Seeing more clearly

I fear I may have forgotten how to write in my long absence...so do forgive me if this post comes out rather awkwardly. As to the last two weeks I spent on the road on our geology trip, I hesitate to really into the details as it could take awhile. It is hard summing up something that impacted me in so many ways and to describe all the amazing things I saw. I will try to be brief, for I can't just ignore the whole trip - there is too much importance in it.

We traveled from Jackson through Colorado, Utah and into Arizona to the Grand Canyon and then back up stopping at various places along the way (Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam, and Zion National Park to name a few). We were studying the geology of the Grand Staircase and fossil evidences given to us all over the region with the bias of Biblical glasses. Indeed, I am not ashamed to admit we all had out Biblical glasses securely fixed to our eyes as we viewed various landscapes. As Christians, it would be foolish to look at the world around us without the influence of the Bible. (As I have been learning in this week's class with Ken Ham, we can't throw away our "starting point" - God's word, or we are left with only the starting point of the secular world - millions of years and evolution - EVERYONE has a bias). What we saw through these glasses amazed us and strengthened our faith and convictions and encouraged us to stand ever more securely on the authority of the Bible.

We saw landscapes like the Grand Canyon which were carved by water - large amounts of water! We saw layers and layers of sediments at places like Colorado National Monument and Canyonlands that could NOT have been put down slowly (no sign of erosion, spread over such huge regions etc). We saw things like desert varnish on canyon walls, caused by manganese in the sandstone - manganese that cannot be accounted for by the trace elements in the atmosphere but more probably came from volcanism on the sea floor during the flood and mixed with the mud which turned into the stone we see today. We saw "cave art" depicting mammoths and dinosaurs proving that mankind actually saw and lived with these creatures. I could go on and on.

Mammoth drawing

Colorado National Monument

Throughout the trip, our professor continually impressed upon us the importance to STAND FIRM on the Bible. No matter what "science" comes up with today to explain things or discredit Christianity, we can have assurance in God's word. As Ken Ham has pointed out in his class - God is the only one that knows everything, so when we debate about origins or the flood of Noah's day or dinosaurs etc, by standing firm on the Bible, even if we can't answer all the questions, we have assurance that God is the ultimate authority on it all anyways so we don't need to back down. God can answer and will answer it all in time and those who have rejected Him, WILL know the truth and submit.

I will put some more pictures on the photos page if you are interested in seeing some more.