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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 in whatever part of the day you're in. I sure do, as always, appreciate you joining me. I know you have other things vying for your attention. Hopefully, you get to listen to the podcast with somebody else. And that helps. 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, 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 and your mercy, your grace, and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Forgive us those sins, Father. Forgive us when we turn away from you. The ones we admit, the ones we don't, the ones we go back to time and time again. Pride, greed, vanity, selfishness, gossip, slander, lust, covetousness.

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Cowardice and unbelief. Help us to overcome our unbelief, Father.

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We do believe. Thank you for those who listen to the podcast. Father, please be with them and their families. Guide us in all that we do. Bless the marriages of those who are married, guide those who have children to raise them to know you and your son Jesus Christ. Help us to put our trust in you, Father. Not in this world or governments or men, but in you. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith.

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Help them to rule in fear of you. Not in fear of man or woman. Be with those who are hurting and alone, Father. Those who are anxious, scared. Be with those who are hurting. Whether they're injured or ill.

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And help us, Father, to care for the widow anywhere, from the poor and the needy. Help us to love you with all that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And God in my words here, Father, please.

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Your son's name we pray. Amen.

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So I get people kind of riled up on social media from time to time, particularly when I talk about roles of husbands and wives. And I think if we're being honest today over the last several decades, that pendulum has swung pretty far toward the men need to do what they're supposed to do, but women don't, at least inside the church. But but here's the litmus test, either way, folks. It doesn't really matter. Husband or wife, whether the person talking is male or female or whatever else, if a person agrees with scripture for one half of the equation and not the other, you can just go ahead and move on because they're not serious. They're not really interested in making marriages better. If they think the husband should fulfill his roles, but the wife gets a pass, they're just they have an ulterior motive, folks. And the other way around, too, if they think that the wife needs to fulfill her roles and responsibilities as laid out by scripture, but the husband gets a pass. Neither one of those is acceptable in any form or fashion. And all you really have to do is go through that list of scriptures that we go through one each day, more or less, on the podcast, and read those to people. You don't even have to give your own opinion. That's why a lot of times I just read them on here and move on. They're very clear about what the roles and responsibilities for us as Christians, as husbands and wives are. And if you don't want to fulfill those, folks, then don't get married. The only other thing from our little segment here is, you know, how did you spend your last 24 hours? Did you give God some time? Did you give your spouse some time? Are they getting the best of your energy and effort each day throughout the day? It doesn't matter what our schedule is, folks. I've I've worked everything from 12-hour towers in oil and gas to crazy hours in the military to there's always time, with very few exceptions, for God and for our spouse. The problem is we like to give it to other things. So the marriage verse for today, speaking of, is from Proverbs. If I can find it on my handy dandy little Bible here, and it's Proverbs 5 verses 18 and 19. Not Proverbs 15, which is what I went to. Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you, rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.

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And our scripture, reading for the day, we're gonna start with something. Second Peter one verses one through twenty-one.

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This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus, our Lord. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are short sighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you are really among those God has called and chosen. Do these things and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught. And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live. For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life, so I will work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I am gone. For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes, when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, This is my dearly loved Son who brings me great joy. We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and Christ, the morning star, shines in your hearts. Above all you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God. Oh how I love your instructions, I think about them all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide. Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your laws. I am even wiser than my elders, for I have kept your commandments. I have refused to walk on any evil path, so that I may remain obedient to your word. I haven't turned away from your regulations, for you have taught me well how sweet your words taste to me, they are sweeter than honey. Your commandments give me understanding. No wonder I hate every false way of life. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. I've promised it once and I'll promise it again, I will obey your righteous regulations. I have suffered much, O Lord. Restore my life again as you promise. Lord, accept my offering of praise and teach me your regulations. My life constantly hangs in the balance, but I will not stop obeying your instructions. The wicked have set their traps for me, but I will not turn from your commandments. Your laws are my treasure, they are my heart's delight. I am determined to keep your decrees to the very end. Proverbs twenty eight verses seventeen through eighteen. A murderer's tormented conscience drive him into the grave. Don't protect him. The blameless will be rescued from harm, but the crooked will be suddenly destroyed. There's a ton here we could talk about, folks. I think the only one I'll leave you with is out of Psalm 119, verse 105. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. We have a owner's manual for life. I heard a commercial earlier this year talking about how there's no owner's manual for life, but there is. It's the Bible. Doesn't mean we're always going to understand it perfectly clear. Doesn't for sure doesn't mean that we're always going to get it right, folks, but we will definitely struggle more and get more wrong if we don't stay in God's word.

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And it will make our path darker and our feet stumble. Medal of Honor for today. Well, I thought I had it. But I didn't. Let's see. William P.

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Perkins, William Perkins Black, Captain US Civil War, Kilo Company, thirty seventh Illinois Infantry U.S. Army, March seventh, eighteen sixty two, P Ridge, Arkansas, USA. Single handedly confronted the enemy firing a rifle at them and thus checked their advance within a hundred yards of the lines. You know there's more to that story than that short citation. Accredited to Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois, not awarded posthumously, presented october second, eighteen ninety three, born november eleventh, eighteen forty two, Woodford County, Kentucky, died january third, nineteen sixteen, Chicago, Illinois. Buried Graceland Cemetery, E Tac F Tac three hundred forty two, Chicago, Illinois.

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William Perkins Black. All right.

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So I'm pretty excited. I like doing this podcast just in general. I learn a lot. Hopefully y'all are too. But even if you aren't, I'm learning a lot. So I guess that's that's productive. And I get to go through scripture, so I guess that's also good. But in November, if you've been around the podcast for the last, this is the fifth year, kind of hard to believe. We go through in November, we go through Thanksgiving proclamations. And they're not always at Thanksgiving. Sometimes they're at different times of the year. But they're typically some kind of Thanksgiving or fasting day of prayer proclamation. And so we read one each day, try to, more or less, throughout November. So we're going to start because we're in November. I know I'm a few days late, but and we're going to start with the one out of 1780 by Congress, by the United States and Congress assembled, a proclamation. Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, amidst the victitudes and calamities of war, to bestow blessings on the people of these states, which call for their devout and thankful acknowledgments, more especially in the late remarkable interposition of his watchful providence, in rescuing the person of our commander in chief and the army from imminent dangers at the moment when treason was ripened for execution, in prospering the labors of the husbandman and causing the earth to yield its increase in plentiful harvest, and above all in continuing to us the enjoyment of the gospel of peace. It is therefore recommended to the several states to set apart Thursday, the seventh day of December next, to be observed as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, that all the people may assemble on that day to celebrate the praises of our divine benefactor, to confess our unworthiness of the least of his favors, and to offer our fervent supplications to the God of all grace, that it may please him to pardon our heinous transgressions, and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws, that it may please him still to afford us the blessings of health, to comfort and relieve our brethren who are any wise afflicted or distressed, to smile upon our husbandry and trade and establish the work of our hands, to direct our public councils and lead our forces by land and sea to victory, to take our illustrious ally under his special protection, and favor our joint counsels and exertions for the establishment of speedy and permanent peace, to cherish all schools and seminaries of education, to build up his churches and their most holy faith, and to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth. Done in Congress the last day of October 1780, in the fifth year of the independence of the United States of America. So this is actually one of the shorter ones. But I want you to pay attention to a few things as we go through these. You're going to notice some trends in these proclamations, especially at the beginning of the nation, during times of trial, like during the Civil War, when we read some of those. You're going to notice that our leaders ask, they were humble. They asked for God's forgiveness for us as individuals and a nation. And you can kind of juxtapose that with the leaders, a lot of the leaders that we have today, and just us as a people, are we very humble? Would you call us humble as an American people? Do we seek God's forgiveness as a people? The other thing that you'll notice in quite a few of these is the desire for the gospel to spread. And you've got to remember that this is coming from an official point of view. This isn't a president in a private capacity or a senator in a private capacity. This is presidents' senators' representatives in their public role of office. You will notice thanks always needing to be given to God and acknowledge that. You'll notice a lot of these tie in specifically asking for his guidance in our public courts, institutions, constitutions, councils, and schools and seminaries, like we just heard in this last one. And so just kind of pay attention to that, especially if you're using this for homeschool or public or private school anywhere, if you're if you're teaching children with it and you're going through these proclamations, really focus on that. And the last thing, and then I'll be quiet for today, is we we really need to understand this concept, folks, that our founders wanted separation of church and state in the sense that they didn't want the state approving of any particular denomination, but they did not want separation of God and state. They wanted God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit very involved in our institutions, whether you're talking about the military, law enforcement, courtrooms, schools, whatever it is, constitutions, the whole nine yards, they wanted God involved in that. They just didn't want the state to pick a particular denomination. And that's a huge thing. If you get a chance and you're looking for a family-friendly, middle grade read, kind of along the lines of Narnia or The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, that kind of stuff, if you would check out Countryside, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoy it, if you would leave a review somewhere, those help immensely. And if you want to, tell me about it, send me a note somewhere, and uh I'll try and read the review on the podcast or talk about it a little bit at least. And if you're getting something out of the podcast, if you're enjoying it, if you have three or four or five dollars a month that you can spare, there's a donation page on the Buzz Sprout website where you can do that, and I would be very grateful for that as well. 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, and the glory forever and ever.

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Amen.

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God bless y'all. God bless your families, God bless your marriages if you're married, God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. We'll talk to y'all again real soon. Looking forward to it.