The American Soul
The American Soul
Washington's Prayers: What Our Schools Don't Teach
What does it mean to truly prioritize your faith? Jesse Cope dives deep into this question, challenging listeners to honestly evaluate whether their actions align with their professed beliefs. Drawing from an Easter sermon, he shares a powerful quote from Oswald Chambers: "Faith that is sure of itself is not faith. Only faith in God is faith." This thought-provoking perspective invites us to embrace the authentic nature of faith—not as certainty without doubt, but as trust despite uncertainty.
The episode explores the principle that genuine passion inevitably leads to performance. When we're truly passionate about our faith, marriage, or any pursuit, we actively demonstrate it through consistent action. Jesse poses a compelling question: "If we were put on trial for being passionate about God, would there be enough evidence to convict us?" This imagery serves as a mirror for self-examination, prompting listeners to consider whether their daily choices reflect their stated priorities.
A fascinating examination of George Washington's prayer journal reveals the first president's profound humility and complete reliance on Christ for redemption. This historical insight directly challenges modern narratives suggesting America's founders intended to create a secular nation. How could men who integrated faith into every aspect of their personal lives deliberately exclude those principles from the foundations of government? The contradiction is striking and thought-provoking.
The podcast concludes with a powerful metaphor comparing Christians to soldiers behind enemy lines, tasked with rescuing as many souls as possible. Even saving one person makes the mission worthwhile, and God always makes room for more. This encouraging perspective reminds us that our purpose extends beyond ourselves to the spiritual wellbeing of others.
Join the American Soul Podcast community by subscribing, sharing with friends who might benefit from these discussions, and keeping Jesse and the podcast in your prayers as they continue to explore the intersection of faith, history, and contemporary American life.
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. I'm sure to appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Little bit of your time and attention and a little piece of your day, I will try and use it wisely. I know y'all have other things that you, other demands you have pulling on you from multiple different directions. So thank you for joining me here. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. Those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. And those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. Very, very grateful for those prayers, need them and want them. And for those of y'all who are new to the podcast, thank you.
Speaker 1:Hope y'all enjoy it. Hope you come back, 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 your forgiveness, for all the many blessings that you bestow upon us, both as individuals and as a nation. Thank you for clean water to drink and food to eat, clothes to wear, cars that run electricity. Thank you for healthy spouses, healthy children, healthy parents for a friend, for the family that you put in our lives. Thank you for the people at the churches that we attend. Thank you for living in a place where we don't have to worry about reading our Bible or having one in our home, or claiming and following your son, jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior. Help us not only to be grateful for these things, father, but to use the talents, the abilities and the blessings that you've given us to the fullest extent and to help those who don't have those abilities, those blessings, to bless them as much as we're able through the blessings that you have given us. Be with our leaders here in America and in the countries around the world where people are listening and thank you for all those who are listening, father. Be with them, be with their families, guide them, bless them, surround them with your angels, protect us all from evil of any kind and help us to do your will above all else, each day, in your son's name and show us what that is. Father, please Give us wisdom to see it and the courage to act on it. In the name of your son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? There's nothing else in your entire life that you will ever do that even remotely compares to your relationship with God and Jesus Christ. How many of us, though, fail to act like that on a day-to-day basis? On a day-to-day basis? How many of us put screens, sports, entertainment, books in front of God and Jesus Christ? It reminds you of the parable that Jesus told about the man who found the treasure or the exquisite pearl and sold everything he had to get that because it was so precious. Do we treat our relationship with God and Jesus Christ like that? What's the first thing that you do each day? What do you spend most of your time on? Look back at your days, folks. Don't do as I have done so often in my life, and just kind of go through the motions. What did we spend our time on yesterday? What did we give our time? Because that shows our priorities right, and then second only to our relationship with God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:For those of us who are married, does our spouse know it? Do they know that they're loved, cherished, nourished, respected, submitted to? Whatever our role is as a husband or wife? And they're different, they're not the same. And if you're looking for a husband or a wife, folks, if you're at that stage in your life, you need to make sure that you're looking for somebody who fulfilled as much as they're able prior to marriage and wants to fulfill after marriage, those verses where God specifically lays out what those responsibilities and roles are 1 Corinthians 7, ephesians 5, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13, 4. They're very clear, they're not gray, they're black and white, and you need to make sure that you look for somebody that has that same foundation, the same origin of values that you do, because if you don't, folks, it's going to make marriage really long, really hard, and it's going to be difficult not to become bitter and really at ourselves if we're honest in that situation, because we didn't listen to God when we should have, in that situation, because we didn't listen to God when we should have.
Speaker 1:I wanted to talk for just a few minutes today about the Easter sermon that the pastor at our church gave a couple weeks ago. We have a tradition in our little community each Easter that a couple of the churches get together on Easter. It's a wonderful tradition. One of the reasons I like it especially not just because I enjoy both of the pastors that primarily come at this point, but because the denominations are different. They're not the same, are different, they're not the same. And so so often today I see people who claim to follow Christ and maybe even do as much as they know how, putting their denomination in front of being Christian. The same way, people who hyphenate American put their little group, their special little group, in front of American, and there's absolutely no honorable excuse for either of those folks. So that's one of the things I love about this Easter service that we do each year is that the denominations aren't the same. And you know what? We survive just fine and we talk about Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:The problem is, folks, when we get off of focusing on Christ, encouragement to him, and I agree, really great encouragement, because you know he denied Jesus Christ and he he'd been with Christ for, however many years and still denied him. So that's, that's super encouraging to me and all of my failings and foibles, and so I just wanted to run through some of the comments that he made during his sermon. I took some notes as fast as I could. Some of these are paraphrases. One of them that I thought was great was a quote that he used by Oswald Chambers Faith that is sure of itself is not faith. I think a lot of us, as Christians, do a great disservice to those seeking Jesus Christ when we pretend that we don't have any doubts, that we make statements like I know, I'm saved, I have absolute certainty. Well, unless Jesus Christ himself has come to you and told you specifically that you're saved, you can't make that statement. You don't know. That's exactly why it's called faith.
Speaker 1:I make this analogy, this comparison, often. It's the same thing when I was going to school to get a degree in geology and we had to take paleontology and we looked at a fossil from 200 million years ago and my professor tells me well, this is what, this is Okay, and this is how this creature lived, okay, do we have any of those creatures alive today? No, we don't. Well, how do you know that that's the way the creature lived? Well, we're making a best guess, so you don't really know. No, I don't. That's honesty, folks, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, we take a pretty good, educated guess at the way these creatures lived based on their bone structure, fossil structure, right. The way these creatures lived based on their bone structure, fossil structure, right.
Speaker 1:There's a ton of evidence for Jesus Christ, historically Great book. I would highly recommend it. Strobel's Case for Christ it is a well-informed faith. It's not a faith that just so many of the critics of Christianity try and make the claim that we just blindly believe. That's not true. There's a lot of evidence for Jesus Christ being the Son of God, the resurrection.
Speaker 1:But we need to be honest folks, especially for those seeking Christ, and I just love that quote by Oswald Chambers faith that is sure of itself is not faith. Only faith in God is faith. That was the rest of the quote, more or less. Again, I was trying to write this down during the sermon. But faith that is sure of itself is not faith. Only faith in God is faith and that's the point. Just, you trust God, you trust Jesus Christ, right, peter he was talking about when he denied Jesus Christ three times.
Speaker 1:He was left with nothing, everything he had put all his heart and time and life into, and he was left with nothing and he denied Christ At some point our pastor said we're going to fail in our faith, but failure is not final. If I remember correctly, that's a line also that Winston Churchill used. Failure is not final and we need to remember that when we fail, because we're going to fail. But anybody that tells you that they don't sin is perfect, and there's nobody that's ever lived that's perfect except Jesus Christ. Another good reason to read your Bible, because there's some people out there that claim to be Christian, that claim that there are other perfect people who have lived, and if that was the case, then we could turn to them for salvation. But we can't.
Speaker 1:This was just a little side note. How often do we speak when we should be silent? And then then one of the things he talked about quite a bit in this sermon was what makes the best moments in our lives. So you think about that for a minute. Whatever it is in your life that makes the best moments, and when you go back and you look at them, whether it's the birth of a child or marriage, or a great day with your family or whatever all of those memories, those best moments in your life, if they're really the greatest moments in our lives, it's going to involve people. It's the people that make that interaction truly special. Right? If you win the lottery but you're completely alone and you don't have anybody. It's going to feel great to win the lottery for about an hour until you realize that you have absolutely nobody to share that with. Maybe it'll even feel great like the prodigal son. Maybe it'll feel great for a few years while you spend all the money, because you'll have people that pretend to be your friends, but when you run out of money you'll be completely alone in the pig pen feeding the pigs starving.
Speaker 1:The thing that makes these best days are people, and the best day we'll ever have, based on our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, is to hear God say one day well done, good and faithful servant. The last thing I'll leave you with. That, he said, is passion leads to performance, and I've read that. Somebody else said it recently too. I read it somewhere else and they were talking about passion. It was somebody I follow on X, I think and they said when you're passionate about something, you pursue it. Folks, if we really are passionate about God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, if we're really passionate about our spouse and loving them, we pursue it. And all you need to know the truth in that statement is to see, for example, a professional athlete that's truly passionate about their sport and they pursue excellence in that endeavor. Or a company or whatever it is, and they pursue excellence in that endeavor every single day. They pursue excellence in that endeavor every single day. Do we pursue? Are we performing? Are our actions lining up with our statements? Are we really passionate about saving souls? Are we really passionate about our relationship with God and Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit? Are we really passionate about our relationship with our spouse? If we claim that, is there enough evidence to convict us? Right, alright, we'll move on. So we're going to get back into Matthew today. This is Matthew, chapter 2.
Speaker 1:The Magi Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying when is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet. And you, bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd by people Israel.
Speaker 1:Then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said Go and search carefully for the child and when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him. After hearing the king, they went their way and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshipped him. And they fell to the ground and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And, having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way the Flight to Egypt.
Speaker 1:Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Out of Egypt, I called my son Herod slaughters babies. Then, when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning, rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted because they were no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said Get up, take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father, herod, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken to the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.
Speaker 1:Magi's Wise Men is one of my favorite, all-time favorite stories parts of Christmas. I always kind of enjoyed the fact that they tricked Herod when God warned them. And if you're interested in a star, there's a couple of great documentaries on what the star of Bethlehem actually was. We watched one with our youth group at church a couple years ago and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that particular documentary. But if you look up Star of Bethlehem and search around a little bit, you'll find a few. It's really fascinating the fact that there was actually something in the sky right at that moment. That fits biblically the timing, the prophecy, the location and it's really fascinating.
Speaker 1:If you get a chance, I wonder verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. I wonder how often we rejoice exceedingly with great joy over Christ? How many of us would make that trip Searching for Jesus Christ just to see him in a crib with his parents? How many of us bring treasures? Right After coming to the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Speaker 1:How many of us have been blessed with so much? Folks? You think about your life and I'm sure there's problems. We all have problems. But strength or speed, or wisdom, leadership, kindness, compassion, you have children, you have parents, you have whatever, all of these things in your life. Maybe you've been blessed with money, with riches. How do we use these? Do we give them as gifts to God or do we hoard them for ourselves, trying to make sure that we use them only to get what we want and need, or I should just say want? Do we give our treasure back to God for him to use however he sees fit Our strength, our intelligence, our beauty, our money, our speed, our tenacity, perseverance, whatever it is, whatever gifts he's blessed us with and I think that's the point. That's certainly true.
Speaker 1:As a nation, we've forgotten that all these blessings that we've been given, living in the United States of America, come from God and Jesus Christ and that the only reason we have them is because they gave them to us. And we have a huge responsibility, as so many of our presidents and past leaders have talked about. We, above all people, have a duty to adore the hand of God, the Father of Jesus Christ, and we haven't been and we still really aren't. We're playing, pretend, we're not really telling God thank you for these blessings that he's bestowed upon us as a nation. And that's so very dangerous and you can see that we're not serious about it. But because we aren't changing our lifestyles, we're not really adoring him, serving him, loving Christ and following his commandments.
Speaker 1:We're not standing against evil unequivocally. We go along with it. Well, as long as they're just practicing their evil over there in the corner of their house, I don't really care. As long as they're just condemning Jesus Christ and this one little community up in Minnesota, I don't really care. As long as I still have my land and my space and my family, I don't really care. I don't need to worry, I don't want to be judgmental. God understands my heart. Yeah, somebody said that the other day, recently on X as well. God really does understand our hearts and that ought to terrify us just a little bit, because we can lie to the rest of the world, but we can't lie to God. We can pretend to the rest of the world, but we can't pretend to God, joseph.
Speaker 1:So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left Egypt, or left for Egypt, right, because God told him to. Again, I think we kind of overlook Joseph as just kind of a placeholder. And yet here he is. He just wanted to be a carpenter and God starts, and he just wanted to marry this pretty girl that he liked. And then she gets pregnant, which is just heartbreaking and embarrassing, and God says, hey, it's okay. And then Joseph says okay and he goes along with it, right, says Roger, that guy, and so Mary has this baby, and and then everybody wants to kill him and God says, hey, you gotta get up and you gotta take your wife and your child and flee. And so Joseph says okay, and he does it.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of like the disciples that Jesus called, who immediately left everything and followed him, and I don't do that often enough, folks. A I'm horrible at really seeing what God. You know what that path is I feel like. But B when I do see it, far too often, I'm a lot more like Moses. I start making all these excuses. Just a little thought there about Joseph. There's a lot more here.
Speaker 1:We could talk about how evil Herod was slaughtering the babies and other things. But we're going to move on for today, alright. So we're going to get back into George Washington and his prayer journal. We're going to go to Sunday evening out of what Washington titled the Daily Sacrifice, talking about prayer as a sacrifice to God. I can get it to open up.
Speaker 1:O, most glorious God, in Jesus Christ, my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt. I acknowledge and confess my guilt In the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on thee for pardon and forgiveness of my sins, but so coldly and carelessly that my prayers are become my sin and stand in need of pardon. I have heard thy holy word, but with such deadness of spirit that I have been an unprofitable and forgetful here. So that, o Lord, though, I have done thy work, yet it has been so negligently that I may rather expect a curse than a blessing from thee. But, o God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption, mark not. I beseech thee what I have done amiss.
Speaker 1:Remember I am but dust and remit my transgressions, negligences and ignorances and cover them all with the absolute obedience of thy dear Son, that those sacrifices which I have offered may be acceptable by thee, in and for the sacrifice Christ Jesus offered upon the cross for me. For his sake, ease me of the burden of my sins and give me grace that, by the call of the gospel, I may rise from the slumber of sin unto newness of life. Let me live according to those holy rules which thou hast this day prescribed in thy holy word. Make me to know what is acceptable in thy sight and therein to delight. Open the eyes of my understanding and help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith and repentance. To examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith and repentance. Increase my faith and direct me to the true object Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. Bless, o Lord, all the people of this land, from the highest to the lowest, particularly those whom thou hast appointed to rule over us in church and state. Continue thy goodness to me this night, these weak petitions. I humbly implore thee to hear, accept and answer, for the sake of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:There's a lot here. I think the biggest thing is to remember, as we're going through this, that this is the father of our nation and that, to notice how strong his faith is and to think about that and compare that to what you hear today, what we've heard now for decades from our education system, which is spread across the land, that our founders, that these men that had this really strong faith at the same time wanted to completely exclude God and Jesus Christ from the foundation of our nation. It just doesn't make much sense, right? It would be like if somebody asked you if you liked something or a person and you said, yeah, actually, this person, they're the best person I know, they're brilliant, they deserve every single honor and credit they've ever gotten. They're loyal, they're faithful, they're smart, they're strong, just, there's every positive virtue this person they have and they've made me who I am, they've made me a better person. Right and just. You can't heap enough praises on this person and then you're going to start a business and somebody says, hey, this, this person, they, uh, they offered to be on like on the board, on the committee that's going to help run this, the this company, and you said, no, I don't, I don't want them there, they might cause problems. I don't want them there because they don't have any place there. You see what I'm getting at. It's illogical, it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:And so, as we're going through this, just kind of keep that in the back of your mind. So you go back and look right. One of the first things that really struck me is I acknowledge and confess my guilt, just in general guilt. How many of us, how many politicians today, how many of us, just in general folks forget politicians readily acknowledge that we fail Right, that we need Jesus Christ, especially our greatest leaders. If you look around at the leaders in your community state, at the nation, in our military, but the nation and our military, how many of them acknowledge and confess their guilt to God and Jesus Christ? And you don't have to have a public confession and acknowledgement, folks, you know, you don't have to tell all the world your dirty secrets, but you can see through the attitude of humility, humbleness, conviction, perseverance, that attitude of humility toward God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Another interesting thing here he talks about his weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I've called on thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins, but so coldly and carelessly that my prayers have become my sin and stand in need of pardon. So I've heard thy holy word, but with such deadness of spirit that I have been an unprofitable and forgetful hearer, so that, o Lord, though I have done thy work, yet, it hath been so negligently that I may rather expect a curse than a blessing from thee. It's like the check-in-the-box comment that we talk about so often here on the podcast that I'm so guilty of myself.
Speaker 1:Folks, how many days do we just kind of go through the motions? How many times do we just pray out of repetition, out of rote? How many times do we read the Bible just to get through it? How many times do we do what God asks us to, tells us to, which is good in and of itself, folks, it's better to do. It's like the parable Jesus told about the two sons, and the first son, his father, asked him to do something and he said no, but then he went and did it and the second son said oh yeah, I'll do it, I'll do it. And then he didn't do it Right. So it's better to do God's will than not, and that's a great analogy for a great commentary on marriage.
Speaker 1:It's so important to love our spouse, whether we feel like it or not. Feelings could not ever dictate whether you follow your roles and responsibilities in your marriage, whether you're a husband or a wife. But attitude, folks, we choose it. So often we make our own lives miserable because we choose to go our own way, and then we make the lives of those around us miserable because we choose to go our own way. We choose to do our own thing, we choose not to follow God's's commands. In our life, in our business, in our profession, whether it's education or the military, or law enforcement or firefighting or civilian world, doctors or lawyers, or running a barbecue joint or a coffee shop or whatever else it is we choose not to implement the commands of Christ and follow them, and then we've created our own set of problems.
Speaker 1:And, o God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption, mark not I beseech thee what I have done amiss, remember I am but dust and remit my transgressions, negligences and ignorances and cover them with the absolute obedience of thy dear Son, that those sacrifices which I have offered may be accepted by thee in and for the sacrifice Jesus Christ offered upon the cross for me. For His sake, ease me of the burden of my sins and give me grace that by the call of the gospel, I may rise from slumber of sin unto newness of life. Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in thy holy word. So you see here George Washington acknowledging that the only hope that he's got is Jesus Christ. For his sake, right, not for my own, father, I'm not coming to you asking because of my own merit, because I can't. I'm coming to you asking because of the merit of your son, jesus Christ, that you ease me of this burden of my sins and remove my transgressions. Far from me. And then he asks God what. He asks him to live according to his word, to make me know what is acceptable in thy sight and therein to delight, open the eyes of my understanding and help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith and repentance. Increase my faith and direct me to the true object of Jesus Christ the way, the truth and the life. He wants to read the Bible more, he wants to know more about God and what God wants.
Speaker 1:Again, folks, how in the world and Washington was representative of so many of the founding fathers and their faith John Adams, samuel Adams popped to mind, but so many others, patrick Henry, just so many. And these men, how are we supposed to square what the left tells us today, that these men who had this really strong faith and desired this knowledge of God and read the Bible, right, even Jefferson, who's supposed to be the poster child of separation of church and state, which was really separation of God and state, in 1947, in the Supreme Court decision, which they twisted what Jefferson wrote to begin with. 47, in the Supreme Court decision, which they twisted what Jefferson wrote to begin with. But he read the Bible Constantly. These people read the Bible.
Speaker 1:You know Benjamin Franklin, another one who's supposedly this deist, and yet he talks about the fact that he put the Bible in his speeches. He didn't have to worry about Americans knowing him, because they knew him. Why would he put the Bible in his speeches? Americans knowing him because they knew him, why would he put the Bible in his speeches? Why would these men turn to God so often on a daily basis, and then not want God and Jesus Christ involved in the government, in the courts, in our institutions, like our military and our education.
Speaker 1:It does not make logical sense, it's. You know. The left prides themselves on trust the science, trust the facts or whatever, which they don't to begin with. Right Perfect example is pretending men can be women and women can be men. But okay, let's look at this logically. That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:One of the great things here is this comment of Washington's help me thoroughly examine myself. That's probably one of the hardest breaks to leadership, at least in my opinion, and really in any endeavor. I'm thinking of the Marine Corps right now because that's one of the hardest leadership trainings that I've been through. But to truly know yourself, you have to not only know your strengths but you also have to know your weaknesses, or vice versa. So many of us are really good at one or the other. Somebody asks us what our weaknesses are. We can tell them real quick. Or somebody asks what our strengths are, we can tell them real quick. But then it's hard on the other end. And so that just was an interesting comment to me.
Speaker 1:And then here at the end again, bless, o Lord, all the people of this land, from the highest to the lowest, particularly those whom thou hast appointed to rule over us in church and state. Continue thy goodness to me this night, these weak petitions. I humbly implore thee to hear and accept and answer for the sake of thy dear son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. So again, hear my prayers, lord, not for my sake, but for your son Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. So again, not hear my prayers, Lord, not for my sake, but for your son Jesus Christ. Right, but bless the people of this land, from highest to lowest, particularly those you've appointed to rule over us in church and state. So he acknowledges that God has appointed these men to rule over both in church and state, and he's asking God to bless everybody in the land.
Speaker 1:Why would you ask somebody, why would you turn to somebody for blessings, if you wanted nothing from them in the running of the country? Does that make sense to you? And so no, of course. The answer, if you're being're being honest, the answer is no, that doesn't make any sense. And then your immediate question is why isn't this taught in our schools, in our public schools, right? And I pick particularly on our public schools so often, folks, because our public schools are taxpayer funded and in any organization that funds education for itself, right, doesn't matter whether it's a business or a country or a state or whatever else. You're going to fund education that strengthens your foundational principles. You would be foolish in the extreme to fund education that undermines those foundational principles. Whether it's a business, again, or state, country, doesn't matter. And so this is its foundation a Christian republic. There's mountains of evidence. We talked about them. We talk about them repetitively. We we talked about them, we talk about them repetitively. We've talked about them for four years now, almost. We're about to start in the next month, going into the fifth year.
Speaker 1:So if you're going to have publicly funded education in America, it has to be based on the Bible and Jesus Christ, the principles of Christ. It can't be based on Islam. That's not equal to Christianity, neither is Hinduism, buddhism, judaism, judaism, atheism, mother Natureism, satanism. It has to be based on the principles of Christ, and if it's not, then we're just helping destroy ourselves. And so you look at the ending here of this Sunday evening prayer, these weak petitions. I humbly implore thee to hear, accept and answer, for the sake of thy dear son, jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. We need to do that for our country, folks. We need to do that for people that we don't like. We need to do that for our enemies. We need to do that for people that we do like, who aren't saved. Humbly, implore God to have mercy and pity on us, on our nation.
Speaker 1:I ran across something and I'll leave you with this, folks, I was going to try and get to the Monday morning prayer, but we're not going to make it today and I don't want to cram it in. I saw a story I don't know how old this story is and I really didn't take the time to verify it. Folks, there's more than enough examples throughout history that would go corroborate this. This lady, who was a Christian I don't know in what country was kidnapped. The kidnappers were really pleased that it was a Christian woman, and Lord only knows what happened to this woman, but they were about to execute her and behead her, which strikes of Muslims, so maybe, but again, I don't really know and she looked at them and before she died, before they executed her, she said before you die, make sure you ask Jesus Christ, ask God through his son, for forgiveness for what you're doing. And it didn't stop them. And there's no.
Speaker 1:This isn't one of those fairytale endings where the person ended up repenting and turning to Christ. I have no idea, they may have, they may have not, but the point was this lady, even in the face of death, was trying to do what he was trying to save souls and, above all else in this life, folks above our own safety, above money, above love, above our own desire to be loved, above everything else. Right, because at the root of it, the root of this, this love is following Christ's commandments. The root of this love is following Christ's commandments and there's no better way to love our neighbors as ourselves than to make sure that they're safe, that their soul is safe. And so I've said in the past, I'll say again for however long God gives us in general, and each one of us in particular, we need to do all we can, work as hard as we can, for as long as we can, to save as many as we can.
Speaker 1:It's like we're behind enemy lines, like CS Lewis talked about, and our whole job is to get in, get as many people as possible and get out. And the great thing in the Marine Corps we had this, and I promise I'll let you go. We had this saying that there was always room for one more. In the back of a seven ton and a Humvee on a helicopter, there was always room for one more great thing about God is in this mission that you've been given to go behind enemy lines and get as many as you can. It doesn't matter how many you get. It doesn't matter if you get behind enemy lines and you only get one, that's worth the trip. But for every one more that you manage to save, god will make the helo just a little bit bigger. He'll make the helicopter just a little bit bigger to get you back out.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that made me smile. Maybe it'll make y'all smile. Get in, get as many as you can get out. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world. Listen folks, we'll talk to y'.