Touching Hearts and Transforming Lives: The Role of Faith and Community

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 : 1:03

Welcome to Colorado. Yeah, welcome to Colorado. Yay, Rachel’s got all thumbs up. Welcome to Call to Freedom. I don’t know why that just blurted right out. I haven’t mentioned Colorado today, I don’t think. And I was writing down notes. I have to go to a store and get all kinds of different labels and stuff. So I was writing them down so I would remember them. I don’t know if you’re like me, but five minutes after I think about doing something, then I forget about it if I don’t write it down. So I want you to know that the hand that helps others also touches the heart of God. Every blessing we extend blesses him. Every caring act honors him. Every loving expression pleases him. It absolutely does. Not only is he pleased when we praise and worship him, but when we are reaching out and expressing our love to others, that pleases him. That’s what Darren strived to do when he came on board on radio at KLT. in 1982 to touch people’s hearts and lives and heal their broken hearts. There’s a lot of broken hearts out there, folks. And I want to say that as we are developing the website, freedomstreet.org, you can click and download teaching series that You may read it and say, oh, that would bless George. Or, oh, I think Helen would really appreciate this teaching. And download it and send it to them. What a gesture. What a sweet, kind gesture that would be. And you can do that. You can go to freedomstreet.org. You can download the newsletter. You can download teachings that are on there. and just a click on resources and see and hear radio i wish you could see no no i don’t i i have a face for radio and hear radio every day and it’s just wonderful to be live every day monday through thursday so i can know what’s going on even in this world i had a precious friend today say thank you for trying to explain the situation with greenland Yeah, we want to know those things. And we want to know them in a vernacular that’s a little more homespun. Some of these people, they talk with such a high fluent language. I mean, it’s English, but boy, I don’t understand all those words. I was raised on a farm. Hello. So it’s just it’s wonderful to know that we can enjoy each other and love each other. and continue to appreciate each other in so many ways. I did want to tell you that on the radio, some of you have been listening at 10, 15 at night, and that’s going to be changed to 9 o’clock because there’s going to be a prayer. kind of an experiment for Crawford. They’re going to try to introduce a prayer time around the time that my 1015 was. So I’m going to 9 o’clock at night. So if you don’t hear me at 1015, it’s because I’m on now at 9 o’clock. And I hope you get that message. And you can also go to freedomstreet.org and donate. I appreciate it so much. Kimberly, I appreciate what you’re doing for the ministry and in our lives. It’s just wonderful. God bless you and keep you strong during this time. And Kimberly, I heard it was cold down in Broken Arrow in Tulsa.

SPEAKER 04 : 4:35

It is cold here. I think maybe that’s why you were welcoming me to Colorado at the top of the hour here. Welcome to Colorado. I think it’s warmer there than it is here, so I would be okay with coming back up there. Can I come next week? Sure. Yep. Okay. Well, I’ll try to put that in my travel plans.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:54

You know your bed is always ready, and you wash your own sheets, so…

SPEAKER 04 : 5:00

It’s all, yeah, I did that when I left, right? So it’s all ready. It’s all ready. I love that you’re talking about how the hand that helps others touches the heart of God. And the way that we see others helping us, the way that we help others, we’re receiving from God. We are his body. You know, we were made in the image of God. And I love your memory verse for this week from Matthew 28, 20. I was reading it in a lot of different versions. And I read the whole thing. I don’t know if you were really specifically looking at the last part of the verse.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:40

For friends that are listening, yes, I was just really acknowledging the fact that God will be with them whatever situation they get into. But I love the 17 through 19, yeah, before you get to verse 20. Yeah. It’s good.

SPEAKER 04 : 5:56

Right. And really, I was just looking at all of verse 20. It says, That’s Jesus talking. Jesus is telling his disciples. These are his very last words to his disciples. And he’s telling them, To teach others to practice all that he has commanded and to never forget that he is staying with them. He’s staying with us. Yes. Every day, all your days, day after day, after day, after day, even to the end of the age, right up to the very end.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:37

I remember, I’m sure you do Kimberly, oh boy, you were at such a spiritual level, even as a little girl. And I was just kind of wavering back and forth. And I remember the times that I’d walk out of church and I’d forgot what was spoken about because my mind was on other things, other things that I had to get done that day or have lunch with someone or whatever. But I’m sure that’s the thing about a lot of us when we start out on our journey and of getting to know God, that we’re like in first grade. We’re learning the alphabet.

SPEAKER 04 : 7:11

We’re distracted all the time.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:12

Well, and we’re learning the alphabet and just the numbers. One plus one equals two. And then when you get to junior high, then you’re studying algebra. So that’s the same way it is growing up with God. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 7:26

Right. Okay. So you’re bringing up math and that caused me to remember a statistic that I heard that one out of every three people in this younger generation that’s alive right now, one out of every three believe that it’s okay to resolve a conflict with violence.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:44

Yep.

SPEAKER 04 : 7:44

And we’ve seen it. And I was thinking, well, I was thinking about that ratio, one out of three, that’s a third, you know, where have we heard that ratio before in the Bible? Wasn’t it a third of the angels that fell? Oh, yeah, absolutely. It was one out of three that decided they wanted to resolve this a violent way. Isn’t that interesting? Yes. I love how many things in the Bible reflect or how many things on this planet reflect the stories that we read in the Bible. They kind of go hand in hand with each other. And when we see that and we know that God is in everything, I do believe that if any small thing in this world matters, even if any large thing matters, if anything matters, then everything matters. You might need to just sit and think about that for a moment.

SPEAKER 03 : 8:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 8:44

Because if any one thing does matter to us, if it holds weight, if it’s meaningful, then everything matters. is meaningful and i’ll never forget when i first discovered when my eyes were good enough that i could look at snowflakes and i could see them close up and i could see every single tiny little part of a snowflake or the small flowers really tiny flowers that have so much detail to them I remember being able to see that with my eyes or just get out a magnifying glass and really look closely, realizing that those details were all put in place by a grand and awesome designer who wanted us to discover them. He wanted us to see those details and he wanted us to receive joy in those details. And he really is with us in those details. He is with us in the big things and the small. And so we are being made into his image and he’s leaving us little notes all over the place to remind us I’m still here and you are made for me. You’re made in my image.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:01

Yes. Small little things. Kimberly, God, God loves to be so. He’s like a mother, a helicopter mother, always circling over and getting involved. But you were talking about one of Levi’s biggest desires. One thing that he missed now that his brother and sisters are out of the house is no more of the family meals around the table.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:29

He misses the meal time with the family.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:31

Yes, yes. And you were saying how his birthday week, just this past week, he got to see his sisters and his brother and Hannah. Tell a little bit about Hannah when you were teaching, homeschooling them and what Hannah did.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:50

Oh, yeah. My oldest daughter, you know, she just was willing to just step in and be kind of a third parent, you know, with dad working all day long and me trying to do the schooling for all four of them. she was able to step in and help in a lot of areas. And I just love that about her. I think you’re the one that said that you have a memory of her making little quesadillas for everybody else. You remember her standing at the stove when you came to visit and she’s like, Hey, I’ll make quesadillas. And, and so she would, she just would step in and do that. She just has a gift for that. And I,

SPEAKER 02 : 11:33

And last week, you said when she came for Levi’s birthday, which Levi loves her. He’s gone up there two or three times now to Fargo. But you said that you even saw that during his birthday week that she would get up and do things for them or get things for them because she still had that innate, I would call it a gift, that mercy person, that giving person. Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:58

Oh, so good. And… And just stepping in and being involved and even taking over in a sentence in describing something. When I started to describe, she would just, oh, let me. And she would describe. Yeah. So, yeah, being able to work together as a body. You know what? I remember many years ago. If she would interrupt like that, I would be like, hang on, you’re interrupting. And maybe I would be offended by that. So being able to look at it now and go, okay, I’m not at all offended by that. I want to hear her perspective. I want her to step into this place. I love that for her. I love it for me. I love it for everyone else who’s listening.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:52

Yeah. There’s not just one way to look at anything. There are several perspectives. It’s like a spectrum, several ways of looking at something. And we’ve gotten into such a rut of, no, it’s this way or the highway.

SPEAKER 04 : 13:07

And that’s not always true. It’s not at all. It’s not at all. Well, not at all. Not even a little bit. There are so many individual… Individuals. There are so many individuals in this life, in this world, and each one unique, each one gifted and being able to just enjoy the gifts. Now, that can be hard when you’re watching the news. It can be really hard to enjoy the gifts of some of the leaders that have been put in place and to be okay with what… It’s hard to be okay. It’s hard to look at some of what the news is showing us and say, God, are you really still with us here? Because this is hard. This hurts. Yes. some of the decisions that have been made appear to be incredibly hurtful um i say appear they are it hurts you know what i was thinking about that and praying praying over our country and praying over our leaders uh praying over some of the the elections that will be happening this coming november just praying ahead of time you know and as i was praying i realized There is no surgery that doesn’t hurt. You know, there’s not any surgery that can be done that doesn’t have any damage.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:33

That’s right. Unless you’re totally under the needle or you’re totally out.

SPEAKER 04 : 14:41

Even if you’re under anesthesia, you are going to experience damage.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:46

You’re going to wake up to pain. Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 14:49

Whatever skin is cut, whatever laser has done the burn, whatever, there has to be recovery from a surgery. And I think all of us will benefit from looking at that scenario and realizing, okay, the surgery is necessary. We need it. And we’re going to trust. that our God will be the surgeon and will be the healer.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:17

Yes.

SPEAKER 04 : 15:18

And that he will do the very best for our communities, for our leaders, for our country, that he will, that we trust him, that he is good. And that’s the part of being made in his image that it’s actually impossible for humans to I really mean this. It’s impossible. It’s impossible for humans to be forgiving, to be blameless, meaning you’re not going to blame anybody. You’re not going to point fingers. Because when we get uncomfortable and when we’re hurting… We automatically blame. We automatically blame ourselves for doing something the wrong way, stepping wrong off of a step. Okay, well, that was my fault. Now I’m hurt. So the blame starts happening.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:11

Yep, just this weekend with the loss from the Bronco team, we see replacements. We see Lombardi, who was fired, I guess you could say it.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:24

Oh, goodness. Oh, I haven’t even heard this news because I’m not from Colorado. But across the nation. Obviously, somebody blamed Lombardi.

SPEAKER 02 : 16:30

That’s right. And somebody has to take the blame. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve been creatures of habits. And even across the nation, all these football teams that lost, they’re firing their coaches and their managers. And I almost laughed out loud when I saw how many have been fired or replaced because they got to blame somebody, Kimberly. Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:56

Wow.

SPEAKER 1 : 16:57

Wow.

SPEAKER 04 : 16:58

So when we think of ourselves as humans, as being made in the image of God, God himself chose to take the blame off of us. That is an impossible human thing to do. And we not being able to do it, we need God’s help in doing that. So if we want to become like him, It’s okay to feel the anger. It’s okay to feel the rage, to feel the need to blame, to point a finger. It’s okay to want to fix something. That’s okay. But I do believe we need to go another step and say, Lord, make me like you. I don’t even know how. You’re going to do it. But I want that. That’s what I want. And that’s all we need to say. That’s all we need to pray. That’s all we need to confess is that we want to be like him. So when we confess that, we’re actually opening up a whole new world. I don’t know. Wow. Just now saying that I said it in my mind, it was like opening a whole new book of blank pages for him to write a brand new story. Yeah. And you said opportunities, right? But it’s just all brand new opportunities because we’re finally taking our grasp off of it and saying, I don’t need to control this and make it look the way I want it to look. I let go. I open my hands and I say, God, you have your way. Do it your way because your way is better. And that is our way of joining Jesus in. Praying, praying for ourselves, praying for others. Jesus is at the right hand of the father interceding for us right now, right now. He sees our struggles and our heartbreak and he is praying. Psalm 68 verses 19 and 20 says, blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burden. He feels our burdens. He sees our struggles. He sees us when we’re crushed and broken. And He bears those burdens. He feels it with us. And He takes that to Father God and is interceding and praying. We want to be like that. We want to be people like that because we are made in His image. That is the whole point, is to be like Him. We cannot make ourselves like Him. We’re too small for that.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:40

Even when we’re in a big mess, we don’t want anybody to know it that we owe anything. fifty thousand dollars that we’ve been gambling or whatever we don’t want anybody to know it we don’t want god to know it and we’re in a huge mess god wants to come alongside kimberly and show us that he loves us no matter what the mess and like yesterday i said you know we we want to plan for rain but we got to deal with the mud that’s true that’s true yes yeah it is and

SPEAKER 04 : 20:13

That’s where the work is done. Now, what work are we talking about? Because we have our own goals, our own visions and ideas, our own dreams, and that’s the work to us. But what about God’s dream and His goal? It’s bigger. It’s a lot bigger than ours. And when we think about His dream and His plan, He decided He wanted to work it out in the dirt. When he created us humans, he reached down into the dirt to form us. So it is about the dirt. The dirt, it’s muddy, it’s messy, it’s muddy. And God daily bears our burdens with us. He did not leave us in the dirt alone. He stayed with us. He is still with us when he sent his son, Jesus, that name is emmanuel god with us that’s what emmanuel means so he has never ever left us in this dirt those stories of betrayal those stories of rejection those stories of being fired and replaced like you’re talking about these coaches those stories are not just our stories they’re his He is the one that humankind has rebelled against. He is the one where people have said, you know what? I don’t even want to believe a God. You’re fired. I want to replace you. I don’t like how you’re running the world. And people get so mad and then they don’t remember how good He really is. But God is to us a God of deliverance. That’s what Psalm 68 says. Psalm 68 verses 19 and 20, again, starts out saying, blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. God is to us a God of deliverance. And to God, the Lord belongs escapes from escapes from death, escapes from ruin, escapes from being completely obliterated. He is the one who gives us those escapes. So when we’re thinking about the statistics that one out of three thinks that it’s OK to resolve a conflict with violence, the other two out of the three that maybe don’t believe that. We hope, we hope that’s where they’re landing, that they believe there is a more peaceful way, a better way, a way where we can find rest. Those other two, hopefully that’s you listening today. Hopefully you’re one of those two that believes that there is a better way, another way that’s not just fighting, that’s not violent, but that fights by being at rest. that fights by praying and saying peace to the storm and shouting grace to the mountain. And really, the mountain is a mountain of feelings. It’s a mountain of emotions. That’s how I see the mountain lately. that we all have emotions, we all have feelings that start becoming enraged when we hear the news and when we see someone being fired that we didn’t want to see fired. When we see that stuff and hear that stuff, that’s when it feels like our feelings are going to go out of control. But just calm down, take a breath and say, all right, Do I believe that God is good? He is a God of deliverance. He is a God who daily bears our burdens. He is the Lord who provides escapes for us. When we look at him that way and we believe that he has said, I am with you and I will stay with you to the end of it all. Day after day after day. You’re not in this mess by yourself, but I will remain with you. Then we can look to him and say, OK, you are good. I have chosen to believe you are good. You know, don’t don’t go with your feelings that want to rage and blame yourself. Take the blame off and choose to be blameless. Be without blame and don’t blame God. Don’t blame others. But give that to God and say, make me like you. That is what’s going to affect the other one third. the other one-third that might want the conflict and the violence. When we sit down and pray and believe for peace and speak grace, that will affect their hearts. Their hearts will be softened and changed.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:23

You say that, and Kimberly, it reminds me of the people that say to me, and they’ve said to me and probably to you, I didn’t choose to be born. It’s like two people got together and had sex, and here I am. And God says, I chose you. When they say, you didn’t choose me. I mean, yeah. No, I didn’t choose myself to be born. God is saying, I hope I can say this. God is saying, but I chose you. I chose you and I’m appointing you to go forth and bear fruit. So important that we realize God is the one who directs us and plans all that our life is.

SPEAKER 04 : 26:03

Right. This is his fairy tale. Yes. This is his story that he is writing to have a best friend and a perfect partner. And that’s you. That’s you who are listening today. And he has chosen you to be that perfect partner. That’s an amazing story. That’s incredible to think about. And so just coming alongside and saying, you know what? I want that. I do want that to be your best friend and your perfect partner. Lord, make me like you. Complete what you are doing. Oh, there’s so much more to say. And I know we ran out of time today.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:40

Well, there’s tomorrow. There’s tomorrow, Kimberly. Wonderful. So the Lord willing, we’ll see you at 1 o’clock tomorrow.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:01

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. 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 : 28:26

Thank you.