gregstier.org

Current Music

• 4th Avenue Jones:
  Stereo: The Evolution of Hiprocksoul
• Skillet:
  Comatose
• Casting Pearls:
  Casting Pearls
• Tobymac:
  Welcome to Diverse City

Current Books

• Leonardo Boff:
  Holy Trinity, Perfect Community
• John MacArthur:
  The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception
• W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne:
  Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
• Alan Gotthardt:
  The Eternity Portfolio (Generous Giving)

17 Comments for 'Have a very Merry podcast!'

1. On December 21, 2007 @ 6:59 pm Becky said:

   • Merry Christmas.

   • Permalink to Becky's comment

2. On December 21, 2007 @ 7:26 pm Jason said:

   • Greg, one of the best podcasts yet! Keep bringing the TRUTH!

   • Permalink to Jason's comment

3. On December 21, 2007 @ 11:12 pm justin hanneken said:

   • Greg,

     This has nothing to do with your podcast post, but please encourage Lane to do a Culture Commission on “Sweeney Todd” - Tim Burton’s new movie. All the teens are seeing it or itching to see it and I don’t think Plugged In’s (( http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0003555.cfm )) actually gets the point across about the danger that is this movie.

     Thanks bro,

     < Jh

   • Permalink to justin hanneken's comment

4. On December 22, 2007 @ 2:38 pm Ed said:

   • Hi Greg,

     Enjoyed the podcast. Very funny stuff at the beginning. I agree that we need to be clear about what’s clear, when we’re being clear about it.

     Listening to the talk made me wonder about the emphasis you placed in the talk. Maybe it’s different where you are, but as for my situation, I’m not sure that people’s experience of life with God depends *urgently* on a working knowledge of the theology of the virgin birth in quite the way you seem to suggest in the podcast. Perhaps I’ve picked you up wrong, though?

     The reason I say this is that I suspect that having a faulty theology of the incarnation is for many people more like having a scab that bleeds if you pick it, than the sort of domino sequence of precipices you gave us the image of.

     To be clear, I’m not saying that the Virgin Birth isn’t important - it’s something that God decided to do, so of course it’s important! What I’m saying is that it isn’t always pressingly urgent. I could be wrong, but I suspect that for most people where I am, the fact that Jesus got here seems more vital than how he got here. How he got here often only really becomes an issue to people once they start thinking about things like the taint of sin, and the sense in which he really is God’s son. In other words, it’s important when it’s important.

     It was important to iterate the doctrine of Christ’s full Godness and his full fleshness when that doctrine was under attack, as you laid out in the early part of your talk. It is important too, that the doctrine be generally accepted now by people who teach and study doctrines for the sake of the church. It is important that we don’t fall into serious error again. But is it really so important just now, when so many people stumble with the other mysteries of the faith to emphasize this one? Maybe it looks that way where you are, and you did quote Rob Bell, who I’ve heard is pretty influential, but it’s not that hot an issue over here, as far as I can tell.

     You spoke a bit about creeds, and the point I’d make about them is not that they contain the most vital elements of our faith, but that they refute the heresies which deny these truths. The supreme rule of faith and life for the Christian is the word of God as it is found in *all* the scriptures of the old and new testaments - not the creeds, which are at best subjective and partial - even the best of them. I am not against creeds- they are a useful answer to heresy and a helpful mnemonic, but that is all they are.

     If someone is needing to be forgiven, what they need to know is that God’s son, who is fully God, took the punishment for them. If they start asking supplementary questions about who this son is, and how we can be sure that he’s God’s son, and so on, then it becomes important to have a theology of the incarnation. Until it moves into the foreground, it’s not crucially pressing to move it there, is it? Look at it another way: John thought that it was enough to write an account of the eternal creator word which took on flesh and who “pitched his tent amongst us”.

     This is what he wrote concerning his reason for recording some of Jesus’ miracles but not others:
     “These are written that you may (or may continue to) believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. I am quite sure that Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written…

     Keep up the good work, and Happy Christmas!

     Ed.

   • Permalink to Ed's comment

5. On December 22, 2007 @ 3:04 pm Shane Vander Hart said:

   • Great podcast. Have a Merry Christmas!

   • Permalink to Shane Vander Hart's comment

6. On December 22, 2007 @ 3:22 pm Mary, Mary Quite… Controversial « Shane Vander Hart said:

   • […] HT: Greg Stier […]

   • Permalink to Mary, Mary Quite… Controversial « Shane Vander Hart's comment

7. On December 23, 2007 @ 10:29 am Greg said:

   • Hey Ed,

     Good points all. All that I’m saying is that we cannot really enjoy the doctrine of Jesus being fully God and fully man apart from the doctrine of the incarnation. It has more of an importance deductively (i.e. for Jesus to be fully God and fully man he had to be conceived “immaculately” in the virgin’s womb…i.e. if Jesus wasn’t miraculously conceived then the New Testament writers were less than honest and/or less than accurate…deducing out from that the Word of God cannot be trusted.)

   • Permalink to Greg's comment

8. On December 23, 2007 @ 1:49 pm ED said:

   • Fair play Greg. Happy hollidays. (Only kidding - have a great Christmas!)

   • Permalink to ED's comment

9. On December 23, 2007 @ 4:28 pm MiMi said:

   • Hey Greg, I was wondering if you’ve ever listened to Lecrae. He is a christian rapper and man the way you and him preach about the gospel are so alike.If you havn’t, you have to listen to him like his songs: unashamed and take me as i am.Goodness, I was watching a video of him at a concert and what he said about God and the way he tought the teenagers reminded me so much of you so i had to get on here and ask you if you knew about his music and ministry.Anywayz, Merry Christmas.

     Puttin’ it down 4 da Lord Jesus Christ
     -MiMi

     (keep reppin’ Christ)

   • Permalink to MiMi's comment

10. On December 24, 2007 @ 8:01 am Greg Stier said:

    • Hey MiMi,

      I’m a big Lecrae fan. I have two of his CD’s in my car. My little three year old girl is always rapping along with “Here I am…send me…send me…send me…”

      g

    • Permalink to Greg Stier's comment

11. On December 25, 2007 @ 6:46 am Will Bratina said:

    • Hey, Greg.
      Just finished my-er-Santa’s- cookies for my 16- and 11-year old sons (some traditions refuse to die).
      Your podcast came at a great time! A pastor I really admire in our PK group just stated last this week that if he knew that “Larry” was really Jesus’ dad, it wouldn’t change his theology. I had problems with that but didn’t know how to articulate my concern so I kept quiet. I am e-mailing the podcast site to him and will follow up with him later this week.
      Ed wrote,”It was important to iterate the doctrine of Christ’s full Godness and his full fleshness when that doctrine was under attack, as you laid out in the early part of your talk. It is important too, that the doctrine be generally accepted now by people who teach and study doctrines for the sake of the church. It is important that we don’t fall into serious error again. But is it really so important just now…”
      IT IS IMPORTANT JUST NOW, Ed! Here is a pastor, my pastor, a teacher many love and respect, a man who I know loves Jesus Christ, who in my understanding informed us the Begotten Conception is not a big deal. Let us not water down Who Jesus Christ IS. And let us not accept Who He IS NOT (the son of Larry, Moe or Curly Joe). I can do that well enough myself without being misguided by pastors and teachers passing out lukewarm theology. We your flock NEED to hear and see and live the Truth of Jesus Christ.
      Thanks, Greg, for allowing God to Use you as a Mighty Sword as His Word Flows through you.
      MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL GOD’S CHURCH!!
      PS-Used the podcast in Sunday School and my highschoolers all took diligent chapel notes with no yakkin’, a HUGE sign they were captivated. We’ll discuss it in class more next Sunday..

    • Permalink to Will Bratina's comment

12. On December 25, 2007 @ 6:55 am Will Bratina said:

    • Greg..
      Here’s another quote form our brother Oswald Chambers’ ‘My Utmost for His Highest’. Peace, Stier family..

      “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35 (August 8th)

      If the Son of God is born into my mortal flesh, is His holy innocence and simplicity and oneness with the Father getting a chance to manifest itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the historic introduction of God’s Son into this earth is true in every saint. The Son of God is born into me by the direct act of God; then I as a child of God have to exercise the right of a child, the right of being always face to face with my Father. Am I continually saying with amazement to my common-sense life - why do you want to turn me off here? Don’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business? Whatever the circumstances may be, that Holy Innocent Eternal Child must be in contact with His Father.

      Am I simple enough to identify myself with my Lord in this way? Is He getting his wonderful way in me? Is God realizing that His Son is formed in me, or have I carefully put Him on one side? Oh, the clamour of these days! Everyone is clamouring - for what? For the Son of God to be put to death. There is no room here for the Son of God just now, no room for quiet holy communion with the Father.

      Is the Son of God praying in me or am I dictating to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the days of His flesh? Is the Son of God in me going through His passion for His own purposes? The more one knows of the inner life of God’s ripest saints, the more one sees what God’s purpose is - “filling up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ.” There is always something to be done in the sense of “filling up.”

    • Permalink to Will Bratina's comment

13. On December 31, 2007 @ 3:10 pm Lily said:

    • Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
      Here is a copy of my Christmas card-

      ‘Twas the night before Jesus came

      ‘Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
      Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
      Their Bibles were laid on the shelf without care,
      In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

      The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
      Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
      And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
      Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

      When out of the East there rose such a clatter,
      I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
      Away to the window I flew like a flash
      Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

      When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
      But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
      With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
      I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

      The light of His face made me cover my head.
      It was Jesus! Returning just like He had said.
      And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
      I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

      In the Book of Life which He held in His hand,
      Was written the name of every saved man.
      He spoke not a word as He searched for my name.
      When He said, “It’s not here” my head hung with shame.

      The people whose names had been written with love
      He gathered to take to his Father above.
      With those who were ready He rose without sound
      While all the rest were left standing around.

      I fell to my knees, but it was too late.
      I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
      I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight.
      Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

      In the words of this poem the meaning is clear:
      The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
      There’s only one life and when comes the last call
      We’ll find that the Bible was true after all!

    • Permalink to Lily's comment

14. On December 31, 2007 @ 8:19 pm Ed said:

    • Hey Will -
      and thanks for taking the time to write to me on Christmas day! It sounds like it’s important in an urgent kind of way in your situation, right enough. It seems an odd thing for a theologian to be saying, though I suspect it’s 100% true for him! - It probably wouldn’t change his theology, since it’s clearly an unexamined area for him… Mind you, I bet you could probably find any number of weird ideas in the most orthodox of people if you dig deep enough around the edges of knowledge and experience! Happy new year to you.

      Ed.

    • Permalink to Ed's comment

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