“For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” Psalm 16:10. We are uncomfortable with the unknown—and what happens to us after death is one of those subjects.  Perhaps we identify with Thomas when he said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” But, we must trust that God would give us all that we need to get to the place Jesus has gone to prepare for us. A lack of trust was Thomas’ struggle. So, we must be content not understanding the details of how we will get to the place prepared—but trust that Jesus has prepared a place! Before my wife passed in 2020, she had this trust. Expressing concern about the process of dying, we spoke much about the transition from this life to the next. I told her that I didn’t know how it would happen, but when she saw Jesus, she should no longer concern herself with the things of this temporary existence but run into His arms. When Peter aptly applied this verse to Jesus on Pentecost, that He would not see corruption or His soul not be abandoned to the grave. But, in the context of the rest of the psalm, this verse is meant for our benefit. Are you encouraged by this promise?

“And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord you God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’  But you have not obeyed my voice” Judges 6:10. We tend to seek God, not when life is going well, but when we’re facing adversity. This truth is lived out in God’s people at the time of Judges when they repeatedly cycle from falling into sin in the peace God gave them by raising up a judge to crying out to Him when their enslavement became too much. The danger is believing that God’s inaction is the cause of their distress—as is evidenced by Gideon’s question when the angel of the LORD first comes to him. So, God sent a prophet to help them understand the true cause: they feared the world. And, that’s the church’s struggle today. Because we fear the one who can kill the body more than the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell, we also do not obey His voice. And, because we do this, we find ourselves in our own cycle of sin waiting for a judge to rescue us. But He already has! We live, though, as if He doesn’t always live to intercede for us, and so we fall back into sin and fear of the world around us. How can we live as overcomers for He who’s set us free?   

“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.  Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” Hebrews 13:7.  I’ve never followed celebrities, seeing them as overpaid and opinionated in all the wrong ways about subjects they know nothing about.  Instead, the “celebrities” that I have followed have been past and present heroes of the faith who are laboring in the LORD.  I’m Facebook friends with quite a few and enjoy when one contacts me privately about something.  I’ve even met a few.  In our 98-year history, we’ve had quite a few faithful elders, deacons, ministers, and teachers who have made a great impact on the character of the 36^th Street Church of Christ today.  Too many to name, especially if I were to mention all the frequent speakers for special events, these leaders spoke the word of God to us and were examples of living out the commands of Christ that they spoke.  Of the eighteen men who’ve served as elders, three are still serving and seven are members here.  We also have a former preacher of a quarter of our time in Vienna, whose father also preached here and around the MOV.  So blessed, are you imitating their faith?      

“… He who does these things shall never be moved” Psalm 15:5. Contrasted to the “fool” of the previous psalm, the unbeliever who persists in not seeking God or understanding Him through study and prayer, the righteous person is presented here through the question, “Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” The answer is one who “walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart.” He despises those who do evil and holds in honor those who fear God while striving to do what is right and shunning the ways of the wicked. What a great summary of the Christian walk. Not enough to just obey the gospel, we must faithfully live before God. Too often, though, we drift into a mediocre existence that is Christian in character but compromises with the world. We declare the corrupt culture as ‘good enough’ and then live up to a standard of our own design rather than the one God declares. After describing the righteous person, the psalm concludes with the statement that the one who does these things shall never be moved. So, are we? If we’ve drifted from His standard, what have we become? If God placed a plum line upon your life, would He find that you’ve moved? 

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ …” Psalm 14:1. I’ve preached from this verse when a Sunday has fallen on April 1, referring to this as National Atheists Day, a lesson that believers can smugly say ‘amen’ to.  But, as we get deeper into the psalm, it’s evident that God is telling us that all are corrupt and that none are seeking Him.  Paul quotes this same passage to Christians in Rome (Romans 3) in the New Testament time to refer to all of mankind and concludes that we are all alike under sin. The only difference is the righteousness that Jesus has gained for us through His willing sacrifice on the cross—that we come into by faith. Indeed, the psalm concludes by making a distinction between the fool who has no faith and the righteous who have His salvation. Since we cannot gain a righteousness of our own, what does the faith that brings us into Jesus’ look like? The psalm tells us to do good and seek God.  We must put in the effort to understand, which will require much study and prayer. Then, we must be careful not to turn aside from the narrow path of righteousness, despite all the lures of unbelievers to drag us back.  Are you a Christian who lives like a fool?