Wildwood Assembly

One day it dawned on me.  I had become the very thing I hate. A hypocrite. A pretender. Two-faced. I’d written sermons about people like me. Christians who care more about their appearance than integrity.

I knew what I needed to do.  I’d written sermons about that, too. 1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right.”  I needed to confess.

What is confession? Well, confession is not complaining. If I just recite my problems and rehash my woes, I’m whining. Confession is a radical reliance upon grace. Maybe you need to do what I’ve done in the last few days. You just need to confess. God will hear your confession.  And in your confession you will find a wonder of God’s grace. You see grace creates an honest confession. And then great grace, receives it.

Read more Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

The Golden Calf and the Friend of God

Moses has been on the mountain for forty days, and the people’s patience has run out. ‘We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses,’ they say—reducing the man through whom God spoke to a mere ‘fellow.’ And Aaron, who should know better, melts their earrings into a golden calf. His excuse to Moses later is almost comic in its absurdity: ‘I threw the gold into the fire, and out came this calf!’ As though the idol made itself. But there is nothing comic about God’s response. He is ready to destroy the nation and start over with Moses alone. And here Moses does something breathtaking—he argues with God. Not from arrogance, but from love. He stakes everything on God’s own promises, on God’s own reputation. ‘Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ And God relents. The tablets are smashed, the calf is ground to powder, and three thousand die. Then Moses offers the most astonishing prayer in the Old Testament: ‘If you will not forgive them, then erase my name from your book.’ He would rather be condemned with his people than saved without them. And in the tent of meeting, far from the wreckage of idolatry, the Lord speaks to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. That phrase alone is worth the price of the whole chapter.

00:00 The Golden Calf
01:00 God’s Anger
02:00 Moses Intercedes
03:00 The Tablets Smashed
04:00 Aaron’s Excuse
05:00 Judgment on the People
06:00 Moses Pleads Again
07:00 God’s Stern Warning
08:00 The Tent of Meeting

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.

Incense, Oil, and the Craftsmen Filled with God’s Spirit

The incense altar stands just outside the curtain that shields the Ark—closer to God’s presence than almost anything else in the tabernacle. Every morning and every evening, Aaron burns fragrant incense there, and the smoke rises like a visible prayer. It is a beautiful picture: the last thing between the priest and the Most Holy Place is worship ascending. Then come the recipes—anointing oil and incense, each with ingredients measured to the grain—and the startling command that these blends must never be duplicated for personal use. What is set apart for God must remain set apart. But perhaps the most remarkable detail in today’s reading is the appointment of Bezalel. God fills a man with His Spirit—not for prophecy, not for warfare, but for art. For carving wood and setting gemstones and working gold. The first person in Scripture described as being filled with the Spirit of God is a craftsman. This tells us something essential about the Creator: He cares about beauty, and He equips people to make it. The passage ends with the Sabbath, and the two tablets written by God’s own finger. The law is not merely spoken; it is inscribed. God commits Himself in stone.

00:00 The Incense Altar
01:00 The Census Tax
02:00 The Bronze Wash Basin
03:00 The Anointing Oil
05:00 The Sacred Incense
06:00 Bezalel and Oholiab Appointed
07:00 The Sabbath Command
08:00 The Stone Tablets

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.

Dressed in Glory and Set Apart for Service

The priestly garments of Aaron are described with the care of a royal portrait, and that is precisely what they are. Every gemstone on the breastpiece bears the name of a tribe; every time Aaron enters God’s presence, he carries all of Israel over his heart. The ephod, the robe with its golden bells and pomegranates, the turban with its gold medallion inscribed ‘Holy to the Lord’—these are not mere costumes. They are theology you can touch. The bells tinkle as Aaron walks, announcing his presence in the holy place. The blue robe beneath the ephod is woven in a single piece, a garment without seam—and centuries later, soldiers will cast lots for another seamless garment at the foot of a cross. The ordination ceremony is elaborate and bloody: a bull for sin, a ram for burnt offering, blood on the right ear, the right thumb, the right toe. Every part of the priest’s body is consecrated, claimed for sacred service. And at the end of all these instructions comes the promise that makes everything else meaningful: ‘I will live among the people of Israel and be their God.’ The tabernacle, the garments, the sacrifices—they are not the point. They are the means to the point. And the point is presence. God wants to dwell with His people. He always has.

00:00 The Priestly Garments
01:00 The Ephod
02:00 The Breastpiece
04:00 The Robe and Turban
06:00 Garments for Aaron’s Sons
07:00 The Ordination Ceremony
09:00 The Ordination Ram
11:00 Portions for the Priests
13:00 Daily Offerings
14:00 God’s Promise to Dwell Among Them

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.

Brandi Wilson shares the grief, anger, and loneliness of an unwanted divorce. She shares compassionate, practical insight for single parents. You’ll be encouraged in the incredible hope we have in Christ –to heal families, even when a marriage ends. 

Receive a copy of Better Than Okay and an audio download of "Healing Your Heart: Navigating Life After Divorce" 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.

We are poor. Spiritually for sure; monetarily, perhaps. We’ve buried our dreams, desires, and aspirations. Like the mother with Lupus or the businessman in the unemployment line, we’re out of options. Yet Christ approached us while we were yet sinners. “Will you cover us?” we asked him, and grace smiled. He gave us grace.

Not just mercy, mind you, but grace. Grace goes beyond mercy. Mercy gave the prodigal son a second chance, but grace threw him a party. Mercy prompted the Samaritan to bandage the wounds of the victim, but grace prompted him to leave his credit card as payment for the victim’s care. Mercy forgave the thief on the cross; grace escorted him into paradise. Mercy pardons us; grace woos and weds us. Grace does this. God does this. Grace is God walking into your world with a sparkle in his eye and an offer that’s hard to resist.

Read more Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Curtains, Frames, and the Architecture of Holiness

The sheer detail of the tabernacle instructions might tempt a modern reader to skim, and that would be a mistake. Every measurement, every loop and clasp and silver base, communicates something essential: holiness is not vague. It has dimensions. It can be measured and built and inhabited. The ten curtains of finely woven linen, embroidered with cherubim in blue, purple, and scarlet, form the innermost layer—beauty hidden from the outside world, visible only to those who serve within. Layer after layer covers the tabernacle: goat hair, ram skins, fine leather. The structure is both portable and precise, designed to be assembled and disassembled as the people move through the wilderness. God is not a God who stays put while His people wander; He moves with them. The courtyard is 150 feet long and 75 feet wide—large enough to be impressive, small enough to be intimate. The bronze altar stands at the entrance, because before you come close to God, something must be offered. And the lamp must burn continually, all through the night, a steady flame in the darkness. It is a small detail, but it says everything: even when the people sleep, the light in God’s house never goes out.

00:00 The Tabernacle Curtains
01:00 The Goat Hair Covering
02:00 The Framework
03:00 The Crossbars
04:00 The Inner Curtain
05:00 The Entrance Curtain
06:00 The Bronze Altar
07:00 The Courtyard
08:00 Oil for the Lampstand

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.

Brandi Wilson shares the grief, anger, and loneliness of an unwanted divorce. She shares compassionate, practical insight for single parents. You’ll be encouraged in the incredible hope we have in Christ –to heal families, even when a marriage ends. 

Receive a copy of Better Than Okay and an audio download of "Healing Your Heart: Navigating Life After Divorce" 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.

Most people keep a pot of anger on low boil. But you aren’t most people. Look at your feet. They’re wet, grace soaked. Jesus has washed your feet. He has washed the grimiest parts of your life.

To accept grace is the vow to give it. You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you forgive them. Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you. The grace-defined person still sends thieves to jail and expects the ex to pay child support. Grace sees the hurt full well. But it refuses to let hurts poison the heart.

Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. So go ahead. Set your feet in the basin. Let the hands of God wipe away every dirty part of your life. Then look across the room and wash someone else’s feet.  Let grace begin—and continue—in you.

Read more Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

A House for the God Who Dwells Among Us

God asks for offerings—but only from those whose hearts are moved to give. This is the first principle of the tabernacle: it is built not by compulsion but by generosity. Gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, goat hair, ram skins—the materials are specific because the God who makes galaxies also cares about details. Then come the instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, and the language is extraordinary: ‘I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the atonement cover, between the gold cherubim.’ The God who shook Sinai with thunder will speak in an intimate whisper from between two golden angels on a box carried by poles. This is the great paradox of the tabernacle: the God who cannot be contained by the heavens chooses to dwell in a tent. The table for the bread of the presence, the golden lampstand hammered from a single piece of pure gold—every item is both functional and symbolic. The bread says God provides. The lamp says God illuminates. The ark says God is present. A people who had known only the brick pits of Egypt are now invited to build a house for the Creator of the universe. The slave has become the artisan, and the wilderness has become holy ground.

00:00 Offerings for the Tabernacle
01:00 The Ark of the Covenant
02:00 The Atonement Cover
03:00 The Table of the Presence
04:00 The Golden Lampstand

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.