Today I'm thinking about these two verses

Cain talked to his brother Abel; and it happened that when they were in the field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Genesis 4:8

Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another child in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.” Genesis 4:25.

The Passion Conference is a youth-aimed conference founded in 1995-1997 by Louie and Shelley Giglio. It regularly sells out and tens of thousands of 17-25 year olds attend. Is it a good conference? What is it about? Sadly it is one to avoid. In this essay I offer 7 reasons why.

Further Resources:

Exposing the Dangers of Passion 2025 with Dave Jenkins and Michelle Lesley, podcast 1hr and a half

Todd Friel at Wretched Radio discussing the 2012 Lectio Divina incident at Passion, 16 min

Spencer Smith warning about the 2022 Passion Conference in this 12 min video

Chris Tomlin founded Passion Conference with Louie Giglio. Here is a review of Tomlin when he promotes heretic Joyce Meyer

I'm discussing what I read this year, my thoughts on books and reading, and setting goals with a reading challenge for 2025. Join me in setting a goal to read good books this year!

Samuel Sey's thread on Harry Potter vs Lord of the Rings or Narnia is on Twitter/X here: https://x.com/SlowToWrite/status/1872745330535743654

Year end wrap up for most listened to and most read pieces on the podcast and the blog.

I hope your 2024 was defined by contentment in the Lord and that your 2025 is a happy one.

With the New Year upon us, many people are either finishing a previous Bible reading plan and perhaps looking for a different one for next year, or starting one for the first time. There are a lot of plans out there! Here are some suggestions both for picking a plan and for absorbing what you read once you begin-

Answers in Genesis video-

Facebook: https://fb.watch/wKhCxZU7qw//
Youtube: https://youtu.be/W-GPBmUVkoE?si=O8opzCfsHKxpYdf4

How to Eat your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God, book by Nate Pickowicz. Buy at all the usual places, including Amazon. Available on Kindle or Audible too

This is a great sermon during this Advent season about angels called "The Ministry of Angels". The pastor began by saying how many times angels are sung about in our traditional Christmas Carols. If you stop to think about it, they really are mentioned a lot.

Angelology is a fascinating study, and there is much in the Bible about angels. But like most doctrines, it can and often is twisted by the unstable. It is a target for fringe theologians who spout fanciful theories and supposed visions. As Phil Johnson has said, "Few biblical topics have provoked more wild speculation and fruitless debate than the topic of angels."

Because of this I am providing what I have found to be safe and solid material on angels for further study. After listening to the sermon I linked above, there are other great resources that explore the facts about these incredible beings.

John MacArthur has several pieces about the different ministries of angels, including angel armies, (Angels: God's Invisible Army, Part 1 with other parts after this), entertaining angels (Ever Met an Angel?), Angelic Messengers, and others. Search for angels at gty.org.

Phil Johnson wrote an essay at Ligonier called Angels: Messengers and Ministers of God.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached two sermons on angels in his Great Doctrines series. One is called Good Angels. Sadly, there is no recording of his subsequent lecture titled "The Devil and the Fallen Angels" but there is a transcript you can read which I uploaded for the public. Here is the link to the transcribed sermon The Devil and the Fallen Angels by Lloyd-Jones.

Randy Alcorn, author of the book 'Heaven', has several articles about angels at his website. How Do We Know That Seraphim and Cherubim Are Angels?

Alcorn also answered this question In Their Own Realm, Do Angels Have Physicality?

Spurgeon’s Angelology: A Speculative Thought.

In this sermon, Charles Spurgeon discusses the angels who ministered to Jesus after His temptation in the wilderness. Satan departing, angels ministering

RC Sproul preached a two-part series simply called Angels.

Now here's a little debate for you: do angels sing? I wrote about this a few years ago. Despite the hymns and carols noting that angels sing this or that, there is very little scriptural evidence that they do sing. But no scriptural evidence claiming they unequivocally do not sing. Hmmm.

GotQuestions: Do Angels Sing?

The End Time: Do Angels Sing? In which I look at the stances of some theologians who believe they do or do not, as well as offer some food for thought.

In the end, lest we fall guilty of what Phil Johnson said above, that we engage in wild speculation or fruitless debate, let me end here with a link to a page listing scriptures in which angels are mentioned, and it says there are 499 scriptures (but 25 are noted here).

It's the time of year when we regard the Nativity. The Babe's miraculous conception, His soon arrival, and the lowly circumstances of his birth. During this time it is natural to center thoughts, sermons, devotionals, etc, on Mary, the Messiah's mother. Her submission to the News, her Magnificat of praise, and her visitation with cousin Elizabeth- who has a miracle of her own to report- are crucial elements of the story.

There can be a tendency to exalt Mary's role beyond its bounds. By the same token, a tendency to downplay her role as a reaction to not wanting to exalt her.

Let's take a balanced view of Mary of the nativity.

Links mentioned:

Relating the wonders of the free ministry of Chapel Library. This month's issue of their periodical Free Grace Broadcaster is titled The Wonderful Love of Jesus and it contains some moving and incredible writing that definitely got me into the Advent mood.

I also introduce my upcoming series (tomorrow) Thirty Days of Jesus I publish every year.

Resources Mentioned:

Chapel Library - You can search for material by author, topic, etc.

Free Grace Broadcaster #270 The Wonderful Love of Jesus

GotQuestions explains the hypostatic union (the dual natures of Jesus)

There comes a time when perhaps the drive to decorate one's home for Christmas wanes. There could be a lot of reasons. In today's episode I discuss reasons people may want to decorate for the holidays full on, or pared down, or not at all.