Today I’m going to talk about dealing with difficult people, and let me start by making three points.  First, we all have to deal with difficult people.  Second, sometimes we are the difficult people that others must deal with.  Third, as Christians we are called to deal with other people on a higher level, if you will, and we must always keep that in mind.  I think if we can recognize those three truths, and start to live by them, it will greatly help us in our interactions with others. Let me briefly tell you some of my personal history and why I think about this subject so much.  I dedicated my life to Christ after my second year of law school, and I was ready to quit law school and go full time in the ministry.  But as I prayed about it I really felt like God wanted me to finish law school, so that’s what I did.  I had no intention of practicing law.  My father had a small church back home, and I wanted to help him expand his ministry.  My father is also a real estate developer,

If you ever feel like you aren’t obeying God, or you regularly mess up, or you want to change some behaviors, then this message is for you.  This message is for you regardless of whether you are a new Christian or you have been a Christian for many years, for the issues we discuss today don’t simply go away with time.  Today I want to encourage you and help you in obeying God’s directions for your life.   I’m going to try to keep it practical.   I also want to be brutally honest and open in this discussion because I also think that helps. Obeying God is hard.   I know that to the mature Christians hearing this that statement probably sounds like blasphemy.   I’m not saying that obeying God should be hard, or that God wants it to be hard, I’m just saying that it is hard for the vast majority of people.   It was certainly hard for me, and honestly, despite all you may think of me or see of me online, it’s still hard.   The ways in which it is hard changes over time, and in some ways