Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you, very grateful for your prayers.

Father. Thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of our sins through the merit of your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for the hope that you give us through your Son of Heaven, one day with you, father, where there are no more tears or sorrow or sadness or brokenness, no more injury or illness, but joy and love, peace, happiness for all of eternity. Help us to remember, father, to getting to spend all of eternity with you and your son Jesus Christ and those we love who know you and your son Jesus Christ as well. Help us to do all we can each day to bring more people to you and your son. Help us to run our race well, to the end, to encourage our brothers and sisters who are also on this pilgrimage.

Father, who are also on this pilgrimage. Father, help us to remember that we don't belong here in this world, that we belong to you and your Son, jesus Christ. Be with our leaders here in America, across the nation, from the president, vice president on down senators, representatives, judges, governors, generals. Help them to rule in fear of you. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Bless our families, bless our marriages. Be with those who are listening to the podcast. Father, please Bless them, keep them safe, be with their families, be with their marriages. And God, my word, sir, in your son's name we pray Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to listen, to be still beforehand? There's a article in the epic times, though if y'all that have listened to the podcast long enough, you know I get in to the epic times every once in a while.

If you're looking for a good magazine, folks, I cannot recommend this one. Enough, great, great, this one Enough, great, great weekly newspaper and in their section from the previous paper, life and Tradition, they have an article talking about unplugged being unplugged for your phone, and this author spent a thousand phone free hours and wrote a book about it and one of the. There's a few key takeaways here, but you know, we talk about often every podcast we talk about how are we spending our time? What are our priorities? Are we giving God our time? Are we giving our spouse our time? And you know, I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. This author stumbles across a number of things in this process of spending all these hours without her phone. I just wanted to run through a couple of them. It's a great article. If you get a chance, it's by Jeff Minnick, if I pronounced that right, unplugged, a Thousand Phone-Free Hours. And the author of the book there's Hannah Brinscher, I believe. And so the two things here really is one.

You talk about the fact that she wanted to really be who she said she was. You know, on social media today and on TV so often we see an appearance of what people are, but it's not who they really are. Do we get up each day? You know, if we say we love God, folks, do we really act like it? Are we really striving to follow Christ's commands each day, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves? Are we really striving to do what God wants us to? If we say we love our spouse, are we really loving them each day? Are we giving them the best that we have? If we say we love our children, are we really pouring ourselves into them? Are we really spending time interacting with them, focused on them? Right, so, are we really who we say we are? You know, are we walking the talk, so to speak? And they use that in this article too.

And then the other thing is really there's two more things. I know I'm taking a little long here, but it's great. She said when she got away from the stone. One of the things that she realized real quickly is that she had enough. She had enough. She looked around and she wasn't discontent anymore as often about what she had, and she said you know, it's so easy and it is. We're on our phones, we're watching TV and we see all these things that we think we need these trips, we need to take these cars, we need to buy these clothes, we need to buy this you know new app that we need to download and we need to go through it and we've got to do this and this and this right. And that, tied into the last point that she talked about, was really slowing down and the Bible verse I think it's got a psalm talking about God saying just be still, be still in front of me and know that I'm God's.

How are we spending our time, folks? It's not that we don't have enough time in the day, and for those of you that really, truly that small percentage, that you really don't have enough time in the day, you need to say no to some stuff we all do. If we really don't have time, if we're really so crazy busy, then we need to back off and say, no, I'm not going to do that. No, I can't do that because I've got other things that I need to do more. I need to spend time with God. I need to spend time with my spouse. I need to spend time with my kids, right, I need to spend time with my parents.

So this unplugging kind of opened her eyes to hey, I really do have enough. I've got food to eat, I've got water to drink, I've got clothes to wear, I've got a roof over my head, my car still runs right and all this extra time now that I'm not constantly on my phone or on a screen. Folks, I hammer this and I know I'm taking so much time today, but it's so important. We give so much time to our screens, whether it's TV, entertainment, sports, our phones, social media. We give so much time and then we act like we don't have time. But we really do. We have time, we're just spending it very poorly. We're spending it very poorly. We have time for God. We have time to love our spouse each day. We've just given it to the wrong things.

Again, great article, if you get a chance, by Jeff Minnick out of the Epoch Times, unplugged A Thousand Phone-Free Hours. Out of the epic times, unplugged, a thousand phone-free hours talking about Hannah Bruncher's book, her experiment Marriage. Verses for today Song of Solomon, chapter 8. Lovers reunited at their country home. Oh, that you were like my brother who nursed at my mother's breasts.

If I should find you outside, I would kiss you. I would not be despised, I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother. See, who used to instruct me, I would cause you to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate, to the daughters of Jerusalem. His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me. I charge you, o daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases. Love renewed in Lebanon.

A relative who is this, coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved. I awakened you under the apple tree. There your mother brought you forth, there, she who bore you brought you forth the Shulamite to her beloved. Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.

The Shulamites Brothers, we have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver, and if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. The Shulamite. I am a wall and my breasts like towers. Then I became, in his eyes, as one who found peace Solomon had a vineyard at Belhaman eyes as one who found peace. Solomon had a vineyard at Belhaman. He leased the vineyard to keepers. Everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand silver coins To Solomon. My own vineyard is before me. You, o Solomon, may have a thousand, and those who tend its fruit two hundred. The Beloved you who dwell in the gardens, the companions, listen for your voice. Let me hear it, the Shulamite. Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices, or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

Scripture reading for today. We're going to start with 1 Thessalonians 4, 1-5, 3. Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already and we encourage you to do so even more. For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. God's will is for you to be holy. So stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion, like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins. As we have solemnly warned you before, god has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching, but is rejecting God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

But we don't need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more. Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then, people who are not believers will respect the way you live and you will not need to depend on others.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died, so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For, since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, god will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord. We who are still living, when the Lord returns, will not meet him ahead of those who have died, for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words Now.

Concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don't really need to write you, for you know quite well that the day of the Lord will return. The day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, when people are saying everything is peaceful and secure. Then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman's labor. Pains begin and there will be no escape. Psalm 81, verses 1-16. Sing praises to God, our strength. Sing to the God of Jacob. Psalm 81, verses 1-16. Festival, for this is required by the decrees of Israel. It is a regulation of the God of Jacob. He made it a law for Israel when he attacked Egypt to set us free.

I heard an unknown voice say Now I will take the load from your shoulders, I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. You cried to me in trouble and I saved you. I answered out of the thundercloud and tested your faith when there was no water at Meribah. Listen to me, o my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me. You must never have a foreign god. You must not bow down before a false god. For it was I, the Lord, your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it with good things.

But no, my people wouldn't listen. Israel didn't want me around, so I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas. Oh that my people would listen to me. Oh that Israel would follow me walking in my paths. How quickly I would then subdue their enemies. How soon my hands would be upon their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him. They would be doomed forever. But I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with the wild honey from the rock.

Proverbs 25, verses 6 through 8. For what will you do in the end if your neighbor deals you a shameful defeat? You go back to 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 17 and 18. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.

I think too often we don't encourage each other, folks, about the fact that one day we're going to get to spend eternity with God and Jesus Christ and there won't be any more sorrow or sadness, and I think we ought to encourage each other more often with that. When we're dealing with sorrow and sadness here and now, it always reminds me, thinking of that, of the scene in Narnia where the little if you're familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia written by CS Lewis, there's a scene in, I think, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where this little mouse, who's one of the characters Reepicheep, I think, is his name when he first glimpses heaven and we don't get to see what heaven looks like. Aslan's land, that's the name of the lion, the Jesus character in the book, but we see his face, if I remember correctly, and it's just overjoyed right. At least that's the way they portrayed it in the movie and it's just a wonderful. It just brings comfort because someday we're going to get to see that and it's going to be awesome.

Medal of Honor for today, james Harvey Bennett, also known as John P Cork. Also known as John P Quirk Seif, boatswain's mate. Spanish-american War, uss Marblehead, us Navy, may 11, 1898, cienfuegos, cuba, on board the USS Marblehead, during the cutting of the cable leading from Cienfuegos, cuba, 11 May 1898, facing the heavy fire of the enemy, bennett set an example of extraordinary bravery and coolness throughout this action. Accredited to New York, not awarded posthumously. Born April 5, 1851, ebershaw, rockland County, new York, died November 22, 1900, philadelphia, pennsylvania. Buried Cold Spring Cemetery, cold Spring, new York. So he died in 1900, and this was 1898, just a couple years later, james Harvey Bennett.

Another name to add to our list Reading for today for history is the Mayflower Compact. It's usually I read it around the time, or I try to, but we've read it a number of different times over the year. Maybe we'll come back to it in November again. It was November the 11th, 1620. And one thing to remember about this, folks, is how much those pilgrims suffered the cold, the sickness, the illness. At least half of the original colonists died. A lot of the children survived, but the men and women who were trying to build the fort, the homes, the women trying to protect their children, a lot of them died. And yet they didn't go back to England. They stayed right Because they believed in what they were doing. They believed in God and Jesus Christ. That was their faith.

When we read this, we need to recognize that that Christ, the ability to worship Jesus Christ freely, without persecution by either the state or the state-controlled churches or the church-controlled states that was what they were here for. And it wasn't and this is important, folks it wasn't to worship Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism. There are other countries around the world, if you want to go to a Muslim nation or a Buddhist nation or a Hindu nation, where those people can live and worship freely. This was to be a Christian nation, not a Roman Catholic nation, not a Greek Orthodox nation, not a Methodist or Baptist or Church of Christ or Anglican or Episcopal nation. It was to be a truly Christian nation where people could worship Jesus Christ freely, according to Scripture In the name of God, amen.

We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subject of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God, of England, france and Ireland, king, defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and the honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presence, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid and, by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought to most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, under which we promise all due submission and obedience, and witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.

At Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the reign of our Lord, sovereign Lord King James of England, france and Ireland the 18th, and of Scotland, the 54th in the year of our Lord, 1620. If you get a chance folks looking for a wholesome, family-friendly, middle-grade fantasy if you would check out Countryside I'd be very grateful and if you enjoy it, if you leave a review somewhere, I would also be grateful for that. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world listening, we'll talk to y'all. God bless your families, your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. We'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.