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Life of Steve

Gracious God

S - I felt encouraged because the gracious hand of the Lord my God was on me. (Ezra 7:28)

O - When we are in the depths of hurt and struggle. We see the gracious hand of God encouraging our lives.

A - I've been struggling recently to see where God is in my life. It's been a time of being unsure of my abilities, value and being confused at what God wants for me and my family. As I look at the last couple of weeks I see God's gracious hand of provision moving in my life.

P - Thank you God for the love you have for me. Thank your for your provision and encouragement. You are a gracious God and I love you.

Posted October 7, 2009
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I'm A Christian, Not A Doormat

S -  Again and again he rescued them, but they chose to rebel against him,and they were finally destroyed by their sin. Even so, he pitied them in their distress and listened to their cries. He remembered his covenant with them relented because of his unfailing love. Psalm 106:43-45

O - After being hurt time and time again by the Israelites, God didn't want to rescue them, but because He loved them, He did.

A - Sometimes we feel hurt over and over by the same people or same circumstances. Many people look at Christians like a bunch of hippie wusses and doormats, being walked all over and not getting angry at others. This verse reminds me that it's not about Christians being wusses, it's about the fact that if God could find it in His heart to continue to rescue Israel, time and time again, I too can learn to forgive others. As someone who wants to follow the example of Christ, I have to. It's not that I don't care about the hurt, because I do get hurt, so did God, but it's more about the need to show God's unfailing love in spite of the hurt.

P - God help me to love others like you do. I want to recognize the hurt and respond like you did, with love. 

Posted August 19, 2009
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Communion

I've this sinking feeling i'm before Your throne
and these songs i have been singing well they're empty in my throat

As this plate comes by i realize i'm close to the fire but i'm still cold
and what once was juice and crackers now becomes my only hope

This cup is not enough i must be washed in Your sweet blood
and stale bread it just won't do tonight

Oh and in my unworthy state i kneel before Your loving grace
and wish that i could see Your face in mine}

I am reeling, realization i'm before Your throne
and deserving condemnation You make mine your own

Could this be my true communion You and i here face to face
if i'm dreaming let me dream, oh let me never ever wake 


How often do we take communion for granted. Many times we'll have the communion plate pass by and we'll take a cracker and some juice and we'll maybe take 10 seconds to say that we love you Jesus and then eat. Often we don't take the time to realize what we're doing in communion. It's a time to spend time with God, to realize what the juice and cracker represents should break us. We shouldn't be able to only take 10 seconds, we should be broken before our Lord and Saviour in humble thanksgiving for what He's done. 

Thank you God for the gracious, sacrificial love you've given me. Through all the sins that I've committed and will commit, you love me and willingly gave your Son to die for me. Thank you for the blood you shed and pain and suffering you endured. God, I pray I don't take your love for granted, but embrace it and share it with others.

Posted June 27, 2009
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The Hard Work of Forgiveness

"Don't you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good." (Genesis 50:20)

Joseph could have easily been justified in anything that he did in response to how his brothers had treated him. Holding a grudge is easy, letting things fester is easy, you don't have to do anything for that to happen. Love and forgiveness on the other hand requires work. It requires scraping away the hurt in order to allow healing to happen.

Joseph saw the bigger picture of what was going on. When we only look at our current position and only look at what is right in front of us, we can be discouraged and get mad. When we step back and look at God's bigger picture, we can see the bigger picture of grace and forgiveness. 

God help me to peel back the layers of hurt and allow your healing. Let that healing sink deep into my soul to see you bigger picture of grace and forgiveness and help to act on that.

Posted June 16, 2009
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Tester

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Steve Gold
Junior High Pastor
South Valley Community Church
(408) 848-2363 ext. 106
www.crashjh.com

Posted June 16, 2009
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Testing

Testing
Steve Gold
Junior High Pastor
South Valley Community Church
(408) 848-2363 ext. 106
www.crashjh.com

Posted June 8, 2009
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Your Love Is Extravagant

Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate
I feel like moving to the rhythm of Your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place
Your love is extravagant

Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known You considered me a friend
Capture my heart again

So I was listening to Your Love Is Extravagant by The Almost today and was reminded about the intimacy we have with Christ. I heard this song a few years ago when it was originally done by Casting Crowns and fell in love with it, not only because is a well done song musically, but because it encapsulates the goal of my relationship with Christ. The love that Christ has for me is extravagant and big and over the top. He loves me more than anything and at the same time He is my most intimate friend that I am able to talk to and spend time with. When view my relationship with Christ I view being able to sit the arms of Christ and talk about how I'm feeling right then, knowing that He loves me and won't judge me. It's a great feeling. It's a feeling that many times we forget. We forget that our relationship with God isn't just a list of rules or a to dos, but it is a love relationship between the Creator and His creation. We just need to sit in His presence and soak in that intimacy. 

Posted June 8, 2009
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Posted from my mobile phone (SMS)

Posted April 13, 2009
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One Step At A Time

It’s great how God parallels teaching moments in the midst of crisis in our lives. Let me start with today and work backwards. Today I went for hike. I needed to get away due to some of the crisis that I’ll talk about later. Anyways, I went Mt. Madonna and I found a trail to go on. Now at the core of who I am, I’m a average athletic guy, except right now in my life I am overweight and out of shape, so the mere fact that I’m on a hike is a big step. Anyways, as I’m hiking on the trail I realize that I’ve been going downhill for a while and it pops into my head that what goes down will go up, but I continue anyways. I get to the bottom of the hill, I rest for a while and then start the ascension up the hill. I was fine for a little while and then it got hard. My heart was pumping, I was sweating like a pig and it seemed like the hill never ended. It came to the point where looking up at the hill and was a bit overwhelmed, so I just looked down at the ground and took one step at time. It worked. I got into a rhythm and was less overwhelmed and began making great progress.

I got me thinking to where I am currently in life. The last 7 months have been a whirlwind of craziness, but good craziness. My daughter was born 7 months ago and we purchased and moved into a new house about a month and half ago. Life is good, I’m cruising, going downhill. On Thursday I get the news that due to the financial status of our church, my full time position with benefits is being cut to part time position with no benefits. Crap (or other not family friendly expletive). A giant hill just sprung up. The last couple of days have been crisis mode basically figuring out how we’re going to make it. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed. Today I went on a hike to clear my mind and focus not only on what my personal life will look like during this change, but how my ministry will change and as I climbed the hill at Mt. Madonna, it hit me, one step at a time. When I look up and look at how big the hill is, I get overwhelmed, but when I look at what’s in front of me and take it one step at a time, I know that I can do it. I’m not sure what God is doing right now, all I do know is that my focus needs to be small right now in order to get over this hill. Pray for me and my family and my ministry as we go into new experiences in the following weeks. I know God will take care of us, I just don’t know what it looks like, but I’m taking it one step at a time. 

Posted March 16, 2009
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Common Sense

So I’m at the place that I get in any Bible reading plan that is the toughest for me. I’m in the middle of Leviticus. When I read Leviticus it’s sometimes hard for me to reflect on what can be applied to my life. Today as I reading chapters 18 & 19, I noticed that many of the rules and regulations that God laid down for the Israelites were really common sense things. Don’t have sex with family, don’t do witchcraft, don’t be deceiving. These are all very common sense rules to live by. We serve a very reasonable God. Sure, He calls us to be above reproach and anti-culture, but that’s because our culture is ridiculous. When we live in a culture that is living in a non common sense way of course God should ask us to live with common sense.

All I’m saying is that when non christians really look at what we believe and see the common sense in it, their view may change.L 

Posted February 12, 2009
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