Celebrating God’s Wonders Through Scripture and Song

SPEAKER 02 : 0:10

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 01 : 1:04

Oh, welcome to Call to Freedom. May your day be blessed with the wonderful assurance. Don’t you love that word wonderful? I’m going to talk about wonderful today. Wonderful assurance of knowing that in you, God created someone very special. And when you say those words with me every day, in you, I live and move and have my being. God just loves that. He’s delighted that you feel like you belong to him because you do. When you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, you belong to God because God came in the flesh as Jesus Christ. So in him, you live and move and have your being. So just be blessed in dispensing and giving all of your wonderful income and, well, not all. He’s just asking for 10% tithe, but all of that you can afford into the kingdom of God because, oh, there’s such wonderful opportunity today to give to organizations that love God. And if you’d like to go online and donate to Call to Freedom, you can do that. You can go to freedomstreet, one word, lowercase, freedomstreet.org, and click on that Donate button, and you can get right in there. A lot of you are going online. I miss your notes. I miss your little comments. But I believe that this is access for some of you who are especially out of state, that you can go online and you can give. So thank you so much for your giving, whether it’s from the post office or from online. Thank you so much. You are such a blessing to call to freedom and to me because I love listening from hearing from you, listening to what you’re saying about yourself, your family, the circumstances that you’re going through. God bless you. Our memory verse for this week is Psalm 108. verses 5 verse 5 and i’m going to start with verse 4 in the new american standard your loving kindness is great above the heavens and your truth your truth his truth reaches to the skies sometimes we wonder if there’s any truth out there any longer oh there is friend there’s lots of truth here’s verse 5 of psalm 103 This is Psalm 108. I’m sorry, 103 is really good too. 103 verse 3. But this is Psalm 108 verse 5. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens and your glory above all the earth, that your beloved may be delivered. Save with your right hand and answer me. Yesterday, as I played John Michael Talbot’s song, Be Exalted, O Lord, I thought of all the wonderful songs that have come through the pike. Oh, since I have been born. Oh, my goodness. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands. I know that John himself sang over 3,000 songs at funerals during that time that I was married to him. So, oh, my goodness, we can go through thousands of songs. But I love the songs that are scripture-based. It’s beautiful. So if you’d like to listen to John Michael Talbot, you can go to June the 2nd and click on show. You can go to freedomstreet.org. click on a radio show and listen to john michael talbot sing be exalted oh god above the heavens and your glory above all the earth praise the lord the message translation is so great i love the message in psalm 108 verses 1 through 6 in the message and i hope most of you listening do have a message translation it’s good sometimes just to switch and go to the living or the message i I still recommend the New American Standard with all the capital letters that are to thee and thou and God and he. They capitalize all the pronouns, which I really am so appreciative of. So Psalm 108, verses 1 through 6 in the Message Translation says, A David prayer. Here it is. I’m ready, God. So ready. Ready from head to toe. Ready to sing. Ready to raise a God song. Wake soul. Wake lute. Wake up, you sleepyhead son. I’m thanking you, God, out in the streets, singing your praises in town and country. And remember, he’s king right now. The deeper your love, the higher it goes. Every cloud’s a flag to your faithfulness. Soar high in the clouds, in the skies, O God. Cover the whole earth with your glory. Now, Elon Musk has nothing on the Lord because the Lord is telling us we’re going to soar high above the clouds, above the sky. And there are three levels in the sky, in the realm. There’s the level that you see, where the satellites go round and round. Then there’s a second level. The third level is the throne of God. So I’m grateful. You know, Elon, as rich as he is, is a humble man, but he has nothing on the Lord. For in the sake of the one you love so much, reach down and help me. Answer me, Father God. And that’s what I say so many times. Father God, help me. Give me strength for what I’m about to do or give me wisdom in what I want to do and how I want to approach this because I’m doing that a lot. I’m asking God for wisdom and for strength because he is my rock on which I stand. I do that every day. Every day I’m talking to him about what a strength he is in my life. So verse five in the passion is, Lord God, be exalted as you soar throughout the heavens. May your shining glory be seen high above all the earth come to your beloved ones and gently draw us out answer our prayers for your saving help come with your might and strength for we need you lord just taking a sip of water here I guess I didn’t get enough water this morning. And the 13th verse of the Passion in Psalm 108. With God’s help we will prevail with might and power. And with God’s help we’ll trample down every foe. That reminds me of Romans 12. Verse 16, that tells us the God of peace will soon crush Satan under whose feet? Under our feet, because Jesus has won the victory for us. And we crush Satan every time under our feet with the word of God that we confess out of our mouth. So when you say, be exalted, O Lord, among the heavens, and may your glory be over all the earth. That crushes Satan more and more. It does. So don’t be afraid to exalt God. Oh, it’s beautiful. And the last part of Psalm 108 says, Remember that. It’s God who wins the victory for us. Isaiah 29, verses 18 and 19 says, gives us an example of the wonderful God that we serve. And our Lord is wonderful in counsel. He’s wonderful. Excellent in counsel. He’s excellent. Mighty to deliver. He’s mighty and great in wisdom. as i said in my slate at the beginning of the show we serve a god who’s too wonderful for words a god that we don’t even understand today and many of you i hope that you don’t i hope that you do believe and i hope that you don’t deny that god is the most wonderful creator of all So here in Isaiah 29, 18 and 19, it tells us a little bit of the character of God. He’s wonderful in counsel. When you’re looking for someone to counsel, don’t go to a lawyer. That costs money. Go to God. Go to the throne of God and ask him. He will answer you. He truly will. He gives me lots of answers when I have questions. Oh, the other day, I got a new Rowenta iron because my old one was just not working well anymore. I’d had it for 25 years. And so I got this new Rowenta and I plugged it into the wall in the guest bedroom where I do my ironing and it didn’t come on. So I thought, hmm, that’s strange. I wonder if this Rowanta is really working. So I went into the other guest room where Kimberly stays and it didn’t go on. So I brought it out in the kitchen and it did go on in the kitchen. So I thought, hmm, this is really strange. Lord, show me what I need to do. Give me an answer for this because I will need to iron and I don’t want to bring the ironing board out into the kitchen every time I need to iron. You know what he said? The very next words, breaker, breaker. I hadn’t thought of the breaker, but I went into the laundry room where the breaker is and I flipped a couple breakers. I didn’t even know where they were. I flipped a couple, three breakers. And, you know, you can tell I’m really techie minded. And then I went back into the bedroom. Sure enough, it was a breaker. It was a breaker. So he’s wonderful in counsel. He’s wonderful. Mighty to deliver. He’s mighty. Praise the Lord. Isaiah 9, verse 6 is a verse of scripture that all of us know. All of us, if we know Jesus, know that. For a child, and I capitalize that C, for a child shall be born to us, a son shall be given to us, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called, what? Wonderful, wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Sometimes we look at miracles that happened in the Old Testament as mere stories for us to read to our children at night or accounts of God working things out for people. But that was the Old Testament. That was thousands of years ago. Our God is always the same. He never changes. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Remember that from Hebrews 13. But friends, these wonders that God performed for his people give us confidence that if he did it once, he will do it again. There are so many instances of God’s mighty power and glory. And I want to talk about just a few, maybe even today one or two, because they are people that I deeply admire. I go to them often, the stories about them, and I know that God who worked miracles for them is a God who works miracles for us. If we believe, as I said in the slate earlier in the show, If we believe, if we believe, it all comes to believing. It all comes to your attitude. Do you have a good attitude? Sometimes we need attitude checks, don’t we? So here we go. We’re going to take on Elijah in 1 Kings. Oh, what a tremendous prophet. He appears suddenly, as if he didn’t even have a childhood or parenting in any kind. He just appeared in 1 Kings 17. In 2 Kings, when we hear about Elisha, and we can get those confused, but Elisha, We hear that there was a school of the prophets. And I’m believing that maybe Elijah came from that school of prophets at Carmel. And he was maybe a teacher there, an instructor. But here he appears all of a sudden. And the first words he says to the wicked King Ahab. And it’s a warning. It’s a warning to Ahab and his wife Jezebel. As the Lord lives, there shall be no dew or rain these three years except by my word. Now to the world, this sounds very arrogant. How can this man say there will be no rain or dew according to my words? If I went out there and said that to you, According to my words, it’s not going to rain for 60 days. Well, you say, go sit on a stump. So here we see that he is obeying God. He’s sounding arrogant. But is he? I don’t think so. I really don’t. And because I don’t think so, it came true. It came true. God is for him. God is on his side. God had a plan for Elijah and for King Ahab. But first, God had to prove himself a God of wonders to Elijah. And that’s what he needs to prove to some of you. I want to help you. I want to be with you. I want to be intimate with you. Will you give me a chance? Will you give me a moment apart from your phone that you’re always looking at or that monitor on your computer? Will you give me a moment of your time? Oh, have you ever needed to know that God is with you wherever you go? Well, I hope this story helps you. I’m going to be reading from 1 Kings 17 from the very first verse. So Elijah, he warned Ahab and the next thing God said, get out of here and fast because he knew that Ahab was angry and he had an army. And so head east, hide out at Kirith Ravine on the other side of the Jordan River. You can drink fresh water from the brook. I’ve ordered the ravens to feed you. God ordered birds. He ordered animals just like he ordered the donkey for Balaam to talk to Balaam because Balaam was so antagonistic. So God says, I’ll give you fresh water and I’ll give you food twice a day. Now these ravens ate meat. But God ordered them just like he ordered the lions in the lion’s den before Daniel. You’re not going to eat this man. You’re not even going to nip at this man. You’re not going to even come close to this man because you’re going to stay in your corner and you’re not going to open your mouth. Wow. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But God is a God of wonders. Elijah obeyed God’s orders. He went and camped in the Kira Canyon on the other side of the Jordan. And sure enough, ravens brought him his meals, both breakfast and supper, and he drank from the brook. but it didn’t last long. Oh, it didn’t last long. Have you ever depended on a thing that brought you success in the past and that you’re hoping it will bring you success again? Oh, I have. And have you ever thought, wow, I have this job. Now I’m settled in. I can even buy a car or I can put a payment down on a house. And then all of a sudden it’s gone. And you think, God, what did you do here? Well, God’s not only testing you He’s wanting you to see miracles from him. I’ve learned that every day is new in God’s calendar of events. Every day. The past does not explain anything anymore. Yesterday is not important as present in God’s books. Yesterday is not important as the present in God’s books. So eventually the brook dried up because of the drought. And then God spoke to Elijah and said, get up and go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I’ve instructed a woman who lives there, a widow, and she will feed you. So what else did he have to do? The brook was gone. Ravens had quit bringing him food. So he got up and went to Zarephath. And what do you see in this prophet? He’s a man who obeys God’s instructions. As he came to the entrance of the village, he met a woman, a widow, gathering firewood. He asked her, please, would you bring me a little water in a jug? And I wouldn’t mind that if somebody came to my house and said, I would really like a drink. And I’d take him either a bottle of water or I’d take him a drink. I need a drink. And so she went to get it. And you know what he did? He called out and he said, oh, while you’re at it, would you bring me something to eat? Now, that’s a stretch. I mean, here’s a stranger. He’s asking for a drink. OK, I’ll gladly give you a drink of water. But now you’re asking me for a biscuit. And she said, I swear, as surely as your God lives, I don’t have as much as a biscuit. I have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle. How dare you ask me for something to eat? You found me scratching together just enough firewood to make it last meal for my son and me. After we eat it, we’re going to die. This widow was in dire straits and this stranger is asking her for a snack. This prophet is learning about God’s wonders because the very next thing he says to her is… I love this. Don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you’ve said, but first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here. Oh, it takes so much. It really does. Go ahead and make a meal from what’s left for you and your son. This is the word of God to Israel. Then he gave her this wonderful prophetic word from God. The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before God sends rain on the land and ends its drought. So she went out. She did as Elijah asked her to do. And that food, that food that they ate that very day, it lasted. The jar of meal didn’t run out and the bottle of oil didn’t become empty because God’s promise was fulfilled through what Elijah said. Exactly what Elijah said. It was delivered to them. Oh, we really don’t give God a chance to reveal his miracles and wonders because we stockpile. We stockpile toilet paper and paper towels and toothpaste in the linen closet and our pantries are piled high with great quantities of food from Sam’s Club and Costco. Well, maybe we’ll need these. Let’s go down and put them in the basement, all these cans of peaches. I know. I used to do that, Darren and I, and finally we just quit going to Sam’s Club. I mean, it was too much, too much. Everything’s going pretty good. You know, the woman’s been fed. Elijah’s being fed for three years. God supplied every need from the flour and the oil. And then the woman’s son gets sick and he stops breathing. They didn’t have emergency centers and ERs then. And she said to Elijah, why did you ever show up here in the first place? A holy man barging in, exposing my sins and killing my son. Elijah said, hand me your son. And you know what happened. Elijah carried him up to the loft where he was staying. And he said, oh, my God, why has this terrible thing happened to this widow who has opened her home to me? Have you killed her son? Three times he stretched himself out full length on the boy, praying with all his might. God, my God, put breath back into this boy’s body. God listened to Elijah’s prayer and put breath back into his body. He was alive. He picked him up, carried him downstairs from the loft, gave him to his mother and says, here’s your son. Oh, God is a God of wonder. God performed many miracles and wonders to prove to people that he’s capable of doing what he said he would do in their lives. Believe on him, my friends. Oh, well, this next song, I want to give you a little intro here. Lanny Wolf wrote this next song, and he was in contract with Benson Music. And one day, let’s see, his name was Max something. I forget. He came to Lanny and he said, would you do something about Isaiah 9, 6? Now, that’s one of the verses that Handel wrote in the Messiah. So it’s a very famous verse of scripture. So when Lanny came up with this song that’s going to be sung by Sandy Patty and Larnell Harris, they shook their heads and said, no, I don’t think much about this. Well, so much for music companies. This song not only got Song of the Year 1984, but Lanny Wolfe was the songwriter and composer of the year throughout the whole United States. Oh, praise the Lord. He promised us that he would be a counselor, a mighty God and the Prince of Peace. He promised us that he would be a father and he would love us with a love that would not cease. Well, I tried him and I found his promises are true. He’s everything that he said he would be. The finest words I know could not begin to tell just what Jesus really means to me. For he’s more wonderful than my mind can conceive. Here are Larnell and Patty.

SPEAKER 04 : 21:33

He promised us that he would be a counselor, a mighty God and the Prince of Peace. He promised us that he would be a father and he would love us with a love That would not see.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:12

And I found his promises are true. He’s everything that he said that he would. The finest words I know could not begin to tell just what Jesus really means to me.

SPEAKER 04 : 22:50

Then my mind can conceive He’s all wonderful Then my heart can believe He goes beyond My highest hopes and fondest That my soul ever longed for Everything that he promised And so much more He’s more than amazing More than marvelous More than miraculous Could ever be And wonderful That’s what Jesus is to me Ooh, ooh

SPEAKER 03 : 24:06

I stand amazed just to think that this king of glory would come to live within the heart of man.

SPEAKER 04 : 24:19

And I marvel just to know he really loves me when I think of who he is and who I am. For he’s more wonderful than my mind can conceive. He’s more wonderful than my heart can believe. He goes beyond my highest hopes and fondest dreams. Everything that my soul ever longed for Everything that he promised And so much more He’s more than amazing More than marvelous More than miraculous Could ever be That’s what Jesus is to me. He is to me. He’s everything that my soul ever longed for. Everything that he promised has so much more. He’s wonderful to me He’s wonderful to me

SPEAKER 02 : 27:07

Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. 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.

SPEAKER 1 : 28:33

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