As summer peaks, Barbara Carmack invites listeners to ponder the unparalleled peace found in trusting God’s promises. This episode centers on the timeless truth that God’s Word is forever settled in heaven and His support never wavers. Through scripture readings and vivid personal stories, discover how to embrace the divine protection and constancy of God’s presence in your life, even when challenges arise.
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 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom. Oh, it’s the beginning of August. Do you know it’s only four and a half months until Christmas? No. I don’t want to get you all shook up, but thank you for joining us today. I know the holidays, they come up so quickly, but we can still enjoy a wonderful summer where it’s going to be very hot this week. So I pray that you will be nice and cool somewhere. and that you will be listening to the voice of God as you live through your days, as we live through our days. Expect your life to be blessed. It’s impossible for God to break his promises to you. I want to say that again. It’s impossible for God to break his promises to you. In Psalm 119, verse 89 and 90, Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. That means it stands firm in heaven forever. Thy faithfulness continues throughout all generations. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God’s word will never pass away. And today, Kimberly, you were talking about Lamentations 321, that his mercies are new every morning. Every morning. His faithfulness endures forever. That’s right. Welcome again to Call to Freedom. I think we’re going to have to make you the co-host for always and always now. It’s just… It’s ongoing. You’ve been very patient to have me in your home all this time. It’s been good. It’s been so good. It’s been a whole month, yeah. Yeah, praise the Lord. But I want you to know, friend, that God is there for you. We’re going to not only read parts of Lamentations, but we’re going to go into Psalm 121. That was my reading for today. Oh, and what a blessing to know that God has hedged himself about and you are so protected by him. Let’s do our Monday Bible slogan. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I do what it tells me to do. This is my Bible. It has given me new life. It is the word of God. You are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. Do you know where I got that phrase? This is my Bible. from Carmen.
SPEAKER 03 :
I was going to guess Joel Osteen because he likes to have a Bible slogan also.
SPEAKER 02 :
I know. I wondered if he got that from Carmen many years ago because Carmen had that during the 90s and I just appreciate it so much. It gets us centered in for the day into our Bibles where we can go and I know Kimberly and I get together sometimes in the middle of the morning but in the very beginnings we’re praying and we’re reading our Bible, we’re doing our scriptures that Holy Spirit tells us to do. So I hope that you’re doing the same thing. Our website is getting renovated, and it’s looking good, and you can donate on there by going to freedomstreet.org and clicking on Donation. You can get that on your phone or on your computer. It will work, and I just pray that you will have a great time going through all the different little pages in our website. We’ve got a lot of new. And, Kimberly, you’re doing blogs now on Voice of Freedom.
SPEAKER 03 :
A few of them. I’m trying to get used to that rhythm of writing something and posting it on there.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, posting. Now, do you know, I don’t know exactly where Voice of Freedom is on the top. It’s either under teachings or under resources. Probably teachings. Okay. And so we’re going to just be learning along with you. I really believe that we’re going to be learning along with you. And Chris, who is our webmaster, he had a double lung transplant recently. Eight years ago. Oh, I was saying six, but probably eight years ago. The years go so quickly. And we were just praying so much for him. He stayed at Duke University for almost two years and then came back to Colorado. And he went this last Friday back to the hospital. And all his bronchial tests were excellent. And he’s doing great. And he said, I don’t remember any of the tests because it was overwhelming. But he says, Olive Garden sounded so good. It was so good. So we’re so happy for him. And he’s doing a great job with getting us a new look. And I know that a lot of you are already saying, oh, you have a new look. It looks just great. So I’m thankful for that. We have a meeting coming up. We do. Saturday. That’s right. The 9th. And I want to announce to you that we will be having brunch again at our favorite restaurant. And we’re going to leave about 945. Now, many of you were already at the restaurant when we came. That’s great. Yeah. If you want to continue arriving there about… Between 945 and 10 o’clock, we’re going to have wonderful brunch. And then our Bible study and singing and praising God and fellowshipping will start at 11. Back at the house. Back at the house, yes. We won’t stay at the restaurant for that. No, we thought about that 16 years ago, and it just didn’t seem feasible to do that.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you would like to join us, call the number 877-917-7256 and let us know that you’re coming.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, coming to brunch. And so because the restaurant will need to know the number of people, it just really fluctuates. So I’m glad that you’re going to be calling the number 1-877-917-7256. Oh, so…
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, this morning you were reading Psalm 121. Oh, so good. And the whole psalm is so good. We should just read the whole thing. Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 :
What translation are you reading from?
SPEAKER 03 :
I have the New American Standard in front of me right now, but I can switch to any.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, no, I’m reading from the Amplified, so it’s almost exactly like the New American Standard. You know why I really like to copy the New American Standard or the Amplified? Because they capitalize the pronouns, and I don’t have to go through it and capitalize anything. So it’s just a real blessing to be able to use some of these translations that do respect God and his pronouns. I’m so grateful. So you go ahead, Kimberly, and start.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you’ll have the extra words in yours. Yeah. A few extra definitions. So you’re welcome.
SPEAKER 02 :
You can go for it. Oh, okay. Psalm 129. I mean, 121. And I know the translator was a woman. So it just really expands. If you get an amplified Bible, you see that it’s a little bit larger than the average Bible because it’s more expanded with scripture and with additions. So this is the scripture of Psalm 121. I hope you’re reading it with me. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, and she has in quotes, of Jerusalem. And this psalm was specifically saying… If I look to Jerusalem for my help, where does it come from? And it really doesn’t come from Jerusalem. It comes from God, God himself. From where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. Remember that, friend. He who keeps you will not slumber. And she has Psalm 127, verse 1, Proverbs 3, verse 23, and Isaiah 27, verse 3, in the parentheses. And verse 4, Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep, and he will sleep soundly. In your translation, is keeps a word that comes out Over and over.
SPEAKER 03 :
He who keeps, you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. And then the Lord is your keeper. So it’s a lot of keeping.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. And I looked up the word and it’s 8104 in the Strong’s Concordance. And it means to hedge about and be attached. The primitives of that is attached to. So can you imagine as you’re listening here that your heavenly father in one way or another, Holy Spirit, probably our Lord Jesus is attached to you and everything you do this day. I am so grateful to God that I know that every step I take, everything I do, that he is right there with me. Now you had a Hebrew word. Shamar.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. It’s the 8104. Oh, okay. So, right. When you look it up in the Strong’s, that’s the Hebrew word, Shamar. Oh, it’s beautiful. It’s just beautiful.
SPEAKER 02 :
The keeper. Oh, he who keeps Israel and you and you today. You know, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Friend, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber briefly nor sleep soundly. The Lord is your keeper. He attaches himself to you like a hedge of protection. The Lord is your shade on the right hand. And that’s from Isaiah 25, verse four. The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. From Psalm 91, verse 5, Isaiah 49, verse 10, and Revelation 7, 16. Now, if you can’t get that all right now, you can go to freedomstreet.org and click on radio shows, and that’s under resources. After 3 o’clock, I usually post them at 3 o’clock and listen to it all over again. The Lord will protect you from all evil. He will keep your life safe. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in in everything that you do from this time forth and forever.
SPEAKER 03 :
Praise the Lord. So, so good. All right. There was a lot in the Amplified there. I’m just going to go back and look at lifting our eyes to the hills or to the mountains. From where does my help come? And when we are in a situation that causes some kind of panic or stress or anxiety, we start looking around right away. We start looking to our medicine cabinets. You know, if we’ve got an upset stomach, if we’ve got… any kind of cramping going on in our muscles. If we have a headache, we start looking, okay, where’s my help going to come from? And this is saying that our help comes from the Lord. And it says that he will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you is not sleeping. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. So it’s saying that he’s not asleep. He’s not just ignoring you as you’re going through this. He is attached to you. He is with you in this. He knows exactly what you need. And when we call upon him and we’re not so panicked, we can see miracles happen. I really believe that the Lord is your keeper. He is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day. That just means that no matter how hot your day becomes, no matter what kind of heat you are facing in your school, in your job, in your families, relationships, in your health, in your finances, whatever the heat looks like. He will not allow that heat to smite you. Now we might be uncomfortable for a little bit, you know, with a headache, with a stomachache, with something going on in our lives, we might be uncomfortable for a little bit. And when we hit that uncomfortable place, it’s really easy for us to have an opinion that, okay, well, God left me. He’s not keeping me right now. And this is a broken world, and we do live in broken bodies and broken situations. So when we immediately come to that conclusion about God, that he’s not keeping me right now because I’m uncomfortable right now. I think that’s a moment where we get to choose. Are we going to believe our feelings on this or are we going to believe the truth of God’s word? He says he is your keeper. He says that he will attach himself to you and not leave you. That he says that the sun, the heat is not going to smite you nor the moon by night. The moon, I remember looking this up at one point, the lunar at night. Sometimes when we are in the darkest places of our lives, we feel like we’re going crazy. And some people might associate crazy with the word lunatic, lunar lunatic. lunar, that dark in the darkness, we can feel like we are just going crazy. But this says that God will not allow that to overtake you in the night. The Lord will protect you from all evil. So this comes down to opinions. This comes down to our own ideas of what protection looks like and what he says. If we feel like we’re a little bit uncomfortable in a moment, we might all of a sudden say, well, you’re not keeping your promise, God. But at the top of the hour, you said it is impossible for him to break his promises. And I believe that. We believe that.
SPEAKER 02 :
It got a little bit uncomfortable for you when you saw some critters in the bathroom. And so you thought, hmm, there are some spiders or bugs or critters coming in from the outside. Might be getting too hot for them or maybe the time of the year they’re just getting ready to maybe lay eggs or something. And so you were thinking about that, praying about it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, but I didn’t act on it. I prayed over the last three weeks about it. And I just said, okay, Lord, this is your world. This is your home. My life is your life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Now, some of you listening might think, well, that’s just a little thing. I don’t ask the Lord for things like that. Oh, yes, you do. You ask the Lord, you know, what do you think that I should be doing? Well, yesterday, this guy came to the door. I know. It was Sunday morning. I know. And a very pleasant young man. Yes. And he was very tired. Yes. He had been going through the neighborhood. And neighborhoods right now will not accept just everybody who knocks on the door. They’re learning very slowly, but they’re learning that… You just don’t invite or accept anybody that comes to the door.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m glad we have glass on the front door. So I was able to see out and I realized, oh, he’s not, this is not threatening. That’s right. Yeah. And, and when I opened the door and went, well, hi, he goes, well, I like your energy. I said, yeah, I’m enjoying a day off. He said, oh yeah, this was supposed to be my day off too.
SPEAKER 1 :
Oh.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s why he gave you such a good deal. My goodness. So he was with a pest control company.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, that was something that I had been praying about, not panicked about, but praying about. Mm hmm. and the lord sent somebody to the door now i know he’s done that for you over and over many many times i love your faith and so i’m just following your example mom i’m just i’m i’m sitting there waiting on the lord and it’s so good to wait on the lord to be still and know that he is god in our situations that might cause some people panic you know if if other people see spiders or other critters in their home. I do know some people who do panic about that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, he gave you such a great deal, Kimberly. I mean, wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, at one point he realized that the house was not the square footage he was thinking. And I backed up and I said, you know what? Go ahead and change the price on me. And he said, oh no, I’m the one that gets to decide what I’m selling it for. And I decided this is the price I’m selling.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, he’s going to get a big tip. Well, whoever comes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, the Lord is the one who rewards. And he was just thankful to have somebody friendly to talk to. You know, when you answer your door. That’s a blessing for people. And even if you do not purchase, I actually sent him away. I put his papers back in his hand and I said, I’m not the owner of the house and I can’t make this decision. And he was ready to leave. And he said, well, can I come back around here to this house? And I said, well, you can. How much longer do you think that would be? And he said, well, I’m really just trying to get one more in this neighborhood. So as long as it takes, you know,
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re easy, Kimberly.
SPEAKER 03 :
I just wanted to be friendly. Yes. And, you know, I think when we offer a smile and we offer friendliness to people that have a really hard job. Yes. That is refreshing. And they just want to come back around. They just want to come back because they know there’s friendliness there.
SPEAKER 02 :
And the Lord knew that you needed a pest control guy. He did. So he sent him. And sometimes we are gruff with people when God might have sent an angel to your door. And I’m thinking of that so much more. Kimberly, I remember the time we were going through rock cliff country in Idaho. It was midnight, one o’clock. That’s when we usually traveled after a service there. And rocks were falling. I mean, rocks were falling from the top of the cliffs into this canyon where we were driving. And one of the rocks fell right in front of us. It was a big boulder. It wasn’t a rock. It was a boulder. And so we drove right on top of it and got the car.
SPEAKER 03 :
So the miracle here, this is God. This is about God keeping us, right? Yes. He’s our keeper. It really was a miracle that we didn’t smash straight into it. That’s right. God somehow lifted the car so that we ended up on top of it. And there was absolutely no damage done to the front bumper, to the undercarriage, to any of the axles. There was no damage done to the car. And we ended up on top of the boulder. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And that is God keeping us. This trucker came up from the opposite side. It was a two-lane road. And no more traffic, no more vehicles came during that time, Kimberly. Well, it was about 2 o’clock in the morning. It was an odd hour. It was. And I remember him lifting you and Dana up and putting you in the seat of his semi truck. And he helped your father get that car up off of the boulder. How they did it, it was a strength of the angels with them. It really was the angels. We had angels there. helping us. And they took actually the boulder. They tipped it off to the side.
SPEAKER 03 :
So they tipped the car off to the side and then rolled the boulder. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Kimberly, you’re right. There was no damage to the undercarriage of that car. And we went on to California. It was amazing. Yes. Another miracle from God. He is your keeper. No matter what the situation is, friend, we tell you enough times that God will keep you safe. He will protect you from evil. He will keep you safe from everything that goes on in your life.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right now, we were talking about attaching God, attaching himself to you in that keeping. He is also this kind of a shield or guard with his hand. He he will guard. Psalm 17, eight says, keep me safe. as the apple of the eye. The apple of the eye is the pupil of your eye. We do shield it. We wear sunglasses, we wear protective goggles when we’re working, and we shield our eyes. When David is asking the Lord to keep him as the apple of the eye, he’s saying, Lord, shield like I’m your eyeball. Shield me so that my eye won’t get poked right in the eye, won’t get… Damaged by the things that are flying around. Keep me as the apple of the eye and hide me in the shadow of your wings. This is how God keeps us. And I know that when we are uncomfortable, we think it’s possible that he’s not keeping us. That’s a good time to be questioning your own opinion on it. That’s right. Not questioning his, but questioning yourself and saying, okay, am I just because I’m uncomfortable, am I thinking thoughts that are negating what God himself says that he is the keeper of my soul? And sometimes we are allowed to be uncomfortable so that we can be shaped and molded into his character and his image. He is wanting us to be like him. Did you know that in Psalm 17, where it’s talking about keep me as the apple of the eye. In verse 15, it says, as for me, I shall behold your face, God, in righteousness, and I will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake. I love this because it could be talking about waking up and seeing God in his likeness. It could be talking about that. And that could be one way of looking at it. It could also be saying that I awake. will be formed in his likeness. And I will be satisfied because when I wake up, I’ll look like him. This earth and this world is very temporary. It’s just a short momentary blink when compared to all of eternity. And when we wake up from our uncomfortable moments in this life, when we wake up from not feeling satisfied or fulfilled with our situations and our plans and our goals in this life, when we wake up and we find ourselves to be like him, that’s going to be so much more fulfilling and satisfying than anything that we’re dreaming of here. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. When we realize that God is the one who created us and he’s going to protect us and keep us from any evil that comes, we realize then that our own self-effort will never, never, never do the job. And there are times when you get into a situation and you might say, oh, I can figure this out. This is going to be good. I’m going to do it. And when you get the eye out of it and say, Father God, come alongside. I need your help. I need what you have. I need all your wisdom. We’re going to be talking about that tomorrow, Kimberly, about the humility that comes from especially what Jesus was saying in Matthew 5. in the Beatitudes. And most of us know all about the Beatitudes, but we don’t really know about the Beatitudes. And as I was looking through it today, just a little bit, I realized, Kimberly, that every one of those verses in Matthew 5, they involve humility.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, they do. Every one of them. They do. Self-effort. You know what? We were watching movies that had Audrey Hepburn in them. And at the end of My Fair Lady, man, Mr. Higgins, he just had all these high expectations of her. And he kept those high expectations right at the very end. And I look at endings like that and I’m like, okay, that is not reflective of our God. That’s reflective of the world. You’ve got to work harder. You have to achieve more. You have to speak better, present yourself better. She was in another movie, Wait Until Dark. And she was this blind person that was trying to be so self-sufficient because her husband expected that of her.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, she’d gone to school, to classes, learning how to be self-sufficient.
SPEAKER 03 :
And then at the very end, it was just a horrible… What she had to go through and what she had to fight off because people had entered her home that were not welcome there. I know. And he’s expecting her… to figure out her way through all the rubble of the house. And he’s telling her, you’re doing a good job. He’s not walking toward her. This is not how our God is. This is not God. That’s right. Our God comes to us. He chases us down to rescue us, to keep us within his, his care and his love. He knows that we cannot achieve. He knows we cannot be holy without him, that we need him. in order to be truly holy. He knows that. And so he has great humility and compassion on us. And we are being formed into that image so that we will treat others that way too. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
His relationship with you is like no relationship on this earth, friend. He is faithful to the end and the end is eternity. So he’s going to be faithful through thick and thin. I promise because the word is firm. It stays. It’s standing firm. So I want you to know that we’re going to have a great time tomorrow. God bless you. Remember the meeting. Call us at 1-877-917-7256. God bless you and take joy.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. Our 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.
