Wildwood Assembly

The Scapegoat and the Day Everything Was Made Right

The regulations about bodily discharges remind us that the Old Testament takes the whole person seriously—body and spirit together. Uncleanness is not sin; it is a condition that separates a person temporarily from the sacred. And in every case, there is a way back: washing, waiting, offering. The system is merciful in its thoroughness. But the centerpiece of today’s reading is the Day of Atonement—the most solemn day in Israel’s calendar, the one day when the high priest passes behind the inner curtain into the Most Holy Place. He enters in a cloud of incense, carrying blood, and he sprinkles it on the atonement cover. The ritual is precise because the stakes are ultimate: if he does it wrong, he dies. Then comes the scapegoat. Aaron lays both hands on the goat’s head and confesses over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people. The goat is led into the wilderness, carrying the nation’s guilt into a desolate land, never to return. It is one of the most vivid pictures of substitutionary atonement in all of Scripture. The sins are transferred, the goat departs, and the people are clean. Once a year, everything was made right. The whole system points beyond itself to a day when the making-right would be permanent.

00:00 Bodily Discharges
03:00 Menstrual Impurity
05:00 Guarding Against Defilement
06:00 The Day of Atonement
07:00 The Two Goats
08:00 Behind the Inner Curtain
09:00 Purifying the Altar
10:00 The Scapegoat Sent Away
11:00 A Permanent Law

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.

Rhonda Stoppe wants to motivate godly moms to “step up” to be a powerful influence on their children and their children’s faith. She shares examples of “fearless, flawed, and faithful” moms in the Bible, whose stories can encourage mothers and families today.

Receive a copy of Moms of the Bible and an audio download of "Parenting Wisdom from the Bible's Most Influential Mothers" 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.

Few situations stir panic like being trapped in a relationship. Some opt to flee, to get out of the relationship. Others fight, and tension becomes a way of life. A few, however, discover another treatment: forgiveness.

In Jesus’ day the task of washing feet was reserved for the lowest of the servants. But in the thirteenth chapter of John, the one with the basin and towel is the king of the universe. What a passionate moment when Jesus silently washes the feet of all the disciples…even Judas. Jesus knows that, by morning, these men will bury their heads in shame. Remarkable. He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

The Priest as Physician of the Soul

The skin disease regulations of Leviticus may be the least-read chapters in the Bible, and that is a pity, because they reveal something extraordinary about God’s character. He does not simply condemn the sick; He provides a system for their examination, quarantine, and—crucially—their restoration. The priest functions not as judge alone but as physician, examining sores and swellings with the patience of a careful diagnostician. Seven days of quarantine, then another seven, then another examination. God is in no hurry to declare someone unclean. And when healing comes, the purification ceremony is breathtaking in its symbolism: two birds, one slaughtered over running water, the other dipped in the blood and released into the open sky. The living bird, stained with death, flies free—a picture of life redeemed from the grave. The same ritual applies to houses contaminated with mildew: examine, scrape, replaster, and if healing comes, purify. Nothing is beyond restoration in God’s economy. The entire system assumes that uncleanness is temporary and that the goal is always return—return to cleanliness, return to community, return to the presence of God.

00:00 Examining Skin Diseases
02:00 Chronic Conditions
04:00 Boils and Burns
06:00 Sores on the Head
08:00 Living in Isolation
09:00 Mildew in Clothing
11:00 Purification Ceremony: Two Birds
13:00 Blood on the Ear, Thumb, and Toe
14:00 Offerings for the Poor
17:00 Mildew in Houses

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.

Conflict in marriage can often feel like an all-consuming and explosive cycle that eats away at peace. It’s essential to acknowledge past experiences that contribute to these negative cycles. Ron (a licensed marriage and family therapist) and his wife Nan describe how self-regulation and retraining the brain's triggers can help bring restoration and healing in a marriage. The couple shares their own journey through the tragic loss of their young son and how these principles impacted that difficult process.

Receive a copy of The Mindful Marriage and an audio download of "Building an Emotionally Healthy Marriage" 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.

Jesus is pure; we are greedy. He is peaceful; we are hassled. He is spiritual; we are earthbound. The distance between our hearts and his seems so immense. How could we ever hope to have the heart of Jesus?

Ready for a surprise? You already do. If you have given your life to Jesus, Jesus has given himself to you. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16 (TLB), “Strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.”

God has ambitious plans for us. The same one who saved your soul longs to remake your heart. Let’s imagine what it means to be just like Jesus. Let’s look long into the heart of Christ. Perhaps in seeing him, we will see what we can become.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Fire from Heaven and the Cost of Carelessness

The eighth day dawns, and Aaron performs his first sacrifices as high priest. The bull, the ram, the goat—each offered precisely as commanded. Then Moses and Aaron emerge from the tabernacle, bless the people, and the glory of the Lord appears. Fire blazes from God’s presence and consumes the offering on the altar. The people shout with joy and fall on their faces. It is one of the most magnificent moments in Israel’s story. And then, in the very next breath, everything turns to horror. Nadab and Abihu—Aaron’s own sons—offer unauthorized fire before the Lord, and the same divine fire that consumed the sacrifice consumes them. Aaron is silent. That silence may be the most powerful sentence in Leviticus. What can a father say? God’s explanation is terse and terrifying: ‘I will display my holiness through those who come near me.’ The closer you are to God, the more precision matters. The reading then turns to the dietary laws—clean and unclean animals, split hooves and scales—and the reason given is startling: ‘You must be holy because I am holy.’ Even what you eat becomes a declaration of whose you are.

00:00 Aaron’s First Sacrifices
01:00 The Sin Offering and Burnt Offering
03:00 Fire from the Lord
04:00 The Death of Nadab and Abihu
05:00 Aaron’s Silence
06:00 Instructions for the Priests
08:00 Clean and Unclean Animals
11:00 Creatures That Defile
14:00 Be Holy Because I Am Holy
15:00 Purification After Childbirth

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.

Conflict in marriage can often feel like an all-consuming and explosive cycle that eats away at peace. It’s essential to acknowledge past experiences that contribute to these negative cycles. Ron (a licensed marriage and family therapist) and his wife Nan describe how self-regulation and retraining the brain's triggers can help bring restoration and healing in a marriage. The couple shares their own journey through the tragic loss of their young son and how these principles impacted that difficult process.

Receive a copy of The Mindful Marriage and an audio download of "Building an Emotionally Healthy Marriage" 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.

The heart of Jesus was pure. Peter traveled with Jesus for three and a half years, and he described Jesus as a “lamb, unblemished and spotless” (1 Peter 1:19). The heart of Jesus was peaceful. The disciples shouted for fear in the storm, but Jesus slept through it. Peter drew his sword to fight the soldiers, but Jesus lifted his hand to heal.

The heart of Jesus was purposeful. He aimed at one goal—to save humanity from its sin. “The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). His heart was spiritual. He took his instructions from God. It was his habit to go to worship. He memorized scripture. His times of prayer guided him. John 5:19 says, “The Son does whatever the Father does.” The heart of Jesus was spiritual. Let ours be the same.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.