Obama nominates new Fed chairman;
Poll finds the GOP more than Democrats blamed for shutdown;
Inexperienced passenger lands plane in dark;
NYC restaurant offers monk-like silence.

US expected to cut Egypt aid;
Shutdown hitting vets;
Parents charged with abusing sons in Denver;
Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Not all scientists are panicking about global warming--one of them finds the alarmism 'hilarious.' A top climate scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lambasted a new report by the UN's climate bureaucracy that blamed mankind as the main cause of global warming and whitewashed the fact that there has been a hiatus in warming for the last 15 years. "I think that the latest IPCC report has truly sunk to level of hilarious incoherence," Dr. Richard Lindzen told Climate Depot, a global warming skeptic news site. "They are proclaiming increased confidence in their models as the discrepancies between their models and observations increase."... The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claimed it was 95 percent sure that global warming was mainly driven by human burning of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. The I.P.C.C. also glossed over the fact that the Earth has not warmed in the past 15 years, arguing that the heat was absorbed by the ocean. ... Scientists have been struggling to explain the 15-year hiatus in global warming, and governments have been urging them to whitewash the fact that temperatures have not been rising because such data would impact the upcoming climate negotiations in 2015. The Associated Press obtained documents that show the Obama administration and some European governments pressured UN climate scientists to downplay or even omit data that shows the world hasn't warmed in over a decade.

("Top MIT Scientist," The Daily Caller, Sept. 29, 2013)

Genesis 2:6
“But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”

It was the largest bird that ever lived. It stood 10-12 feet tall and could easily outrun a horse. Being a meat-eater, this fossil bird, which has been nicknamed “terror bird,” possibly did chase horses and bring them down with its sharp talons. The only thing that limited this creature’s terrible abilities was its inability to fly.

“Terror bird,” existed in a world that also included other large birds – one had a wingspread of 17 feet! In the warm climate of long ago, ferns towered 150 feet tall, huge alligators, marsupials and a strange mix of other creatures hid within the forest of fig and sequoia. Where would one find such a place? Of all places, Antarctica! Yes, it was a long time ago, although not as long ago as evolutionists claim. The location of these fossil creatures indicate that the Earth was once much warmer. Similar fossil remains have also been found in Siberia, Alaska and the Arctic.

It sounds as if a tropical forest is being described when Genesis talks about mist rising from the ground, watering the plants. If the Earth really is warming up, maybe it’s just now returning to normal. This is certainly not something that the ancients in the Near East would have made up – offering further evidence of God’s authorship of Scripture!

Notes: Walter Sullivan. “Fossil ‘Terror Bird’ Offers Clues to Evolution.” New York Times, Jan. 31, 1989, p. C11.
Photo: Skeleton of the terror bird Titanis walleri at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Courtesy of Amanda (Flickr). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Government shutdown enters eighth day,
100 dollar bill introduced,
China floods strand residents in Zhejiang province,
Peter Higgs and Francois Englert win Nobel Prize in physics.

Government shutdown continues;
Storms hit northeastern US;
Neighborhoods around Baghdad bombed;
New $100 bill set to roll out.

On Friday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivers its latest verdict on the state of man-made global warming.  ... Already we have had a taste of the nonsense to come: a pre-announcement to the effect that 'climate scientists' are now '95 per cent certain' that humans are to blame for climate change; an evidence-free declaration by the economist who wrote the discredited Stern Report ... In truth, though, the new report offers scant consolation to those many alarmists whose careers depend on talking up the threat. It says not that they are winning the war to persuade the world of the case for catastrophic anthropogenic climate change--but that the battle is all but lost. At the heart of the problem lie the computer models which, for 25 years, have formed the basis for the IPCC's scaremongering: they predicted runaway global warming, when the real rise in temperatures has been much more modest. So modest, indeed, that it has fallen outside the lowest parameters of the IPCC's prediction range. The computer models, in short, are bunk. To a few distinguished scientists, this will hardly come as news. For years they have insisted that 'sensitivity'--the degree to which the climate responds to increases in atmospheric CO₂--is far lower than the computer models imagined. In the past, their voices have been suppressed by the bluster and skulduggery we saw exposed in the Climategate emails. From grant-hungry science institutions and environmentalist pressure groups to carbon traders, EU commissars, and big businesses with their snouts in the subsidies trough, many vested interests have much to lose should the global warming gravy train be derailed. This is why the latest Assessment Report is proving such a headache to the IPCC. It's the first in its history to admit what its critics have said for years: global warming did 'pause' unexpectedly in 1998 and shows no sign of resuming.

("Global Warming Believers," The Telegraph, UK, Sept. 25, 2013)

1 Samuel 26:20b
“...for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.”

When King Saul pursued David to kill him, David compared himself to a flea by asking whether the king had come out with soldiers to kill a flea. But just because a flea is small, it doesn't mean that God treated it as unimportant when He designed it.

The flea, has an ability to jump many times its own length and is a miniature marvel of engineering. If you see a flea jump – and that’s not easy to do – you will wonder whether the flea is actually powered by springs! The amazing truth is that the flea is powered by tiny springs. When it jumps, the flea actually releases more than five-and-a-half times as much energy as the most perfect muscle tissue can generate! The flea is able to do this using normal muscle output because he has small pads of natural protein rubber called resilin in his legs. As he slowly depresses the pads, he stores the energy which will be released in his next leap in one-seventh of the time he took to store it!

To our Creator, nothing and no one is unimportant. This is because He is, by nature, a loving and caring Creator. Do you know His love? Do you know that He seeks a personal relationship with you through what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross?

Photo: Scanning electron microscope (SEM) depiction of a flea.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Three Americans win the Nobel Prize;
Obama thanks FEMA workers;
Gunfight at a biker dance;
The new $100 bill rolls out Tuesday

Kerry comments on Syria chemical weapons;
Government Shutdown;
Gunfight at biker dance;
Native American tribal funds mismanaged.

"The number of Dutch people killed by medical euthanasia has more than doubled in the 10 years since legislation was changed to permit it, rising 13 per cent last year to 4,188. Voluntary euthanasia or physician assisted suicide, where a doctor is present while a patient kills himself, usually by drinking a strong barbiturate potion, has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002. Requests have risen steadily since 2003 when 1,626 people applied for medically administered euthanasia, in most cases by a lethal injection, or assisted suicide. As previously controversial 'mercy killings' have become socially and medically acceptable, the number of cases, the vast majority of medical euthanasia, have more than doubled over the decade to 2012. One explanation for the steep rise of Dutch cases is the introduction last year of mobile euthanasia units allowing patients to be killed by voluntary lethal injection when family doctors refused. ... Forty two people with dementia and 13 patients suffering severe psychiatric problems were medically killed in cases that are rarer and still generate concern over the competence of individuals to request death." God's law says, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13).

Photo: ALAMY
("Number of Dutch Killed by Euthanasia Rises by 13 Percent," The Telegraph, U.K., Sept. 24, 2013)

Proverbs 1:8-9
“My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.”

Isn't it true that when we are very young we think our parents know everything? Then, when we become teenagers, we decide that our parents know virtually nothing. Finally, when we become parents ourselves, we discover how wise our parents really were! Learning and wisdom are supposed to be products of human evolution and for this reason textbooks usually speak of instinct when referring to animals. But do animal parents teach their children, and do they learn?

Biologist Robert R. Warner of the University of California showed that even adult fish teach their offspring the facts of life. Warner’s study involved moving fish called wrasses around to various reefs where they prefer to mate. He discovered that if there were no other wrasses at the reef, the young wrasses would establish their own mating sites. But if there were already adult wrasses at the reef, the young wrasses would share the mating sites that were taught to them by the established adults. In other words, the adults taught their traditional mating sites to the next generation!

The Creation teaches us that the intelligence of a creature has nothing to do with its supposed place in the evolutionary ladder. Even fish teach their young. This teaches us that it is a natural part of God’s plan that we learn from the experience of those who are older than ourselves.

Photo: Courtesy of National Marine Sanctuaries. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

34 dead in Egypt clashes;
74 bodies recovered off Italy;
Karen dissolves into remnants;
Gas prices are going down.

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Prov. 20:1).

To say that alcoholic beverages can be consumed in moderation sounds reasonable, but few drunks have ever set out to become drunks. It is irrefutable that a man that does not drink at all will never get drunk and will never become a drunk. As the late Bruce Lackey said: "How is alcoholic wine deceptive? In the very way that people are advocating today, by saying that drinking a little bit will not hurt. Everyone admits that drinking too much is bad. Even the liquor companies tell us not to drink and drive, but they insist that a small amount is all right. However, that is the very thing that is deceptive. Who knows how little to drink? Experts tell us that each person is different. It takes an ounce to affect one, while more is necessary for another. The same person will react to alcohol differently in different situations. So the idea that 'a little bit won't hurt' is deceptive, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise!" I doubt Noah planned to get drunk, but wine is a mocker, and the consequence was far-reaching. The individual can never know if he will control the alcohol or it will control him. The instruction in Proverbs 20:1 tells me that the wise man leaves it entirely alone. Even the emerging church crowd admits that the Bible forbids drunkenness, but can they guarantee that they and their drinking buddies will never get drunk? Can they guarantee that they will not tempt someone to become an "alcoholic," or tempt a former "alcoholic" to get "off the wagon" and destroy himself? No, they cannot, because "wine is a mocker."

(Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Hagel orders furloughed DOD civilian employees back to work;
Retroactive pay bill for furloughed federal workers passes House;
'Karen' churning toward Gulf Coast;
Olympic flame headed to Russia.

This summer, Moody Bible Institute dropped its 127-year ban against alcohol and tobacco use by faculty and staff. The new emphasis is toward the creation of a "high trust environment that emphasizes values, not rules." Spokeswoman Christine Gorz says that employees must still adhere to all "biblical absolutes," but on issues where "the Bible is not clear; Moody leaves it to employees' conscience" ("Moody Bible Institute Drops," Christianity Today, Sept. 20, 2013). In reply, we would point out, first, that it is not true that this is a "gray" area. A strong case can be made from the Bible for abstinence of alcohol and tobacco in the Christian life. See "The Believer and Drinking." Second, if alcohol is a "gray" area and not a "biblical absolute," so is marijuana use. When is Moody going to allow its staff to light up a joint? Third, if ever there were a time to retain a ban on alcohol and tobacco it would be today. We know the terrible health risk of tobacco, and we can see that alcohol is a horrible plague in modern society. In January 2005 the Royal College of Physicians in England warned that Britain is suffering from an epidemic of alcohol-related problems that is fueling violence and illness throughout the country (The Telegraph, Jan. 3, 2005). The same epidemic is raging throughout the world. Alcohol is corrupting judgment in high places and destroying life in low places. In such a time, the commandment to abstain from all appearance of evil alone would call for a ban on alcohol consumption by the child of God (1 Thess. 5:22). If anything has the appearance of evil today, it is alcoholic beverages, and the Bible does not suggest that we abstain from all appearance of evil; it commands us to do so! But this generation is so wise that it can sniff out the horrible "legalism" of its forefathers and toss aside "rules" that have never harmed one soul but have, instead, done a lot of good and kept temptation at bay in an evil world.

(Friday Church News Notes, October 4, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

Obama steps out for lunch, urges House to pass clean spending bill;
Police: Woman in DC chase was delusional;
Officials on barrier island call for evacuation;
Bail hearing postponed in drug website case.

DC chase driver ID'd;
Possible hurricane aims for Gulf Coast;
Shutdown Day 4;
Singing for life?

Isaiah 34:4
“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”

Everything in the world is running down – nothing will last forever. It would be quite depressing if we didn't know the reason for it and what God has done about it. 

If glass were perfect, it would be much stronger than steel. But glass is not perfect; its surface is full of tiny cracks, too small for the human eye to see. These cracks slowly creep along the glass. This is why a glass can be dropped several times and not break. Then one day it will shatter into a million pieces. Glass “remembers” every stress it receives. If you jar the glass, the cracks can grow quickly – as fast as 60 miles per hour!

Most amazing is that this behavior is so strange, considering that glass is not really a solid. Glass never truly solidifies from a thick liquid state. Sometimes you can even see the sag caused by the flowing glass on windowpanes that are over a century old.

We encounter the natural degeneration of the world every day. As St. Paul writes, the entire creation groans under the consequences of sin. But thank God that He refused to leave us subject to decay and death – for He sent His only Son to save us from every consequence of sin. In Christ there is no more death and decay!

Notes: F. Flam. “Window on the Chemistry of Cracking Glass.” Science News, March 18, 1989, p. 167.
Photo: A glass vase being created at the Reijmyre glassworks, Sweden. Courtesy of Jake73. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Shots fired outside Capitol;
Obama and Boehner blame each other for shutdown;
Calif. Governor signs bill allowing driver's licenses for illegal immigrants;
Twin panda cubs growing well.

Government shutdown Day 3;
Michael Jackson negligence verdict;
Fatal bus crash;
Rare diamond ready for auction.

In another example of living machinery, scientists have found that a species of plant-hopping insect, Issus coleoptratus, has functional biological gears. The two interlocking gears on the insect's hind legs help synchronize the legs when the animal jumps" ("Scientists Just Found the First Ever Example of Mechanical Gears in Nature, "Business Insider, Sept. 13, 2013). Malcolm Burrows, emeritus professor of neurobiology at Cambridge University, and a colleague captured the gears' motion using high-speed video. As the bug prepares to leap, "it meshes the gear teeth of one leg with those of the other, like cocking a gun; then, the insect releases its legs in one smooth-explosive motion." There are 10 to 12 gear teeth on each leg that mesh with the teeth on the opposite leg to "synchronize the movement of the hind legs to within about 30 microseconds of each other." The gears are only found in young plant-hoppers. After the final molt, the gears are lost and the adults use friction between the legs to achieve the same effect. Evolutionists theorize that "adults may ditch their gears partly because gear teeth can break, jeopardizing the insect's survival." But this is a ridiculous idea. It assumes that incredibly complicated things can simply evolve because there is a need for them and can be "ditched" when the need ceases. This does not address the real issue, which is how can such things evolve? What is the mechanism of evolution? The information to build and operate the living gear machinery must be in the creature's DNA, and evolutionists have never proven that genetic information can evolve to create organs and creatures. Mutations don't produce such things. Mutations are errors in the genetic code and the vast majority of them are destructive. Evolution supposedly occurs in tiny steps that are then selected by "natural selection." How could the gear mechanism evolve gradually? Burrows says, "If there were to be a slight timing difference between the legs, then the body would start to spin." This illustrates the folly of the idea that evolution could produce such things gradually. A partly working gear mechanism would hinder rather than help the creature's locomotion.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 27, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

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.”

Christians have often been accused of being naïve when they claim to see the evidence of intelligent design in nature. But sometimes even those who believe in evolution concede that we can learn a lot by studying nature.

Dr. Thomas Eisner, of Cornell University, pointed out during an interview that “every single new idea in chemistry has come not from the minds of chemists, but from nature.” In other words, even our greatest chemists go to the creation to learn their science.

Take the female assassin bug’s use of chemistry, for example. The female assassin bug will rub the resin of the camphor plant on her belly until she has a good store of it on her. Then, when she lays her eggs, she carefully coats them with the resin. It took chemists some time to learn that the resin acts in the same way as do mothballs against moths – it keeps ants from eating her eggs. So the female assassin bug has shown chemists a new ant repellent!

The reason that God’s hand is so evident in the creation is because He wants all people everywhere to know that He exists as a personal, intelligent Being. Once that is established in people’s minds, He seeks to draw them to a personal relationship with Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Notes: Jane E. Brody. “Bug Lover Explores Nature’s Subtle Chemistry.” The New York Times, Jan. 10, 1989, p. C1.
Photo: Orange assassin bug in Australia feeding on a beetle. Courtesy of JJ Harrison. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 839, Foley, MN 56329 www.creationmoments.com

Tennessee bus crash has killed eight people and injured more than a dozen;
Director of National Intelligence warns of furlough risks;
Author Tom Clancy dead at age 66;
British cyclist almost hit by train

Day two of government shutdown;
Health care glitches reported;
Jacksonville airport reopens after scare;
Shutdown disrupts wedding plans.