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 sure do appreciate you joining me here, spending a little bit of time with me. 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. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast, tell others about it. Thank you for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you very much. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love, mercy, grace, forgiveness of sin. Forgive us, Father, when we don't forgive others as you have forgiven us. Forgive us our pride and our greed and our selfishness. Forgive us when we get our priorities out of order. Forgive us when we chase the things of this world instead of you. Help us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, not here on earth. Help us to seek to do your will, not to follow the shiny things and baubles of this life, but to focus on eternity with you and your son Jesus Christ. Be with those who are hurting, those who are alone, those who are scared, comfort them. Ease the pain of those who are sick from illness or injured. Be with their loved ones, comfort them, give them perseverance. Thank you for all the many blessings, Father, that you bestow upon us, the ones that we admit again, and forgive us when we don't, forgive us our lack of gratitude. Thank you for clean water to drink, clothes to wear, healthy people in our lives, the ability to read your word, the ability to pray to you without fear of persecution. Guide us, Father. Guide our leaders here in America and around the world, and be with those listening. Comfort them, comfort their families, bless their marriages, help them to feel your peace and your joy. Take away any fear and anxieties. And guide 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, to listen to him? Have you built some quiet time into your life, folks? Do you actually look around at what's going on in the world? Are you comfortable being what the rest of the world would call bored? Do you notice little things, folks? Flowers, butterflies, trees, the sun, clouds. The smile on the face of somebody you care about. Are we so rushed and so harried and hurried in our life that we miss the important things? I I'm afraid that we are missing and have missed a whole lot in our lives because we've decided that we need to be rushing from one thing to the next constantly, and we're not really appreciating the people that are right in front of us. Bible verses today we're gonna read through Song of Solomon, chapter one, the young Shulamite Bride and Jerusalem's daughters, the song of songs which is Solomon's. May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Your oils have a pleasing fragrance, your name is like purified oil. Therefore the maidens love you. Draw me after you and let us run together. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will rejoice in you and be glad. We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you. I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kadar, like the curtains of Solomon, do not stare at me because I am swarthy, for the sun has burned me. My mother's sons were angry with me. They made me caretaker of the vineyards, but I have not taken care of my own vineyard. Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where do you pasture your flock? Where do you make it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions? Solomon, the lover, speaks If you yourself do not know, most beautiful among women, go forth on the trail of the flock, and pasture your young goats by the tents of the shepherds. To me, my darling, you are like my mare among the chariots of Pharaoh. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of beads. We will make for you ornaments of gold with beads of silver. While the king was at his table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh which lies all night between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi. How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are. Your eyes are like doves, how handsome you are, my beloved, and so pleasant. Indeed our couch is luxuriant. The beams of our houses are cedars, our rafter rafters cypresses. Bible verses for today you're going to start with Hebrews chapter five verses one through fourteen. Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people and their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins, and he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses. That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as theirs. And no one can become a high priest simply because he wants such an honor. He must be called by God for this work, just as Aaron was. That is why Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become high priest. No, he was chosen by God who said to him, You are my son, today I have become your father. And in another passage God said to him, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. While Jesus was here on earth he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears to the one who could rescue him from death, and God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way God qualified him as a perfect high priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. And God designated him to be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don't seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who, through training, have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Psalm one hundred five verses one through fifteen. Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness, let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. Exalt in his holy name. Rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Search for the Lord and for his strength. Continually seek him. Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given. You children of his servant Abraham, you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His justice is seen throughout the land. He always stands by his covenant, the commitment he made to a thousand generations. This is the covenant he made with Abraham, and the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, and to the people of Israel as a never ending covenant. I will give you the land of Canaan as your special possession. He said this when they were few in number, a tiny group of strangers in Canaan. They wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. Yet he did not let anyone oppress them. He warned kings on their behalf. Do not touch my chosen people, and do not hurt my prophets. Proverbs twenty six, verse twenty-eight. A lying tongue hates its victims, and flattering words cause ruin. You go back to Hebrews chapter five. One of the things that studying the Bible, talking to God, praying each day does is it gives us the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Right? Talking about verse 14. Solid food is for those who are mature who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. And then you look back up at verse 12, you have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. One of the problems when we don't use the talents that God's given us, folks, is it's not just us that suffers that, right? It's not just like we missed out on some kind of blessings or awards or accolades. We're hurting those around us because we're not using our skill to the fullest. It's the two sides of the coin that we talk about often. Yes, we should be grateful for the blessings that God has given us. But we also have a responsibility to use our talents to the utmost, not to sit back and relax and be like, oh, you know, I got these blessings for God. I don't really need to do all this other stuff. And we hurt those around us by not using those talents, folks, to the fullest extreme. Whatever talents you've been given, you ought to be using those for God and to help those around you. And I can't tell you how often I feel like I haven't done that. I've been blessed with so much and I've used it so poorly, folks. Hopefully I'm doing a little better now than I did in years past. Medal of Honor for today, Henry H. Vickford, Corporal, highest rank, quartermaster sergeant, U.S. Civil War, Echo Company 8th, New York Cavalry, U.S. Army, March 2nd, 1865, Waynesboro, Virginia. Recapture of the flag. Middleport, Niagara County, New York, accredited to, not awarded posthumously, presented March twenty sixth, eighteen sixty-five, born March thirteenth, eighteen thirty eight. I don't even know. A county in Michigan. Died May twentieth, nineteen seventeen, Middleport, New York, buried Heartland Central Cemetery, Heartland, New York. Henry H. Bickford. Couple little pieces of housekeeping before we get into the historical quote for today. Our pastor sent out, well, I'll get to that in just a second. I had a conversation with uh somebody who means a great deal to me recently, and we were talking about a particular event and whether this person that was lauded as an expert was really an expert or not. I think for too long now that we have considered the letters before somebody's name as indicative of wisdom or being good and right. And that's just simply not the case, folks. And there's probably a lot of times today when we need people that really aren't part of the system based on a lot of the decisions that we've seen in the medical industry, right? We we apparently need some people that don't have uh MS or PhDs or whatever, because a lot of our doctors don't seem to be able to tell the difference between a boy and a girl, or that abortion is murder, or that transgender isn't a thing, that it's uh indicative of a mental illness. You know, our military has made so many poor decisions, and a lot of them politically driven, but we haven't seen a whole lot of our senior flag officers pushing back openly on some of these horrible decisions for the last half century or so. Feminism, LGBTQ lifestyles, etc. So maybe we need some people that are not your typical flag officers in the military. Same thing with academia. You know, like uh there's so many horrible decisions that have been made on college campuses. Maybe we need some people. We definitely need some people that have spent some time outside of academic circles, outside of Ivory Towers that don't have letters before or after their name. The point is that just just because somebody has a certain degree or or title absolutely does not mean that they are wise or virtuous. And then the Bible verse from our pastor, I just share this with you because it was so encouraging to me. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And then another one he sent out the other day, but I will sing of your strength in the morning, I will sing of your love, for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. Hopefully that encourages y'all a little bit. So a few quotes out of New Jersey, New Jersey Constitution 1776. No Protestant inhabitant of this colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account of his religious principles, but that all persons professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect, who shall demean themselves peaceably under the government as hereby established, shall be capable of being elected into any office of profit or trust, or being a member of either branch of the legislature. The provincial seal of New Jersey was Proverbs 1434. Righteousness exalteth a nation. Constitution of the state of New Jersey from 1844. We, the people of the state of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which he hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations do ordain and establish this Constitution. And one more from New Jersey Colony 1697. It being very necessary for the good and prosperity of this province, that our principal care be in obedience to the laws of God, to endeavor as much as in us lieth the extirpation of all sorts of looseness and profanity, and to unite in the fear and love of God and one another. Take due care that all laws made and provided for the suppression of vice and encouraging of religion and virtue, particularly the observance of the Lord's day be duly put into execution. Just little bits of history, folks, that show from even before we were a nation, during our founding after how much we were we relied on God and turned to Him for guidance, and how much we have to, again, today. If you get a chance, again, I feel like I need to recommend the Founders Bible, Patriot's Bible, and America's Guide and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations. If you're looking for a family-friendly middle grade read for kids or grandkids to read together, I would humbly recommend Countryside to get a chance. Try it out. And if you enjoy it, if you would leave a review somewhere, I would appreciate that. Also, the podcast, if you feel like you're getting something out of it and you can, there's a page on the Buzz Sprout website where you can leave a monthly donation for as little as$3. I would appreciate that. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, looking forward to it.