Wildwood Assembly

Are “screentime battles” taking over your home? You’re not alone. After her son dropped out of college due to a video game addiction, Melanie Hempe took a deep dive in the science of brain development. She founded ScreenStrong, an organization dedicated to helping parents navigate technology. 

Receive a copy of Kids Brains and Screens and an audio download of "How to Free Your Child from Addictive Screen Habits" for your donation of any amount!

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Prayer isn’t a privilege for the pious, not the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and His child.  When we invite God into our world, He brings a host of gifts: joy, patience, resilience.  Anxieties come, but they don’t stick. Fears surface and then depart. I’m completing my sixth decade, yet I’m wired with energy. Happier, healthier, and more hopeful! Struggles come, for sure.  But so does God.

My friend, He wants to talk with you.  Even now as you hear these words, He taps at the door.  Open it.  Welcome Him in and let  the conversation begin. Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for 4 weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!

Read more Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Blessings and Curses: The Two Mountains

Moses commands a dramatic ceremony for the day Israel crosses the Jordan: large stones coated with plaster, inscribed with the entire law, set up on Mount Ebal. An altar of uncut stones. Burnt offerings and peace offerings and feasting. Six tribes on Mount Gerizim to pronounce blessings, six on Mount Ebal for curses. The Levites stand in the valley between and recite twelve curses—each one targeting sins committed in secret: the hidden idol, the dishonored parent, the moved boundary marker, the blind person led astray, the justice denied to the vulnerable. After each curse, all the people say ‘Amen.’ They are not passive listeners; they are participants in their own judgment. Then comes the great catalog of blessings and curses—the most extended passage of its kind in the Bible. The blessings are magnificent: blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed in your children, your crops, your livestock. Your enemies will scatter in seven directions. God will open the heavens to rain on your land. You will lend to many nations and borrow from none. But the curses are devastating in their escalation. They mirror the blessings point by point, then go far beyond them—disease, drought, defeat, madness, blindness, siege so terrible that parents eat their own children. The passage is almost unbearable to read, and that is the point. Moses is not threatening; he is warning. He is painting the consequences of covenant-breaking in colors so vivid that no one can claim ignorance. The curses end with the ultimate reversal: the people who left Egypt in triumph will be sent back in ships, offering themselves as slaves—and no one will buy them.

00:00 Stones Inscribed with the Law
01:00 The Altar on Mount Ebal
02:00 Twelve Curses Proclaimed
03:00 The People Say Amen
04:00 Blessings for Obedience
05:00 You Will Lend, Not Borrow
06:00 Curses for Disobedience Begin
07:00 Disease, Drought, and Defeat
08:00 Madness and Blindness
09:00 A Distant Nation Like a Vulture
10:00 The Horror of Siege
12:00 Plagues Without Relief
13:00 Scattered Among the Nations
14:00 Sent Back to Egypt in Ships

Buy Immerse Beginnings today!

4 Questions to get your conversations started:
1.    What stood out to you this week?
2.    Was there anything confusing or troubling?
3.    Did anything make you think differently about God?
4.    How might this change the way we live?

QUICK START GUIDE
3 ways to get the most out of your experience

1.    Use Immerse: Beginnings instead of your regular chapter and verse Bible. This special reader’s edition restores the Bible to its natural simplicity and beauty by removing chapter and verse numbers and other historical additions. Letters look like letters, songs look like songs, and the original literary structures are visible in each book.

2.    Commit to making this a community experience. Immerse is designed for groups to encounter large portions of the Bible together for 8 weeks–more like a book club, less like a Bible study. By meeting every week in small groups and discussing what you read in open, honest conversations, you and your community can come together to be transformed through an authentic experience with the Scriptures.

3.    Aim to understand the big story. Read through “The Stories and the Story” (p. 329) to see how the books of the Bible work together to tell God’s story of his creation’s restoration. As you read through Immerse: Beginnings, rather than ask, “How do I fit God into my busy life?” begin asking, “How can I join in God’s g

Marriage, Mercy, and the Gleaner’s Right

The laws in this reading touch the most intimate and the most mundane corners of human life—marriage, sexuality, divorce, neighborliness, wages, gleaning—and through them all runs a single thread: the vulnerable must be protected. The marriage laws are harsh by modern standards, but in their ancient context they represent an attempt to bring order and accountability to relationships where women had little legal recourse. The rights of a captive woman, the rules about divorce, the protections for a falsely accused bride—each provision constrains the power of the strong over the weak. Escaped slaves must not be returned to their masters—a law so radical it has no parallel in the ancient Near East. Loans to fellow Israelites must be interest-free. Vows must be kept. A newly married man gets a full year exempt from military service to ‘bring happiness to his wife.’ Workers must be paid before sunset. And then come the gleaning laws, among the most beautiful legislation in the Bible: when you harvest your field and forget a sheaf, do not go back for it. When you beat your olive trees, do not go over the branches twice. When you gather grapes, leave what remains. These forgotten sheaves, these unpicked olives, these remaining clusters belong to the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. God builds a welfare system into the very act of harvesting. The poor do not receive charity; they receive the right to gather what the prosperous have left behind. And the reason is always the same: ‘Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.’ Memory is the engine of compassion.

00:00 Accusations Against a Bride
01:00 Laws About Adultery and Rape
03:00 Exclusions from the Assembly
04:00 Keeping the Camp Pure
05:00 No Interest on Loans to Israelites
06:00 Divorce and Remarriage
07:00 Newly Married Men Exempt from War
08:00 Pay Workers Before Sunset
09:00 The Gleaning Laws
10:00 Limits on Flogging
11:00 Levirate Marriage
12:00 Honest Weights and Measures

Buy Immerse Beginnings today!

4 Questions to get your conversations started:
1.    What stood out to you this week?
2.    Was there anything confusing or troubling?
3.    Did anything make you think differently about God?
4.    How might this change the way we live?

QUICK START GUIDE
3 ways to get the most out of your experience

1.    Use Immerse: Beginnings instead of your regular chapter and verse Bible. This special reader’s edition restores the Bible to its natural simplicity and beauty by removing chapter and verse numbers and other historical additions. Letters look like letters, songs look like songs, and the original literary structures are visible in each book.

2.    Commit to making this a community experience. Immerse is designed for groups to encounter large portions of the Bible together for 8 weeks–more like a book club, less like a Bible study. By meeting every week in small groups and discussing what you read in open, honest conversations, you and your community can come together to be transformed through an authentic experience with the Scriptures.

3.    Aim to understand the big story. Read through “The Stories and the Story” (p. 329) to see how the books of the Bible work together to tell God’s story of his creation’s restoration. As you read through Immerse: Beginnings, rather than ask, “How do I fit God into my busy life?” begin asking, “How can I join in God’s great plan by living out my part in his story?”

And for more great Bible podcasts for Christians and small groups, check out

Laws for War, for Neighbors, and for the Forgotten Sheaf

The rules of warfare in Deuteronomy are unlike anything in the ancient world. Before the army marches, the priest speaks: ‘Do not be afraid. The Lord your God is going with you.’ Then the officers announce a series of extraordinary exemptions—anyone who has built a new house, planted a vineyard, or become engaged may go home. And anyone who is simply afraid may leave, lest his fear infect the others. God does not want reluctant soldiers. When besieging a city, Israel must first offer terms of peace. And they must not cut down the fruit trees. ‘Are the trees your enemies?’ Moses asks—a question that carries a surprisingly ecological sensibility. Even in war, creation deserves respect. The chapter then moves through a rapid succession of laws that reveal the texture of daily life in a covenant community: the unsolved murder ritual with the heifer, the rights of a captive woman, the firstborn son’s inheritance rights, the rebellious son, the dignity of a criminal’s body. Each law addresses a different kind of vulnerability. Then come the neighbor laws—return a wandering animal, help a collapsed donkey, build a railing on your roof. The common thread is responsibility: you are your neighbor’s keeper. You may not look the other way. The reading moves through regulations about honest weights, about tassels on garments, and about the Amalekites—whose cruelty to the weak and straggling will not be forgotten. Then comes the firstfruits ceremony, and with it one of the oldest creeds in Scripture: ‘My ancestor Jacob was a wandering Aramean.’ The worshiper recites the whole story—slavery, deliverance, land—and places the basket of produce before the Lord. The chapter closes with a mutual declaration: ‘The Lord has declared you are His people, and you have declared the Lord is your God.’ The covenant is bilateral. Both parties have spoken.

00:00 Rules for War: The Priest Speaks First
01:00 Exemptions from Battle
02:00 Terms of Peace and Siege
03:00 The Unsolved Murder Ritual
04:00 Rights of a Captive Woman
05:00 The Firstborn’s Inheritance
06:00 The Rebellious Son
07:00 Return Your Neighbor’s Lost Property
08:00 Tassels, Honest Weights, and the Amalekites
10:00 False Witnesses
11:00 Honest Scales
12:00 The Firstfruits Ceremony
13:00 ‘My Ancestor Was a Wandering Aramean’
14:00 The Third-Year Tithe Declaration
15:00 A Mutual Covenant Declaration

Buy Immerse Beginnings today!

4 Questions to get your conversations started:
1.    What stood out to you this week?
2.    Was there anything confusing or troubling?
3.    Did anything make you think differently about God?
4.    How might this change the way we live?

QUICK START GUIDE
3 ways to get the most out of your experience

1.    Use Immerse: Beginnings instead of your regular chapter and verse Bible. This special reader’s edition restores the Bible to its natural simplicity and beauty by removing chapter and verse numbers and other historical additions. Letters look like letters, songs look like songs, and the original literary structures are visible in each book.

2.    Commit to making this a community experience. Immerse is designed for groups to encounter large portions of the Bible together for 8 weeks–more like a book club, less like a Bible study. By meeting every week in small groups and discussing what you read in open, honest conversations, you and your community can come together to be transformed through an authentic experience with the Scriptures.

3.    Aim to understand the big story.

Jeff Dillon and Ty Dannenbring are two dads passionate about bringing the “party” to their own front yard. They give simple, practical advice for engaging with your neighbors and building real community. You’ll be encouraged to share the love of Jesus in a whole new way.  

Receive a copy of Party in the Front and an audio download of "Building Community in Your Own Backyard" for your donation of any amount!

Get More Episode Resources 

If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.

Mark 1:35 says, “Jesus went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

This dialogue must have been common among His friends: “Has anyone seen Jesus?”  “Oh, you know.  He’s up to the same thing.”  “Praying again?”  “Yep. He’s been gone since sunrise.”

Jesus would even disappear for an entire night of prayer. Prayer for most of us, isn’t a matter of a month-long retreat or even an hour of meditation. It’s a conversation with God while driving to work or waiting for an appointment. God will teach you to pray. We speak. He listens. He speaks. We listen. It’s prayer in its purest form. God changes His people through such moments.

Here’s my challenge for you! Every day for four weeks, pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!

Read more Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Kings, Prophets, and the Prophet Like Moses

The laws of Deuteronomy now turn to the structures of power—judges, kings, priests, and prophets—and in every case the message is the same: authority exists under God, not in place of Him. Judges must be fair, impartial, unbribable. ‘Let true justice prevail,’ Moses says—not approximate justice, not expedient justice, but true justice, because the land itself is defiled when the innocent suffer and the guilty walk free. The king, when Israel eventually demands one, must be an Israelite, not a foreigner. He must not accumulate horses, wives, or gold—the three currencies of ancient royal power. Instead, he must copy the law with his own hand and read it every day of his life. The king of Israel is to be a student of Scripture first and a sovereign second. The Levitical priests receive no land because the Lord Himself is their inheritance—the same breathtaking arrangement given to Aaron in Numbers. Then Moses delivers the most forward-looking prophecy in Deuteronomy: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.’ The people had begged not to hear God’s voice directly, and God agreed—He would send mediators, prophets who carry His words. The test of a true prophet is simple: does what he says come true? And does he lead you toward the Lord or away from Him? The cities of refuge are established again—three in the land, with three more if the territory expands—because God’s justice distinguishes between the intentional and the accidental. And false witnesses face a sobering rule: whatever punishment they intended for the accused falls on them instead.

00:00 Appoint Judges Who Are Fair
01:00 Investigate Idolatry Thoroughly
02:00 Difficult Cases Go to the Priests
03:00 Guidelines for a King
04:00 The King Must Read the Law Daily
05:00 The Levites’ Inheritance Is the Lord
06:00 Do Not Imitate Detestable Customs
06:00 The Prophet Like Moses
07:00 Testing a Prophet’s Message
08:00 Cities of Refuge in the Land
09:00 Boundary Markers and Witnesses
10:00 Punishing False Witnesses

Buy Immerse Beginnings today!

4 Questions to get your conversations started:
1.    What stood out to you this week?
2.    Was there anything confusing or troubling?
3.    Did anything make you think differently about God?
4.    How might this change the way we live?

QUICK START GUIDE
3 ways to get the most out of your experience

1.    Use Immerse: Beginnings instead of your regular chapter and verse Bible. This special reader’s edition restores the Bible to its natural simplicity and beauty by removing chapter and verse numbers and other historical additions. Letters look like letters, songs look like songs, and the original literary structures are visible in each book.

2.    Commit to making this a community experience. Immerse is designed for groups to encounter large portions of the Bible together for 8 weeks–more like a book club, less like a Bible study. By meeting every week in small groups and discussing what you read in open, honest conversations, you and your community can come together to be transformed through an authentic experience with the Scriptures.

3.    Aim to understand the big story. Read through “The Stories and the Story” (p. 329) to see how the books of the Bible work together to tell God’s story of his creation’s restoration. As you read through Immerse: Beginnings, rather than ask, “How do I fit God into my busy life?” begin asking, “How can I join in God’s great plan by living out my part i

Kristen Rusch, Ashley Durand, and Dr. Jenny Coffey share their insight on finding hope through the struggles of motherhood. They touched on subjects such as depression, meltdowns, comparison, and being rooted in their identity in Christ.

Receive a copy of Mothering on Empty and an audio download of "Help for When Motherhood Feels Overwhelming" for your donation of any amount!

Get More Episode Resources 

If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.