Join Barbara and Kimberly as they delve into the profound concepts of God’s glory, exploring how divine compassion, kindness, and forgiveness manifest in everyday experiences. Through thoughtful discussion, they unravel the mysteries of the Lord’s glory as depicted in both Old and New Testament scriptures, offering insights into how these divine attributes are meant to reflect within us.
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. I’m so glad you joined me today. We’ve got a wonderful lesson. Oh, I can’t get enough of God’s glory and he’s making us glorious. That’s what’s so beautiful. Sometimes in the smallest details of your day, God reveals the greatest depths of his love. That’s so profound. You know, when I’m looking for something, Oh Lord, I lost it. Where is it? And it pops up somewhere. And I said, now I don’t think it put, I put it there, but thank you so much. And you find that object. Oh, it’s Kimberly. It’s just a wonderful thing to know. It is, and I love how that folds into knowing his glory. That’s right. And in ways only his heart and yours understand. You cannot even talk to people and say, oh, you don’t know what happened to me today because it’s between you and God. Some of that is.
SPEAKER 02 :
You don’t tell other people. Right. When we report what we found or what happened to us that’s small, other people just don’t get it. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
right oh so just one one a little heads up for you who are coming to the meeting on saturday uh when you come bring a valentine’s card put your favorite scripture on it and sign it and we’re going to exchange them and have just a really good time there so i just want to say to you you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being and the memory verse for this week kimberly has been amos 5 24. Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
SPEAKER 02 :
And that only comes from the glory of God, the glory of God and the way that we’ve been talking about his glory, how it does include his power, his fame, his, the deserving recognition that he just deserves to be recognized and glorified in that, in that sense, in that definition. But we’ve also been looking at his own definition of his glory. And that definition came from Exodus 33 and 34. We’ve been talking about that all week, so I don’t want to spend too much time on that. He’s been showing us in those passages that an all-powerful God, the God who created the heavens and the earth and everything it contains. This God, his glory, he is considered glorious because of his compassion and his goodness and his kindness and his mercy and his ability to pardon sins and forgive. We want to be able to see that glory because he has made us in his image and he desires us to carry his glory in us. So that is why we’re talking about the Lord’s glory. And I just want to, you know, I even had a dream last night about this, about you and I talking about his glory. Really? And that there just weren’t enough words and it wasn’t very understandable. Oh, well, you can see it.
SPEAKER 03 :
My dream was about chocolate cakes. So you can see where I come from. I think I need some chocolate cake in milk. Yes. I haven’t had that for a long time. I guess that’s your definition of glory. Give me some cake. I know some of you are with me. Yes, you are. I did not mean to interrupt you from that.
SPEAKER 02 :
glorious time in talking about glory yes of talking about glory well maybe that’s what we needed as an interruption you know just interject some joy in there because I do believe that the joy of the Lord and his peace his goodness is all wrapped up in his glory when the angels came and said glory in the highest it included all of this the joy the peace so so good good interjection there
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m wondering, now, are you still in the Old Testament? You go wherever you want. We’ll just follow. Yeah, I was reading part of 2 Peter 1 and realizing that maybe in all those attributes that we’re supposed to be learning in our journey, in our spiritual journey, Maybe they’re all wrapped up in God’s glory. The moral excellence, it says here, knowledge in your self-control, in your perseverance, in your godliness, in your brotherly kindness, and then in your love. And that love, you know, is God just emanating his love all over. Now, some people aren’t going to receive his love, but that isn’t. on God’s part. He’s ready to just pour out his love. And you, Kimberly, you say the glory of the Lord in that verse of scripture from Habakkuk, that the glory of the Lord, the whole earth is. Yeah, that’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
The whole earth is filled with the glory of the Lord. Yes. Yes. And yes. And Isaiah six, three, it confirms that the whole earth is full of the glory of the Lord. Right. And in second Peter, uh, chapter one, uh, In verse three, it says everything we could ever need for life and godliness. That’s becoming like him in his image. And we were made to be in his image. Now, you’re right. It’s our choice. We get to choose whether or not we’re going to follow these virtues that could lead us into his image or if we just want to do it our own way. And when we’re following these virtues that you were listing, 2 Peter… chapter one, and I think you were starting around verse five. And you know what? I’m going to back up because I really like how the Passion Translation words, verse four, as a result of this and this being the invitation to become more godly, the invitation to tap into everything that we need for life. Don’t we all want everything we need for this life? As a result of this, he’s given you magnificent promises. These promises are beyond anything we imagine beyond all price. So that through the power of these promises, you can experience partnership, partnership, partnership. With the divine nature of God. Yes. Partnering with him. We need that. That is how we’re going to get through this life. Partnership with his glory.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. We’re joint heir with Jesus. He’s our big brother. And now we’re partnering. partnering all three oh that’s amazing well we know that holy spirit was going to partner with us when we received jesus although kimberly it took years to to realize he’s in me exactly because he’s out there somewhere i need to pray and plead and beg and then he might listen Oh, Holy Spirit’s just right here.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s a, it’s a journey for each one of us to find who we really are by recognizing him in us. Right? So then we get to verse five of second Peter one. So devote, devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith. OK, so this is saying kind of what you’re saying. We have faith and we have come to know that Jesus paid a price for us. And so we want him in our lives. But then we want to add to that faith. Supplementing is adding to the faith. Add to that faith. Add goodness. Add goodness. We don’t always react in goodness, but this is the glory we’ve been talking about. God has put this glory in each one of us and called us to his glory. That’s what we were talking about in the earlier verse of second Peter one, three, that we, we have been called to be in that excellent glory with him. And that’s goodness. It’s being good when others are not good. How do we call ourselves human beings good when we compare ourselves to God? We will never be as pure, as righteous, as holy as he is. We can never be all those things. But we just are willing. We want to be. That’s the desire in us that says, okay, make us that. It’s impossible for us. But what is impossible for man is possible for God. And we look to him constantly. So we’re adding to our faith. We’re adding goodness to it. And then we add understanding. You know, a lot of us could use a good dose of understanding, and I think that’s what I’m talking about when I say God is very forgiving and merciful and compassionate. It takes an understanding of someone else’s perspective in order to be compassionate. And forgiving, you’ve got to be able to see it from their perspective. And God, he is very aware that we are dust, that we are small minded, that we are very limited. And so he wants to lavish us with love right where we’re at.
SPEAKER 03 :
I know he loves his dust bunnies. He really does.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is that what we are? We’re dust bunnies. Never thought of myself like that before. Man, dust bunnies and chocolate today, mom. That’s fun. Oh, and then we add to that understanding. We add the strength of self-control. Here’s where we’re talking about someone who is so powerful. It’s like someone who is trained in martial arts, and they have become so strong and so powerful in their gift that they have been training and training in. And they’re able to break bricks and break sticks. And that means they’re able to break a human if they really wanted to. But they add to the strength of that martial arts ability. They add the virtue of self-control. What makes them really strong is that they’re able to hold back. When they would want to explode on something or someone, they hold back. And that is who our God is through his mercy and his forgiveness. That’s part of his glory is that compassion and mercy and forgiveness that does not react with an explosion that could just wipe us all out.
SPEAKER 03 :
And that self-control results in patient endurance. Of course it does. Because when we have self-control, we are enduring sometimes areas in our lives where we would want to tell somebody how wrong they are and how right we are. And with that comes, with the patient endurance comes godliness. I believe, Kimberly, because right after that in verse 9, if anyone lacks these things, he is blind. Well, what does God expect of us? He expects us to grow in each one of these words that have to do with faith. Right. Each area. He expects us to grow in goodness. He expects us to grow in understanding. He expects us to grow in self-control. He expects us to grow in patient endurance. He expects us to grow in godliness and in mercy and exactly in love. It brings us to the God of love.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Yes. He is love. Yes. And he has provided everything we need to get to this place. That’s right. That is what was telling us. And it is by the excellence of his glory. All we need is the desire to become these things. We can’t work it out in our own effort. We need him to help us with it. So we stay in touch with him, in contact with the glorious one.
SPEAKER 03 :
We can’t say things, oh, shucks, I’m just not worthy of this kind of thing. Well, we’ve got to put that aside. We’ve got to put that in a drawer and forget about it because we can’t think unworthy when we’re looking at these wonderful attributes of God. Right. We can’t be unworthy or inferior or fearful. Well, I can’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
His perfect love casts out that fear and that insecurity and the worry. His perfect love is the goal and relationship with him is the goal. I love how Romans 8, 18 says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. The glory that is to be revealed to us in us. It’s, there are a lot of different translations out there that say it differently. And it’s, and it’s all of those prepositions. It’s all of them. So that glory is what we have been focusing on. What does that mean? What is the glory, the glory of God? And this life, this life presents us with a lot of situations that cause suffering. And in that suffering, how are we going to respond? How will we react to the suffering? We want to become more and more like our God who is glorious and has made us for the excellence of his glory.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Amen. So then we were looking at 2 Corinthians 3. Yeah, after spending most of the week in the Old Testament talking about chocolate cake. That was your definition of glory at the top of the hour. But no, the glory that we’re looking at now is in the New Testament. Oh, Second Corinthians, Chapter three. Boy, that is a full that’s full of the glorious ministry of the spirit, the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. And the first glory that was given to God’s people was chiseled on stone. It was the law and it was giving. giving ideas of how to become more like the Lord. And so his people took that very seriously. The Jewish people took that law seriously and wanted to become more like him by following the law and by doing good in this world.
SPEAKER 03 :
It also uncovers the sin in our lives because we can’t keep the law so that we see the sin that is so prevalent in our lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s very revealing. Yes. When we’re told to keep all of these commandments and realize, wait, I don’t know. Am I keeping them all? You know, and then… Jesus came and gave us the beatitudes. Wow. You know, we’re going to look at second Corinthians three here, but if you want to look at even more glory, look at the beatitudes given in Matthew five, six and seven. And when you read what the son of God has told us to become like that can feel impossible. Yes, it can. And it is impossible in human effort. That’s why we need him. That is why we’re being pointed right back to relationship with him. And if you’re viewing your wilderness experience here on this planet, on this earth, and I’m just talking about your life as you’re listening today, it can feel like wilderness that you’re walking through. And if you view it as something that you need, it’s a challenge that you need to conquer, something that you need to get through, something you need to win. rather than relationship with God, then it can be frustrating. I can attest to that. I’m frustrated when I’m looking at a situation that I need to conquer. I need to win. I need to get through. I need to find the answer.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and you talked about a gentleman yesterday, and you know them very well. And he was born again when he married his wife. He knew the Lord Jesus. And then after years of the world, the world saturated in the world, that does a thing on us. And now he’s an atheist.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, that was his decision. He decided that there is no God. Well, yeah, that’s his decision. Does it make that… That atheism true?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no, it doesn’t. And that’s why it says I have to go back to first Peter because it says anyone who lacks these things that we just read about goodness, understanding, patient endurance, godliness, mercy and love. Anyone who lacks those things, he is blind, constantly closing his eyes to the mysteries of our faith and forgetting his innocence. See, when we accept Jesus Christ, we are innocent before God. I mean, no guilt. It’s paid for. And for his past sins that have been washed away, he takes them back.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you know, you’re bringing up something that I haven’t really considered, but that’s true. When we separate ourselves from the God that we were made for and we are no longer operating in his image that we were created for, then we are taking guilt right back on us. That’s right. We’re we’re blind to what we were, who we were made for and the forgiveness that he’s covering us. And, you know, we can be thinking of his glory like an umbrella of forgiveness and mercy and kindness. And when we make these choices that we’re going to become atheist or that we are going to rebel in any way. That might be deciding that you don’t want to be good to somebody who has persecuted you. And Jesus is encouraging us, no, I want you to show love and forgiveness to those who have persecuted you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, Jesus was our greatest example.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Father, forgive them. So that’s the umbrella of forgiveness. And we want to stay under that umbrella, not just hiding there, but becoming like that one. Yeah. that we’re hiding in. Oh, how beautiful his wings are when we hide ourselves under his wings, the shadow of his wings.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, some of these things we need to, if you’re listening today, you need to just push that away, that thought or what you were focusing on, something that had happened to you and you just can’t get it out of your mind. You can say as an act of my will, I push away the thoughts of the unfair dealings or of the relative that came and shouted at me. I push it away in Jesus name. You can also go to the bathroom and wash your hands, get soap and water and just wash your hands of those situations. It’s so important that you get those thoughts. Those grudges and those, I’m going to get him back, those kind of thoughts.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, the feelings for the need for justice, you know, and that’s going back to your memory verse for the week. Let justice flow down like water. Yes. Oh, that’s good. That we’re cleansing our hands in. Yes. Let it flow down. You know, put it down. Water is always flowing downward.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
So put it down and trust that God has a better justice and hide yourself under his umbrella of forgiveness and mercy. That’s his glory for us. Oh, it is. Yes. So in Second Corinthians three, I think this is going to flow really nicely right into this. We have an increasingly greater glory that is replacing that first glory of the Old Testament. And that greater glory is the Holy Spirit in us that’s leading us to those virtues of goodness and patience and kindness and and self-control that leads to love. Love himself. That’s our greater glory that has replaced the law. And if you read in a second Corinthians three, starting verse 11, the fading ministry came with a portion of glory. But now we embrace the unfading ministry of a permanent impartation of glory. And that’s Holy Spirit. We know that he’s with us all the time. Yes. And he is enabling us to forgive and show mercy and compassion. So then with this amazing hope living in us, we step out in freedom and boldness to speak the truth. We’re not like Moses who used a veil to hide the glory, to keep the Israelites from staring at him as it faded away. Their minds were closed and hardened for even to this day, that same veil comes over our minds. It says their minds, but I’m just going to say ours. Because that’s what happens to us human beings. A veil comes over our mind when we have experienced injustice or unfairness and we get angry and then we want justice and we don’t realize that’s the veil. We’ve got to let that veil be lifted so that we can see the true glory of forgiveness, compassion, pardon, mercy, kindness, goodness. We want to see the real glory. The veil has not yet been lifted from us, for it is only eliminated when one is joined to the Messiah. We’ve got to be joined, closely joined to his heart and want what he wants in this life. He wanted to forgive everyone. When he stretched his arms out on that cross and said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. That was for everyone. That was not just for a select few. Continuing in verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 3. So until now, whenever the Old Testament is being read, the same blinding comes over our hearts. But the moment one turns to the Lord Jesus with an open heart, the veil is lifted and they see. We turn to Jesus and his desires to forgive.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
And we start forgiving too. Now, the Lord I’m referring to is the Holy Spirit in us. He’s the one who enables us to forgive and to show compassion and mercy. And wherever he is, Lord, there is freedom. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. And we were continuing on in a second Corinthians three verse 18. We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces and with no veil. We all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. Okay, that’s saying that Jesus can look in this mirror and the mirror is us and we are reflecting him. That’s saying that we can look in the mirror of Jesus and see Jesus in ourselves. Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
And in that, we are being transfigured. I love this verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 3. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level to another of glory. That’s exact. All those attributes that we read, like in 2 Peter 1, all the kindness, goodness, excellence, self-control, love. Love of God. Yes. That is all. We’re moving from one level to another. Boy, that shows us we are. We’re not just going to be planted here in one place in faith. No, he wants us to raise that faith through all of the wonderful attributes that he’s given to us.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. This goes back to recognizing that when we have the power. And we have honed that power, like in martial arts, to be dangerous to someone, but we withhold the power to show mercy, to show goodness. That is a greater glory. It’s a greater power. And this is what we have been looking at in the past.
SPEAKER 03 :
attributes of glory this week i’ve enjoyed the study kimberly and i hope you listening have enjoyed uh readings about the glory of god in the old testament and then in the new testament i want to give you one more reminder for saturday we’re going to be having a meeting come join us 1-877-917-7256 and bring a valentine god bless you and keep you and take joy
SPEAKER 1 :
877-917-7256
SPEAKER 01 :
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