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
142 episodes
High Priestly Training in the Wilderness (Battling Temptation #2)
Ponder the spiritual warfare in the wilderness between Christ and Satan, from Matthew 4. Christ, as our High Priest, is showing the way to fight temptation. Let's get into the mind of the devil, while also getting into the mind of Jesus. These ...
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Season 2
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Episode 82
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30:40
Christ in the Wilderness - Prep Work to Help Us (Battling Temptation #1)
Ponder with me about how Christ helps us in our temptations. Although I don't know all the details, Hebrews is quite clear that Jesus is available and ready to help us in our temptations. The reason He is able to do so is because He was tempted...
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Season 2
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Episode 81
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26:12
Grace Greater Than Our Idolatry (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #11)
Let's ponder worldliness a bit more. This is a bit of a continuation of the last episode. If I did not quite convince you that worldliness is idolatry, wait till you see the passages that speak of God's jealousy. Our love of the world has incit...
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Season 2
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Episode 80
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20:51
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Worldliness as Adultery, or Idolatry? (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #10)
Let's ponder the strong language James has about worldliness. He calls it spiritual adultery (4:4). That might not be as shocking on the surface, but when you compare it to how Scripture speaks of spiritual adultery in other places, you'll find...
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Season 2
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Episode 79
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26:50
Strange Fire and a Strange Death - A Thought on Scriptural Authority
Ponder the deaths of Nadab and Abihu with me. They were Aaron's sons and died by the hand of God in Leviticus 10 because they offered unauthorized fire. First, what does this say about God's commands? Secondly - what does this say about how we ...
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Season 2
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Episode 78
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14:22
Time to Yield! Wisdom to be Open (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #9)
Ponder another aspect of heavenly wisdom - being open to reason. This Greek term in James 3:17 is a super deep word! It's translated differently in almost every English translation. How does this wisdom show up in our everyday lives? We'll go t...
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Season 2
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Episode 77
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22:37
Wisdom to Seek Congregational Peace (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #8)
Ponder what wisdom from above is all about. Heavenly wisdom shows itself in many ways, but one vital one that James brings to our attention is in peaceable relationships. What do our relationships in the church have to do with wisdom? Ponder it...
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Season 2
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Episode 76
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23:07
Charlie Kirk and the Free [Hate] Speech Debate (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #7)
Let's ponder the raging debate within our society about free speech and hate speech. One of the results from Charlie Kirk's assassination has been this ongoing debate. Both sides of the political isle are saying that the rhetoric needs to calm ...
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Season 2
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Episode 75
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24:07
Justification Showdown Between James & Paul (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #6)
Ponder with me about how James can say that we are justified by works and not by faith alone (2:24). Ironically, that is the only time in the original language of the N.T. where the phrase "faith alone" is found. This sounds very contradictory ...
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Season 2
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Episode 74
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26:54
Shhhhh - Everyone Quiet! God Has Spoken
This episode is a branch off of the last one. James 1 spoke about the prep work we need to do with our hearts, to help us listen to God better. In a context about listening to God, James said, "be slow to speak". This is the topic of a part of ...
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Season 2
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Episode 73
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8:57
Prepping Our Heart for an Implant (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #5)
Ponder with me about one of the key themes to religion in general - listening. It all begins with listening to God! It's how faith comes. James speaks about how to prep the heart to listen faithfully though. Listening to God with humility and o...
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Season 2
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Episode 72
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26:36
Build, Pray, Keep and Wait - A Recipe for Keeping Ourselves in the Truth
Let's ponder much of the book of Jude together. Jude has much to say about false teachers, and it is very harsh. How can we keep our congregations pure from false teachers? Furthermore, how can we best deal with Christians who may have suffered...
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Season 2
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Episode 71
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26:43
Leaving the Faith So Soon? But He Saved You in Baptism
Ponder with me some of the things Paul reminds the church about when encouraging them to stay faithful. Much of the New Testament letters are designed to help Christians stay true to Christ, and such is the case in Colossians 2. The things Paul...
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Season 2
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Episode 70
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26:14
'My Trials Aren't Helping!' Who is to Blame? (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #4)
Ponder with me about what James means when he says that God does not tempt anyone (1:13). This is a statement about God's intentions, so we're going to dive into the mind of God a bit to think about HIs purposes. Also - what happens if my trial...
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Season 2
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Episode 69
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22:28
A Respectful but Uncompromising Stand - Daniel's Balancing Act
Let's ponder the rest of the story in Daniel 1. Last week we talked about resisting temptation and used Daniel as a case-study about what it means to be resolved against temptation. This week let's look at the results of his uncompromising fait...
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Season 2
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Episode 68
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28:11
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Receive This Implanting with Meekness (Blue-Collar Christianity, Reading from James)
Ponder James as a whole with me. We're in a series about Blue-collar Christianity, which is a study of James. I want to throw this into the series to help us not lose sight of the entire book as a whole. It's a reading from James, start to fini...
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Season 2
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Episode 67
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20:54
No Excuses, Just Resolve - The War Against Temptation
Let's ponder the battle against temptation. We all are battling it, although some of us may not be engaging the fight like we ought. Daniel, on the other hand, was full of resolve in his fight against it...even though he was in a position of su...
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Season 2
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Episode 66
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32:56
Punked! A Humiliating Life (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #3)
Let's ponder our wealth and comfortability seriously. Are these legitimately helping us spiritually? The way we pursue them, you would think so. James makes a startling comparison - the exaltation of poor Christians vs the humiliation of the wo...
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Season 2
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Episode 65
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21:49
The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Our Trials (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #2)
Ponder with me the spiritual benefit that can come from trials. James 1 says they can create steadfastness, but Jesus mentioned people falling away in the midst of their faith being tested (Luke 8:14). So, which is it? It's up to us, and whethe...
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Season 2
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Episode 64
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27:16
Wisdom an Outcast Would Love (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #1)
Please ponder a new series about Blue Collar Christianity with me. It's all about the book of James. In this lesson we introduce the book by emphasizing how it is different from most other N.T. Scripture. It is tremendously applicable and down ...
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Season 2
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Episode 63
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27:53
Investigating Excellence! How Can We Better Edify One Another?
Ponder with me about how we can investigate to excel in building the church up. Paul says to do this in I Corinthians 14:12. Most translations say "seek" or "strive", but the original Greek term can mean "investigate". In other words, Paul want...
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Season 2
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Episode 62
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29:06
Revealing God's Face, Through Forgiving Others
Let's ponder how we can show the world what God is like. It's not easy but it is powerful - forgiving others. We all know how serious God is about forgiving others. There were few things Jesus spoke so seriously about. Perhaps God knew just how...
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Season 2
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Episode 61
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33:54
Trusting God's Faithfulness as Much as His Power - the Rest of the Story (ours)
I start off this pondering with this question - what character of the O.T. believe in resurrection before there were any resurrections? And what was going through his mind to cause him to trust such a thing? This lesson has more application to ...
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Season 2
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Episode 60
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26:15
A Despised, Rejected Victor - Christ in the O.T. Series #15
Let's ponder Christ's resurrection in the Old Testament. This will be our last lesson in our series on seeing Christ in the Old Testament. There's no better place to land than on the most important event in human history. Christ's resurrection ...
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Season 2
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Episode 59
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31:09
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The Contagion of Christ, Reversing the Curse of the Law
Ponder the healing of the hemorrhaging woman with me. This episode is a bit of a follow up from the last. We saw in the previous episode that under the Old Law, uncleanness could spread but cleanness/holiness could NOT (Haggai 2). However, Chri...
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Season 2
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Episode 57
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23:39
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