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Welcome to Day 2127 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom James – Wisdom is Faith in Action 9 – Starting and Stopping Fights – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church message – 11/07/2021 James: Wisdom is Faith In Action – Starting and Stopping Fights We are continuing our series today on the Proverbs of the New Testament, better known as the letter of James.  Two weeks ago, we looked at persons who are Wise, Unwise, and Otherwise.  One sign of wisdom is understanding what causes fights and how to avoid or stop fights.  So join me on page 1885 in the pew bibles as I read the Scripture for today. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: James 4:1-10 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”[c] 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.   As I grew up in a large family with ten kids, we often fought each other. There was sibling rivalry as we competed for attention. I am sure our squabbles were mostly unimportant, but that did not prevent us from fighting. Growing up in an apple orchard gave us the perfect weapon, especially when they were rotten.  They were nasty to get hit with but never did any real damage.  (Apples)   Unfortunately, as adults, too often, we still seem to work arguments and fights into our lives.  Fighting comes naturally to most people, especially men. Why? Because we’re each born with a scrappy nature that prefers going for the jugular instead of giving in. It all started after the Fall (Genesis 3). The first