Conflict abounds! I suspect most of us are involved in multiple conflicts, varying from minor annoyances and open disagreements to national and international disputes. And we each add to or subtract from those conflicts, don't we? What if there was a way to resolve every one of those disputes completely? What would that be worth to you?

Well, good news! Not only IS there a way to end every conflict, but the steps we each need to take to do so are carefully laid out for us. They are SIMPLE, they are SHORT. Ordinary folks like you and I can do them! In fact, we need to.

You know who really sucks? THOSE people. THOSE people over there. The ones not like us. How dare they refuse to conform to all of OUR expectations? Why won't they just do the things we wad to do? How can they ever be like us if they don't live out the same experiences and habits that we have chosen to make central to our way of life? Well, if they want OUR approval, they're going to have to straighten up and do things OUR way!

EXCEPT... Paul says this isn't true. He did all that and it's crap. There's something better; something which makes all of the things we have valued seem like they are not the gleaming gemstones we thought, but instead they are sticky balls of... Oh, I'm out of space. Guess you'd better listen in on today's teaching about why we should REJOICE!

Can violence be redemptive? Scripture (and history) says no.

And yet, we keep trying.

Today we revisit the story of Cain and his brother Abel to see if we can understand the root of violence and how God responds to those who perpetrate it. How are we told to respond?