Wildwood Assembly

The Fire That Never Goes Out and Hands Laid on the Ram

The instructions shift from the worshiper to the priest—how to handle what has been offered, how to tend the fire that must never go out. That perpetual flame on the altar is one of the most evocative images in Leviticus: a fire burning day and night, through every season, fed each morning with fresh wood. It says that worship is not an event but a way of life, that the offering never truly ceases. The priests eat portions of the sin and guilt offerings in the sacred courtyard—their food comes from the sacrifices, binding their sustenance to their service. Then the peace offering instructions reveal something beautiful: the breast is lifted as a special offering and becomes the priest’s portion, a permanent right from generation to generation. The priesthood is sustained by the people’s worship, and the people’s worship is made possible by the priesthood. It is a holy economy of mutual dependence. The reading closes with the ordination of Aaron and his sons—blood on the right ear to consecrate their hearing, on the right thumb to consecrate their work, on the right toe to consecrate their walk. Every part of the priest belongs to God. The anointing oil and the blood mingle on their garments, and they must remain at the tabernacle entrance for seven days. They are being remade for sacred service, and that kind of remaking takes time.

00:00 Instructions for the Burnt Offering
01:00 The Grain Offering for Priests
03:00 The Sin Offering Instructions
04:00 The Guilt Offering Instructions
05:00 The Peace Offering Instructions
07:00 Fat and Blood Prohibited
08:00 The Priest’s Portion
09:00 Summary of Offerings
10:00 Ordination of Aaron and His Sons
12:00 The Sin Offering and Burnt Offering
13:00 The Ram of Ordination
15:00 Seven Days of Consecration

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.

It’s easy to fall into a cycle of correcting behavior problems instead of truly relating to your child. Pastor Bill Smith will help you draw out and guide your child – and ultimately build a deeper relationship.

Receive the book Parenting with Words of Grace and an audio download of "The Power of Gracious Words" for your donation of any amount!

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

The love of people often increases with performance and decreases with mistakes. Not so with God’s love. He loves you right where you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. And so he cleanses us of filth:  immorality, dishonesty, prejudice, bitterness, greed. He wants us to be just like Jesus. Isn’t that good news? You aren’t stuck with today’s personality. You are tweakable!

Where did we get the idea we cannot change? Why do we say things such as, “It’s my nature to worry,” or “I’ll always be pessimistic; I’m just that way,” or, “I have a bad temper; I can’t help the way I react.” Who says? If our bodies malfunction, we seek help. Shouldn’t we do the same for our hearts? Can’t we seek aid for our sour attitudes? Of course we can! Jesus wants to change our hearts. Can you imagine a better offer?

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

When We Sin Without Knowing It

The sin offering addresses something profoundly unsettling: you can be guilty without knowing it. The high priest can sin and bring guilt on the entire community. A leader can violate God’s command without realizing what he has done. An ordinary person can stumble into defilement by touching something unclean. And in every case, when the sin comes to light, something must be done. This is not a God who shrugs at unintentional failure. But neither is it a God who leaves His people without remedy. The blood on the horns of the altar, the fat burned as an offering, the careful ritual of purification—all of it exists so that the guilty can be made right again. The system scales to the person’s ability: a bull for the priest, a male goat for a leader, a female goat for a common person, two birds for those who cannot afford a goat, and flour for those who cannot even afford birds. Grace has a sliding scale. And the guilt offering goes further still—addressing not just sins against God but sins against neighbor. If you cheat someone, you pay back what you stole plus twenty percent, and you bring a sacrifice. Restitution and repentance walk hand in hand. Forgiveness is never cheap, but it is always available.

00:00 Sin Offering for the High Priest
02:00 Sin Offering for the Community
03:00 Sin Offering for a Leader
04:00 Sin Offering for Common People
06:00 Various Cases Requiring Confession
07:00 Offerings Scaled to Ability
08:00 The Guilt Offering
09:00 The Guilt Offering for Wrongs Against Others

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.

The Book of Leviticus: Learning to Draw Near

Leviticus opens with an introduction that reframes everything we are about to read. These instructions may seem strange to modern ears—the blood, the fat, the careful distinctions between clean and unclean—but they answer a question that matters more than we realize: How do flawed people live in the presence of a holy God? The answer is not ‘carefully’ but ‘through sacrifice.’ The burnt offering is consumed entirely—nothing held back, everything given. The worshiper lays a hand on the animal’s head in a gesture that says, ‘This death is in my place.’ The grain offering is simpler—flour and oil and salt, the everyday stuff of life presented to God. And the peace offering is unique: it is the one sacrifice where the worshiper actually eats a portion. It is a shared meal, a communion between God and the person who brings it. What strikes a careful reader is the phrase repeated throughout: ‘a pleasing aroma to the Lord.’ God is not repulsed by these offerings; He receives them gladly. The entire system exists because God wants to be approached. He has built a way for sinful people to come near, and He has done so with extraordinary care for those who cannot afford a bull—a sheep will do, or a goat, or even a bird. No one is too poor to worship.

00:00 Introduction to Leviticus
05:00 The Burnt Offering: Cattle
06:00 The Burnt Offering: Sheep and Goats
07:00 The Burnt Offering: Birds
08:00 The Grain Offering
09:00 Grain Offerings Baked and Cooked
10:00 The Peace Offering: Cattle
11:00 The Peace Offering: Sheep and Goats

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.

Prayer is an essential ingredient to a healthy marriage! In this upbeat presentation, Dr. Gary and Barb Rosberg explain the spiritual side of marriage, and offer examples of prayers that they often use in their own relationship.

Receive a copy of Renewing Your Love plus a free audio download of “Daily Prayer and Positive Habits Can Transform Your Relationship” 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.

What if, for one day—24 hours—Jesus were to become you? Imagine. Your heart gets the day off, and your life is led by the heart of Christ. His priorities govern your actions. His passions drive your decisions. His love directs your behavior.

Would people notice a change? And how would you feel? What effect would this have on your stress level? Would you still do what you had planned to do? Obligations. Appointments. Would anything change?

God’s plan for you is nothing short of a new heart. Ephesians 4:23-24 (NCV) says, “But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, to become a new person. That new person is made to be like God—made to be truly good and holy.” God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.

Read more Just Like Jesus

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Bells, Pomegranates, and ‘Holy to the Lord’

The priestly garments are now actually being made—not designed on the mountain, but stitched and hammered and woven by human hands. Gold thread is beaten thin and cut into fine strands, then worked into linen with blue, purple, and scarlet thread. The breastpiece carries twelve gemstones, each engraved with the name of a tribe, so that whenever Aaron enters God’s presence, he carries all of Israel over his heart. The robe with its alternating bells and pomegranates—gold and yarn, sound and color—would have announced the priest’s every step in the holy place. And on his forehead, the gold medallion with its engraved declaration: ‘Holy to the Lord.’ This is the central truth of the priesthood, and perhaps of all human life: we are made to bear God’s name. The phrase ‘just as the Lord had commanded Moses’ appears like a refrain throughout today’s reading—seven times, by some counts. It is the heartbeat of obedience: not reluctant compliance, but faithful craftsmanship. Every stitch, every setting, every thread is an act of worship. The garments are theology you can wear.

00:00 Crafting the Ephod
01:00 The Onyx Stones
02:00 The Breastpiece with Gemstones
03:00 Attaching the Breastpiece
04:00 The Robe with Bells and Pomegranates
05:00 The Turban and ‘Holy to the Lord’ Medallion

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.

Dr. Kathy Koch wants to help parents adjust to a “new normal” when their children become adults. The relationship has changed, and parents of adult kids need to change their expectations, listen more and advise less, break free from codependency, and give these new adults space and freedom to become the people God made them to be.

Receive a copy of Resolve Conflict and Find Peace and Hope with Adult Children and an audio download of "Finding Your New Normal in Relating to Your Adult Children" 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.