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.