Join us for a faith-filled episode of Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack that invites listeners to explore the depths of spiritual resilience and blessings in our everyday lives. From the soothing words of the Lord’s Prayer to the exploration of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, Barbara and Kimberly guide you through a reflection on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Dive deep into the lessons of selfless giving and enduring faith that Abel demonstrated and how these timeless truths resonate today.
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 Calda Freedom. Let the blessings of the Lord settle gently in your spirit today, creating a beautiful place for his joy to flourish. And may God supply all your need today, all your needs. Remember in the Lord’s Prayer, he asked that he would, the prayer asked to supply his need for the day. So today, well, also I’m praying for tomorrow too for you, but may God supply all your needs today. today according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And may your day be full of joy in Jesus’ name. Oh, it’s so important that we have some of the fruit of Holy Spirit, that they’re being established in our spirits right now. The love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, all of that is being established in your spirit today. Oh, God bless you for joining us. You are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. And if you’d like to find out more about Call to Freedom, you can go to freedomstreet.org on your device, either phone or computer. You can do that. And it’s freedomstreet.org, lowercase, one word. And click on all those little titles and find out what’s going on. in our new website. It’s just really fun for me to go through it now, especially the newsletters. They have a little flip technique that gets you into the second and third page. I love it. I’ve gone back there, oh, maybe three or four times now to flip it over again. So I just pray that you will experiment a little bit and go into freedomstreet.org and just check out things. And you can also donate. Hit that Donate button and donate to Call to Freedom. I hope that you’re enjoying this show. It’s uplifting for you that when you get through listening to it, you feel better because we need to feel better today, folks. The country is just askew with all kinds of chaos and disturbances and division. And we need to get an uplift by listening to programs, not just because they’re programs, but that the scripture has really done something in your spirit and you’re ready to stand and having done all to stand firm. Praise the Lord. Well, Kimberly is on the line here. And Kimberly, how are you today?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, I’m good. I’m missing my Colorado family. Yeah, I’m enjoying the cooler weather here in Oklahoma, finally. It was pretty warm here in Oklahoma for most of the time that I was staying in Colorado. And my friends and family said that I must have brought the cooler weather from Colorado and just dragged it down here with me because it’s finally cooling off and everybody’s enjoying that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, good. I’m glad. Because it can get really hot and sticky down there. So I’m glad you’re enjoying that time, the cooler weather.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, there’s seasons for everything. And I do love it when we are brought into a new season. And it’s transition. You know, there’s… shorter days, so we don’t have as much light. And on my drive back, I was running out of daylight and driving in the dark. And so that can be a little bit different. It’s not my favorite to drive in the dark, but I will say that it’s in those dark places and dark times that I feel the presence of the Lord with me, guiding me, And just so close. My worship time was beautiful during the day as I was driving. But as it got into the nighttime, it was just that much sweeter. It was more intimate and just a really wonderful time. So we can all look at seasons of our life that way. not regretting that we’ve been through dark times or trying to prevent ourselves from going into dark times, but just looking at the different seasons and knowing God is with us. And we can have faith. Hebrews 11, verse 1 says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So we can have hope and we can gain knowledge in this life that will be the assurance. You know, the hope is not necessarily assurance. Hoping is kind of like wishful thinking. It’s like dreaming. Right. When we have those dreams, we hope they’ll come to pass, but sometimes we get discouraged as human beings. We get discouraged because we’re not sure. Well, Hebrews 11, 1 tells us that faith is what makes us sure that it is going to come to pass. Faith is when you live life believing, even if you’re in the dark. You are believing God is with you, and he has got a really good plan in the dark, To bring you back into his light. And the sun rises every morning and his mercies are new every morning. And that is the goodness of God. So having faith is making a sure statement. It’s bringing a tangible assurance on the inside of us. And we all need that faith. We want that faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Now the world, when they say, well, I hope so, especially when we’re talking to them and it’s going to be good. Well, I hope so. That is wishful thinking on the part of people in the world. But when you look at Colossians 1, oh. Who is your hope in Jesus Christ? It’s Jesus. Jesus is the hope of glory. And we can always, when we realize that hope is founded in Jesus, who’s the cornerstone, who will never depart from us, who’s steady and able to keep us standing. Oh, Kimberly, that’s worth everything. So our hope is in him. Praise God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it is. Thank you, Jesus. And you know, if you are feeling discouragement, say his name, Jesus. Just say his name, Jesus. The name Jesus holds power in it. I believe when I say his name that dead things are coming back to life. I believe that. So every time you say his name, something rises up. And if you need some more rising up in your life and in your world around you and your family and your relationships and your finances, speak the name of Jesus. And let His peace calm you, let the assurance of faith rise up in you, and know that He is the Redeemer, He is the Restorer, He does provide, and He does not leave us in the dark. We all need to go through these seasons, different seasons, and they’re just a changing of time on this planet. But He doesn’t ever change, and we can trust that. In Hebrews 11, it goes on to say in verse 2, “…for by it, by the faith, the men of old gained approval.” And by faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. When it says that the worlds were prepared, that word prepared also holds the idea of being perfected and completed. So often we put a lot of responsibility on our shoulders as human beings to try to complete a job, to complete some kind of work here. This is saying that it’s already completed. And when we choose to trust that Everything is taken care of. It’s completed. The Lord will lead us into that place of rest and peace, that assurance that faith gives us. And then in verse 4 of Hebrews 11, it starts talking about the first person who had this faith. And that first person, by faith, Abel, offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. What an interesting person to bring up first. Abel was the first victim of a murder, and Cain, his brother, his own brother, murdered him. And it wasn’t even for anything that Abel did first. Abel didn’t do anything to deserve that murder. He gave a sacrifice to God. As a matter of fact, if we go back and look at the story in Genesis 4, let’s start. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. So here, it’s talking about Cain bringing an offering to the Lord And he’s mentioned first. So we are led in this text, we’re led to believe that Cain was first to bring an offering to the Lord. And it was of the fruit of the ground, because Cain was a tiller of the ground, while his brother Abel was a keeper of flocks. So Cain, now we really do have to look at the phrase in here that says, in the course of time… Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. We do have to see that because if we don’t read what the Word is saying, if we don’t see that it’s in the course of time, we might assume that Cain gave the very, very best, and Abel gave his very, very best, and God was just showing preference for no reason in this story. But that’s not true. It says it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought of the first length of his flock and of their fattest portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. So it came about in the course of time, Cain, the oldest brother, initiated a gift giving to the Lord. He started it. He brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground, but it was in the course of time. And because he was a tiller of the ground, you could easily have grains sitting around that you haven’t planted yet, you haven’t used it for food yet, it’s been there for a while, maybe in a heap off to the side of your barn, whatever. And Hebrew tradition actually tells us that he brought flaxseed. And flaxseed was a really important grain. Flax was a grain that was used more among the royal people, and They would make linen out of flaxseed, and linen clothing was worn by royalty. So flaxseed was an important grain. And that’s just a tradition that’s been passed down, that that’s what it was. It was considered to be the best, the highest, the most expensive seed. So this is what Cain brought. we still can’t ignore that it was after some time that he brought it. In the course of time, he brought this flaxseed. And Cain was probably thinking, this is a good offering, because flaxseed is the best seed. It’s the best seed to offer. So we also want to look at Abel. On his part, he also brought a gift to the Lord. He chose a gift from his firstlings in his flock and of the fattest maybe we could even say the fluffiest and the cutest cutest yes his favorite maybe his favorite yes maybe so yeah i just visited a friend last night they raise um calves uh they raise cows and calves to go to shows with them and they show them And they have to be, they need to have fluffy hair. And in order to do that, it takes a lot of maintenance. You have to keep them indoors and not let the sun shine on them in order for their hair to grow really fluffy so that they would be a good show cow. So they go to the work of keeping them in a barn all day long and then they bring them outside at night and they wash them every day to keep their hair and their fur really fluffy and keep it growing. They are the cutest little calves. They’re so cute. I think I sent you a picture of one. And I can see how you would become very attached to these ones that you’re spending so much time with, and they’re young, and they’re fluffy, and they’re cute. To choose one of them and bring that to the Lord as a sacrifice, that would be quite a gift. Quite a gift.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
So Cain did bring a good gift, but it was in the course of time, suggesting that it might have been old. It was not from his first fruits. It didn’t say that. And here’s where the story, I think, is very interesting. It’s the Lord who had regard for Abel’s offering. It’s the Lord who turned toward Abel and was really, really blessed by what Abel chose to give him.
SPEAKER 03 :
it could be it could be that um it’s the attitude attitude has everything to do i i think of the scripture in second corinthians nine that says give cheerfully be a cheerful giver and so if you feel like you’re obligated to do something or you’re just not wanting to let go of that money into into the offering plate the attitude here has everything to do with it and maybe kane did not have that giving attitude. He took the offering to God, but maybe his attitude was just a little twisted, just a little bit. So we don’t know. Yeah, we really don’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, we don’t know. That’s possible. That’s possible. I’m just being the human that I am. I’m imagining that Abel would be kind of sad that his most special, his firstling, his cutest one, fluffiest one, was going to be the sacrifice. But he chose that fluffy one. He chose that special one because he believed God was even better than that little creature. So the idea of sacrifice in the original Hebrew, the word is korban, and it holds the idea of coming near God. it’s a detaching. You detach yourself from one thing in order to come near and draw near and attach to a greater one. So I can personally imagine that Abel would have felt a little bit sad to detach from his precious little creature in order to attach himself to the greater one. But he still acted on faith rather than acting on his emotions. So instead of letting his emotions stop him, he decided, no, God is worth this. And I trust God that he will restore. So that’s how I like to think about it. And I wondered, I was just kind of letting myself wonder about times in my life when I feel like somebody has given me their very best or given me something very special. And what that has felt like for me, I have a friend there in Colorado who gave her planned trip to Mexico just to be with me and drive me to downtown Denver when I needed to file something at the county courthouse. And her choice to detach herself from something she loves to do, she loves to take her trips to Mexico, but she chose to drive me to downtown Denver And I could have driven myself, but she made that choice. Her choice made me feel so special and truly loved. She was giving me the best of her time. And I actually struggled to receive it when I found out this is what she’s doing. It was kind of hard for me. It was so precious to me. And I didn’t know how I would ever thank her for giving up something that was special to her in order to… spend time with me and help me in downtown Denver. So it really felt like she was sacrificing something special because she loves me. And that made me wonder, how does it make God feel when we give our very best? He, of course, he does not struggle to receive it like I do, but his regard in this text here is suggests that it really meant something to him. It says that he regarded Abel’s sacrifice. He considered it worthy of his attention. I was looking up the word regard, and it’s admiring or appraising something. It’s caring. It’s holding something in high esteem. And so God was holding this in high esteem because he saw that Abel cared about this little creature, but he cared more for God himself. And the Lord was appraising his action and admiring Abel. And he just turned toward Abel. Abel was showing faith and letting go of something that he was attached to. and he believed God was more valuable, and he trusted that God would restore to him after he gave his best. So now Abel is the first human being to be mentioned in the, I like to call it the Hebrews Hall of Faith. The Hebrews Hall of Faith is Hebrews 11, that just lists all these men who are so full of faith, men and women, sorry, both, but human beings that are so full of faith, that they caught the attention of the Lord. They really blessed his heart. And that’s something that I want to aspire to, catching his eye and letting him see that I’m willing to let go of one thing in order to attach myself to the greater one. And that’s him. The greater one is him.
SPEAKER 04 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
So when we do let go of something that we’re attached to and we show God that he’s more important to us, he turns his face toward us. He has regard for it. It says in the text that that’s what he did. He regarded Abel. And so this is where we see Cain using his own opinion and judgment of the situation to process it. He definitely could have been thinking that he was the first one to… to bring a gift to the Lord. So he was the oldest. He was the first one to bring the gift. And he brought flax seed. That was a good seed. It was considered a special grain. So we can see how Cain could be thinking, wait, why is Abel getting attention and I’m not? And so all of a sudden, he’s flipped into this idea of, well, that’s not fair. And he wants to have God’s attention as well. He wants to be regarded. Every time we begin to justify our position and tell ourselves that we have a right to feel the way we do, we have a right for someone’s attention, to have their attention, it sets us up for resentment. And Cain, his countenance fell. That’s how it says. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. He began to resent that God really appreciated Abel’s sacrifice. And we need to ask ourselves, is it so wrong to recognize someone for their selflessness? Because selflessness is the goal. To live as Christ lived on this earth is to learn how to lay down yourself. and bless God and bless others. But Cain was scrutinizing God’s delight in his brother Abel. He judged it. He said it was not fair. And he got angry, and his countenance fell. This is so amazing because our Creator is really kind. He actually came alongside Cain, and he gave him some helpful advice, coaching him, encouraging him to change his mind. And the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. But you can master it. And you must. You must master it. Yeah. So we often, as human beings, get angry. And when we get angry, we might not be questioning, okay, why am I angry here? And I think it’s imperative that we ask questions like that. Why am I angry? What is it that has offended me? We do not have to be upset when we’re not regarded by people, when our sons or daughters do not have time for us, or when our boss overlooks us. when a mate forgets our birthday, you know, whatever it is, especially when we have given into these relationships, we tend to form expectations of what we want to see in return.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
So then we’re not really giving selflessly. We’re giving so that we’ll get something back. And then we’re offended if we don’t get back what we want. So it’s, It’s a practice of letting go of our expectations, letting go of our opinions and our judgments on it. We have to practice that. And we choose to keep giving our best. Why? Because that’s what God does. God has given his very best to create this world for us, to create all of the beautiful creatures and the wonderful food for us. This is an amazing world. This is so beautiful. And he’s given his very best, not only in the creation of this world, but in himself, offering himself as a sacrifice to cover our sins. He’s given his very, very best. So we want to keep practicing giving our best, no matter what. God gave his best no matter what. He did. Even though… Yeah. Even though there’s been sin, there’s been lying, there’s been murder, there’s been betrayal and rejection of him. But he continues to give his best.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Oh, it says in Zephaniah, you’re talking about his love for us. The Lord, your God is in your midst. He’s with you. He’s with you. Those of you who are listening, wherever you are, God is there. He is a victorious warrior over the enemy. He will exalt over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts, shouts of joy. That’s how much he loves you. Oh, this has been so good, Kimberly. It’s been so good to remind us that our offerings to God must be with no thought of God returning the favor or anything like that. We give it in selfless obedience to God. And so I appreciate that so much.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. Thank you for having me, and we just say to all of you out there, take joy. Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370367, 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. Our 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.
Join us for a faith-filled episode of Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack that invites listeners to explore the depths of spiritual resilience and blessings in our everyday lives. From the soothing words of the Lord’s Prayer to the exploration of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, Barbara and Kimberly guide you through a reflection on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Dive deep into the lessons of selfless giving and enduring faith that Abel demonstrated and how these timeless truths resonate today.
