The REAL Steve Holt

This past Sunday I was blessed to sit and listen to a sermon by a youth pastor friend of mine that got to preach in BIG church. His topic was on conflict and at one point he put up the picture to the right. I created the one that is there, not sure of the writing is correct but you get my gist. He went on to talk about what he called the, "Butch Principal" which is basically two people coming together that have a conflict. They simply move the conflict aside. Then come together with things you have in common, like Christ for example, you also own part of the conflict and start to discuss it, but you must move the conflict off to the side first.

As you "own" and "discuss" it you must be:

Open to correction (Proverbs 12:1)
Control Your emotions (Proverbs12:16, Proverbs 15:18)
Willing to listen, because you don;t have all the answers and some of your facts mat be out of whack!

You don't want to own it... Well think about this. You were once in conflict with God... AND HE OWNED IT!  Philippians 2.

As we move closer to the election may we as believers begin to be open to correction, control your emotions and be willing to listen. I'd also encourage you to realize that all 15 people running for office are loved by God and we should be praying for them. May I also remind you that neither the president or Congress has the power to ultimately change this country. I believe that God gave that mandate to the church! So... let's quit bickering, set the conflicts aside and get busy!