Choose God’s BEST

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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.

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Thank you, Jimmy. Or you can actually get hold of me email by going to Barbara at FreedomStreet.org. And you can email me there. I know that’s a simpler, probably a better way for some of you to log on. And also at FreedomStreet.org. So remember, Barbara at FreedomStreet.org. Or if you’d like to email Kimberly, it’s Kimberly at FreedomStreet.org. We have lots of ways for you to get hold of us. So I want you to know you’re never alone. And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing as you trust in him, as you trust in him, that you may abound in hope by the power of Holy Spirit in you. God wants you filled. He doesn’t want you just half full or half empty, as some people say. No, he wants you filled with power and with wonderful expectations of what’s going on. We don’t have to look at the dreary. We don’t have to look at the crises all the time. We can look at the opportunities of open doors for us. Oh, let’s do our Monday Bible slogan. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I do what it tells me to do. This is my Bible. It has given me new life. It is the word of God. And I look forward to this week. I look forward to all the opportunities, friend. Sometimes we get in our noggin and our brain that, oh, this week, I don’t know if I can get through this week. Don’t do that to yourself. It’s dragging you down to think negatively. Oh, expect good things. A door of opportunity open for you this week. It’s going to be a blessing for you. And in Denver, Colorado, we’re going to see highs in the 80s, breaking records from the 70s. So it’s going to be a great week. Kimberly is going to try to get here by the end of the week, so I hope to see her again. I have a lot of news. You are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. I’ve got to get that one in before I go to the news, because our lives are so full of news. And this news is good. This is good news. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, from the American Center for Law and Justice. This month, a landmark decision was handed down. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously ruled that a Texas school teacher has the constitutional right to pray on school grounds. Hallelujah. And that her principal violated clearly established law when he ordered her to stop. Don’t fear going into a place where they may may slap you, they may kick you out, they may push you out, because you can always get hold of American Center for Law and Justice. That’s ACLJ.org. Remember that when you’re in a fix. The decision in Barber v. Rounds, and that’s not Barbara, it’s B-A-R-B-E-R, Barber v. Rounds, is a major victory for every public school teacher in America who has ever been afraid to bow their head in prayer because a student might see them. The ACLJ has been fighting for Stacey Barber from the very beginning. When her principal first silenced her prayer in September of 2023, banning her from praying at the pole. This is outside the school. Banning her from praying at the pole. We immediately took action, sending a letter. to the school demanding they stop violating her First Amendment rights. The school ignored our letter, mm-hmm, too bad, and refused to correct its conduct or preserve its clients’ rights. And we had no choice but to act. We filed a federal lawsuit in March of 2024. Now, Stacy, a longtime teacher at Cardiff Junior High in the Katy Independent School District in Texas, is a committed Christian. In September 2023, Thank you for joining us. Her principal, Brian Scott Rounds, responded by telling her and all staff that district policy prohibited employees from praying with or in the presence of students. When Stacey and a few colleagues went ahead and prayed anyway, Rounds stopped them from praying, went out, interrupting them, and pulling them into a conference room where he repeated his directive, teachers may not pray… where students might see or be influenced by their conduct. Oh, shame on him. In March of 2025, the court specifically found that what principal rounds did was unconstitutional. Rounds then appealed that ruling to the Fifth Circuit, and that is where today’s unanimous victory was won. Hallelujah. Oh, today, a three judge panel of the Fifth Circuit agreed with us. And this is a from ACLJ. The court held that rounds imposed an unconstitutional visibility based prohibition on Stacy’s private religious expression, a ban with no basis in law. The court held that a school employee’s right to engage in personal prayer outside of official duties is doubly protected by both the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Praise God for our forefathers that put all that stuff in there for us. Oh, the court’s reasoning was sweeping. The Constitution does not permit a school official to silence a teacher’s private or personal prayer simply because a student might see it. This is not just Stacy’s victory. It is a victory for public school teachers across the country. There are millions of public school teachers in the United States. Many of them are people of faith who simply want to live out their faith authentically, even while at work. For years, school administrators have operated under the mistaken assumption that any visible expression of religion by a school employee is constitutionally suspect. Today’s ruling makes it clear that assumption is wrong. Any school administrator who tries to impose a similar visibility-based ban on teacher prayer is now on clear notice from the appellate courts. Praise God. And that ban is unconstitutional. And if you’re hearing any of that at your children’s school or grandchildren’s school, you march right up to the principal’s office and you tell them that he is unconstitutional in his declarations. And this was from Nathan Molker, who’s a senior associate counsel at ACLJ’s Washington, D.C. office. Wow, good things are happening, folks. I remember… When Kimberly came home from school and she says, yeah, today I was reading my Bible on the carpeted floor right near my locker because I hadn’t done devotions until I got through with the first two classes. And the vice principal came up and says, you can’t do that. And she said, no, I can. I’ve got the first amendment on my side. So don’t bother me. I’m reading the word of God today. Oh, my daughter was so good. She was bold. She still is bold. But that was 40 years ago. Yeah, almost 40 years ago. Wow. And they’re still trying to push all their stupid reasonings on us. We will not take it any longer. Memory verse for this week is John 6, verse 63. Beautiful long chapter. Oh, it’s so good. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. Your flesh, my flesh, profits nothing. It has nothing to do with eternal value, friend. That’s just our little housing mechanism, our house that we live in until we go to be with God. So the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Now, this is Jesus speaking in John 6. If we go to the message, the message translation in John 6, verse 59, when Jesus told his disciples and the crowd in their presence that that if they believed, they would eat his flesh and drink his blood. What do you think he was talking about? Communion. Yes. And he was saying that the communion bread is his flesh. The communion cup is his blood. And so we see that the crowd was shocked. They couldn’t believe this, but we as believers believe that. Many among his disciples heard this and said, Whoa, this is tough teaching, too tough to swallow. And Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, Does this rattle you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is Spirit Word. And so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part of this. Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He also knew who would betray him. He went on to say in John 6, This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father. Yes. After this, many of his disciples left. Many of his disciples left. Not the 12, but many of his disciples who followed him. The crowds left. And yet when Jesus asked his disciples, do you want to leave also? It was Peter who by revelation, revelation of vision that God had given to him. Oh, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Yay for Peter. Yeah. I know, Peter is put down sometimes, but oh, he said some profound things. You have the words of eternal life. I have a story here to tell you. I saw it this weekend. It was emotional. I cried. And it happened in Omaha, Nebraska. A five-year-old boy was left at the hospital where Dr. Amy Beeth worked as an anesthesiologist. He was under the care of social services at the time. He was just dropped off alone when Dr. Beeth found him in the preoperative care. He was just sitting there all alone, Beeth said. No adult was with him at all. True, and this is the boy’s name, True underwent surgery, five years old, for congenital heart failure, and the procedure lasted seven hours. Through it all, Dr. Beath said she just kept staring at the sweet face of the poor little boy who at that moment had no mother, father, or a stable home life. That is when Beath decided that even though she already had six children, she just had to take in a seventh one. I love it. After I dropped true off in recovery, I called my husband and I just said, we need to have a talk when we get home. I need you have an open mind. Ryan must be a very patient, understandable husband. Well, they have six children. Ryan Beath said he was a little hesitant at first, but it didn’t take long to hear what was needed, and it just felt right. With that in mind, about 18 months later, the Beaths adopted True, and it was complete. But that’s not the end of the story. Uh-uh. Nope. Oh, I love this. True had been living with five other siblings in an unstable home environment in social services. Amy knew she and Ryan couldn’t adopt all of them. So the good doctor decided to do the next best thing. First, she got her sister and her husband to agree to adopt True’s sister, Tyline. And then her sister-in-law and her husband took in True’s sister, Tyra. Finally, she got a co-worker and her husband to take Takara and Malia, part of their family, to take them in. And there was one left. And she said, I went back to my husband, said Amy. That’s how true sister Lainey was adopted by the Beath family, too. And all of this because of a doctor who believed that saving lives wasn’t just her day job. Oh, yes. Is that not a beautiful story? I have friends who would do that very same thing. If they were confronted with an emotional story like True’s, they would not hesitate for a moment to take in someone who didn’t have a mother or a father. And that’s what the good news is all about, folks. When God gives you an opportunity to do something, you will go through that open door and give love where it is needed. Oh, there’s a beautiful video about the family and the huge group, huge group now, of family who adopted all these precious kids. And you can go up. It’s about True with Dr. Amy, B-E-E-T-H-E. And if you look that up in Nebraska, it will come right to you. It’s beautiful. God bless you. And here’s an announcement from Travis.

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Want to stay connected with Freedom Street? Get the Freedom Street Express newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Explore our Voice of Freedom blogs and dive into Darren Carmack’s teachings, all at freedomstreet.org. Or just email us anytime at hello at freedomstreet.org. Freedom Street is a listener-supported ministry with no sponsors, and your donations make it possible for us to stay on the air sharing the good news of our freedom in Christ. Thank you for standing with us.

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And I’m glad. I hope that some of you get on board. I hope you join in with the donations that are there at freedomstreet.org. Donate to our ministry that God has given to us. This is getting close to the 30th year here in September that we’ve been on the air. And God has been so faithful and true to his word. When he sets you up in a ministry, he goes before you and opens doors. And I hope you’ll be one of those people that would love to give to Call to Freedom. You’ve seen people in the armed forces stepped up to do the patriotic thing. And you read in the Bible when people come alongside to help one another. When Holy Spirit baptized them in the upper room, they didn’t leave and go to their homes and join in with their old habit of working or doing whatever they were doing before they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. No, they went out with a message of love and grace. They wanted the whole world to know. I want to go to Acts 2. It’s a wonderful passage of Scripture talking about the body of Jesus Christ really, truly being together. And we’re going to start at the 37th verse of Acts 2. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart with remorse and anxiety. This is during Peter’s speech when he says, You killed the Son of God. You killed our Messiah. And they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Brothers, what are we to do? What do we do? So many of us are saying, what can I do next? What do you want me to do? And Peter said to them, verse 38 of Acts 2, repent, change your old way of thinking. Turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of Holy Spirit for the promise of the Holy Spirit is for you and your children and for all those who are far away, including the Gentiles. So he’s promising that for now. For the children and the children’s children and the generations after the generations after the generations, he’s calling himself to you. And Peter continued to admonish and urge them with many more words, saying, be saved from this crooked and unjust generation. Wow. If there’s ever been a crooked and unjust generation, this is it, folks. In verse 41, So then those who accepted his message were baptized, and on that day about 3,000 souls were added to the body of believers. They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles and to fellowship, to eating meals together and to prayers. See, that’s what we do. We get together. We eat together. We talk about the word together. Oh, we spend time praying together. A sense of awe was felt by everyone. And many wonders and signs attesting miracles were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed in Jesus as Savior were together and had all things in common, considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole. That’s what I’ve opened my house up. When you come to my home for the monthly meetings that we have, and that’s on the second Saturday of every month. You know that that home that you’re sitting in is the home that God has provided for us, for us, for you and for me. And Darren and I bought that home with that kind of thing in mind, that we would meet together, gather together, have people together at the table. i don’t know how many hundreds of people have been around my table in the in the kitchen of my home eating and fellowshipping oh praise god they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all the other believers do you think we’d get anyone nowadays oh no i got to save my property i’ve got to give it to my loved ones when i die or i’ve got to pay off this or pay off that they wouldn’t even begin to think of selling their property and the proceeds they gave to the believers. Day after day, they met in the temple area, continuing with one mind and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, praising God continually and having favor with all the people. The people saw this. They said, what’s going on here? I mean, what if you saw your neighborhood, the people in your neighborhood, selling their homes and giving it to… a brother or a sister in need or someone who had Bible study in their homes or even the church down the street that was struggling. Oh my goodness, they wouldn’t be able to believe it. It was the Lord who kept adding the Lord, not their social agenda, not all their parties, not all their fun stuff in their church. It was the Lord who kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved. What a confirmation of our calling as believers to testify and share with people our love for Jesus. If you’ve never been bold before, today I pray, Father God, in Jesus’ name, O Holy Spirit, give my listeners the boldness to go and share, share, share Jesus Christ with those around them. Oh, thank you, Lord. I’m going to continue in the third chapter of Acts because this is one of my favorite chapters. I love this. Oh, now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and that’s 3 p.m. And they were doing their normal thing. And I’ll bet that they were praying for an opportunity to minister on their way to the temple. I’m sure they were. Father God, give us someone to minister to because they’d just been baptized in the Holy Spirit in the upper room. They were speaking in tongues. God had just empowered them. And so they were going along. A man who had been unable to walk from birth, that’s 40 years, was being carried along whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, so that he could beg alms from those entering the temple. So when he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking them for coins, of course. They want alms. They want coins. They want money. And that’s one thing I find right now when I go online and I go to my emails, people begging for money. I have never seen so many people begging for money. I mean, I get 150 emails a day, people begging for money. And a lot of this are politicians. And they’re wealthy people. and they’re begging for money. Oh, folks, that’s a soapbox of Barbara right now. I just wish that they would give a demonstration of who they are in the love of Jesus, in the love of God, without at the end saying, how much are you going to donate today? Oh, we have our donations all pretty much set, don’t we? Yeah, we do. We’re going to give into the kingdom of God and God is going to see that these people are taken care of. Those who truly love him, who truly, truly love him. So when this man saw Peter and John, I don’t think his name was ever given. I don’t think so. So when he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking them for coins, alms. But Peter, along with John, stared at him intently. I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine. And said, look at us. They were ready. They were ready. And the man began to pay attention to them. You know, he wasn’t just like another guy who was going into the temple. He began to pay attention to them, eagerly expecting to receive something from them. Oh, and this is what I love. Peter is saying, Walking and leaping and praising God. Oh, I love that. I love that old chorus. Then he sees the man’s right hand with a firm grip, raised him up. And at once his feet and ankles became strong and steady. And with a leap, he stood up and began to walk. Oh, I cannot imagine the crowd. There was probably a crowd at that time going into the temple for their hour of prayer. And he went walking and leaping and praising God. And they recognized him as the very man who usually sat begging for coins at the gate beautiful to the temple. It’s amazing to know how we can be effective. truly effective by just our being there, being in the presence of people who are hungry for God. And so they were filled with wonder and amazement and were mystified at what had happened to him. That’s how it is, folks. You think less of yourself and how foolish you’ll look if you talk to people about Jesus and you see the importance of letting people know there is a Savior and a friend who wants to bless and love them. We’re going to be more and more looking into the worship and praise of the Creator rather than the creation. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all about that. And I go into Chapter 4 a little bit here. Oh, this is so good. Peter is still. He is so full of power. He’s telling the people, repent and return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. That’s the only way you’re going to get a refreshing. The things of this world get old almost instantly. They get so old, you can buy a new suit, buy a new car, buy a new home, and pretty soon it just becomes too much. It’s a burden. It’s oppressive. And the only thing that is refreshing to your soul and your spirit and your body as well is repenting and getting with Jesus Christ, becoming one with Jesus. He is inviting you. That precious verse in Romans 15, 13 that we just said at the beginning of this program, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing as you trust in him that you may have the hope of of the power of Holy Spirit in you, filling you up, and you will be bold in everything you say. Oh, it’s beautiful to know that wherever you go, as you go, Jesus is with you. It’s as that little child says, he’s with me. When you ask him, where’s Jesus? He’s in my heart. And I hope you have the heart of a child today. I hope you can say as that child is, Jesus is in my heart. Because he promised in John 14 that my Father and I will make our dwelling place in you. And that’s where he is. Holy Spirit is with you, operating in you as you give him opportunity. He’s a gentleman. You’ve got to tell him, I need you, Holy Spirit. I need you to go before me today. So I bless you in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow, we’re going to talk about St. Patrick and what he did. Oh, what a mission he had and what persecution he went through. God bless you and keep you and take joy. Music

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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.