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What are you looking for? Where will you find it? You get to the work site and you look around for it, and no matter what you do to get motivated there’s something missing. You look in the break room, not there. You look in the conference room, but there’s someone else using it. You drop by a colleague’s office, and you look in social media- everyone is busy.
Stop.
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The alarm goes off. You make it to the bathroom, you go to the kitchen, you make coffee and you watch the morning news or you even read the Wall Street Journal. You get your keys, you check the weather, you get the umbrella, and you pack a lunch. You start the car, you drive to work, and you look around… You say “Good morning!” to Jason at the front desk, you get in the elevator and press the 12th Floor. The door opens. You head to your office, and there he is. God is already at work! And he’s waiting for you. You have plans- and He directs your steps with some raw materials he has already provided. Soul Work, Finding God in your entrepreneurial pursuits.
In this captivating episode, Liz Franzel sits down with Nick Vujicic, a motivational speaker and founder of Nick V Ministries, to explore the profound impact of human trafficking in America. With his personal triumph over physical and mental obstacles as a backdrop, Nick calls upon listeners to recognize and combat the insidious issue of modern slavery. Discover how you can contribute to protecting vulnerable communities as we reveal the frightening truth behind the statistics, and learn tangible steps you can take to make a difference.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is Liz Franzel with Crawford Media Group, and today we are privileged to have Nick Vujicic with us today. He is the founder and CEO of Nick V Ministries, renowned speaker around the world and best-selling author. This month is National Human Trafficking Month, and we'll be talking about his mission to end this horrific crime against humanity. Nick, it's an honor to have you here with us today.
SPEAKER 01 :
Liz, thank you so much for having me on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Nick, you have such an amazing testimony and for our listeners that might not know, you were born with no arms or legs and you have overcome what some would say are impossible circumstances, but we know that all things are possible with God and you are a testament to that. Can you tell us a little bit about your story and how you overcame incredible challenges?
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, thank you so much for asking. I am so blessed at 42 years of age to be able to always let everyone know that first and foremost, having no limbs sounds pretty difficult. But I always tell people that it's not about the physical difficulties as much as the disabilities of the heart and the mind. And for me, you know, people could look at me at school and judge me or decide if they interact with me, isolate themselves from me or even bully me. And I think it was around age six that I knew that I was different than everyone else. And for the first time, I thought, well, that might be an issue. I was raised in a beautiful, loving home, went to church every week. My dad was a pastor, and I was asked by many people, why were you born this way? I did not know why. My brother and sister were born with limbs. People then asked me, what do you want to be when you grow up? I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I really felt like I was a burden to my parents. I had ups and downs at school as any student, but obviously had a lot of unwanted attention and definitely fears about my future. The Bible says that God has a hope, plan, and future, and I didn't understand if that verse would really be for me ever. I thought I'd be a burden to everyone around me, never get married, never be happy, never have children, never even get a job. And so I premeditated and planned a suicide attempt at age 10. I attempted in my bathtub and tried to drown myself because all I could see were broken pieces. And by the grace of God, I was stopped by one thought, imagining my parents at my grave wishing they could have done something more. And I didn't want to leave them with that pain. And I just am so glad I decided to stay by His grace. Age 15, I read John chapter 9, a man was born blind. No one knew why he was born that way. And Jesus was asked, why was he born with his disability? And I very much, as you can imagine, related to that story. The blind man gets the fingers of Jesus that are sticky and icky from the mud, and then he sees. And the blind man didn't ask any questions. And I realized, God, if you had a plan for a blind man, And you have a plan for me. And the blind man didn't ask for your plan, but he trusted you. And so, God, today I trust you with my greatest disability of death, of sin, that both you conquered on the cross, Jesus. And so I gave my life to Jesus at 15. At 17, I became vice president of my high school. I did a speech. And the janitor pulled me aside later, and he said, God's going to use you to go around the world. and share your story. And I actually said, I have no story. I don't know what you're talking about. And by the grace of God, started ministry at age 19. I've now gone to 84 countries, met 34 presidents and prime ministers. A billion people in China know who I am, and a billion people in India know who I am. And then out of the story, obviously not preaching, preaching. But then outside of those two closed countries, We've been in many others preaching the gospel to 10% of the whole world.
SPEAKER 02 :
That is absolutely an amazing testimony and I thank you for sharing that. I know who you are and that's why it's such a privilege to be able to talk with you today and I'm so thrilled that we can share you with our listeners. Today we are talking about human trafficking because this month is National Human Trafficking. You know, it's getting more attention but it's still not really being acknowledged a lot by the media. Give us some insight on what it is and how this even happens.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, look, there's so many different things that I needed to learn. I really want people to go to nickveeministries.org, find out the champions for the Brokenhearted series, click on human trafficking. For two years, we've been actually interviewing experts in different fields, including human trafficking, to really understand where this really is in our own backyard and For about two decades, everyone thought that this was more of an international problem. But more so, people are realizing it's actually happening in our own schools, in front of our own children. They don't need to be as violent kidnapping people for sex slavery in our own backyard. They just get lured in from social media, actually, by peers of their school now. People don't understand that a lot of media attention is not really going down to the root issue. People don't still know that there are $100 million worth of lobbying money for bills to pass continually pornographic material in our country. People don't understand that 67% of all teenagers are actually producing sexual images of themselves on their cell phones. People don't understand that one in three girls by age 17 have been raped in America. One out of five boys by age 17 raped in America. What's devious of all these things and other things that, I mean, it's very dark, very heavy to also understand the CPS and foster care system. I have had many friends in the foster care, incredible opportunity to help these children. and they ask these three siblings who are two, four, and six, hey, let's take a photo together as a family. And one of them says, okay, and comes back naked. And so there's a ton, ton, ton of foster kids waiting to go into a loving, protected home. There's a lot of corruption in our country, a lot of fragmented systems between county to county, and it's pretty disgusting as we learn these things. But What's most devious is no one who actually is being trafficked will say that they're being trafficked because they don't think they're being trafficked because they actually get brainwashed. And so what's crazy is, well, that's just what we do. This is who we are. And this is my new circle. It's unbelievable. And this is actually infiltrated to coaches, teachers and even parents in America.
SPEAKER 02 :
When you say infiltrated, what do you mean by that?
SPEAKER 01 :
Actually, softball coaches, basketball coaches, teachers of different tutorials, and even parents actually being part of the pimping and sexual acts. And more of that is going to be revealed here in America. Yaku Boyens is the tip of the spearhead of this issue. And as a church, you know, as a Christian... We need to go to what we really—I mean, no one's really talking about this in the church at all. No one's really bringing this in in education. Louisiana's done a great job in bringing education for adoption and helping unexpected pregnancies with teenagers to know about adoption on just the precipice. It's the first of its kind. It really needs to be mandated. That needs to be mandated. What also needs to be mandated is the real danger to parents as well to warn what human trafficking really is, to know the signs of your own child going through that. But what's crazy is this. There are surveys out there that say that one in five men who go to church on a weekly basis are actually addicted to pornography. And we're not talking about pornography. We're not talking about, you know, just to Gen Z to keep your pants on. to understand the sexualization of a generation. And when we now look at, I mean, even Christian schools, go to the football little team there and hear their conversations. And if you overhear some conversations, you'll actually probably hear someone asking their peers, how many trophies do you have? And that actually means how many girls have you slept with? And so the whole way that the enemy has come in and infiltrated and sexualized and debilitated our young people and attacking them without any buffer because they're on their phone seven hours straight a day. And this is now, this is real. And there is a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do. And I think the church needs to be aware of it. educate their schools, every charter school, every Christian school, every public school, every home, but also in the church to start talking about this as, hey, how many foster kids can we get out of that risk?
SPEAKER 02 :
You had mentioned some of the training you do. What are some of the signs that we can look for that would kind of alert us to something that's off?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, look, it's really peer-to-peer and really isolation and even some emojis. If you actually do some audits on your teenagers, as far as I'm concerned, everyone has their own house rules. But there are expert curriculum and signs of the types of emojis that pimps use, how they go trolling. You know, they're meeting people that they've never met before or they're being coerced in the school. There are signs of isolation. There are signs of even eye contact when they're lying. And just to have an atmosphere at home of saying, don't do this, don't do that, don't meet strangers, to actually sit down and have discussions with your family about what this really is. It is absolutely not surprising to me that 330,000 children are missing, with 3 million that have come over the border completely missing. But even before the border crisis that we have had in recent years, there's hundreds of thousands of people. In DFW alone, there are estimated 400. I'm from Dallas-Fort Worth. estimated 400 active slaves being pimped every single night in Dallas. And it's really interesting to know that those clienteles are normally people who earn more than $150,000, who have two children, and who are aged between 45 and 55 years of age. And you just would never believe that those are the people that are having sex with minors, And so even Native Americans, people don't understand right now, Native Americans are seen as exotic. And so we've been to Native American reservations, and they're taking, the Mexican cartels in Montana are taking daily children and women. And because of the jurisdictions, guess what? The federal government still has not been able to stop this kidnapping right in front of their eyes. And as soon as they get off the reservation, they actually can get away with it. It's happening on a daily basis. Tons of missing kids from Native Americans. People have no clue what's really going on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, that is tragic news. And such, you know, the statistics are so, so huge. We're visiting with Nick Vujicic, founder and CEO of Nick V Ministries. renowned speaker and best-selling author, and we've been talking about the work his ministry is doing to help end human trafficking. Nick, would you tell our listeners where they can go to find out more about your ministries and actually get involved in this tragic crime against humanity?
SPEAKER 01 :
Please, thank you very much. nickveenministries.org is where you go. Go click the tab of Champions for the Brokenhearted. you will see then 12 topics that we've chosen, and one of them that we deep dive into is human trafficking. We have been doing that intentionally for two years. Check out Jacob Boyan's ministry. Check out A21, Christine Kane. Check out other people out there that we have shown free resources for all churches, all families, and teenagers alike to just Help them understand we need to address this. We need to address this now and do all that we can and not rest until it's done.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. Thank you for bringing this to light, Nick, and so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER 01 :
I love you so much. Thank you so much.
Join us as we delve into Job 42, the final chapter that wraps up our 30-day venture through the compelling story of Job. Witness the restoration of Job's fortune and the renewal of his life after unspeakable trials. Job's sparking repentance and acknowledgment of God's sovereignty serve as eternal lessons for us to remain steadfast in our own life challenges. As we explore reflections from over three decades of journaling, gain valuable insights into maintaining faith and trust in the divine, even when life's trials feel insurmountable.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Today we reach Job chapter 42, the last chapter of the book of Job, and the last of our 30-day adventure through this book. We'll see Job respond to God one more time, we'll see God speak, and we'll see God restore everything to Job. Let's listen in to the last chapter of the book of Job, chapter 42. Job 42
SPEAKER 04 :
Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Hear and I will speak. I will question you and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.
SPEAKER 05 :
After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite,
SPEAKER 03 :
My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly." for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.
SPEAKER 05 :
So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them. And the Lord accepted Job's prayer. And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter, Jemima, and the name of the second, Keziah, and the name of the third, Karenhapik. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons four generations. And Job died an old man and full of days.
SPEAKER 02 :
We'll take a look for the last time at those journals I've been using through the book of Job. We'll begin with 1984 as I finished the book of Job with chapters 41 and 42. And I wrote, Job repents. God restores him. 41.11 says, Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. And 42.2 says, I know that thou can do all things. Thirteen years later, in 1997, I finished the book of Job. With chapters 35 through 42 on the last day, I wrote, God speaks to Job and his friends. Prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. God puts Job in perspective. He never ever addresses Job's issues but declares his sovereignty. Everything under heaven is mine. When Job has a chance to answer, he laid his hand over his mouth. I will not answer. There is no answer or question to God. He simply repented for ever questioning God. Lord, forgive me for whining or ever questioning you. Give me strength to live in your sovereignty. And 18 years later, in 2015, I finished the book of Job by reading chapters 40 through 42 on the same day. And I wrote, God calls those who question him fault finders. Job desired, waited for the opportunity to present his case before God. He now has the chance to do so and he says nothing. We are so small before God, our articulation is babbling. Doubtful if any of us are going to question God or present our futile case before him. God never answers Job. He never explains what happened to Job. He reminds Job of how big he is. Job responds, God restores the fortunes of Job. after he prayed for his friends. Job lives 140 years, so his suffering may have been a very short trial in his life. How am I handling my trials? In this last chapter of the book of Job, Job does speak to God. Let's go back and see what he had to say. In verse 2, I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. In verse 3, he says, Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job never argues his case before God, does he? Nor will we. Job understands he has no case before God, nor do we. So Job never does understand what happened back in chapter 1, in the book that carries his own name. God does not need to explain himself. After Job successfully faces his trial, this test from God Almighty, Then the Lord restores everything back to Job. Verse 10, And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Verse 12, And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Verse 16, And after this Job lived 140 years. And verse 17, And Job died an old man and full of days. Notice too, the restoration of Job only came after he was restored to his friends. He had to pray for them, and God said he would hear that prayer from Job. How do you feel after completing the book of Job? Do you feel a little let down that God never tells Job what really happened? Do you feel challenged by your own personal trials and how Job was handled his and he remained faithful? And are you questioning whether you can remain faithful during the trial that God has you in? Or do you feel like you're on the way out of a trial and that you will be restored? Has Job helped build your faith and trust in God? Do you feel sorry for your questioning of God through your life? And do you feel like repenting? Like Job did. Again, look at verse 6. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job repented. Do you need to? When we started Job, we said the theme of Job is can God be trusted? It responds to our heart's desire to question God, to wonder about our faith in a sovereign God when things don't appear to be going right. We said Job questioned God, but while demonstrating unshakable faith... Has our journey through Job given you unshakable faith? Let's close out our journey through the book of Job in prayer. Father, we thank you for this book, a book of despair, a book of trial, a book of trouble, a recap of a life much like our own. Job suffered. He lost it all, but his faith never wavered. As you put us through the tests of life, may we be like Job. May our faith never waver. Thank you for strengthening us through this book. Thank you for reminding us the trials will come in our lives. Thank you for reminding us of who you are. You're bigger than any trial we will ever face. And thank you for the promise of restoration. You restored Job. May you restore us as well. Thank you for the lessons of life in the book of Job. Holy Spirit, apply them to each of our journeys. as we continue our sojourn on the earth. Job had many more years to live after this trial. We may too. So thank you for the promise of restoring us. We give you all the praise and the glory. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. Our radio programming is set for 2025. We will cover 44 of the 66 books of the Bible using the Ezra Project day by day through the Bible 11 book series. We start at January 1 with the writings of the Old Testament historical books beginning with Job. We will cover seven more historical books until spring when we jump into the New Testament writings of Mark, Peter, James, Jude, and Hebrews. By summer, we will go back to the Old Testament writings of all 13 of the minor prophets. We'll finish 2025 with the writings of Paul. Maybe you don't want to follow the Ad Bible Radio programming in your daily quiet time. Okay, I offer you an alternative plan. Read the Bible chronologically starting any day you want. The Bible is not organized the way things occurred. You can order an Ezra Project Chronological Bible Reading Journal and experience an amazing journey through the Bible in the order things actually occurred. The first time I read the Bible chronologically, it was an aha experience. 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Liz talks with Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES) about how Christians must take the opportunity to pray and preach the gospel. With Christians no longer targeted by the USDOJ, and with greater recognition of free speech for all Americans, this is a key moment in US history to pray and preach the gospel.
"Now is the time; America is the place for a renewed effort to reach those who are seeking. SES is calling the church and other parachurch groups to 'make the best use of this time because the days are evil as Paul says in Ephesians 5,'" commented Ginn. Learn more about Southern Evangelical Seminary by CLICKING HERE.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Liz Franzell with Crawford Media Group, and today our guest is Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary. Today we'll be talking about this being the perfect opportunity to share the gospel. Welcome to our program, Judge Phil.
SPEAKER 03 :
Judge Phil Ginn It's so great to be with you. I'm a mountain boy myself from North Carolina. We're not as high as the mountains in Colorado, but we've got some snow here already.
SPEAKER 01 :
I don't know what your definition of snow is, but we'll go with that.
SPEAKER 03 :
We've got about seven or eight inches.
SPEAKER 01 :
Tell us about Southern Evangelical Seminary before we get into our discussion.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Liz would be happy to. Southern Evangelical Seminary, we commonly call it SES for short, was founded by Dr. Norm Geisler and Dr. Ross Rhodes about 32 years ago. And it's really based in the evangelism through the use of What I will call philosophy, that may be a bad word, but also apologetics. But it's really trying to help people. I tell folks we've been a friend of the skeptics since we were formed, because we believe that Christianity makes sense, that it's the most logical belief system, and certainly... We're not trying to downplay the role of the Holy Spirit, but we're trying to answer the tough questions that some people have in regard to their faith.
SPEAKER 01 :
So is that on an online platform that you basically?
SPEAKER 03 :
It is. Yes, ma'am. We have several students who currently are enrolled from Colorado in that area. We have them from seven different countries right now, I think, from Alaska, from Hawaii. And our online platform is a little bit different. We don't do so many of the old canned lectures. We've got a lot of access to our professors. We've got full-time professors who have been teaching for years and years and years and who are just solid, good teachers and live out the gospel themselves.
SPEAKER 01 :
That sounds like a really good ministry. So today, we are talking about this being the perfect opportunity to share the gospel. What are you seeing statistically, and why do you think this might be a good time to pluck the low-lying fruit, so to speak?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I don't know that it's even low-lying fruit, Liz. Anecdotally, we're seeing glimpses of the Holy Spirit at work all over the country. Just for instance... I don't know if you or any of your listeners watched the NCAA National Football Championships between Indiana and Ohio State. Jesus was mentioned more times in that football contest on the airing of it, sometimes more than he's spoken in a lot of pulpits in America. And player after player named the name of Jesus. the broadcasters were named in the name of Jesus. The coaches were named in the name of Jesus. In fact, if you go back to the beginning of the year, the Ohio State football team actually led a revival on the Ohio State campus where hundreds of students were baptized at the really lead of the Ohio State football team. You go over Clemson, close to us. Appalachian State University is close to us. All over the country, particularly with young people, we're hearing of sporadic, perhaps, revivals, but revivals nonetheless that are breaking out that people are coming to know the Lord. Franklin Graham is a good friend of mine. We talk about it, that people are yearning in America. They don't know all the time what they're seeking, but they are seeking. for something more than what they have. And I think it's very important because we've got what they're seeking, and it's time for us to tell the story. If you go back to statistics, George Barna and some of his work out there in your state of Colorado shows us that actually purchases of Bibles are up 21%. where the rest of books' sales are down 1%. So people are buying their Bibles. We're also hearing and seeing that particularly young people, Generation Z, I guess. I get all the alphabets mixed up. But I think it's Generation Z, the ones that would be in college now, I guess, of that age. They're actually reading their Bibles. They're picking up their Bibles, and they're reading them. And it's a lot like Philippois with Ethiopian eunuch. They may not understand what they're reading, and they need help in knowing what they're reading.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, that's good. You know, we are now under a new administration, and President Trump spoke about bringing God back into the forefront. Do you think that will have an impact on society?
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me tell you what impact it does have, I think. It gives us the opportunity. at least for two years, maybe four years. Those two years of the midterm election. And this could all fall apart in two years. But at least for the time being, we have free reign to proclaim the gospel. Unlike anything we've seen in the last four years, maybe anything unlike what we've seen in the last 20 years or more in America. I just see the spirit moving. I see the opportunities arising for us to do something about that. Liz, I'll have to share with you my only concern about this is I don't know if the church in America is in a position to really lead out in the revival.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, you know, I was thinking, people are not always comfortable or even know how to share the gospel. You know, they might think when they hear that, you've got to go stand on a street corner holding a sign up, you know, John 3, 16, and, you know, just track people down. What practical ways can they do that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, let me tell you, I think this is where SES comes in. I'm going to be self-serving here for just a minute, because we have been long looking and yearning for this opportunity. And it seems like that history, the spirit, everything is coming together at a time just when SES is preparing to lead out. And we are. We want to be the champion of the church. When I say the church is not ready... What's happened in America is the American church has tried to replenish itself. We don't bring people in to make them better Christians. We bring them in to make them church members and to assimilate them into a group. And we're not doing what the Great Commission tells us to do. I've argued with the folks at my church a lot. We're really good at getting people wet. We're not very good at drying them off.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you know, what comes to mind is the woman at the well, how she had however long minute conversation with Jesus and immediately ran back home and was an instant disciple.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, you're exactly right, Liz, and that's the point. The Great Commission does not say go out and evangelize. I'm not trying to downplay that because I think that needs to be done. But what it does say is go out and make disciples. And that requires a personal relationship. It's not a kamikaze type approach that a lot of people take. I don't want to downplay that because there are people who come to the Lord that way, and so that's great. But what I'm talking about and what we're planning at SES is to have people being involved in the lives of folks that they are discipling. And in turn, those disciples will go out and disciple more people. You're exactly right, Liz, the woman at the well did. And so we've decided to come outside of our walls. We're not going to build it and hope people come to it. We're going to go outside of our walls because we have the ability to do that with our online presence. And so we've got a new program that we have developed under our Truth That Matters banner. that basically will train people how to disciple using apologetics and using reason and using the Spirit to reach out to 10, 12 people, and hopefully that's going to have the multiplication effect. And we're going to take that into a church. Look, Barna's own research will show that less than 5% of the churches in America have an effective discipleship program. Less than 5%. What if we can seed every true Christian church in America with disciple makers? What difference that would make? So that's what we're doing. We're now looking at 80 churches who are beginning to join hands with us in this, and we will have the first training programs out by the end of February. It will be fully up and running in April. We're building a community of disciple-makers that I hope will be much like Facebook and all the rest of that. In addition to that, Liz, we're going to have helps for people so that if you are... talking to your child and what better person to disciple than your child or a sibling or something like that. But if you run in and they ask you a tough question and you should say, well, I don't know the answer, but let's look at that together. And so we're going to have in this paradigm that we're creating, we're going to have answers to those questions. We're going to go from everything like, what about UFOs? You know, I'm going to deal with the UFOs, and we already got that out there. Practical things like how to study your Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be students, right, that go out.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is for lay people.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, it could be your neighbor. It could be the person at the grocery store that you go to their line every time.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is going to be really a help. There's other things out there. I don't think anybody's doing it quite like we are because we're going back through the churches. We're going into the churches and asking the churches to allow us to help them in developing their discipleship program within their church. And we're going to go in there with true apologetic reasoning to help folks make sense i i came to this position late in life i actually am the first graduate of ses to serve as a president and i came to ses to take one course to better understand my face and ended up graduating with a doctor of ministry program because i got suckered into it um I just loved it so much. And the reason that I loved it, I'm one of these people that I wanted my brain to wrap around what my heart wanted to believe. And that's what we're offering through SES.
SPEAKER 01 :
We're visiting with Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, and we've been talking about why this might be the best time to share the gospel with those around you. Judge Phil, where can our listeners go to learn more about your online platforms, one of them being Truth That Matters and the other one, Virtual Faith Link?
SPEAKER 03 :
SES.edu will take you to the whole program. I've got weekly op-eds that I usually write as well as we've got podcasts developing. Our professors are doing podcasts. So we can tie you in to everything that's coming down the pike. SES.edu.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it sounds like you make it pretty easy for somebody just to jump online and learn a little bit, even if it's just to, you know, go out and say hello and God bless you to somebody.
SPEAKER 03 :
Eight hours, Liz, eight hours when we get this program fully functioning, which will be in March or early April. Eight hours will give you the basic training that you need to do, need to utilize for discipleship. Eight hours. That's not bad. All done in your home. in your pajamas, whatever. You don't have to get out and go through the snow to get anywhere. You can do this at home and be ready to engage your neighbors. And we actually have two more levels that you can go through for a total of a 24-hour program. And that's literal hours. It's not semester hours or anything else. It's literally 24 hours. can prepare you to be a super disciple maker for the Lord.
SPEAKER 01 :
Judge Phil, thank you so much for sharing about SES today and thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER 03 :
It's my pleasure, Liz. Let's do it again.
In this enlightening episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack reflects on recent political events, drawing profound parallels with biblical stories and spiritual lessons. As she delves into recent occurrences involving President Trump and their impact on the nation, Barbara calls on listeners to find solace and strength through prayer and faith. There is emphasis on the transformational power of biblical figures such as Daniel, encouraging individuals to look beyond immediate circumstances and seek divine guidance.
SPEAKER 01 :
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-powered 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 02 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom. Oh, the sun is out. Finally, it was a cold, cold week last week, even though, wow, last Monday, just a week from today, last Monday was the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. And what an exciting week this has been. He has just kind of turned the world upside down. And to add attention to his words, even the World Economic Forum that was at Davos, Switzerland, He zoomed in and he talked to them about having equal trade and having them give their fair share into these organizations and not United States paying for everything. I'm so grateful. It's just really been a wonderful turn of events. And as we have prayed, friend, you and I have prayed that God would turn this around and help. I realize that as our prayer goes up, he begins to do his will in this world. So many times I've tried to make it happen. Well, God, we've got to go out and do this and we've got to do that. And God says, I want you just to pray. I want you to pray. I will go to work for you. I will make sure that it is done. And I'm going to be talking about Daniel today because he's the kind of person who, that did not fight back. He did not try to defend himself. He prayed to God and God absolutely delivered him. We're going to read more about that in this program. Let's do our Monday Bible slogan. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I do what it tells me to do. This is my Bible. It has given me new life. It is the word of God. I hope you're involved in some kind of reading your Bible this year and not just jumping from one verse to another. Let's go from Genesis clear through to Revelation. And even though you may not understand some books, um, Do it. Just do it. And you will understand. Even into four or five years, I was reading some of these books like Haggai, Zephaniah. I was reading Numbers. I was reading books that I really didn't truly understand. And it's becoming clearer and clearer to me as I'm reading and I'm reading. I'm asking Holy Spirit to help me to see the clarity of these verses that were given to us. Remember, These men gave their lives. They sacrificed so much that we could have the word today. And don't you think it would be good if you just respected them and honored them by getting into the word? I pray that you will today and this year. 2025, a year that we're going to read through the Bible. Praise the Lord. You are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. And if you would like to listen to programs of Call to Freedom, you can go to freedomstreet.org and click on Radio Show. You can also give at that time at the Donate button. It's so ready for you to hit that button and give to Call to Freedom. I hope it's been an encouragement. I hope this program has been an encouragement to you. And if you've been listening to Call to Freedom for longer than two or three years, why don't you think about giving a donation? I really appreciate it. God has blessed us so much. And, you know, just like you and your household, the bills just keep coming through. I realize that this is going to change. And I know that we're in a blue state here in Colorado. And it just seems like everything is going up and up and up. But God will take care of you, my friend, when you begin to give. because you are a cheerful giver and you want to give into the kingdom of God. It was such a joy to see Franklin Graham standing beside President Donald and Melania in the cold January weather in Asheville, North Carolina. What President Trump said brought relief to many people of that devastated region because some of them had been living in tents and others had no electricity until the week before. Many did not want President Trump to visit North Carolina. They just want to get it going to California and we're going to take care of this situation in California. He has a lot of conditions. After he talked with a council in California, and especially to Mayor Bass, I mean, they were sitting at the same table. He came down pretty hard, and he says, you've got to accomplish some conditions here before you get aid from the government. Really good. I'm so grateful to him. But he decided to visit North Carolina, and I appreciate that. Melania had this wonderful knit cap over her long hair and these aviator glasses with this heavy, heavy coat. And she looked so good. She looked like a soccer mom. It was really precious. But these people needed relief, and they needed someone to bring them hope of the relief. They've been living in tents and had no electricity until the week before, and many did not want President Trump to visit there. But he wanted to show the nation what had not been done in 120 days. Yeah, 120 days since Helene and all the floods came through. And some of these people were still without electricity. FEMA had not stepped in and given sufficient aid to those Americans and yet had spent billions of dollars to put up illegal aliens, and we can call them illegal aliens again, in expensive hotels and given them free medical aid and provide for them three squares a day, which many of them threw into the trash. Now, how would you like to get free food, lodging, and medical aid without paying taxes? By the way, my property taxes, which the Lord is going to help me pay, he always has, he always will, they went up $400 over the last year. So they're going to continue probably to rise until we see some relief from our president. But we're living among greedy politicians. And I'm saying this about this blue state that I live in. And Barbara, why are you living there? Well, because some of us are called into a wilderness area. And I am so pleased and grateful to God that I have the opportunity to tell people about Jesus. And so, you know, those greedy politicians will keep increasing and increasing and increasing on homeowners. His justice, friends, is going to prevail in his perfect timing. And I'm really believing for that, and I'm going to see it someday. Praise the Lord. And, yes, I've applied for all kinds of senior citizen stuff. And, in fact, the last time I called, did this apply to the heritage or whatever it's called for senior citizens? Yes. And you got into that program in 2021. I said, well, why is it increasing every year? Well, we have to do it according to inflation. They have an answer for everything. So what do you do? You go back to the word of God and you pray. Yes, you do. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, Father God. Our memory verse for this week is Psalm 33, verse 10 through 12. And I love the 12th verse. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his inheritance. Oh, I'm in his inheritance right now. We're going to start in the 10th verse of Psalm 33 in the New American Standard. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He does away with the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the people. And we saw that at the World Economic Forum last week in Davos, Switzerland. when President Trump did a Zoom call to the council sitting there, and they listened, and if they don't join with the land of the free and the home of the brave, they will get left behind. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation. This is verse 12 of Psalm 33. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. And in the living translation, I just love these different translations. And Kimberly had given me a Bible guide with all these translations. So I can just kind of zoom into there and copy and paste. I'm a copy and paster. I am. So here's Psalm 33, 10 through 22. The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. It's as if, like President Trump says, you don't take these illegals back and you won't get aid, or your tariffs are going to go up to 25%. He's got all the marbles now, and he can really tell people what they need to do. The United States of America has totally been treated unfairly, and your taxpayer dollars have gone to things that were not even planned. Praise God that he is now in office, and I'll be talking about him quite often. But the Lord's plans stand firm forever. That's in Psalm 119 as well. His intentions can never be shaken. What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race. From his throne he observes all who live on earth. You can't hide from God. Nope, you can't. I don't care where you are. You can't hide from God. He made their hearts so he understands their motives. The best equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior. Don't count on your war horse to give you victory. For all its strength, it cannot save you. But the Lord watches over those who honor and reverence him, those who rely on his unfailing love. And that's from the living translation. He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine. We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him, our hearts rejoice. Yes, we say the Lord be exalted. The Lord be magnified. Oh, praise his holy name. For we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone, in you alone, on Christ alone. Our hope is built in Christ alone. Oh, he's such a wonderful, wonderful Lord and Savior. And there was a time in my life that, yes, I counted him as a savior for saving me from my sins. But now I've made him Lord, master of my life every minute of every day. And I hope he's that for you, too. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. And there are many times when I haven't been the happiest I knew I could be because I wanted my situation to be different. I had my plans and Lord, why are you thwarting my plans? It took me a while, but learned that God can use me in whatever situation I'm in. Even if I'm not thrilled about it, God is so merciful. Even when I'm kind of stubborn about it, I want this. I want it this way, Lord. No, he's going to be very gentle and merciful. The Bible is replete with heroes who were in situations they didn't like, but were able to live mission possible because they chose to trust in God, who then used them greatly. I'm going to go to Daniel. It's such a marvelous book, and especially about the end times which we're in. And in Daniel 6, 1 through 18, we read where Daniel was opposed on every side by jealous administrators, kind of like we've seen in the last four years in our government. Darius the Mede decided to divide the kingdom into 120 provinces, and he appointed a high officer to rule over each province. The king also chose Daniel and two other administrators to supervise the high officers and protect the king's interests. Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers. Because of Daniel's great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire. Ah, but here is where jealousy enters the picture and plans for Daniel's demise. They couldn't find anything to criticize or condemn, so they made it up. He was faithful, always responsible, completely trustworthy. And so they concluded our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the rules of his religion. And we saw that. We saw people who are great spiritual people arrested at the Planned Parenthood clinics. They were arrested and they were still in jail when President Trump pardoned them last week. So, verse 6 of Daniel. Is it 6? Yes. So the administrators and high officers went to the king and said, Long live King Darius. Give orders that for the next 30 days, any person who prays to anyone, divine or human, except you, your majesty, will be thrown into the den of lions. This sounds like the January 6th committee. And I believe that's why Liz Cheney was pardoned by Biden. They knew that they had planned wicked schemes against President Trump's supporters. So King Darius signed the law. But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room with its windows open toward Jerusalem. That's the holy city. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. Then wicked officials went together to Daniel's house and found him praying and asking for God's help. And they went straight to the king and reminded him about his law. Hearing this, the king was deeply troubled, and he tried to think of a way to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament. I know, we've done that. We've gone to our lawyers. We've gone to our therapists. We've gone to psychiatrists. We've gone to the banker. We've gone to the loan officer. He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament. But at last the king gave orders for Daniel to be arrested and thrown into the den of lions. Then the king said to him, May your God, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed the stone with his own royal seal and the seals of his nobles so that no one could rescue Daniel. No human being, no human being could get in there and rescue him. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night fasting. Here's a wicked king, an ungodly king, and he fasted the entire night. Now, probably in their world, they were eating until all hours. Kind of reminds me of the cruise we were on last. We went to a cruise sponsored by the company that had our piano and organ store, the pianos and organs for our store. And you could go to the buffet at midnight. You could go to the buffet at 2 o'clock in the morning. It was always open, and the ship was always ready for anybody to eat. So it was probably the way they spent, you know, these rich people, they just spend the night eating and drinking. And you know the rest of the story, this story. You know that God delivered him and in the morning the king came running and said, Daniel, has the Lord delivered you? And he said, yes, the Lord has delivered me. And the Lord delivered Daniel. You know the story of Joseph because of the jealousy of his brothers. He was sold to a caravan going to Egypt. Was this all in God's plan? Yes, it was. Yes, it was. It was all in God's plan. And maybe the rough times that you've had, the hard times you've been through, the challenging times you thought, oh, I'm going to rebuke the devil. I've done that. I've done that. I'm sorry. I'm kind of laughing because we thought the devil was in all this. Well, God sometimes pushes us against a wall because we will not bend to his plan. We will not submit. And remember what James 4 says. Submit to God. Submit to God. Be obedient to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. So we first of all must submit to the plans that God has for us. And each one of us has different plans. So just as Daniel was seeing injustice every day of his life as a captive in Babylon, he saw Babylon fall and the Medo-Persians take over and Cyrus ruled then. There is another prophet who lived a lifestyle as a farmer until the Lord called him. He lived around Judah and he gave prophecies about the world he was enduring under the Assyrians and Sennacherib. And we see here his name is Micah. And the prophecies of Micah are divided into three parts. Number one, the condemnation against Samaria and Judah because of various sins the people committed. It sounds like the last administration with DEI ruling no matter what those people in the Civil offices knew what they were doing. I mean, they just appointed people. And remember, DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Equity is not the same as equality. Equality means all men are created equal. Equity is give everybody the same playing field. Every level of economy. There won't be any economy. It's like Russia right now. There's the rich, rich ruled by Putin. And then there are the poor, poor. So that's what equity means. D.I. are gone. Praise God. And also, Micah saw the future punishment of these negative actions, including the the doom that the Assyrian armies would bring about. And number three, the hope for a restoration of Israel after their repentance. Remember, it's repentance, folks. And that's why we prayed 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people who are called by my name, that's us, that's those people in the United States that are spiritual, but we've got to see revival in our own souls, in our own hearts first. Not spread our hands out and, oh, everybody has to repent. Everybody has to have a revival here. No, you must have revival in your heart. So my people that are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then God says, I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land. Throughout the book of Micah, condemnation and punishment and hope for restoration repeatedly and consistently follow each other. And I want to say right here that you will not see reconciliation of any kind until you see equality, as Abraham Lincoln said so eloquently. All men are created equal. Let's look to a God who is a loving God, a merciful God, and say, oh, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Here's a Gaither vocal band.
SPEAKER 03 :
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. This was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy rains unending love. The Lord has promised good My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. Unending love, an amazing grace. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow. The sun forbear to shine. But God who called me here below will be. Forever
SPEAKER 02 :
He's forever ours, friend. He's forever ours. Oh, what a loving God we serve. He's truly remarkable, wonderful. It's like an old Lanny Wolf song that John and I used to sing. You're more than wonderful. You're more than wonderful. There are no words to describe God. He's out of the box, out of the universe, bigger than what we could describe. He's wonderful. And in God's eyes, we are all equal. Galatians 3, 28 through 29 says, "...there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female." For you are all one in Christ Jesus, and now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you. So we're equal in God's eyes. We have different economic levels in this world because of our appointments in this world, our assignments in this world. And God still prospers and blesses each and every one of us who are obedient to his call. And that means, you know, I can't look jealously at someone who has more money than I have or bigger home than I have or a beautiful car and a newer car than I have. No, we praise God for what he has done in our individual lives. And then one day we're going to see him and understand all of this, just like I'm going to read on about Micah tomorrow. He's a farmer who came out of nowhere. Nobody knows too much about him. And yet he presented the plan of God to the people so that they could repent, be born, not born again, but know God, seek him again and know his name. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
877-917-7256
SPEAKER 01 :
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.org. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
