Plainfield Ponderings - Scripture Meditations
Hello! I'm Allen Greeley and I love thinking and meditating on Scripture. Another word for it, which we don't use very often, is pondering. When the mother of Jesus heard the shepherds retell the vision of the angels celebratory singing; the Scripture says, "Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). That alone is my goal with this podcast. I want us to treasure in our hearts what we hear from God and ponder it. It would be an honor to have you listen in and ponder with me. To God be the glory!
Episodes
Ponder with me a new sermon series coming to Plainfield, Indiana! The Plainfield church of Christ is having Bryan Schiele come to teach a series called "Unveiled" - it's about removing the veils of distraction, pride, and noise, so we can reflect the glory of Jesus. He and I talk about our past teaching endeavors and this upcoming series. To God be the glory!
Plainfield church of Christ - 950 East ...
Ponder with me about some of the ICE protesting and how it might relate to the singular path of salvation - Jesus. I know it sounds weird! It's less about ICE and more about how Christians ought to see the government, interact and pray for the government. Strangely, Paul connects these two ideas in I Timothy 2. Let's dive in! To God be the glory!
Please email me any comments or questions at grrreeley@g...
Ponder with me about the providence of God from the book of Esther again. God works through the horrors of life just as much as the things we think are positive. We need that perspective to help reframe our hardships. Also, we'll think about the back-story of Haman and Mordecai and why this extermination threat should have never happened in the first place. Be careful! You might find yourself in this episod...
Ponder with me how God has exalted humankind and bestowed on us glory. This glory was made to image His glory but unfortunately has been squandered. How can we get back to the glory God wants us to image? Lastly - is seeing God's glory about seeing the cool, visual spectacles or is there something deeper we are made to see? To God be the glory!
Please email me any comments or questions at grrreeley@gmail.co...
Ponder with me a little deeper about handing someone over to Satan and its connection to church discipline. We ended last episode with a question - WHY? Why is handing someone over to Satan a good way to speak about discipline? What does that say about the domain of God's church vs. the domain of the world? And perhaps more importantly...does this mean that those in Christ's kingdom have special protec...
Ponder with me what it means to hand someone over to Satan. That is not a phrase you'll hear used very often in churches (if ever), but Paul uses that phrase twice in the New Testament. However, before we think through that phrase, we really need to wrap our heads around the possibility of Christians falling away. Is this possible? Many say it is impossible to lose your salvation but is that true? Join me a...
Ponder with me the possibility that God has pre-determined some things in your life. Most that listen to the podcast, me included, believe in human free will and that God has not pre-determined everything. However, it would be a grave mistake to ignore the fact that God is at work in all of us. What happens when we open up to the possibility that we are in this exact moment because God wants us to be here? To Go...
Ponder with me one of the most famous quotes from Paul - that he was the foremost or chief of sinners. Is Paul saying that he was the worst sinner of all time? Is that even a biblically accurate thing to say? That's how most people have interpreted it, but we will think about the original word and the original context a little deeper in this episode to unpack what Paul is saying. It has more of an applicati...
Ponder with me the art of double checking everything we hear, even in the church. We are diving deeper and more specifically into the problems of Ephesus, where Paul left Timothy to help the church through problems. The issues arose with people mishandling Scripture...and we can be sure that the greatest problems in the church today will arise in the same way. What can we do about it? To God be the glory!
Please...
Ponder with me the beginning of 1 Timothy and start by being amazed at the fact that Paul had Timothy stay in a troubled church. Timothy stayed in Ephesus because of the mess that existed there. After all the years of N.T. study, I'm still stunned by how open and honest the church leaders were about the problems that existed. We can learn from this. However, especially in dealing with problems, our attitude...
Let's ponder about what the word "glory" means. We are going to embark on a series about the glory of God which we will tackle on the first Sunday of each month...this episode being the first. We'll begin by thinking about the original meaning of "glory" in Hebrew and then think through how God first demonstrated His glory - in creation. Are we listening to creation enough? To God b...
Ponder what it means to hear with ears like Jesus. In Psalm 40 we have a strange phrase in Hebrew - "ears you have dug for me" (vs. 6). This is quoted about Jesus, which is clear enough. However, it gets stranger when you hear the Greek translation of it, and how the Hebrews writer uses this. We'll dive into the weird world of translation but in the end it's all about what listening is really...
Ponder with me one more time about helping one another thrive in the church. That was the theme of the congregation where I worship (Plainfield church of Christ). We dedicated one episode to that theme every month in 2025. However, in this episode we'll sum up everything we talked about in regard to the theme and then tie it up with a few thoughts on the chain of love, binding us all together. To God be the...
Ponder with me some of the broad themes in 1 Timothy. This book is not given a lot of attention. It certainly isn't given the attention other books are, and I think it's because it is viewed as a "preacher book". Is that the best way to view it though? Also, as we have done several other times on the podcast - we'll read through the letter in its fullness at the end of this episode. I lo...
Ponder with me one of the most ancient and strange laws regarding freeing slaves. However, the strange twist is not in the freedom but in the lawful keeping of a slave, if the slave wanted to permanently remain in the house of their Master. We will first think through how awesome it is that these ancient texts are so relevant and then we'll see if we can find ourselves in this practice. To God be the glory!
...Ponder with me how sincere thanksgiving ought to be seen in us. This week is Thanksgiving, and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! I love this holiday so much. Please join me as we meditate on how superficial gratitude is a lot more common in our culture than the genuine. Where does all genuine gratitude end up, and with whom? To God be the glory!
Please email me any comments or questions at grrreeley@gmail...
Ponder with me one of the strangest, weirdest, cryptic references in Scripture! It is Jude's reference to Satan and the Archangel Michael arguing over the body of Moses. We'll talk briefly about what piece of literature this reference comes from (it's outside the Scriptures) ... but we don't want the main point to get lost on us. It's about leaving room for the judgments of God and putti...
Ponder with me about the agendas we have when we come to Scripture. Because of our culture, upbringing or popular religious thinking (that we have accepted without thinking through it), we all have expectations we are bringing to God's word. What happens when God comes in direct conflict with those? This scenario is played out in Jeremiah 41-43 - let's ponder it together. To God be the glory!
Please em...
Ponder with me about prayers of faith. Can we say that our prayers are of faith? Let's first look at what it means to have prayers of faith, and then we'll ponder the example of prayer that James gives - Elijah. There's a detail in Elijah's story that may shed light on what it means to have absolute confidence in prayer, like he had. To God be the glory!
Please email me any comments or questi...
Ponder with me about taking matters out of our hands and letting the Lord fix it. As Americans we love to think we can fix anything and everything. We love to think we can influence any situation. It's not true though. There are some things in life that are too big, which only God can fix...and even then, we might need to wait until the return of Christ for the ultimate resolution. This takes patience. To G...
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