Learning to Love the Old Testament, with Jennifer Smith

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Maybe you’ve heard someone say something like, “Yeah, I like the God of the New Testament—He’s loving, He’s kind, He’s gracious—but I don’t know about the God of the Old Testament. He seems pretty harsh and judgmental!” 

Maybe you’ve even had some of those thoughts.As a result, you don’t have any great interest in reading all ofthe Bible. Well, if that’s true, or if you know someone like that, I want to implore you: set aside the next half hour and listen to the story of Jennifer Smith. 

Dannah Gresh: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest, for December 1, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy: Right now I’m in the middle of a huge undertaking. It actually is something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and that is to teach through the entire Bible. I’m doing it in 260 half-hour programs. Lord willing, you’ll be able to hear those programs in 2027 and join many women who are all studying the Bible together in many different languages. 

That year-long series will be called “Wonder of the Word.”We don’t have a big audience for these recording sessions, mostly just a handful of our production staff. But there is one woman who has been in almost every recording session. Her name is Jennifer Smith. 

It took a lot of courage for her to even begin attending the recording sessions when we started with the book of Genesis. That’s because when Jennifer heard portions of the Old Testament, it was a trigger that reminded her of painful memories. 

But when Jennifer committed to study the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament, the Lord met her in her pain and began a healing process that has been beautiful to behold! . . . and it continues to this day. Here’s Jennifer’s story.

Dannah: Jennifer Smith has been walking with the Lord for about 25 years. And like Nancy just said, for most of those years, she did not want to read the Old Testament.

Jennifer Smith: That part of the Bible I kind of kept closed, because there were other tapes playing in my head.

Dannah: Those tapes were memories, memories of abuse, starting when Jennifer was a child. A leader in a church manipulated her into acting out Bible stories, beginning with Adam and Eve.

Jennifer: I just remember him telling me the story in Genesis and reading that to me as he began to assault me, and then the next thing I remember from that scene became a nightmare.

Dannah: This abuse lasted several years. Jennifer became angry and disillusioned. Through her teenage years and young adult years, she got into drugs and crime.

Jennifer: I actually had heard someone, an older teenager, say that drinking makes you feel better, makes things go away. I had heard that line, so that’s how I began to deal with that, experimenting with alcohol because then I did not have to feel the shame.

Nancy: So you were what age when you started drinking?

Jennifer: Eleven. I was eleven when I started experimenting with that.

Nancy: How did you get the alcohol?

Jennifer: Well, I had an older sister, and she had friends, too. It’s not hard to get. I had people in my family who drank, so I had ways to get it. It’s out there to get; the enemy makes it easily accessible. It’s just not hard to get, and it wasn’t back then.

But eventually that wasn’t enough. At age twelve I began drug use and that just escalated. Things I never thought I would do, and a person I never thought I would become, I was becoming.

Nancy: How did you get introduced to the drugs?

Jennifer: Just through friends. I had a cousin, actually, who introduced me to it. She was the same age, and she had gotten hold of it at school. It was marijuana. It was what it started with, and it just escalated.

Once you get into that society and that lifestyle, you know who the go-to people around you are. You just know where it’s at. It can find you. Once they hear that you’re using, then they are going to come to you. You know, “I hear that you’re ‘down,’ and that you do this.”

Then of course, you’re going to fall into the pressure. “Yeah!” You might not have ever tried it. I think one of the first times I tried meth, I had lied actually and said, “Yeah, I’ve done that!” It’s just because you want to feel cool or like you want to fit in. But I had really never done it.

But then they come back with their friends and say, “Hey, we hear you’ve done meth!” And now you’re like, “What option do I choose? Do I tell them a lie, or do I do it?” So it would find you once you put yourself out there in that realm.

Nancy: Where did that go? 

Jennifer: Well, at fifteen I ended up running away from home, I ended up going to Albany, Georgia. I have no clue why. My parents found out where I was. (I guess I made a phone call to a friend and she had told them.)

They came to the town, and it was a bad part of town. When they got there they had to have a police escort to even be there . . . and here I was, a fifteen-year-old just running around down there, having no clue where I’m at, and what kind of environment I’m in.

I got wind that they were on their way so I shot out and went up to Tennessee. I came back home to Harrison where I stayed with a friend until the cops showed up a couple days later. They said, “You have a choice: you can either go to jail–to juvie–or you can go home.”

I said, “Well, can I think about it?” Of course, they were not going to give me that option, so I ended up going back home, but I gave my parents the option that if they wanted me in their life, then I was at least going to live with my sister.

I’ve robbed stores, homes . . . at seventeen! I was arrested the first time for methamphetamines, and I was charged with a residential burglary, a commercial burglary, another charge . . . I can’t remember.

So that just began my criminal felony, and I was charged as an adult. I would go into jail, and then later I’d get out of rehab and I’d get high the same day I got out of rehab. When I was seventeen, I went to that first rehab.

Nancy: So how did it finally all catch up with you?

Jennifer: Well, I’d just gotten off of probation. I was with a married man at the time, and twenty-seven days later he and I decided that we would rob the cop’s house. It was a bitterness issue. He had arrested me just on an allegation.

Someone had called and said I was having a party, which I wasn’t, but I had drug paraphernalia in my house, so he had to arrest me. So this bitterness just began to enrage. I thought, Well, I’m going to go and rob him and violate him the way that I feel like he violated me that night when he arrested me.

The next day we robbed a store with his gun to get the money. It was probably about six hours after that robbery. We had switched out vehicles and were on our way to Memphis. I remember looking in my rearview mirror and seeing six squad cars behind me! 

I entered a place called McPherson Women’s Prison in Newport, Arkansas.

Dannah: While in prison, Jennifer truly came to understand the gospel, and she came to faith in Jesus! And during that time, Jennifer was discipled in her new faith. While in her cell, she listened to Revive Our Hearts on the radio.

Nancy (on radio): This whole issue of pain and hurt and woundedness is one that concerns us all; it’s one we’ve all experienced. We all have a story. If it’s not our own deep pain and wounds, we have people close to us . . .

The outcome of our lives, the way we turn out, who we are, is not determined by what happens to us. Many times we think that we are the way that we are; that we have the responses we do or we parent our children the way that we do, because of something that happened to us.But the fact is, the outcome of our lives, who we are, is not determined by what happens to us. 

You know, I believe that when we as Christian women begin to live out the forgiveness that we have received from God, the world around us is going to stop and take notice and say, “Now, that’s a message I’m interested in hearing!”

Dannah: But in prison, Jennifer continued to experience abuse. A prison chaplain was manipulating some of the women under his care. In the process he required them to memorize the book of Proverbs. As an inmate, Jennifer felt like she couldn't speak up about what was actually going on. 

Jennifer: It’s more believable that someone like myself would falsely accuse someone who is supposed to be a godly man and a godly role model than to believe that a pastor and a shepherd of souls would abuse women—sexually abuse them and mentally abuse them, spiritually abuse them and emotionally abuse them. He was a monster!

Dannah: That chaplain was eventually sentenced to five years in prison. 

Jennifer was released and began a ministry to other women coming out of incarceration. She and her team also began a soup kitchen; they met the practical needs of hurting people in the neighborhood around the prison.

Jennifer: Sometimes when you’re on those streets, you forget that you’re on those streets. So, May 21 of 2022, that was probably when I entered the darkest of my days, when I went through a sexual assault.

Dannah: In the aftermath of that attack, Jennifer began to feel like God was distant.

Jennifer: I didn’t hear Him anymore. I could not see Him in anything, and I could not sense His presence. I didn’t have hope anymore. There was a lot of chaos up here that I couldn’t get to stop, and my only way out at the time, I thought, was to end my life!

Dannah: Jennifer's attempts at ending her life were unsuccessful. As part of her healing process, Jennifer moved to Michigan to get care from some close friends. Those friends were connected with Revive Our Hearts, so Jennifer was able to join the crew for the very first “Wonder of the Word”recording session.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth was about to teach through the entire Bible, starting in the Old Testament—that section that Jennifer had been trying to avoid.

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): As we open to Genesis, would you pray with me? 

Would You open our eyes? Would You give us fresh wonder, no matter how many or how few times we may have read this Book before?

Jennifer: I trusted Nancy; I trusted that she had been in the Word herself.

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): And would You help us to see Jesus, for He is the wonderful Living Word of God!

Jennifer: He was very gracious to allow me to hear and to see what was being taught thatday.

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): God set in motion a plan to redeem and restore the world from sin, to restore everything that sin had broken!

Jennifer: [I thought] This isn’t going to be as terrible as I thought!

Dannah: Jennifer continued attending recording sessions and reading the Old Testament on her own.

Jennifer: I skipped toward the book of Judges. 

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): This is a book about the absence of a king. . .

Jennifer: I found the most freedom in the book of Judges, of all books in the Old Testament, when it comes to dealing with this question, “Why?!”

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): The lack of righteous rulers that we see all around us and all around the world, the lack of righteous rulers reminds us that we need a King (capital “K”), and His Name is Jesus!

Dannah: The Book of Judges ends with a harrowing story of a concubine who was turned over to all the men of the town.

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): And the men of Gibeah abused that concubine slave woman all night long. Maybe you can imagine a similar night of terror where you were violated, where everything that was pure and good was put aside and evil came into your life.

Jennifer: At the end of that chapter, the last sentence says, “Every man does what is right in their own eyes.” 

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): Listen. When there is no fear of the Lord in a society, when there is no reverence for God’s law and His Word, anything goes. Human life is devalued.

Jennifer: It was in that moment, the Lord gave me just enough of an answer to the question, “Why?”

Nancy (“Wonder of the Word” recording session): All the hopelessness, the chaos, the bedlam, the confusion of Judges points to a Savior who has come to earth so that He could rescue us from our sin! 

Jennifer: And so, as I began to encounter those parts of who God is in the Old Testament, it’s created a hunger and it’s created a thirst for more of those encounters! He says don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And so, when you think about all the ways that we conform to the world and all the standards of it, there are some good things out there, good tools—counselors and therapists. But none of it can renew your mind the way the Word of God can!

If Scripture has been painful for you, then I would say, “Take it slow.” Find small truths and create those new rhythms. Ask the Lord to give you a love for Scripture, ask Him to open your mind, ask Him to teach you, ask Him to let it be the light to your path. Ask Him to let it expose those lies.

So take it slow, but also find a safe place with women who will be able to come alongside of you and are able do that. Because, if you’re like me, you’re not even able to trust your own interpretation of what it says to you because you have so many other voices that add to that.

The thing that I’m learning about the wounds that others have caused is that we have a wounded Healer. Psalm 107: “He sent out His Word to heal us.” If you look at that psalm, there are so many places of distress that happened where people were in different situations. 

You may be a mother who is raising that family on your own, and you feel like you don’t have that support. Maybe you feel like you’re failing in your attempt to do that. You may be in the workplace, you may be in ministry, you may be the pastor’s wife, and you may have been hurt by Scripture from your own husband! It goes on and on and on.

I just want to encourage you that wherever you find those wounds, if you will just allow yourself—just even one more time—to open that Word and let it do what it’s designed to do, it’s designed to heal! It’s designed to give life. It’s designed to take someone who was in darkness and transfer them into light!

It’s designed to take someone who was the enemy of God—who was against Him—to bring them into the family of God. It’s designed to take someone that had no hope and give them a living hope!

It’s designed to give us promises to stand on during those times where we doubt and the lies come flooding in. It’s designed to give us hope when the world says there is none. It’s designed, even, to give us an outline for how to deal with our trauma and all those things.

Find yourself someone who is going to be able to walk alongside you. You’re not depending on them. They’re getting you to depend upon the Word of God so that you can walk, eventually, without them.

You can depend on that Shepherd and His voice leading you and guiding you and showing you through those still waters, those green pastures, the tables of your enemy, the shadows that you walk through. 

Revive Our Hearts has made the Word of God a safe place for me. Revive Our Hearts has been a safe place for me, too. The people that serve in the ministry of Revive Our Hearts have been a safe place.

Dannah: Jennifer is getting biblical counseling, and she knows that God can use counselors and authors to help people deal with the painful experiences of life. 

Jennifer: None of it can renew your mind the way the Word of God can. The same Word that was used as a weapon against me is the same Word that God used to save me and to draw me!

Nancy: Well, I’ve been truly amazed to watch the Lord speak to Jennifer Smith’s heart while she’s been a part of the “Wonder of the Word”recording sessions. And my prayer is that the Lord will multiply stories like these many times over, as women around the globe study God’s Word together in 2027!

It’s all part of an initiative called Wonder of the Word. We’re going to read the Bible together in 2026. And if you’ve not done so already, you can sign up to read with us by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com/Bible2026. 

And then in 2027 (and it sounds like a long way off, but it really isn’t!), Lord willing, I’m going to teach through the entire Bible right here on Revive Our Hearts! I’m also really excited that the Wonder of the Word campaign includes a new ministry for teen girls. 

It’s a mobile app called Wonder. Dannah, you’ve been instrumental in this new project. I know it’s something that’s been on your heart for a long time. I’d love for you to tell us more about it. 

Dannah: Well, Nancy, it’s a big undertaking. We want to get teenage girls in God’s Word every day! They’re on their phones. We want to put God there, too, in the form of the Wonder app, where they’re going to be met every day by young adult women who feel like youth leaders. We’re calling them “Wonder mentors.”

These are women who love the Word, and they’re going to be creating videos that get the girls excited, and help them desire to actually read through the Bible with us in 2026. And when we say it’s a big undertaking, it’s a big undertaking! 

The three-year initiative is going to cost just under one million dollars! But we believe it’s worth it to get the hearts and minds of teenage girls into God’s truth!

Nancy: Dannah, I know a lot of people are wondering when the Wonder app will be released?

Dannah: We are aiming for January 1, and Lord willing, we are going to hit that date—maybe a few days before it, so that we have some early adopters and girls that are ready for Day 1 devotions on January 1. 

Nancy: We talked with today’s guest, Jennifer Smith, about the Wonderapp. Smartphones and apps weren’t around when she was a teenager. But we asked her how her life might have been different if someone had faithfully helped her to get into God’s Word during her teen years.

Jennifer: Well, you look back and you try to think, Man, what could have been different? Could the whole design of how God designed me, had I known all that at an early age?

You look at the opportunities. It’s kind of hard to look back and think because it’s kind of grievous to think what you did miss, especially in relationships the way God designed them. Would it have changed that had I known what it meant to be a godly woman, what it meant for God’s design in that and my relationships?

You look back and think, Well, could my life have looked differently? And so, when you have someone who’s helping to pull that design out, whether it’s through a Sunday school class, through an app that’s being created, through theWonder of the Word project; when you have someone that’s walking with you to help pull those things out of your life through those tools that God has created and made available . . . Had I had something like the Bible app in my teenage years, definitely I think it could have made a difference. 

You have another voice, you have another alternative of something that’s shaping the way you think, the decisions that you make, that’s shaping your worldview. So, yeah, if you had an app that could speak the language of this upcoming generation, why would you not invest in that?

Everyone else is going to be investing in that. You have the world that is investing in that. You have people coming after your children. So why not get an app or invest in an app that would speak their language and keep something before their eyes, because they’re going to have something before their eyes anyway. Why not get the Word of God before their eyes?

Definitely it would change the outcomes of people who are going in the direction that I was going. The Wonder app will be a safe place for them.

That’s needed, because if you don’t feel safe, and if you don’t think you belong somewhere, you’re not going to engage, period. You’re going to shrink back. So it’s going to become a lifeline, a safe place.

And with this generation, with Gen Z and the ones coming behind, that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for those safe communities, and it’s a digital community that they’re looking for them in, because that’s where everything is going—digital.

So where our generation and other generations are the analog generations. We want the physical community, the little small group, the church building. This generation, they know digital. So if they can find that safe place in an app, you can learn in safe places, you can develop in safe places. 

And I think the Wonder of the Word will become that because they know they belong there!

Nancy: Well, I am so excited about the Wonder app for teen girls! My prayer is that it will call a whole new generation of young women to know and love and live God’s Word! Now, I was stunned to learn how much it costs to make a really well-done app.

So in order to take the next steps in this project and do it in such a way that teen girls will want to use it, we are asking the Lord to provide the next phase of needed funds. As you may know, tomorrow has been designated Giving Tuesday.

It’s an opportunity for us to remember that the Christmas season isn’t about getting or consuming. It’s about God’s incredible gift to us, Jesus, and that makes us want to give to others. 

I’d love to have your help in giving God’s Word to the next generation, the teen women, and that’s why we’re asking the Lord to provide at least $150,000 today and tomorrow, Giving Tuesday, to help us fund the next phase of this new Wonder app. 

Would you pray that God will help us reach this goal . . . or even beyond? And would you ask the Lord how He might be calling you to give and to spread the truth to young women who desperately need to hear it?

Dannah: You’ll hear more about the Wonder app tomorrow. We introduced it at the teen breakout session at the True Woman conference a couple months ago. Tomorrow you’ll get to hear some of what we taught those young women at that conference. You’ll find out how to share the Wonder app with teenagers you know. 

Please be back tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts. 

This program is a listener supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Buchanan, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

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