Past ponderings, can still be a present voice . . . (#2)

Please re-join me in my ongoing pondering . . . as I think along about thinking, and crystallise some thoughts . . .

Taking time to read the scriptures and pondering in the reading process is a great and intentional long-time habit. Pondering is ruminating by another name, and more. See we all ponder when we think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. Essentially, to ponder means, “to weigh in the mind, reflect, and consider with thoroughness and care.”

Some time back along with lots of other folk at our church, I spent “40 days with Jesus.” Over that time, we engaged in daily readings of the life of Jesus. We read the text and daily note commentary, prayed a focused prayer, and pondered on what the “sound of the reading was voicing to us.” I then wrote what was the heart of my daily “hearings.”

Now, a couple of years hence, I’m still hearing—so, here’s the second of three posts considering some of my “ongoing ponderings” . .  .

• Lost people are the “passion of the seeking Father.”

• “Jesus was not just sent; the God who sent him was with Him. His Father had not sent him into another space – He came from the Father, with His Father and into His Father’s world.”

• In the reading of scripture, God’s Kingdom and Christian church integrate in the person and ongoing mission of Jesus. Seeing them as un-associated entities requires “hermeneutical hallucination.” Neither exists as illusion, both are real; both are a growing incarnation through Christ’s coming into this world. Both call me to an integrated passion and participation. So, since I love Jesus, it is normative to love and passionately participate in both. 

• Relating to people means seeing them as persons – Jesus had this one sussed!

• Like Jesus, faith-friends aren’t our only friends – Selah!!!

• The centrality of suffering isn’t death; its resurrection. Resurrection is not life after death; its life-after-life.

Past ponderings, can still be a present voice . . . (#1)

Join me in pondering . . . as I think along about thinking, and crystallise some thoughts . . .

While “ponder” rhymes with “wander”, they are antonyms.  They are opposites. My mind and heart’s thought can consider and reflect; they can also wander and dissipate. As I read, I can easily wander or ponder. Though, ponder I should.

Taking some time to read the scriptures and pondering in the reading process is long-time habit with me. So, what is pondering? Ruminate by another name? Well, yes; and more.  

We ponder when we think about (something) carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion. Essentially, to ponder means; “to weigh in the mind, reflect, and consider with thoroughness and care.”

Some time back along with lots of other folk at our church, I spent “40 days with Jesus.” Over that time, we engaged in daily readings of the life of Jesus. We read the text and daily note commentary, prayed a focused prayer, and pondered on what the “sound of the reading was voicing to us.” I then wrote what was the heart of my daily “hearings.”

Now, a couple of years hence, I’m still hearing—here’s the first of three posts considering some of my “ongoing ponderings” .  .  .

• All resources are God’s; He is the owner, we are His stewards.

• Jesus knows what He is doing when He asks me to act. My obedience does not “inform the divine.”

• While Jesus favours neither rich nor poor, take note, He is “clearly focused on the commonly ignored.” With Jesus, those on society’s margins are not to be marginalised.

• No matter how high the cost goes (or seems to go) for me, it will never reach the level Jesus paid in enabling me to become His follower.

• Accountability is the measurement of effectively pursuing one’s entrusted responsibilities.

• “Being lost and knowing it, is the first step towards the experience of being found.”

• Miracles are signs of God’s “reaching out”—not His “showing off.”