Stories of Hope and Divine Intervention

SPEAKER 01 : 0:09

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 : 1:04

Welcome to Call to Freedom. May the blessings of the Lord be upon you today. Dwell within you. That’s why we say that verse in you, Lord, we live and move and have our being and flow through you. Once you have received the fullness of Holy Spirit, then it’s time for you to witness and and to allow all the good things, the fruit that Kimberly’s been talking about, all that fruit to flow through you into others’ lives. Praise the Lord. Oh, you are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. And Kimberly is on to, she’s not back in Broken Arrow yet, but she had some things to do today. So I am alone here in the studio. Not alone, no. We’re never alone, are we? No, but I don’t have Kimberly looking at me from across the little table that we share. So thank you for praying for her. She’s got two homes, really. She’s got a home in Broken Arrow, and then she’s got a home in Denver, Colorado, and that’s where she was born. She has a lot of feelings about Denver, Colorado, so I’m grateful for her, so grateful. And we just had a really great weekend. The meeting was fun, really fun. The weather was absolutely glorious yesterday. And we had such good food, such good food. And all of you who attended, God bless you so much. It’s a rich time in the Lord when we share it with others. And I’m so grateful to be able to share what we have, what we’ve learned in a group setting like we have when we have our meetings on the second Saturday of every month. And I invite you in June. It’s going to be a wonderful time on the patio eating. We just have such a good time. And the learning from a small group setting is just so much greater than when you’re sitting in a church with the pews facing one person on a platform behind a pulpit and listening to him. I remember one church I went to in northern Colorado. And as I looked out over the, you know, I’m old school. As I looked out over the audience, every scripture that was given by the pastor, they had their phones out and they were reading the scripture. Well, I got to take my Bible. I got to take my Bible to church. And I appreciate all of that, the reading the scripture from the phone. But there’s something about reading on a page and being able to even write in the paragraphs and underline. I’ve just done that for so many years that it’s a common thing for me every day to do. So any way you do it, friend, as long as you’re getting to know God and getting to know his ways in a more intimate way, because he wants intimacy with you. He wants more than what we can even experience if we’re married. And that’s great love. That’s unconditional love. Our memory verse for this week is Psalm 35, 27, and 28. Now, many of you know Psalm 35, 27. And this is a David psalm. Let them shout for joy and rejoice who favor my vindication. He’s saying because he has fought an enemy and people have been with him and for him. So he’s vindicated by his friends who have surrounded him. And then he goes on to say, and let them say continually, the Lord be magnified, not David, the Lord be magnified, who delights in the prosperity of his servant. They love David. They knew that God had anointed him through Samuel. So they knew that God delighted in that union with him. Well, I don’t know. I’m still thinking about it. But I do believe, as one teacher said… that when Jesus sits on his throne during the millennium in Jerusalem, oh, isn’t it going to be great? That’s going to be awesome. No words can even express that King David will be there with him sitting on a throne. Not the throne like Jesus has, but he’s going to be sitting on a throne because God does magnify King David. And we’ll read Psalm 35, 27 through 28 from the New Living Translation here. Give joy to those who came to my defense. Let them continually say, great is the Lord who delights in blessing his servant with peace. Then I will proclaim your justice and I will praise you all day long. Oh, I like that translation, the new living. So the thing that I want you to focus on this week as you read Psalm 35, 27 and 28 is Not only let the Lord be magnified who delights in the prosperity of his servant, but verse 28, and my tongue shall declare your righteousness and your praise all day long. That is so good. We’re going to continue with that maybe two or three times this week. Yesterday, we celebrated Mother’s Day. And for each of you listening, each circumstance has been very different and was very different. Some Mothers demand that their children be there. Some mothers, their children are way off yonder and they don’t have anybody around them. So there are many situations in life where we must wrestle with life’s big questions like why are we here and what comes next and how will we find meaning along the way? I want to have you listen to some of the questions and goals that women had and how they met these goals through prayer and good old common sense and faith in God. Becky, an amateur watercolorist and lifelong art lover, wrote to share how art touches her soul through color, motion, and music. I love to paint, but then I love to sing even though I can’t carry a tune. I remember my dad, he couldn’t carry a tune. He was so precious. He says, when I get to heaven… I’m going to sing. He was talking about John. I’m going to sing like John, and I’m sure he’s doing that today. And she said, I love to dance, but I’ve always been clumsy. I am grateful and thankful for it all. Her joy is infectious, and her words a reminder that life isn’t about perfection, folks. No, I know. We learn that. We learn you’ve got to be perfect. You’ve got to have your plate just set just perfect and the forks and the knives just perfect. No, we don’t do that. Not in the Lord. So don’t be concerned about perfection, but participation in the body of Christ. It was back in 1973 when the famous painter Picasso died. Did we notice the passing of that brilliant man? No. John and I were on the road. Did we grasp its significance then? Maybe we didn’t appreciate his art. I find it really strange. But many did and paid millions to be owners of one of his paintings. I’m coming to learn to appreciate every little thing that God shows me in his world every day. Every day. I choose. to be in his will and appreciate everything that he brings by my pathway. Now, Rosie, a single mom for 14 years, wrote about how faith anchors her through life’s daily ups and downs. She finds something to be grateful for in each moment, choosing kindness even in hardships. She says, I’ve learned to find something to be grateful for and treat each interaction as an opportunity. Life is about choices, and no matter our circumstances, we can make a positive impact, whether it’s picking up trash, opening a door, offering a smile, or thanking a veteran. Oh, that’s so good. And Ashley’s story echoed similar strength. After battling chronic illness, her partner left, leaving her to raise three kids on her own. Then came a bright spot in the form of David, a first responder who brought joy and stability into her home. Though David passed away just before Christmas, Ashley and her children hold on to faith. Faith can move mountains. Even with David’s passing and the loss of our home, our faith is strong. We say, wait and see how God takes care of us. And he always does. Oh, that’s faith, friend. And as we get a little older, we realize as we look back, all those experiences we’ve had help to raise our faith and increase our faith so that we can go not bigger and greater obstacles in our life. No, I don’t want that for you. But when those times may come, that you will have the faith to get through them. For Pastor Anthony, faith was the way out of addiction and into a new life. After overcoming a crack cocaine addiction that nearly tore his family apart, he found God and eventually became a pastor of a congregation of people with no money but strong conviction. On March 30th, 2025, they opened a new building dedicated to families and children. He says, we’re here to share the message of faith and resurrected life in Jesus Christ. Oh, there’s nothing impossible with God. You may have a son or a daughter or even a husband or wife that are on drugs and you don’t see any way that they can ever be clean. But God knows. And friend, just give. Give. Release it. Let it go. I’ve heard that phrase so much lately. Let it go. Just let it go. And God will take care of your loved one. No worries. No frets. Praise the Lord. Rosalie endured the loss of two children, her daughter to cancer and her son to addiction. Wow. on top of her own battle with breast cancer. Still, she gives thanks for every blessing. Our faith continues to carry us, she wrote. We count our grandchildren and great-grandchildren as daily reminders of God’s strength in his care for us. Wow, what a great testimony. And here is Rolanda, shot and paralyzed at 17. Since then, she has earned multiple degrees, pursued a law degree, and become an advocate for others with disabilities. She says, Faith is my anchor. The best is yet to come. What an attitude. Wow. Katie wrote about the scariest moment of her life. Learning at 31 weeks in her pregnancy that her unborn son had serious brain issues. Now, some would opt for abortion. Instead of fear, she felt peace. My faith in God helped me stand firm. Today her son, listen to this, today her son Bobby is 6’8″, and he’s studying, he’s a junior in college, studying game design. And my grandson Levi is a gamer, and a lot of kids into computers are now creating games, making games, putting them on the Internet. So he’s a gamer today. We all need faith, she added, because life is too scary without it. God has upheld me through all the difficult times and has brought me out on the other side. And you will read these stories in the June Express. I’m going to take them to your bindery here soon and then mail it the last week of May. So you will be reading these stories in June. What gives your life meaning? Are you remaining strong in the midst of uncertainty, anxiety, It’s scriptures that I say all the time. Psalm 84, verse 11. The Lord God is a sun and shield. Oh, he’s a protector. And also he gives us such warmth. He’s a sun and shield. He gives grace or favor and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly before him. Praise God. Psalm 46, verse 1, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. I’ve realized through this journey, if we can teach our children about the Lord Jesus and his walk on the earth, and we’re never perfect parents, never, never, as hard as you try, but as you teach your children about Jesus, when they are older, they will not They will not depart from knowing Jesus. They will come to Jesus. Don’t give it a timeline because they can be in their 60s, 70s, and 80s when they come back to Jesus. But know that God is working, and he’s working on your behalf. Praise the Lord. It’s not about having our children achieve great scores or grades or scholarships or great jobs, but learning more and more about God and his ways of doing things while we’re here. And we must teach them, even in the rough places of life. I hope most of you who have had children have actually had rough places in your life. And your children have experienced some of those things that you’ve gone through as parents. And some of you who maybe even had to… leave your homes that your children grew up in and rent instead of own any longer. The times are rough, but your children need to know that you’re going through them with God and he’s going to bring you out better on the other side, just like the people that I was telling you about, their experiences, that it’s just going to get better and better. So we need to remember that in the spirit. I look back at one of the first verses I learned in Lutheran school in first grade. Yep, we learned the Ten Commandments in first grade. And this is Exodus 20, verse 12. Honor thy father and thy mother that the days may be long on this earth or prolonged on this earth, which the Lord your God gives you. That was one of the first commandments I ever learned as a little girl. And what a blessed promise for all us kids. We all have moms and dads or had moms and dads. And how did we respect and honor them? Whether we thought of them as great parents or bad parents, God chose them. to have you born from their unions. He chose you to be born. He wanted you to be born. He was excited about you being born because he had another one that he could love. See, God loved us so much. In the Old Testament, if a child mocked or cursed his parents, the city elders would take that son. It doesn’t mention daughters that much. I don’t know why. Maybe they were more focused on the masculine sons Well, you take the son, that rebellious son, that cursing son, outside the city and stone him. No trial, no timeout. Just stone him. I’m so glad we live in the age of grace because if we didn’t, I believe we would see a smaller population now. We really would. Listen to this verse from Proverbs 30, verse 17. The eye that mocks his father and dishonors his elderly mother deserves to be plucked out by the ravens of the valley. The eye that mocks, the eye on that rebellious son or daughter deserves to be plucked out by the ravens of the valley and fed to the young vultures. How about that verse? Oh, my goodness. How about getting your eye picked out? And some of us have to, you know, take some time, take a moment or two. If you still have aged parents or parents that are in their 50s and 60s, even have you been respecting and honoring them as you should as a believer in Jesus Christ? We need to all take some time out and just think about that. I don’t want you to remember that verse from Proverbs 30 from today’s program. So I’m going to introduce some welcoming words from Romans 5. And we’re going to start in the first verse. Oh, love this chapter. It’s becoming one of my favorite. Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us, and he now declares us flawless in In his eyes, we’re flawless. No flaw. No, we’re righteous in his eyes because of Jesus. This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the anointed one, has done for us. Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. And I’m reading from the Passion. What awesome joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory. But that’s not all. Even in times of trouble, we have joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance. Okay, so when you go through pressure, endurance is going to be a result. And patient endurance, knowing that our pressures, let’s see, patient endure, excuse me, will refine our character. And proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy because we can now experience the endless love of God. Remember, in him we live and move and have our being. Now, would anyone dare to die for the sake of a wicked person? Would you want to die for someone who has murdered or raped or killed somebody? No. No. I mean, it’s even hard for us to think that we’d lay down our life for someone we loved, but we would if that time came. We can all understand if someone was willing to die for a truly noble person, but Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost, and ungodly. And there is still much more to say of his unfailing love for us. For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, You are now righteous in my sight. That’s what God says to you today. You are now righteous in my sight. And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. Isn’t that wonderful? You’ll never experience the wrath of God. He loves you. So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to himself through the death of his son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God and because we share in his resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion. Yes, he will free us from sin. And even more than that, we overflow with triumphant joy in our new relationship of living reconciled to God, all because of Jesus Christ. It’s all about Jesus, folks. In Jesus, we have wisdom from God, redemption, righteousness, and sanctification. That’s 1 Corinthians 1.30. So we know that without Jesus, we would be helpless and we would be doomed to hell. But we are so grateful today. Thank you, Father, for bringing your son, Jesus Christ. You love this world so much that you sent your son to die. And he died for this whole world. Praise the Lord. President Trump is going to the Middle East to bring together a peace. He’s trying to make the peace, as we have as a Republican democracy, for those in the Middle East. I pray for him. I pray that the negotiations will be positive in every way and that it will bring peace to the Middle East. And the last American… Israeli hostage was free today. Praise the Lord. It’s wonderful. Well, we’re going to speak Jesus, no matter what our circumstance, no matter what the experience we’re going through. We speak Jesus. Here’s Christy Gale.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:52

I just want to speak the name of Jesus Over every heart and every mind Cause I know there is peace within your presence I speak Jesus

SPEAKER 04 : 22:18

I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Till every dark addiction starts to break Declaring there is hope and there is freedom I speak Jesus Your name is power

SPEAKER 05 : 22:46

Your name is healing Your name is life Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire I just want to speak the name of Jesus Over fear and all anxiety To every soul held captive by depression I speak Jesus Your name is power Your name is healing Your name

SPEAKER 06 : 23:45

Yes it is Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows And shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire.

SPEAKER 04 : 24:27

Shout Jesus from the mountains. Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. and jesus for my family i speak the holy name jesus

SPEAKER 02 : 25:45

Oh, break every stronghold. We don’t have to think about the enemy. God is covering that. Praise the Lord. It’s such a wonderful thing to know that as we speak the name of Jesus, I mean the demons flee at that name, friend. So let’s tell all our true friends to shout for joy. All those who know and love what we do and what we have done for them and how we are in our relationship. Let them say, Praise the Lord. He looks forward to blessing you and blessing you and blessing you. Then I won’t be able to hold it in. Everyone will hear our joyous praises all day long. Your righteousness will be the theme of my glory song of praise. Let’s speak Jesus. Let’s tell him how wonderful he is every day of our life. God bless you and keep you. Have a wonderful time with the Lord. And we’ll see you tomorrow. The Lord willing, take joy.

SPEAKER 1 : 27:01

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SPEAKER 01 : 27:22

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. 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.

SPEAKER 1 : 28:26

Thank you.