Hey folks, this is Jesse Coop, 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 you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully, it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps. And for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it, and pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you very much. Very grateful for your support and encouragement and 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 sins through the merit of your son Jesus Christ alone. Help us to enter through the gate that is Jesus Christ. Father, help us to walk the narrow path all the way home to you. Help us to run the good race. Give us the perseverance to finish grace. Wisdom. Help us to help others along the path. Help us to strive to find those who are lost and bring them to you and your son Jesus Christ. Not out of arrogance or pride or conceit. But humility and a desire for others not to perish. Be with the families of those who have lost loved ones. Whether it's children or parents, siblings, spouses. Comfort them. Help us to comfort them. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan. Help us to ease the suffering of them and of any around the world who are suffering for following your son Jesus Christ. Help us to truly repent of our sins and to turn back to you, Father, both as individuals and as a nation. And God, my words here, 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 listen to him, to talk to him. And if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Have you made them your top priority? Do you treat them as a one out of seven billion treasure? I had one of those thoughts that managed not to escape that I wanted to go back and read a little quote here that I think is applicable. One that we've read recently, and I was just thinking about it. This was a letter from Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory, I believe they called him, who won the Battle of New Orleans and who was the seventh president of the United States. He was writing to Mary and Andrew Jackson Hutchings on the death of their firstborn son, I believe, in 1834. My dear Hutchings, I am truly happy to find that you both have met this severe bereavement with that Christian meekness and submission as was your duty. This charming babe was only given you from your creator and benefactor. He has a right to take away, and we ought humbly to submit to his will and be always ready to say, Blessed be his name. We have one consolation under this severe bereavement, that this babe is now in the bosom of its Savior. This quote kind of came to me out of nowhere today. And there are two thoughts about it. One, we don't mourn like others, like pagans who don't know Christ and who have no hope. We mourn with hope because we know that we're going to get to see these people that we love again in heaven, that have put their faith in Christ. The other is how do we look at those people in our lives that God has put there? Especially folks, the truly godly, good ones, noble ones. And of course, Jesus Christ tells us that no one is good save God, but from an earthly point of view, how do we look at those people that truly love us in our lives? There's basically two ways to look at it. We can look at them as a blessing, as Andrew Jackson talked about here. This charming babe was only given you from your creator and benefactor, right? We can look at these people as a blessing each day in our lives that God gave to us. Or we can look at them as something that we're entitled to, as my wife talks about so often, something that we deserve. The second way is always going to make us a little fearful, perhaps, of losing them. And I think really it's going to make us it, it makes us treat those people indifferently with a callousness, because we think, oh, well, we deserve that. We don't think of them as a blessing, we think of them as something we have a right to. And so we don't get up each day really looking to enjoy those people to the fullest. On the other hand, if we look at them as a blessing from our Creator, a gift from God and Jesus Christ, if we really truly look at them, you know how you look at a gift, the best gift that you get on Christmas each year, the very best gift, the best gift you've gotten in five or ten years, maybe twenty years. That gift is really important to you, at least for a while, right? In an opulent society like we live in. You really pay attention to that gift a lot, especially if you've waited a long time for that gift. Yeah, you pay attention to it each day, you use it each day, you take care of it each day, it's on your mind each day, right? If we look at the people, especially again, the ones that truly love us in our lives that God's put there as that kind of blessing, then we're gonna pay attention to them each day. We're gonna care for them each day. We're gonna seek to please them if they're our spouse each day. We're gonna seek to love them and lead them and discipline them if they're our children each day, like God does with us, right? We're gonna truly seek to do the very best we can each day to fulfill our role to that person, whoever they are, whatever that role is. And I that one of the reasons I thought about this was marriage. But you can apply this to kids and parents and friends. We take these people for granted too often. We don't treat them like a blessing and a gift from God, and that changes the way that we interact with them. Marriage verse today is Proverbs 5, 18 and 19. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times, and always be enraptured with her love. I always make this comment at the end of those two verses, or I try to. It works both ways. Bible verses for today. We're going to start with Titus chapter one verses one through sixteen. This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I've been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised them before the world began. And now at just the right time he has revealed this message, which we announce to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him. I am writing to Titus, my true son, on the faith that we shared. May God the Father and Jesus Christ, our Savior, give you grace and peace. I left you on the island of Crete, so you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town as I instructed you. An elder must live a blameless life, he must be faithful to his wife, and his children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. A church leader is a manager of God's household, so he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered, he must not be a heavy drinker and violent or dishonest with money. Rather he must enjoy having guests in his home. He must love what is good, he must live wisely and be just, he must live a devout and disciplined life. He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught. Then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong. For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching, and they do it only for money. Even one of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy glutons. This is truth. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people who have turned away from the truth. Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupt in believing, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good. Psalm ninety seven one ninety eight nine. The Lord is King, let the earth rejoice, let the farthest coastlands be glad. Dark clouds surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire spreads ahead of him and burns up all his foes, his lightning flashes out across the world. The earth sees and trembles, the mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness. Every nation sees his glory. Those who worship idols are disgraced, all who brag about their worthless gods, for every God must bow to him. Jerusalem has heard and rejoiced, and all the towns of Judah are glad, because of your justice, O Lord. For you, O Lord, are supreme over all the earth, you are exalted far above all gods. You who love the Lord hate evil. He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right. May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord and praise his holy name. Sing a new song to the Lord, for he has done wonderful deeds, his right hand has won a mighty victory, his holy arm has shown his saving power. The Lord has announced his victory and has revealed his righteousness to every nation. He has remembered his promise to love and be faithful to Israel. The ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. Shout to the Lord all the earth, break out in praise and sing for joy. Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song, with trumpets and the sound of the ram's horn. Make a joyful symphony before the Lord the King. Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise. Let the earth and all living things join in. Let the rivers clap their hands in glee. Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord. For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with justice and the nations with fairness. Proverbs twenty six, thirteen verses verses thirteen through sixteen. The lazy person claims, There's a lion on the road. Yes, I'm sure there's a lion out there. As a door swings back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in his bed. Lazy people take food into their hand, but don't even lift it to their mouth. Lazy people consider themselves smarter than seven wise counselors. Don't be lazy, right? Don't be a person that swings back and forth on their bed. Titus, a couple things for the Titus. Verse 2, God who does not lie, right? God promised us we choose to believe in Jesus Christ. We're going to have eternal salvation. God doesn't lie. You acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God that God raised from the dead, you have eternal life. The elders, right? And I know this is hard today because apparently we can't tell what a woman as a man is, even inside on the conservative side. We have a lot of trouble with that, apparently, because the Bible's very clear that men are leaders, that men are elders, deacons in the church, right? And yet you see so many churches where that's not the case. So many women who claim to follow Christ that also try to be leaders in authority over men. Verse 10 there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. This is true, folks, of anybody that insists on something else besides Jesus Christ for salvation, whether it's uh belonging to the Roman Catholic Church or Greek Orthodox or any Protestant denomination, or that you have to pray to Mary or Joseph or the disciples or Peter, whoever, whatever, the thief on the cross. The only person, the only thing necessary for salvation and eternal life is Jesus Christ. Right? It's Jesus Christ. And I think we'll move on. There's a lot of other good stuff in there, folks. Medal of Honor for today, Charles Albert Besse, corporal, highest rank, chief musician, retired, Indian campaigns, Alpha Company, 3rd U.S. Cavalry, U.S. Army, January 13, 1877, Elkhorn Creek, Wyoming. While scouting with four men and being attacked and ambushed by 14 hostile Indians, held his ground, two of his men being wounded and kept up the fight until himself wounded in the side and then went to the assisted assistance of his wounded comrades. Credited to Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, not awarded posthumously, presented may 15, 1890, born november sixth, eighteen forty-eight, reading Middlesex County, Massachusetts, died June fourth, nineteen oh nine, Biloxy, Mississippi, buried Old Biloxi Cemetery, PMHH Biloxy, Mississippi, location of Metal Third Cavalry Regiment Museum, Fort Hood, Texas. Charles Albert Besse. I think we don't realize, because there's so many people today that want to sell the lie that the quote indigenous people were harmless and utopic. We don't realize how hard those Indian campaigns were. And Charles Albert Bessie is just another name that we ought to remember a lot more again than our movie stars, pop singers, and collegiate or professional athletes in their statistics. History quotes from today. Noel Webster, revolutionary soldier, legislator, judge, and called the schoolmaster to America, right? Responsible for Webster's dictionary. The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good, and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society. The best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, all the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. Folks, I cannot tell you how true this is today. All of the miseries and evils which we see in the United States today, and in your country, wherever you are around the world too, folks, all of them are due to neglecting God and the Bible, becoming a Bible illiterate society. Right? We can't just read the Bible and then do nothing about it. That's not going to solve the problem. But we have to start with reading the Bible and knowing those precepts contained there. And that absolutely is the source of every single evil and misery we see today in our American Republic and in your country, wherever you are around the world. There's nothing more you can do to improve America, to improve your nation, than spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Spread the Bible. John Jay, the very first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue, therefore, to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts. There's no way that he wouldn't have meant that, did not mean that, not only for your individual life, but for our national life. It's the only way to be happy in this world. It doesn't mean you're not going to have suffering and pain, folks, but that true joy that comes from knowing that you have eternal life because of Jesus Christ. The only way. And it teaches us that way, not just as individuals, but as a nation. Again, another reason it's so important to read the Bible each day and to do the best we can to, as John Jay says here, to regulate our lives by its precepts. If you get a chance, you're looking for a family fun, middle grade fantasy to read, I would humbly recommend Countryside. There's two books in the series so far, working on the third. And if you enjoy it, if you would share it with somebody else, and if you would leave a review somewhere, I would greatly appreciate that. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. If you're married, God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listening, God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.