The Fragrance of Peace: Lessons from an Alabaster Jar

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. I think we’re missing the snow from the east and the cold. Now, snow, I don’t mind. But bitter cold, I do mind. And it’s going to be 60. It’s going to be 60 through the week. And I can’t believe this is Colorado. In fact, this morning, I heard birds around the front door. And I came out to the front door, and they were building a nest in my wreath on the front door. Oh, those precious little wrens. And they were just chirping and chirping. And so I had to disturb them. I had to interrupt their building. And I took the wreath down and put it inside the house. Wow, they came swarming at me. They were so hurt. They were so disturbed by what I had done to their nest. So even all of nature is kind of confused here in Colorado because of the wonderful weather. Oh, praise the Lord. Following God is the pathway to joy, and each step is blessed by the tenderness of his love. Yes, he even loves those precious little birds. Oh, amen. And a happy birthday to my daughter, Dana. She’s 55. Oh, probably shouldn’t say her age. Oh, but 55 years ago in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Kootenai Memorial Hospital. I gave birth to that precious lady and she was beautiful. And I have been so happy all these years with her joy and her peace. And she gave me great grandsons. And so that’s I know Darren did also. I have great grandson and great granddaughter from Darren’s side. But this is the first time I have great-grandsons from my immediate family. And so happy birthday, Dana. And those grandsons, Elijah and Parker, are just growing up. And they are just full of energy. And Dana gets to go out and walk. That’s why she moved down to South Carolina, to be near her grandsons. So I’m so grateful. And I did have responses from the community. article that i read yesterday about lesher middle school in fort collins thank you so much your emails and your messages mean a lot not only to me but when you call those places lesher and i even had one listener call pooter valley school district that’s a good idea and just tell them that they were not in favor of children going out on the road and And they were not on the road, but they were yelling and screaming. And you can Google and check it out. Two or three people deep in that place. And signs and out ice. It’s just pathetic. It really is. And it gives the parents an F grade. It really does, because parents should not be allowing this to happen to their children. I hope some of the parents went to school and said, hey, what are you up to? You can’t indoctrinate my child. So thank you so much for your response. And that number again, if you would like to call… fort collins lesher middle school and remember these are children from 11 to 14 folks it’s 970 472 3800 and i’m not you know i’m i don’t have that political thing going on all the time like some reporters and some hosts have but every once in a while i i need to get on my little soapbox so i’ll I hope you understand. You are blessed to dispense, for in him you live and move and have your being. And if you would like to see more and hear more, you can go to freedomstreet.org and download not only the newsletter and the Bible guide, which is chronological through the Bible in a year. It’s wonderful. I started with Marilyn Hickey in 1975. And then when she stopped with her devotional or sending out her Bible guide, I decided to do one myself after I married Darren. So I’ve been using that all these years, and it’s been a blessing. Thank you, Lord. Oh, thank you, Lord. You’re so good. Also, you can donate online, which is a thing that I would appreciate. Thank you so much. You are so good. You are so faithful. You are so generous, and I thank God. And I just want to tell you how much you mean to not only me, but to everyone listening, because your giving, your donations help keep this program on the air. It’s listener supported. I have no sponsors but you. And my sponsor is the Lord, of course. But thank you so much for supporting Call to Freedom. The memory verse for this week is 1 Thessalonians. Kimberly and I were joking about Thessalonians. Thessalonians 5.23. And may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I loved her intro, or yes, her slate, where she said, and the God of peace has caused his people… So I’m grateful for that. world that’s upheaval every time you look at the news or watch the news you know that one thing or another is going on in this country what i like about president trump he doesn’t bring up all the junk he doesn’t bring up all the bad stuff he just keeps going on and advancing to new projects and and doing things that are marvelous for this country and for the conservative people and i’m so grateful that we have that kind of president that doesn’t throw mud And thank you so much, Lord, for the president that we do have. And Kimberly, you are there, aren’t you? I hope so.

SPEAKER 03 : 7:15

I am still here. I’m just listening to your introduction about the birds and and all the other. And then if we go back to the birds for just a moment, knowing. that our Lord loves the little birds because they’re his creatures building that nest in your wreath. I think you’re fortunate that I’m not there right now because I would express my love for those little birds by taking your wreath and putting it in another location outside so they can keep building their nest in it, but not be disturbed by us going in and out of your front door. So you would be missing a wreath right now.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:51

Well, you know, I kept the wreath up years ago. I kept the wreath up. I remember. And their nest produced eggs. And then when people came in, the eggs broke on my mat. And that gets to be a real mess. So I said, no more. Well, it’s not just a mess. It’s sad.

SPEAKER 03 : 8:10

Those little birds didn’t get to live, you know. That’s sad. Pardon me if I’m laughing.

SPEAKER 1 : 8:16

No.

SPEAKER 03 : 8:17

Well, it’s just our different personalities, right? And amazingly, we still get along well enough to be able to talk to each other every day. And that actually is a nice segue into the God of peace and harmony, because in this memory verse in the Passion Translation, it says, Now may the God of peace and harmony set you apart and making you completely holy.” Wow, what does that look like? I want to know what that looks like. And may your entire being, spirit, soul, and body be kept completely flawless in the appearing of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. Yes. being complete without blame that’s finding a different place besides a soapbox you know it’s finding a different place between you know rather than you wanting the wreath in one spot and me wanting the wreath in another spot it’s it’s finding another way and that’s where peace and harmony would be coming in is for both of us to be listening to one another like we’ve been practicing and That memory verse from 1 Thessalonians 5.23 is encouraging us to find another way, a way of peace and harmony, rather than the ways that human beings have been fighting for for so long. And right now, really, this world does need more peace and harmony for centuries. And it really hasn’t just been centuries. It’s been thousands of years. So for millennia, humans have had their own perceptions of what will bring peace to their world. And usually that means their own personal world, their own personal life. They’re really sure of what will bring peace. But we each think that if only we could get everyone else to agree to do life our way, it will be better. And that’s not going to accomplish anything. The conflicts and debates, rebellions and revolts that have lasted for thousands of years have never brought peace and harmony, the kind that we’re all longing for. We humans have been trying those same tactics for so long that we’re just stuck. We’re stuck in a rut. The north versus the south, the east versus the west, the right versus the left. It’s a cycle that desperately needs an interruption so that we can find the true peace and harmony we were made for. Because God is a God of peace. And so we ask the God of peace to interrupt us, interrupt our human cycles. And you were just saying at the top of the hour, we love to hear from you. If you are listening to this and you are weary of the same old conflicts from human history playing out once again, If you see that we need a different approach, I would really love to hear from you. Feel free to email me at Kimberly Street, not Kimberly Street. Let me say it again. It’s Kimberly at Freedom Street dot org. I really love it when you contact me and I get to hear from you. You you’ve been really you listeners have been really good to us to contact us and encourage us. And recently, there’s been an article that’s circulating around about the alabaster jar that was broken and a costly oil poured out on Jesus when he walked this earth. The source of this article, it focuses on the act of breaking. And it could have been simply opened and poured out, but the breaking is what makes the story so significant. This picture of breaking is a prophetic sign to those who are willing to see it and hear it. Something valuable needs to break before the more valuable and costly oil from within is released. Mark 14.3 is one of the sources of scripture behind this alabaster jar. So Mark 14.3 says, being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as Jesus sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster jar of very costly oil of spikenard. And then she broke the flask and poured it on his head. What’s interesting is that this starts an argument between the disciples over what this lady was doing. And they were not arguing because she had broken something valuable in order to pour out something cheap on Jesus. We really need to understand this. They were arguing because the oil that she poured out was more costly than the vessel itself. And that vessel was valuable. And they called it a waste. They called it a waste. They said it was a waste to pour it on Jesus. If we keep reading in verses four and five of Mark 14, it says, some were indignantly remarking to one another, why has this perfume been wasted? for this perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii and the money given to the poor and they were scolding her for pouring out something costly on the son of god they were scolding her you know when we see that for what it really is that will show us that human tendency to want to take a side and say, you know what, I’m, I’m, and it’s, it goes back to reason. You’ve been talking about reason over the past couple of days and we reason within ourselves that something is valuable. And so we need to do such and such with the valuable thing.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:42

That’s right. We’re holding ourselves, holding to that world system by valuing things and possessions in the world system, thinking that we own them when we don’t. Kimberly, we don’t. That’s right. When we’re in the Lord Jesus and those things of value in the world are nothing to God. As you were saying about reason. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 19, those things in the world, especially reason he’s talking about, are useless in the kingdom of God. So it’s really important to differentiate. I agree.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:18

I agree. And it’s also good, I think, to see this story about the alabaster jar being broken and as a way of looking at ourself. And that outer valuable alabaster jar could be a picture of our flesh, like the outer casing is our flesh. And it is costly. Jesus loves us and deems our lives as being so valuable that we’re worth dying for. So it’s very costly. When we allow this costly and precious life to die, so to speak, we allow it to break in order to return our love back to Him and say, I trust you and I trust your ways more than I trust my human reasoning and my human dreams and goals and agendas. So I want you to have your way of peace and harmony more than I want to argue over what my values are. And that’s how we come into agreement with Him. And He, Holy Spirit, is more valuable than anything we could give up in this life. So we don’t want to be afraid of what we’re dying to. We don’t want to be afraid of what we are allowing to break in our life. Because when that is broken, when we give up what we are believing is so valuable in our reasoning, in our ideas, then we are releasing something even more valuable. We’re getting out of the way for the fragrant oil of the Holy Spirit, which is more valuable than our precious and costly life. We want more. We want the more. We want much more to be poured out and bring change, real change. We need that in this world right now. The fragrance will fill the room. The fragrance will fill this world. And 2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 16 talk about that. But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. to the one an aroma from death to death to the other an aroma from life to life If we really look at what that’s saying, it’s saying that it offends some and it blesses others. When we release that fragrance of the Holy Spirit, when we release the fragrance of Christ to God out in the world, it is offensive to some. It’s hard for some to take. It’s hard for some to reason. It’s hard for some to understand. but it blesses others. It’s such a blessing to know that we don’t have to figure this out on our own. We don’t have to have our own ideas, our own agendas, our own opinions, our own soap boxes. We don’t have to have them. We can actually release that and die to our own idea and invite the Lord to come and interrupt the whole cycle and bring His peace and His harmony. This is a way of entering into His rest. that He’s inviting us into. And Christ has told us to come to Him when we are weary. And many of us are weary of this cycle that just keeps happening in the world and in politics and in our homes and in our schools. This cycle just keeps happening over and over, and we’re tired. Jesus is saying, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:41

That’s so good. I’ve listened to this movie several years ago. It’s called The Hanging Tree with Gary Cooper. I love westerns. I love it because of the scenery. And this doctor, he was the only doctor in the whole region. It was gold country in Montana. And this woman who he had helped… when she was attacked by robbers and a stagecoach. This woman and her friend had discovered gold. I mean gold. Millions of dollars worth of gold. And so she had not only the claim, but she had bags and bags of gold. they were going to hang this doctor. And she said, don’t do that. Don’t do that. Don’t hang him. And she took her bags of gold and her claim contract. And she said, here, here, here’s my contract. Here’s all the gold that I have. And take it. And so she threw some of the gold out and they were just running for the gold like animals. And it tells me a little bit about some of the hearts of people. They want what’s genuine, what’s authentic. They don’t want something that’s going to not last for eternity, Kimberly. And our salvation lasts for eternity. So which is of value? These things on this earth or the things of the heart, the things that Jesus gave us when he died on the cross? Yes.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:13

I see. So you’re talking about this woman who was seeing the heart of the situation and valued the life of this doctor.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:23

Yes. Yes. More than. And he was ready to they were ready to hang him. He was on the wagon and the thing was noose was around his neck. And she came up running up with her gold and with her contract and said, here, here. And they just ran for it. And that’s what the world does. Yeah.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:43

It was really a good movie. Yeah. I could picture that there might be one or two people who are so filled with rage over whatever. Why were they going to hang the man? But we get to a place where we hold on to our perspective. Yes. And our perception of what we think needs to happen, that even throwing out gold like that might not distract us. And we hold on to the idea that we need somebody to pay. We need justice. We need fairness. We need that life to be taken. And when we do that, when somebody gets distracted, then we could be offended. Yes. I think the whole idea of the gospel is to show that God is not offended by one of us. He is so full of love and forgiveness that He gives His only Son for every single one of us. And that is the whole gospel in a nutshell. So for us to come into agreement with Him is to choose to not be offended. This scripture from 2 Corinthians Chapter two that talks about being the fragrance of Christ to God is about being the forgiveness that walks around in this realm, willing to forgive. And there are some moral dilemmas in this realm that are really hard to forgive. But we all we have to do is be willing to be like God. He’s willing to forgive anyone. Think about that. Anyone who repents, he is willing to forgive. Are we willing? And that’s what will change the human life. Now, we might be willing and find that we just can’t do it, that something has hurt us so deeply that we don’t know how to forgive. That’s where we want to be leaning on God, praying, asking Him, begging Him to help us get to that place of forgiveness. And then we will not be so easily offended. The scripture that goes on to say that we’re the fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one, an aroma from death to death, we can see that some people look at that fragrant forgiveness as something that causes their own agenda to die. And that might be offensive. But to the other, it’s an aroma from life to life. If we will just choose to get ourselves out of the way, we will experience a greater life and a greater peace. And our human will not be so offended. We’ll just get that humanness out of the way and be blessed by the release of Holy Spirit in our circumstances and the release of forgiveness.

SPEAKER 02 : 24:52

That’s right. I realize that in 2 Corinthians, the third chapter, there’s a veil over people who do not receive the goodness and the greatness and the love of God. A veil is over their face. I was going to ask you, do you believe or do you think that people who are unforgiving in certain situations and in relationships… that there is a veil that goes over their face and they can’t really truly see the love and mercy of God?

SPEAKER 03 : 25:25

Absolutely, yes. Because any time we hold on to some kind of a value, if it’s unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness, self-pity, pride, anger, we might even have a right to be angry. We might have a right to feel prideful about what we’ve accomplished. But those are values that are not of the fruits of the Spirit. And so then it separates us from God. And that’s what we have to be willing to give up. Give up our values so that He can have His. Let our alabaster jar, so to speak, be broken so that something much greater can fill this earth. I’m just passionate about that. I really want to see that. I want to see Holy Spirit have His way and God have the peace and the harmony that He created us for. I want to see that.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:25

Oh, praise God. Well, you know, it’s like 1 Thessalonians 5.23, folks. Now may the peace and harmony of God set you apart. Yes, you are a separated one. You may think, well, I’m just like my neighbors and everybody. No, you’re not. You’ve accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life, and you are a separated one. A sanctified one. Oh, thank you, Kimberly. I know you have more to say. So we will probably see you tomorrow. Is that right? Yes. Thank you. I will see you then. All right. God bless you and keep you and take joy.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:06

Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. 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.

SPEAKER 1 : 28:43

Thank you.