Revive Our Hearts

Danna Gresh: Hey, Danna Gresh here. Before today's program begins, I want to invite you to continue to pray for our precious host, Nancy. Her husband, Robert Wolgemuth, went to be with the Lord early Saturday morning, January 10th. Would you ask God to comfort Nancy in the days ahead?

As you probably know, Revive Our Hearts isn't a live program. Nancy recorded the comments you're about to hear before Robert was sick. Now, here's today's program.

Danna Gresh: What causes lasting change in your life? Gene Wyland reminds you, transformation isn't something you can manufacture.

Gene Wyland: It's not the effort of doing the word of God. It is knowing the God of the Word and responding to Him out of true belief, because true belief always overflows into action.

Danna Gresh: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest. For January 14th, 2026, I'm Danna Gresh.

Danna Gresh: If you're walking through the 2026 Bible reading plan with us, today we're finishing up Genesis, reading chapters 48 through 50. Nancy?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Well, we're in the very early stages of an exciting journey as the Revive Our Hearts community reading the Bible together in 2026.

Danna Gresh: And it's not too late for you to join us. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com/bible2026 for more information about how you can start on this journey with us.

Now, maybe reading the Bible, especially longer chunks of it, seems intimidating to you. Maybe you sometimes feel that the Bible just seems too hard to understand.

Danna Gresh: Well, today you're going to get some help from Gene Wyland. She's a good friend to Revive Our Hearts, and she's written a book I highly recommend called Ease Into the Bible. Ease, E-A-S-E. Get into it easy. Ease into the Bible. Gene will help you understand the Bible better.

For instance, she'll help you know how to read different genres included in Scripture, like the difference between history and narrative or poetry or epistles. You read them differently. She'll also help you know how to start reading and stick with it when the Bible seems daunting.

Danna Gresh: Danna talked with Gene not long ago, and we're going to hear that conversation today and tomorrow.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Whether you've barely read the Bible before, or you've spent years reading it, I think this conversation will help you appreciate in a fresh way the wonder of God's Word.

Danna Gresh: Gene, you've written a book about the Bible, so you must feel pretty confident when you open the pages of the Bible, but was there a time when you felt intimidated or overwhelmed by it?

Gene Wyland: For many, many, many years. Yes, and even when I open it now, the word confident is more like excited. Because I'm growing so much still in understanding.

And just the other night at our ladies event, our pastor was speaking about the name Immanuel, and he shared some truths from Isaiah that I'd never heard the name Immanuel preached from the exact perspective that the text said. And I was just overwhelmed and excited at how much more.

Like my whole life, I will spend my whole life studying the Bible, and I will not finish.

Danna Gresh: That's actually kind of a relief, isn't it? For for those of us who feel like we have so far to go. Like that's good news.

Danna Gresh: What about those who are just starting out though? It can feel so insurmountable.

Gene Wyland: Exactly, because it is massive. Bottom line, it is a very big book. And we don't know how to read it. We don't even know how to come to it because we know, if we know anything about the Bible, we know it's not like a novel where you just start at the beginning and go to the end, but you don't you don't know where to go.

Gene Wyland: I didn't know where to go. And I wasn't raised in church, I wasn't raised around the Bible, but when I started going in high school, they would tell us where to open the Bible to. So, I kind of taught myself that the Bible is a book that you bounce around in, and that I wasn't really sure what the rhyme or reason was.

I assumed it was chronological because it takes a long time to get to Jesus in the manger. So all of that, in my mind, the Old Testament was the the introduction to the real story. And since we really just need Jesus for salvation, the Old Testament is that there for background, but you don't really need it.

Gene Wyland: You go straight to the New Testament and that's where you live as a Christian. And not having any idea, I was never told that. I just made assumptions.

Danna Gresh: Well, and lots of people today are saying, even pastors are saying, you only need the New Testament. That's those old those other things. Some of them even saying you only need the gospels. There's the Old Testament is, you don't need that, and you don't need the letters, they're just letters. What would you say to that kind of thinking? Because you're shaking your head no right now. You're like tsk, tsk, tsk.

Gene Wyland: No, my mom kept telling me, Gene, you will never, never understand the New Testament. I know you love it, but you'll never understand it until you understand the Old Testament. And you know, outwardly I was respectful. Inwardly I was like, oh, she doesn't she doesn't that's that can't be true. Because I'm understanding what I'm reading.

Gene Wyland: But then what really happened and I get emotional whenever I tell the story, years, years later, but I just wasn't reflecting Christ as the New Testament promised to me I felt that it would. That, you know, I would be transformed, the abiding peace, the abiding joy. And yet I fell apart at the simplest things.

Gene Wyland: I'll never forget driving with my mom in the car. I was about to have my third baby, and I wanted to paint the walls with chalk paint. Wouldn't that be a fun thing for the girl's room? And so she went with me, and we went to buy the chalk paint, and I didn't have enough money. It's a lot more expensive than I thought it would be.

Gene Wyland: And so the whole way home, I just I was in despair. And my mom was like, "Gene, you are going to have to figure out how to handle disappointment." And that just cut me to the core, because as a believer, who falls apart over chalk paint?

Danna Gresh: Yeah.

Gene Wyland: But I was truly in despair. And so that was I know that was the moment where I began to realize something better change. I can't keep doing this. I cannot keep living this Christian life this way.

Gene Wyland: I I remember just after she left and being home alone, my husband was out of town um with the other two because I was about to give birth and couldn't travel with him. And I just was talking to the Lord, wondering what what is wrong with me? Why can other people have abiding peace and I cannot? Because I can't.

Gene Wyland: I am trying, and I am sick and tired of trying. I'm done. I'm done trying. I don't care anymore about another lesson from the Bible about how to control your temper, how to do this and that. It doesn't work for me.

Gene Wyland: And then, and I it had to have been the Lord because it was definitely not from me. The idea came, maybe read the whole Bible. You've been a Christian for about 25 years. You've never read the whole Bible. Maybe what you're missing is on one of those pages.

Gene Wyland: And so I made a commitment. I was like, that's it. I am going to read the Bible from cover to cover. I guess that's how you read the whole Bible. I don't know, but that's what I'll do. I'll just start in Genesis 1 and I will not stop until I'm finished the maps. And I will read everything in my Bible. But I will not look for a single lesson because I don't care anymore.

Gene Wyland: I'm just done. I'm tired of that. I'm tired of, you know, one step forward, two stumbles back. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I will just find out who God is.

Gene Wyland: And so I woke up, it was like 5:30 in the morning. And I was sitting in the kitchen alone. I opened up my Bible, and I just cried. Show me you, God, on every page. I've got to see you.

Gene Wyland: And so that was my one singular goal. I would read, and on every page, I would see what what do you teach me about yourself in this? Just show me you. I just want to know who you are.

Gene Wyland: And every morning, I would wake up early, excited to see the next thing that I would see about God. And and I didn't care about any of the other characters. They were just, you know, other players. I would just look for God.

Gene Wyland: And then I remember one morning, I was reading in Deuteronomy 6, 7, and 8. And the the thought came to me, wait a minute. I'm different.

Danna Gresh: Hmm.

Gene Wyland: I am not the same person. I feel differently, my joy is different, my peace is different, and I never even tried.

Gene Wyland: And that's when Hebrews 4:12 finally came to light to me because my my mentor, who I just just started to get to know, she would say, um, she would read Hebrews 4:12 to us, and she would say, "For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Gene Wyland: And so the way the way that she would read it was, she would always say, "The word of God is living and active." And and I would just shake my head like, "Yes, yes, that's true," but I really didn't understand what she meant, and I didn't want to admit that I didn't understand because it's black and white paper and ink. So how is it living and active?

Gene Wyland: But that day, I understood. It is it's living and active and it changes you from the inside out. It's not the effort of doing the word of God. It is knowing the God of the Word and responding to Him out of true belief, because true belief always overflows into action.

Gene Wyland: I remember hearing a pastor say long ago, your your beliefs and your actions will always agree. You will either change your actions to agree with your beliefs, or you'll change your beliefs to agree with your actions.

Gene Wyland: And so that was what I was discovering is that as I came to really know God and trust in who He is, my actions started to agree with what I believed about Him. I didn't have to be despairing. I didn't have to panic.

Danna Gresh: Beautiful. I I had an experience like that in college when I started to get very serious about reading my Bible. And I remember my emotions changed too. Like, just like my behaviors changed, my emotions changed, my thoughts changed. I was different.

Danna Gresh: I'm wondering because you said you started at the beginning of the Bible. You just said, "I'm going to read it. I'm going to understand who God is." In your first run-through, did you start to see how it's one big story? Like instead of silo-ing it off to just the gospels or the New Testament, did you start to see what some people call maybe the meta-narrative that was happening? What did you learn from that?

Gene Wyland: Even reading it straight through. I'm so glad I did it that way because it became so clear to me that the whole Bible points to Christ and His salvation. The whole Bible is revealing God and His plan. That He started in Genesis, and over all throughout the Old Testament He reveals and reveals and reveals in ways that they didn't really understand.

Gene Wyland: But and we we on the other side of the cross get to see, oh, the Passover. Oh, how clear could it be? It couldn't be more clear unless you're living in it and you don't know what the cross is going to be like. You don't know those things. Our pastor, when he spoke at our ladies event, he had cups and he was showing the whole, I'm sure you've heard of this, talking about prophecy.

Gene Wyland: When we see, like he put them on the table, when you see the cups from the side, you see, he had three cups. You see all three cups. But when they're in a line, you just see the cup that's in the in the front. And so when with the Old Testament, it's you're reading, they're seeing, they're reading and hearing from God, all of the prophecies that are pointing to Christ, but they're seeing them in line. So they don't know which are near and which are far. They probably don't even know that there are near and far.

Gene Wyland: You know, I don't know exactly what they knew at that time, but we on this side of the cross know that when, you know, God is talking about Passover, it's not just about getting out of Egypt. It is exactly about getting out of Egypt, but it's even more, it's about Christ. That's the ultimate goal is pointing us to Christ.

Gene Wyland: So when you're going through the Old Testament, and you're looking for God, not for, you know, necessarily lessons, Christ pops off the pages in ways I was not expecting.

Danna Gresh: Yeah.

Gene Wyland: It's amazing how you continuously, you can read something a hundred times, and the hundred and one time, you're going, whoa.

Danna Gresh: Whoa.

Gene Wyland: When when Paul said to Timothy, and I can't remember exactly where it is, but he says to him, oh, no, I think I do know where it is. Almost there. Almost there.

Danna Gresh: I love that sound, Gene. I love the sound of the flipping pages.

Gene Wyland: Good. Yeah. So as Paul wrote to Timothy, "But as for you," and this is in 2 Timothy 3, I'm going to start in 14. "14 and 15. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."

Gene Wyland: The scriptures they had were the Old Testament. Those are the scriptures that were able to give him wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So this is even the Old Testament leads us to salvation in Christ. It was sufficient. And that's how we know Jesus started with the all the prophets. And He went through and described how all the Old Testament points to Him.

Danna Gresh: Mm-hmm.

Gene Wyland: When I read the Old Testament all the way through, I was astounded, and I didn't know this yet. I hadn't studied this yet. I was discovering it as it was popping off the page.

Danna Gresh: Mm-hmm.

Gene Wyland: And so I came to it unprepared. I did not have any training whatsoever in how to study the Bible. I had the now, I had the basics. I remember our mentor would say these three Bible study steps, which are great. What does it say? What does the Scripture say? What does it mean? And how does it apply to my life?

Gene Wyland: And so in this whole journey of reading through the Bible myself for the the first time, I discovered something about myself in that last step. That I had always turned that in to a self-improvement exercise. Okay. This is the scripture, this is what it says, this is what it means. Now, it's now I take it from here. God has given me His word, but now it's my job. And I am going to go improve myself. And I am going to master love.

Danna Gresh: Mm-hmm.

Gene Wyland: And then tomorrow we'll work on joy. And then and I'm doing so much better on the love and I start on the joy and the love's gone. And it and it's just this spiral of you just can't do it all. But I was because I had decided no more lessons, no more doing. I'm done with that because it doesn't work for me. It works for other people. I get that, but it doesn't work for me.

Danna Gresh: Mm-hmm.

Gene Wyland: I'm just reading to know God. I started to realize that I was responding to His word. What does it look like to believe?

Danna Gresh: Yeah.

Gene Wyland: When I know what it looks like to believe, and my response isn't doesn't look like that, then something's off kilter with my faith.

Danna Gresh: Well, I think what what I feel like you're describing, and I think it's important to note this, is you started responding to the living word.

Gene Wyland: Yes.

Danna Gresh: The person of Jesus Christ.

Gene Wyland: Yes.

Danna Gresh: You started being relational with the words in the Bible. You started having relationship not just with the words, but with Jesus, the living word. And that changes everything, doesn't it?

Gene Wyland: Oh, it does.

Danna Gresh: I mean, that's there are secular theologians who teach at major universities, New Testament, Old Testament survey, and the Bible is literature, et cetera, that aren't changed by it. And they some of them may know the Bible is literature better than I do, but they don't know Jesus.

Gene Wyland: It is a no, and it's a spiritual book, and it can only be understood through the spirit. It's like, yes.

Danna Gresh: Yes, there you go. It's only understood through the spirit. Just this morning, I was like, Lord, I don't feel like reading my Bible. It's too early. I have a goat that kept me awake all night in the barn because she's about to have babies, and I was a little grumpy with the Lord this morning. I said, Jesus, I'm sorry, I'm grumpy, but I just can't do it. Can you draw me? Can you pull me in? Can you do this? Because I can't today.

Gene Wyland: Right.

Danna Gresh: And He did. He did. I had the most glorious day in the word. You that's what you're talking about.

Gene Wyland: Right.

Danna Gresh: Yes.

Danna Gresh: You're talking about relating to Christ through His word.

Gene Wyland: Yes, knowing His character and His nature and His ways.

Gene Wyland: When we, you know, and I in in my book I talk about a Bible study method that came out of this journey of of reading through the whole Bible for the first time. That just kind of fell into place, but it, you know, over time it all came together. The first step being intent, really understanding, you know, the culture because it is an ancient book and we're modern people.

Gene Wyland: And so I don't, you know, I don't understand what it's like to be all night up with a goat. I have no idea what that's like. And so being able to understand the context, those are the kind of things I did not understand at all. So I was guilty of twisting Scripture to fit the context that I understood. He must mean that because I have no idea what he's talking about. And people say that the God of the Old Testament is an angry God.

Gene Wyland: I'm like, have you really read the Old Testament? Because that's the most patient God. I can't I can't even imagine a God so patient because I cannot imagine being so patient with the Israelites. Like I would have destroyed them.

Danna Gresh: Yeah, don't I'd be saying, "Kids, don't make me come down there." That would be me.

Gene Wyland: They were so. Right.

Danna Gresh: Right.

Danna Gresh: Which I think the Lord might have said once with the golden calf thing, maybe.

Gene Wyland: Yes, exactly. So patient. So, as we read through the Bible and we come to know God's true nature, His character, His nature, His ways, that's what changes us.

Gene Wyland: And one of the things that I you know, I I wrote an article for Revive Our Hearts and it's still one of my favorites. That um because it was a powerful moment for me when I was studying in Exodus about Moses, I was reading through that. And he says, you know, God comes to him in the burning bush in Exodus 3, and God is saying to him, you know, I want you to go to Egypt and you're going to tell Pharaoh to let my people go.

Gene Wyland: And Moses says in 3 verse 11, "But Moses asked God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'" We are so focused on ourselves. That's our nature, that's just the way we are, and that's definitely what society teaches more and more, it seems like, more intent on it is all about us.

Danna Gresh: Mm-hmm.

Gene Wyland: So, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" And God did not pump him up with all kinds of self-belief like, "You can do this. You got this. You got the skills. You don't need to, you know, don't be afraid." He says, this is His response, "I will certainly be with you."

Danna Gresh: Hmm.

Gene Wyland: That's the answer. I will be with you. It doesn't matter who you are. It matters who I am.

Danna Gresh: Yeah.

Gene Wyland: Moses didn't part the Red Sea. God did. He obeyed God's word. God said, "Do this."

Danna Gresh: Yeah.

Gene Wyland: The the water turns, the Nile River turns to blood. The water is parted. The frogs come. The locusts come. All these things happen, but not because Moses did them. Moses was God's spokesman, and through him God worked, but it was all God's power. It's not about us. And so once, because God had me look only for Him, I started to learn to take my focus off myself.

Gene Wyland: That it doesn't matter who I am because it mattered so much to me. So much that I be the best mom I can be, if I can be the best mom that my children will know and believe in the Lord all the days of their life. And so if they're not walking with the Lord, it's all my fault. And I've got to be the best, I've got to be this, I've got to do that.

Gene Wyland: And I wear myself out with all this internal focus, even when it looks like it's all good stuff. I'm not saying, you know, I want this, I want that thing. I want good things. But I was so focused on myself instead of God and His glory. And so that's just a trap. But when I'm focused on Him, it doesn't matter what the results look like.

Danna Gresh: Yeah.

Gene Wyland: It can look like a failure. Okay, so this book, this an example, Ease Into the Bible. How it started was a friend of mine, we were working out together, and she said, "I have a couple of girls that want to study the Bible, but they don't have a clue how to start. Like how do you start reading the Bible?"

Gene Wyland: And she said, "Do you know of a book? You're in the writer's world. Do you know of a book?" So I said, "I really don't, but I'm going to ask around." So I asked so many friends. So many I put it out there on Facebook, several different places. Every book I got was either massive itself, which that's intimidating. Like, you want to understand the Bible, read this book, it's thick as the Bible.

Danna Gresh: Or in volumes of books that are as thick as the Bible. Right.

Gene Wyland: Exactly. Or it was a commentary, and that's not what they want. They need, "I don't know even how to start." So I told Karen, I said, "I I have I don't have a book for you, but we could write one. I will write it if you will help me." So we while we were walking on the treadmill, we started coming up with ideas of what kind of things do you want to know about the Bible when you're ready to to dive into it? Like how do I start?

Danna Gresh: Yeah, I think that's a good place for us to land today because I want to ask you some specific questions from that book if you could come back and be with us tomorrow.

Gene Wyland: Yes.

Danna Gresh: Because what you've done today is you've ignited a fire in us. A fire that takes the Bible from words on a page to a living relationship with a loving God. And I'm just wondering, there's probably someone listening right now who's like, the Bible has been just words on a page. I can identify with Gene. I wanted to throw my Bible out. I was just done with all the lessons and all the to-do's. But today, you've made me want to try again.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We've been listening to a conversation between Danna Gresh and Gene Wyland. Gene is the author of a book called Ease into the Bible, how to wade into the water of God's Word with confidence.

Gene has a passion for getting women into God's Word. But she knows the Bible can be, well, a little overwhelming. Let me give you a suggestion as someone who has loved God's Word for a very long time. Just start reading it.

The more you taste God's Word, the more you'll want. Your hunger will grow. The book Ease into the Bible will help you learn how to digest and savor God's Word. You'll find an easy and effective way to read and study the Bible. You'll read about the Bible's overarching story and main point and why we can trust the Bible and how the Bible's organized. You'll find some helpful Bible study tools. And here's one thing you'll love, short, Christ-focused summaries of each book of the Bible.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We'd love to send you a copy of Ease into the Bible when you support Revive Our Hearts with a gift of any amount. And your gift is important. Here's why. As I speak, our team is at work preparing for Wonder of the Word, a year-long teaching series through the Bible. You'll be hearing that on Revive Our Hearts beginning next January 2027.

Now, while that may seem a long way off, teams around the world are in the process of translating that teaching right now. Our goal is to reach the languages that are spoken by 80% of the world's population. And your gift will help us continue this massive undertaking. So, would you pray about how the Lord would want you to participate? If you're prompted to make a gift to help, you can visit us at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: And when you make your donation there, be sure to ask for your copy of Gene's book, Ease into the Bible. It's our way of saying thank you for helping us get the Word of God into the hearts and minds and lives of thousands and thousands of women around the world.

Danna Gresh: That's right. You can also donate by calling 1-800-569-5959. Now, if you relate to Gene's story and opening your Bible right now feels a little intimidating, would you let us pray for you? You can visit ReviveOurHearts.com/prayer and submit a request. We'd love to ask the Lord to give you both understanding and delight as you read His Word.

Danna Gresh: Tomorrow, you'll hear part two of this conversation with Gene Wyland. And this next episode, it's for the woman who is new to the Bible. We're going back to the basics. Now, maybe this sounds like something you need, or maybe this is an episode you need to send to a friend. Either way, I hope you'll come back for that. Now, here's Gene to pray.

Gene Wyland: Father God, You are a relational God. Lord, you started the whole Bible with that, with your your name Elohim, but then when you Lord talked about creating man out of the dust, you called yourself Yahweh. Lord, Yahweh, the relational name, the covenant promise-keeping God. This is who I am crying out to, Lord. You care. You care about every soul, Father, and you have given us your Word of all the ways that you, God of all power, could have chosen to reveal yourself in your salvation to us, you chose through the Bible.

Gene Wyland: Through the written word. Lord, we know, Lord, that this is the way to know you, and you want to be known, or you would not have given us this Bible. Father, you have given it to us so we can know you. So Father, we thank you that your spirit loves the prayer of the heart that cries out, "Show me you. I want to know you." Lord, and you're faithful. You are a faithful God, and you will hold her hand and walk her through, Lord, as she turns to your word to to see you, to seek you. You promised if we seek you with all of our heart, Lord, we will find you. We will find you on every page. You will be there because you are, you.

Gene Wyland: We thank you, Lord. And so I pray that you would fill her with passion, an unquenchable thirst to know your word. Lord, I pray if her schedule is crazy, Lord, that you will wake her in the middle of the night. You will call to her in the middle of the night. Lord, and you will give her rest and peace in those hours that she does sleep, so that she's awake. Lord, that you will open up time in her schedule. And you will you will call to her, your word will call to her, Lord, and I know, I know she will find you as she reads through the whole Bible because it is not possible for your word to fail. And your word has promised, you have promised in your word that we will find you.

Gene Wyland: So we praise you, Lord, and we thank you for your word and for prayer that we can cry out to you. In your mighty and strong and precious name we pray. Amen.

Danna Gresh: This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.