Leviticus is filled with rules. Most of those rules seem completely irrelevant to us. Lev. 20:22-26 offers a glimpse of what is behind the rules. God’s people are different from the nations around them. Leviticus shows how to make that difference obvious.

After leaving Egypt, Israel was brought by God to Mount Sinai where He gave them the law and made a covenant with them. Several weeks later, while waiting for Moses to return from talking with God on the mountain, Israel plunged into sin. This sin brought to light a big problem in their relationship with the Lord.

Exodus picks up 400 years after the end of Genesis. God’s people are still in Egypt, but now the Egyptians have turned against them. Exodus opens with one of the bleakest times in Israel’s history before or since.

Are you #blessed? Joseph’s experiences in Genesis 39 would lead you (and him) to doubt that he is blessed. But God’s Word makes it clear that God is with him even as he is far from his family and everyone he knows.

God’s call and Abram’s response sets in motion God’s plans to form a community of faith. The blessings God promises to Abram are at the core of God’s redemptive work.

John 20 records three encounters with Jesus after His resurrection. Each encounter shows the life-changing power we celebrate at Easter.

The mood changes dramatically in chapter 18. Jesus and the disciples leave the Upper Room for the Garden of Gethsemane. The time of serving, teaching and prayer in chapters 13-17 is replaced by betrayal, confrontation, and arrest.

As Jesus continues his prayer out loud before his arrest, he moves from praying for himself to praying for his disciples: the ones with him and the ones to come. We get to be a fly on the wall and listen in on this intimate prayer between the Father and His Son.

After talking to his disciples to prepare them for the tumultuous events about to occur, Jesus turns to prayer. In the beginning of his prayer, he surprisingly prays for himself - asking the Father to glorify him.

This is the last section in Jesus’ Upper Room teaching time with the Disciples. Chapter 17 transitions to Jesus’ prayer. In these final words, Jesus continues to comfort the disciples as they anticipate Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father.