The American Soul
The American Soul
The Hourglass Effect: What Would You Do If You Could See Your Time Running Out?
What does the way you spend your time reveal about your true priorities? In this thought-provoking episode, we confront the uncomfortable gap between what we claim to value and how we actually live our lives.
I dive deep into Matthew 23, where Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who performed religious rituals while missing the heart of God's law. This ancient passage holds a mirror to our modern lives, challenging us to examine whether we're merely talking about faith or truly living it out. Are we "whitewashed tombs" – appearing righteous while harboring impurity within?
The question becomes painfully personal when we consider our relationships. If you touched your spouse as often as you touch your phone, what would your marriage look like? If you invested in your children the same time you spend on social media, how might your family transform?
Looking at Medal of Honor recipients and Christian martyrs throughout history provides a sobering perspective on courage and conviction. These individuals faced death, torture, and unimaginable suffering for their beliefs, while many of us fear simple social rejection for standing up for our faith and values. Their stories force us to ask: what am I truly willing to sacrifice for what matters most?
This episode will challenge you to realign your priorities with your professed beliefs and to live with the awareness that our time on earth is limited. Join me for this honest conversation about faith, hypocrisy, courage, and what it means to live authentically in today's world.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey, 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, giving me a little bit of your day, your time. That is our most precious commodity. We talk about that often on the podcast, so I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully we'll all get a little something out of it. Hopefully it'll help us all draw a little closer to God and Jesus Christ and our nation, whether it's here in America or wherever you are around the world. Also, for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you Very, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you Extremely grateful for your prayers. For those of y'all who've been around for a while, I'm glad that you continue to come back. And for those of y'all who are new, hope you enjoy it. Hope you get something out of it. Hope you come back.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. 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, for all your many blessings, the ones we and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Thank you for sunshine and rain and the blessings that you've bestowed upon our nation, from fish and animals to timber and stone and minerals, land, water to drink. Help us to be good stewards of the talents that you've given each of us, father, whatever they are. Help us to recognize what those talents are, whether it's kindness or compassion or mercy, justice, leadership, speed, strength, beauty, intelligence, money. Whatever blessings you've bestowed upon us, father, help us to use them well, to be good stewards of those talents. Be with our leaders, politically and in the pulpit. Guide them, help them to lead in fear of you, father, and help us to honor them, to respect them and to encourage them. Support them, especially those in the pulpit, father, who spread the gospel of your Son, jesus Christ. And God, my words are please be with those who are listening, father. Thank you so much for them. Be with their families, bless their marriages, bless their children, guide them in all that they do and just help us to do your will, father, in all things. In your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: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? Is he really at the top of your priority list? Do you claim that he is and he's not? Or do you not even claim that he's on your list, which I suppose is more honest? Dangerous, but honest.
Speaker 1:And if you're married, does your spouse know it? Do you treat them like they're one out of seven, their one out of seven billion, or do you treat them like you can just go pick up a new one anytime you want? I can't emphasize the comment earlier. The time, folks, that's how we know what our priorities truly are. And Folks, that's how we know what our priorities truly are, and just as a nation as a whole here in America. All you have to do is look at the state of marriage and the state of our families to realize that we are not very good stewards of time. The time that God has given us, because we all have a certain amount. It's not unlimited. We have a certain amount of time here on this earth to serve God, to love our spouse, to love our neighbor. Right, there's only a certain amount of time. It's a finite. It would probably help quite a bit of us, quite a few of us, if we had an hourglass that had all the time that we had in it and you could watch that each day and look at that. I wonder if that would truly change the way quite a few of us live, if we woke up every morning and on the kitchen counter there was an hourglass that showed us how much time we had left in our lives. I think for a lot of us, I think for a lot of us, that would induce us to do a much better job loving God, loving our spouse, our neighbor, than we do currently. Just a thought Matthew 23.
Speaker 1:Phariseeism I hope I pronounced that right being a Pharisee, right Exposed. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the places of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogue and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. But do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders, for one is your leader, that is Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. That last one right, verse 12.
Speaker 1:How many of us exalt ourselves In this day and age? How many people do you know, yourself included, who make sure that they tell everybody how great they are? Self-promotion right. A lot of people tell us we have to do it, you have to promote yourself. Nobody else is going to. That certainly doesn't sound like what God's talking about here. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. Even if not in the worldly sense, folks, we have to assume that that's definitely true in the eternal sense. So there may be some people here that exalt themselves and get away with it and seem, from a worldly point of view, like they have every success. But you've got to assume that that's going to be a pretty short-lived experience.
Speaker 1:The other thing here, therefore all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. How many of us say things and don't do them? How many of us say we talk about this every day, really, this particular verse in some form or fashion? How many of us say that we follow Christ, but we don't follow his commandments? We don't love him? Or we say that we love Christ and we don't follow his commands, which he tells us you can't do, that If you really love me, you're going to follow my commands.
Speaker 1:How many of us tell our parents that we respect them, but when they ask us to do something, we groan about it. Right, we come back with the whining and complaining. Or we do it but we're huffing puff about it, or we don't do it and we just ignore them. Or what about children? How many of us tell our children that we love them, but anytime they want to do something, we don't have time for them. But anytime they want to do something, we don't have time for them, or we try and change it to do something that we really want to do instead of what they want to do. And then you, finally, you come to your closest neighbor, right? How many of us tell our spouse that we love them, but we don't? We go and work out each day, go run however many miles we're going to run, play whatever sports we're going to play, but we don't have time for them. We can watch American Idol and TV shows for hours and hours, sports on TV, sports in person but we don't have time for them.
Speaker 1:Scroll our media, social media, right on our phones, watch countless YouTube and TikTok videos. That's a great question, right there. If we, if, if we, you could say, touched your spouse as much as you touched your phone, or if, if, for every video that you watched, every Instagram clip, you had to love your spouse, what would our marriages look like today? Do you think you could do it? Or use it with your kids, right? Or, if you're single, use it with your parents or your or your friends? What about if, every time you watched a YouTube video or Instagram reel or Tik TOK video, before you could watch the next one, you had to do something interact with your friend or your parent or your sibling Right, in a kind way, by the way.
Speaker 1:Eight woes, verse 13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, because you travel around the sea and land to make one proselyte and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
Speaker 1:Woe to you, blind guides who say Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated. You fools and blind men. Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing. But whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated. You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it, and whoever swears by the temple swears both by the altar and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears both by the temple and him who dwells within it. And whoever swears by heaven swears both by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Speaker 1:Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you. Clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You, blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanliness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Speaker 1:Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous and say If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Lament over Jerusalem, jerusalem, jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on, you will not see me until you say Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. There's a lot here. We'll go through a little bit of it.
Speaker 1:One of the things toward the end that kind of jumped out verse 33, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? That doesn't sound what we would consider today very loving and kind and compassionate, right. And yet we know that Jesus is good, always good. The point there to me is and again, folks, I'm not a priest or a pastor or a theologian, I'm just an everyday man. So take that for what it's worth.
Speaker 1:But it's not always truly loving and kind to act in the modern sense, the way we think we're supposed to act, to be loving and kind. So, for example, if you've got somebody that's doing something immoral abortion, feminism, lgbtq lifestyles, sleeping with someone outside of marriage, any of these things it's not robbery, theft, I mean gossip, slander, whatever. It's not loving, it's not following Christ's example to encourage that action, to promote that action. He's pretty harsh here with the Pharisees and the scribes you serpents, you brood of vipers. You imagine saying that. Or the modern equivalent to a friend of yours or your spouse or somebody else in the church.
Speaker 1:Right, because that's what God tells us in other places too, is we have a responsibility to clean up our own house, the church. As a Christian, our family as a husband or a wife, as a mother, right, we have a responsibility to clean up our own house. What if you came to somebody at church and said hey, you can't cheat on your wife like that anymore. You can't live with that guy. When you're a guy, sleep with them. You can't take your daughter down to get an abortion so she gets to stay at that prestigious college. That's not okay. You're doing something absolutely horrible right now. You're no better than a snake out in the grass.
Speaker 1:What if you looked at your spouse inside the marriage and they weren't following their roles and responsibilities as clearly laid out by scripture that we talk about so often? You looked down and said you know what? You're not a good person. You're not a good person. You're not a good spouse. I'm not telling you exactly how to do it, folks. All I'm trying to get across is going along with people when they're doing something wrong, because it makes us look good in the eyes of the world, doesn't necessarily make us look good in the eyes of God, and it certainly doesn't mean that we're following Jesus Christ 13, 14, and 15. 13, 14, and 15. 13,.
Speaker 1:But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in Anytime, folks that you have. This strikes me specifically for denominations today that claim that you have to be part of their church in order to be saved. And so what they're saying implicitly, if not explicitly, is they're saying that Jesus Christ wasn't enough. You also have to be a member of our club, you have to have a card that gets you into our club first, and then you can get eternal life and salvation. And that's nowhere in Scripture. And so what they're doing is they're really keeping people out of heaven, not helping them get in, because they're telling them well, if you belong to our church, you get into heaven.
Speaker 1:Well, that's not true. Belonging to a particular denomination isn't going to save you when we stand before God. The only thing that's going to save us is if we can look and say I chose Jesus Christ. He's my Lord and Savior. He's the son of you, father, he's your son. He died for my sins, which I repent of, repented of while I was living, and I put everything on him not on me and on his blood that he shed for me. That relationship with Christ is the only thing that's going to get you there. And so if you have somebody that you see telling others, well, if you come and join my little denomination, or if you pray to Mary or Joseph or Peter or Paul or whoever they tell you to pray to, you're good.
Speaker 1:Not only are they probably not getting into heaven themselves, but they're keeping other people out, which is part of the reason it's so important to read the gospel every day, read the Bible every day and encourage others to do it in your sphere of influence, because, like Patrick Henry said, we want to practice virtue ourselves and we want to encourage it in our sphere of influence. Well, there's no better way, right? Like Fisher Ames said, this is the place where the morals they're the best here in the Bible. So, if you really want to practice virtue anywhere in the world at any time, encourage people, read the Bible yourself and encourage it in others. Verse 14,.
Speaker 1:Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses and, for a pretense, you make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. We've allowed the left to sell us a lot of lies, or the world, I should say the world and the devil. The left's just a tool of the world and a devil to sell us a lot of lies in modern America, even inside the church. Feminism is a great example, probably one of the best case.
Speaker 1:One of the more insidious lies is conflating, confusing eternal salvation with earthly, with everybody being equally, the need for us all to have Jesus Christ, confusing that with everybody being equally good and bad. And you see Christ here saying hey, y'all are going to receive greater condemnation. Well, okay, so if they're going to receive greater, that means others are going to receive less and logically that means that not everybody is equally good and bad. And it makes sense, because God tells us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and everybody's probably not going to store up the same amount of treasures in heaven for eternity. We all have to have Jesus Christ, folks, but don't ever make the mistake, and you know this from your own life.
Speaker 1:You look around, it doesn't matter whether you're in junior high or high school, college, 30, 50, 80, you know people in your life for sure that you would point to as better or worse character-wise than others. You just know that intrinsically, somebody asks you who you can trust, there's going to be certain people that pop into your mind that you would say no way, no how. And there's going to be other people that pop into your mind that you say absolutely you can trust that person Verse 15. Verse 15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. So the reason and we'll move on from here this popped into my mind is, I think a lot of times we feel like and we talk about this on the podcast every once in a while we feel like we have to go on these great, huge mission trips to really be effective, to be missionaries, to be evangelize for God and Jesus Christ, and there's nothing wrong with that For God and Jesus Christ, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:I know a couple of family acquaintances that have children who are in countries where they're not very welcome right now, risking their lives to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's wonderful, that's important work, but it's no less important to look in your own backyard, at the people who are suffering right around you that don't have food to eat or clothes to wear or clean water to drink, and caring for them. In fact, you can make the argument that we have a responsibility first to care for those in our own house, and you can take that to mean family, or our church family, or the family of our local community as a whole, or our state or our nation. You can easily make that comparison. Again, the people that are in these countries a couple that I know of I think they're doing phenomenal work and I think that they've been called to do that by God. But don't feel like you have to do that Now. Don't use that as an excuse to be lazy and say well, I don't have to do anything, I can just sit here and watch sports on my couch all day. But we have people in our community folks. We have people in our family. We have people in our community folks. We have people in our family. We have people in our church. I guarantee you you have somebody in your family, somebody in your church, somebody in your community, somebody somewhere that needs your encouragement, your love, you preaching and living the gospel of Jesus Christ as an example to them. 100% promise. No doubt Medal of Honor Didn't mean to do that.
Speaker 1:Let me see If I can find it All right. Daniel Atkins, I think that's where we left off. Ranked Ships Cook, first Class, highest Ranked Chief Commissary, steward Conflict Era Interim 1871-1899. Unit Command USS Cushing, us Navy. Medal of Honor Action Date February 11, 1898. Medal of Honor Action Place USS Cushing at Sea. On board the USS Cushing 11 February 1898, showing gallant conduct, atkins attempted to save the life of the late Ensign Joseph C Breckenridge, us Navy, who fell overboard at sea from that vessel on this date, accredited to Virginia, not awarded posthumously. Born November 18, 1866, brunswick, brunswick County, virginia, united States. Died May 11, 1923, portsmouth, virginia, united States. Buried US Naval Hospital Cemetery MH. Portsmouth, virginia, united States.
Speaker 1:Daniel Atkins jumped or attempted to save the life of somebody who fell overboard at sea Thomas Eugene Gene Atkins. Bfc, world War II Alpha Company, 127th Infantry, 32nd. Citation as follows. Citation as follows Two companies of Japanese attacked with rifle and machine gun, fire grenades, tnt charges and landmines severely wounding EFC Atkins and killing his two companions. Despite the intense hostile fire and pain from his deep wound, he held in his precarious position to repel any subsequent assaults, instead of returning to the American lines for medical treatment, an enemy machine gun set up within 20 yards of his foxhole vainly attempted to drive him off or silence his gun. The Japanese repeatedly made fierce attacks, but for four hours PFC Atkins determinedly remained in his foxhole, bearing the brunt of each assault and maintaining steady and accurate fire until each charge was repulsed.
Speaker 1:At 7 am, 13 enemy dead lay in front of his position. He had fired 400 rounds all he and his two dead companions possessed. He had used three rifles until each had jammed too badly for further operation. He withdrew during a lull to secure a rifle and more ammunition and was persuaded to remain for medical treatment. While waiting, he saw a Japanese within the perimeter and seizing a nearby rifle killed him. While waiting, he saw a Japanese within the perimeter and seizing a nearby rifle killed him. A few minutes later, while lying on a litter, he discovered an enemy group moving up behind the platoon's lines. Despite his severe wounds he sat up, delivered heavy rifle fire against the group and forced them to withdraw. Pfc Atkins' superb bravery and his fearless determination to hold his post against the main force of repeated enemy attacks, even though painfully wounded, were major factors in enabling his comrades to maintain their lines against a numerically superior enemy force.
Speaker 1:Accredited to Campobello, spartanburg County, south Carolina. Not awarded. Posthumously Presented October 12, 1945 the White House by President Harry S Truman. Born February 5, 1921, campobello, spartanburg County, south Carolina, united States. Died September 15, 1999. Inman, south Carolina, united States. Buried Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery. Inman, south Carolina, united States. Buried Fellowship Baptist Church Cemetery. Inman, south Carolina, united States. Thomas Eugene Gene Atkins.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell a little bit on myself here. Folks probably, but I know there's a lot of men who have served who feel the exact same way, who have served who feel the exact same way Over the years. Anytime I got picked on by people in our country with not much sense or a number of other disorders about serving in the military, it never bothered me too much, probably one of God's gifts to me. It probably doesn't say that much about my own moral fortitude or character or anything, just God's grace, but it bothered me immensely when they picked on the young Marines that I had around me. I don't know, maybe this is unfair, maybe it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's not, but your average everyday citizen that votes for the left folks doesn't even begin to hold a candle to your average 17 or 18 year old young man who has decided to serve their country. I don't have much use for them and there's very little that we have in common and absolutely no chance of peaceful coexistence between anyone that truly wants liberty for America and anyone that votes for the values of the left, or Islam for that matter. And I can't explain to you those poor, sad souls that have gone through the military and come out and decided that they wanted to vote for the left. I don't understand that. I never have and I probably never will.
Speaker 1:I don't really understand how people vote for the left in general, especially if they're intelligent, and I know a few that are very intelligent. I have some family members that are extremely intelligent that vote for the left, and I never have been able to square that in any other way, except that leaves me with the alternative that they're not very good people, very good people, but you look at these individuals like Thomas Eugene, gene Atkins, who fought in the Philippines for hours, severely wounded, despite the fact that his companions had died and risked everything for God and country, the fact that we perhaps most condemning folks as those of us who have willingly abandoned our nation to illegal immigrants, mass immigrants, and the left, which, by their own actions, care little to nothing for our country. That's probably we're probably the ones that this condemns the most. This young man and there's so many stories like this folks over the history of our nation and even before, when people were coming here, risk everything and we're afraid to irritate some people or we're afraid that we might be ostracized or set out of the in crowd. They got blown up, shot, tnt charges, grenades, rifles, mortars, artillery, for hours, injured again and again and again. And we're worried that people might not like us if we stand up for God and Jesus Christ and country, jesus Christ and country. We're worried that they might exclude us from a particular job or the in-crowd group of our friends. We're afraid we might lose a friend or two. That's pretty pathetic on our part, folks. All right, we'll move on. Not to mention the fact, folks, that if we lose some friends for following Jesus Christ, that's probably a good thing.
Speaker 1:James Madison, national Day of Prayer, july 1813. I think we've read this once or twice, but I don't think we read it every year during the month of November when we go through these proclamations. This was at a time when we were losing the War of 1812, losing battle after battle, whereas in times of public calamity, such as that of the war brought on the United States by the injustice of a foreign government, it is especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the same and the eyes of all turn to that almighty power and whose hands are the welfare and the destiny of nations. We definitely need to do that as a nation folks, but even as individuals, are we really looking to god almighty? Are we turning to Him with the acknowledgement that he controls nations, that he controls our life? If we will give Him that control, right? I mean he gives us free will, just like he gives us free will as a nation, which is the only way we can truly love but man, we've made a muck of it right. Part of that free will is the ability to turn away from him, and that's what we've done as a nation and by default then, since individuals make up the nation, that's what we've done as individuals, to a large degree Very dangerous folks, and it's sad that it takes us getting to that point of heartache right To really turn back to God, and I think a lot of y'all probably realize that in your own lives you get up against some wall, right.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like Israel and political correctness. They don't have a lot of room to be politically correct in Israel because they're surrounded by enemies literally surrounded by enemies, and their backs against the ocean, against the wall, literally surrounded by enemies, and their backs against the ocean, against the wall. How often do we get like that in our lives before we really desperately seek Christ, praying and, you know, repenting of our sins, down on our knees, asking God just to take control because we can't? George H W Bush, 41st President, the great faith that led our nation's founding fathers to pursue this bold experience in self-government has sustained us in uncertain and perilous times and has given us strength and inspiration to this very day. Like them, we do very well to recall our firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, quote from the Declaration of Independence right To give thanks for the freedom and prosperity this nation enjoys and to pray for continued help and guidance from our wise and loving creator. We have no right to expect guidance and help from God if we reject and ignore God and his commands.
Speaker 1:Folks, it doesn't make sense. It's like running up debt on your credit card and assuming that you're never going to have to pay it back, that the bill collectors are never going to come. That's not logical, right? Or talking poorly about a friend and then expecting that friend to trust you. Or ignoring your children and expecting them, as they get older, to want to be around you right, giving all your time to your job and your hobbies and ignoring your children. And then they get to adulthood and you really want to be around them and spend time with them. Why would they be interested? Or, as the woman at church told me, in marriage you don't pay attention to your spouse. You ignore them year after year. Eventually you get to the point. Why would they want to spend time with you? They may not leave you physically, right, but they can sure check out emotionally. Why would they trust you If you're going to ignore me? You know, as a child or a parent or a spouse, I'm going to find something else to pour my time and energy to folks.
Speaker 1:Right, it's interesting also, right, he uses uncertain and perilous times. And we go back to Madison, right, times of public calamity, right, uncertainty, calamity, perilous times. We've turned to God across the board time and time again. Folks, this idea of separation of church and state, which is really separation of God and state right. Not separation of church and state, but rejecting God out of our institutions. That is alien to our founding fathers and those generations before and after. That's not something that they would have countenanced in any form or fashion. All right, let's see. We'll go back into the Martyrs, fox's Book of the Martyrs, and so we're in. Right now we're in the 10th persecution under Diocletian. I'm probably not saying that, right, some of you Roman history buffs, but that's where we are. Time was 8303, give or take.
Speaker 1:Sebastian, a celebrated martyr, was born at Narbonne in Gaul, instructed in the principles of Christianity at Milan and afterward became an officer of the emperor's guard at Rome. He remained a true Christian in the midst of idolatry, unallured by the splendors of a court untainted by evil examples and uncontaminated by the hopes of preferment. Refusing to be a pagan, the emperor ordered him to be taken to a field near the city termed the campus Martius and there to be shot to death with arrows. Which sentence was executed accordingly? Some pious Christians coming to the place of execution in order to give his body burial, perceived signs of life in him and immediately moving him to a place of security. They in a short time affected his recovery and prepared him for a second martyrdom. For as soon as he was able to go out, he placed himself intentionally in the emperor's way as he was going to the temple and reprehended him for his various cruelties and unreasonable prejudices against Christianity. As soon as Diocletian had overcome his surprise, he ordered Sebastian to be seized and carried to a place near the palace and beaten to death, and that the Christians should not either use means again to recover or bury his body. He ordered that it should be thrown into the common sewer. To recover or bury his body, he ordered that it should be thrown into the common sewer. Nevertheless, a Christian lady named Lucinia found means to remove it from the sewer and bury it in the catacombs or repositories of the dead.
Speaker 1:Good grief, folks. How many of us would get shot to death with arrows, survive that and then be willing to go back for seconds? We had a kid in the Marine Corps. For those of y'all that know anything about boot camp OCS in the Marine Corps it's not the most pleasant experience. And we had a young man my first summer. I think that was in our company and it was his third or fourth trip to OCS because he had been injured or gotten sick to the point where he had to be medically dropped. That's what we called it.
Speaker 1:Gotten sick to the point where he had to be medically dropped, that's what we called it. It's not that he failed any of the tasks, necessarily, except that he was injured or sick and so he couldn't pass them physically. But one year, I think, he broke an ankle in a fall, and another year he got the flu or something with 100 plus degree fever or something, and each time but he came back and he finally got through it. But I remember thinking to myself I'm not sure I would come back here again if I got injured and couldn't finish. And yet here is this Christian that gets shot to death with arrows, but he's not really dead. He recovers and immediately goes back in front of the emperor to call him out, to call his sins out. And yet again, here we are, folks today, and we're afraid that we're going to lose some friends or a job or a house or a spouse or children If we stand up for God and Jesus Christ, or that we might have to fight again for our nation and end up in a war to stand up for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. The needy, the Christians, about this time, upon mature consideration, thought it unlawful to bear arms under a heathen. Emperor Maximilian, the son of Fabius, victor, was the first beheaded under this regulation.
Speaker 1:Vitus, a Sicilian of considerable family, was brought up a Christian when his virtues increased with his years. His constancy supported him under all afflictions and his faith was superior to the most dangerous perils. His father, hylus, who was a pagan, finding that he had been instructed in the principles of Christianity by the nurse who brought him up, used all his endeavors to bring him back to paganism and, at length, sacrificed his son to the idols, june 14, ad 303. It's hard for me not to hear abortion every time I read in the Bible about the Israelites, for those that they kicked out of Canaan before they came, sacrificing their children. And you hear again this man whose son grew up and became this wonderful man, virtuous man, and because he wouldn't worship the pagans, he sacrificed him himself. Is that not what we do with abortion to sacrifice our children on the idol of selfishness and evil?
Speaker 1:Victor was a Christian of a good family at Marcellus in France. He spent a great part of the night in visiting the afflicted and comforting the weak, or confirming, I think it says, which pious work he could not, consistently with his own safety, perform in the daytime. And his fortune he spent in relieving the distresses of poor Christians. He was at length, however, seized by the emperor's Maximian's decree, who ordered him to be bound and dragged through the streets. During the execution of this order, he was treated with all manner of cruelties and indignities by the enraged populace. Remaining still and flexible, his courage was named obstinacy, being by order. Stretched upon the rack, he turned his eyes toward heaven and prayed to God to endue him with patience, after which he underwent the tortures with most admirable fortitude. After which he underwent the tortures with most admirable fortitude, after the executioners were tired with inflicting torments on him, he was conveyed to a dungeon. In his confinement, he converted his jailers named Alexander, felician and Longinus, this affair coming to the ears of the emperor, he ordered them immediately to be put to death, and the jailers were accordingly. Beheadedor was then again put to the rack, unmercifully beaten with batons, and again sent to prison, being a third time examined concerning his religion. He persevered in all fronts in his principles. A small altar was then brought and he was commanded to offer incense upon it immediately. Fired with indignation at the request, he boldly stepped forward and with his foot, overthrew both altar and idol. This so enraged the emperor Maximum who was present, that he ordered the foot with which he kicked the altar to be immediately cut off and Victor was thrown into a mill and crushed to pieces with the stones AD 303.
Speaker 1:Three times Good grief, folks. Maybe I'm just talking to myself here, as our pastor says so often. Maybe none of y'all have this problem, maybe it's just me, but we need to kind of dig deep a little bit today, folks, and figure out what is really important to us and what we're willing to suffer for, stand for and what we're not, and just get our priorities in line. I think you know we talk about that so often at the beginning of each episode marriage and faith, getting our priorities in order. But it really is true, folks, across the board, we just don't have our priorities in a great order. I think we will forgo history of the rise, progress and termination of the American Revolution for this podcast. We'll get back into it on the next one. 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 Looking forward to it.