In today’s episode, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly engage in an inspiring dialogue on the humility and grace of Jesus Christ. Learn how the infinite God took finite human form to teach us about genuine love, forgiveness, and peace. Tune in to understand how a personal relationship with Him can transform our lives, providing supernatural comfort and joy beyond worldly understanding.
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 01 :
Welcome to Calda Freedom. In all things, may Jesus be the strength of your heart today, the center of your life, the guide of your future, and the joy of your soul. He is your peace who has broken down every wall of division that was established between God and man at the at the Garden of Eden, and now Jesus has come, and in his grace and in his truth, he has brought us together with Father God. Praise the Lord. May the Lord bless you all the days of your life, and I’m saying that to every one of you who are listening. Praise the Lord for you. You are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. And it’s just wonderful to have you join us today. Kimberly is going to be giving a great teaching. Probably we’ll go over into Thursday as it usually does. Right now, though, I am listening to more. I think you are also, if you’re listening to any Bible teachers. I’m listening to more and more Bible teachers who are teaching about the glory of serving the Lord, just like our verse of scripture this week. It is found in Psalm 108. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth. We are seeing God’s glory. We’re not… Boy, there were generations and just two generations back. I mean, people were wanting to get something out of salvation, getting something out of their Christian life with Jesus. And more and more, we’re just satisfied with being close to him. just getting up into his lap and saying, Father God, you are my father. I trust you. I wait on you. You are my provider, the provider of everything that I need. And I know you’re going to bring it into my hands, just like you did with Elijah and Elisha and all the prophets before. So I’m looking forward to Kimberly’s teaching. And thank you, Kimberly, for calling in again and being with us from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, thank you. And thank you for the way that you started this out, talking about God’s glory. I love your memory verse this week. And I have I’ve been just seeking him about his glory and asking him about his glory. And, you know, I’ve decided the same thing that you’re talking about. I don’t even have to know as much as I just need to be with him. Just be in the Father’s hands, just be in His presence and enjoy His presence. And what I found is such a great amount of peace and joy. It’s an overwhelming, flooding, indescribable joy. And I call it indescribable on purpose because I don’t know how to describe it. That’s right. I cannot describe the joy. And so I’m not just borrowing it as a phrase from a song or a scripture verse. I really cannot describe the kind of joy that he gives just being in his presence. But I do look forward. I believe that he’s going to help me understand glory, that word glory, and that we can be able to have some kind of a tangible picture of what that glory looks like, what it feels like, what it smells like what it tastes like i i just want to experience it in every way that he is willing to share and my verse that i that i was attracted to to talk about today is from second corinthians and it’s chapter one verses five through seven For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. And that comfort, I don’t know, it’s possible that this comfort that’s described here that Christ invites us to participate in. It might not sound appealing to you as you’re listening today. I have experienced this comfort and it is overflowing with that supernatural joy and peace that we were just talking about. It’s so different from human joy and peace. But we as humans have to have faith to enter into the circumstances that will bring this joy, that will bring this comfort, that will bring this peace. Those circumstances often bring suffering in some form or another. And sharing in the suffering, that’s our choice. We get to choose whether or not we’re going to share in it. And in fact, it really is, especially in the Western world here, we’ve got so many resources. to look to and grab for when we are in uncomfortable situations. We can go so many places. We can have government help. We can have help from banks. We can have help from doctors and medical programs. You know, we’ve got so many resources. Education. If you feel confused about your life, boy, you can be educated online. There’s so many resources that can divert us from a situation that is causing discomfort or suffering.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m so glad you mentioned that, Kimberly, because in Paul’s circumstances and in that instant, you’re talking about 2 Corinthians. So he’s been writing all the epistles, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, all the epistles, not really mentioning the hardships. Although, you know, in Acts he describes it. But here in 2 Corinthians, especially the 12th chapter, he opens his heart to what he has gone through for the sake of the gospel. And I’m so grateful he did because I don’t think any of us have really gone through what Paul went through. The stoning, the beating with rods, the shipwreck, all of that. And I’m glad that he did open his heart to what he went through because I think I can get through most of that with God’s help. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, yeah, we can’t imagine being led into circumstances like that and coming out of it with such comfort and such joy and peace. And he did experience that. So that’s where we have to have faith because we can’t imagine it. We only imagine in our own human senses what makes sense to us. And our human joy is not strong enough to carry us through. yes those kinds of circumstances of being beaten and shipwrecked and yeah stoned to death and and raising i think he was stoned to death and he just got right back up and i went back on his mission yes oh and we can’t imagine that we we i don’t know i think there’s a fear that rises up when we think of things like that we can’t imagine that the joy is so great But it is. It really is. And Jesus chose to share in our sufferings by coming into this creation. You know, he didn’t create this world and then humankind fell away from it. And then he just washed his hands of it and abandoned it and said, hey, you’re all on your own. He did not do that. He came into this broken world, this very, it’s a cruel world. With eyes wide open.
SPEAKER 01 :
With eyes wide open, yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you know, he formed this world with his own hands. And then he when when it felt when we broke it, he came into that brokenness. He wanted to be a part of that fallen state. And the timing of his interest, the way that he showed up. I just keep thinking of how when we as human beings plan a vacation, we plan around the very best possible. situations the best season to go the best weather that we could possibly have the best accommodations that we can book you know the best travel the way to get there we want to have the best experience jesus he planned his trip into this world at the most brutal time when Rome was in control and they were not kind to people. Very cruel people. And this is when Jesus showed up and his travel, he decided to show up in the womb of a woman and be pushed into this world. You know, wow, I’m amazed at a God that would choose something so humble. What a humble way to show up. And then his very first place of being pushed out into was a smelly stable. So his initial accommodations in this world were not the best. And his schedule of events while he was here included the most brutal thrashing that any human being has ever endured, followed by cruel, savage crucifixion on a cross. This is Jesus, not just sharing in the worst human sufferings, but taking the very worst of it on himself. And so I picture him, he jumps into oceans of suffering and he invites us to experience a drop. Really, that’s what it is in our life. a drop of sorrow. And I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s situations of suffering, because when we are suffering, it feels big. It does feel really big to us, and they are serious. Our sufferings are difficult, really hard. I’m just trying to put it in the perspective of what God himself has chosen. And he has chosen to share in our sufferings in such a way that that’s just huge. We can see the exchange rate between Christ’s suffering and our own is severely mismatched in equality. When we look at our own lives, we have not suffered what he has suffered. And when traveling to other countries, the currencies are so often seriously unequivalent, right? It’s true also of the heavenly and earthly currencies as well. Jesus himself has taken on so much more than we ever will. And he designed it that way. He designed it that way so that we could really see him in all of his humility, in all of his generosity, in all of his goodness and kindness, and fall in love with him. So our own opinion of how much we are suffering ends up being very one-sided, and we’re not mindful at all of the suffering of our own Creator and what He has endured. Sharing is our choice. Whether or not we share in the sufferings of Christ, sit and think about these things, meditate on them. That’s a choice that we have to make. And now that I’ve given a little description of what I think and what I meditate on, we will keep that example of Christ in our mind as we look at some of the sufferings that we’re faced with in this world. They’re real and they are painful. Yes, it can bring us to our knees when our heart breaks, when we experience trials that feel like ocean waves just covering us. And in our pain and suffering, We as humans have a tendency to think that the trials we experience are unfair and unjust. When we feel that we’ve been treated unjustly or unfairly, that’s what triggers us to think we need to take this into our own hands and we demand recompense. That’s where we want justice. Our ideas of how to invoke justice Well, they fail to bring us the real peace that we’re truly looking for. And Jesus knows this. And that’s why he invites us to share in his sufferings the way that 2 Corinthians 1, 5 says, as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings. So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. And this comfort, this joy, this peace is greater than anything that we can imagine.
SPEAKER 01 :
Just two verses before verse five in Second Corinthians, Paul is saying, Blessed be God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and father of mercies and God of all comforts who comforts us in all our affliction. so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. I think that’s what you’re also saying, Kimberly. We have a choice to share our afflictions with others who are going through some hard times. That’s right. Because we’ve been through it. Yes. Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
And there is a fear of going through trials. There’s a fear of suffering. And it’s natural. That’s our natural human state. And that’s why we need to be looking to the supernatural. The supernatural is real. The supernatural realm and what God has, what he wants to give us. it’s something so big and and it’s very very tangible i have experienced it and it’s more satisfying than any of our ideas of how we would get justice or how we would fulfill our needs how how we could be satisfied we make our plans and we think of things that we hope will meet our needs, but they never really do in this realm if we try it without our Heavenly Father’s help, without His supernatural graces being poured out on us. And we have to remember that our longings and our cravings, our desires are infinite because we were made for an infinite God. We’re made to be his best friends. So he planted infinite desires in us. They are infinite and eternal. But we live in a finite and a temporary realm. And so when we are trying to meet our infinite desires with finite resources, it’s never going to work. Not without His grace and His… We’re cooperating with him, his partnership. We’re partnering with him. And that’s what we want in this life is to learn how to do that in a way where we’re not afraid of suffering. We’re not afraid of the trials. We’re not afraid of the things that are not comfortable to us. Our affections are set so much on the heavenly realm. that we are no longer caring exactly what that path might look like in this realm and that’s what jesus came to show us that’s how he showed us how to live yeah jesus invitation to come to him with our heavy burdens of hurt with our unmet infinite hungers His invitation will bring the rest and the joy and the satisfaction that we crave. He’s giving us the choice to join him in his ways. And I just encourage you to choose it. Choose him. Choose his ways. Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened. I will give you rest. Well, what does it mean to come to him? He’s no longer walking on this earth. So how do we access Him? And that is through our study of the Word, it’s through prayer, it’s through times of meditation and devotion to Him. And it’s crucial to remember that He is our prototype human. He’s our example, the one who gave us the perfect example of how to come to peace with Him. Again, we’ve got to remember He came as an infinite God, but he came in finite flesh, human flesh. And he came to show us that he’s not… Jesus didn’t come here to just open his arms and say, look, I am God. Don’t you wish you were too? That was not the point. Jesus came to show us that in a 100% human body, it is possible to stay so in touch with the Heavenly Father that we can walk out paths that lead us even to something as horrible as what he experienced. and yet have a joy so much greater that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross.” This is amazing grace. This is amazing grace. That’s what we want to experience is that kind of amazing grace where we’re no longer afraid of what this life brings to us. We can look to the 100% human who was also 100% God, Jesus himself. Philippians 2, 6 and 7 says that he, Jesus, existed as God in human form But he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness. This is how he revealed himself as 100% human, yet 100% God. He took the form of a servant, meaning he was taking directions. He was taking instructions. He was being guided. He was following the demands and the commands of his Heavenly Father the whole time, not leaning in his own opinions and his own agendas. He did have his own opinions. I believe he did. But he laid them down to be Jesus Christ, the Messiah who brought us salvation. This is how Jesus revealed the still waters and the green pastures. that we’re invited to in the middle of the storms on this earth.
SPEAKER 01 :
And that’s why he said, on the cross, Kimberly, which if I were on the cross and if I were going through that pain, I would just be screaming, or I would, you know, why, Lord, why, Lord, as I did so many times in my life when things didn’t go my way. But what he did is he looked to John and said, John, here is your mother. He was thinking of his mother and also the thief on the cross next to him. Today, you will be with me in paradise. He was always thinking of others, always in context with who he was. That’s profound. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
It is. And in his greatest pain, he was offering forgiveness to everyone with his arms stretched out and pierced with nails on that cross. He was saying, Father, forgive them, all of them. They don’t know what they’re doing. And yes, when we choose to hold on to our own resources, and hold on to unforgiveness even. Unforgiveness. Instead of forgiving those who have hurt us, when we choose to hold on to unforgiveness, that is a way of thinking that we’re justifying the situation, or we’re getting our revenge, or getting justice, whatever it is, that we think that it’s going to satisfy us. It’s really funny because you can feel kind of smug in your unforgiveness. As a human being, you can feel very justified in not forgiving. But Jesus showed us how to how to actually experience this supernatural grace. It’s a supernatural comfort. It’s a supernatural joy and peace. It’s more satisfying than anything else you could ever possibly imagine in this realm.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
So satisfying that he was enduring the greatest pain, forgiving everyone who put him in that place. And that joy, I believe that joy went with him to the grave. That joy is what resurrected him out of the tomb.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. I think of that when I think of forgiveness. The story that comes up into my mind is Corrie Ten Boom, who after she came to America, she experienced a worldwide ministry. I mean, worldwide and books and movies were made of her life. in the concentration camp with her sister Betsy who was her best friend and closest relative and how she saw Betsy beaten to death in the concentration camp by this especially by this one guard and when the Lord told her I want to send you to Germany She said, Lord, I’ll go anywhere with you, but I can’t go back to Germany. And finally, Holy Spirit moved in her life. And she said, OK, I go, but I don’t want to meet that guard. And lo and behold. For some unforeseen God appointment, this guard came to the meeting of Corrie Ten Boom, and she faced him. And Kimberly, I can’t even imagine that confrontation. But what she did is, as an act of her will, she forgave him. And I don’t know if they hugged, but she did shake his hand and forgave him. for what he had done to her sister Betsy. So all of us have gone through those times when somebody has really crushed us or hurt us or done us wrong or gossiped to an extent where we couldn’t even believe what they were saying about us, and yet forgiveness is a freeing experience in our own lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, and we can’t imagine someone else, like in your story of Corrie Ten Boom, we can’t imagine You know, when it is Father God leading us and our affections are truly set on Him, all of our attention and everything that we want is for Him to have His dream come true and His desires. He’s the God of reconciliation. So when He reconciles us with someone, the joy that He has over that is poured into our little finite beings and it’s not hard it’s not hard you know if we try if we’re trying to do it just as checking it off our list because we think that’s how we’re going to be a good christian and so we’re gritting our teeth pulling up our bootstraps and trying to do it in our own effort that’s hard it is But when we have our desires totally set on God’s desires, He is so full of joy about that, that He pours that joy into us, and then it’s not hard to walk it out and to do it. It’s not hard to forgive. But you’ve got to ask Him for help. It is all about a relationship. Sharing in relationship with him is what opens the door for this supernatural grace and this supernatural joy and supernatural peace that we’re talking about. It’s unlike any kind of human joy and hope and peace and comfort. It’s so big. It’s so great. And it causes us to walk through life with an ease that we never would have expected any other way.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right. Oh, it’s been so good, Kimberly. And as I say, usually on a Wednesday when we haven’t. through what I believe you need to say to our listeners that we invite you back tomorrow because this is so good. We realize that in our weaknesses, the power of Christ dwells in us. So we’ve got to give in to those weaknesses in order to see God’s power at work in us. So thank you so much for coming on board and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. I look forward to being back. And everyone out there, take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
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 370367. 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.
In today’s episode, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly engage in an inspiring dialogue on the humility and grace of Jesus Christ. Learn how the infinite God took finite human form to teach us about genuine love, forgiveness, and peace. Tune in to understand how a personal relationship with Him can transform our lives, providing supernatural comfort and joy beyond worldly understanding.
