Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American soul podcast. So if y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in, sort of appreciate, y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and piece of your day, I will try and use it wisely, make the most of it. For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much, very, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray or meet in for the podcast, thank you Very grateful for that and need it, definitely need it and appreciate it. So thank y'all, 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 sins. Thank you for all the blessings you've bestowed upon us, so many that we don't even count them all or can't even count them all. Forgive us our lack of gratitude. Forgive us our greed and our selfishness, our pride, our arrogance, our judgment of others, rash words and actions, our cowardice and our unbelief. Help us to overcome them. We do believe. Please bring us home safely to you, father and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Fill our institutions across the nation, father, with your Holy Spirit. Our schools, our law enforcement, our military firefighter units, ems, everything in between, our courts. Help us to turn back to you as a nation, to repent of our sins. Our support of abortion, our support of feminism, our support of sexual immorality of every possible description. Forgive us for not caring more about the poor possible description. Forgive us for not caring more about the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan, for not loving our neighbor as ourselves. Help us to truly follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, not just in word, father, but in deed, in action, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And help us to slow down, father. Help us to slow down and be still before you. Be with those who listen to and share the podcast. Father, please Bless them, surround them with your angels, draw them close to you, protect them. Heal those who are brokenhearted. Heal those who are sick right now, who are injured, ease their pain, bless their marriages, bless their families. In God's name, my words, your Father, please, and your Son's name we pray Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read His Word? Made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word?

You know that's a luxury, that people used to be thrown in prison for, tortured, killed just for having a Bible. Folks, I don't mean this arrogantly, because I didn't realize just how big a deal it was until as an adult really doing this podcast, I couldn't even fathom that an organization that claimed to be a church would torture people or imprison people for reading the Word. That seemed impossible to me, and yet that's exactly what happened to so many people Just because they wanted to read the Bible themselves. They didn't want to have to depend upon a priest reading the Bible or reading it in a language that they didn't understand. They wanted to be able to read it in their own language. Do you realize that? Do you acknowledge that language? Do you realize that? Do you acknowledge that? Do you understand that there were so many people before us who couldn't even read their Bibles, and how big a deal it was to our founders here in America that they had their own Bibles? That was one of our acts of Congress in the Revolutionary War when we started to run out of Bibles because we couldn't get them from Britain anymore, is to make sure that we had another source. It's really astounding to me, folks. I know I'm kind of harping on that today but the fact that we don't truly that, so many of us that we just let our Bibles sit and collect dust, when people used to be killed and imprisoned and tortured by the church, no less for owning a copy of the Bible, that's man. That's not sure what that says about us folks, but it's not great.

And if you're married, as always, folks, are you acting like that? Are you really trying to exemplify that relationship between Christ and the church? We went through Song of Solomon over the past few episodes and we'll keep going on these marriage verses. So today it's from Colossians 3, verses 18 through 21. Wives be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not become bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not antagonize your children so that they will not become discouraged. A couple things here, folks. Wives be subject to your husbands. It's not complicated, folks. It may not be popular today, but it just is what it is. It's the way God set it up. A wife should be subject to her husband, husbands.

If you know one of the things, if you kind of feel like your prayers aren't being heard, do you ever think or wonder about the fact that it might be because you're kind of bitter towards your wife, that maybe you've got something in your marriage? Standing in between your prayers and God is your bitterness toward this woman that you're supposed to love more than anyone else in the world? Children, man, sometimes we don't want to obey our parents right Often maybe. Children, man, sometimes we don't want to obey our parents right often maybe. And yet that's what god tells us to to do. And then this last one, I think is really important. One of the things in the marine corps that they that they harped on as leaders is you needed to know what you were asking of your marines well enough so that you didn't ask them for something they couldn't do. And I think often as parents, we put too much of a burden on our kids, and I'm not of the camp of like we shouldn't be pushing our kids to do more today in the sense of carry more responsibility around the home and help around the home. But when we put these expectations on our kids, are we really paying attention to what their abilities are? Or are we putting so much on them, so much strain and pressure, that they become discouraged, especially as fathers? That's our job.

Yeah, one more little article here I wanted to read from the Epoch Times. We talked about one on the previous podcast and this one is by Walker Larson how Parents Build the Culture of a Nation. And he starts with the quote the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world, by William Ross Wallace. It's a great article, epic time, great paper. If you don't take it, I highly recommend it, especially if you like newspapers. There's a lot in here.

Just a couple things, though. A lot of us feel discouraged at what's going on across the nation in America and really, I'm sure, in other nations some of y'all that listen in France and England and other places, you're discouraged too. But we have so much folks, so much that we can control in our own home. We get to teach our children, we get to raise our children. They're going to become the next generation Doctors, lawyers, presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, senators, parliamentarians, and we get to shape their morals and their foundation. We get to draw them close to God and Jesus Christ. We get to teach them the truth. Huge deal, right? You really want to affect the world. There's no better way to do that than as a parent and you want to talk about he talks about here, parents in both. But as a mom, you really want to change the world. Have a bunch of kids, teach them about God and Jesus Christ. Have a bunch of kids, teach them about God and Jesus Christ 100%. You're going to affect the world more than being some CEO or any kind of profession outside the home. As a wife and mother, there's a lot here, folks.

He does a great job of talking about the importance you know, fighting against TVs and music and things and really doing stuff together as a family, and how intentional it needs to be and how warm and hospitable we need, need our, our, our home needs to be like our base, where we can come back to for ourselves, for our marriage more importantly than ourselves, and also for our kids, and it needs to be. He says here a home is more than a pit stop between work, shopping, school or sports practice. A home is a place for where one lives, a refuge and we need to get back to our homes, being like that and being the center of our nation, instead of school or work or sports. None of those not work, not school and not sports none of those should be more important in our lives than our marriage and our home and our family. That home needs to be that place of refuge. Great article, again by Walker Larson how Parents Build the Culture of a Nation. It's in the Epic Times. If you get a chance, highly, highly recommend checking it out. Highly recommend checking it out.

Scripture today is going to start with 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 4-28. But you aren't in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won't be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief, for you are all children of the light and of the day. We don't belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like others. Stay alert and be clear-headed. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk, but let us who live in the light be clear-headed, protected by the armor of faith and love and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation, for God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive, when he returns we can live with him forever. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord's work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work and live peacefully with each other. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always tries to do good to each other and to all people. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful. Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all the brothers and sisters with a sacred kiss. I command you, in the name of the Lord, to read this letter to all the brothers and sisters. May the grace of our Lord, jesus Christ, be with you. Psalm 82, 1-8.

How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked? Give justice to the poor and the orphan. Uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless, deliver them from the grasp of evil people. But these oppressors know nothing. They are so ignorant. They wander about in darkness while the whole world is shaken to the core. I say you are gods, you are all children of the Most High, but you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler. Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you. Proverbs 25, verse 9-10.

When arguing with your neighbor, don't betray another person's secret. Others may accuse you of gossip and you will never regain your good reputation. How often do we lose our reputation by gossip, folks? A couple things here from 1 Thessalonians. Folks, a couple things here from 1 Thessalonians.

You look at verse 4 and 5, talking about the day of the Lord comes like a thief. Be on your guard. This is verse 6, not asleep, you know. We need to pay attention, folks. We need to be alert all the time. We have no idea when God's coming back, but we need to be ready for that at any time. And then verse 7, night is a time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk.

Had a CO in the Marine Corps. One of the truths that he laid out to our particular unit at that time is, he said nothing good happens after midnight. Something bad may not happen, but nothing good happens after midnight. And it proved true over and over and over again. So many times our Marines, sailors, the ones that got in trouble. It was just it was after midnight, folks. There is nothing good and wholesome that goes on outside of the home after midnight. The last thing here verse 10, christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive, when he returns we can live with him forever. So again, so, encourage each other. Again that encouragement, folks, dead or alive, we belong to God and Jesus Christ, and that's a great thing, the best of things.

Medal of Honor for today is Oren Bennett, private US Civil War Delta Company, 141st Pennsylvania Infantry, if I can speak, us Army, april 6, 1865, deatonsville, Sailors Creek, virginia, capture a flag. That's it. That's the citation. Tawanda, bradford County, pennsylvania, not awarded. Posthumously Presented May 10, 1865. Born 1837, bradford County, pennsylvania, not awarded. Posthumously. Presented May 10, 1865, born 1837, bradford County, pennsylvania, united States. Warren Bennett captured the flag. History quote from the day is Andrew Jackson. He was our seventh president and this is out of his farewell address.

But you must remember, my fellow citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad. Your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. Danger it is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have a specialty to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May he, who holds in his hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the favors he has bestowed and enabled you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge he has committed to your keeping. And that kind of sums up what's going on today.

Folks, if we really want liberty, there's going to be a price and we're not going to be able to just go along, get along with everybody. There are people that openly want in America not to have liberty and at some point we're going to have to make a decision, and the choice is probably going to be between a fight, sadly turning back to God and Jesus Christ, or willingly entering into slavery under communism, socialism, leftism, islam. None of those ideologies are compatible with liberty, right and the danger again, our greatest danger, folks, is not China, it's not North Korea, it's not Iran, it's right here, in our own nation, from citizens that support again those ideologies socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, leftism, islam and really the most dangerous of all are those is Christless conservatism, thinking that we can somehow make enough laws or create the right kind of technology or elect the just, perfect politician and that we don't need God man. That's so dangerous and I promise I won't belabor this. But the reason it's so dangerous, folks, is there's a proverb that talks about trying to rely on a lame foot.

God, I wish I had that in front of me. Where is it? Yeah, a lame foot, god. I wish I had that in front of me. Where is it? Yeah, proverbs 25, 19,.

Like a broken tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in a time of trouble. You know people that support socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, leftism, islam. They're pretty open about their desires. Most of the time. They don't like liberty, they don't like freedom, they're not peaceful or tolerant. They may say that, but their actions are so clear that the words are just useless.

Right, you know, if you know you have a broken foot or a broken tooth, you know you can't depend on it. You can see it, it's broken. It's when you can't see the break and you think it's functional still and you try and put weight on it, or you bite down on something, and then it all goes haywire, right, when you really need it to be there. You're playing the sport, you think everything's good and then all of a sudden that little tear shows up or that little break shows up and you plant on that foot and you just collapse. That's when it's really dangerous.

And people that claim to be conservative but reject God and Jesus Christ you think you can depend on them, but when the trouble comes, you're not going to be able to. Folks, you're just not, and it's going to be like this proverb folks, you're just not. And it's going to be like this proverb. If you are looking for a clean, wholesome, family-friendly little grade fantasy like Narnia, hobbit, lord of the Rings, that kind of stuff, if you check out Countryside, I've written a couple books I'm working on the third one I would appreciate it and if you would leave a review, if you enjoy it, I would greatly appreciate that too. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.