The next Faith Family Forum is Friday, October 12th (7:30-10:00pm) and we hope you can make it! To sign-up for this event, all you need do is send an email to
office@faithbiblelincoln.org . It is free to attend, but we need to hear from those who plan to attend by Friday, October 5th. Childcare will not be provided, but dessert will, so come enjoy an evening of encouragement. Below is Pastor George’s summary of the topic for the evening. We also will have Bryan Olesen providing the music. We hope the event will build community and challenge us to be all God intends!
Your “Check Engine” Light is On (James 4:1-3)
Have you ever had your “check engine” light illuminate in your car while driving? I did recently and with a gasp of “oh-no,” I quickly pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and shut my engine down fearing that every stroke of the engine was only putting the vehicle closer to the junk yard. I grabbed the car booklet out of the glove compartment and checked what the light meant. The answer I got was essentially they do not know. It could be one of hundreds of things wrong but something is wrong. A specialist was going to have to hook the engine up to a computer and it would tell us what the problem is. It was probably OK to drive with the light on but for the next few days, every time I drove, I was clearly reminded that something is wrong and needs attention.
Relational conflicts have “check engine” lights also. Just as I drove for several days trying to ignore the light, something was wrong. It was not going to go away until I did something about it. In marriage, parenting, or any relationship, often conflicts have little, general issues that are setting off the warning light. They may be easy to ignore for awhile, but they are still there. Not until we seek a solution to the problem, will the conflict be resolved.
There are two principles to relational conflict that we can learn from James 4 – it is more serious than you probably think it is because of what causes conflict and conflict is easier to resolve than you think because God has pinpointed the cause of all conflict. Come to the forum to hear and discuss how we can seek peace in all types of relationships!