Wildwood Assembly

Bitter Water, Bread from Heaven

Three days after the greatest miracle in Israel’s history, the people are grumbling about the water. This is not a failure of memory; it is a revelation of human nature. The God who parted the Red Sea is apparently not trusted to provide a drink. At Marah, the water is bitter, and so are the people. But God shows Moses a piece of wood—throw it in, and the bitterness becomes sweet. It is a small miracle after a spectacular one, and perhaps that is the point: God is not only the God of the dramatic rescue but of the daily provision. Then comes the manna—bread appearing on the ground each morning like frost, enough for the day and no more. Try to hoard it and it rots. Try to gather it on the Sabbath and there is none to find. The manna is a daily lesson in dependence, a six-days-a-week reminder that we live not by our own cleverness but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The quail come too, blown in on the evening wind. God provides meat and bread, morning and evening, in a wilderness where neither should exist. He is teaching them—and us—that the one who feeds sparrows can certainly feed His children.

00:00 Bitter Water at Marah
01:00 The Oasis at Elim
02:00 Grumbling in the Wilderness
03:00 Manna from Heaven
05:00 Instructions for Gathering
07:00 The Sabbath Rest
08:00 Manna Preserved as a Memorial

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.

Through the Sea on Dry Ground

God does not lead His people by the shortest route. The road through Philistine territory would have been faster, but God knows what we so often forget: a people not yet ready for battle should not be marched toward one. Instead, He leads them the long way around—by pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, a visible presence that goes before them day and night. Then comes the sea. Pharaoh has changed his mind yet again—‘What have we done, letting all those Israelite slaves get away?’—and his chariots are thundering across the desert. The Israelites are trapped: water ahead, army behind, nowhere to go. And Moses speaks words that every frightened soul needs to hear: ‘Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you.’ What happens next is the defining miracle of the Old Testament. The waters divide. The people walk through on dry ground. The army that pursued them is swallowed by the returning sea. And then Miriam picks up her tambourine, and the women dance. This is what worship looks like on the other side of the impossible—not quiet reflection but full-throated, full-bodied joy. They have seen the salvation of the Lord, and they cannot keep still.

00:00 God Leads by Pillar of Cloud and Fire
02:00 Pharaoh Pursues
03:00 Trapped at the Red Sea
05:00 The Sea Divides
06:00 The Egyptians Destroyed
07:00 The Song of Moses
09:00 Miriam’s Song

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.

Rich Griffth shares the different leadership styles parents should use to disciple their kids as they grow. Hear about discipling kids with intentionality at different stages of their development, from birth until adulthood. 

Receive a copy of Discipleship is Leadership and an audio download of "How to Disciple Your Kids through Every Stage of Parenting" 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.

I became a Christian about the same time I became a Boy Scout, and I made the assumption that God grades like the Boy Scouts do: on a merit system. Good scouts move up. Good people go to heaven.

So, I resolved to amass of multitude of spiritual badges. I worked toward the day when God, amid falling confetti and dancing cherubim, would drape my badge-laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his eternal kingdom, where I would humbly display my badges for eternity.

But some thorny questions surfaced. How many badges does he require? How good is good?  And then I was corrected. Ephesians 2:8 (NASB) says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Unearned. A gift. Our merits merit nothing. So let grace happen, for Heaven’s sake.

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

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Rich Griffth shares the different leadership styles parents should use to disciple their kids as they grow. Hear about discipling kids with intentionality at different stages of their development, from birth until adulthood. 

Receive a copy of Discipleship is Leadership and an audio download of "How to Disciple Your Kids through Every Stage of Parenting" 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.

Christ took away your sins. He endured not just the nails of the Romans, the mockery of the crowd, and the spear of the soldier, but he endured the anger of God.

God didn’t just overlook your sins, lest he endorse them. He didn’t punish you, lest he destroy you. Instead he found a way to punish the sin and preserve the sinner. Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus’ perfection.

As long as the cross is God’s gift to the world, it will touch you but it will not change you. Precious as it is to proclaim, “Christ died for the world,” even sweeter it is to whisper, “Christ died for me.” For my sins he died. He took my place on the cross. He felt my shame, he spoke my name. Thank God for the day Jesus took your place, for the day grace happened to you.

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

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Plague After Plague, and a Heart That Will Not Bend

The plagues of Egypt are not merely spectacles of power—they are a systematic dismantling of everything Egypt trusted instead of God. The gnats that the magicians cannot replicate force even Pharaoh’s own court to admit ‘This is the finger of God.’ The flies swarm everywhere except Goshen, drawing a visible line between those who belong to God and those who do not. The livestock die, the boils erupt, the hail falls in sheets of fire—and still Pharaoh’s heart hardens. There is a terrible momentum to sin: each refusal to yield makes the next refusal easier, until the soul is locked in a prison of its own making. The locusts devour what the hail has spared, and then comes the darkness—three days of a blackness so thick it can be felt. Egypt worshipped the sun god Ra above all others. This plague is not merely inconvenient; it is theological. The God of Hebrew slaves has switched off Egypt’s highest deity like a lamp. And still Pharaoh bargains, offering half-measures and conditions. He will learn, as all who resist grace eventually do, that God does not negotiate. He redeems.

00:00 The Plague of Gnats
01:00 The Plague of Flies
03:00 Plague on Livestock
04:00 The Plague of Boils
05:00 The Plague of Hail
07:00 The Plague of Locusts
09:00 The Plague of Darkness
11:00 Pharaoh’s Final Warning

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.

We are incarcerated by our past. Our low road choices, our high minded pride. We have been found guilty. Our executioner’s footsteps echo against stone walls. We sit on the floor of the dusty cell, awaiting our final moment. We don’t look up as he opens the door; we know what he’s going to say. “Time to pay for your sins!”

But we hear something else. “You’re free to go. They took Jesus instead of you.” The door swings open and the guard barks, “Get out!” And we find ourselves shackles gone, crimes pardoned, wondering, what just happened?

Well, grace just happened. Christ took away your sins. Romans chapter 3 explains that God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. What happened? Grace happened!

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

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

The God Who Keeps His Promises and Turns Rivers to Blood

Moses is discouraged. His first audience with Pharaoh has made things worse, not better—more work, less straw, and an entire nation blaming him for their suffering. It is a pattern familiar to anyone who has ever stepped out in faith and watched things immediately fall apart. But God’s response to Moses’ complaint is not comfort; it is identity: ‘I am Yahweh.’ Seven times in a single speech, God says ‘I will’—I will free you, I will rescue you, I will redeem you, I will claim you, I will be your God, I will bring you, I will give you. The sheer repetition is the point. God is not asking Moses to believe in a plan; He is asking him to believe in a Person. Then the plagues begin, and the Nile—the lifeblood of Egypt, worshipped as a god—runs red. It is not merely a miracle; it is a statement. The God of slaves is more powerful than the gods of empires. The frogs that follow are almost comic in their thoroughness—in the beds, in the ovens, on the people. Pharaoh begs for relief, receives it, and immediately hardens his heart. He will do this again and again. The human capacity for stubbornness in the face of the obvious is one of Scripture’s recurring themes.

00:00 God Reassures Moses
02:00 Genealogy of Levi
06:00 Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh Again
07:00 Aaron’s Staff Becomes a Serpent
08:00 The First Plague: Water to Blood
10:00 The Second Plague: Frogs
12:00 Pharaoh’s Hard Heart

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.

“I have cerebral palsy--what's your problem?” Whatever difficulties you face, you can't help but be encouraged as you hear David Ring describe how God's strength helps him overcome the limitations of his severe disability.

Receive the book The Boy Born Dead and the audio download of the broadcast "Living Joyously" 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.