Read Luke 23:39-43 After Christ was hurried from one fake trial to another, He was finally condemned to be crucified by Pilate.  The Jews did not have the authority to execute a man - only the ruling Romans did.  So the Roman soldiers were commanded by Governor Pilate to whip Jesus and then to crucify Him.  The whipping tore at Jesus' back so much that He lost large amounts of blood, leaving Him weak.  He was then made to carry His own cross through the streets of Jerusalem up to the hill called Calvary, just outside of the city walls.  There He was crucified with two thieves.  One of the thieves mocked Jesus right along with the rest of the crowd.  But the other thief didn't.  He was sorry for his wickedness and asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom.  Because of this thief's repentance, Jesus promised him eternal life.  As Jesus died on the cross that day, He carried with Him the sins of the whole world.  His Father up in heaven could not bear to look upon such evil, so God the Father made the sun not to shine from noon until about 3 PM, when Jesus died.  There on Mount Calvary, Jesus died for my sins and for your sins!  In return, He offers us the gift of His eternal life!  What a wonderful exchange!  We trade our sins for His eternal life!  With Pilate's permission, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb carved into the mountainside in a garden nearby.  The Jewish sabbath day started at 6 PM and they had to have Jesus buried before then.  They had to work fast.  So, Friday afternoon and Saturday Jesus lay buried in the tomb.  But we know the rest of the story.  Easter Sunday morning was coming! 

Read Mark 14:17-26 Today is a special day, so we have several verses to read.  This week is known as Passion week or Holy week.  On this week about 2,000 years ago, Jesus came into Jerusalem on Sunday riding on a donkey while all of the people welcomed Him.  They shouted, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"  Less than a week later they would be shouting to the governor to execute Jesus!  Jesus went back and forth every day that week, spending His day in the temple courtyard teaching the people and confronting the proud religious leaders: the priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees.  He spent the night either in the garden of Gethsemane sleeping among the peaceful, old olive trees, or at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany.  But finally, on Thursday evening, the night before He was crucified, Jesus had His final meal with His disciples.  They celebrated the Jewish Passover feast, which was a reminder of when God miraculously delivered Israel from Pharaoh's slavery in Egypt.  At this last supper which Jesus had with His disciples He gave them the examples for the Lord's supper, which Christians continue to celebrate until this day.  Jesus used the broken bread to represent His broken body and the grape juice to represent His blood.  But the disciples didn't get it.  They didn't get that Jesus would soon be executed and buried in the cold, dark tomb.  Jesus also gave them an example of humility as He washed their dusty, dirty feet.  The washing of feet was usually done by the lowest slave ion the household, but thinght Jesus did it Himself just to remind the disciples to be kind and thoughtful to each other.  Later that Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas identified Jesus to the arresting soldiers by his kiss.  What a wicked betrayal if was!  Jesus was then taken to the first of His three fake trials.  This first one was at the palace of High Priest.  While Jesus was on trial inside, Peter was sneaking around on the outside.  He denied that he knew Jesus three times to three different people just before the rooster crowed.  As morning dawned, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the second of His fake trials.  We'll read about Jesus' execution tomorrow.

Read Proverbs 25:4  Our verse talks about refining silver.  Many years ago, quarters used to be made of silver, but now they are made of cheaper metals.  When I was a young man and in college, I worked at an iron foundry in Chattanooga.  Iron is much cheaper that silver, but melting the both of them is the same process.  The iron melts at about 2800 degrees and silver at about 1800 degrees.  But iron and silver usually have impurities in them.  When someone wants to make a silver necklace, they must use silver that is pure.  If the silver isn't pure, when they hammer it down into the thin wire needed to make the links in the necklace, the silver wire will break.  It breaks because it has impurities in it.  So before the silversmith makes the silver wire he must heat the silver until it melts. When the silver is a hot liquid, the impurities will float to the top, and the silversmith can skim off the dross from off the top, leaving the pure silver.  The more times that the silversmith melts the silver, the more of the impurities he can get out, and the more pure the silver becomes.  When all of the impurities are out of the silver, then the silversmith can make a beautiful necklace that will be strong and beautiful.  When God takes away our sins, we are a beautiful trophy for Him.  I want God to be proud of me.  And I want God to be proud of you!  Let's let God take away our sins so that we will make Him proud!

Read Proverbs 25:2  God's Word tells us in Romans 3:23 that we are all sinners.  That means ever single one of us.  That means that the sweetest person that you know - even they are sinners.  But it gets worse than that.  God sees everything and God knows everything.  We could be in real trouble if God were to begin to tell everyone all about us, because most of what we are is not good.  But our verse says that God loves us and doesn't want to embarrass us.  So He covers our sins with the blood of Jesus Christ and God forgets our sins and hides them in the depths of the deepest sea and remembers them no more!  How wonderful!  But then there are the kings.  We don't have kings in America, but we do have government officials.  It is their job to investigate crimes and to look for people who break the law.  I am glad that there are people like policemen and deputy sheriffs and FBI agents who investigate and look for trouble before it happens.  But I am even more glad for God's loving mercy that covers my sins!  I hope you have let Jesus Christ cover your sins and let Him forgive you from all of the dirt and wickedness that is in your heart.  It is wonderful to know that everything is good between us and our God!  Enjoy God's blessings today!

Read Proverbs 31:10-12  I am skipping a few chapters to get to these verses because today is my wife's birthday!  I will not tell you how old she is, but you can ask her yourself!  I don't want to get into trouble.  I am so glad that years ago, I married Kathy Papastavro.  She has been a wonderful wife over the years and has helped me in so many ways.  Our verse says that her price is far above rubies.  That means that she is priceless.  I can say with the next verse that the heart of her husband safely trusts in her.  Then the last verse says that she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.  Again, what a wonderful way to express my feelings for Kathy over the years.  Some call her mother, some call her Marmie, but I call her my dear wife!  If you can find a woman like her, marry her as fast as you can!  If you are a young girl, pattern your life after a godly woman like my dear wife.  You will be blessed and you will be a blessing!  Happy Birthday, dear!

Read Proverbs 24: 30-34  Our verses for today are talking about the sluggard.  We have heard about the sluggard before in Proverbs.  What is a sluggard?  Another name for a sluggard is a lazy person.  In the first two verses Solomon noticed two bad things about the fields and the vineyards of the sluggard.  Let's read verses 30 and 31 again and see if you can find the two bad things about the sluggard's fields and vineyards.  Did you find them?  First they were grown over with thorns and nettles.  The fields and vineyards were taken over with weeds instead of growing good plants that produce food.  That is because the lazy person was too lazy to pull up the weeds from out of his fields and vineyards.  Then secondly, the wall was broken down.  Driving up in Virginia, I noticed rock walls around the fields.  Over the years, the hard working farmers have picked up rocks from out of their fields and used them to build rock walls around the fields.  The rocks are pulled out of the fields so that the farmer can easily plow the fields.  And the rock walls keep rabbits from getting into the fields and eating the crops.  But back in Proverbs, the fields and vineyards of the sluggard had weeds and a broken down wall.  When harvest time would come, how much harvest would the lazy person have?  Not very much, would he?  The last two verses say that a little sleep when we should be working will lead to poverty.  If we are lazy when we should be working, we will be poor.  And then we will be sorry!  It is important that we work when we should work so that later, we will have what we need.  This is true of fields and vineyards and it is true of doing school work and doing home work.  If we work when we should, we will be happy later.  Let's read verse 32 once again.  Verse 32 says that Solomon looked at the lazy person's weedy field and thorny vineyard and broken down rock wall, and he learned what not to do.  Don't be lazy.  Do your work when you should and you will be glad that you did.

Read Proverbs 24:23-25  These verses are talking about good judges and bad judges.  Judges decide what is fair and what is not fair.  The first verse talks about respect of persons.  Respect of persons means that someone is nicer to their friends and nicer to someone who has a lot of stuff.  That is an unfair judge.  When a rich person comes into court with a speeding ticket, an unjust judge may let him off because they are friends.  The rich man may help the judge with a donation of money when the judge is running for re-election the next year.  But when a poor person comes into court, the judge gives him a stern talking to and then gives him a big fine because the judge just likes to be mean.  He isn’t afraid of the poor man.  But this judge is unfair.  This judge is a respecter of persons.  And everyone sees it and knows it.  People don’t like to have to pay a fine, but they know that they should pay if they are guilty.  But no one likes it when someone gets off just because they are a friend of the judge.  But all of us need to remember that some day we will all stand before Jesus Christ, the Righteous Judge.  There will be no hiding what we have done then.  Jesus knows all and will judge fairly.  You can count on that.

Read Proverbs 24:21&22  These two verses are like our verses yesterday.  The first verse says that we should fear two people.  Who are they?  Actually, we should fear a lot more people, but in our verses for today, we will just deal with the Lord and the king.  You might say, “But we don’t have a king today.  How can I fear the king if we don’t actually have a king?”  Good question.  But we do have people who rule over us just like a king.  Can you think of some people who we should obey?  Then the second half of the first verse says we should not meddle with either the Lord or the king.  That word meddle beans to mess with.  We shouldn’t mess with God or the king.  That is good advice.  Do you know someone who thinks that they are smarter than their mother or Father?  Do you know someone who thinks that they are smarter than their Sunday school teacher or Master Club leader?  They are rebellious.  And the last verse  says that they will have great calamity and great ruin.  Calamity means everything will go wrong for them.  And ruin … you know what ruin is.  I don’t want ruin or calamity.  I want to obey the Lord and the rulers over me.

Read Proverbs 24:19&20  Sometimes we are frustrated in doing the right things.  We have to do so many things.  We have to make our beds.  We have to do our school work and do our house work.  We have to set the table and take out the trash and feed the dog and…  well you understand.  Often we see a friend of ours who doesn’t have to do very much around the house.  They may not have to do chores or make their beds every day.  Their mother is easy on them.  Often we are jealous of them.  The word used here in our first verse is envious.  Envious means that we wish we were in their place.  But remember, your friend will grow up lazy and will not know how to work.  We need to learn how to work when we are young so that when we grow up into a man or woman, we know how to work.  Growing up lazy is one thing, but growing up wicked is far worse.  Our second verse says that there is a sad day coming for the wicked man.  Solomon uses an example of a candle.  Just like we snuff out the flame of a candle before we go to bed at night, the wicked will be snuffed out some day and be gone.  There is a reward for someone who obeys God, but there is no reward for someone who does not serve God.  Remember to trust God and you’ll never be sorry that you did!

Read Proverbs 24:17&18  Are you happy when your friend messes up or do you feel sorry for them?  But what about someone that you do not like?  When they mess up are you secretly happy?  Down inside, are you glad to see them mess up?  Our verses remind us to be careful because God is watching.  God knows our heart.  And God loves the person that we may not like as much as He loves us.  God wants everyone to be saved and to know how to live with Him in heaven.  God reminds us in our verses that we should not rejoice when our enemy messes up.  God wants us to be kind to our enemies as much as we are kind to our friends.  Although that is hard to do, that attitude is more God-like.  As we behave more like God and love everyone, we please God.  I love Sophie and Will and Mary Kate.  When they fuss with each other, I am not happy.  I like when they get along with each other.  That is how God feels towards us.  We should try to love one another and make God happy.  We should love our friends and we should love our enemies.  This makes God happy!

Read proverbs 24:16  How do you feel when you mess up?  What do you say when you have done something wrong?  Do you try to cover up your mistake?  Or do you try to blame someone else for your mistake?  When we make a mistake, we should admit that we have made the mistake.  We should take responsibility and apologize for it.  We should ask forgiveness from the one that we have offended.  Instead of making excuses, we should own up to our failures like a grown-up.  We should not be like the wicked person in our verse who falls into mischief.  We should be like the just man in our verse.  When the just man fell down, what does our verse say that he did?  And when the just man fell down again, what does our verse say that he did?  Our verse says that the just man fell down how many times?  But our verse says that the just man got right up again and again.  Every time he messed up, he apologized and got right up again.  Don’t give in to mischief like the wicked man.  Ask forgiveness over and over if you have to.  Be like the just man.  God is on the side of the just man.  Are you on God’s side?

Read Proverbs 24: 11&12  There are two groups of people mentioned in our verses for today: those who are drawn into death and us.  You may say, “I don’t know anyone who is about to be killed today.  How does this verse apply to me?  I am just a kid.”  Well, that may be true.  You may not know anyone who is in danger of being killed today.  But you may know people who do not know Jesus Christ.  You may know people who are not Christians.  These people are in a dangerous place.  If they were to die today, where would they spend eternity?  Hell is a terrible place.  That is why we do not use the word hell in every day language.  Using the word hell is not very nice.  Using the word hell is bad language and you should not say hell just as a word.  Hell is a terrible place and we should do what we can to warn people about not going there.  So, in the spiritual sense, we may know people who are, as our verses say, drawn unto death.  And our verses say that it is our responsibility to warn them about the danger that they are facing.  If we try to say, we didn’t know that they were facing death, verse 12 says that God knows our hearts.  He knows that we know.  In Genesis 4 after Cain’s offering of vegetables was refused by God, Cain got mad.  He didn’t like that his brother Abel’s animal offering was accepted by God.  Cain was jealous of his brother and rose up and killed him.  When God asked Cain about his brother, Cain tried to say that he wasn’t responsible for his brother.  He said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” he said to God.  But God knew.  God knew the wicked thing that Cain had done.  And back in Proverbs 24:12 we are reminded that we are responsible for our fellow humans.  We know how to get to heaven and they don’t!  Let’s not be like Cain and try to get out of our responsibility.  Let’s follow what God says in Proverbs 24: 11&12.  Let’s help to warn those who may be facing death.  We need to warn them because they don’t know the dangerous situation that they are in.  And we know the good news of how to get to heaven.  That is our job.  That is our responsibility.

Read Proverbs 24:10  Like yesterday, our verse talks about war.  If you are a soldier or a king like David, you have to prepare for war.  If you just sit around the campfire and talk about fighting, when the fighting does come, you won’t be ready.  A soldier has to be ready when the time comes to fight.  Every day the soldier has to run and exercise, and practice fighting with your friends.  If a soldier doesn’t build up his strength and work on his battle skills, when the day of battle finally does come, he will not be ready.  He will just faint when the heat of battle is all around him.  Just like the soldier in our verse, we have to be ready for our war.  We must be prepared to do battle against Satan.  In order to prepare, we need to read our Bibles and memorize Scripture.  Satan will come against us with slick lies and tricks.  Just like a soldier needs to be ready for the day of battle, we must be ready when the time comes to do battle against Satan, our enemy.  If we prepare beforehand and put on God’s armor, we will not faint in our battle against Satan.

Read Proverbs 24:5&6  Solomon was a wealthy and wise king.  But he was able to enjoy a peaceful time as king because his father, David, had fought many wars to leave a strong country to his son.  But our verses remind us that David didn’t just get mad at the neighboring country and go to war with them.  David asked for the advice of his trusted generals.  Did they have enough soldiers to defeat the enemy?  Did they need more chariots?  Did they need to train more archers?  Did they have enough food to last for the intended battles?  Should they attack right away before the enemy had time to get ready or should they wait until the next year when David’s army was better prepared?  David put all of these questions to his generals, and then he listened carefully to what each of them had to say.  He listened and then made his decision.  After hearing from everyone, David was able to make the right decision.  Before we make an important decision, remember verse 6.  If you ask several people give you good advice, and you listen, you can make the right decision.

Read Proverbs 24:3&4  Our two verses are talking about an analogy.  An analogy is a story that teaches us a life lesson.  It is like a parable.  In the New Testament, Jesus taught the people by giving them parables.  One of His parables was about a farmer who went out to sow seed.  As this farmer cast the seed out onto the field, the seed fell upon four types of soil:  Rocky soil, hard soil, soil with thorns growing in it, and good soil.  The point of Jesus’ parable was to liken the different types of soil to the different kinds of people who hear a message from God.  Not everyone who hears the message listens to the message.  If you listen to God’s Word, you are like the good soil.  In verse 3 Solomon says that if we have wisdom our lives will be successful just like a house that is built.  Our lives will be established and will be successful if we have understanding.  If we have knowledge, all kinds of good things happen in our lives, just like a beautiful house has all kinds of fine furniture in it.  If we live a life that pleases God, people will want to be around us, just like a wonderful house that is filled with pleasant furniture makes you happy to be living there.  On a cold winter night, isn’t it great to come in from the outside to a warm inviting home?  Are our lives inviting others to be near to God?  I hope so.