In today’s soul-enriching episode, Barbara and Kimberly offer profound insights on encountering and overcoming life’s trials with unwavering faith. With heartwarming anecdotes and biblical teachings, they emphasize the necessity of scripture in forging a resilient relationship with God. Celebrate the joy of reconnecting with family, understanding divine purpose, and choosing praise amidst adversity. This episode is a beacon for anyone yearning to discover the sustenance that faith offers in times of uncertainty.
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to Called Up Freedom. I’m so glad you joined me today. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of Holy Spirit. Oh, hope is such a marvelous thing to have. You’re hoping for God’s perfect will in your life. It’s as the Lord’s Prayer says, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You’re praising God. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He wants you to enjoy that abundant life that Jesus promised to you. Oh, and may you be filled with all joy and peace so that you may overflow with hope by the power of Holy Spirit. See, God doesn’t use wimps in his plan to conquer. No, he doesn’t. And we’re growing up. We’re maturing. We’re no longer on that baby bottle. And I want some of you who are still in that salvation mode. Come on. Come on with me. Read the word. Begin to get into the word and begin to be curious about the word. Examine the word and get knowledge in your heart and your soul from the word. That’s the most important thing in the world for you is to learn the word of God so you can love him as Jesus loves him. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And if you’d like to listen to previous programs, I was listening to the program for tomorrow with Darren and me, and we’re celebrating his birthday. I don’t know what year it is. I’ll have to look that up. But it is so much fun to talk about the year that he was born and celebrating the birthday with him. And he got great calls. And I think you’ll really know. I believe you’ll really enjoy the show tomorrow. And you go to Freedom Street dot org. Click on radio shows and you can listen. Also, you can hit that donate button if you’re enjoying the the excitement and the fervor we have for Jesus Christ and the scripture that we’re giving you every day. I want you to realize, friend, that’s what we live on. We don’t live on just the food that we put into our physical bodies. Man shall not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And that’s his word. That’s his words, the word that many of you just put on a table for the week and then take it on Sunday to show yourself that you’re holy. That’s something we open every day of the week and read and underline and learn from. So I challenge you. I encourage you to get into the word of God today. If you need a Bible guide, you can call me after this program. at 1-877-917-7256 and ask for a Bible guide, and I will be happy to send you one to get into the Word of God for yourself. Praise the Lord. Well, Kimberly has chosen to join us again today, and I’m so glad because she had such a great teaching yesterday, and we’re just going to continue that. And Kimberly, welcome. Thank you.
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Thank you. Wow, Mom, you just came out the gate shooting from the hip. Thank you. Just let’s get in there and tell people what we’re made for. Yes, we’re made for the word of God. And we did. We looked at that yesterday, how Jesus told the enemy as he was being tempted that man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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And who would… Now, what would the devil… tempt Jesus with and each one of us with, first of all, in those temptations found in Luke 4 and also in Matthew 4. Food. Yeah, food. Food.
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Yes, food. Yes, especially at the beginning of the year when you’ve made your New Year’s resolutions. And then the temptations start coming, right?
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Yes, they do. Before we get into it, I would really like you to tell the audience about meeting some of your father’s relatives and how it came about. Because I know that you have known Pam for a while now. No, I really haven’t.
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I just met her about three weeks ago for the first time. We’ve texted with each other when she first moved here to Broken Arrow. It’s already been two years ago. I just both of us just started doing life and and didn’t remember to get back with each other but we met for the very first time just within this past month and it’s it’s amazing to me she’s in her 70s and the other two her her sister and then her first cousin they all moved here from California And that’s where dad’s family is all from. They all settled out there. And daddy died 35 years ago. And we really have not stayed in touch with that side of the family at all. So 35 years of… And even before he passed away, We didn’t have very much interaction with them. I don’t ever remember meeting these people ever in my lifetime. But they knew that I was here.
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Now, how did they know?
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How did Pam text you a year ago? One of Dad’s sister’s. So, one of dad’s sisters, one of my aunts, let them know, oh, you’re moving to Broken Arrow.
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That’s where Kimberly lives. I don’t know how they knew, but I’m glad that they have kept track of where you were living. Oh, that’s wonderful. Yeah.
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So I got to actually meet up with them, let’s see, two of them last week. And one of them just four months ago, she lost her eyesight completely. Oh. And it wasn’t even something gradual at all. It was very sudden. And she’s having a hard time adjusting. So she’s in an assisted living place now. And that assisted living place has two pianos. And so I went and I played the piano and sang with them. And it was the most beautiful thing to have harmonies singing together. It was as if we had been singing together all our lives.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yes. It’s really beautiful. Oh, that is wonderful. I am so happy. I know that the first few weeks when your dad and I were living in California before we flew and moved to Colorado, that I had probably met Pam because his whole family had gathered together for an afternoon of playing the organ and the piano and singing and having a great time. And I remember Darlene from a long time ago. But, yeah, that’s been 50, 60 years. So, wow.
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Yeah. So the story that we’re telling here really does apply to all of you listening because there are things that happen in life. For instance, Joseph. Joseph, he left his family. Well, he didn’t leave Joseph. He was sold by his brothers into Egypt and he had to learn a whole new way of doing life. And that way might have been pretty challenging for someone, the way he was raised and his family and the promises of God that were given to his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather. And to know that you’ve got these promises from the Lord, and now you are in a completely different land. And this land does not acknowledge the same God.
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That’s right.
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That would be really, very challenging, really tough. And we can all find ourselves in places in our life where it just feels very challenging, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and really tough. what we were talking about yesterday how our Egypt, it could be the old way we grew up with our family. I look at Egypt as the thing that was left behind. Joseph left a family behind that was, I know it was a blessed family and God started all 12 tribes out of this family. The 12 tribes of Israel came from this family, but they were messed up. Let me just say that.
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Yes, they were.
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They did not know about harmony and unity. They did not get along very well. And to sell your brother out, to sell him into slavery, that’s messed up.
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Yes, there was favoritism from the father who favored Joseph, and he made him a coat of wonderful colors. He didn’t do that for the rest of the brothers. He did that for Joseph.
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And even besides that, some of those brothers, like one of them slept with his dad’s maid, and then another couple of them, they were so angry that they went and slaughtered a whole city. I mean, there were some problems. So Joseph was leaving those problems behind, but it was also his familiar family. And whatever we get familiar with in life, when we have to leave it behind, that can be really tough. And we start looking back when we’ve left something, left a job, left a family, left left an area where you’ve lived for a long time, whatever it is that you’ve left behind, it can be so uncomfortable that you start looking back and thinking, well, maybe I should go back. And we all have that tendency to do that. What we need to remember is that our journey in this wilderness that feels uncomfortable is such a blessed journey. And Jesus himself showed us how to do this journey. In Hebrews 5, 8, we’re told that Jesus learned obedience through suffering. And I think of wilderness as being a place where we have some suffering. It’s uncomfortable, and that can feel like you’re suffering. And there can be other ways to suffer too. But Jesus was made perfect through the suffering, and he was giving us that example. He became the source of eternal salvation by walking through that wilderness, going through that wilderness, and at every turn, defeating all of the temptations of the flesh. And just like we were talking about, the first one was food. He was hungry. And that temptation toward the hunger, there it was right in front of him. And he defeated that temptation by saying, no, no, I don’t just live on food. I’m not going to be scared. I’m not going to have fear enter in and tell me that I’m going to starve to death. Because I won’t starve to death. If my father wants me here, I will remain right here, not living on bread alone, but by living on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the father.
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Yes.
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Praise God. He showed us how not to be in fear of these things that are coming at us and that feel uncomfortable and feel like suffering. Walking through the wilderness is just never comfortable. And trying to leave our old lifestyles, our old family, our old career, our old life behind, it is hard to break away from what was normal routine. Yes.
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At whatever normal is. That’s right. If Joseph hadn’t have been jerked out of that familiar thing, would he have ever left on his own? No, uh-uh. Probably not. He was jerked out of it. That’s right. The Lord just jerked him out of it. And it seems really cruel what happened to him. But that was for God’s ultimate good. God had this whole thing planned.
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That’s right. So when we look at our situations and we don’t know what lies ahead of us, that can be scary to us. And that’s when we really need to know how good our Heavenly Father is. And we’re going to find that out by being in His Word. Because our life and our joy and our true peace, it’s not fragile joy. It’s not fragile peace that can just break apart at one bit of news that comes your way. This is a really solid joy and a solid peace that’s so much different than the world’s happiness and the world’s kind of peace and calm.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
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This is different. It is so tangibly big, powerful in our lives. And we’re not going to know it if we don’t get into the word of God. Yesterday we were reading from Deuteronomy 8. And It’s it’s I love this whole passage here. It’s talking about how the people of Israel were led out into the wilderness and the Lord humbled them and allowed them to hunger. And I like how in verse three, it says he fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. None of them recognized the way they were going to be sustained. I love that because they repeat it. Deuteronomy 8, if you go down to verse 15, they say it again. Moses says it again as he’s writing, or whoever wrote this out. He says, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, but who brought you forth water out of the flinty rock. and who, here it is, fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know. And here’s the point. We don’t want to miss this point. Just because you don’t know You don’t know what it is or how it happens. Just because you can’t see how your circumstances are good. Don’t let that stop you from praising the one who does know. He has a plan for everything. And he proves himself time and time again, over and over, that he is Redeemer. And he is in the restoration business. And he is constantly at work for us.
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Yes.
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And we don’t want to forget that, that he is constantly at work for good for us to restore what just broke and to redeem what was just lost. That is who he is. His love is so great. And in Deuteronomy 8, it goes on to say that he might humble you. Now, the humbling is to recognize that our plan is not the best one. His is. Yes. And even when our plans shatter and our circumstances look totally lost, He has a great plan. to fix it, to redeem it. And His way of fixing it is better than ours. So this is how we are humbled. And we humble ourselves and say, not my will, but Yours be done, O Lord. And that is hard. You know, yesterday you mentioned my friend who had to release her husband last week to heaven’s great cloud of witnesses. And her anger, it was threatening to take over. When you have a friend whose emotions are getting the best of them, that’s a sure sign that they are drowning. That’s a sure sign that they have been bit by a fiery serpent in the wilderness and it is painful. It stings. And a good friend will throw out a lifesaver to that one who is suffering. And a good friend can be understanding of the anger. But I just simply planted a seed with her. I just told her, don’t give in to the temptation to feed that anger and keep feeding it and keep feeding it. Don’t give in to that. I understand where you are, but your faith needs food right now. And if you’re listening and you’re in a hard circumstance, know that your faith needs food. And the way that we build up faith is to praise God in all circumstances. We praise him when we’re doubting. We praise him when we’re sure. We praise him in the valleys and on the mountaintops. And there’s this wonderful song by Elevation, and it’s featuring Brandon Lake. It’s called Praise. Let’s just listen to that right now.
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Let’s go. of how we And I’ll praise when I don’t. I’ll praise cause I know you’re still in control. Cause my praise is a weapon. It’s worth the sound. Oh, my praise is the shout that brings Jericho down. As long as I’m breathing, I’ve got a reason to praise the Lord, oh, my soul. Praise God. Praise God. Come on, come on!
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, such a good song. I had to stand up. I was standing up just pumping my fist to the air, you know, and it’s not because I have the best circumstances in life right now. There are some sad things going on around me and there’s some really broken things in my life. but I know my Redeemer lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
I know my Redeemer lives.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know how good he is. And I just want to bring up Numbers 21. And I didn’t talk with you about this, Mom, but in Numbers 21, the Israelites defeated the Canaanites. They’re in the wilderness. They are not trained for war. And God blessed them to go to war with some Canaanites. and defeat them, they utterly destroyed the cities and they named the place Horma. And Horma means utter holy destruction. They recognized it was a miracle. It was a holy destruction. And then the Israelites set out to go around the land of Edom and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses. He said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water. And we loathe this miserable food. Oh, that brings you can hear the emotion in my voice. It brings me to tears every time I read that we loathe this miserable food. Jesus is the bread of heaven. He is the bread that has come down from heaven. And to say, I loathe what you are providing for me, Jesus. Ouch. And I think it really brings tears to my eyes because I realized those times in my life, those seasons where I would rather have my own idea of food and provision for this life rather than what God has gifted me with and what he paid for with his very own life. I recognize that I’d rather have Egypt’s food and provision than to be okay with the unknown. See, the manna is the unknown. And the complaining and the grumbling went against the blueprints of the lives of those people. We were made to praise at all times. Praise. We were made to worship. And we were made to see God’s goodness and have gratitude for all the ways that he restores and redeems all the brokenness. Yet, when we complain… that’s when things break down even more because now we’re functioning outside of our parameters and there are natural consequences that cause more brokenness so in this case with these people complaining it opened the door and attracted fiery serpents and many people died from those snake bites but look at god’s gracious and merciful response He guides Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. He was setting a standard. He was making a prophetic promise to send his only son and to lift him up on a cross that all who look to him would be saved. So complaining and grumbling, they go against our God-designed blueprints. But we know how to get back on track and be blessed. It’s to look to Jesus, the one who gave his life for us to have salvation, to be healed, to live in joy, to live in peace. I don’t know if I’ve even taken a breath today.
SPEAKER 02 :
But I’m pretty excited about that. So thank you for letting me share this excitement with you today.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s been wonderful. It’s been wonderful. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord lifts up a standard against him. And that’s Isaiah 59, 19. We’ve got to. You’re absolutely right, Kimberly. Be praising God in all things for this is God’s vision for us to praise him. And boy, when he lives in our praises, he can do anything through us. God bless you, Kimberly. Oh, God bless you. It’s been wonderful. Remember, tomorrow we’re going to celebrate Darren’s birthday on the Friday show. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
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877-917-7256
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Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
