In this episode, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly explore the concept of divine love, its transformative power, and how it can turn despair into triumph. Engage with discussions on abiding in God’s unfailing love, rediscovering hope in moments of hopelessness, and allowing love to steer the course of our lives. From biblical anecdotes to personal reflections, experience how expressing unconditional love for others echoes the profound commitment to spiritual growth and the joy of living in faith.
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 03 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom. May your trials lead you to a closer relationship with God. And sometimes it seems like our trials are just one on top of the other and they’re not quitting. And friend, I just want you to know that we all experience those trials and especially those financial things that come along. They’re unexpected and you’re going, wow. Whoa, where did that come from? Oh, but God, God’s going to bring you into such a close and intimate relationship with him. If you stay strong and you speak his word, just speak his word out of your mouth. Get those scriptures going. And like I said before, a couple of days ago, if you’d like to have some scriptures which you can memorize. Get a power pack. And at the end of the program, if you’ll call me at 1-877-917-7256, and you can begin to memorize, especially the latter part of the power pack are uplifting scriptures. And it even includes a card on communion, which many people are taking communion this week. So remember that. Call me after the program at 1-877-917-7256. Maybe these trials that you go through become a doorway or a threshold for even greater blessings in your life. Now, I’m not telling you to say, oh, come on, come on. No, we don’t ask for trials. No, we don’t. But we know that we have an enemy. And that enemy is alive and well, as Hal Lindsey wrote in 1971. Satan is alive and well on planet Earth, and we know that. But we have the scripture, and greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. And that scripture is going to hold us fast against any kind of wavering to and fro. So remember that, dear friend. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And as I walked into the building today, it’s in the 70s. Tomorrow, the high is going to be 32. Can you believe that? 40, 40 plus drop in temperature. But we in Colorado, if we’ve lived here a few years, we know some of these months are just up and down and up and down. So I hope that you will be at a place tomorrow when it’s snowing that you’ll be warm and Grab a cup of cocoa and just enjoy. Enjoy, because I think that may be one of our last snows before the beautiful summer in Colorado. Thank you, Kimberly, for joining the program today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, thank you for having me. I like how you talk about what the weather’s looking like and what’s going on with unexpected financial expenses. And then just saying this is a doorway. It’s a threshold to step over into a new place. And we’ve been talking about this. our Lord abiding in him and in his love for us and having that love abiding in us that our great author and finisher knows what he’s doing. And so we don’t have to be afraid of the up and downs and up and downs in the temperature or in the financial zone. We don’t have to be afraid. It’s just one of those chapters being written. And he’s not struggling with how to write us out of it. You know, how to write the next chapter. He’s not struggling with that. That’s right. When we walk in God’s unfailing love and we choose to show this unconditional love to others, we are expressing faith by doing that. We are fully assured that God will be the one to accomplish our concerns. That’s our faith. Yeah. We know that he will because that love is so powerful. That love is so great. It’s perfect. And it perfects us in our weaknesses and it redeems our broken stories. Your story right now might feel like it’s hopeless. If you’re listening right now and you’ve got a story you’re in that’s really difficult, do not lose hope. Our great author and finisher of your faith is not struggling in how he’s going to figure out how to help you. That’s right. He has your next chapter in mind and he knows how to write you out of discouragement. He knows how to write you out of despair and hopelessness. And he will turn your ashes into beauty and turn your mourning into dancing. I’m sure of that. He has done that for me time and time again. And, you know, I set myself up. to be discouraged again when I get my eyes on the problem or I get my eyes on the ups and downs and ups and downs. When we have a beautiful spring like we have had here and all the flowers are blooming and then it’s going to snow or an ice storm comes, I can feel kind of I can feel discouraged.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, we’re affected by the weather, yes. And we shouldn’t really get alarmed or discouraged, yes, Kimberly, because we know it’s going to change.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. These are temporary things. And I’ve seen it time and time again where that has happened. And all our beautiful trees and flowers, they have been frozen and it stopped the whole cycle. But guess what? About six weeks later, they come out again. And I just got two springs out of the deal. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know what I’m saying? That’s a great way of looking at it. Yes, absolutely. It blows twice. Didn’t you say when you were in Israel, there were some trees that bloomed or either produced fruit often in a year? Three times.
SPEAKER 02 :
Three times in a year.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And the fruit came three times as well. Not just the flowers. That was amazing to see that the temperature must have been just perfect. Just perfect. Yes. Oh, I’m not sure what it I believe it’s the promised land. And when we have our eyes on the land that is not very promising, you know, when we get our eyes and our focus on the things that are discouraging and hopeless, feeling hopeless, that’s when we’re really looking at ashes. You know, we’re really tempted to just be grieving and mourning. But the Lord wants to turn those ashes into beauty today. This is not just a future hope. This is a hope for today. You know, some people might ask, well, when? When is he going to do that? It’s when we rely on him like branches rely on a vine. I know that sounds kind of metaphorical because it’s found in the Bible. Jesus talking about being the vine and we are the branches. But I’m talking about true joy, not a metaphorical kind of joy. not the kind that comes in the next life, but a joy and a peace that comes when we choose to know and believe this love in a way that we make a binding contract within ourselves, a covenant, like a pledge and a promise inside us that compels us to walk in this love toward the whole world. even those who have offended us.” Listen to what this says about Jesus’ love. Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. That is a great love. An atoning sacrifice, that means that he came up with a remedy. It means that atonement is a remedy of a hurtful situation in a way where there’s no more anger over it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, that’s beautiful.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s an inconceivable love. Well, I can’t wrap my mind around it. And this love is willing to pay a price for an offender, a price so huge that it appeases all offense and anger. We don’t even have to become bitter or resentful. And we know we’ve all been in situations that are hurtful or confusing. or just angering, you know, just irritating situations. And it’s impossible in our own human effort to reach this type of love. But what is impossible for humans is possible for God. And we’ve got to ask him to help us. We find in Matthew 16, 24, that Jesus gives us a map of how to follow him. Take up your cross and follow me, he says. Showing love to difficult people in difficult situations can feel a lot like a cross to bear. But we have got to remember the joy. There is so much joy. It is a joy not like the world knows. It’s a greater joy than you can possibly imagine when you choose to follow Jesus and his way of loving the world. He is love. He is love. Today is Maundy Thursday. My church is one of the churches that celebrates the Last Supper. We often have a foot washing. We take communion. And we remember what Jesus has done. And I just want to take a moment to… I’m getting to this place here. I want to take a moment to look at what Jesus did with Judas in the room at the Last Supper. Just hours before Jesus’ death, Judas ate with him too. Jesus fed Judas. Jesus prayed for Judas. Jesus washed Judas’ feet clean. I struggle to fathom what kind of love this is. A love that would feed the mouth that deceived you. A love that would wash the feet of the traitor. A love that could forgive even the vilest of betrayals. Honestly, I struggle to comprehend it. And then, suddenly, I realize that I am Judas too. In my humanity, in my flesh, I have the same tendencies he has. And in that moment, I am so thankful and altogether overwhelmed that Judas ate too. He was prayed over also. The true test of Christianity is not about loving Jesus. It’s about loving Judas. Showing love to someone like Jesus is so easy, but loving someone that’s hard to love, a sinner like Judas, that’s difficult. And that’s what taking up your cross and following Christ is all about. Oh, that is beautiful, Kimberly. Thank you, Lord. A friend, Melissa, thank you for sending that. A friend sent that, and thank you for listening to the program and for knowing my heart that I’m not trying to rewrite the story about Judas. But I do want to shake up our thinking as human beings, because none of us know how to love like our God loves. God is love. 1 John 4, and I want to start in verses 16 and 17, and then I want to start back up at the top of the chapter. So if you will turn to 1 John 4. Please don’t do that if you’re driving right now, but if you’re at a place where you’re sitting, join us in 1 John 4, starting in verse 16. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. Okay, this is not a wimpy little feeling that goes away when someone offends you and it comes back when somebody kisses you. This is not that kind of love. It’s not just a substance like excitement or energy or adrenaline. That is not what we’re talking about. This is God himself. God is love. So by this, the 17th verse says, by this… What is this? When we abide in God and God abides in us in the form of love, love is perfected within us so that we may have confidence. We get to have confidence that our story does not end in hopelessness. Love doesn’t do that. Our story does not end in judgment or condemnation. The more we love, the more love we experience in the form of confidence and hope. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. Wow. Can you imagine being that full of love? Not a fragile love. So if we’ll now back up to the beginning of 1 John chapter 4. And when we read this, let’s replace the word God with the word love. Again, I’m not trying to rewrite the Bible, but this exercise is so revealing when you start thinking of God as being love. And love is God. God is love. Love is God. So starting with 1 John 4, 1. I’m sorry, am I talking over you? Oh, no, no.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m just going and going. I’m right here to say amen and yes and praise God, which I have done.
SPEAKER 02 :
Starting in verse 1 here, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from love. because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know the spirit of love. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from love. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus, and you’re saying that Jesus is not from love, this is the spirit of anti-Christ. You see, anti-Christ is anti-love. So if you see a situation and you know you’re behaving outside of love, there’s anti-Christ. These spirits are already in the world, of which you have heard it is coming, and now it is already in the world. So it sounds really impossible, doesn’t it? I think it does, as I’m reading that and looking at it. That sounds impossible for a human being to be this full of love, that we’re responding in love all the time. I want to remind all of us that our greatest asset in this world is the helper that Jesus sent us in the Holy Spirit. He is our greatest asset in this world. We can’t do this without him. And do you know what our second greatest asset is? It’s us. It’s our human nature. It’s us in human form. And the reason why I say that is because in our weakness, we continually must rely on Him. We keep going to Him. We keep making choices. Choose Him, choose love. And we wouldn’t be choosing that, we wouldn’t be so aware of our need to choose it if we didn’t have this weak and humble human body. Remember, God says that he dwells with the humble. He resists the prideful, and he dwells with the humble. So we just stay humble with him and keep asking him for help. Continuing on in 1 John 4, you are from love, little children, and have overcome these spirits, the spirits of antichrist. You know, I’m reading this too quickly. I feel like I’m supposed to go back and talk about confessing Jesus Christ. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from love. That can be hard to understand. But if we look at the word confess in the original Greek and the original Hebrew, It’s making a promise. It’s being in covenant or no conflict. It’s without conflict. It’s acknowledging that there is something greater and you want to be in reliance on that greater. So you’re making a covenant and a contract with the greater, the greater one, the greater way. So When we confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is from love, we’re saying, well, that’s me too, because I have Jesus within me, because I have Holy Spirit within me. I am from love also. And we don’t want to skip over that. We are from love. And we have overcome the spirit of anti-love. We’ve overcome the spirit of anti-Christ because we have love in us. Because greater is love who is in you than he who is in the world. I think you just said that scripture earlier.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love it the way you’re replacing God with love. Oh, that’s beautiful.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’ll say it again. Greater is love who is in you than he who is in the world. They, those spirits of anti-love, are from the world. Therefore, they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. But we are from love. He who knows love listens to us. He who is not from love does not listen to us. By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error or the spirit of deception and deceit. By this, it kind of sounds like we’re by this, what we’ve just been talking about. This is how we know the difference between a spirit of truth and the spirit of error. We focus on love. And when we are loving, then we know where truth is. Jesus says he is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus says he came from God. God is love. So truth and love go hand in hand. And the spirit of error will be anti-love. In most Bibles, this is where there’s a break in the chapter. But we want to look at this because it’s going on to the next verse. It’s continuing. This is a continuation of the same thought. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. God. Love is from love. The author of love. He is the source of love. And all of our resources come from the source, who is love. Everyone who loves is born of God, born of love, and knows love. The one who does not love does not know love. That’s right. For love is love. God is love. God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us that love has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him so that we might live in him in this love. And it goes on to say, in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. We don’t recognize, Kimberly, in the Western hemisphere that there are four or five different kinds of loves. So we just think love is love. We love spaghetti. We love our dog. We love people. And that’s not true. The agape love of God is the love you’re talking about. And that is an unconditional, unfailing. I love that song, Amazing Grace, by Chris Tomlin. He arranged it differently. You know, unending love, amazing grace. Yes. Unending love, yes. So I believe we need to really distinguish between that agape and these, you know, like eros love is a sexual, lustful kind of… Physical. Yes. And there are others also, but…
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, this love that we’re talking about, I’ll say it again, this is not just a substance or a feeling. This is God himself. God is love. So we are talking about being filled with God himself. That is not a flimsy kind of love, like this song saying, like, you love spaghetti, like you were talking about. That’s flimsy love. And spaghetti, for me, that can bite back. If you give me spaghetti that’s not gluten-free, that can cause some pain in my body. So I could say I love it, but that’s a flimsy love. It’s gone as soon as I’m feeling pain. I don’t love that spaghetti anymore. That’s right. You know? That is not the kind of love we’re talking about. When we read that he loved us so much, he sent his son to be the payment for our sins. Propitiation is a really big word, so I want to stop here and make sure we know what we’re talking about. Propitiation means the same as atonement. Atonement is also a word we don’t use in our everyday vocabulary here in America. God sent his son to expiate. That’s another big word. OK, to absolve or to compensate for, to forgive, to rectify. to redeem and remedy our sin. Now remedy, maybe we can sit on that word for a little bit because when you need a remedy for a sickness, you go to a doctor and you look for the remedy in different medications. Jesus Christ is the remedy for all sin, the sin of the whole world. And this is what appeases us anger and brings reconciliation with someone who has reason to be angry. That is the definition of propitiation. That’s the definition of atonement. It’s something that appeases anger and brings reconciliation with someone who has reason to be angry. And I’m just going to read from 1 John 2, 2 again. Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Yes, for Judas too. I think the program right before us was talking a little bit about toxic people. And what do you do with people who are toxic in your life and who continue to do harm to you? Well, you don’t give them the backstage pass. You don’t let them in to the inner places. And, you know, there are those people in my life. I can do once a month of being in their presence for a little bit of time. Maybe I could do once a week, you know, or maybe I can donate in the way of money to them. I can do some things, but I’m not going to let them into my home and say, let’s be roommates. Yes, into your dominion. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, that’s good.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I know we’re running out of time, but let’s end on 1 John 4, 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. However, if we love one another… And love abides in us. That means God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. It is accomplished and completed. And then he is also accomplishing everything that concerns us. That’s from Psalm 138, verse eight. He is perfecting, completing and accomplishing everything that you are concerned about today. God bless you, Kimberly. Thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
And take joy, friends.
SPEAKER 1 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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.
In this episode, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly explore the concept of divine love, its transformative power, and how it can turn despair into triumph. Engage with discussions on abiding in God’s unfailing love, rediscovering hope in moments of hopelessness, and allowing love to steer the course of our lives. From biblical anecdotes to personal reflections, experience how expressing unconditional love for others echoes the profound commitment to spiritual growth and the joy of living in faith.
