Claim OwnershipPlainfield Ponderings - Scripture Meditations
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© 2025 Plainfield Ponderings - Scripture Meditations
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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!
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Send Allen a text - Ponder the hideous effects that hypocrisy and apathy have on others. Sin always works its way into the lives of others. Always. It's why Jesus called hypocrisy the leaven of the Pharisees. It always has a horrendous impact. When we are hypocritical and apathetic, someone around us is suffering. If we're asleep spiritually (as Jonah was physically and spiritually), God may have to do something drastic to help rouse us. He loves us ...
Send Allen a text - Ponder the belly of the fish with me. God prepared a trial, and a pretty harsh one at that, for Jonah. A near death experience (or worse?) is what Jonah needed to snap out of his hypocrisy and apathy. What do you need? God loves us enough to give us the trials we need to realize that sin isn't what it's cracked up to be. Sin always disappoints...always lies...always brings death. When will I learn that? Perhaps, like Jonah, after ...
Send Allen a text - Let's ponder Jonah together! This will be the beginning of a new series on Jonah. I hope it's as challenging for you as it is for me. In Jonah, I see a Pharisee. He ends up grumpy about the mercy the Gentiles in Nineveh receive, but also, he conveniently was okay with living the Tarshish-dream although they were as wicked as Nineveh (albeit in a different way). Are we more like this Pharisaical prophet than we'd like to admit? To God be...
Send Allen a text - Ponder the stench of Christ with me. We'll play off of the story from the last episode about Mary from Bethany's anointing of perfume. The perfume was to cover up the stench of death. How did Christ's death smell to God? How does it smell to you? Will you carry that stench with you always, in everyday life? And finally, how will the world perceive the odor? To God be the glory! Please email me any comments or questions at grrreel...
Send Allen a text - Ponder the anointing of perfume from Mary of Bethany with me. Jesus said wherever the gospel is proclaimed in all the world, it would be told in memory of her. Let's remember her together. Her faith in what Jesus was saying about His death is remarkable, especially when you consider the refusal of others to believe it. When people all around us won't believe the simple teachings of Jesus, will we imitate Mary's faith? To God be the glory! Pl...
Send Allen a text - Ponder the book of Obadiah with me! It was written about the Edomites, whose backstory begins with Esau. The Israelites and Edomites were brothers. There's an interesting law in Deuteronomy about their relationship that should have benefitted the Edomites spiritually. That's what unity among brothers always does - it helps people grow spiritually. Let's think through this Edomite tragedy, what could have been, and what the ideal is in the chu...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about what Christ said about the Holy Spirit in John 7. What did Jesus mean when He said that out of our hearts would flow rivers or streams of living water? John gives a footnote about this text and says this would happen to all believers (7:39). Let's trace it in the Old Testament and then connect it to Acts 2:38 and the gift of the Holy Spirit. To God be the glory! Please email me any comments or questions at grrreeley@gmail.com
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about another conversation that takes place in John 7. It all begins with some of the doubts people had about Jesus' origins. They said in John 7:27 - "when the Christ appears we won't know where He is from." What did they mean by that? Furthermore, let's dig a little deeper into the Galilee problem. What does the Scripture say about Galilee and the Messiah from the Old Testament? To God be the glory! Please email me any...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me a conversation Jesus had with the Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7. By this time, they wanted to kill Him in Jerusalem already, but Jesus makes this pilgrimage to the city anyway. The first recorded conversation in John 7 begins with, "how can Jesus know so much when He's never studied?" He never went to their schools, didn't have a personal rabbi as His tutor...nothing that would have impressed anyone in the education realm.&nbs...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about how quickly and rashly we make life decisions at times. This episode is a bit of a contrast between the presumption that we studied about in the last episode vs. taking an unassuming approach to life. What does God want me to do? This disciplined approach was seen several times throughout king David's life, but it's perfectly seen in Jesus. David "inquired of God" -- that becomes a refrain throughout his life (though he wasn't ...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about presuming what God wants, when something hasn't been communicated clearly. This can lead to quite a mess! Join with me in looking at a couple of instances where it led to spiritual disaster. What God has always wanted is a listening ear and a heart for obedience. That can take quite a bit of discipline though, especially when we might excuse things with, "I'm doing it for the Lord"...or..."it just makes so much sense". Bu...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about the most popular passage about Christ's ascension in the Old Testament - Daniel 7. It's a bit of a follow up from the last podcast episode about Jesus being more than David's son...He's the Son of God. However, interestingly, Daniel 7 refers to him as "one like the son of man" when speaking about His ascension and His kingdom starting. But before we look at that, consider the context of Daniel 7 with me. Lots of world chaos goi...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about the lineage of Christ. Jesus once asked the Pharisee's - what do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He? All the Jews knew the Christ needed to be descended from David, but Jesus pushes them a bit - is that all He is? Will the Christ be more than that? Jesus challenges them to think deeper about a Messianic Psalm (110). And finally, and just as important -- is that who Jesus is? We know the Christ is bein...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about the end of Job! The longest continuous speech in Job is by a mysterious character named Elihu. He pops up at the end of Job, although he makes it clear he's been listening to Job and his friends while they were arguing the whole time. His theme is simple - regardless of the suffering we experience, God is good through it all! He is the right and just through it all. Then, God comes into the picture and peppers Job with do...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about how the leadership in the New Testament morphed into something different than when the church began. At the beginning, you see a heavy focus on the apostles' leadership. Then, at the end of Acts 11, you start seeing a different leadership group introduced - elders. From then on you start seeing elders becoming more and more prominent as leaders in the church. This dynamic of passing the torch of leadership is exactly what the m...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about who can be an elder in God's church. In a previous episode we began thinking about how impactful leaders in the church can be, for the good or for the bad. Leaders make a difference! That's why God wants elders in every church (Acts 14:23). But who can be an elder? The primary passages that talk about their qualifications are I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. Ponder those with me and the implications that they are sl...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about how and why suffering came into existence. God didn't create a world with pain, death or any semblance of suffering. That was only introduced because of sin. Because that's the case, many of us are tempted to think we are being punished for our own sins when we suffer. This is at the heart of the discussion between Job and his friends. Most of the time, suffering is not a punishment of our own sins. It's just not th...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about the impact of leadership! Both positively and negatively God's people have always been swayed by their leaders. God wants every congregation to have great leadership. That starts with the eldership. Many religions, even amongst modern day "Christianity" have all kinds of organizational structures and leadership models that are nowhere seen in the New Testament. What we do find is that God's will for each congregation is t...
![Contentment's Little [BIG!] Secret](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/yrj0prm3diy02m56a1wvkrdkobde?.jpg "Contentment's Little [BIG!] Secret")
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me about contentment. It is absolutely central to having a mind of thanksgiving. In this society which is constantly reminding us of what we don't have and all the upgrades we "need", it's not easy. It's not a poor man's problem either. It takes as much effort to learn contentment in rich people too. Fortunately, we have the example of the apostle Paul who lived in poverty and in riches. He found a secret to living in both a...
Send Allen a text - Ponder with me more about the book of Job! We can't even get out of chapter 1 without being confronted that God at least allows all suffering. Job's suffering was extreme and intense. How could he go through it and fall to his knees in worship? What were the things he was thinking while his wife wanted him to curse God? Powerful principles to help us deal with our suffering! But then comes the friends of Job...join in with me in this jo...
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