In this heartfelt episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack invites listeners to explore the overwhelming love and mercy of God. Discover how God’s compassion is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, reminding us that His love remains constant despite past mistakes. Through profound insights from biblical scriptures, Barbara helps us focus on the present and the promises that God holds for our future.
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 :
Welcome to Called Up Freedom. We’re here in the studio, ready to teach about God’s love for you. His tender mercies are long-lasting. I want you to know that He has poured out His love into your heart by Holy Spirit, whom He has given to us. That’s from Romans 5. And Romans 5 goes on to say, Because the love of God has been poured out, poured out through Holy Spirit. Don’t neglect Holy Spirit. He’s so precious in your life. For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man. For the good man, someone would dare even to die. If someone is good and you have an opportunity to be in his place, you probably would do it. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, folks, we were yet sinners when Jesus died on the cross. He looked ahead where we are 2,000 years ahead. And he said, I’m dying for them. I’m dying. I’m taking their sins in my body on the cross. He died for us. So rejoice in that fact that God loves you so much today. And he died for you, irregardless of what you had done in the past. Forget the past. The present is here. Future has the promises of God for you ahead for you. So you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. Oh, Kimberly, what a truth that we can know without a doubt, without a doubt. His goodness, his kindness is so much gooder, gooder, gooder, gooder than we give him credit for. He is a good God. Yes. Yes. And that’s what Nahum 1 7 says. The Lord is good. He’s good. In the message translation, it says that God is good. A hiding place in tough times, he recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, no matter how desperate the trouble. No matter if you’re in bankruptcy, if you’re about to lose something, if you’ve lost your car, if you’ve lost a loved one friend. And Kimberly and I know loss like that. If you’ve lost them, God is going to replace that emptiness. Yes, you’re always going to have that wonderful memory of your loved one. but he’s going to replace it with joy and peace and righteousness. And cozy islands of escape he wipes right off the map. No one gets away from God. So why waste time conniving against God? He’s putting an end to all such scheming. Praise the Lord. Yeah, let’s get honest with him, Kimberly. Let’s get gut honest with him and say, this is where I am, God. Can you handle it? And God says, yes, I can handle it. I can handle anything. That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
When we do become really honest like that, and whatever it is in us that’s resisting having him be a part of our lives, whatever that resistance is, finds him to be the very best friend, the most kind and generous friend. And that’s what we want to get to. We want to finally just crumble and say, okay, whatever. I’ve been resistant, but I don’t want to resist you and your ways any longer. And we will find kindness.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. As much as I love you, I know that there are going to be times that I don’t agree with you. But God is always there. Always. And you go into your wing of the house where we live, and I go into my wing. Are we not agreeing on something today? No, we are. I thought I’d prepare myself. As much as I love you, I know that God is just so much more loving towards me, even if I don’t do something that agrees with people around me. If I do something wrong, make a big mistake, a big one, God is saying, I have you. I have you. I have your back. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I think for those who see God as being a God of justice and maybe even wrath and judgment in that wrath, when you see him that way without his side of compassion and mercy. The thing is, God is all of that. He is justice. He’s the best justice. He brings it because he is compassion. He is mercy. He is love. He’s all of these things. And the justice has to come on the heels of compassion. When he sees that something is not right and one of his very own is being treated poorly, Don’t you don’t you feel angry when one of your loved ones is being treated poorly? We feel angry and and some kind of indignation rises up in us and we want to see our loved ones treated better. That’s exactly who our God is. He wants to see the treatment of humans be better.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, God must have been there with the hostages for over 700 days. He had to have been a God of comfort for them, especially the 20 that came back, the living. He was God of compassion for those who did not come back. Very much compassion. And those whose families will never see ever again, even the bones of those they may never see. Oh, I pray that someone will let them know that they are with God. They are with God in heaven. Yes. Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
We want to remember that it is God’s compassion and mercy that brings justice, that even causes him to feel wrath in a situation. And when we see someone that is crossing that line of our basic nature as a human, what we were created in and the design, the blueprint is in God’s image. Mm-hmm. We are made in the image of God and he is love. So we’re made in that image. If we are expressing anything outside of that image, God’s going to see that and he will want to bring justice to it. When we see it, we don’t want to sin in our anger. God does not sin in his anger and his wrath. He does not. But we want to be aligning ourselves with him and saying, okay, how do we handle this? Well, look what he did. He gave his only son to become the price paid. And our kindest treatment is, to ourselves and our loved ones just cannot even be measured against the kindness and the gentleness of God, the mercy of God, the compassion of God. He handles us with so much tenderness and so much peace. We want to be following that. You, you were reading in Isaiah today, Isaiah 30 and verse 18 says, therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you. And therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you for the Lord is a God of justice. How blessed are all those who long for him right there, hand in hand. We’re looking at God being gracious, God having compassion. He is a God of justice. It’s all in the same verse.
SPEAKER 02 :
Amen. It’s like when Adam and Eve sinned, Kimberly, they wanted to hide. They knew they were naked. They wanted to hide. And what did God do? He pursued them. He said, where are you? Where are you? Now, God knew what they had done. Where are you? He was pursuing them. He was looking for them. Now, when we do something wrong, we want to go hide somewhere, you know. want to be we don’t want to be looked at or examined and it’s really interesting it’s that human fleshly nature that wants to hide and isolate but when we know jesus christ is our savior we’re willing to say okay it’s me i did it i’m it you know i’m it when you know how kind he is how compassionate he is yes you come right out in the open we really don’t know We haven’t even gotten a tip of the iceberg because it’s so warm and cozy and comforting. We don’t even know the depth of God’s compassion and love.
SPEAKER 03 :
We don’t. That’s what we want to be searching for. It’s a treasure hunt. It’s a lifelong treasure hunt. We are continually searching. Hunting and looking and searching for the goodness of God, who he is. And we find it best in the word of God. If there are scriptures that you’re confused about, well, ask him. Ask him to reveal what those scriptures really are saying, what they mean. That’s right. We were reading in Titus 3 yesterday just a little bit, and I wanted to go back and look at it again because it’s talking about how foolish we are in our dealings toward other people. We don’t know how to treat people well, and we don’t do it. We don’t do it well. We’re very foolish in our dealings, but it says in the fourth verse of Titus three, when the kindness of God, our savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of our works and our deeds, which we’ve done. We, we think we’ve done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, right? Oh, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. What? Yeah, no longer the foolish deeds and the foolish dealings and the way that we think we can treat people. No, no longer in those dealings, but in good deeds, the kind of good deeds that our Heavenly Father shows toward us. These things are good and profitable for men. Yes. That is what we want to be putting our focus on, searching for the good deeds of God, searching for his compassion and his mercy. That that goodness, that love of God, when he when it says that God is love, that is the basis of where his anger comes from and his wrath comes from. It comes from love and compassion and mercy. And you were reading in Jude. Verse 20 says to fasten yourself to the love of God and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we fasten ourselves to that, then we are now becoming more like him, more like his image. I’m still just blown away by how Erica Kirk stood. It was just a little more than a month ago. She stood before millions of And she was talking about the young man, the young man who took her husband’s life, her best friend’s life. And she said, I forgive him. She chose mercy. She chose forgiveness. And I think it’s very interesting. One of Papa’s favorite scriptures was out of Mark 11, talking about moving mountains. If you’ve got faith enough. Yes. Just as small as a mustard seed, just tiny faith. You can say to a mountain move and it will be moved. You know what comes right after that? But first, if you have anything against anyone, if you’re holding anything against them. Forgive them. First, forgive. And then we will be able to see mountains move. I believe the mountains that we need to see moving are mountains of unforgiveness, mountains of bitterness, mountains of rage that are anchored in resentment and anger that is not righteous anger. That’s right. It’s the kind of anger that humans tend to get caught up in. We want to fasten ourselves to the love of God and become more like him. We’re made in his image. So we want to practice forgiveness. If there’s anyone that you can think of today in your life that you are not forgiving, that you’re not releasing and learning to love, release them today. Forgive them today. And let them experience goodness. What if it’s your unforgiveness that’s keeping them from experiencing the kind of goodness that would change their hearts? Give them forgiveness today and let their hearts go. Let their hearts change. That is what our Heavenly Father wants, and we’re working with Him on this project.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, we are. We’ve heard of people that just hung on, especially when their loved one is just about to go to be with God. They’re hanging on them, hanging on, hanging on, hanging on. They don’t want them to leave. And when they hear a word of advice or of love given by a brother or sister, let your loved one go. They’re going to a better place than they had here. And they’re going to have a brand new body. When they yield themselves and let that loved one go. 24, 36 hours, that loved one is gone because sometimes we can prevent them from from God, from moving in their lives because of a hold that we have on them.
SPEAKER 03 :
Our spirits are just longing to be released, longing to be forgiven. longing to forgive and whatever it is in our human nature that prevents that forgiveness from flowing. That’s what we want to let go of. Yesterday we were talking a little bit about the arc of the covenant and the things found in that arc. And one is the, the jar of manna and it was a golden jar that held manna. Manna represents provision. And often we get bent out of shape because something has been taken from us. And so we feel like that provision was taken or we’re no longer in control of an asset. And so we’ll get bitter about that. We might question. We might complain. We might grumble. And that’s interesting, too. The three things that were put in the Ark of the Covenant, the jar of manna. the rod, Aaron’s rod that had bloomed and blossomed. And that was, that rod was representing a position leadership, you know, so we’re either complaining about the provision in our life or we’re complaining about the position in our life, the position that we have or, or it’s not what we want it to be. So we complain and, And then there’s the tablets of the covenant. And we can complain about that, too. We can complain about the rules on our lives. And what is beautiful about this arc in Hebrews nine, verse five, it says above it says, Above it, above your complaints of provision, your complaints of your position in life, your complaint of rules and regulations that seem unfair to you. Above your complaints. What’s above it? the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Mercy. Mercy is above all of those complaints. Mercy is above all of the law. Mercy is above the provision and the position that you find in this life. There’s mercy. That’s the kindness, the compassion, the mercy of God that is above it all. And that’s what we want to find. That’s our search in this life. Our treasure hunt that we are on is to find what’s above the things of this world.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. Mercy is a word that overlooks our sins. And mercy is a word that has to do with the sin that we have committed. And God, in his great graciousness, has covered that over with this word called mercy. Now, do you have a Hebrew word for mercy that you know of or not?
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s close to raka. So, Rachel, it’s like the womb. The womb is mercy, and I don’t have that in front of me. You’re surprising me with a question.
SPEAKER 02 :
Because we talk about mercy, and we understand the spiritual connotations of mercy, but But for some of our listeners, it’s kind of new. So what is mercy? How do you express mercy? How do you explain mercy? And it has to do with our sin, God covering our sin with his graciousness and his tender. I love the word tender mercies. Yes, I do too.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I do know that the Hebrew word for mercy is closely connected to the word womb. So when you have something that is growing inside of you that you want to care for and nurture and love and bring into this world, into safety and goodness, that’s something that you want to just be watching over carefully. There’s care and tenderness toward a baby that is in your womb.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. It’s like when we commit a sin and we feel like, oh, I’ve done this over and over. Why am I continuing to do this all the time? And we don’t want God to see it. And like you just said, he’s covering that. He’s covering that indiscretion, that iniquity, whatever we’ve committed, he’s covering. There’s a mercy seat that is higher. Yes, with his love and his compassion to say, come to me. It’s like Adam and Eve didn’t want God to find them. They were hiding. And God says, where are you? I’m looking for you. See that love. Oh, Kimberly covers a multitude of sins. Multitude. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. And that’s not just God’s role and Jesus role to cover. We’re being invited into that role. We are being invited into the sanctuary. We are his sanctuary and the holy of holies with Jesus means that we are going to learn how to take a seat on the mercy seat with him. That’s what His forgiveness is all about. And He’s inviting us to join Him in forgiveness. Join Him in practicing mercy. Join Him in practicing forgiveness. And the ones who are feeling hurt, the hurt of betrayal and unfaithfulness that tears their marriage apart and tears their families apart, tears apart relationships, He will restore. We let him have it. We forgive. We show mercy and we let him have the problem. And he is the healer.
SPEAKER 02 :
You don’t know what I’ve been through. That’s what a lot of people might think or say.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I think we don’t know what he’s been through. That’s the point. And in Malachi 4, it says that he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. And I believe that that is a precious promise of reconciliation of family members, reconciliation in relationships. Well, what stands in the way of that? unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is a mountain that stands in the way. And if you would like to see that mountain move, then you’ll need to practice forgiveness. And I believe that unforgiveness is often rooted in our own opinions of what somebody should have done or should not have done. It’s our own definitions of justice and fairness. Some of us find it too hard to forgive and show mercy. And we need to be looking at that and asking ourselves, is that the kind of sanctuary you want for yourself? Do you want the kind of sanctuary where it’s kind of hard to forgive you? It’s kind of, well, I forgive you, but I’m going to tell my best friends what you did. Is that the kind of sanctuary that you want? That’s not the kind of sanctuary that I want. So that’s how we want to be looking at God’s sanctuary. What do we want to provide for him? We are his sanctuary. We want him to find that sanctuary to be a peaceful place, a kind place, a place where we’ve truly let go. So we don’t want this to be conditional, conditional forgiveness. We want it to be complete, complete forgiveness. Yeah. And do we want to find a high priest that doesn’t know how to forgive all the way? No. No, no, we don’t. We want the complete work. And that’s what Jesus did. If all we offer others is conditional acceptance and conditional forgiveness. That can severely impair our hope of salvation.
SPEAKER 02 :
I believe most people that are caught in this situation of forgiving or not forgiving are people that have said, well, if he’ll change, if she’ll change, then I’m good with it. And they’re always looking for the other party to change, but I’m fine. I’m okay. Yeah. And that’s got pride wrapped around it all, all the way also. So we’ve got to look inside, examine ourselves. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because those are terms and those are conditions. We’re putting conditions on other people. We’re putting terms on them and we have our own terms in mind. So in the back of our minds where we’re always going to be wondering, have I met all the terms and the conditions? That’s what happens. If you treat other people that way, then you yourself are not going to be at total peace. I promise you might not feel like forgiving someone, but when you do it as an act of your will and you just say, okay, I’m going to do this and I recognize I need help doing this. That’s right. and ask Jesus for help. Ask Holy Spirit to help you. Ask your Heavenly Father to help you. They will give you help. Our Lord gives us help. And when you do that, you will find a greater peace and a greater joy and a greater hope than you have ever imagined. I can promise that. I’ve experienced it. I know it to be true. All of a sudden, I don’t have all of these other terms and conditions that I think I might need to meet. And it really is almost a subconscious thing that happens. We want to be aware that Holy Spirit does work way back in the back of our brains when we’re not even looking. He does work back there and repairs and brings a greater love, a greater peace, a greater joy. If you’re not experiencing true hope and true joy today. then we want to encourage you that there’s a greater hope and a greater joy than you’ve ever experienced in your whole life. It’s waiting for you and it might be closely connected to forgiveness.
SPEAKER 02 :
Be willing to offer forgiveness. And the forgiveness may be involved with you looking at the situation in a different light. You may not see the relationship as it was before. It will not be like it was before. But God is going to either give it a better view of what’s going to happen, or he will set you on a plane that is even different. Maybe you won’t even see this person that you forgave again, but it’s going to get different. So many times, Kimberly, I’ve heard that phrase from Chosen, get used to different. And I’ve expected things to be just the same as they were before. That doesn’t happen most of the time. No. So if you’d like to just email us, talk to us, you can do that by emailing Barbara at Carmen. Barbara at Freedom Street dot org. Excuse me. I’m learning. I’m learning, folks. Kimberly at Freedom Street dot org or hello at Freedom Street dot org. If you leave your phone number, we’ll get in contact with you. I promise. If you email us at Barbara at Freedom Street dot org and you leave your phone number, I promise I will get back to you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Call. Yes, we’ll call you. Yes. And you can hear a voice and have somebody pray with you. We enjoy doing that. But we also pray over every written request that you make as well. And we just so appreciate our listeners. Thank you so much for all the ways that you encourage us and you get in touch with us. We really love you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, we do. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
In this heartfelt episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack invites listeners to explore the overwhelming love and mercy of God. Discover how God’s compassion is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, reminding us that His love remains constant despite past mistakes. Through profound insights from biblical scriptures, Barbara helps us focus on the present and the promises that God holds for our future.
