In this episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly focus on staying grounded in faith during times of uncertainty, change, and emotional challenge.
The conversation opens with a simple but powerful reminder: when life feels overwhelming, the answer isn’t resistance—it’s leaning in. Leaning into God’s presence brings the rest and hope that every heart is searching for, especially in difficult seasons.
From there, the discussion explores the daily battle of perspective. With constant noise, negativity, and conflicting voices, listeners are encouraged to be intentional about what they focus on. Feeding discouragement only strengthens it—but choosing to focus on God’s
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 :
On this cloudy day and rainy and soggy in Denver, Colorado, praise God we’ve been praying for this. Yes. Oh, praise God we’ve been praying for this rain. Oh, welcome to Call to Freedom. In difficult times, God wants you to listen to his voice and lean on him. Lean in on him rather than resisting. That’s when you will find rest. and the hope your heart craves. Your heart is craving for rest and for hope, and I hope that you are receiving that through Call to Freedom. We are so delighted to come to you and to give you the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to know. that there is a hope in this world, even with all the chaos and all the trouble in this world. Cling to Jesus. Just cling to Jesus. Hold on tight, because you may have to really hold on. You are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. Kimberly, it’s just so nice to have you in the studio. I love being with you.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is fun. And we do have some changes that are going on with Call to Freedom. We will not be at this 1 o’clock time any longer. So if you’re listening right now at 1 o’clock, you won’t find us in just a couple of weeks. At 1 o’clock, you will find us at different times. You can hear us at 9 p.m. or at 2.30 in the morning or 5.30 in the morning if you are… Early riser. Yeah, I was going to say maybe a really late night owl. Oh, yeah. 2.30. But we will also be on the sister station, 1220 KLDC, and we’ll be on at 11 a.m. at that time. So you can still find us. We’re not going anywhere. Call to Freedom is still… Yes. Amen. That’s right. You can look for us under Resources and find the radio programs right there. We do upload those daily so that they stay current and fresh, and you can find us there. You can also find us at 670KLTT.com. So we’re not going anywhere. Stay with us and keep continuing to hear the hope, the joy, the good news, and all of the ways that we want to stay focused on the good things that God has given us. You know, really, that’s what it is, Mom. It’s a perspective. We all have a choice every day on what we’re going to put our eyes on and what we choose to view, what we choose to focus on. And every day there’s good news and there’s bad news. And if we continue to focus on the bad news and feed that area, that is what has the power in our lives. It’s always discouraging. We don’t want discouragement to have power in our lives. So we choose to keep looking at the good news and what God is doing, that he is still on the throne, that he has a plan for your life. Even when you are experiencing some real challenges right now, he’s got a plan that is so good.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, and we don’t care for change. I don’t care for change, and I know you probably don’t either. But you think about the people in the Bible and how they had to change to write this Bible for us today. I was just talking to Kimberly about the precious John who wrote the book of John and 1 and 2 and 3 John and Revelation. in a time when he had such a drastic change. Folks, he went from loving Jesus one minute and seeing all these miracles to being put on an island, a rocky island that did not produce anything, being alone after being with so many precious people, being alone, and God gave him the book of Revelation for us. Kimberly, I can’t even imagine it. Amazing visions.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it was. You know, and I was even reading in Exodus 12 and also Numbers 9 this morning. You know how I jump around. Yes, you do. And I was reading about how the Lord would lead his people in the wilderness. Sometimes that pillar of cloud would move within 24 hours. They were moving again. And do you know sometimes it wasn’t even the pillar of cloud? It says this. It says that sometimes that fire by night would lift. If they saw it lift at night, they had to start moving at nighttime.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, I just can’t imagine getting all my pots and pans and the tents and everything in order. I can’t imagine that. But God brought them through that and he will bring us through that. He will bring you through. whatever challenge you’re going through. I have just an article by Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice before we get into that beautiful book again, First John. And Jay is saying here, we have a major development at the U.S. Supreme Court. Remember, they’re giving a lot of… results at the supreme court right now in one of the biggest cases i’ve ever taken on and oh he’s taken on cases for 30 years now we face a critical deadline in two days and so that was a day ago so it’s one day a deadline in one day as we prepare to defeat cnn’s deception CNN lied, blasting fake news to millions, all to attack President Trump and even people of faith. They twisted and manipulated what a member of President Trump’s legal team actually argued during the impeachment trial. Remember those when he was there in court for a whole month? I’ll never forget it. I know because I was there at the floor of the Senate when it happened, says Jay. But now CNN is hiding behind a broken Supreme Court rule that shields the media from accountability. So we filed a landmark case against CNN. Wow, it used to be a major media. And at the U.S. Supreme Court to finally hold the deceptive mainstream media accountable for its lies. CNN ignored us, but the Supreme Court ordered CNN to respond. This week is our Supreme Court deadline to file our final brief. This is one of the most important cases I’ve ever taken on at the Supreme Court, and I need your help. Taking on the nearly unlimited resources of a media powerhouse like CNN will take immense support. We urgently need your tax-deductible support today. Have your gift doubled. Okay, so you go to ACLJ.org and you give a gift. I don’t care if it’s only $5, folks. And that is $10 for them. Or $50 is $100. Or $100 is $200. So I want you to go there, ACLJ.org. and give right now. They need it. They really need it. That is one of the greatest organizations, Kimberly. If I ever got into legal trouble, I’d get hold of Jay or Jordan. I would. I’d say, help, help.
SPEAKER 02 :
I need your help. Well, and the other help that they need are prayers. So let’s just take a moment now. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have plans for this country. And your plans are to turn us around and to see truth, to see righteousness. Lord, we thank you that you are the one guiding these people. Jay Secular has a wonderful law firm because you have given it to him. So we ask for your favor on his life. We know that you’ve already given that. And we also ask that you would quickly cause these… these court cases to come to a very quick end for your glory, God. This country will no longer be resisting you and your goodness, but we will be looking for you and to you and expecting your goodness to come. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, amen. Well, the verse we have been focusing on this week is Galatians 6. Verse 9, do not grow weary. I want to read it from The Passion. It’s so beautiful. And don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds. We’ve been talking about seeds too, Kimberly. Planting those seeds. That’s right. For the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming. Take advantage of every opportunity to be a blessing to others, especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, what a beautiful thing. I’m going to read that from the New Living Translation, Galatians 6, 9. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. That’s so good. We will. We’ll reap that harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. There’s another translation that I really enjoy. It’s the contemporary English version. Don’t get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded when the time is right. If you don’t give up. So we won’t give up. We will continue to bless others and plant seeds of goodness, plant seeds of light. I had somebody asking me, there’s some things going on in their family, and one part of the family is keeping secrets from the other part of the family. Oh. And that’s hard. That’s hard when secrets are being kept. Sometimes it’s a good thing because there are some things that you don’t want others to know about that could just be crushing. But most of the time, secrets are really, really difficult. And they were just asking me, could you be praying? How do I respond? What do I do? I don’t think I want to tell them about this. And, you know, I just I started thinking we are the light of the world. Right. Light does not know darkness. So as we continue to bring things out into the light, we can trust that our father of light will cause goodness to be shining in every corner of our lives.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, amen. I remember what Darren said. And, you know, if you’re thinking of negatives because a friend, a friend who used to be a friend is speaking negatively about you on social media or whatever it is. He used to say, and I love this, it’s none of my business what you think of me. He just went on glorifying God through his lifetime. So that’s what I’m doing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s important that we don’t listen to the negative. Really important.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. We make it so that it’s not our business. That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
So let’s go to 1 John. We’ve been studying Luke 8 about the four soils this week. It’s been so good to know that if you’re that fourth soil whose truth, God’s truth is imparted into your heart. then you’re going to be reaping 30, 60, and 100-fold harvest. Oh, I’m for you. I am encouraged for you. I am expecting God to do some great things in your life, and we must have the faith and no unbelief, no unbelief in Jesus’ name. So let’s turn to 1 John 3.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yesterday, when we were reading in 1 John 3, we accidentally skipped over verses 11 and 12. So I’m going to start in verse 11. Good. The beautiful message you’ve heard right from the start is that we should walk in self-sacrificing love toward one another. We should not be like Cain, who yielded to the evil one and brutally murdered his own brother, Abel. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous. Well, this is right in the middle of the chapter, chapter three. It’s talking about being able to tell the difference between a child of God and a child of the evil one. And here it’s giving us a really perfect picture of Cain and Abel. Cain was hating. He was thinking hateful thoughts. He had bad thoughts. And that’s what distinguishes him from his brother Abel, who was a child of God. That’s right. So they’re giving a really perfect picture for us so that we have an example. And when we go on in verse 13, so don’t be shocked, beloved brothers and sisters, if you experience the world’s hatred, because there are those who hate. Mm-hmm. Yet we can be assured that we have been translated from spiritual death into spiritual life because we love the family of believers. There it is. We make a choice. Instead of being haters, we make a choice to be lovers.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
A loveless life remains spiritually dead. Everyone who keeps hating a fellow believer is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. So that is how we tell the difference between someone who is a child of God and someone who is a child of the evil one. And this is not a label that stays with us for the rest of our lives or the rest of eternity. Even we are the ones who have a choice to make. As soon as we choose that label flips.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. The mindset on the flesh. You can change that in an instant. Our friend, you really can. Kimberly and I are so encouraged that as you hear the word of God, you’re going to choose to be a loving person. child of God. And in Romans eight, verse six, it says the mindset on the flesh and those are greedy, jealous, hateful. The mindset on the flesh is death and the mindset on the spirit is life and peace.
SPEAKER 02 :
Even when I am grieving over something, that grief is a good thing. We can grieve with our Heavenly Father with how broken this world is. So grieving is one thing, and it’s a good thing. To let tears flow is healing. That’s different from grieving.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
And being able to catch it, it’s not an easy thing to do. I know this. I’m talking from experience. It’s not easy to look at yourself and go, okay, hold on. This is not accomplishing the will of God. These tears are no longer tears grieving with him at a broken world. These are tears of, oh, feel sorry for me now. Look at me, poor me. I am so sad and everyone else should be sad with me. That’s right.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
What was that song? It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. Oh my goodness, yes. So self-pity is one of those that is fleshly and we need to learn how to catch it and say, no, I don’t need to go down that path with you. And it’s hard to do that if it’s a familiar place. If self-pity is familiar to you, it’s hard to catch it. Same with bitterness or unforgiveness or resentment, anger. Those things are hard to catch if they are your normal, if that’s your normal place that you go to. But when you finally realize this is not what Jesus would want for me and I have the power to change this. I don’t have to live according to the flesh. I can live according to the spirit. This is how we have discovered love’s reality. That’s what the next verse is in 1 John 3, verse 16. This is how we have discovered love’s reality. Jesus made the choice to sacrifice his life for us. Because of this great love, we should be willing to lay down our opinions, our agendas, our thoughts, our ideas, our goals, right? We should be willing to lay down our lives for one another. That’s right. If anyone sees a fellow believer in need and has the means to help him yet shows no pity, pride can show no pity. Pride can look and say, oh, well, they should have just done it better. They should have done life better and walk away. So if anyone sees a fellow believer in need and has the means to help him yet shows no pity and closes his heart against him, how is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? God does not ever shut anyone out. No.
SPEAKER 03 :
Not one. For God so loved the world, the world, every human being on this planet he loves.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. Did you want to keep going in verse 18? I feel like I’m just chattering on and on.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re going… Ever since you said, it’s my party, this thing is going, gotcha, gotcha.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, do you have a song?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. It’s my party and I… It’s my party and I… So I’ve got to enter into my mind, how big is God? Or how great is God? And another song. And that’s how we can change immediately from something that’s negative, Kimberly. It’s my party. And to change immediately our thoughts, our thought patterns to something that’s godly and loving.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, let me help you. How great is our God?
SPEAKER 03 :
Sing with me how great is our God.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, now you get a new song in your head. Okay, verse 18 of 1 John 3. Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about. That’s right. but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. This is so good. There’s a footnote here in the Passion. I’m just going to read it because it says that God sees beyond the sin of a moment and he sees the holy affections of love in those who refuse to turn away from him. We can make mistakes, but he sees beyond those mistakes. That’s right, he does. We can still sin, but he sees beyond that sin of a moment. When we keep our eyes and we keep turning and go, ooh, yeah, I don’t like how I feel. And I do that even in my thought life. When I start to feel that self-pity, I turn. I know that that self-pity is not accomplishing his will, and I turn. That’s right. loves those who keep turning to him.
SPEAKER 03 :
I want to give a note here to people who are listening. And we’ve mentioned the Passion Translation so many times. And some of you have said, Oh, I’ve got so many Bibles. I don’t need another one. Friend, take our advice. I have read almost every translation there is. And yet there’s a translation that you will enjoy. And I believe sometimes the enemy or our flesh is telling us we don’t need one more translation.
SPEAKER 02 :
Or we question its authenticity.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Oh, it’s beautiful. So if you, I hope that Holy Spirit will tell you, urge you, nudge you to get a passion translation and you go to christianbook.com and it’s right there. The passion. If you put passion, P-A-S-S-I-O-N translation and get a large print. Oh, you will be forever grateful for that beautiful descriptive translation. Yes. Oh, and let’s not get negative.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Yeah. And I’ve had to fight that because I’m a rational person. I’m logical. I like to analyze things.
SPEAKER 03 :
You like to go to the Hebrew and the Greek.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Yeah. But so did the author who put this translation together. He went to the original Hebrew and the original Greek.
SPEAKER 03 :
And what I love is that he actually went to the language Jesus spoke, the Aramaic, which I am thrilled to read and to look at.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for that reminder. Okay, we’re in verse 19 of 1 John 3. We know that the truth lives within us because we demonstrate love in action. which will reassure our hearts in his presence. You know what? I just want to take some time on this because there are many of us that don’t feel reassured. There are many who feel insecure. There are many who do not understand the Bible or understand this word that the Lord is giving us. And when we start practicing what God is telling us to do, not because our heart has changed, but we’re practicing as an act of our will, believing that what he is telling us is truth. It’s life. It’s good. And it’s good for us. And it will put us on a better path in life. Yes. When we choose to believe that even over our feelings. Our feelings might be confused. We might not understand. We might not even believe. But we can change our mind about what we believe.
SPEAKER 03 :
You could say like Darren, feelings and symptoms are liars. God’s word is truth. And sometimes we’ve got to go against all those feelings and even the symptoms, Kimberly. Well, I just don’t feel good. I just don’t think I’ll get out of the house today. Those kind of feelings are going to be deceptive and they’re going to take us on a course that is not the loving course that God gives to us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And I like how you’re wording that because it’s not all feelings and symptoms that are liars. It’s just we need to catch the ones that are lying to us. That’s right. And when we catch those, then we are able to actually uproot them and plant the word of God. Plant that seed, the seed of the word of God in our lives and let that change us. We want to change. It’s those little foxes that spoil the grapes. Yes. And we become confident that those little foxes are no longer going to steal from us. We become assured. We become secure. Yes. When we practice this kind of love, when we practice the things that the Lord has been telling us to, when we start applying the fruits of the spirit in our lives, we just want to encourage you that our assurance, our confidence, our boldness has come from actually putting this in practice, putting love in practice and patience and kindness. Yes. So in verse 20 of 1 John 3, whenever our hearts make us feel guilty and remind us of our failures, we know that God is much greater and more merciful than our conscience. And he knows everything there is to know about us. Yes. This is right here telling us that we are assured, confident, bold. We are secure because we’ve been practicing what God himself. We’re human, so we’re small and we’re weak compared to God. If we can start applying the fruits of the Spirit to our lives and practicing that fruit and practicing love, we can then start realizing there is a possibility of a love even greater than this. That’s what brings such assurance. And this is what we want for all of you. As you’re listening, we want you to feel assured of God’s love in your life. Start practicing it toward other people and you’ll realize, oh, this is actually a drop in the ocean of love that God has available for all of us. Mm-hmm. And we want to be able to tap into that love, tap into that joy and that peace. We want God to have his way on this earth. His kingdom come and his will be done, that the whole earth would be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, like the waters cover the sea. This is impossible for us, but there’s nothing impossible for our God. So as we continue to submit and surrender our lives to him and plant good seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness to one another in the traffic as you’re driving, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That means our self is controlled by his love. Then we will know a greater assurance, a greater security, a greater hope than anything else this world could give.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, that’s so good. Yes. Oh, love one another as Christ has loved us. God bless you and keep you. Remember, Darren and I are on Fridays. So join us then. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
