Jesus uses the images of a vineyard, pruning, and a new harvest to help his followers understand the process is painful but powerful. We must be willing to remove things that harm or impede us.

In one of his final messages to the gathered disciples, Jesus explains that they need to remove the negativity and selfishness of their own thoughts, the same way vines need to be pruned. Link to complete worksheet (Click on Zoom and reduce it to 50%) - https://bit.ly/CompleteBibleWorksheet

We compare the storyline of the movie Field of Dreams with the challenges presented with Jesus' departure.

The disciples are concerned when Jesus says he must leave them. Their different reactions to his statement help illustrate the human struggle with uncertainty.

Link to complete worksheet (Click on Zoom and reduce it to 50%) - https://bit.ly/CompleteBibleWorksheet

Jesus tells his followers, the larger crowd, and especially the toxic religious leaders that he is the one true gate, through which believers should travel.

Jesus returns to to his disciples to offer peace first, and then hope. With a renewed sense of purpose, Jesus calls the disciples to leave the locked room they are in and declare what they have seen. One person missed the event.

In an episode like none before it, I invited three friends for a draft of seven rounds, choosing books as if they were the only ones we have for the next three years. We also invited two friends after the draft to offer analysis of the picks made and not made. This is only the beginning of our pursuit to make the Bible approachable, relatable, and transformational!

"To repent is not to look downwards at my own shortcomings, but upwards at God's love, it is not to look backwards with self-reproach but forward with trustfulness, it is to see not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I might yet become."+St. John Climacus