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Embracing & Avoiding Vulnerability :: Transitions

Presented at Curwensville Alliance by Pastor Steve Shields on 5/5/2019

How do you feel about vulnerability?

I would guess your answer would depend, largely, on your experiences.

If someone has taken advantage of you and injured you, vulnerability may be something you avoid. If people have treated you with tenderness in difficult times, you may not be frightened by vulnerability at all.

My guess is that most of us are in the former group, not the later.

This podcast is designed to help us transition our perspective on vulnerability so that we can use it to our advantage and to glorify God.

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How Do You View Success :: Transitions

Presented at Curwensville Alliance Church on 4/28/2019 by Pastor Steve Shields

Bob was one of the kindest men I knew. I was in my twenties and he was in his seventies, but we clicked from the time we met. He encouraged me over and over in those early years of my ministry.

He was the kind of guy who would say the same thing over and over until you finally let it sink in. One of those things he said to me went like this:

You can’t please everyone.

He was right. You can’t. And if you allow others to define what it looks like to be successful, you’ll likely never taste true success.

This podcast encourages us to transition our thinking on success so that we can experience it and so that God will be glorified.

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Don’t Miss the Subtleties of Easter Sunday

Presented by Pastor Steve Shields at Curwensville Alliance on Easter Sunday – 4/21/2019

Do you have people in your life who don’t pick up on subtleties? For example – a couple are visiting you in your home and it’s getting late. You kind of hint, that it’s time for them to go:

It’s been nice to have you visiting this evening. Thanks for coming.

And they remain. The miss the subtlety.

So you step it up.

Oh, look at the time. I have to get up for work tomorrow at 5 am.

And they stay right where they are. They miss the subtlety.

Finally, you look at your wife and nod.

She says, “Well – I’m going to bed. Goodnight.” And you get up and open the front door for them to use as their exit.

That would probably work. It’s not quite so subtle.

Sadly, I admit to you, that I often don’t pick up on subtleties. Laurel helps me.

There are subtle realities in the story of Jesus’ resurrection — realities that you can’t afford to miss.

This podcast speaks of them

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Palm Sunday :: Jesus’ Cross – and Yours

Presented at Curwensville Alliance on 4/14/2019 by Pastor Steve Shields

Palm Sunday is the day we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – riding as a king, being celebrated by the people.

Later that week – on Thursday – he will celebrate the Passover Meal with his disciples, and teach them that the Passover Meal is really about him.

Thursday evening, he will be arrested.

Friday – Good Friday – he will take up his cross.

That phrase, “take up his cross” is something that Jesus did — and it’s something he said those who wish to be his followers must do.

How do you do that?

This podcast speaks about how we take up our cross our everyday world.

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Keys to Avoiding Counterfeits :: Counterfeits

Presented by Pastor Steve at Curwensville Alliance on 4/7/2019

Every parent has told their children, “Stay away from Johnny. He’s a bad influence.” But as time goes by, you begin to see that there are a lot of other children who might not be a good influence on your child. What do you do? Print out a list of children they are to avoid? That would be less than ideal.

Wise parents generally end up teaching the child to choose friends wisely. And, eventually, the parent and child both realize that how you behave will influence whether you connect with good kids or not so good kids.

That’s the way it is with the counterfeits we’ve been discussing over the past few weeks. We’ve looked at a list of them – and we’ve seen some we definitely want to avoid. But no list of this nature is comprehensive.

So what can we do to avoid counterfeits, in general?

The answer is found in what kind of life you live — in how you walk.

This podcast gives practical, biblical counsel of how to live so that you avoid counterfeits in your own life.

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Counterfeit Anointing :: Counterfeits

Presented at Curwensville Alliance on 3/31/2019 by Pastor Steve Shields

It’s both a blessing and a curse. We live in a world where anyone can present anything that’s on their mind in text, audio, or video. Whether it’s accurate or not, people have great power to publish whatever they want. It’s a blessing because you can get good biblical teaching like never before. It’s a curse because not all teaching that calls itself biblical is genuinely biblical.

This is dangerous in many areas, but perhaps it’s most dangerous in the area of Christian faith.

For example, I know a woman who is leading a campus ministry at a major university who doesn’t really understand the gospel. What she does understand about the gospel, she doesn’t believe. She’s feeding pluralism to young minds, suggesting that the death and resurrection of Christ are superfluous. That’s false teaching. It’s empowered by a false anointing.

How do you discern a genuine anointing from a counterfeit one?

How do you discern a trustworthy ministry from one that is filled with deception?

This podcast addresses that question head on.

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Counterfeit Authority :: Counterfeits

Presented on 3/25/2019 at Curwensville Alliance by Pastor Steve Shields

We all like to think we are “an authority” on something.

Get a bunch of people together and start talking about music and you’ll hear things like, “Clapton is overrated!” and “The blues are the only kind of music with any heart!” and “If it’s not hip-hop, it’s not worth producing!” The more they speak, it’s likely that you’ll realize it’s just a bunch of opinions; no one there is a real authority on music.

Get a bunch of guys together and you find a room full of authorities, on hunting, fishing, hockey, football — you name it. After a while, you realize it’s all a matter of posing. Guys are great at posing in that context.

Counterfeit authority. It’s all around us.

It’s even prevalent in spiritual matters. Most people tend to feel they are a spiritual authority.


Thinking Christians believe that Jesus is the only authority.

But are you looking to him?

This podcast speaks of our tendency to look to counterfeit authority, and leads us to look to genuine authority.

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Counterfeit Knowledge :: Counterfeits

Presented at Curwensville Alliance by Pastor Steve Shields on 3/17/2019

One of my many embarrassing moments came my freshman year in college.

I am a fan of Beatles music. I have been since my childhood. I was ruining my brother’s vinyl LPs when I was barely tall enough to see where to place the needle on the record.

So my freshman year, I was sitting in one of the townhouse apartments listening to the Beatles with an upperclassman we called Monk, when he pointed to one of them and said, “John is my favorite Beatle.”

I laughed and said, “That’s George!” I went on, as freshmen sometimes do, and named each Beatle pictured on each of his albums. Showing him that he was wrong.

Then he got out a book on the Beatles — and it was I who was mistaken.

Being wrong wasn’t the problem. Laughing at him because I thought he was wrong…. that was embarrassing.

Getting the names of a couple pop musicians wrong is trivial. But there are other areas of life where, if we get it wrong, the consequences can be staggering.

This podcast addresses counterfeit knowledge and genuine knowledge, and speaks of how to tell them apart.

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Counterfeit Security :: Counterfeits

Presented at Curwensville Alliance on 3/3/2019 by Pastor Steve Shields

A few decades ago, a Christian author proposed that people have two basic needs — beyond the physical. Security and Significance. He went on to say these are often gender specific. Okay. Maybe. But we all know that, whatever your gender, you want to be secure. And whatever your gender, you want your life to have meaning.

And often, as we work to make our lives secure, we grab some counterfeits — things we think make us secure, but don’t really.

This podcast speaks of counterfeit security and shows us how to find genuine security.

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