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| Volume 22 Number 12 December 2020 | Page 15 |
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| Volume 22 Number 12 December 2020 | Page 15 |
Dave Everson
In the caves, streams and small rivers around the world, especially in desert regions, is a group of fish called pupfish. They belong to a group of fish called killifish, and they have some very amazing abilities that God created in them. Let’s take a quick look at why these fish have been called extremophiles by scientists and more specifically as euryhaline and eurythermal.
The desert pupfish was created to tolerate an extreme range of environmental conditions. The word euryhaline refers to the ability to live in a wide range of salinities. They can survive in dissolved salts ranging from zero or freshwater to as high as 70 parts per thousand. As a reference, seawater has a salinity of 35 parts per thousand. Eurythermal is the ability to withstand a wide range of temperatures. The pupfish can withstand temperatures from 39 degrees Fahrenheit to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only can these fish withstand these wide ranges, but they also tolerate very rapid changes in both salinity and temperature. This sets them apart from most every other fish in the world. Besides the ability to tolerate a rapid change of temperature and salt content, the pupfish can also withstand dissolved oxygen as low as 0.13 ppm (parts per million). The average dissolved oxygen level most fish endure is somewhere between 2.5 and 10 ppm. So, God gave these fish an incredible ability to withstand some wide extremes of conditions.
Besides the tolerance for a wide range of salt and temperature swings, the pupfish also can swim in water that would burn the skin off of humans! In the heart of the Guadalupe Mountains in southern New Mexico are caves where rock-eating microbes called “snottites” by scientists are at work eating the minerals in cave rocks and dropping sulfuric acid into the water. Among the caves is one known as Cueva de Villa Luz, which emits a toxic, rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulfide from its entrance. Inside, humans must wear respirators and carry poison-gas monitors to protect themselves from the hydrogen sulfide that reacts with water in the cave to form caustic sulfuric acid where the pupfish lives. This ability to survive in this kind of acid water is very unusual, and God demonstrated His design abilities when He created the pupfish. The waters here can have a pH as low as 3.0, which is very acidic and is generally about 50 times more acid than is suitable for most aquatic life.
However, there are a few other fish that God has adapted to be able to withstand acidic waters. The Japanese dace prospers in the acidic waters of Lake Osorezan in Japan, where the pH can range down to 3.4. Essentially, both of these fish swim in the equivalent of a giant bowl of vinegar. While long-term exposure to these conditions is toxic and generally fatal to most fish, the pupfish and the Japanese dace have been designed with the ability to change the pH in their blood and reduce the loss of essential salts, which allows them to thrive in their acidic ecosystems.
God’s ability to design biological systems that allow these fish to live in such extreme water conditions just shows His amazing creative ability. Let us always give Him praise for what He has done. “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” (Romans 1:20).
Perfect Peace Comes
from the Prince of Peace
Raymond Elliott
In the closing remarks of the second epistle that the apostle Paul wrote to the “church of the Thessalonians in God our Father the Lord Jesus Christ,” he wrote, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all” (2 Thessalonians 3:16). In all of the trials, tribulations, disappointments and struggles in this life, children of God can find peace in our Savior Jesus Christ who is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Edward J. Bickersteth was on vacation in Harrogate, England, and on one Sunday in August, 1875, he listened to a sermon by Canon Gibbon that was based on Isaiah 26:3. It reads, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” He was greatly impressed by the thoughts presented on this text. It was then that he took a piece of paper and began to write a poem that would become the moving and beautiful hymn, “Peace, Perfect Peace.” In this hymn, you will observe that in each stanza there is a challenge or a struggle presented for the believer. Then, for each struggle, the author provides spiritual answers in the second half of each stanza.
Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.
Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus — this is rest.
Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.
Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.
Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus, we know, and He is on the throne.
It is enough; earth’s struggles soon shall cease,
And Jesus calls us to heav’n’s perfect peace.
“There is no peace, Says my God, ‘For the wicked’” (Isaiah 57:21). Yet, to His disciples Jesus gave these assuring words: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). The exhortation given by the apostle Paul in Philippians 4:6-7 is also for “all the saints in Christ Jesus” today. “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”
One fruit of the Spirit is “peace” (Galatians 5:22). To have this peace, one must be “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Can you truly sing, “It is well, with my soul,” knowing you do not have this blessed peace which is found only in Jesus Christ? You are urged to give your life to Jesus in humble obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and trust in the Lord with all your heart. Then, you will then have this perfect peace “which surpasses all understanding.”