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
164 episodes
ICE Protests and the Exclusive Way of Jesus (1 Timothy Series)
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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29:05
Haman’s Holocaust Threat That Should Have Never Happened (Esther #2)
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 th...
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Season 3
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Episode 9
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30:04
Squandering the Glory We Were Made to Image and Seeing His Glory Better
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 se...
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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26:59
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The Security of Believers vs. Handing Over to Satan (1 Timothy Series)
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 s...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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22:13
Shipwrecked Faith and Handing Over People to Satan (1 Timothy Series)
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 ne...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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26:03
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Convincing Esther - Being Open to God’s Providence
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 t...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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32:50
The Prototype Sinner or the Worst of Sinners? (1 Timothy Series)
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 interpr...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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20:41
Is There a Time When Scripture is NOT Good? (1 Timothy Series)
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...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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29:41
Dealing With Church Problems - What is Our Aim? (1 Timothy Series)
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 stun...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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25:21
The Classroom of Creation - Letting God's Glory Put Things in Perspective
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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27:30
Hearing with Ears Like Jesus - "Ears You Have Dug for Me"
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 transla...
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Season 2
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Episode 93
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25:22
The Chain Gang of Love - Summing Up Helping One Another Thrive
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 epis...
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Season 2
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Episode 92
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29:20
Preacher Talk or Church Curriculum? Themes of I Timothy (Letter Reading Follows)
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...
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Season 2
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Episode 91
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30:40
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Pierce My Ear, Lord - I Want to Stay Forever
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 90
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26:59
Moving From Thanksgiving to Worship with His People
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...
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Season 2
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Episode 89
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16:17
Satan and Archangel Michael Arguing - So Cryptic! But Don't Miss the Point
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 fro...
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Season 2
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Episode 88
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15:24
When God Doesn't Agree with Me - Bringing Baggage to Scripture
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. Wh...
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Season 2
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Episode 87
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29:46
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Absolute Confidence in Prayer, Like Elijah (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #14)
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 sto...
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Season 2
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Episode 86
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26:38
LORD Sabaoth, God of Angel Armies (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #13)
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 85
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26:33
Helping the Church with Our Extra Manna
Ponder with me about what to do with our extra manna. We don't often think about the contribution of money on the Lord's Day as being a facet of one-another Christianity, but it's at the very heart of taking care of one another. Please join me ...
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Season 2
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Episode 84
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28:50
Be Gone! The Insidiousness of Short-cuts (Battling Temptation #3)
Ponder with me the final two temptations from Satan in Matthew 4. They are all about shortcuts. The shortcut to show everyone Jesus is the true Messiah, and the shortcut of God's promise to Christ of all the nations (Psalm 2). Satan is all abou...
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Season 2
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Episode 83
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29:30
Snapping Back into Spiritual Reality (Blue-Collar Christianity, James #12)
Ponder with me some applications to some very big topics - loving our neighbor as ourselves and the brevity of life. It may seem silly to ponder such big things in one lesson, but James gives them in back-to-back paragraphs. Hint - it all has t...
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Season 2
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Episode 83
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25:52
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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