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Koia ano te aroha o te Atua ki te ao, (You don’ say, the love God had for the world)
Homai ana e ia tana Tama kotahi, (He gave His one Son)
Kia kāhore ai e ngaro (let them not perish)
Te tangata e whakapono ana ki a ia, (the person who believes in Him)
Engari kia whiwhi ai ki te ora tonu. (On the other hand, he will get life eternal)

Listen to me children, “Insects evolved before bats. “
“How do we know that? Ha ha, this is just common sense, really.
“When a bat flies in the night it makes sounds that are of a frequency that our human ears cannot hear. We did not evolve ears to hear these calls because bats are not our predators. But for insects, bats are a big danger, and so insects evolved special ears to hear these bat calls.
“Before bats came on the scene, moths and other nocturnal insects owned the night sky, flitting about unmolested by predators.
“When bats made their appearance, the insects had to evolve a novel anti-bat strategy.
“Children, what do you think they evolved? Yes, they evolved special ears so that they could hear the echolocating calls of hunting bats.  Look, it says so in Mr. Wade’s book, The Science Times Book of Mammals, Lyons Press 1999, p. 20.”

Unknown to our poor teacher, Dr. Plotnick and Dr. Smith found that the tympanal ears, which they researched in crickets and katydids belonging to fossils dated to be much older than the first bats, were exactly as they are in today’s crickets and katydids.

The way they modified the earlier theory to suit their findings was very unimaginative, to put it mildly. All they had to say was that the insects evolved in preparation for bats before the bats evolved.

Read more from a post called ‘Another Failed Evolutionary Prediction’ by Dr. Jay L. Wile.

I praise You for the way You make me hard
enough to stand here for thousands of years
but somehow
soft enough that wildflowers
bloom in my ridges and crannies in the spring.

I praise You because You love beauty.

Even though You made me for the delight of humans,
I believe You also enjoy watching the wildflowers
bloom and the sunsets on my shoulders.

Thank You for creating the hawk and the eagle
who soar around my peaks, also praising You
in their own way.

I praise You for the snow that reflects the sun
and dazzles the eyes of the humans
who come to
enjoy their winter sports.

Even though I am a mountain of stone,
non-living,
inorganic,
hard.
I praise You that You have made me
a habitat for your living creatures.

I want to serve my Creator by any means.

If You need me to shelter Your courageous
saints in my caves some day, whether soon or
in the far distant future, I
only want to glorify, praise, and thank You
until mountains are no more.

You are Amazing, God!

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy Psalm 98:8

Now, Tim Keller is way more experienced in answering questions than I am, and even he seems to struggle a bit to communicate the answer, but on the whole, I think he manages to communicate several facets of the answer with clarity and grace.

I’d like to think that those of my friends who have chosen a gay lifestyle know the high regard I hold them in. It makes me angry when I hear of how they are sometimes treated by people. The Bible does not differentiate between homosexuals and heterosexuals as far as our predicament with sin is concerned. None of us is going to heaven based on our morality or good works. We all need the Saviour.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

[Augustus Toplady]

Last week, we sang this song at a Christmas celebration in Auckland. I thought we could do a better recording in the kitchen at home. But I did like the deepness our voices take on when we sing into a mic, and so vanity took over, and I decided to mix the recordings. Added to my troubles in this endevour was the fact that I recorded the song three times at home, and by the time we were nearly done, my son could not feel his fingers anymore and was hurrying us along. You can see all this in the video.

Lyrics
In the stars His handiwork I see,
On the wind He speaks with majesty,
Though He ruleth over land and sea,
What is that to me?
I will celebrate Nativity,
For it has a place in history,
Sure, He came to set His people free,
What is that to me?

Till by faith I met Him face to face,
and I felt the wonder of His grace,
Then I knew that He was more  than just a
God who didn’t care,
That lived a way out there and

Now He walks beside me day by day,
Ever watching o’er me lest I stray,
Helping me to find the narrow way,
He’s Everything to me.

Seeing design in the universe, believing in the existence of God, believing in the historicity of Jesus, being raised in a Christian home, leading a “good” and honest life, etc. are all positive things, but they do not constitute saving faith.

Saving faith, that believes that Jesus is the Son of God who died for one’s sins, is a gift. But having said it is a gift, it is also true that the Lord says: “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” So, do not rest; call on the Lord Jesus and be saved.

The most common argument against the celebration of Christmas is to do with its pagan origins. R.C. Sproul turns that very point around when he answers the question “Is the celebration of Christmas a pagan ritual?”

It just so happens that on the twenty-fifth of December in the Roman Empire there was a pagan holiday that was linked to mystery religions; the pagans celebrated their festival on December 25. The Christians didn’t want to participate in that, and so they said, “While everybody else is celebrating this pagan thing, we’re going to have our own celebration. We’re going to celebrate the thing that’s most important in our lives, the incarnation of God, the birth of Jesus Christ. So this is going to be a time of joyous festivities, of celebration and worship of our God and King.”

I can’t think of anything more pleasing to Christ than the church celebrating his birthday every year. Keep in mind that the whole principle of annual festival and celebration is deeply rooted in ancient Jewish tradition. In the Old Testament, for example, there were times when God emphatically commanded the people to remember certain events with annual celebrations. While the New Testament doesn’t require that we celebrate Christmas every year, I certainly see nothing wrong with the church’s entering into this joyous time of celebrating the Incarnation, which is the dividing point of all human history. Originally, it was intended to honor, not Mithras or any of the other mystery religion cults, but the birth of our King.  [Used with thanks from ligonier.org]

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Gen 1:12)
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. (Gen 1:24)

When two species of plants and animals are able to occasionally form a hybrid, I believe, it is indicative of the fact that they have arisen from the same Genesis “kind”. Of course many species that have descended from a particular Genesis kind may not ever be able to form a hybrid; but when some do, it is something to remind us once again, not that there is any dearth for reminders, of God’s grand designs in this world that He created for us. Such thoughts might lead us to digress to the more profound matters of how we, the crown of creation, messed up and how God’s plan included redemption of the world through the atonement of Jesus on the cross.

When new species are formed, do we say that they have “evolved”? We have got to remember that evolution should involve an improvement, by way of addition of new genetic information, to the gene pool. You can read more about this in the article “Species” and “Kind” written by Dr. Gary Parker. It is good to know the difference because it will help you answer questions like Did Noah’s ark have room for a million species?.

When we reached the city, my daughters’ friend was to join our group but with the cellphone networks jammed, it would have been like searching for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, earlier in the day, they had texted each other and decided  that we would meet near the Britomart Train station. Even so it took us over 40 harrowing minutes to find her.

We enjoyed the atmosphere for a while and then decided to have a light dinner in the Westfield food court. The food court must have made the profit of a lifetime judging from the crowds. The bins outside the mall were inadequate and the place looked very messy indeed.

At 7:30 we made our way to one of the big screens. It felt good to be part of such a large group of people. Everyone was having a good time. One problem we had was that we could not see the screen much because some of us were too short. I had to raise my hand high up in the air to take pictures like this one.

Soon it was time for the fireworks, which did not disappoint.

After the fireworks, we thought that we should start moving towards the busstop because we knew that transport arrangements were not adequate. Suddenly the whole crowd started to move, and whichever direction we tried to move in, we found a current of people moving against us. Our group comprised eight people and we all held on to each other like a chain. One of my daughters started feeling claustrophobic.

As soon as we came to an area where we could breathe again, she asked to wait, but a mother and 13-year old daughter in our group who were ahead of us did not know this and began to work their way through the crowd again, followed by two men in our group. When we attempted to follow them, we nearly fell because of the pushing and shoving, so we backed off and stayed safe in ‘the area where we could breathe’.  We soon heard several ambulances in the vicinity and wondered what was going on.

After a while we found another route and got to the busstop, fearing much for the safety of the others. Because of the poor state of the cellphone network, we had no way of assuring one another of our safety.  We learned later that the two men of our group had found the near stampede difficult and one of them had almost been strangled because his bag which was slung over his head was caught in the crowds. After more than half an hour, we found each other again.

Another problem we faced was because several people had not bothered about the liquour ban and were drunk. As a result, there was coarse talk and annoying behaviour that was intimidating at that hour of the night. With so many children about, it was not a good thing.

We could not go anywhere near the first two buses going to our part of Auckland because of the crowds attempting to board them. When the third bus arrived, because it was parked at an odd angle, we had to make our way between two other buses to reach it. This was not a bad thing, because it made us form a sort of queue, something that was lacking near all the other buses. The following photo was taken from where we were in the “queue”.

The buses had no one other than the driver to manage such  large crowds. Surely they needed to have some more help. Anyway, after over twenty minutes, just when our part of the “queue” made it to the door of the bus, the driver closed the door. Here is a photograph I took of the girls a while before the door closed, which shows you that for all that happened, we were having a good time.

We then decided to try the trains. When we went to the station, we were asked to go to the Westpak building. When we reached the Westpak building, we found a queued crowd, if there can be such a thing, for 75 meters or so. So we went back to the busstop and eventually got home.

I do not regret having gone to the city, but the arrangements were pitifully inadequate. I am writing this post before retiring to bed, although I am very tired, because such experiences need to be recorded before the new day dulls the sharpness of the events of this evening. Just in case someone wants to learn from experience.  I thank God for giving our city an evening of fun, in spite of everything.

I chanced upon a blog by Eric Rowell, a young man who wanted to find out more about India and actually lived in India for two years and wrote about it. In a post called ‘Answering a Hard Question – “How was India?”’, he writes:

The hardest part of this for me might be that nothing happens linearly. I want to map it out and be able to say “I saw this and this and this,” or “these changes happened on this date.” It’s just not like that though. My time here is best described as a hodgepodge of stories with an overarching theme or two. Even still, I’m not yet sure what those themes are except to say that God is faithful through it all.
In a land of sensory overload I’ve seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled more than I thought possible.
I’ve seen poverty and wealth intermingled in a way I couldn’t imagine. I hiked through the Himalayas and stood on top of the glacier that the Ganges River flows from. I can communicate in a language that seemed like jibberish not too long ago. I watched the sunrise over the mountains and spread its light into the most beautiful valley I’ve ever seen. I climbed through waterfalls and watched 10,000 lanterns released into the Thai night sky. I saw a wild elephant from the back of a jeep. I visited Nepal twice, and both trips were about as long as it will take me to write this blog post. And yes, I saw the Taj Mahal – not once, not twice, but three times.

India sits on layers upon layers of history, with each layer contributing to the present in some strange way, adding to our rich culture and spirit of tolerance. It would be the one part of the world where the descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth have come together from the ends of the earth over time and intermingled. This is a land where many of the great religions of the world were born. It is the land where foreign influences of the past, Persian, Greek, Chinese, etc were welcomed and assimilated. In theory, India is “secular,” but in many ways she is a Hindu land, with her  three million deities. But it is the land where for the better part Muslims,Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists, and Jains can live in absolute freedom. All religions are free by law to preach and propagate their beliefs. India has more Muslims than any other country, save for Indonesia and Pakistan. It is one of the few countries where the Jews lived in peace during their exile.

It is a land of every possible form of contrast. It is a clash of colour and a cacophony of sound. She is wealthy. She is poor. She is highly educated. She is illiterate. She is cultured. She is wretched. She is finicky about cleanliness and rules. She is utterly filthy. India is extremely corrupt and bogged down by bureaucracy, chaotic and crowded.  The way this great giant of a country rouses herself every morning and functions amidst all this chaos belies explanation. When so much of money is siphoned off due to corruption, from government projects, why do our bridges stay strong and why do our buildings not collapse? Why, with our chaotic roads, do we not have an accident rate that is higher than in other countries. I think God Himself must love India very much.

Speaking of how difficult it is to do justice to India when describing her to someone who is not Indian, I’ll close with an old documentary, one that made a similar attempt nearly a century ago .

DNA discovered in meteorites.

But the first line reads (emphasis mine):

NASA researchers have found the building blocks of DNA, the genetic molecule that is essential to all life forms, in meteorites, pieces of space rock that have fallen to Earth.

What a letdown!