On this comforting episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly share a heartfelt conversation about releasing stress, finding peace in God’s presence, and learning to rejoice through every season of life. Through scripture, personal reflection, and gentle encouragement, the program explores gratitude, prayer, the Beatitudes, and the compassionate heart of Jesus. Listeners are reminded that God’s desire is not for them to live burdened and anxious, but to walk in joy, peace, and fellowship with Him each day.
00:00:10 Episode Introduction and Contact Information
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 :
Oh, and on this rainy day, can you believe it? It’s raining. I am so grateful. And most of the people in the Denver area are just praising God. Well, I hope they’re praising God, but also thanking the weatherman and everybody. Isn’t it strange? It’s God who does it, and yet… We are asking the weathermen to provide this kind of weather one day and another kind of weather another day. This is impossible because it’s the Lord who’s doing it. And I’m so grateful. Praise the Lord. And thank you for joining us today. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. That means that you are enthusiastic about everything that you’re doing for the Lord. And in the New American Standard, it says, whatever you do, do your work heartily with enthusiasm as for the Lord rather than for men. And I listened today on Creflo Dollar’s program, and he was saying he had two bouts of cancer. really dangerous cancer, and also shingles. And one day he just said, Lord, what am I going through? And why am I going through it? And he said, you’ve been under stress. And he says, stress? He says, yes, the approval of men has been more important to you than giving my word. And And it says here, whatever you do in the New American Standard in Colossians 3, verse 23, whatever you do, do your work enthusiastically, heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. And that’s the bottom line, folks. We’ve got to do our work for the Lord, not for man’s approval, but for God’s pleasure. And I’m so grateful that we can do that for God’s pleasure. He is at work in you today, both to work and to will for his good pleasure. And we want to get into that realm, that wonderful channel of God’s will. So since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord, you’re going to work enthusiastically for him. I’m praising God today that Creflo Dollar is cancer free and he doesn’t have shingles and he’s just let it all go. And I hope you’re just putting your palms down saying, Lord, I let it all go. I release it to you today. Praise the Lord. That’s a good word. Thank you for joining us, Kimberly.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s a good word, mom. That is knowing that we were made to be free of stress, free of bitterness and anger, free of self-pity, free of anxiety and fear, free from doubt. We’re, we’re supposed to be free from confusion and knowing that we sometimes keep ourselves in those places because we’re not focused on what God wants more than what we want.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
When we start putting our focus on what he wants, what his dream is, and then committing ourselves to letting that dream come true in us, then we become this place of, it’s a sanctuary. We are his sanctuary. That’s right. What do we think of when we think of a sanctuary? I hope we’re thinking of someplace that’s restful. Worship. Yes. Well, someplace that you really enjoy going to. You know, like a bird sanctuary, a butterfly sanctuary. I’ve been in one of those. And those are really enjoyable and very calm, very peaceful places. Hopefully we are that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, that’s right. We went this morning talking when I heard Creflo saying he had been stressed out and he didn’t even realize he’d been stressed out. He said, what is causing this? And God said, it’s the approval of men. over my pleasure. And I looked up the word stress in Noah Webster’s dictionary. And it says pressure and strain, great effort given. And then he quoted a Dr. Locke. It happens a lot in the Noah Webster dictionary. Though the faculties of the mind are improved by exercise, yet they must not be put to a stress beyond their strength. So that’s involving something. I believe we’re made in the image and likeness of God. So when we put added humanistic stress of approval of men in our brain and those thoughts go streaming around all the time. It brings an exhaustion into our life, a sapping of our strength that we should use for God. Our lives are sapped. If you’re getting to the end of the day and you’re just so tired, you can hardly stand. Think about what you’ve been thinking about all day. Have you been stressed out on something? If you are, you’ve got to get it out of your mind and let it go. Let it go.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think the main problem, Mom, is that we adapt. We’re humans that adapt to our situations. And so we keep adapting and keep adapting to more and more pressure, more and more strain. And when that happens, we just think that’s normal because we keep adapting. So the pressure and the strain and the stress on our lives is normal to us. We forget that we were made to be at peace. We were made to walk in the cool of the day with the one that we were made for. We forget that we are his sanctuary. And I was looking at an article, I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it’s called Slow Thinking for a Fast-Paced World. And our brains were not intended to go so fast and continually be multitasking and moving from one thing to the next to the next. That’s not what we were made for. And this world, wow, it requires a lot of that, a lot of that multitasking and a lot of moving from one thing to the next and staying on schedule. That’s not what we were made for. Yes. And we’ve forgotten that as human beings. So this article that I was reading was not even Christian based at all. It was about technology and how we are continuing to grow in technology. And with AI being present now, there’s faster development. techniques, and there’s so much to process, we try to do the same thing. We try to keep up with it instead of letting it do the work for us and just taking a breath and resting.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Well, if you want to take a breath and rest and not be stressed out, you can come to brunch on Saturday and you won’t have to do a thing, lift a finger, fix anything. They do it all and they bring it warm to the table and and you have friends around you that can enjoy it, it’s wonderful. So this Saturday, May the 9th, we have brunch at 930 at a restaurant. If you haven’t been and you just like to attend, call us at 1-877-917-7256. You’ve got a phone there. Just put in those numbers, 1-877-917-7256. And then after the wonderful brunch, then we go to my home, and Kimberly and I will be there to invite you in, and we’ll have Bible study and singing, and it’s going to be a wonderful thing. No stress. No stress. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
When you call that number, just make sure that you leave us some contact information. Let us know who you are that’s calling and let us know that you’re interested in coming. And we will call you back and give you the directions.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. I’m looking forward to it, Kimberly. I always do every month. Me too. Yeah. It’s just a highlight of my month. Our memory verse for this week is 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18. And it’s not hard. Don’t think, my goodness, you’ve got two verses there, three verses, 16, 17, 18. No, it’s really good. It’s rejoice, pray, and thank God. You can remember that. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will concerning you. And I know, John, if you are listening, you’re going to be memorizing this. In fact, you might have it memorized anyway. So God bless you, brother. Also in the message translation, 1 Thessalonians 5.16 says, Be cheerful no matter what. Pray all the time. Thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, just saying 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18, just sounds like a lot. We were just talking about not stressing out our minds. It’s not that much. Just like you said, verse 16 is rejoice. Verse 17 is pray. Verse 18, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So there it is, three verses all at once.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. I was thinking about the word rejoice, because I have a little chorus we’re going to sing this weekend. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. And that’s Philippians 4, verse 4 in the King James Version. And I was thinking, what is the difference between joy? The joy of the Lord is my strength. That’s an inner knowing and an inner strength from God to take us through any situation. Rejoicing. Don’t you think rejoice is more of an audible thing? Rejoicing in God? It’s an action. I think it’s an action. An action word. Yes. And so I was thinking, well, God, where are the… And there aren’t as many verses on rejoicing as there are on joy. I mean, joy, you just find throughout the whole Bible. When you are letting go of what Kimberly was saying, of all the anger and the angst and unforgiveness and the stress-filled attitudes, when you let those go and just relax. And ask God for the peace. That peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. So I was thinking the Beatitudes. And you don’t think of that right away as a rejoicing because it says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Wow, what does that mean? So I was thinking if we could go through those a little bit, we’re going to find rejoice in these Beatitudes. Jesus is instructing us to rejoice. And I believe that when we say blessed are the poor in spirit, that’s fully satisfied. You’re fully satisfied being in the presence of God for yours is the kingdom of heaven. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re poor financially. Huh? You’re poor in spirit. You are, uh, actually, uh,
SPEAKER 04 :
I think you’re admitting, don’t you think you’re just admitting that you can’t do it all on your own? That’s right. You’re poor. You’re weak. You’re lacking. You need. I think poor is lacking, right? You need. You’re in need. And so when you admit that to yourself and you come to the Lord, you’re blessed. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Even when you admit that you’re weak, God says, my strength is made perfect in your weakness in 2 Corinthians 12. So we know that when you’re feeling weak, God loves that. He says, okay, I’m going to come. I’m going to come alongside and strengthen you and uphold you by my righteous right hand. So the first little beatitude or blessed are the poor in spirit, fully satisfied. in God. And the fourth verse says, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. That is so true, Kimberly, because there have been times of mourning in my life when I just didn’t think I would last for the next day.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, yeah, when we are really burdened with grief and there’s so much sorrow, it can feel like we will never be happy again. That’s right. Yes. But he comes.
SPEAKER 02 :
And he fills all those empty places. You don’t forget. You don’t forget. But God fills those empty places. And that joy is forever and ever with him. Oh, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER 04 :
Blessed are those who mourn. You said it. I want to just focus on it. That word blessed means that you are filled with God himself. You are indwelt by God, and therefore you are fully satisfied. So even in the grieving, in the mourning, even in the sorrow, when we turn to the Lord, we allow him to fill us. then we are fully satisfied. We do get to experience that again, to experience fulfillment, satisfaction, joy and peace that comes with it. It does come to us again.
SPEAKER 02 :
And when you hear that somebody that you loved has just died, you don’t punch a hole in the wall. You just calmly say, Father God, I know it’s your will. Sometimes our loved ones go to be with God because it’s better that they’re with him than what they would face here on this earth. And I believe that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s still hard for us. I guess if you need to punch a hole in the wall. Then we’re going to be praying that your hand will be healed. I do know. I do know how hard that is to experience loss. Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER 01 :
Call to Freedom is ending its program live at 1 p.m. on KLTT, but we’re still here. Our broadcast will stay on air 9 p.m., 2.30 a.m., and 5.30 a.m. You can also hear us on our sister station, KLDC 1220 a.m., at 11 in the morning. Look for us on Spotify by searching for Freedom Street Radio, or find all of our programs at freedomstreet.org and 670kltt.com. And don’t forget, you can always email Barbara at hello at freedomstreet.org.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you, Lord. It’s the Beatitudes that we’re going through. And I haven’t done this for a while, Kimberly. I’ve read the Beatitudes this year, but I haven’t gone through as a teaching lesson. And we’ve gone through a fully satisfied are the poor in spirit. Oh, he fills you up. And fully satisfied are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And fully satisfied are the gentle, the humble, for they shall inherit the earth. How can the gentle and humble? It’s powerful. It’s the countries that are powerful and have all of the armament and all of the power that are going to inherit the earth. No, no, no.
SPEAKER 04 :
Gentleness is also a flexibility. It’s being flexible enough to listen and to hear others. And when we put ourselves in that kind of position, the Lord hears us. We hear him. We’ve got a team. We’re a team that we can rely on. And being gentle doesn’t mean you’re a doormat. No. Being gentle means that you are listening to the Lord, you’re listening to other people, but you have the spirit of Christ in you because Jesus himself called himself gentle and lowly, meek. And and that is what we are working toward is becoming more Christlike. You know, he he says it one time. It’s only one time. And it’s a little bit later in Matthew. You’re reading in Matthew five. But in Matthew 11, Jesus describes his heart and he only describes it one time. He says that he is gentle and lowly. And he invites us to come to him, meaning become like me. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
The other day you showed me some shorts about, no, not clothes, but shorts on your YouTube. Oh, little short videos. Yes, about little babies and these huge dogs that are their companions in their homes. These babies were maybe six months old, and the dogs, huge, you know, the kind of husky. Huskies, yeah. German shepherds, kind of. German shepherds, yes. And these dogs were gentle. I mean, these babies, they just abused them and roughed them up. And these dogs would just sit there and take it. And I remember one of them, he let go of some flour that he had on the floor. Yeah, there was some flour.
SPEAKER 04 :
It was a mess.
SPEAKER 02 :
There was a mess. And the dog and the baby were covered in flour. This dog just took it. Now, if a stranger would come in and try to take the baby, I am sure this German Shepherd or this Husky would show their authority.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that’s the whole key with gentleness. to be gentle when you know you could do harm. And that’s Jesus. Jesus, the creator of this earth, could do harm. He could be so instructive in a way that brings condemnation and guilt. He could be pointing fingers at people who are not living life well. and calling them out, that’s not who he is. He does not do that. That’s right. He is gentle.
SPEAKER 02 :
He’s coming on a horse with a two-edged sword in Revelation 19. And he’s going to swipe at everybody who is evil and wicked and will not obey him, will not come into his flock. And it’s going to be a day of reckoning. It really is. So blessed are the gentle and humble, for they shall inherit the earth. Verse 6 of Matthew 5 says, That’s fully satisfied are you who hunger and thirst because you know God is going to fill you. He’s going to fill you up when you ask. I pray for that often, Kimberly. Thank you, Lord, God of love and mercy. Because I know that without him, I would be headed for hell.
SPEAKER 04 :
I want to come back to mercy. We didn’t spend enough time on the righteousness for me. Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness. That doesn’t mean when you hunger and thirst for rightness, making sure that you’re right and looking and making sure everybody else around you is right. It says when you hunger and thirst for righteousness and we know that righteousness is a relationship with God. Jesus came and he showed us righteousness in relationships, not in following all the rules. He showed us righteousness by being gentle. and lowly and meek when he could just flick a finger and wipe people out. That’s righteousness. Righteousness is learning to have the virtues and the characteristics of God himself and realizing that he is kind. He is good. He is gentle and following the fruits of his spirit. That’s righteousness. Mm-hmm. Yes. And then when you demonstrate mercy, when blessed are the merciful, when you’re demonstrating mercy, you’re demonstrating those fruits of the spirit. You are demonstrating peace and patience, patience, patience with people, kindness and goodness and gentleness. There’s that gentleness again. It’s part of the fruits of the spirit. And that is when we are blessed and fully satisfied, when we are cultivating those characteristics in our lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
I know that when I’m in traffic and I allow somebody else to come in ahead of me or that I am merciful towards them in traffic, I know that God is going to give me mercy at some point and a driver is going to be merciful enough toward me and let me in. We experience that a lot when we’re driving around town together. And we’re patient towards them. And so we know that God is going to provide a situation in which they are patient towards us. And that’s a blessing for me. It really is to know that. And blessed are the pure in heart. This is Darren’s favorite verse here in Matthew 5, verse 8. Blessed or fully satisfied are the pure in heart. Those hearts who are pure. That’s right. I like that one, too. Oh, me, too. Yes. Verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers, those who work for peace, for they shall be called the children of God. That was one of your favorites of your father, John. John Wells loved that verse. Blessed are the peacemakers because he was a peacemaker. Very much so. Very much so. He always brought peace into a room, peace into a crowd. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
I was just reading in Philippians. I’m going to go over there real quick. Um, Philippians four, you know, we, I associate Philippians four with do not be anxious for anything, but in everything with prayer and Thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. But right before that, right before that verse, he, Paul is pleading with Yodia and Syntyche to settle their disagreement and be restored with one mind in our Lord. He is asking them to be at peace with one another. Yes. Two ladies that got into a huff. They must have. And then he talks about his dear friend and his burden bearer. I’m calling it, I’m saying it that way because syzygos, I’m not sure I’m saying that right. It’s a Greek word. But that’s the name that’s put in here in this reference. And I would like my dear friend Sisygos. Well, that name, that Greek word means a burden bearer to help resolve this issue. He wants the burden bearer to come in and help resolve the issue for both women. Yes, because they’re both precious to him. And you know what he says there? He says that all of their names are written in the book of life. That’s right. So even when we are at each other’s throats and we’ve gotten into a fight and we are not getting along really well, this is a really good thing to remember. Our names are written in the book of life. Let’s make peace. Be peacemakers here.
SPEAKER 02 :
Amen. Amen. And fully satisfied are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. You’re right standing with God, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you. Fully satisfied, people are going to rail on you. They’re going to… Laugh at you. That’s got to be hard. Laughing and taunting at you and falsely saying all kinds of evil against you because of Jesus. Here is verse 12 in Matthew 5. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s rejoice.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, that’s hard. Kimberly, I’ve got to admit, when somebody rails on me or criticizes me or says something that may offend me. It’s hard for me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, it’s been hard for me too. I’ve experienced the same thing and I’ve realized for myself that it’s because my thinking is too small. I’m thinking of myself. I’m thinking of my own reputation. I’m thinking about my own comfort in this world and I’m not really thinking about who I was made for. And when we put our mind on the truth of who we were made for and what we’re really doing here, when we realize that we are made to be God’s best friend and we fully embrace that, then we realize also he experienced the same thing. Kind of of treatment, the same kind of persecution, the same kind of being wounded physically as well as emotionally, having his reputation be disregarded and and blotched. on this planet. He’s the one who has experienced that and he wanted us to experience it as well. How do we have a best friend in someone who doesn’t even know what we’ve been through?
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. And we know here that as Paul was writing Philippians, that he was in a dungeon and a dungeon isn’t like our prisons here, folks. A dungeon was dirt and sewage and all kinds of filthy things. I can’t imagine how dirty they got. And he said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. If Paul can do that, Kimberly, we can do this in our comfortable settings. We really can. So God bless you. Remember the meeting on Saturday. Call me at 1-877-917-7256. Oh, rejoice with us. Rejoice, my friend.
SPEAKER 1 :
877-917-7256
SPEAKER 05 :
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.
