MAY 5 "GET A WIFE A CINCO DE MAYO!"

We have these men of God who have devised a planned, for their single men, to go to the festival at Shiloh (it must be a Cinco de Mayo celebration seeing that it's on the 5th of May). So these men of God go to this Cinco de Mayo celebration and steal for themselves wives. They are crying out to God, thinking, praying, trying to figure out what to do and they hear nothing from God. They simply, it seems, are left on their own to figure it out. They come up with a plan, that seems a little odd in my own personnel opinion and I'm sure yours too, but yet we hear nothing from God. And so the men of Israel go to the Cinco de Mayo celebration, steal wives for themselves, we don't hear from God, the chapter ends and the book of Ruth begins. I am glad that this story is in our Bible because it downplays they hyper spirituality that we are accustomed to in Christian circles. God is speaking to everyone, God is the own personnel GPS or their own personnel "Siri" (Apple's voice command feature) speaking to them at every turn. "God told me this, God told me that, God told me to leave my wife, God told me to leave this church, God told me marry this person" is the mantra we hear today. The problem is, many Christians feel left out of that crowd, because they don't hear God speaking to them, they don't hear God telling them what to do, where to go, who to marry, etc...etc...as a matter of a fact, the God they know and serve is a lot more like the God of "The Bible" who is often silent in our dilemma's and decision making process. So how do we know we're making the right decisions? We don't!!! But the truth is, those that say, "God told me"  don't know either, they are only under the delusion that they are making the right decision. The voice that they hear telling them to do this and that, and attributing it to God, is simply their own conscience speaking to them. So what's the remedy? Ans: Keep your heart right with God and be sensitive the the Holy Spirit and die to self. Does God guide us through our conscience, I'm sure He does, but He also guides by people,  He also guides by just shutting doors, He also guides by "our gut feelings" He guides in many ways and other times He simply remains silent and let's us choose. God is not a "micro-manager" in case you didn't know. He does not micro-manage every aspect of our lives. Sometimes we pray, call on God, look for guidance and hear nothing. Many times I'll "think" I desperately need to talk to someone about a decision and I text them, I'm expecting an immediate response and sure enough it's in those times my text is ignored, missed or they are too busy to return it and I have to make the decision myself and sometimes God is just like that, "make the decision yourself, I'm not going to micro-manage your life, but know this, my Grace is sufficient for thee".  That's all we need to know and also to "guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life".

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