Finding Unity in Diversity – God’s Plot Twist

SPEAKER 01 : 0:09

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 02 : 1:03

Welcome to Call to Freedom. God bless you with an enthusiasm. Do you know where that word enthusiasm comes from? In the Greek, it’s entheo. And what does entheo mean? It means in God. So when you’re wanting to do something purposeful in this life, something original, something creative, you go to God. You do. You go to God. You don’t go to the worldly system. You go to God because God will bless you with an enthusiasm, remember, in God for the purpose you were created to fulfill and a fresh sense of knowing how important it is, what your office in this earth is, what your position in this earth is, what you as a member of the body of Christ is so important. And some of you don’t realize that. your importance in the body of Christ. Oh, I pray that God will open your eyes to all that is going on and how he’s working in you and through you for everything that is going to be great in these last days. Oh, you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. And Kimberly is going to give such a wonderful verse of scripture today from Psalm 85, verse 10. Oh, Welcome, Kimberly. And I really enjoy this verse of scripture. Oh, so good.

SPEAKER 04 : 2:21

Thank you. I love how you just moved right into the enthusiasm because I just am feeling that about this scripture. And I’ll let you read it. Psalm 85, 10.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:32

Start us out there. Loving kindness and truth. And that the root word of truth there in the Hebrew is faithfulness. God’s faithfulness is so far above all we could ask or think. Loving kindness and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. And I would say, Kimberly, I would add to that in Jesus. This is all in Jesus. In Jesus, all this comes to be. Praise God.

SPEAKER 04 : 2:59

Yes. And so I was reading this scripture and I was thinking of these virtues, loving kindness, truth, righteousness, peace, as personalities with a capital P, right? Because you’re talking about Jesus. We’re talking about Father God. We’re talking about Holy Spirit personalities. And I think we tend to skip right through those songs and those memorized verses, even liturgy in our churches, that mentions God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We’ve said it over and over, and we’ve sung it in songs. But today, let’s see them as three distinct personalities who operate in different ways. And in our realm, there’s a potential for loving kindness and truth to be in conflict with one another. Loving kindness could be a very mercy-motivated person, full of compassion and grace toward others. And truth can be penetrating and even exacting as it’s searching for genuineness and authenticity. So in this world, when you have loving kindness meet up with truth, those two different personalities might clash. And you and I know from our history that

SPEAKER 02 : 4:26

Can I bring that up? Yeah, you can, Kimberly. We’re kind of the same kind of running and firstborn, and so we’ve got this tendency to be, I’m right, and if I’m right, then you’re wrong, that kind of thing. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER 04 : 4:45

So two different personalities, the compassion and grace toward others might look at truth and see exacting, and that’s like, oh, that’s a conflict for my love and my mercy, you know, or other way around. The truth personality could be looking at that mercy and, oh, no, we’re not showing mercy here. We’ve got to find the truth here. Yes. They can be in conflict with one another. And I want to be looking at God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Real quick, in Genesis 1.26, they say, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. That’s right. And we’re going to see today, hopefully I can get through all this content today, that his image is love. It is pure, holy, unconditional love. And in relationship to one another… God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, might have some different ideas. And they may have different virtues that each one is stronger in. And yet they honor one another and have love as their main motivation and biggest priority. So there’s never a conflict between them.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:16

That’s right.

SPEAKER 04 : 6:17

Yes. And they have made us in their image. Okay, so this sounds like a really tall order. Let’s make man in this image of love and let’s give them an arena to play in. Here’s all of our creation and all of the world around us. Here’s our arena to develop this love like we have for one another. Wow. That sounds impossible, but there is nothing impossible for God. Jesus, he came to show us how to walk this out, how to walk in this image of love that we were made for. And love is surrendered to fulfill what is written in the storyline. So love is willing to wash the feet of those who betray him. Love is willing to feed the rebellious from his own hand. Jesus entered into crowds of people that were cheering and praising him, and yet those praises were rooted in agendas and motives that were not the Father’s. Those people that were cheering and saying, Hosanna in the highest, those people had different agendas in their minds of how they were going to crown this new king, and he was going to defeat Rome. Yeah.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:43

That’s right. He was going to put up an earthly kingdom and he would be ruler. And boy, that was fine with a crowd. They were saying, we agree. We agree with you. But that wasn’t that wasn’t the agenda of God’s God’s agenda. No, it wasn’t.

SPEAKER 04 : 8:00

And Jesus knew that he knew that all of that cheering and all those praises were coming from priorities and purposes that were not his own. They were not the father’s purpose. His purpose was to fulfill. Jesus purpose was to fulfill his father’s assignment for him. Okay. And when he didn’t follow through with the crowd’s agendas and motives, that crowd turned on him. Yes. And he knew it would happen like that. It was written. The story was written about him that it would happen like that. Love does not try to change the story. Love does not get in there and try to redirect the author’s narrative. The author, the capital A author, has a narrative that we can trust. Now, love might ask, is there any other way? You know, if there is any other way, will you take this cup from me? Love might ask that, but ultimately love surrenders and says, not my will, but yours be done. And love proceeds to give, give his body, give his blood to those who will betray him. Wow, what kind of love is this? And we were made in that image, according to their likeness. That sounds rather impossible for us, doesn’t it? Because we have our own agendas and our own plans in our mind. And here’s the thing. The law was given to prove that we cannot follow that law into this higher realm of love. Love supersedes and overrides the law. It doesn’t do away with it. It completely fulfills it. That’s what Jesus said. I have come to fulfill the law. Amen. So all these rules that we prioritize in our lives, the morals that we have, they’re good. And then we must see the priority of love and the fruits of the spirit that are grounded and rooted in that love. I like to use the fruits of the Spirit as my main measuring tool all through my days, every day. When I want to be responding to somebody, am I responding in love? Am I responding in peace, in patience, in kindness? Because sometimes we separate those fruits out and we think, well, this isn’t the time to be kind. Really? Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not rude. It is not proud. And we need to remind ourselves of first Corinthians chapter 13. That’s where I was quoting from. We’ve got to remind ourselves what love really is and know that we were made in the image of love. So according to rules and the law in our flesh, when we see someone stray from our idea of what’s right, In the flesh, when we see that someone’s making a wrong choice, and I’m saying wrong with quotes around it, a wrong choice, we can respond in anger. We try to gain control over the situation. We might try to manipulate or we’ll withdraw and just cut people off, cut them out of our lives because we don’t like what they’re doing. We think they’re making a wrong choice. I have learned from experience that the greater hurt is not the wrong thing. the wrong that’s in quotes there, that I’m putting in quotes, the greater hurt is the end of a relationship. That’s what hurts worse. You’re ending a relationship when you cut them off. You’re ending a relationship when you respond in anger or rage that doesn’t bring reconciliation. That’s right. Yes. And I have a friend whose adult children have decided to switch their church affiliation, and essentially they are choosing a different religion. And my friend is very, very concerned, and she struggled with their decision. But truly, their decision is based on their own belief that they are experiencing Christ and His love in a more full way for themselves. Yes. And so that’s why they’re doing it. But of course, she’s struggling because it’s kind of tearing the family apart. They’re going to be worshiping somewhere else. And so they’re not going to be attending anymore with their parents. She’s actually attending their, let me call it a membership ceremony. She’s attending their membership ceremony this coming weekend. Okay. Into this new community. And she truly wants to celebrate what they feel that they have found. She wants to celebrate that. And at the same time, she’s grieving what she feels like she’s losing. So how do you keep the unity there? in bonds of peace you know how how will love walk in harmony with this apparent conflict because it does look conflicting and it feels conflicting yes but the conflict the conflict is going on in the mother not in the children that are deciding on a new way of seeking god in their own way but the mother has to contend with this yes Right. And that’s why I’m bringing it up. Because each one of us are experiencing some situation in life where we feel like somebody else is making a choice that’s hurting us. And it’s difficult. It’s difficult to… Look at it from a higher perspective and the higher perspective is love. So what that requires is laying down your own ideas and your own opinions and letting the spirit that Jesus came in. come and take over and let that reconcile, let that be unity, let it be harmony and bonds of peace.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:47

That is love. That is love. You have an elderly friend, acquaintance, who commissioned you to plant 48 bulbs in her backyard. Now, most of us would find an excuse. We would say, oh, I’m sorry.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:09

And you know what? That has been the response of every person I have told this story to. They have responded with, oh, I would have found a way out of that. I would have avoided that.

SPEAKER 02 : 15:20

No, but not Kimberly Duell. No. No. And you did. You did the right thing. You did call a friend, and both of you working together got all those bulbs buried. And then you said the ground was soft, and it could be because of moles and because of, let’s see, gophers.

SPEAKER 01 : 15:38

Gophers, yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 15:40

And you also said, now we buried 48 of them. Now, if none of them come up, we know that the voles and the gophers have eaten the bulbs.

SPEAKER 04 : 15:50

Right. Have had their snack. They’ve been snacking. Right. So, you know, the thing is, I could have been offended by her commissioning me the way she did. She didn’t ask me. No. And she did it in front of a lot of people. She pointed right at me and she said, I’m commissioning you. Because you told me that I can’t have azalea bushes and hydrangea bushes in this area. And it’s because it’s full sun. And anybody who knows about azaleas and hydrangeas, if you leave them in full sun all day long, they burn up. They can’t survive that.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:31

They need shelter. Okay, now you said your friend said azalea and other bushes, but she gave you bulbs for tulips and daffodils, right?

SPEAKER 04 : 16:42

Because she said it was me who told her she couldn’t have the other flowering, like the flowering azaleas and the flowering hydrangea. So she mentally got even with you. Right. And that’s how it was delivered to me in front of a group of people. And so, you know, you could as a human being, you could take offense at that. And I had a choice to take offense at that. But that’s what I’ve been learning, that when we are truly walking in love, we are unoffendable. And I wasn’t at all offended. I just took it to Father God. And I said, Lord, what do you want to do with this? Do you want me to walk forward with this? Because I will not be commissioned by man, but I will be commissioned by you anytime, anytime. If this is your commission for me, then I am happy to walk that out. And he really did give me such a huge confirmation that he would like for me to join him in this difficult relationship with her. that it’s not just her attitude toward me, it’s her attitude toward him. Toward God, yes. And it’s difficult. So, essentially, I felt like he was asking me, would you do this with me and for me? And I was so happy to say yes. Yes. Here am I. Send me. I will go plant those bulbs.

SPEAKER 02 : 18:18

Yeah. And I did find out that you realized she had told you that she’s going to have a hair appointment. So you made sure that you and your dear friend would be there when she wasn’t there. So she didn’t have to tell you where to put them. Yes. I did. So you just planted all 48 bulbs without her presence, which she would have been like a sergeant just commanding all this thing. Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 18:45

It felt like a gift. It felt like a gift from God, the timing of it, and also felt like a gift to dig into that ground because it’s solid clay. Anyone who knows anything about Oklahoma, we have a lot of clay here, and it’s so hard to dig in, and it hasn’t rained in quite a while. So I was expecting really hard ground. Not only that, she wanted them all planted in front of a very long row of vines mature bushes they’re mature like very old bushes that have a lot of roots so I thought I would be digging in roots in hard clay and that shovel just went straight into the most it was just soft and honestly that felt like a miracle so God is with us when we are in love walking out the things that he has commissioned us to do, the assignments he’s given us, he is with us and causing these wonderful miracles to take place. 2 Timothy 3 tells us that in the last days, children will be disobedient to their parents. So if we go back to the idea of this mother, this friend of mine, whose children are doing something very different than her family, than their parents have been doing. The scriptures tell us that children are going to do that. They’re going to go against their parents, and it’ll feel like disobedience. But this prophecy that’s in the scriptures, and it happens more than just 2 Timothy 3. I think Mark 13 talks about it. It talks about it in Matthew, where children… will go against their parents they will rebel it will be mother against daughter daughter against mother and father against son and son against father so it happens often in the scriptures these are not prophecies so that we can form a plan to prevent the rebellion that’s not why these verses are given to us they’re given to help us prepare our response to that rebellion How are we going to respond when someone is unkind, unloving, they’re not honoring, and they’re not obedient? How will we respond in that? Jesus showed us how, and it’s love. Love is our highest priority. Jesus’ relationship to the Father chose love. He came to this earth to fulfill an assignment that he didn’t really want to walk out. Not that he didn’t want to fulfill his father’s will. That’s not what I mean. He wants to fulfill his father’s will, but certainly there was a part of him that wanted to find another way. Otherwise, he would not have asked, Lord, please take this cup from me. Father, take it from me. If there’s any other way, please take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And Hebrews 12, 2 tells us that it was joy set before him that caused him to endure the cross, despising the shame. He endured that pain. And he didn’t even think that the shame of it was anything to be considered. We all need that kind of joy. Now, that joy set before him, I really believe that joy is found when we are in true relationship with our Father God. When we let him write our story. Yeah. In other words, we take our hands off of it. We lay down our pencils and pens. We let the story in our home play out. We let that narrative happen in our workplace or in our church, whatever’s going on in our body even. We let it happen and we take our concern and our anxiety to our Lord. our redeemer right because that’s what he does he redeems and he has more chapters to write as the redeemer he’s not finished he’s the author and the finisher of our faith and he must be permitted to use some of this conflict in our storyline in order to write the best ending ever

SPEAKER 02 : 23:22

Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 23:23

That’s what’s coming. There is joy set before us in the next chapters. What you find yourself in right now is not the end. It’s just the middle of the story. And it’s a chapter that that needs to be written so that our Redeemer can come and bring redemption and bring restoration. Jesus knew this. And that’s the joy that he was walking in because he knew there’s more to the story. That’s right. Yes. Amen. That’s exciting. Our great redeemer is he’s writing chapters that are exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask for, hope for or imagine. That next chapter that’s coming up is really something to look forward to. And that’s why we’re told that we can consider it all joy. when we find ourselves face to face in this conflict and in this tribulation. Our surrendered love is what releases Father God to write, to write the next chapters, to write that which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and it hasn’t even entered into our imagination. How great! this plan is and that’s what we want to be looking forward to that kind of joy when my friend was telling me about her concern about her children entering into this different religion i recognized that i have kind of been through that already and she’s the one who said it she said she knows that i know what it feels like to lose your children And it’s true. In the conflict in my family, I felt like I lost my children. Well, in the moment that she brought that up, I was reminded that just this last week, my son Jonathan told me, I’m coming back to St. James, Mom. I’m bringing my girlfriend to St. James. That’s the church that I’m attending. Yes. My heart was shattered years ago in that storyline, in that chapter, when my family stopped worshiping together. But it was just one chapter in this magnificent story. And my Redeemer has more chapters to write. Joining him in showing unconditional love at all times releases him to write the rest of the story. And then we can walk in his unfailing love, in his pure and holy love. That’s having faith that the best is yet to come and he’s the one accomplishing it.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:05

Oh, I have so much more. I know you do. I know. You haven’t even started on the notes that you sent me. So we’ve got to continue, Kimberly. Now Jonathan has a girlfriend, and is he still going with Gracie? Gracie is her name. Yeah, I love her. I love that name, too. Oh, I’m happy for him. Yes. Well, that’s great that she’s willing to go to church with him and be part of his life. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 26:32

And she’s actually excited about that. She hasn’t found a church body. So, you know, even the reconnection for her, this is the next chapter for her as well. And it’s beautiful. The best is yet to come. Join us tomorrow to hear more of that. And in the meantime… Take joy. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:01

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SPEAKER 1 : 28:26

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