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.