved me that You sent Your only Son for my salvation. Thank You for Your love. Help me to reflect that love to others. Amen.REF. Shreeve, James. The great cricket escape. Science 85, p. 83. Image: Brown Trig cricket, Katja Schulz, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

When penicillin was first used as an antibiotic, it was considered a wonder drug. Infections which had been fatal for thousands of years were suddenly curable. Without antibiotics, I would not be here today, and many of you would not be reading this.Man has long known that some natural substances have a natural ability to fight infections. But recently modern medicine had to step aside and acknowledge that not all medical breakthroughs are made by doctors—or even human beings.For years, it has been known that the roots and leaves of the Apsilia shrub are used as a traditional African treatment for wound and stomach aches. Researchers also observed chimpanzees swallowing the leaves of the shrub. This led them to investigate more about the leaves. They learned that Aspilia leaves and roots contain a chemical which kills some infectious bacteria, as well as fungi and worms. Researchers hope to learn whether this chemical is safe and effective for humans when taken orally.However, the mystery remains. How did the chimps discover the antibiotic nature of Aspila? We need to look to our Creator Who appears to have given the chimps this knowledge. While disease and death are not part of His original design for the creation, He was loving enough to provide medicinal help for these consequences of human sin. But the permanent cure for sin and death began with the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ.Romans 8:20-21"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."Prayer: Dear Father, disease and death were not Your plan for the creation, but the result of man's rebellion against You. Let the wide scope of Your mercy in providing us with some earthly remedies for the results of sin fill me with even greater appreciation for Your boundless mercy and love to us in Christ. In His Name. Amen.Image: Aspilia africana plant, Peter B. Phillipson, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons + Aspilia africana flower closeup, Peter B. Phillipson.  To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

It may surprise you to learn that evolution goes back to a time long before Charles Darwin. Even two thousand years ago, those who wanted to escape the inevitable conclusion that we are responsible to our Creator were trying to explain all things by appealing to natural laws.So, though he lived before Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson knew of evolutionary ideas because men like Immanuel Kant, James Hutton, and Thomas Malthus were promoting them. Of course, with three doctorates, well-versed in the sciences, and at home in six languages, Jefferson was as well-educated as anyone. And he pointedly rejected evolutionary ideas.Jefferson wrote against evolution and in defense of belief in the Creator. "I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the universe in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummated skill, and indefinite power, in every atom of its composition... It is impossible... for the human mind not to believe that there is, in all this design, cause, and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a Fabricator of all things... Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this more probable than that of the few other hypotheses..."We add that the creation testifies of the Creator of all, but only in the Bible do we learn of His deep love for us in Jesus Christ. Let the creation lead you to His revealed Word and love for you in Christ.Psalm 139:15"My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth."Prayer: Dear Father, when I am moved by a beautiful sunset or the sweet song of a bird to glorify You, let me be reminded to return to Your Word that I may learn even more about the forgiveness of my sins in Jesus Christ. Amen.Image: Inside the Jefferson Memorial in DC, Erik Cox, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

What is warm-blooded, sits on its eggs like a hen, but flies much better than a hen, and has six legs? It's the bumblebee.The amazing fact that bumblebees are warm-blooded was discovered after a scientist saw a bumblebee gathering nectar one frosty morning. As it turned out, even with air temperatures near freezing, a bumblebee can maintain a body temperature of 95 F. In order for the bee's tiny body to stay warm, it has a power output that is 20 to 30 times that of a world‑class marathon runner!Bumblebees are made up of three body sections; the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. They heat their blood in the thorax, where the flight muscles are located and where the heat is most needed. This heat is regulated by the bee's circulatory system, which flows through its narrow "waist." Blood passing through this "waist" from the cooler abdomen can be heated by the sun if necessary. It then passes through a heat exchanger in which it is further heated by the warmer blood flowing away from the muscles. On a hot day, the bee does the neatest trick of all. It actually changes its circulatory system, so that fresh blood coming to the wing muscles is not heated at all by the heat exchange system. The queen bumblebee also uses this ability to control heat to incubate her eggs at 80 degrees, like a mother hen.There is no simple form of life. What sets humans apart from other life has nothing to do with warm blood, their brains, or evolution. Humans, created in God's image, find redemption only in Jesus Christ.Genesis 1:27"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, I thank You that You do not evaluate me for what I am—a sinner. Since I have forgiveness of sins through Your Son Jesus Christ, I trust Your promise that when You look at me You see His sinless life. In His Name. AmenREF.: Jordan, William. The bee complex, Science 84. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Evolution says that life today arose from fewer, simpler forms of life. Evolutionists tell us that life is an ever-ascending ladder of increasing complexity as new forms of life develop. For proof, they claim that the fossil record shows this kind of development of life. But is this really what the fossil record shows?It would be easy for me, as a creationist, to tell you that the fossil record shows no increase in biological complexity. But a listener recently sent me a brochure from the Yoho National Park in Canada. The brochure talks about the richness and complexity of the fossilized life forms in the Burgess Shale of the park. Published by the Environment Canada Parks Service, the brochure clearly says that the fossils in the park contradict standard evolution.Let me share a few quotes with you. "Life is simpler today than it was long ago." "Long ago things used to be much more complicated. In fact, this is the central truth underlying one of the most revolutionary discoveries in the history of paleontology." "The animals of the Burgess Shale were more diverse and no less highly specialized than today's living creatures."The Bible gives us the same picture as the fossil record. Living things have always been complex. But early in the Earth's history, there were many more kinds of living things than there are today. And no fossil anywhere shows one kind of creature changing into another. The Bible has correctly predicted what is now found in the fossil record.Exodus 20:11"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."Prayer: Dear Lord, kings and armies have tried to stand against Your Word of life to us. They are gone, and Your word remains. Let me never imagine that any man could successfully challenge Your Word, but let me treasure the Word by using it. Amen.Image: Burgess Shale community, M. Alan Kazlev, CC0, Wikimedia Commons, changes made. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

What is the Christian to think when told so often that the "facts of science" prove evolution—and disprove the Bible's story of man's history?Not all "facts" are created equal. For example, the fact that Jesus Christ was a real person is not open to interpretation. He is mentioned in the Bible and by other writings of the time—that's a fact. Evolutionists use a different meaning for the word "fact."A fossil, the "Tepexpan Man," is an example of an evolutionary "fact." Tepexpan Man is a fossil which, school children were taught, lived over 10,000 years ago. Evolutionists themselves recently proved that "Tepexpan Man" is not only less than 2,000 years old but is actually a woman! An object found in the United States was said to be a fossilized egg, possibly 16 million years old. Now it has been learned that the object is a three-to-five-year-old stomach stone from a modern mammal—possibly a cow. A giant fossil found in South Australia early in 1990 was declared to be Australia's largest dinosaur bone. Further study has now shown the object to be a fossilized tree trunk. All "facts" are not created equal.If you went to school more than 20 years ago, you need to know that most of the "facts" that you were taught in support of evolution have since been found to be either in error or open to serious question. Evolutionary "facts" are only interpretations of the world. So the Christian can follow the Scripture with confidence, knowing that the Bible is unchallenged by the "facts" of evolution.I Timothy 6:20-21"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen."Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, as the word made Flesh, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Give Christians a boldness of faith so that we are unintimidated by the claims against Your truth which are made by the unbelieving world. Amen.Image: The Tepexpan skull on display at the Tepexpan Museum, Mario Yaír TS, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

According to unsubstantiated reports, it was about 50 years ago that Chinese immigrants to the United States brought some freshwater clams with them. The clams were eaten for good luck on Chinese New Year. What is substantiated is that today the clam is found in at least 35 states. That's an amazing amount of territory to cover in only 50 years for a creature that only has one foot.The spread of the Asian clam costs the industry over a billion dollars per year to clean up. Lacking enemies, it reproduces rapidly and clogs the water intake line which industry uses to cool its equipment. Scientists began to wonder how the creature could travel so rapidly even going from lake to lake and stream to stream.What scientists learned was that when the Asian calm encounters a current, it sets sail. Lifting off with its one foot, it releases a transparent film that catches the current like a sail. It sails off using its foot like a rudder. This explains not only why it spread so rapidly down rivers, but also how the clam could spread from one body of water to another during floods.The Asian clam's ability to sail is a clever design. So, too, is the balance of nature which prevents creatures from over-populating. Unfortunately, the Asian clam in the United States has few enemies to keep it under control. If evolution were true, such a lack of balance would be the rule in nature. The balance that exists, keeping each creature fed but not over-populated in their natural settings, is but another witness to the fact of the Creator.Psalm 104:24-25"O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts."Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, the balance You have designed between all living things, so that they can make their living and yet do not run out of control, shows Your continuing love toward the fallen creation. Help me to be a clear and specific witness to Your love for us in Jesus Christ. Amen. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

High drama takes place even among the tiny, almost unnoticeable creatures in even the most remote parts of the world. In the frigid waters of Antarctica there's a tiny plankton that kidnaps even tinier chemists for its protection.The tiny shrimp‑like plankton are not much larger than a grain of rice. They spend their days foraging the cold waters for food and hopefully not running into any plankton‑eating fish. The tiny creature has absolutely no defenses of its own. But this creature is not a shrimp without a plan. As it searches about, it may find an even smaller snail‑like pteropod. If it finds one, it will fasten the pteropod to its back, not harming it at all.The pteropod makes a chemical that fish hate. Plankton‑eating fish that have tried to eat one of the shrimp‑like creatures with its chemist backpack have been seen to shake their heads violently and spit the pair out. But the shrimp's captive backpack slows down his foraging for food. So after several days, the shrimp releases the pteropod unharmed, to search for more food and, hopefully soon, another pteropod.It sounds rather silly to suggest that one day, many years ago, one of these tiny plankton noticed that fish never ate pteropods because of the chemical defense they produce. Who would suggest that once he told his friends, all the shrimp‑like plankton started kidnapping pteropods? This strategy was obviously taught to the plankton by the Creator Himself.Job 35:10-11"But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?"Prayer: Dear Lord, there is nothing that You have made that You do not care about. Fill me with the same love and concern for what You have created. Help me to love my fellow human beings as you do. Amen.REF.: Amato, Ivan. Kidnapped plankton shares its defenses. Science News, v. 138. Image: Unidentified plankton, NOAA's National Ocean Service, PD, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Blood is made up of many components. Red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of the body. And even though hemoglobin is based on iron, the healthy body, protected by rust inhibitors, doesn't rust. White cells and other blood components fight infection. It's difficult to decide which of the components of blood are more amazing in their design.But if awards were given to the various components of blood for the amazing ways in which they work, serum albumin would certainly be in the running. Like one of those gadgets advertised on cable television, serum albumin seems to do more things in the bloodstream than seems possible.Serum albumin, which is made by the liver, regulates the volume of your blood, helping to keep your blood pressure healthy. It also controls your blood concentration so that all the components are there in the right concentration. It stores molecules and moves them to where they are needed when they are needed. When you take an aspirin or a drug, serum albumin sees to it that the medicine gets to where it is needed. Serum albumin also prevents an enzyme that digests proteins in your digestive tract from digesting proteins in the rest of your body.Indeed, as the Bible says, much of our physical life happens in our blood. But eternal life is only found in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross in our place—His death in our place—for the forgiveness of our sins before our Creator.Romans 5:8-9"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."Prayer: Lord, I thank You for the miracle of life. I especially thank You for the gracious and free gift of eternal life through the forgiveness of sins. When I am tempted to comfort myself with my own good life, remind me of my constant need for cleansing in your blood. Amen.REF.: Amato, I. Serum albumin seen in three dimensions. Science News. Image: Serum albumin model on abstract background, Borislav Mitev, PD, Wikimedia Commons, changes made. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

While most termites look for food underground or in mud tunnels they build over dead wood, some are literally farmers, cutting and storing hay.Many termites will go about in the dark of night chewing off pieces of wood that are taken back to their nest. In the nest the wood is stored or cured before being eaten. Some termites cannot digest the wood, so they keep underground gardens of fungi that break the wood down for them so they can digest it. But in any case, most termites never see the light of day—or even the darkness of night.But there is one species of African termite that seeks its food in the open. This termite lives in large, dome‑shaped mounds that cover a huge radiating network of tunnels. On warm nights, the termites leave their nest and go out onto the open grasslands looking for dry clumps of grass. When they find one, as many as 5,000 individuals cover the clump, each one chewing the grass into thin, half‑inch‑long strips to be carried back to the nest. The grass is stored underground as the termites build up a food supply to get them through the winter.But this African termite's habit of harvesting and storing food for winter is one that humans supposedly did not evolve until only recently in their supposed evolutionary history. How can anyone believe that termites could figure out how to harvest and store food before humans did? Even the termite tells us we were created.Proverbs 6:6-8"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank You that Your creation is filled with so much intelligence. Take my intelligence into Your service, refine it, and make me better able to witness Your truth and love in Jesus Christ to those around me. Amen.Image: Macrotermes bellicosus minor soldier, ETF89, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

"The Bible is not a book of science." We hear and read that statement a lot these days. It's true that a surgeon will not be found peering into a Bible during surgery in order to perfect a surgical technique. But there is a deceptive lie hidden in the claim that the Bible is not a book of science.Back when Ignaz Semmelweis was a doctor, one out of every six women who gave birth in his hospital died of what was called "child bed fever." Dr. Semmelweis set out to discover why this was happening. He discovered that doctors were not cleaning their hands or instruments between patients. As a result, they were spreading germs from one patient to the next. Dr. Semmelweis instituted a policy requiring clean hands and instruments for each patient, and mortality rates dropped almost to zero immediately!But Dr. Semmelweis's discovery was not new knowledge. Thousands of years earlier, God had taught the Israelites, through Moses, that whenever they came into contact with a dead or diseased person, they were "unclean." Unclean people and their clothing had to be cleansed in clear running water. They also had to sprinkle their clothing with wet hyssop branches. Today, we know that hyssop contains a powerful antibacterial and antifungal agent.So when the Bible says something that touches upon an area of science, it is still technically accurate and correct. After all, the Author of the Bible is also the Author of everything that science studies!Numbers 19:18"And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave:"Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, the world declares the Bible, Your Word, out of date and then ignores it, to its own great loss. I, therefore, ask you to forgive me for Jesus' sake, for my own neglect to make Your Word more a part of my life. Help me to abandon the world's way and make the Bible a practical part of my everyday life. Amen.REF.: Thompson, Bert. Dr. Semmelweis & the Bible. Reasoning from Revelation. Image: Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), Ludwig Angerer, PD, Wikimedia Commons + Person washing hands. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

A coincidence occurs when two events that you know are not related happen in such a way that they seem related. Let's say that you receive an unexpected bill in the mail for $124.00. And in the same day's mail, you find a check for $124.00 with a note from a friend saying, "Here's the $100.00 you loaned me four years ago with some interest." What a happy coincidence.When more than two seemingly unrelated events seem to work together, you would have to conclude that they were, indeed, related.That's why scientists are beginning to wonder whether there isn't a plan to the universe after all. For life to exist in the universe, literally millions of details must come together in just the right way. If the force of gravity or the forces holding the atom together were only a tiny bit stronger or weaker, life could not exist. The carbon atom is the basis of life. Is it coincidence that the carbon atom is unique in its ability to form the long, complex chains of molecules needed for life? If stars burned at a slightly different rate than they do, life would either be burned up or frozen to death.Many scientists have actually stated in writing that they are astonished at the huge number of cosmic "coincidences" that have come together in the universe to make life possible. Some are even suggesting that the universe has an impersonal intelligence. But why cloud the issue this way? Why not simply recognize that there is indeed a Creator God who has created a whole universe just for the benefit of life—especially humankind?Psalm 40:5"Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank You that despite man's studied unbelief, You have made Yourself and Your concern for mankind so clear that even unbelievers must recognize it. Use me and all of Your people to clearly voice the more complete details of Your love for all mankind in Your innocent suffering and death on our behalf. Amen.REF.: Mallove, Eugene F. Scientists puzzle over coincidences of the cosmos. Minneapolis Star and Tribune. Image: ISS-66 Astronaut Mark Vande peers at the Earth below, NASA, PD, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

While most woodpeckers carve out cavities in dead trees for their nests, the red-cockaded woodpecker prefers to use the living pine trees of the southern United States. The woodpecker always chooses one of these living southern pines that is over 60 years old. While these pines can live 200 years or more, usually at about age 60, a fungus infection begins to rot away the heartwood at the center of the tree.Over months or even sometimes years, the woodpecker works his way through the living tissue to the hollow center where he will build his nest. The nest cavity is always above the level of shrub growth in order to provide a safe haven from any forest fires.In addition, surrounding foliage can give the gray rat snake access to the nest. These snakes, natural enemies of the woodpecker, can also climb pine trees. But the snake does not like the gummy resin of the pine tree. In fact, snakes that encounter the resin will begin to writhe and fall to the ground. So to make sure that its home is absolutely safe, the woodpecker drills a series of holes around the hole leading to its nest. The holes are kept open so that the nest hole is always protected by the resin.The red‑cockaded woodpecker carefully selects a site for its home in order to be safe from both fire and a natural predator—using the natural chemistry of the tree to aid its survival. Obviously this intelligence was given to the woodpecker by the Creator since trial and error cannot explain such careful planning.Acts 17:28"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, the entire creation bears witness to the fact that You are a caring God not distantly removed from us. Grant me a clearer sense of Your presence in My life and Your desire to be even closer to me that You are now. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Mohlenbrock, Robert H. Bienville Pines, Mississippi. Natural History. Image: Picoides borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpecker) Mississippi, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Imagine that you want to catch some fish, but all you see before you is dry sand. It hasn't rained in some time, and there is no sign of life. Now imagine that you also have a large tanker truck of water. So you pump the water out of the tanker and let it run into a depression in the sand. Let's say it takes you ten minutes to shut off the water and pull a net from the front seat. By the time you get to the small pool you've created, you can net fish.That's exactly what researchers did. And they caught instant fish! These fish are called salamander fish. They live only in the on‑again, off‑again lakes and ponds of southwestern Australia. When there is plenty of rain the fish live in their ponds, feeding on insect larvae. But when the ponds dry up, the fish follow the water table underground, burrowing into the sand and entering a kind of dormant state, apparently breathing through their skin.The salamander fish has no living relatives, and doesn't seem to be related to anything else in an evolutionary sense. Its skull is extra large and strong for its size, and its spinal bones are separated, providing extra power and mobility for digging in the sand.While millions of lakes and ponds with fish have dried up throughout history, there is no evidence that fish have ever learned to change their way of life so that they could continue to live during dry spells. The salamander fish was obviously created with this very special ability. Just as the Bible says, all creatures were created fully formed by God.Psalm 100:1-3"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."Prayer: Dear Lord, the salamander fish has no one but You to thank for its wonderful abilities. I thank you that this is true for all of us, and I ask that You would help me learn to see and use all the abilities You have given me to Your glory. Amen.REF.: Benowitz, Steve. Of instant fish and pickled sharks. Ohio State Quest. Image: Lepidogalaxias (slamander fish), Magdaléna Kostková, CC0, Wikimedia Commons + 256-17 Lepidogalaxias (slamander fish), Magdaléna Kostková, CC0, Wikimedia Commons + Ubs6u!d-pongsakorn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

As winter settles over the northern hemisphere of our planet, many kinds of creatures are moving toward hibernation. True hibernation is much more than just a deep, prolonged sleep. In fact, many animals that are popularly believed to hibernate, like bears, are not true hibernators. A wintering bear's body temperature seldom falls below 86 degrees, so bears are easily awakened. True hibernators actually need several hours to awaken.The ground squirrel is a true hibernator. Its hibernation pattern is triggered by an internal clock that causes hormone changes. These changes not only lower the squirrel's temperature, metabolic breathing and heart rate, but also changes the way its nervous system and cell membranes operate. If the squirrel's nervous system and cell membrane operation were not modified for hibernation, the other changes would kill it.Once the squirrel is in true hibernation, its body temperature drops to about 35 F, its heart rate drops from 350 beats per minute to about 3 beats per minute, and it will breathe only once every several minutes.The vast and complex internal changes that must take place in hibernation, affecting the function of every cell, show us that hibernation is an ability that was built into many creatures. If all these changes were due to genetic accidents, there would be no hibernating animals today. They would all have died trying to find the right combination of internal changes to allow hibernation to occur.Psalm 121:2-4"My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I see Your love for all that You have made in the ways that You have provided for good of all Your creatures. If You would be their Father through such tender loving care, how much more would You be my Father for the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ! Amen.REF.: Fleming, Carol B. How do animals hibernate? Science 84. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

In the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua, we read how, as Israel fought for occupation of the Promised Land at Gibeon, Joshua asked the Lord to stop the sun so that Israel could finish its battle. According to Joshua 10:13, the sun stopped in mid‑sky and did not set for nearly an entire day. According to the most accurate dating, this was about 1400 BC.Our modern scientific age knows that the earth, which weighs billions of tons, revolves around the sun while turning on its axis. In order for the sun to stand still in its apparent movement across the sky, the earth would have to stop spinning. The earth spins at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour. If it were to suddenly stop, the force would rip the earth apart. All of this is what science tells us. And from these facts, science therefore concludes that the sun could not have stopped in its path across the sky. But this final conclusion is not scientific, even if all the other facts are true.Joshua 10 tells us that God made the sun stop in its apparent path. Science admits that it cannot tell us what God can or cannot do. Science can only tell us that it would be very unlikely for the sun to stand still in the sky. But Joshua 10:14 tells us this and more—this had never happened before and had not happened again at the time Joshua was written.It's not surprising, then, to learn that, according to Aztec lore from Mexico, virtually on the other side of the world, the sun failed to rise for an entire day in the City of the Gods around 1400 BC.Joshua 10:13"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."Prayer: Dear Lord, our age is a materialistic age where we deny what we cannot understand. I confess that I cannot understand how the sun could appear to stop in the sky, but I know that Your Word says that You did this great miracle. Grant me your Holy Spirit so that I may not be infected with the doubt that so permeates the world. Amen.REF.: Sitchin, Zecharia. How Jericho fell. The Christian News. Image: The Sun and the Moon Stand Still, Camden Press, CC0, Wikimedia Commons + Aztec calendar stone, Boston Public Library, PD, Wikimedia. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Your eye is a miraculous system of individual parts, all of which work together to provide vision. Light must be collected, focused, interpreted and then translated into signals that are sent to the brain, where the information is further processed and turned into the images we see. For as much as we know, modern science still isn't quite sure how the whole system works.Scientists would like to learn just how vision works so they can build robots that can see. Some experimental robots have been built that can see after a fashion, but even the common housefly can see better than the best machines made by science. Scientists are now studying the fly's eye in order to learn more about how vision works.The fly's eye, with its 3,000 lenses, is remarkably complex and similar to the human eye. There's no sign of evolution here. Even the fly's nervous system, which is essential in translating sight, is highly complex. Each of the fly's 3,000 lenses collects light into a tubular structure. This structure contains eight light‑sensitive cells. These cells process the light and turn it into electrical signals that then go to the fly's brain.It's easy for people to say that there is no Creator. But as soon as they begin to study any living system, they are quickly humbled and eager to learn from it. That in itself is an excellent argument for the existence of the Creator.Proverbs 1:29-31"For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices."Prayer: Dear Father, I thank You that even when man denies You, You have the last word. Help me to see those actions in my life which deny You as Creator and Jesus Christ as my Savior, and with Your help, make a better confession. In His Name. Amen.REF.: Spice, Byron. Scientific vision. Albuquerque Journal. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

When scientists finally learn how to make ceramics that can endure high temperatures and conduct electricity without resistance, they may have to thank the sea urchin for teaching them how to do it.While the ceramics that humans manufacture are fairly strong and resist forces that destroy other materials, they have their imperfections. They are not shatter-resistant. And it takes a lot of heat to create them. On the other hand, mollusks like the nautilus and sea urchin make shatterproof ceramics out of calcium carbonate—which is chalk—using no heat and a little water. And the mollusk‑created ceramics come in intricate shapes, often much more complex than those made by humans.Scientists are now studying how mollusks make their ceramics so that we can also make better ones. The processes they are learning will enable the manufacture of strong ceramic materials that conduct electricity without resistance. They will be cheap and easy to make, yet they will provide us with better building materials and even artificial bones.Scientists are learning that the secret to making superior ceramics uses cheap materials and a very complex series of chemical reactions carried out by special cells in ceramic‑making mollusks. It's definitely not a system that was worked out by no one at all through chance and accident. In effect, science is seeking to learn how the Creator made ceramics, so that we can do it too!Genesis 1:31"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."Prayer: Father, I often forget that Your wisdom extends to very material things, things which I don't usually associate with the spiritual. Teach me not to separate the spiritual and material, but see them both as coming from Your Hand. Help me to glorify You in spiritual as well as material matters. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF.: Amato, Ivan. Better ceramics through biology. Science News.  To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Both archaeology and the Bible suggest that the world was once quite different from the world we know today. Each agrees that the earth's climate was once much more uniform than it is today.At one time the tropics may have extended into what are today polar regions. However, the Bible and evolutionary geology don't agree on how long ago that was. Bible-believing geologists, on the other hand, are reporting evidence to support the Bible's story of history.In the past years, scientists have been surprised to discover dinosaur fossils in Alaska. Dinosaurs need warm temperatures—warmer than Alaska was thought to have been. In 1986, on Canada's Axel Heiberg Island, only 600 miles from the North Pole, scientists found a huge, dense forest. Some of the trees were well over 125 feet tall. They have been snapped off at the stump and are neither fossilized nor petrified, but remain as fresh wood. Even some of the leaves are still intact. The area was filled with spruce, hickory, dawn redwood and cypress trees and was evidently a swamp, since tropical turtle and alligator remains have also been found. Tree rings show that the area was warmer in the recent past, while the size of the rings tell us that there were short, hot summers during which rapid growth occurred, followed by long, dark winters as there are today.The most interesting conclusion reached by the scientific team is that the entire region must have been subjected to a huge flood! This discovery tells us that all of geology must be restructured to present a history that agrees with the Bible's story of the earth's past.Psalm 119:89“For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that Your Word is true and trustworthy. Let my faith be more than a faith of words or simply comfort in bad times. Instruct me through the Bible so that my faith is a way of life. In Jesus' Name. Amen.REF: Search for a Tropical Arctic (Television documentary). Federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (Canada). Image: Strathcona Fiord Fossil Forest and fossil vertebrate site, Jaelyn J. Eberle, Wighart von Koenigswald snd David A. Eberth, CC BY 4.0. Wikipedia Commons, Changes made. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

The silk produced by spiders is very different from the silk produced by silkworms in some very important ways. While silkworm silk is strong yet not prone to stretching, spiders make silk that is both strong and stretchy. They also make several different kinds of silk, each with its own purpose.In fact, spider silk is stronger than an equal amount of steel and yet it stretches. Spider silk is made of nothing more than proteins. However, scientists are finding it extremely difficult to study the chemical structure of spider silk because it resists most of their efforts to break it down into its chemical parts. Scientists have finally resorted to hot, concentrated acids to break down the silk. They are learning that one type of spider silk is made up of lengths of very stiff amino acids, separated by segments of amino acids that form a springy helix. Together they contribute to the strength and stretchiness of spider silk.Scientists are exploring how spider silk is made, because this wonderful material promises new methods for creating stronger and lighter materials for human use. One possible use would be making cloth that is both comfortable and bulletproof.God has done all things well. The fact that we can learn to design better things by learning how He designed things is a witness for His wisdom as well as a witness against claims that the creation designed itself by trial and error. However, there is much more to God's plans for us, as you can learn from the Bible.Colossians 1:15-16"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 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:"Prayer: Father, I praise You, for You have wisely and wonderfully made all things. I especially praise You for Your love and plan of salvation for me through the forgiveness of my sins because of what Jesus Christ has done for me. In His Name. Amen.REF: Amato, I. Unraveling the biochemistry of spider silk. Science News, v. 138. Image: Guarding the rainbow strands, Conall from Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Have you ever been in a cave? If you have, perhaps someone has told you that the rock formations hanging from the ceiling—called stalactites—are thousands or even tens of thousands of years old. Scientists tell us that stalactites take 100 years, on average, to grow one inch. But just how accurate is this figure?Stalactites grow where water seeps through limestone rock, dissolving limestone in the process. When this water containing dissolved limestone emerges from the roof of a cave, it hangs for a moment. In a current of air, some of it evaporates, causing the limestone to deposit. Finally, the remaining water drops to the floor of the cave and continues to evaporate and deposit. The deposit on the floor is called a stalagmite.A concrete railroad bridge in Wooster, Ohio had a stalactite growing under it that was over 12 inches long! Had the railroad bridge been standing for more than 1,200 years? Obviously not—in fact, the bridge had been cleaned of stalactites only 12 years before! Nor is this situation unusual. More than 300 stalactites were counted growing under bridges in just this one city, and stalactites are not hard to find under concrete bridges in most cities.We take so many things at face value that evolutionists tell us about the world, even if they contradict the Bible. Before we start taking human words on faith, we should take at face value what the Creator says in the Bible. He knows more than all scientists put together and is to be trusted above any human teacher!2 Samuel 22:31"As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him."Prayer: Lord, men find so much to be afraid of, and I confess that I, too, fear too much. Yet mankind runs away from You, the One Who could calm all their fears. Help me to see that when I am afraid, I am running too. Forgive me, and let my trust in You for all things become stronger. Amen.Image: Concrete stalactites, Nikola Smolenski, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Did you know that the actual dust on the surface of the moon is thousands of times less than expected by those who think the earth is billions of years old?All of us know that if something has a lot of dust on it, it probably hasn't been cleaned in a long time. If something has very little dust on it, it may have been just cleaned—or it might be brand new. Since there is no such thing as a moon cleaner, if our moon doesn't have much dust on it, it must be fairly new.Before American astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, space scientists were worried that a moon landing would be impossible. By that time scientists knew how much dust there was in space, and they knew how fast this dust would accumulate on the moon. Since they figured that the moon was more than 3 billion years old, they reckoned that there could be as much as 150 feet of soft dust on the moon—so deep and so soft that a manned lander might sink into the dust and never be heard from again. For this reason, they designed the lunar lander with large pads to support the machine on the soft dust.But we all know what happened—there wasn't even enough dust to plant the American flag. The flagpole had to be supported with rocks! This is exactly what creation scientists told them they would find, since the moon has been accumulating dust for only a few thousand years and not billions or even trillions of years!Genesis 1:16"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."Prayer: Father, I thank You for the beauty of the sky, especially the moon, which dominates the night sky. Here I see Your power in the many objects You have created. Help them to remind me that this earth is not the only world where I shall live, and as a result, seek Your Word in Scripture that I might be better prepared for the New Heavens and Earth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.Image: Astronaut Aldrin stands looking at the lunar module at Tranquility Base, Neil A. Armstrong, PD, Wikimedia Commons + Project Apollo Archive (boot in moon dust), PD, Wikimedia Commons. Additional reading: Calais, R. Proof the Moon is Young. Creation Moments. https://creationmoments.com/resources/articles/proof-the-moon-is-young/ To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

We've all heard it said that we are made up of about 98 cents' worth of chemicals. However, the living matter that makes up our bodies is very different from non‑living matter.Our growing understanding of biochemistry continues to close doors to evolutionary theory and open doors to the Bible's claims about the origin of life. Many evolutionary scientists are admitting that to say life is simply the right kind of chemistry is like saying that a computer is simply the right kind of plastic, metal and electricity.Growing knowledge of the intricate information codes in living things has led many evolutionists to search for other theories, and some have even considered creation. Creationism is not growing in influence because it has good funding—it certainly doesn't. Creationism is gaining followers because it is becoming increasingly clear that no known principles can account for the development of living things. If science is proving anything, it is proving that life is impossible and should not exist!This is exactly what the Bible tells us. Without God's direct activity within the world, life could not have come about—only God can be the source of life. This clear fact should steer all of us to the rest of God's message in Scripture. There God tells us that life is more than just food and drink—the material things of life. Full and complete life that satisfies the whole being is found only in Jesus Christ.Job 12:9-10"Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."Prayer: Dear Lord, only in You can I or anyone else find true life—life which never ends. Do not allow this truth to be clouded in my life or witnessed by the cares and concerns of the material needs of life here on Earth. Amen. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

If you give a design problem to ten different engineers to solve, chances are you will not get ten different solutions. In fact, you are likely to end up with ten solutions that look very much alike.Now suppose 1,000 years from now someone found your ten sheets of problems, each with the design solutions offered by the ten engineers. Since they are practically the same, this person might conclude that each of the solutions was offered by the same person. He would account for their differences by saying that as each solution was tried, better ideas were developed. He would conclude that the solution most familiar to his own day was the final and most advanced solution.When evolutionists compare creatures like humans with apes, noting the similarities, they are falling into the same trap as our theoretical researcher from the future. Certainly there are some similarities between humans and apes. However, the structure of the human eye is most similar to the eye of the octopus! The general pattern of the functional structure of hemoglobin in human blood differs by only one atom from the chlorophyll found in plants. And the protein in human milk is most like the juice of the soybean plant.None of these comparisons offers any evidence for evolution. What they illustrate is that any good designer will solve similar problems with similar designs—they offer evidence that the creation is the work of a wise and powerful Designer!Romans 1:20"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"Prayer: I thank You, dear Father, for Your continued love for man despite our stubborn perversity. I thank You that You sought me when I did not seek You and that You first loved me so that now I might love You. In Jesus' Name. Amen. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Evolutionists, trying to answer creationist arguments, have suggested that there is an "error" in the design of the eye that any wise Creator would not have made. That "error" in design, as evolutionists call it, is that the retina of the mammal's eye is "inside out." The light entering the eye passes through other eye tissue before hitting the photoreceptors. But is this really an error in design?Dr. Joseph Calkins, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a creationist, points out that the photoreceptors in mammals' eyes need the extra tissue. It provides nutrients to the retina. This is crucial, because the eye's receptors have a very fast rate of metabolism—they live out their entire lives in only about seven days!If you have ever looked at the sun and then experienced an after‑image, you have probably burned out some of your photoreceptors. However, because your photoreceptors have such a fast rate of metabolism and those extra nutrients from the eye tissue, the damaged receptors are all replaced within a few days! Besides, as Dr. Calkins points out, the tissues that lie between the light source and your retina are packed in so tightly that they are separated by less than the wave‑length of light, making them completely transparent!It seems that the evolutionists' claim that the eye is poorly designed—and thus a product of chance rather than a Creator—was based on their ignorance of how the eye needs to work. Again, the evolutionary argument falls in the light of scientific knowledge, and once more we see the witness to our Creator!Genesis 1:31"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."Prayer: Dear Lord, in order to avoid his own guilt, man would rather fault You, even claiming at the same time that You don't exist! I thank You that You have given me faith in Your love and forgiveness for me. I ask that my trust will always be in You and never in myself. Amen.Image: 3D Medical Animation Eye Structure, scientificanimations.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Many people think that faith is strictly a religious matter and concerns unprovable issues such as angels, heaven and, of course, belief in the creation story. They further feel that belief in evolution is more reasonable, since it is based upon hard and proven facts. But is this true?Faith is what we add to the evidences we have in order to provide our worldview. The less evidence there is, the more faith we need. Evolutionary scientists often admit that they, too, interpret the world in the context of their faith. Their faith is that everything and everyone got here by means of evolution.Prof. L. H. Matthews, a well‑recognized evolutionist, was honored by being asked to write a new introduction for the 1971 edition of Darwin's Origin of Species. In his introduction—speaking of evolution—he admitted, "Most biologists accept it as though it were a proven fact, . . . although this conviction rests upon circumstantial evidence, it forms a satisfactory faith on which to base our interpretation of nature."You see, this is nothing more than what Bible‑believing Christians do when they understand the world in the context of their faith. As Christians, we should not be intimidated into thinking that the faith of the evolutionist is somehow superior to ours for understanding the world!Hebrews 11:3"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”Prayer: Lord, the devil is not called the "Accuser" for nothing. He even tries to make the faith You have given me into a sin! Rather than being intimidated because I believe Your Word, I ask that You would give me a bold faith which does not shrink from speaking Your truth in love. Amen.Image: Human evolution gallery at Natural History Museum, Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Lots of folks would like you to believe that only ignorant, backward people reject evolution. But is that really the case? The fact is that the case for evolution is so weak that many scientists who cannot even be called friends of Christianity reject it on scientific grounds!Back in 1981, Dr. Colin Patterson of the prestigious British Museum of Natural History shocked the scientific world. He told scientists at the famed American Museum of Natural History in New York that he'd been examining anti‑evolutionary ideas for about 18 months. It finally struck him that, although he had been working on evolution for 20 years, he could not find one fact about evolution that he really knew.Dr. Patterson said he had asked scientific colleagues at other institutions whether they knew anything about evolution to be actually true. After a lot of silence at several meetings, one fellow scientist finally spoke up at one meeting and said, "I do know one thing—it ought not to be taught in high school."Dr. Patterson concluded his talk at the American Museum of Natural History by saying that he finally "woke up and realized that all my life I had been duped into taking evolution as revealed truth in some way." You see, those who reject evolution are in a lot of good, educated company!Job 21: 7,14"Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?... Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways."Prayer: Lord, I mourn for the many who try to avoid You by hiding in stories about evolution, especially since I know that they cannot avoid coming face to face with You at the judgment. Even though many of them have set themselves as enemies of Your people, I pray for them and ask that they may not avoid coming in repentance to You before it is too late. Amen.Image: Museum of Natural History, London, Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

What if your refrigerator stopped working... in August? It would be a real mess. Without refrigeration, we would have to get fresh food almost every day! The hunting wasp doesn't build refrigerators, but it has solved this problem.It is during the hottest months of the year that the hunting wasp is most active. However, the hot summer months are not the best time to store food that could spoil, especially in the nursery! Hunting wasps eat a very specific species of caterpillar—and caterpillars spoil easily.When it's ready to lay its eggs, the hunting wasp will capture a caterpillar and, instead of killing it with one sting, will carefully paralyze each of the caterpillar's 13 segments one at a time. It then carefully bites the base of the caterpillar's brain, not to kill it but just to keep it permanently disabled. Then it lays one egg on the caterpillar. As its young grow, the wasp continues to provide specially prepared caterpillars—just enough to keep the young fed and not so many that there will be any spoiled food in the nest.The hunting wasp's system seems to be based on far more knowledge than a wasp would be expected to discover all by itself—especially since the cost of failure is the death of the next generation. This certainly looks more like the work of an intelligent, personal Creator than the work of mindless chance!Job 21:22“Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.”Prayer: Dear Lord, while I stand amazed at the abilities You have given Your creatures, help me to realize at the same time that all my abilities are from You. I have not made them, nor do I own them—You do. Move me, by Your love for me, to use my abilities for Your purposes. Amen.Image: Eremnophila aureonotata (hunting wasp), Benny Mazur, CC BY 2.0, Wikipedia Commons. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111