Wildwood Assembly

We can’t even get the cable company to answer us, yet God will?  The doctor’s too busy, but God isn’t?  We have our doubts about prayer!

Jesus raised people from the dead.  But a “How to Vacate the Cemetery” seminar? His followers never called for one. But they did want Him to do this– “Lord, teach us to pray.” Might their interest have something to do with the jaw-dropping promise Jesus attached to prayer? “Ask and it will be given to you.” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He gave them a prayer.

Could you use the same?  Father, You are good.  I need help. Heal me and forgive me. They need help. Thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Before amen—comes the power of a simple prayer. Punctuate your day with it!

Read more Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Generosity, Freedom, and the Rhythm of Celebration

The tithe is not a tax; it is a feast. Every year, Israel is to bring a tenth of their harvest to the place God chooses and eat it there in His presence—celebrating, rejoicing, feasting. If the journey is too long, they may sell the tithe and buy whatever they want when they arrive: cattle, wine, anything that makes the heart glad. God commands His people to enjoy themselves. Every third year, the tithe stays local, distributed to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows. The rhythm is generous: two years of feasting at the sanctuary, one year of feeding the vulnerable at home. Then comes the year of release—every seventh year, all debts are canceled. Moses anticipates the objection before it is spoken: ‘Do not be mean-spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand.’ Generosity is not optional, and calculating its cost is a form of meanness. ‘Give generously,’ he says, ‘not grudgingly.’ The Hebrew slave laws follow the same pattern of radical generosity: after six years of service, a slave goes free—and not empty-handed. The master must load the departing servant with gifts from flock, threshing floor, and wine press. ‘Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt.’ The memory of bondage is meant to produce not bitterness but compassion. The reading closes with the three great festivals—Passover, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters—each one a commanded celebration, a required joy. In God’s economy, gratitude is not a feeling you wait for; it is a practice you are commanded to perform.

00:00 The Annual Tithe as Feast
01:00 The Third-Year Tithe for the Vulnerable
02:00 The Year of Release: Cancel All Debts
03:00 Do Not Be Mean-Spirited
04:00 Hebrew Slaves Set Free After Six Years
05:00 The Servant Who Chooses to Stay
06:00 Passover Regulations
07:00 The Festival of Harvest
08:00 The Festival of Shelters
08:00 Three Annual Festivals Required

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 https://lumi

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.

When I pray, I think of a thousand things I need to do. I forget the one thing I set out to do: pray. Can you relate?

But wouldn’t we all like to pray… More? Better? Deeper? Stronger? With more fire, faith, or fervency? Yet we have kids to feed, bills to pay, deadlines to meet. We want to pray, but when? We want to pray, but why? We have our doubts about prayer, our checkered history of unmet expectations, unanswered questions. We aren’t the first. The sign-up for Prayer 101 contains familiar names: John, James, Andrew, and Peter. The first followers of Jesus needed prayer guidance.

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.

One Place, One God: The Centralization of Worship

The detailed laws of Deuteronomy begin, and the first command is architectural: destroy every pagan worship site and bring your sacrifices only to the place God chooses. The centralization of worship is not bureaucratic tidiness; it is a safeguard against syncretism. If worship can happen anywhere, it will eventually happen everywhere—on every hill, under every tree, in every form the surrounding cultures practice. By requiring a single place of worship, God creates a centripetal force that pulls the nation back to Himself. The freedom to eat meat in your hometown is granted—a concession to the vastness of the land—but the sacred offerings must go to the central sanctuary. And the Levites must never be neglected, for they have no land of their own. Then comes a series of warnings about false prophets and even beloved family members who might lure you toward other gods. The test for a prophet is not whether his predictions come true but whether he leads you toward or away from the Lord. A prophet can perform signs and still be false if his message is ‘let us worship other gods.’ God allows the test deliberately: ‘He is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul.’ Even an entire town that turns to idolatry must be destroyed—burned as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. The severity is shocking, but the principle is clear: nothing—not family, not community, not miracles—is more important than exclusive allegiance to the one true God. The chapter closes with dietary laws restated, a reminder that holiness touches even the most ordinary act of eating.

00:00 Destroy Pagan Worship Sites
01:00 Worship Only at the Place God Chooses
02:00 The Levites Must Not Be Neglected
03:00 Freedom to Eat Meat Locally
04:00 Never Consume the Blood
05:00 Do Not Follow Pagan Customs
06:00 Testing False Prophets
07:00 Even Family Members Who Lead Astray
08:00 A Town That Turns to Idolatry
09:00 Clean and Unclean Animals
10:00 Birds and Winged Creatures
11:00 You Are Holy to the Lord

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 pod

Foster parents experience unique circumstances that come with unique emotions, and sometimes it can feel as though no one can relate to their life. Strength and encouragement come from viewing foster care through the lens of the Gospel. This is the message that Jason Johnson, author of Reframing Foster Care, brings. In this interview, he will share stories from his own foster parenting journey, such as the hard decisions and processes that he and his wife have had to go through, including the very real issues that come with relating to the birth parents of the children they are fostering. He will offer support to foster parents, as well as encouragement to those who are considering fostering. Also, he will give practical ways that we can all help, whether we feel called to be involved in foster care or not.

Every kid deserves something to call their own. This suitcase has three things inside: a Bible, a teddy bear, and a handwritten letter to remind a child in foster care how much he/she is loved. When you give, we'll say thanks with a copy of Reframing Foster Care and an audio download of "Foster Care: How Everyone Can Help."

Get More Episode Resources 

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

Some people excel in prayer. They are the SEAL Team Six of intercession. They’d rather pray than sleep. Why is it I sleep when I pray? It’s not that we don’t pray at all; we all pray some. Surveys indicate one in five unbelievers prays daily. Just in case, perhaps?

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he gave them a prayer. A quotable, repeatable, portable prayer. Could you use the same? “Father, You are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me. They need help. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

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.

What Does the Lord Require? New Tablets and a Circumcised Heart

God gives Moses a second chance—new tablets, same words. The Ten Commandments are rewritten on fresh stone and placed in the ark of acacia wood. The covenant is not abandoned because the first tablets were shattered; it is renewed. God’s word survives human failure. Aaron dies and is buried, Eleazar takes his place, and the Levites are set apart to carry the ark and minister before the Lord. Then Moses asks the question that distills the entire covenant into a single sentence: ‘What does the Lord your God require of you?’ The answer is magnificent in its simplicity: fear Him, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him with all your heart and soul, and obey His commands. That is everything. The highest heavens belong to God, and yet—‘yet’ is the most important word in the passage—He chose your ancestors as the objects of His love. The God who owns everything wants you. Moses then issues the most interior command in Deuteronomy: ‘Change your hearts and stop being stubborn.’ The Hebrew literally reads ‘circumcise the foreskin of your heart.’ External ritual is not enough; God wants the inner life transformed. And the portrait of God that follows is breathtaking: He is the God of gods who shows no partiality, cannot be bribed, ensures justice for orphans and widows, and loves the foreigner. ‘So you too must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners.’ The memory of Egypt is not just history; it is ethics. What was done to you must never be done by you.

00:00 New Stone Tablets and the Ark
01:00 Aaron’s Death and Eleazar’s Succession
02:00 What Does the Lord Require of You?
03:00 God of Gods, Lord of Lords
04:00 Love the Foreigner
05:00 Your Ancestors Were Only Seventy
06:00 A Land Watered by Rain
07:00 Tie These Words to Your Hands
08:00 The Choice: Blessing or Curse
08:00 Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal

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 https://lumivoz.com or search for Lumivoz in your podcast app of choice.

"For a good time, call home!" Pastor Ted Cunningham outlines the benefits of marriage, and encourages young adults to consider marrying sooner rather than later. He offers great advice for couples of all ages to help keep the joy in your relationship. 

Receive Ted Cunningham's book Fun Loving You for your donation of any amount, and receive a free audio download of this program!

Get More Episode Resources 

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