"The School of Affliction"

     That was the title of the sermon that Pastor Mike Ridge preached this morning in church.  It was an excellent sermon, I must say! 

     One of the things that he talked about was the fact that "The School of Affliction" gets our attention.  Sometimes it is how God has to get our attention.  He used a story in II Samuel about Absalom and Joab to illustrate the point.     Absalom had not spoken to his father for quite some time, and wanted to contact him, so he sent a message to Joab, requesting his presence.  Joab ignored the request.  Later, Absalom sent him another request, but to no avail.  Joab still would not respond.  Finally, Absalom told his servants to go set Joab's barley field afire. . . That would get his attention!  Joab then made his way to see Absalom. 

    The point was that sometimes God tries to get our attention. . .He calls, and calls. . .but we choose not to listen.  Then God has to send some sort of affliction our way to get our attention, just as Absalom sent an affliction to Joab to get his attention. 
     The plea was not to make God have to send affliction in order to get your attention!

This post does not do the sermon justice, but it was a really good sermon!