Read Psalms 45:6  We don't have kings here in America.  We have presidents and we have governors of the states that we elect.  A king rules differently.  He is not elected; he is the king because his father was the king.  When a king grows older, his son is in line to become the next king.  If a king has several sons, they are all known as princes.  But the oldest is known as the crown prince because he will soon be the next king.  Sometimes kings reign for a long time, but they eventually die and the throne passes down to one of their sons.  But our verse today says that God's throne is forever.  He never grows old and He never dies.  He never has to prepare for the next king because He has always been the King, and He will always be the King!  God lives forever.  Isn't it good that we can trust in a God Who never grows old and Who will never die!  The scepter  is the thing that the king holds that is the symbol of his authority.  God is forever on His throne and his scepter is for ever and for ever!

Read psalms 42:1  It is rare to actually catch sight of a deer.  They hide in the thickets where they bed down in the daytime and they only come out in the early evening, at night, and in the early morning.  They always look around first to be sure that no danger is near before they step out of the shadows.  They will only drop their heads to eat grass if they feel secure.  But even in dangerous situations, after a while, the deer gets thirsty and will have to come out of the forest to get a drink.  Here in this verse the deer is called a hart.  David says just like the deer is thirsty for a cool drink of water from a forest brook, so is he longing to be near to God.  David couldn't wait to read about God in the Scriptures and to pray and talk to God, his heavenly Father.  I love God and want to be near to Him.  Do you love God?  Do you want to please Him and make Him happy?  I hope you do.

Read Psalms 40:1-3  King David was going through some trouble.  Have you had days when it seemed like you kept getting into trouble.  On days like that everything you do seems to be the wrong thing.  But sometimes we make our own trouble.  When we don't listen to our mother, we will soon get into trouble.  She may say, "Don't take out the trash just yet," because she is peeling potatoes for supper.  She is putting the peelings in the sink and will throw them all away soon.  She wants you to wait so that you can take those peelings out with the bag that is almost full.  But all that you hear is "take out the trash."  So you do.  But then your mother fusses at you for taking out the trash before she had a chance to put the peelings in the bag.  You caused your own trouble by not listening.  David did 3 things in these 3 verses: first, he waited for the Lord.  He knew God was in control.  He knew God would not forget about him.  Second, David let God solve his problem.  It was God who brought him up out of the horrible pit.  God will take care of our troubles if we let Him.  Then last, David sang praises to God for delivering him out of his troubles.  We should thank the Lord for helping us.  When we do, we will be joyful and have a song in our hearts and a song on our lips.  Pretty soon others will see that we are happy in the Lord.  I hope you are happy in the Lord today!

Read Psalms 37:25  In this verse David speaks as an old man.  You are young and have not been grown up yet.  When you grow up like your mother and father, you still have many more years to go before you are old like me.  :<)  But in this verse David says that he is old and has noticed something.  He has never seen God forget his followers.  God will never forget his children.  God will never desert us and make us so poor that we have to beg for food. No, God will always take care of us!  What a wonderful promise to remember.  Go may not always give us everything that we want, but He will always give us everything that we need.  We may want cake and ice cream to eat, but God may give us green beans and peas to eat.  God knows what we need.  We do not need cake and ice cream; we need vegetables to help us to grow big and strong.  God gives us what we need, not always what we want.  I pray that we will be satisfied with what God gives us and not grumble or complain that we do not have all that we want. 

Read Psalms 37:24  Our verse yesterday said that God leads us in the right way to go.  Sometimes when you go on a walk with your family - or may be with your Granddaddy - you follow a path.  Then may be you come to a place where the path is faint and hard to follow.  You may walk around in the woods looking for the pathway.  You may be going through some briers and stickers and stepping over some rocks.  Isn't it good to be able to hold onto someone's hand?  When you stumble, they will hold you up until you can get your footing back.  This verse tells us that God is holding our hand and will not let us fall.  It is true that we may stumble, but God will not let us to completely fall.  Our verse says that though the good man falls, he is never completely "cast down."  When you are holding onto someone's hand you may fall, but you won't completely fall down, because you are being held up!  You may for a moment be swinging by one arm, but you will quickly catch your balance and stand right back up.  Have you ever stumbled and fell when you were alone?  Did you get a cut or get your clothes dirty when you fell?  Isn't it much better when you are holding onto someone who can keep you steady?  Isn't it good to hold onto God's hand?

Read Psalms 37:23  Sometimes we do things just because we want to.  But sometimes there are things that we have to do.  When your father says it is time to go to church, you have to get ready and get into the car.  And then sometimes your mother says it is time to take a bath and to brush your teeth and you have to.  But sometimes you go outside and you can do absolutely anything that you want to.  You can play on the swing set or play in the sand box or throw rocks into the woods.  You don't have to do anything.  But this verse says that sometimes without knowing what you are doing, God will get you to do things that He wants you to do.  He will "order" our steps.  This verse does not say that God makes us do things against our will.  God does not force us to obey Him.  But this verse does say that if we decide to obey God and to do the things that He tells us in his Bible, then He will direct our path; God will "order our steps" as our verse says.  If we chose to go God's way, He has promised to lead us in the right way.  Just like you may lead your dog in the way that you are going to walk, God will lead us in His way.  Isn't it good to know that God knows what is going to happen tomorrow and next week, and that He is the one who is leading us?  That is, if we will follow Him.

Read Psalms 37:4-6  When my daughter Rebekah was very young, I had an old pick-up truck.   It was a 1953 GMC and it was blue and white.  I liked to stand her up on the tail-gate and hold out my hands and say, "Jump!"  At first she was kind of fearful.  She was nervous to jump.  She knew that her daddy would not let her fall, but still she was scared.  She would stand there for a few moments, nervously laughing, trying to gather up the courage to jump.  I kept holding out my hands saying, "Come on Becky, jump to me.  I won't drop you.  You can trust me."  Finally, she would jump.  She would squeal with joy as she flew through the air.  Then, I would catch her and swing her around and we both would laugh.  She enjoyed the thrill and I enjoyed her trusting me.  The word, delight in verse 4 means to thrill with joy.  We should love to be with God in His Word, the Bible and in prayer.  We can talk to God anytime in prayer!  Verse 5 says to trust in the Lord.  We need to let God decide the path that we will take in our life!  We need to trust in the Lord.  Verse 6 says that God will make everything beautiful if we trust in him.  Has God ever failed you?  Will He ever fail you?  Can you trust God?  Will you let God decide what you are going to do with your life?

Read Psalms 34:15  Today I was in Chick fil-A reading a book and drinking coffee.  Do you like coffee?  My Granny Whitely used to let me drink some of her coffee when I was a boy.  In Chick fil-A, I noticed 3 mothers talking at a table.  But there were several trays and kids' meal bags around them.  The ladies were talking while their kids were playing on the playground.  As the ladies talked among themselves, I noticed that they kept looking out of the corner of their eyes watching the playground.  Although these mothers were enjoying their conversation, they still kept an eye out for their kids.  They loved their children and didn't let their children out of their sight.  Verse 15 reminds us that our heavenly father is also watching over us making sure we are OK.  This verse also says that he listens for our cry.  If we are in trouble, we can cry out to the Lord and He will be right there to help.  We are never very far away from the Lord.  He is looking out for us and listening in case we need His help.  Isn't it wonderful to be able to depend upon God and to rest in His love?

Read Psalms 34:6-8  Do you ever have a bad day.  I mean a really, awful bad day?  Do you have days when it seems like everything is going wrong?  I do.  On these bad days, you get into trouble all the time, and it isn't even your fault.  Your brother hits you and you hit him back just when your mother walks in.  Or you put out some water for your dog and she knocks over the bowl just as your father comes home.  You get into trouble for not giving the dog water - but you did!  In verse 6 David said he felt like a poor man; he felt like he was having a horrible day.  But the second part of the verse says that the Lord came to his rescue and saved him out of all of his troubles.  Isn't it good to know that God watches over us?  Verse 7 goes on to say that the angel of the Lord camps all around us.  The angel that God sends to protect us stays up all night and camps around us to protect us.  We don't have to stay up all night and worry,  God's protecting angel will stay up all night for us.  We can just curl up under our warm blankets and sleep and let God's protecting angel stay up and take care of us while we sleep!  I feel like David in verse 8.  David says to taste and see that the Lord is what?  Yes He is.  God is very good!  Sleep good tonight!

Read Psalms 28:7  In the first part of this verse, David says that the Lord is two things to him.  What are they?  A couple of days ago we talked about offense and defense.  When David went out against Goliath, what offensive weapon did he use?  When he chopped Goliath's head off, what offensive weapon did he use?  But to fight against Satan and his great power, we also need a defensive weapon.  David says in this verse that God is his shield.  Soldiers in David's time used a shield to defend themselves against their enemy's sword blows.  When a soldier saw a sword blow coming from his enemy, the wise soldier would hold onto his shield strongly and let the shield take the force of the blow.  But then immediately after the enemy's blow hit the shield, the soldier would strike at the enemy with his sword before the enemy could get his shield up in defense.  David goes on to say that his heart trusted in God and that he was helped because he was trusting in God.  It is a blessing to know that God is helping us.  Because David knew that God was helping him, he went on to say that his heart greatly rejoiced.  Rejoiced means to be happy.  David was so happy that he began to sing.  When we are sad, we go around all grumpy and frowny.  But when we are happy, when we rejoice, we have a song in our hearts and on our lips!  Isn't it much better to be happy and to rejoice in the Lord than to be afraid and upset and grumpy all day long?

Read Psalms 27:14  Sometimes it is very hard to wait.  Didn't it seem like it took forever for Christmas to come?  Sometimes when we have to wait a long time we begin to think.  We wonder if we should be doing something different or if we are waiting in the wrong place.  Your mother may tell you to go get into the van and buckle up and she'll be there in a minute.  But after you are in the van and all buckled up, you wait, and wait, and wait . . .  Then you begin to wonder where she is.  Is she all right?  Are you sure she told you to get into the van just now?  Could she be inside the house looking for you?  David says in this verse not to be discouraged, but to be of good courage.  When you read in the Bible that God wants you to do something, you can do it and then know that you have done the right thing.  Then you can wait for everything to turn out just right because you have obeyed what God has said to do.  You can know in your heart that you are doing the right thing because God said it in his Word.  You can trust what God has said and feel good that you obeyed God's Words!

Read Psalms 25:4  In this verse, King David is asking the Lord to show him the right way to go.  When your dad is going on a trip, he uses a GPS or a map.  The GPS is a computer device that your dad puts up on the dash in front of him to show him which way to go.  It is like a video game where you are going through a maze looking for treasure or looking to shoot the bad guy.  A map is the same thing only on paper.  If you know where you are going, or if you have been there before, you just remember the right way to go.  If you are not sure of where you are going, or you have never been there before, it is a good idea to use a GPS or a map so you won't get lost.  That is the way it is in life.  We haven't been to tomorrow yet.  You haven't been a teenager yet.  You haven't been a grown-up or you haven't been married or worked a job or many other things.  We don't know about the future, but Someone does.  Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow?  David is asking God to show him the way or the path.  Since there are many different ways to go in life, we need to know the best way so that we will be happy.  The best person to show us the right path in life is God because He knows exactly the best way that will make us happy.  God's way is always best!

Read Psalms 25:1&2  In this Psalm King David says that he is trusting in God.  The most important thing about trust is not how much trust we have in someone, the most important thing is how trustworthy they are.  We may trust that someone is going to do something for us that they said that they would.  They may say that they are going to take us to Sonic for a Cookies 'n Cream Blast.  We may really believe that they are going to do it.  But they may disappoint us and not do what they said that they would do.  They may give us an excuse, but they were not trustworthy.  They let us down.  David says in verse 2 that he is trusting in God.  God never let David down. God never failed to keep His word to David.  Will God let you down?  Will God ever fail you?  God has promised to take away our sins and to give us a home in heaven when we die.  And you can depend upon God to do it!  He will never fail!

Read Psalms 24:1  This verse reminds us that God owns everything.  Just like the little boat that we talked about the other day, if you make something, it is yours.  God made us and we belong to Him.  This verse reminds us that everything belongs to God.  He owns the trees, the rivers, the mountains, and the seas.  Things that we have belong to us.  But if God owns us, that means that he owns all of our stuff too!  We can't be selfish with our things because they are really God's things.  I know that God would share His things with others.  Shouldn't you share God's things (that you have) with others too?

Read Psalms 23:4  This psalm is called the Shepherd psalm because it talks about the shepherd and the sheep.  This is another good word picture.   When we read about the Lord as our shepherd we know that He will take care of us just like the shepherd takes care of his sheep.  Sheep do not have big teeth or long, sharp claws to defend themselves.  They are helpless kind of like a little child.  They need a strong and wise shepherd to take care of them.  We need Jesus, our strong and wise Savior to take care of us!  This verse says that even though we are faced with fearful things, we do not need to be afraid, because the Lord is with us.  When you wake up in the middle of the night to the thunder of a storm, you run into mommy and daddy's room.  Even though it is dark, with your parent's arms around you you are not afraid.  Remember to never be afraid in life because the Lord Jesus Christ is with you!  What are the two things at the end of the verse that the Lord uses to comfort us?  The shepherd uses his rod and staff to gently push the sheep into the right direction.  It is good to know that the Lord is pushing us in the right direction!

Read Psalms 20:7  Back in Bible times the army did not have tanks and Hummers to ride in.  They did not have airplanes with machine guns and bombs.  The best equipment that they had were chariots with horses to pull them.  When soldiers were going into battle, they were afraid when those big chariots rolled out against them.  The horses would trample them and the charioteers would shoot arrows at them from safely behind the chariot shield.  Many kings trusted in their chariots to win the battle for them.  But this verse tells us that we should trust in the Lord, our God instead of chariots.  God is much stronger and a better fighter than all of the chariots that an evil king could possibly gather together.  This verse reminds us that although some will trust in their mighty chariots and powerful horses, we will trust in the name of the Lord, our God!

Read Psalms 19: 14  This verse tells us that the Lord is our strength and our redeemer.  Redeemer means someone who buys something back.  There was once a little boy who made a little wooden boat.  He loved his little boat and liked to sail it out on the river.  But then one day, the current was too strong and the little boat got away from him and was swept downstream on the river and lost.  The boy was so sad.  He loved his little boat.  About a week later he was walking in the nearby village and saw his boat in a store window.  He let out a cry of joy and ran inside and picked up his boat.  But as he started to walk out of the store with his boat, the shopkeeper stopped him.  "That's my boat," the shopkeeper said.  "I bought it from someone who found it on the river.  If you want it, you'll have to pay me for it."  The boy was so sad.  He wanted his little boat back, but he didn't have any money.  Soon he thought of a plan.  He worked around his neighborhood doing jobs for money.  Finally he made enough money to buy his little boat back.  The boy went to the store in the village and bought his boat from the shopkeeper.  As he walked out hugging his little boat, he said, "Little boat, you are mine twice.  You are mine once because I made you and now you are mine a second time because I bought you!"  The little boy had redeemed his boat from the shopkeeper.  The Lord is our Redeemer!  We are twice His!  In the beginning because He made us and we were His.  But then after we sinned Jesus died for us on the cross and bought us - He redeemed us from sin.  We belong to God twice!

Read Psalms 19:10  There are two things that people like that are mentioned here in verse 10.  What are they?  Honey is sweet like candy.  In Bible times they didn't have candy bars, but they did have honey.  They didn't have dollars to buy things with either.  But they did have gold, which they used as money.  This verse says that we should want read God's Word just like we want candy bars or money.  King David said that he wanted God's Word just like honey and gold.  There is a story about an old gold miner who lived up in the mountains out west. He lived in a simple old cabin with only a few things in it.  When he died, his family came from back east and packed up the few things of his belongings that were valuable and then left.  Another old gold miner friend of his asked them if he could have what was left in the old cabin.  His relatives said, "sure" and they left.  The old miner went into his friend's little cabin, moved the rickety table over, and lifted up some of the floor boards in the cabin.  Underneath, he began to pull out sack after sack of gold that had been hidden away!  His miner friend had found the gold over the years, but had hidden it away underneath his old cabin floor.  His friend knew this because he knew the old miner.  But his relatives didn't care to get to know the old miner.  They didn't know he had found all of that gold.  We need to get to know God.  We need to read His Bible to find out what God likes and what God does not like so that we can do the things that God likes and not do what God does not want us to do.  We need to learn about God from His Word.

Read Psalms 19:7  There are several big words in this verse, but there are some good things to learn from them.  This verse says that God's Law is perfect.  The Bible is called the Law in the Old Testament part.  The Old Testament part of the Bible is the part that tells about the nation of Israel before Jesus was born.  Some things in our world are pretty good and other things are really good.  But this verse says that the Law of the Lord is perfect.  Perfect means absolutely nothing wrong with it.  None of us are perfect, we usually do a few things wrong.  Nothing in our world is perfect; nothing lasts forever.  But God's Word is perfect.  We can always trust what the Bible says - it is perfect.  Convert means to change for the better.  If we read the Bible and obey what God says for us to do, God will change our hearts.  He will convert us.  When we are saved, we are converted.  We are changed.  We used to like to do bad things, but God converts us and so now we want to do the right things.  We are not perfect like God's Word, but we will be perfect some day when we get to heaven and are with God.  He is changing is every day to be more and more like Him.  The last part of this verse says that God's Law will make wise the simple.  If we don't know exactly what to do or which way to go, God will help us to make the right decision.  He will give us the right way to go.  God will make us wise.  Isn't it good to know that if we listen to God, He will make us to go in the right way!

Read Psalms 19:1  King David wrote most of the Psalms.  Some of his singers wrote many of the other ones.  Moses even wrote a few of the Psalms.  The Psalms are songs that they used to use to sung in Bible times.  We read the Bible to learn about God.  But here in verse 1 David says that we can learn about God from looking up at the night sky.  When we think about how huge the universe is, we know that God made it all.  God must be bigger and greater and more powerful than all of the universe!   Handywork is a word that means something that you make.  May be your mother bakes a pie.  May be she sews you a dress.  May be your father makes you a toy gun out of wood.  All of these things are called handywork.  Isn't it amazing that the great big world that we see and our huge sun and all of the distant stars in the universe are God's handywork!  He must be great!  Isn't it wonderful that God loves us and cares about us!

Read Psalms 1:3-6  Once again, we see two different kinds of people.  Yesterday we saw two kinds of football: the offense and the defense.  The righteous man is like the offense and the ungodly man is like the defense.  Verse 2 gives us another word picture.  It says that the man who reads God's Word and listens to what God says is like a tree planted by the rivers of water.  Trees need water to live and to grow. When the weather is dry, the trees down by the river don't have to worry.  Their roots underneath the ground have plenty of water from the river nearby.  They have it good.  But verse 4 tells us that the ungodly are not so.  They do not have God to depend upon.  They do not have someone bigger than they are to take care of them.  Here in verse 4 they are described as chaff.  We make our bread out of wheat that is all ground up really fine.  Wheat is a grass that has hundreds of grains on the top of the stalk.  Back in Bible times, the farmers would cut the wheat stalks and then have an animal to trample the wheat to get the wheat grains off of the stalk and then to break off the hard outer shell from around the good grain of wheat.  This hard outer shell was called the chaff.  Then, on a windy day, the farmer would take a shovel and throw all of these wheat parts up in the air.  The heavy good wheat grains would fall straight back down.  But the worthless lighter chaff and stalks would be blown away by the wind.  People who do not have God in their hearts don't know the right way to go.  Everyone tells them what to do, so they just listen to everyone.  They go this way and that way just like the chaff that is blown this way and that way by the wind.  The good grain of wheat fall straight down because they know what to do.  They read God's Word and listen to what God tells them to do.  Sometimes it seems hard to do what God says to do in His Word, but it is always the best thing to do.  The right thing to do is not always easy at first, but it is always the best thing to do.  I hope you are like the strong tree planted by the rivers of water and not like the worthless chaff that is just blown away.

Read Psalms 1:1 & 2  We are getting ready for the super bowl in football in a couple of weeks.  When two teams play football, one team has the ball and they are trying to make a touchdown and win points.  But the other team is trying to stop them.  They do not have the football, but they are still playing - just a different kind of playing.  The team with the ball is called offense and the team trying to stop them is called the defense. That is the way with these two verses.  Verse 1 is the defense: there are some bad people who we should stay away from.  Who are the 3 bad people who we should stay away from in verse 1?  But verse 2 is the offense; verse 2 is when we have the football and are trying to score.  This verse says that we should love to read and think about God's Word.  Here it is called the Law, because Jesus had not been born yet and they did not have the New Testament.  The more we read the Bible and the more we learn about Jesus, the more we will love the Bible and the more we will love Jesus!  I hope you will read your Bible every day in 2011!

Read John 20:31  How wonderful it is to know that Jesus loves me!  Did you know that after Jesus went back to heaven He left us 2 things?  He left us His written Word, the Bible, and He left us the Holy Spirit.  When we read the Bible, it is just as if Jesus were standing beside us and talking to us.  The written down words of Jesus are just the same as the spoken out loud words of Jesus.  But, Jesus could only be one place at a time.  If He was here with me in Georgia, He could not be with you wherever you live.  But after He went back to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us.  The Holy Spirit can be inside each of us all over the world at the same time!  What wonderful gifts Jesus gave us!  What are some things that you could give to Jesus? 

Read John 17:20  Once again, Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just the night before He was arrested and then crucified.  If Jesus, the very Son of God, had to pray, we need to pray also.  Sometimes we think that we pray only when we need something from God.  We talk to God, just like we talk to our earthly father.  Do you think your father wants to talk to you ONLY when you want to get something from him?  It is good just to talk to our father and tell him that we love him.  Why not just talk to your heavenly Father and tell Him that you love Him?  This is a great verse because it shows us that Jesus was praying for us!  How wonderful to know the love of Jesus!  Today, pray to Jesus and just thank Him for loving you.  Don't ask Him for anything; just tell Him you are glad to be his child.

Read John 17:17  This verse is another verse that Jesus prayed while He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed for us while He was there.  Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified.  Sanctified is a big word that means to be pure or to be right.  Jesus prayed that we would do right and not do bad and wrong things.  What do we call the wrong things that we do?  Then Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified, or made right by truth.  Then Jesus says that His word is truth.  So this is how we do it: Jesus wants us to be right and He says that we must follow Him to learn how to be right, and we must read His words in the Bible in order to learn how to follow Him!  That is why it is important to know what Jesus says in the Bible.  If we do not read the Bible we cannot know what Jesus likes and dislikes.  If we are to be a follower of Jesus, we need to know what He likes and does not like.  Do you want to be a follower of Jesus?  Will you read His words and obey them?

Read John 17:15  You might have a Bible that has the words of Jesus printed in red letters.  All of this chapter is in red letters, which means that these were the exact words of Jesus.  He spoke these words while He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just the night before He was crucified on the cross.  Here in this verse Jesus prayed an interesting prayer. He did NOT pray that we, His followers, would be taken out of this world and immediately taken to heaven.  He DID pray that we would be protected while we live here on earth.  In this verse, what did Jesus pray that we would be protected from?  Isn't it wonderful that Jesus prayed for us!  Is there someone that you are praying especially for today?  What special need do they have?  I am so glad that Jesus cares about us and our needs.

Read John 13:14  Just before Jesus was crucified, he had one last meal with His disciples.  That meal was called the last supper.  During the meal, he had the first communion with his followers. He gave the disciples bread, which represented His body and wine, or grape juice, which represented His blood.  These two things were symbols that represented His sacrifice for you and for me on the cross of Calvary.  Then Jesus showed His disciples that they should all serve one another. There are no important people in our churches who deserve more than anyone else; we are all the same; we are all equal before God.  Jesus took a basin of water and a towel and washed the feet of each of His disciples.  That job was usually left to the lowest servant in someone's house. Jesus himself washed the disciples' feet in order to show them that they were equal with Him.  We should not boss each other around; we should love one another and help one another just like Jesus showed us to do in this verse.  Think of something nice that you could do for your brother or sister to show them that you love them.  What is something that you could do for your mother or father to show them that you care about them?

Read John 10:9  This chapter is about sheep and their shepherd. Jesus says that we are like sheep. Sheep need someone to take care of them and we need someone to take care of us. That someone is Jesus. In Bible times, the sheep stayed in a safe place at night called the sheepfold. It had a high rock wall with only one way in and out. But there was no door at the entrance. The shepherd himself would lay down at night across the opening. He would sleep right there to be sure that his sheep were safe. HE was the door! Jesus takes care of us and makes sure we are safe every day. If we come to Jesus, what does verse 9 say that He will do for us? If the sheep obey their shepherd, they can go in and out of the sheepfold and be safe. They can eat and drink in the daytime and sleep safely at night. If we accept Jesus as our Savior, we can be safe and have a happy life.

Read John 10:27-30  Many times in the Bible, God calls us sheep. He calls us sheep because we act like sheep. Sheep are not able to take care of themselves. They need a shepherd to take care of them. In this chapter, Jesus reminds us that we should follow Him like sheep follow their shepherd. The sheep do not follow a stranger; they only follow their own shepherd.  The sheep know their shepherd and the shepherd knows his own sheep. Jesus says in verse 28 that he gives us a wonderful gift. What is it? Then Jesus says in verse 28 that nobody can grab us out of His hand. He has us safe in His hands! In verse 29, Jesus says that we are even more safe. We are also in God the Father's hands! It is just like we put a penny in our hand and wrap our hand tightly around the penny. Then we wrap our other hand tightly around that hand. Our penny is doubly safe! Nobody can get it out of both of our hands. Jesus reminds us in verse 30 that He is God just like the Father is God. We are kept safe in Jesus AND in God the Father! We can feel safe with Jesus and God the Father in control!

Read John 11:25, 26  These verses are in the middle of the story about Lazarus. Jesus was good friends with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. These two sisters and their brother lived in Bethany, which was near Jerusalem. When Jesus visited the beautiful Temple in Jerusalem, He stayed with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at their house because it was close by. But Lazarus became sick and died. When Jesus got to their house, everyone was crying and upset about Lazarus. Martha went out to meet Jesus. Martha told Jesus that she knew that they would see her brother again in heaven. But since Jesus was the Son of God, He raised Lazarus up from the dead! What a wonderful thing to do! Resurrection is a big word that explains that some day, after we die, God will raise our body up again. We will all live again! If we have trusted Jesus, we will be raised up to live with Him forever. But if we have disobeyed Jesus and not obeyed His teachings, we will be raised up to eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. I am glad that I have trusted in Jesus. I am glad that He loves us and wants us to be in heaven with Him some day. Have you trusted in Jesus as your Savior? Will you be ready to meet Him someday?