Giraffes Display Creator

I’ve been enjoying my long-distance courses with Liberty University. They’re challenging, but I love to learn. My creation course has been the highlight so far. I’ve always been taught that God created the earth and that evidence does support the Creator, a Flood, and confusion of languages, but this course has given me in-depth arsenal. I feel better prepared to answer questions about radioisotope dating, the Nebula Hypothesis, DNA complexity, and the fossil record. One blog-intriguing evidence for creation I’ll share is how the giraffe is a living testimony of the Designer.

The giraffe defies evolutionary explanations. Could his comically long neck have happened by chance? To an evolutionist, that long neck must have evolved from a shorter-necked ancestor. However, such ancestors are mysteriously missing from the fossil record.

Evolutionists may say that such a long neck evolved through natural selection, favoring those giraffes that could reach leaves high in the air. However, my professor demonstrated how giraffes often eat grass on the ground. In the wild, they often eat at shoulder height and lower.

A greater problem for an evolved long neck is that of blood pressure. “With the head being so high in the air, the huge heart of the giraffe must be capable of delivering sufficient oxygen-rich blood three metres (10 feet) up to the brain. This would be a problem (involving too high blood pressure) when the giraffe was head-down drinking water, were it not for a unique collection of reinforced artery walls, by-pass and antipooling valves, a web of small blood vessels (the rete mirabile, or ‘marvellous net’)1 and pressure-sensing signals that keep adequate blood flow to the brain at just the right pressure” (http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v18/i4/giraffes.asp).

“But then comes the real trick. As the giraffe raises its head, the same systems used to reduce the pressure when the head is lowered, also act to increase the pressure as the head is raised (so the giraffe doesn’t pass out).

The problem for evolutionists is this. How many giraffes blew their brains to pieces when bending down—how many passed out as they lifted their heads, becoming food for the lions—until the special features somehow evolved? It’s obvious that the very first giraffes had to have these special features right from the beginning. If not, they wouldn’t have survived to pass them on to their offspring!” (http://www.answersingenesis.org/e-mail/archive/answersupdate/2004/1218.asp).

As my professor explained, natural selection only happens when there is an advantage. “How does natural selection work and operate when it needs to produce an extra large heart and one way restrictive valve when it is only going to be a selective advantage if you have a long neck?”

So, next time you go to the zoo, stop by the giraffe exhibit. With the people gawking around you, discuss how the features of the giraffe display God’s hand. Look up that long neck, but don’t stop there. Keep your gaze up to the incredible Creator, and praise Him for design.

“That the generation to come might know” (Psalm 78:6)

My church, Red Bridge Baptist, is having our annual missions conference. This year, the theme is passing our faith to the next generation. What a call! Throughout history, the truth has been passed—not because the older generation has always been faithful but because God is faithful. Yet He calls us to disciple those who will come after us (Duet. 6; Proverbs; Psalm 78).

I love kids. I love teaching. But I’ve often failed at showing them the true worth of Christ. Sure, they hear it from my lips, but do they see Him in my life? That Jesus is my treasure, my goal, my life, my love, my worship?

Worship is the foundation of missions. I just started the book Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. He says, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.”

Lord, may I decrease so that you can consume me. Often so busy with “serving” You or myself, I become burned-out instead of rekindled. “It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God. Martha-like, we neglect the one thing needful and soon begin to present God as busy and fretful as we are” (Piper).

So I must repent again and trust His mercy. As I set my gaze on Christ again, may the next generation see a clearer reflection of His glory and grace.

Facebook: Convince me!

After a long fight, I'm starting to surrender to the monopoly Facebook has on communication. But I need to pray through it. Since I have a lot of friends I can't often see, it seems to be THE way to keep in touch. I'm just afraid it will eat up a lot of time and that no significant communication will take place besides surface-level fluff.

So, convince or dissuade me. How have you liked Facebook?

Update, Jan. 12: After some persuasive reasons (by my sisters mainly), I decided to join Facebook. I look forward to being able to keep in touch better with you all. I will probably keep updating this blog as well.

(Below: GA department making an educated decision for me.)

Happy New Year! More than happiness, I pray it brings you blessing. Life is not always happy. Like many of you, my family is facing challenges with spiritual attacks and my mom's cervical dystonia. But we can look forward to the future with hope because God, Who isn't bound by time, has been and will lead us through the dark valleys and breathtaking vistas.

Last night at a New Year's Eve party, my sisters, friends, and I were writing down New Year's resolutions. Although some were lighthearted such as, "Learn to parelel park. . . . and spell parallel," there were also some serious resolves. Resolves to live life to the fullest, love God wholeheartedly, and plunge deeper into His Word.

I think these commitments are wise to make as long as I commit myself to God for His strength to carry it out. "Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established" (Proverbs 16:3). In other words, as NIV translates, "your plans will succeed." Otherwise, such resolves lead me either to pride about success or despair over failure.

What are some of your New Year's resolutions? Please share so we can be praying for one another! I'll start.

Resolved . . .

1. that I would decrease so that He can increase, being magnified in my life.
2. that my college learning would not become a selfish pursuit but that I would study to know God, advance His Kingdom, and demonstrate genuine love.
3. that I wouldn't be afraid of the rod of God's discipline or the knife of His pruning. 

2007 was a year for me of unprecedented growth and warmth—experiencing "HisStory" in Europe, journeying to the heart, teaching in Bible Clubs, witnessing at a city fair, interning with GotQuestions in Colorado Springs, being blessed by Answers in Genesis, editing at IBLP Headquarters. I never would have dreamed that God would open up all those opportunities and bring amazing friends like you into my life. I experienced His goodness and unmerited favor.

I think this year will be different. I'm a little scared about what might happen. But why should I be? He is good to prune and allow dormant seasons. John Bunyan, who was imprisoned for his faith, commented, "It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there."

I want to bear fruit. Some branches, Jesus said, will bear thirtyfold but others sixtyfold and some a hundredfold. I want to abide in the vine and welcome pruning so that I may bear much fruit for the Master Gardener.

The Gardener knows exactly what we need. So may you flourish under His care in 2008!

Home again, home again

After six months serving with the Institute in Basic Life Principles (http://iblp.org), I'm back home! It’s great to be back with my family. The instruction Jesus gave to the man he set free seems to apply to me: “ ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:39).

The last few days God opened some opportunities for me to declare His works. Last Tuesday, some friends and I went Christmas shopping. I had forgotten to bring my tracts, but my friend had one left, which we gave to our waiter. While looking for gifts at Best Buy, I tried to educate myself to become less computer illiterate. An employee offered to help me, and we struck up a conversation.

Since he was fed up with the Christmas shoppers who were ruder and more stressed out than ever, we discussed materialism vs. eternity. That led to giving proofs of the Creator. “I believe in God,” he admitted, but he didn’t live like it. When I asked him what he thought our ultimate purpose in life was, he went through a long thought process that ended up being, “Food. We work to get money, so we can buy food to live.”

He was pretty excited about his new philosophy, but then we talked about Jesus saying how “Man shall not live by bread alone” and the brevity of life. At that point, we were interrupted. I found my friend, asking again for a tract. I didn’t feel like I could leave without presenting the hope of the Gospel. “That tract I gave you at the restaurant was my last one,” she reminded me. But something kept telling her that she still had one. Searching her wallet, she found one last tract.

I took this one back, and the employee eagerly picked up the conversation. It was obvious that God had prepared him. I told him that he was on the right track—that material things couldn’t satisfy. A wise man once said, “God made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him” (Augustine). He assured me that he was a God-fearing man. That led to a Ray Comfort style Gospel presentation. “Compared to the people around us, you do seem to be a great person. But God judges man by a different standard.” I led him through the 10 Commandments. He was especially convicted by Jesus’ equating hatred with murder. By the end, he realized the real reason for the Christmas season—God becoming flesh to redeem mankind.

Unaware of the rush around us, he soberly said, “I’m gonna think about what you said. My parents go to church every Sunday, although I’ve been too busy. But I know what happened tonight—us meeting here and talking—didn’t happen by accident. There was a reason.”

What effective ways have you found to share the greatest Gift of Christmas? Sometimes witnessing opportunities seem scarce, but don’t give up. God is faithful, and I look forward to our tandem walk together!