Comments on: Heresy Unlimited Inc.

By: Sam LeRoy

Sam LeRoy — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:03:57 +0000

taken from Stephen's message above... "The tough part with this is I see a movement to reach out to the disenfranchise, broken, poor, and helpless and it’s labeled "social justice." This reaching out is a dead work, guilt out of a proud heart, not charity out of a pure heart. I realize that social justice for the sake of social justice isn’t of any Kingdom benefit, but I cant move past all of the verses throughout the Bible that talk about taking care of the widow and the orphan, the oppressed and poor. James writes that doing this is true "religion" (see Js. 1:27). James is taking it by faith that the people he is telling this to have accepted Jesus AND His cleansing of their heart, so now they can do truly charitable work out of a truly pure heart not a debt ridden heart trying to justify / vindicate itself. The Royal Law is the governing Law here. Do not take God's blessing called love in the Royal Law and idolize/pervert it and place it on equal or greater terms than God himself. God is in charge of the Royal Law, the Royal Law is not in charge of God. So if we see some fruit why do we choose to call it something else. The Chinese missionary was visiting the U.S.A. city of "Some Fruit", he went back to China and expressed his amazement at how much the city of "Some Fruit" was accomplishing without Jesus. ...but to GOD be the glory and GOD’s glory alone. I am glad that GOD's plan is not just for himself and himself alone. HE decided to include all believers to share Himself with for all eternity.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:11:02 +0000

Hey Steve,

Thanks so much for your perspective. I'm all about feeding the poor and helping the helpless...a big part of what we do at Dare 2 Share is centered on just that. As a matter of fact I believe that if we can unleash this generation to serve AND share we will have exactly what is needed to bring true, nitty gritty, internal and external transformation.

As for our Reformer brothers (AKA Martin Luther and the boys) I believe they were calling Christianity back to the basics, sola fide, sola Scriputra (all the good sola's). I believe a lot (but not all) of what is happening today is not a call back to the basics but a call to something else...just what I don't know. I don't think there is consensus on that anywhere. But as long as it is a call to take Jesus, the Word of God and the power of the gospel of Jesus, I'm all for it. To the degree that it is not, neither am I.

Remember I was raised in a high poverty situation by a single mom, blah, blah, blah...so I know the pain of "the other side of the tracks." What gave me more hope than anything else was Jesus...that's all I'm saying. In the midst of our efforts to serve others, let's stay faithful to the Word of God to the best that we can and share the good news of Jesus with our lives and our lips.

Talk to you soon...Nova or Starbucks. Thanks for your input.

By: stephen

stephen — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:01:57 +0000

Oh Greg. The old "New Kind of Gnosticism" bit. You slay me. Of course, it’s herescy to look to tradition to grow deeper with Christ. Why would we resort to something that the church threw out during the Protestant Reformation. I’m sure glad that we got rid of things that would link us to 5th century followers of Christ. I realize that Luther and some of the other reformers weren’t trying to break away from the universal church (Catholic or "the bad guys"), but where would we be with out it. Now we’re able to live in our own traditions, that we made for us 500 years ago. We made waist coats when they didn’t even have coats like we do now. Silly people, no coats. But now we can brag about our coats and reject anyone who doesn’t have a coat. We can make a club for people who have coats and we can sit together and complement each other on their coats. We can, once a year, put together an event where we leave our coat clubhouse and tell people that they can belong to our club if they start to where the coats we give them. We wont worry about the fact that it’s 80 degrees outside. We could take the coats to people who need them, when they need them, but that might be too cold for us. Greg, I know you’re catching my sarcasm. So I’ll stop. But here’s where I’m at. We might be talking about 2 different groups of people, but either way we can use the saying "you’ll know a tree by it’s fruit." The tough part with this is I see a movement to reach out the the disenfranchise, broken, poor, and helpless and it’s labeled "social justice." I realize that social justice for the sake of social justice isn’t of any Kingdom benefit, but I cant move past all of the verses throughout the Bible that talk about taking care of the widow and the orphan, the oppressed and poor. James writes that doing this is true "religion" (see Js. 1:27). So if we see some fruit why do we choose to call it something else. I realize that this would be a better discussion over coffee, but I don’t see you that much these days. Forgive me if I offend. I realize that we see things different, but to GOD be the glory and GOD’s glory alone.

By: Jessie F.

Jessie F. — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:24:49 +0000

GREG!!!!! You’re awesome, man! Last weekend I just went on a youth leader retreat with my church (first e free in "st louie"–you’ve come there after d2s for the past few years but aren’t coming this year….when i found that out i was very disappointed!!!) …anyway, the leader retreat. So we were talking about ways to better show the kids Christ’s love and share the gospel with them and all that good stuff and I can’t tell you how many times your name came up! We would be like "Well if Greg Stier were here, he would say…." "Greg Stier is really good at that" "Greg Stier would tell you he’s just an average guy" haha WE LOVE YOU, GREG!!!!! You’re amazing. Really. I cannot wait for D2S February 9, i think? At the Scottrade Center. This year will be my third time going, and i must say that your powerful preaching, the skits, and worship always excite and re-energize me for another year of spreading God’s Word!!! You’re such an inspiration to me of how you’ve taken the passion you have for Biblical truths and sharing that with so many people!!!! I have a tape of when you came to my church and spoke three years ago, I think and every once in a while I’ll put it in a cassette player and listen to it and thank God and pray for you. Well, this has been a somewhat random comment, but I just wanted to share this stuff with you! God bless you, and I’ll see you in a few weeks! -Jessie F. from First E Free in….THA LOU

By: samleroy

samleroy — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:39:52 +0000

I was shopping at HUI just the other day and I found out the store signs need to be read real close before going in . I thought I was shopping in the "Appreciation of Vindication" store, but a man pointed out that I was in the "Lust for Vindication" outlet. He said the reason he followed me in was that he noticed that I got pulled in by my lust. I then turned and ask him "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" and then He opened my eyes. The clerks thought I was a lunatic when I ran out of there to find my friends to tell them what happened, ... and I thought I was just lking in HUI.

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:58:32 +0000

YAY!! ive been ranting about this with my friend and my girlfriend for about like a month now and now someone else has too! the best part about these people is that they are so firmly rooted in their own little truth they wont recognize the real Truth when they see it or they are shown it! more fun for us trying to explain things to them!

By: Gary W. Cox

Gary W. Cox — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:30:31 +0000

Praise God! I couldn’t have stated that better then you just did. Don’t forget the book store where Gnostic material is labeled Christian.(Barnes and Noble) and the "if you believe it’s in History, it is, but only if you believe. " What about the new self help section where God is used in order to bless us, money is the purpose and hurt is the gospel? Wait there’s more! it’s a floating store! With no foundation! Why? Because foundations are too old school and closed minded. Just limiting. Just think happy thoughts and it flies where you want it. Hey, I like doing this. But it is terribly sad. The more I analyze the situation, the more it sickens me and the more I realize why it seems so hard to evangelize now. Truth is obscure and comfort is the desire. There was a time, as C.S. Lewis said, that "men would quite well admit when their idea was proven wrong and adjust it according to the truth." Now, I fear that even the true gospel itself will seem weak. Only figurativley. Because that foundation of right and wrong has floated away into non-existance. What has replaced it is a cloud of vapor composed of feeling, preference, blame and all sense of moral accountability has betrayed us. "They talk in one book how men trample on morality, and in another how morality tramples on men." G.K. Chesterton on the modern skeptic always in revolt. I feel your pain and great anger and concern. Keep on keepin on. Without our foundation, we don’t even have a ladder of works to climb. Thank God for His grace!

By: Becky

Becky — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:46:27 +0000

Greg-Funny thing is I was so curious about Gnosticism last weekend and then this weekend you have a blog about it.The book of Jude tells us to beware of false prophets.Also my dads bible had some information about Gnosticism in 1 John.This week I think on Monday I asked my bible teacher and he said that Gnosticism started around the begginning of the new testament and that they believe they were so much more spirtual that they did not have to obey God’s word.I agree that Gnosticism can still be in churches today.