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, whatever part of the day you're in. I do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I know you have other things vying for your attention, so I appreciate that you spend some of it here and I will try and use it wisely. For those of you that continue to pray for me and for the podcast and to share the podcast, tell others about it. Thank you all so much, especially the prayers, very grateful for those.

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 through the merit life of your Son, jesus Christ Almighty. Thank you for all the many blessings, father, that you bestow upon us Big things and little things, or things that we think are little, that aren't really so little, father food to eat, clothes to wear, water to drink, electricity, water heaters, a roof over our heads, warm, safe place to sleep, cars that run, healthy spouses, healthy children. A roof over our heads, warm, safe place to sleep, cars that run, healthy spouses, healthy children, healthy parents, parents who love us and care about us, spend time with us, children who do the same.

Forgive us our greed, our pride, our arrogance, our laziness, procrastination, judgment of others, gossip and slander, cowardice and our unbelief. Help us to overcome all these sins, father. Forgive us as a nation for the sins that we've supported for so long Abortion, feminism, sexual immorality of every conceivable kind, rejection of you, blasphemy. Help us to turn back to you as a nation, father. Help us to elect men who rule in fear of you, who reject bribes, who fight against corruption. And God, my words here, father, please, 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 talk to him? Is he at the top of your list, the bottom, somewhere? You shove in the middle? Do you pretend that he's your most important? But don't act that way, right? And if you're married, does your spouse know it? Do you act like it? Do they go to bed each night knowing, without a doubt, that they are your top priority, each and every day? Because your actions are what matter, folks. That's what matters our actions, how are we spending our time? What did you spend your time on in the last 24 hours, last week, last month, last year, last five years, last 10 years?

If you had a column, chart or a bar chart and it showed those different categories right reading, books for fun, workouts, add whatever else is you know, hunting, whatever, shopping, whatever's on your list If you had a bar chart with all these different categories and the time maybe you had one that showed time and one that showed energy and effort and affection what would that look like for your life? You know you look at the stock exchange charts and you can pick different periods one month, three months, six months, the last year, etc. You know what would that look like in your life those categories If you could punch that up each day and there was a little chart. If you've ever seen the modern remake of Jumanji, it's a movie about a board game that turns into real life. Right, the kids get sucked in. Not the best movie, perhaps morally, but it's entertaining. Maybe that's condemning in and of itself or of me, but there's one point where the players can push this little button because in the modern remake it's a video game and it pops up a little bar chart for that day that showed how we had spent all our time or that month, or that year or that decade. And would we really change if we saw that? Would we like what we saw? Would we care? How would it affect us? Us Marriage scripture today is 1 Corinthians 14, verses 34 through 35.

Women should remain silent in the churches. They're not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. How many churches across America today adhere to that scripture? Let me go ahead, and I just want to address one thing with the scripture today. The scripture speaks for itself. If you're really interested, you can go back and read it again. Listen to it again. You can go back and read it again. Listen to it again. No-transcript may be true, is true. It doesn't really matter though, folks. Let me tell you why People that say that the Bible there are certain parts of the Bible that are no longer relevant or no longer true.

Who gets to decide that? Who gets to decide which parts don't matter anymore? Who gets to decide which parts we should adjust? And the people that in particular say well, society changed, so the Bible ought to change. Well, here's the real, simple fallacy with that. If you looked across American culture today, how many people would you say, based on their actions, really believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Definitely that percentage has shrunk. And so should we suddenly look at the Bible and say, well, god didn't really mean that Jesus Christ was divine, he didn't really mean that Jesus Christ was his son, was holy God right? Because if society has changed and more and more people ignore and reject that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, if we're going to go that route with roles for men and women, and marriage and society and the church, then anything's fair game. Then maybe Jesus Christ wasn't really God Right. Jesus Christ wasn't really God Right. If you're being honest, you can see the problems there pretty quickly.

Scripture today 1 Timothy 5, verses 1 through 25. Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. Talk to younger men as you would to your own father. Talk to younger men as you would to your own brothers. Treat older women as you would your mother and treat younger women with all purity, as you would your own sisters. Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her, but if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases God. Now, a true widow, a woman who is truly alone in this world, has placed her hope in God. She prays night and day, asking God for his help. But the widow who lives only for pleasure is spiritually dead, even while she lives. Give these instructions to the church so that no one will be open to criticism. But those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers, worse than unbelievers.

A widow who is put on the list for support must be a woman who is at least 60 years old and was faithful to her husband. She must be well respected by everyone because of the good that she has done. Has she brought up her children well? Has she been kind to strangers and served other believers humbly? Has she helped those who are in trouble? Has she always been ready to do good? The younger widows should not be put on the list because their physical desires will overpower their devotion to Christ and they will want to remarry. Then they would be guilty of breaking their previous pledge. And if they are on the list, they will learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house, meddling in other people's business and talking about things they shouldn't. So I advise these younger widows to marry again, to have children and to take care of their own homes. Then the enemy will not be able to say anything against them. For I am afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Satan. For I am afraid that some of them have already gone astray and now follow Satan. If a woman who is a believer has relatives who are widows, she must take care of them and not put the responsibility on the church. Then the church can care for the widows who are truly alone.

Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the scripture says you must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain and in another place. Those who work deserve their pay. Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. Those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church. This will serve as a strong warning to others. I solemnly command you, in the presence of God and Jesus Christ and the highest angels, to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favoritism to anyone.

Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Appointing a church leader. Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Don't drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach, because you are sick so often. Remember the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment, but there are others whose sins will not be revealed until later. In the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious, and the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light.

Psalm 89, verses 14-37. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Unfailing love and truth walk before you as attendants. Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, lord. They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation they exalt in your righteousness. You are their glorious strength. It pleases you to make us strong. Yes, our protection comes from the Lord and he, the Holy One of Israel, has given us our King.

Long ago. You spoke in a vision to your faithful people yes, our protection comes from the Lord oil. I will steady him with my hand, with my powerful arm. I will make him strong. His enemies will not defeat him, nor will the wicked overpower him. I will beat down his adversaries before him and destroy those who hate him. My faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him and by my authority he will grow in power. I will extend His rule over the sea, his dominion over the rivers, and he will call out to me you are my Father, my God and the rock of my salvation. I will make Him my firstborn Son, the mightiest King on earth. I will love Him and be kind to Him forever.

My covenant with Him will never end. I will preserve an heir for Him. His throne will be as endless as the days of heaven, but if his descendants forsake my instructions and fail to obey my regulations, if they do not obey my decrees and fail to keep my commands, then I will punish their sin with the rod and their disobedience with beating. But I will never stop loving him, nor fail to keep my promise to him. No, I will not break my covenant. I will not take back a single word. I said I have sworn an oath to David and in my holiness I cannot lie. His dynasty will go on forever. His kingdom will endure as the sun. It will be as eternal as the moon, my faithful witness in the sky. As eternal as the moon, my faithful witness in the sky. Proverbs 25, verses 25 through 27. Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty. If the godly give in to the wicked, it's like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring. It's not good to eat too much honey and it's not good to seek honors for yourself.

There's so much in each of these that we could talk about 1 Timothy 5, just a couple things, because we could spend two or three podcasts just on this one chapter. One of the things is treat the older women as you would your mother. Treat younger women with all purity, as you would your own sisters. I wonder how many of us as men do that. How many of us treat older women the same way we would treat our mothers and how many of us treat younger women as men the same way we would treat a sister. I would imagine for most of us our thoughts right now are pretty condemning and it might behoove us to think about that a little bit as we go through our day-to-day life.

And then, if you look at verse 8, but those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers. I always like the one too. It says instead of unbelievers, infidels. Right, I always like the one too. America was founded as a Christian nation, as we talk about, as President Woodrow Wilson said and so many others in our Supreme Court have noted, then this verse to me really seems to apply to us as an American family, and we have a responsibility to first care for our brothers and sisters here in America before we go looking out in the world. And that's not to say that we shouldn't go look out in the world, that's not to go say that we shouldn't send missionaries, that we shouldn't send financial aid and use our military to help others, but we ought to remember that our brothers and sisters here in America have a right to our help. Now, if they turn us down, if they ignore us, if they refuse our assistance, that's a whole different ballgame. But we have a responsibility to at least try, just like we do with members of our own household. Members of our own household.

Medal of Honor for today. George Francis Berg, also known as George Berg with a U instead of an E. Ranked Private, highest Rank, master, sergeant, retired. Conflict Era Spanish-American War, charlie Company, 17th US Infantry. Us Army, july 1st 1898, balcani, Cuba, gallantly Army. July 1, 1898, el Caney, cuba. Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and, while under heavy fire of the enemy, accredited to Fort Omaha, douglas County, nebraska.

Not awarded posthumously. Presented October 17, 1927. Presented October 17, 1927. Born December 2, 1868, mount Erie, wayne County, illinois. Died November 27, 1945, washington, district of Columbia, United States. Buried Mount Pleasant Cemetery, south Portland, maine. From the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Archives.

This Medal of Honor recipient's name was originally recorded with the spelling B-U-R-G when he enlisted in the US Army. He eventually had this error corrected in the US military records in 1901 to his true name of B-E-R-G. Just a little side note there. George Francis Berg, interesting. He was born shortly after the Civil War, died right at the end of World War II. So he lived through the Spanish-American War, the Indian Wars, world War I, the Depression. This gentleman saw a lot, definitely a name we need to remember.

So I wanted to end with a few quotes today. Hopefully I'll get through all of these without too much time. The first are a couple of quotes from Alone by William Manchester, the Last Lion trilogy. Highly recommend, especially the second volume in this series. Recommend especially the second volume in this series. It's so relevant today, folks, to what we see politically going on inside of America. There's so many parallels between the British and Germans in the 1920s and 30s and the left and the right politically here in the United States today. We could talk about that a lot more, but there's a little section here.

Churchill was giving his first wartime broadcast on October 1, 1939, I think as a cabinet member. The BBC had kind of cut him out Really not kind of. They'd cut him out a lot over the last decade, but they couldn't now because he was a cabinet member. And one of the things he said which Manchester here the author of this biography says, it's one of those passages which men in public life later wish they could expunge from the record. But Churchill's quote was Rough times lie ahead, but how different is the scene from that of October 1914?

The French seemed to be about to break under the terrible impact of German imperialism. We faced those adverse conditions then. We have nothing worse to face tonight, and this is the one-sentence commentary by Manchester, the author, about that quote. They faced something far worse, of course, but no one can hold a mirror up to the future, and the speech was well received in England. We've had civil war twice in this country before folks, so we've faced horrible conditions before, but there's something coming and the choices don't seem to be very good either way, some worse than others. The problem today is that we have a large percentage of our population that reject God and Jesus Christ and therefore are founding values and virtues as a nation, and that's disturbing, and it should be. It should be very concerning to us. It should be very concerning to us.

The second quote that I wanted to read today comes out of the history of the rise, progress and termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Otis Warren. This is a quote from her history and this was talking about after the action at Lexington. Thus resentment stimulated by recent provocation, the colonies, under all the disadvantages of an infant country without discipline, without allies and without resources except what they derived from their own value and virtue, were compelled to resort to the last appeal, the precarious decision of the sword against the mighty power of Britain. There's another quote that I don't have in front of me, by one of our founding fathers. I think maybe it's from Patrick Henry, in his speech, but I can't be sure Talking about the fact that we'd done everything we could with Britain.

We begged and pleaded and asked and petitioned, and everything had been rejected. And, folks, we have to keep praying, keep striving for peace and reconciliation and the hope that citizens in America who strive after leftism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, islam, that they'll change their hearts and minds and turn away from those evils, from that destruction. But it's hard not to see similarities there. You know, we've been asking for decades now, begging, pleading. This is not the right path, this is going to destroy us. This isn't going to work. Look at the number of shootings that have involved transgenderism. And there's a direct chain over the last century from feminism, pretending that men and women were the same, feminism, you know, pretending that men and women were the same. Feminism to no-fault divorce. You can throw in there LGBTQ lifestyles to transgenderism. They're backing us into a corner and we have fewer and fewer avenues to left to us.

And the last thing I'm going to read here is a quote out of again alone by William Manchester, great book. If you get it, I highly recommend it. It's fascinating and extremely. It really does illuminate some things today. And this is a combination of a quote from Manchester and also him quoting Churchill writing in part of his Histories of the English-Speaking People.

As Europe slept, churchill stood hunched over his Disraeli desk correcting galleys, revising passages with his red pen or dictating inserts to Mrs Hill, who sat over the keyboard of a silent typewriter, her fingers at the ready. He was telling the tale of an earlier Britain when, in time of war or the threat of war, pulse-anonymous officials were flogged or hung. He went back to the birth of Britain, to the Roman occupation, the departure of Rome's legions and the chaos that followed in the 5th century when, as the Welsh monk Ninius recorded, invading Saxons from Germany plundered the island's quilt of little kingdoms, raping, looting and spreading disease. The desperate kings turned to a du bellorum, no monarch, but in those times something far more prestigious, a military commander of great gifts and courage, known to history as Arthur century of peace by defeating the Saxons in twelve mighty battles, the greatest of which the crowning mercy, as Churchill called it was fought on Mount Badon at some time between 490 and 503. Now, in 1939, at Chartwell, he invested Arthur with a crown and wrote that his name takes us out of the midst of dimly remembered history into the daylight of romance. There looms large, uncertain, dim but glittering, the legend of King Arthur. Somewhere in the island, a great captain gathered the forces of Roman Britain and fought the barbarian invaders to the death. Around him, around his name and deeds, shine all that romance and poetry can bestow. I don't really know why that struck me so much to read today, folks, but it did. The only comment I'll really leave you with is do we not have invaders today in America, raping, looting and spreading disease? On a little happier note, at the end of each podcast, if you're looking for a family-friendly, middle-grade fantasy novel, kind of like Narnia, harry Potter, percy Jackson, the Hobbit, I would humbly recommend Countryside.

I've written a couple of books in the series. If you get a chance, check it out and if you like it. Enjoy it. If you'd leave a review somewhere, I would greatly appreciate that. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless 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.