The American Soul
The American Soul
Historical Tales of Courage and Faithful Living
Can prioritizing your faith and marriage actually transform your daily life? In this episode, I, Jesse Cope, challenge the common belief that daily tasks and even children should come before nurturing spiritual commitments and the marital bond. We explore the idea that loving your spouse as your nearest neighbor not only strengthens personal faith but also sets a valuable precedent for your children. You'll discover the profound impact of dedicating time to God and your spouse, enriched by insights from resources like America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes, which beautifully intertwine faith with patriotism.
Journey with us into the past as we recount the inspiring story of John Philpott, a Protestant martyr whose unwavering faith during the reign of Mary I exemplifies the strength of belief that transcends denominational boundaries. We also salute the bravery of Corporal Abner Peller Allen, a Medal of Honor recipient from the Civil War, highlighting the significant role of color bearers. By sharing these historical narratives, including more from Fox's Book of Martyrs, we aim to inspire you with tales of faith, courage, and perseverance that resonate through time.
The American Soul Podcast
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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, whatever part of the day you're in. It's good to appreciate y'all joining me and giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us some tools for our toolbox, maybe a little bit of encouragement. Hopefully it'll help us draw a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you, I'm very grateful. And for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you, I'm very grateful. And for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. Incredibly grateful for those 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, mercy, grace and forgiveness. Thank you for all the blessings you bestow upon us, the ones we admit, the ones we don't Forgive us, our sins. The ones we admit and the ones that we don't Forgive us when we turn away from you and help us to do a better job, seeking you and your kingdom and your righteousness first, help us to follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with those, father, who are hurting around the world, around our nation, those who are alone and scared, cold and hungry. Help us to comfort them. Help us to treasure the things that you treasure, father, to keep our heart where you want it, instead of focused on the world. Be with our leaders, from the president and vice president on down, senators, representatives, admirals, generals. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Protect them, bring them home, safe, to their families, our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters as well, father, please, and be with those men and women, bring them home, safe to their families, our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters as well, father, please, and be with those men and women, father, who do such a good job serving you, who go and visit the sick and visit those in prison and clothe the naked and give water to the thirsty and food to the hungry. And God, my word to your father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? How many other things have you done today besides make time for God? I haven't asked a question like that before, but maybe for both God and our spouse I should do that. How many things have you done today on your list that you yourself would say are not as important as God, but you've already given them time instead of him Reading the Bible praying either one of those? The Bible praying either one of those. How many of you or how many things have you given time to, if you're married, other than your spouse already today? Working out your phone, tv, friends, children, cleaning, picking up around the house, maybe dishes, laundry, cooking, you know, and maybe some of those things are your spouse's love language and y'all did those together and that's awesome. But maybe some of those things aren't. They were on your list and yet you've completely neglected the things on your spouse's list.
Speaker 1:Folks, if you know Jesus Christ, if you have chosen him to accept him as your Lord and Savior, as the only son of God who died for our sins and God raised him from the dead right, which is a free gift, it's a simple gift. It's. All you have to do is accept it. You do have forever in a sense, because that starts now. You have eternity, and that's awesome and it ought to bring a smile to your face, and it ought to bring a smile to your face telling other people about it, and too often I don't do that. However, comma, we don't have forever here on earth, in this body that God gave us, to love those around us, and I can't I'm not going to tell you that that has something to do with storing up treasures for yourself in heaven for eternity, but it certainly doesn't seem like a stretch to me.
Speaker 1:If that's the way that God works out, are we focused on the things that God wants us to be focused on? And if you're married folks, you want to talk about loving your neighbors yourself. There is no neighbor that you have that's closer than your spouse at least shouldn't be and all the other you know. So often I get the comment well, when you have kids, those kids ought to be a priority, which is not the Christian point of view at all. There's no point in the Bible where God tells us that our kids should become more important than our spouse. There's a lot of places in the Bible where God talks about how important our spouse should be to us. But if you really want to care for your kids, love your kids, set an example for your kids, you start with your spouse. All right, where were we Proverbs? Oh, I think, I think, I think, I think seven.
Speaker 1:One of the great things, by the way, about these books that I recommend so often America's God and Country Encyclopedia quotes Patriot's Bible, founder's Bible is there's so much in them. I was just flipping through some pages, actually getting ready for the podcast, and I was like, oh, that's a great quote. That's a great quote. Oh, that's another one. Oh, I haven't heard that one. I need to look and it just like you can't do it all. Uh, we've been doing this podcast, like I said, recently I think in May it'll be four years and there's still so much uh that I haven't gotten to Um, and there's so much that I have covered that I've heard people say you know, I've never heard that and it just makes you think what are we doing Educating our children that we don't teach these things? I mean, these three books ought to be primary textbooks in every school across the nation, for sure.
Speaker 1:The Wiles of the harlot, chapter seven, verse one my son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live. And my teaching is the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom you are my sister and call understanding your intimate friend. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom you are my sister and call understanding your intimate friend. That they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
Speaker 1:For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice and I saw, among the naive and discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense passing through the street near her corner. And he takes the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. And behold, a woman comes to meet him, dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. She is boisterous and rebellious, her feet do not remain at home. She is now in the streets, now in the squares, and lurks by every corner. So she seizes him and kisses him and with a brazen face, she says to him I have spread my couch with coverings with colored linens of Egypt, I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses, for my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. He has taken a bag of money with him At the full moon. He will come home With her many persuasions. He entices him With her flattering lips. She seduces him Suddenly. He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver as a bird hastens to the snare. So he does not know that it will cost him his life. Now, therefore, my sons, listen to me and pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths, for many are the victims she has cast down and numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.
Speaker 1:Obviously, the whole chapter here is the warnings of adultery right, and it's primarily focused on a man committing adultery with a woman. Obviously, it works the other way around too. Hence the woman caught an adultery drug before Jesus, where he said neither do I condemn you, but he also told her go and sin no more. We can have forgiveness, folks, even for adultery, even for murder. Look at David, look at what he did to Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. But that doesn't mean that we are going to avoid earthly consequences for those actions.
Speaker 1:And I think it's safe to say, based on society today, that we have not done a good enough job warning our children about the evils of adultery and how much damage that causes. And not only how much damage that causes, you know, but how important it is to find somebody that will help you avoid those pitfalls. You know you want to talk about marriage. You need to find a spouse that follows scripture Ephesians 5, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, specifically in this case 1 Corinthians 7, right. And 1 Corinthians 7 says don't deny each other, except maybe, maybe for brief periods of prayer and fasting. So that why? It tells us specifically God tells us why not to, so that the devil can't tempt you. You know you tie that in with Proverbs 5 and talk about being satisfied by your wife Satisfied you can reverse that too, ladies Satisfied by your husband. We have a responsibility both to satisfy and to be satisfied, but you need to make sure that you found a spouse, find a spouse that agrees with that and strives to follow that.
Speaker 1:So we're going to do what we do every so often on the podcast kind of a hodgepodge today, but we're going to, I think, talk about some Medal of Honor recipients. But we're going to start with what I have started to do just this year on the podcast, and that is talk about some of the martyrs who died for Christianity, instances. These are people whose names we ought to remember a lot more than the you know NFL or NBA stars or entertainers, and we ought to do a better job certainly I should, talking to myself of teaching our children these names. So this first one we're going to start with is John Philpott. If I'm describing that right, he was the elite of his day, for sure. His father was a knight. He was educated at Oxford, traveled across Europe widely and really started to fall in line with the Protestant Reformation. So he came back and Edward was king, so that was good. He made him the archdeacon of Winchester and everything seemed great.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, for those of you you all, this is 1555 that know your history or have listened to a few of the podcasts recently, lady jane gray did not succeed, and she was the one who would have favored protestantism. And mary the first took the throne and and she was super, super Catholic wanted to turn the church back to Catholicism and didn't like, to say the least, anybody who was viewed as a Protestant reformer, protestant reformer. And so, of course, philpott again John Philpott, he was. His job was taken away. He was, as we say, in the military. He was relieved of command, so to speak, and they made him come in and defend himself.
Speaker 1:I don't know, you know, some of these people seem like they were taken to the stake to be burned pretty quickly, and some not so quickly, and I'm not really sure what the rhyme or reason was. Maybe it had to do with status, maybe it was harder to burn the son of a night alive. I don't have any idea. Some of y'all that know history better than I do would know. But he was brought in 13 or 14 times amongst prison and confinement, before this dog and pony show, before the state court and asked to defend himself, and he did apparently really well, but finally, after being in prison for about 20 months, you think about that and he wasn't treated well, folks. This wasn't prison like we have today, you know where some people actually commit crimes simply to get into prison to have three hot meals and a cot someplace to sleep warm.
Speaker 1:This was pretty nasty, and so he had been there for 20 months give or take, and this last time they finally brought him in and said look, either reject everything you've been saying and turn back to Catholicism or we're going to kill you. And so he would, and he was sentenced to be burned at the stake. And so, on December 18th 1555, he was walked out to where he was going to be executed, and apparently his quote at this place of execution was Still I disdain to suffer here at the stake, when my Redeemer did not refuse to suffer the most vile death upon the cross for me and theoretically, as he was being burned alive, he recited Psalm 107 and 108, and then he died. All because he refused to fall in line, not with Jesus Christ and the teachings of Holy Scripture, folks, but because he refused to fall in line with Catholicism. And you need to remember that when you hear some people today and there are people, I'm sad to say, who agree with this in the sense that they will tell you the lie that their denomination is the only way to get to heaven, and the Bible doesn't talk about that.
Speaker 1:The thief on the cross who went to heaven didn't have a denomination. Jesus Christ didn't have a denomination. None of the disciples or the apostles had a denomination. Mary did not have a denomination. Joseph, mary and Martha, lazarus's sisters, didn't have. Lazarus didn't have a denomination. Lazarus's sisters didn't have. Lazarus didn't have a denomination. None of these people had a denomination, be it Catholic or Orthodox or any version of Protestantism.
Speaker 1:And so if somebody's telling you that you have to be part of their denomination, they're telling you something. Folks, actually, they're telling you a few things. One thing, the biggest thing they're telling you is they're not telling you the gospel of Christ, and so don't let your heart be troubled by that. Go back and read scripture. You can see it very clearly. There are no denominations there. All you need is Jesus Christ. That's the only way he tells us that, literally, I'm the way, the truth. Nobody goes to the Father, but through me. So a name to remember Somebody, hopefully that we don't have to stand in his stead, but definitely someone that deserves a lot more respect than we give to a lot of people we give a time and attention to today. John Philpott, 15. 1855.
Speaker 1:So before I get to, I've wanted to do this for a few days. Well, I'll tell you what. I'm going to read one Medal of Honor citation first and then, if I have time, I'll come back and read another one. I want to do something else that I've tried to do for a few days. So this is Abner Teller. If I'm saying that right, allen, this is from the US Civil War, us Army, rank of corporal, kilo Company, 39th Illinois Infantry, april 2nd 1865, medal of Honor, action Place, petersburg, virginia, usa.
Speaker 1:Gallantry, as a color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg. Greg, accredited to Bloomington-McLean County, illinois, was not awarded. Posthumously Presented May 12, 1865. He was born October 9, 1839, in Woodford County, illinois. Died August 22, 1905. Buried in Cinerberg Cemetery, cinerberg, ohio, united States. Abner Peller, allen Gallantry is a color bearer.
Speaker 1:For those of y'all if you don't know what a color bearer is, it's somebody that holds on to the flags for that particular unit, whether it's a regiment, battalion etc. And that used to be a lot bigger deal than it is today. It's still important from kind of a traditional sense, but it used to be really important because that told you where the unit was during the middle of a fight. So all right. So what I wanted to do if we have time, we'll come back and read one more is one of the great things, and all of these books have great. We'll come back and read one more is one of the great things, and all of these books have great, different great things about them.
Speaker 1:By the way, wonderful book about the martyrs, fox Book of the Martyrs there's a newer version. There's multiple different versions of this. The one that I have I have a couple actually, but the one I was reading some of the facts out of today is Voices of the Martyrs and it's created by the Voice of the Martyrs Publishing Division. So if you get a chance, highly recommend it. Pick up a copy of that. But one of the things that the Patriots Bible has in it is it has the places where the different presidents put their hand when they took the oath of office, and so I wanted to read a couple of these that I stumbled across.
Speaker 1:Grover Cleveland when he took a presidential oath of office in 1885, he put his hand on Psalm 112, verses 4 through 10. Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous, a good man deals graciously and leans. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely, he will never be shaken. The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He will not be afraid until he sees his desire upon his enemies. He has dispersed abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor. The wicked will see it and be grieved. He will gnash his teeth and melt away the desire of the wicked. He'll perish. Grover Cleveland, 1885.
Speaker 1:Again, just a great example, folks right, of how this is not a secular or pagan nation. If that was the case, we would never not only would we not require it, we would never allow our officials to put their hand on the Bible. It would make no difference, because the Bible would hold no weight. In fact, it would be condemned as it is in places like communist China, the old Soviet Union, right. And so just one more simple example. When people tell you that we were not born a Christian republic, just ask them. Well, why do we take our oath on the Bible then? Why do we? You know when officers are taking or swearing an oath. Why do we say so? Help me God. Why is God on our currency which, by the way, doesn't go back to the 1950s, which some people are going to tell you it actually goes back to? The Civil War was the first time, if I'm remembering correctly, that we put in God we trust, or some version of that, on our currency. I've talked about that on the podcast. I'll have to go back and find that version of that on our currency. I've talked about that on the podcast. I'll have to go back and find that.
Speaker 1:Rutherford B Hayes, 1877, put his hand on Psalms 118, 11 through 13 as he took the presidential oath of office. They surround me, yes, they surround me, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. They surround me like bees. They were quenched like a fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me Verse 14. Pretty good too. The Lord is me Verse 14. Pretty good too. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. Rutherford B Hayes, 1877. One more Woodrow Wilson, on all of Psalm 119, which I'm not going to read the whole thing because if you know anything about Psalm 119, you know it is extremely long. When he took the presidential oath of office, but the title of the first part is Meditations on the Excellencies of the Word of God. So, woodrow Wilson, psalm 119, 1913. Thought those were pretty good. I think I have time. We have time for one more. Let's see.
Speaker 1:Edward G Allen. This was the Boxer Rebellion, or the China Relief Expedition. Rank was Boatswain, mate, first class, highest rank was Chief Boatswain, china Relief Expedition. Boxer Rebellion. Uss Newark in the Navy, june 22, 1900. China Fighting with the relief expedition of the Allied Forces, 13, 20, 21, and 22 June 1900,. Allen, distinguished himself by meritorious conduct. Accredited to New York, awarded posthumously no. Born December 4, 1859, amsterdam, holland, the Netherlands, april 16th 1917, brooklyn, new York, united States. Buried at the Evergreens Cemetery. Nazareth 1251, brooklyn, new York, united States. Edward G Allen. So some names there, folks to remember and hopefully teach some other people right. God bless y'all, god bless your marriages, god bless your families, god bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen folks, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Looking forward to it.