Crucial Conversations: Respect, Honesty, Listening

Morning: Psalms 63, 98; I Corinthians 10:15-24

Evening: Psalm 103; Haggai 1:1-2:9; Matthew 18:15-20

Matthew says that Jesus teaches church members to speak respectfully in private to those who have wronged them and also to listen carefully to those whom they themselves have wronged. Matthew, through his Gospel, passes on these customs of the early church. The exact words cannot be from Jesus ... there was no church yet when Jesus was teaching his disciples. But it is fair to assume that the disciples themselves learned these traditions from Jesus - respect, honesty and listening in crucial conversations - and passed them on to the early church. We need them now, more than ever.