Wildwood Assembly

Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Shannon Warden compare family life to renovating a home — you need a good “blueprint” or plan for how you want your family to grow, and a solid foundation of godly character traits like kindness, love, forgiveness, building trust, building connection, and having fun together. Parents and kids need to be “all in” and working as a team to instill these traits into their relationships. Dr. Chapman also talks about the 5 Love Languages, and Dr. Warden shares several stories about parenting her own children.

Receive the book The DIY Guide to Building a Family That Lasts and an audio download of "Tips for Building a Healthy Family" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.

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The Christian race is demanding, grueling, and sometimes agonizing.  It takes a massive effort to finish strong. But many don’t. They may come to church and warm a pew, but their hearts aren’t in the race.

Jesus is the classic example of one who endured, in spite of temptation, accusations, and shame. The devil tempted Jesus nonstop for forty days. Jesus’ own family called him a lunatic. And, on the cross, he bore the collective shame of all humanity. How did he endure?  By focusing on “the joy that God put before him”—that was the prize of heaven. And what he saw gave him strength to finish—and finish strong.

Someday we will be seated, and Christ will christen the meal with these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And in that moment, the race will have been worth it.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

The Treaty Between the King and His People

Deuteronomy opens with an introduction that reads like the preamble to a treaty—because that is exactly what it is. Moses stands on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, and addresses a generation that was either too young to remember Sinai or not yet born when the covenant was first given. The book is structured like a suzerainty treaty between a great king and his vassal nation: credentials, history, demands, blessings, curses, and witnesses. It is the most sophisticated legal document in the ancient Near East, and at its heart is not legislation but love. Moses begins by recounting history—not as dry chronicle but as argument. ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough,’ God said at Sinai. The journey was supposed to take eleven days. It took forty years. Moses recounts his own inadequacy—‘you are too great a burden for me to carry alone’—and the appointment of judges. He retells the spy disaster at Kadesh Barnea, the people’s refusal to enter, and God’s sentence of wandering. And he includes the devastating detail that he himself was barred from the land: ‘The Lord was angry with me because of you.’ The greatest leader in Israel’s history will die without crossing the Jordan. Deuteronomy is Moses’ last sermon, and he preaches it knowing that everything he has worked for will be completed by someone else.

00:00 Introduction to Deuteronomy
01:00 The Treaty Structure Explained
04:00 Moses Begins His Address
05:00 ‘You Have Stayed Long Enough’
06:00 Appointing Judges and Leaders
07:00 The Spy Mission Retold
08:00 The People’s Rebellion
09:00 God’s Sentence of Wandering
10:00 The Failed Invasion
11:00 Forty Years at Mount Seir

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.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories of something lost and something found. A lost sheep. A lost coin. And a lost son.  At the end of each story, Jesus describes a celebration. The point is clear. Jesus is happiest when the lost are found.

Jesus rejoices because he knows what awaits the saved. In Heaven, you will at long last, have a heart just like his. Guiltless. Fearless. Tirelessly worshiping. Flawlessly discerning. Jesus also rejoices that we are saved from hell.  He says there’s only one sound there, and that is the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Every person you meet has been given an invitation to dinner.  When one says yes, celebrate!  When one hesitates, urge him to get ready. You don’t want anyone to miss the party.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Shannon Warden compare family life to renovating a home — you need a good “blueprint” or plan for how you want your family to grow, and a solid foundation of godly character traits like kindness, love, forgiveness, building trust, building connection, and having fun together. Parents and kids need to be “all in” and working as a team to instill these traits into their relationships. Dr. Chapman also talks about the 5 Love Languages, and Dr. Warden shares several stories about parenting her own children.

Receive the book The DIY Guide to Building a Family That Lasts and an audio download of "Tips for Building a Healthy Family" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.

Get More Episode Resources 

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

Boundaries, Refuge, and the God Who Lives Among You

God draws boundaries—literal lines on a map defining the borders of the promised land. The southern edge runs along the wilderness of Zin, the western boundary is the Mediterranean coast, the northern limit extends to Mount Hor, and the eastern border traces the Jordan River to the Dead Sea. Land is not an abstraction in Scripture; it is particular, measured, promised. Each tribe receives its portion by sacred lot, and the named leaders who will oversee the distribution are listed one by one. God is not handing out wilderness; He is giving a homeland. Then come the Levitical cities—forty-eight towns scattered throughout all the tribal territories, ensuring that the servants of God are woven into the fabric of the entire nation, not isolated in a religious ghetto. Among these are the six cities of refuge—three on each side of the Jordan—where a person who has killed accidentally can flee from the avenger of blood. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is drawn with careful precision: intent matters, history matters, motive matters. And the underlying reason is startling: ‘You must not defile the land where you live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord who lives among the people of Israel.’ Justice is not merely a social contract; it is a requirement of God’s presence. The chapter closes with the daughters of Zelophehad again—their inheritance preserved by marrying within their own tribe. The law bends to protect the vulnerable, but it does not break the larger structure of tribal inheritance. Numbers ends not with fanfare but with fidelity: God’s people on the edge of the land, their laws in place, their boundaries drawn, waiting to cross.

00:00 Drive Out the Inhabitants
01:00 Boundaries of the Promised Land
02:00 Northern and Eastern Borders
03:00 Leaders Appointed for Land Distribution
04:00 Levitical Towns
05:00 Cities of Refuge Established
06:00 Murder vs. Manslaughter
07:00 The Role of the Avenger
08:00 Protection in the City of Refuge
09:00 God Lives Among His People
10:00 Zelophehad’s Daughters Marry Within Their Tribe
11:00 The End of Numbers

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

Jesus said, “Your eyes are windows into your body.  If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.  If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.”

In Gethsemane, Jesus faced betrayal on all levels.  The disciples ran away.  The people rejected him.  And God didn’t answer his anguished appeal to avoid “the cup of suffering.” So, what did Christ do? He found enough good in the face of Judas to call him friend, and he can help us do the same with those who hurt us.  He found purpose in the pain, seeing it as a necessary part of God’s greater plan.

Wouldn’t you love to have a hope-filled heart?  God never promises to remove us from our struggles.  He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Chad Williams shares his experience of training to become a Navy SEAL, only to have his mentor killed in the line of duty in Iraq. When Chad graduated the incredibly grueling SEAL training, he was faced with depression and emptiness as he contemplated his future, and became lost in drunkenness. Hear how he found a new lease on life through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Receive a copy of SEAL of God: The Path is Narrow but the Reward is Great plus a free audio download of “Quitting Isn’t An Option: My Life as a Navy Seal” 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.