The American Soul
The American Soul
Your Spouse Is Not a Part-Time Job
Jesse Cope cuts straight to the heart of what matters most in our lives—our relationship with God and our relationship with our spouse. Drawing wisdom from his pastor's recent sermon, Jesse challenges listeners to honestly examine whether they're truly devoted to these foundational relationships or merely going through the motions while giving their best energy elsewhere.
The podcast presents a provocative perspective: perhaps those who claim fidelity while pouring their attention into screens, work, and countless distractions are practicing a subtle form of betrayal. "We act like we're this great person because we're 'loyal' to our spouse," Jesse observes, "But we're really stealing time and energy that should be our spouse's and giving it to all this other stuff." This realization forces us to consider whether we're treating our spouse as the "one out of seven billion" treasure they truly are.
Throughout the episode, Jesse weaves together Scripture, personal insights, and historical references to illuminate how fear often controls our actions, keeping us from loving fully and obeying God's commands. He reminds us that "loving Jesus and our spouse is not a part-time job—it's an everyday, all-day job," and that every opportunity to express love that we miss is gone forever. This sobering truth sits alongside the encouraging message that through confession and repentance, God "is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The episode also features moving accounts of Medal of Honor recipients and Christian martyrs who demonstrated extraordinary character and conviction, serving as powerful counterpoints to our culture's celebration of celebrities and sports figures. Jesse laments that children grow up knowing athletic statistics but not the names of those who sacrificed everything for freedom and faith. His passion for reclaiming what matters most—our love for God, country, and family—resonates throughout this thought-provoking exploration of what it means to live with authentic devotion to what truly matters.
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 sure appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, attention, a little piece of your day. And we all have other things vying for your attention Work, kid, spouse, hopefully, god, even more, hopefully, parents, probably things to fix around the house, probably things to fix around the house, animals, livestock, church. So I'm glad that you're here and for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much, incredibly grateful for your prayers.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for all your many blessings, the ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Help us to help those that have less than we do. Help us to help our country turn back to you. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast and share it.
Speaker 1:Please be with them, father. Be with their families. Surround them with your angels. Protect them from evil of any kind. Strengthen the marriages of those who are married. Guide those who have children to raise them to know you, father and your Son Jesus Christ. Guide our steps. Be with our leaders. Help us to elect men who rule in fear of you. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Be with our firefighters, law enforcement at every level, our military, ems workers, those people that go out into the night, into the cold and rain and darkness, to protect us. Please bring them home safe to their families. Be with our educators across the nation, at all levels. Give them wisdom and courage. Be with our students, our children. Help us to set a good example for them and to lead them close to you, father and your Son Jesus Christ. Be with those who are hurting, those who are alone, those who are heartbroken. Comfort them, help them to feel your presence always and bring us all home to you, father and your Son Jesus Christ, in your timing.
Speaker 1:In the name of your Son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray, and please guide my words, here and today and each day. Father, in your Son's name, we pray, amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray? Talk to him. And if you don't, folks I haven't said this in a while, but if you're not comfortable, if it's been a long time or if you have never prayed, it doesn't have to be complicated.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be some fancy words or anything. Just talk to him. Tell him thank you for the blessings that he's bestowed in your life.
Speaker 1:Simple, complicated, small, big doesn't matter Asking for forgiveness through his son, jesus Christ, for the mistakes that you have made, the sins you've committed. Just acknowledge those sins gossip, slander, adulterous thoughts, greed, sexual immorality, drunkenness, gluttony, whatever it is. Folks, bring it to him, big, small Again. Pray for those around you your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, your family, your community, your church, the schools in your community, our nation, your nation, wherever you are around the world, listening, your leaders and then yourself, folks. He knows what you need but, just like any parent, he loves to hear from us, which is mind-boggling, right the creator of the universe actually wants to talk to us. I still struggle with that realization. Often Probably don't think about it enough, but it's just real simple. And reading the Bible or praying, it's just like any other muscle. Folks, don't try and go out. If you haven't been running in years, don't try and go out and run a marathon. Work your way up to it. If you haven't been reading the Bible, read it for two minutes a day, five minutes a day, same thing with prayer, until you build the habit and then you can start to work those muscles out more.
Speaker 1:And if you're married, does your spouse know it? You know, we always talk about this second half of this question because it's so important, because the marriage is the foundation of the family and the family is the foundation of the nation. There's nothing more important than you have to do each day than your spouse. Figuratively and literally, there's absolutely nothing. And so, other than God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, are you acting like that? Are you treating them like a one out of seven billion treasure? Because that's what they are, folks. They're the only one you got. Even if you lived in one of those countries, even if you're listening right now, and you live in one of the countries where men or women can have multiple spouses, what are you going to have? Two, maybe Three? We ran into some of that in Afghanistan and Iraq. You're still dealing with one or two or three out of seven billion folks. That's still just unbelievable treasure. But we don't act like that. This is a hot take. So give me a little bit of grace here.
Speaker 1:Folks was then desperately loved both of those women and treated them like treasures than those of us that only have one spouse and have a lukewarm, apathetic attitude toward them. I think a lot of times we kind of get on our high horse and we think well, you know I'm Christian or I live in this nation and I have this spouse and you know I'm loyal to them. But on the side we're spending all our time watching screens, tv, sports, social media, movies, youtube, tiktok I mean you name it, it doesn't matter Going for workouts Like we act, like we're this great person because we're quote unquote loyal to our spouse. But we're really not. We're just not physically cheating on them with another human being, but we're cheating on them. We're stealing time and energy that should be our spouses and we're giving it to all this other stuff, right? So again, I said it's kind of a hot take and give me a little grace with it. I hope the point is clear.
Speaker 1:My original comment you know it would be better for a husband of two wives that desperately poured his whole life into these two women than those of us that are in these marriages where we pretend to be loyal but we're really pouring all of our time and energy into things that don't matter. We need to pay attention to what our true priorities are. Are we really following God and Jesus Christ in action, not just in word, in deed, not just in word, and the same thing with our spouse? That's supposed to mirror the relationship between Christ and the church, right? Are we really pouring our energy and time into our spouse, in whichever role we fill? You know, for the husband it's Christ, for the wife it's the church. Are we exemplifying that relationship to our children, to our friends, our family, our community, our parents? You know all those around us. So I'm going to try and get through this pretty quickly. I had some comments and I try and read a lot of these little comments on this podcast instead of posting them on X, because I figure that's where most of y'all are coming to listen anyway. But these are some comments that I got out of our pastors sermon within the past I don't know week, maybe it was, maybe it was last week. Within the past, I don't know week, maybe it was last week.
Speaker 1:Too often people complain about their spouse having quote unrealistic expectations, end quote. But what is truly occurring is that the person has put things and other people in front of their spouse, giving time and energy to those things and people which rightly belong to their spouse. Each day. It's just a different way of saying basically what I did already.
Speaker 1:Right, too often we let fear control our actions or we look for things to distract us from doing what we should, what God wants us to, commands us to, because of our fear, particularly our fear of letting go. You know, our pastor was talking about the fact that fear. We let fear control us. So much control our actions and we do. And a lot of times the way that looks, folks, is we want to distract ourselves from whatever situation we're in or whatever we need to be doing. We don't really want to do it because of fear, because we're afraid of letting go, we're afraid of loving. Basically, you know, somewhere in the New Testament it talks about perfect love. There is no fear in perfect love, because love drives out fear. That's a paraphrase of that verse. But that's what we're really doing when we hold on to this fear and let it direct our actions is A we're missing out on what God has for us, but B we're not doing what God wants, we're doing whatever it is that keeps that fear at bay.
Speaker 1:Love is dependent on obedience. The more we obey, the more we love. Right, christ tells us. If we really love him, we'll follow his commands. We will Following his commands. That means obeying folks, submitting ourselves to God's authority, to Christ's authority in our lives. The hierarchy of obedience is God, christ, church, also Christ husband, wife, christ husband, wife. We either decide to obey those above us in authority or not, and that shows our proof of love or lack thereof. If we decide, as a husband, to submit ourselves to Christ, that's proof of love. If we don't, that's proof of lack of love. Same thing with a wife as uncomfortable or not politically correct as this is today. A wife that submits herself to her husband's authority is showing proof of love and a wife that doesn't is showing proof of lack of love. Every chance, any opportunity we get to obey to love that we pass up is lost forever. In that context, that's true of God and Jesus Christ and that's true of our spouse.
Speaker 1:The great scene from Narnia, one of the main characters this is CS Lewis's tale, a fictional tale that he wrote, and there's four siblings and it's an analogy for our relationship for Christ over the different books in this series. And the Christ creature is this big lion called Aslan, if you're not familiar with the book, and one of the characters doesn't do something that she's supposed to right off the bat. And later on in the book she has this conversation with Aslan and she said you know, if I had done what I was supposed to the first time, would all of these people stayed alive? Because they ended up losing a lot of people in a battle? And the lion looks at her Christ looks and said we don't know, it's impossible to say what would have been. All we can do is what we can do now. Right, and that's kind of what I'm getting at. Once those opportunities to love God and Jesus Christ, to love our spouse, are gone, those opportunities are gone forever. In that context, are they recoverable? Yeah, can we move on? Yes, but there's no way we can go back and fix that missed opportunity.
Speaker 1:It's impossible to love your wife without obeying Christ and keeping his commands. Husbands, you can't do it. If you're not going to follow Christ, you cannot love your spouse. And this is true. It doesn't matter whether you're in China, in a communist nation, buddhist, hindu, muslim. If you're really loving your spouse, in that moment you're following the principles of Christ. And anytime you're not loving your spouse, you're automatically going against those principles of Christ. And for the wives, it's impossible to love your husband without obeying and submitting to Christ and keeping his commands. Same thing If you're not going to follow Christ's commands, as a wife, you can't love your husband. It just won't work.
Speaker 1:And so what does that look like for a husband, folks? If you're a husband, it means that you love, you nourish, you cherish your wife. You nourish her like you nourish your own body, you cherish her. And you just cannot love her. Without doing those things right, without laying your life down like Christ did for the church, it doesn't work. And that doesn't just mean physically laying your life down for her. That means that she comes first. What's important to her comes first. You put her before yourself, right. Her needs, her, wants what's best for her. You put that first, and that doesn't always mean going along with what the wife wants. By the way, gentlemen, sometimes that means, in your position as the head of the house, that you're going to say something, you're going to tell her no, sometimes because you know that that is not what is best for her.
Speaker 1:For wives, what is it? How do you follow Christ's command? You respect, submit to and physically satisfy your husband? Right, and those are nasty words today. We've allowed them to become nasty words because we haven't executed them and illustrated them inside the church. And we allowed them to become nasty words because we haven't executed them and illustrated them inside the church and we allowed society to run away with this narrative that respecting your husband, submitting to your husband, physically satisfying your husband each day that those were burdensome and oppressive. And yet that's clearly in scripture. You can go back. We talk about this often First Corinthians 7, ephesians 5, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13, 4, proverbs 5, 19,. Song of Solomon. That's a great start. If you really want to look at your roles as a husband or a wife, go to those scriptures A couple more. A couple more.
Speaker 1:These are all comments that our pastor gave a heck of a sermon last week or the week before, just phenomenal. And these are all comments that I stole from this one particular sermon. This is just an encouragement, as he was given this sermon. Heaven will wash away all the heartache, all the brokenheartedness your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends supposed friends, right have caused. Heaven's going to wash away all of that heartache.
Speaker 1:So, whatever you're in, whatever position, if you've got parents that didn't really care about you, if you've got parents that abandoned you, that left you, if you've got children, a broken relationship with a child where the child refuses to reconcile and just doesn't want anything to do with you, if you've got a spouse that has broken your heart, has left you anything from divorce to sexual infidelity, to whatever it is, to lukewarm apathy of a marriage that's just loveless and lifeless. Realize that one day you're going to walk in those gates and, because of Christ alone and his merit, god's going to look at you, you know, and he's going to accept you and embrace you. He already has if you've put your life in Jesus Christ, despite our doubts and our fears. Right, letting our fears control us. But all of that heartache is going to be wiped away and hopefully we've done a good job with the talents We'll talk about this some other time the talents that God has given us, that God has given us, and we have the eternal success, gratitude, happiness, whatever you want to call it, of hearing God tell us well done, good and faithful servant. And then the last one, and we'll move on. Loving Jesus and our spouse is not a part-time job. It's an everyday, all-day job. Part-time job. It's an everyday, all-day job. Loving Jesus Christ and our spouse your spouse is not a part-time job. It is an all-day, all-the-time job. And we forget that, folks. We forget that. All right. So we finished Matthew.
Speaker 1:We're going to come back into some of the other books in the New Testament for a little while. We'll go back to the Gospels again this year, though Probably won't stay away for very long maybe a month or so and because it's so important, I really have believed that. I mentioned this a while back. If you haven't been on the podcast, if you're new to it, I read something earlier this year or late last year. The author was talking about the fact that we need to read the Bible every day and we need to make sure that we read the Gospels frequently, because that's really the crux of Christ and his life and his teachings, and I think the entire Bible God tells us is useful, all verses, all scripture, some of it.
Speaker 1:When they get to listing the names, it's a little hard for me to get my head wrapped around. I try and pay attention At least I pretend to try and pay attention but sometimes that list of names is just kind of like come on, lord, what are we doing? But the gospels? I think those are a little maybe and maybe I'm wrong here. Folks, I'm not a theologian, I'm not a pastor or a priest, so realize that I'm just a simple man reading the Bible and trying to share the gospel of Christ in some small way, even if just a little bit, with people who are looking for it or people who have already found it but need some encouragement. Because I need the encouragement to y'all. Y'all help me as much as I help y'all. If I actually help y'all, I hope I do, because I look forward to these podcasts each day and doing them and it's like I get to carry on a conversation with y'all and we get to read scripture together and pray together and talk about history together, and so I'm very grateful for those of y'all who have been around for quite a while.
Speaker 1:So we're going to go into a short chapter today, a very short chapter today, which is good, because I took a while talking about the comments from our pastor last week or two, which I think was he had some great comments. So this is we're going to go into 1 John and this is chapter 1. Introduction the incarnate word, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life and the Life, was manifested. And we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the Eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete.
Speaker 1:A couple things here. Just a reminder, folks, that I think all but one maybe of the disciples died pretty horrible, gruesome deaths, and they died those deaths because they refused to deny Christ. They all abandoned him the first time when he was dying, but in the end, for them that came back, they were willing to suffer hardships, torture, imprisonment and eventual execution by some means or another just because they preached Christ, and means or another just because they preached Christ. And you just can't assume that people would be willing to do that for a lie. They didn't gain anything. They weren't getting any wealth out of it. They were getting infamy, but they weren't getting any wealth out of it. They weren't getting. They were getting infamy but they weren't getting fame. They weren't looked at by people you know celebrated, giving these houses and money, and they weren't getting a ton of women out of it or anything like that. There was just no human angle there for them to suffer and die for just the name of Jesus Christ, which is a huge encouragement. It ought to be a huge encouragement to those of us that struggle with doubts, fears.
Speaker 1:Do we really believe these men?
Speaker 1:Did you know? As John says here, they passed on what they heard, what we've seen with our eyes, what we've looked at and touched with our hands. They were there, they saw Jesus Christ, they lived, that God is light. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
Speaker 1:So these three verses, these last three verses here eight, nine and ten they ought to be both encouragement and a warning, particularly about one thing If you've got anybody folks telling you that there was any other person that was not a sinner, anybody that lived a perfect life, here is scripture saying if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. And you can combine that with other verses. Right, all men have fallen short If somebody is telling you that somebody besides Jesus Christ live a perfect, sinless life and therefore didn't need Jesus Christ to get into heaven. They are not preaching you the gospel of Christ. They're preaching you something and they're leading you down a path, but it's not the narrow path to heaven.
Speaker 1:Verse 10,. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Verse 9 is the part that ought to be really encouraging. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And really verse 8 and 10 ought to be encouraging too, because everybody's sinned folks, everybody, every single person that's ever existed in the history of the world, save Jesus Christ alone, has sinned. Whatever you have done, you're not alone. It's not like you're the only bad person out there, the only sinner out there, the only one that's ever stolen money or cheated on a test, or cheated on their spouse, or looked at pornography, or gossiped about somebody or slandered somebody's name that didn't deserve it, or been lazy, or been a glutton and stuffed themselves full of food too often, or been a drunk and acted like an idiot or murdered someone.
Speaker 1:Right, you think about David, who slept with Uriah's wife, got her pregnant while he was out fighting in David's army and he comes back and he's such a good man that he won't even go home and enjoy sleeping with his own wife, because the rest of the army is out in the field suffering. And David's such a cad that he's trying to get him to go home and sleep with his wife so they can pretend that the kid is his and not David's. Uriah won't do it, so David sends him back carrying his own death warrant Uriah doesn't know it and a sealed letter carrying it back to the commander of the army. I mean, god that just, I'm going to give you a letter that commands your general to execute you and you're going to carry it for me. It's no wonder that Nathan the prophet came in and started just laying into David. And what a brave man Nathan had to be in order to do that. A God-fearing man.
Speaker 1:Anyway, you're not alone, folks. All of us, every single person, including some of us, need to hear this. Mary Joseph, john the apostles, every single person in the history of the world. The Bible is very clear. We are all sinners. Every single person needs Jesus Christ. Some of us are worse than others. I'm not ever going to fall in that trap that all of us are equally good and bad. That's not what I'm saying. But there's not a single person that can get to heaven on their own without Jesus Christ. And Christ tells us that right, I'm the way, I'm the truth. No one, no one, comes to the Father, but through me. All right, medal of Honor. Let's see what we've got. Where did we leave? Yeah, john G Ayers, I think that was it All right. John B Babcock.
Speaker 1:John Breckenridge Babcock, also known as John Breckenridge, ranked first lieutenant, high-strength brigadier general, us volunteers Indian campaigns, 5th US Cavalry, us Army. May 16, 1869, spring Creek, nebraska, usa. While serving with a scouting column, this officer's troop was attacked by a vastly superior force of Indians. Advancing to the high ground, he dismounted his men, remaining mounted himself to encourage them and there fought the Indians until relieved, his horse being wounded. Indians until relieved, his horse being wounded. Accredited to Stonington, new London County, connecticut. Not awarded. Posthumously. Presented 18 September 1897, born 7 February 1847, new Orleans, orleans, parish, louisiana, united States. Died April 26, 1909, stonington, connecticut, united States. Buried Evergreen Cemetery MH 924, stonington, connecticut, united States.
Speaker 1:John Breckenridge Babcock. William J Babcock, ranked Sergeant, us Civil War, 2nd Rhode Island Infantry, us Army. 2 April 1865, petersburg, virginia. Planted the flag upon the parapet while the enemy still occupied the line was the first of his regiment to enter the works. Petersburg. Accredited to South Kensington, washington County, rhode Island, not awarded. Posthumously presented March 2, 1895, born 8 April 1841, griswold, new London County, connecticut, united States. Died October 29, 1897, buried Riverside Cemetery, mh Wakefield, rhode Island, united States.
Speaker 1:William J Babcock, john P Baca, john Philip Baca, ranked Specialist, 4th Class, highest Ranked Sergeant, vietnam War. 4th Platoon Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, us Army, february 10, 1970, near Quan Lo Phuoc, long Province, republic of Vietnam I'm pretty, almost positive, I pronounced that wrong folks Citation as follows For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity and action at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, specialist 4 Baca, delta Company, distinguished himself while serving on a recoilless rifle team during a night ambush mission. A platoon from his company was sent to investigate the detonation of an automatic ambush device forward of his unit's main position and soon came under intense enemy fire from concealed positions along the trail. Hearing the heavy firing from the platoon position and realizing that his recoilless rifle team could assist the members of the besieged patrol, specialist 4 Baca led his team through the hail of enemy fire to a firing position within the patrol's defensive perimeter. As they prepared to engage the enemy, a fragmentation grenade was thrown into the midst of the patrol. As they prepared to engage the enemy, a fragmentation grenade was thrown into the midst of the patrol. No-transcript. His gallant action and total disregard for his personal well-being directly saved eight men from certain serious injury or death. The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Specialist Forbacca at the risk of his life are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect a great credit on him, his unit and the US Army. Credit on him, his unit and the US Army. Accredited to Fort Ord, monterey County, california, not awarded. Posthumously Presented 15 June 1971 at the White House East Ballroom. Presented by President Richard M Nixon, born January 10, 1949, providence County, rhode Island, united States.
Speaker 1:John Philip Baca, you cannot help. I can't help anyway, reading these and thinking about the difference in quality of character, character and how far we have fallen as a nation folks. Why, why do we allow our children to grow up being able to recount the statistics of softball pitchers or football quarterbacks or NBA suiting guards or whatever else, and the names of singers and every word to their songs, and yet we don't know how many kids across the nation have ever heard of John Babcock from the Indian campaigns? Or William Babcock from the US Civil War at Petersburg? Or John P Baca in the Vietnam War, who jumped on a grenade with his helmet and lived after having already gone through intense fire to get to a place to try and help his fellow soldiers who were pinned down? Come on, folks, y'all can roll your eyes at me I'll use it, and I'm sure some of y'all are. But this matters. The fact that we have grown up in a country not knowing these names, not being taught these names as we go through publicly funded education, as we grow up in the houses of our parents and our children grow up in our houses, the fact that we don't know this stuff is astounding, it's embarrassing, it's pathetic. It's embarrassing, it's pathetic, it's not okay, it's not okay. We're not doing a great job and that gets into, and then I'll move on, folks, but it's the whole relativistic mentality.
Speaker 1:I had somebody talking to me the other night and we happen to be at one of the local schools and it's it's a really good school in our region. It's where a lot of people are moving right now. A lot of people want to be there. Y'all know the kind of place. You live in, a city, or you live in your little county or parish.
Speaker 1:Wherever you are across the United States, there are certain schools that everybody wants to get their kids into right and sadly, a lot of times they want to get their kids into it because they're hoping that the school will quote unquote fix their kid, because they can't do it. So they want their kid there to be, you know, to get fixed. But that's a whole other discussion. But anyway, you know what I'm talking about. In your little areas, wherever you are around the country and wherever you are around the world, it doesn't matter what country you're in, it's the same thing. Everybody wants to get their kids into the best school, right. But what is it best compared to Right? Best is relative.
Speaker 1:You can have the best character out of a crew of hardened criminals and killers, right. Like, let's say that you've got this crew of bank robbers and all of the guys are just absolutely ruthless. Not only do they like to rob banks, they like to rape women and kill babies, and you kind of don't like to kill babies. That bothers you a little bit, for whatever reason. You don't mind robbing banks and you don't really mind raping women, but you don't like to kill babies. You draw the line there. Okay, well, that makes you better than the rest of the crew, but it doesn't make you good. You're still bad, you're still evil. You've still got a lot of mental problems.
Speaker 1:You look at a school folks. Maybe you've got a school in your area. There's a bunch of schools in little towns in your area or a bunch of schools in your city and there's this one school and and it it does better than all the other schools. But that doesn't make it good. That doesn't mean it's doing what it's supposed to be. How many schools across the nation that are publicly funded really any schools, but particularly those that are publicly funded have the Bible as the primary textbook, the way Fisher Ames told us? The guy that wrote the Establishment Clause told us it should be.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go out on a limb and say not very many, extremely few, if any. How many schools across the nation teach Medal of Honor winners from our nation? How many of them teach the little historical quotes that we do on this podcast so often about the relationship between God and Jesus Christ and our nation? That's blatantly clear. How many places, schools across the nation teach the Supreme Court case, holy Trinity versus the United States, where Justice Josiah Brewer lays out example after example after example, all the way from Columbus to the late or middle 1800s, examples of how we are a Christian republic. Folks, when you and it doesn't matter, I'm talking about schools right now, but you can talk about your marriage, you can talk about your community, you can talk about as a parent, when you point to somebody else and you say, well, at least I'm better than them, all you're doing is really saying you're the best of the worst or you're better than the worst. It's why it's so important, as individuals, to look at Christ as our example, compare ourselves to Christ alone, to look at our marriage as the example, the relationship between Christ and the church, and to look at our schools and our communities and our churches and see if we are really absolutely teaching truth, following those general principles of Jesus Christ, as John Adams said, that were the only principles that could truly have unified our nation. That's the goal, folks. That's where we need to be at, if your goal. I saw this on Marriage Counselor and then I promise we really will move on. We're going to get back into Fox's Book of the Martyrs.
Speaker 1:There was a couple that I followed for a long time. I've talked about them with you all quite a bit and they put a post up recently and they've said if your goal is to have an above average marriage today in America, where marriages are failing at such a high rate, you're already in trouble. If that's your goal is to have an above average marriage and you got to pay attention to what they were saying right, the average marriage in America is so bad today, so so bad that if your goal is just to have an above average marriage, you're still going to have a really bad marriage. That's what I was trying to get at. They said it's so much better than I did with the school. So much more succinctly If your goal as a community is to have an above average school, you're already failing because the average school across our nation today is so bad, so so bad that if your goal is just to have an above average school, it's still going to be a bad school.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what do you do? Cope, right, you have to aim for perfection. You're never going to get there, folks. We're never going to get perfect in this life. The utopian lie that the left sells. It's never going to happen, but that doesn't mean we don't aim for it.
Speaker 1:Look at your professional athletes again. They're not sitting around aiming to be just above average. You're great once they're aiming to be perfect. They know they're never going to be perfect, but that's the goal. The basketball players out there practicing each day to get to the point where they miss no shots None, are they ever going to get there? No, but that's the goal. The major league baseball hitter they want to bat a thousand. That's the goal. Are they ever going to get there? No, but that's still the goal. Right, y'all get it. I could keep going for quite a while about this, but we're going to move on. Let's see Boxes.
Speaker 1:Where did we leave off Book of the Martyrs? There it is. I believe we are still under the 10th persecution, yep Diocleation, ad 303, except now we are around AD 410. So we've gone a little ways, or 310, I'm sorry. Not far, though.
Speaker 1:Peter the 16th bishop of Alexandria was martyred November 20th, ad 311, by order of Maximus Caesar, who reigned in the east. Let me go back real quick, folks I apologize and read the title page just so we're all clear on where we're going because it's important, just so we're all clear on where we're going because it's important infidel persecutions, embracing together with the usual subjects contained in similar works the recent persecutions in the cantons of Switzerland and etc. Etc. Will go on some other time. Now I've got to see if I can find my spot there. We go, alright.
Speaker 1:Peter the 16th Bishop of Alexandria was martyred November 25th AD 311 by order of Maximus Caesar, who reigned in the East. Agnes, a virgin of only 13 years of age, was beheaded for being a Christian, as was Serene, the Empress of Diocletian. Valentin, a priest, suffered the same fate at Rome, and Erasmus, a bishop, was martyred in Campania. Soon after this, persecution abated in the middle parts of the empire as well as in the west, and providence at length began to manifest vengeance on the persecutions. Maximum endeavored to corrupt his daughter, fausta, to murder Constantine, her husband, which she discovered, and Constantine forced him to choose his own death when he preferred the ignominious death of hanging.
Speaker 1:After being an emperor near twenty years, galerius was visited by an incurable and intolerable disease, which began with an ulcer in his secret parts and a fistula in ano that spread progressively to his inmost bowels and baffled all the skill of physicians and surgeons, untried medicines of some daring professors drove the evil through his bones to the very morrow and worms began to breed in his entrails, and the stench was so preponderant as to be perceived in the city, all the passages separating the passages of the urine and excrements being corroded and destroyed. The whole mass of his body was turned into universal rottenness, and though living creatures and boiled animals were applied with the design of drawing out the vermin by heat by which a vast hive was opened, a second imposthume discovered a more prodigious swarm, as if his whole body was resolved into worms by a dropsy. Also, his body was grossly disfigured, for although his upper parts were exhausted and dried to a skeleton covered only with dead skin, the lower parts were swelled up like bladders and the shape of his feet could scarcely be perceived. Torments and pains insupportable, greater than those he had inflicted upon the Christians, accompanied these visitations. Christians accompanied these visitations and he bellowed out like a wounded bull, often endeavoring to kill himself and destroying several physicians for the inefficiency of their medicines. These torments kept him in a languishing state a full year and his conscience was awakened at length, so that he was compelled to acknowledge the God of the Christians and to promise, in the intervals of his paroxysms, that he would rebuild the churches and repair the mischief done to them.
Speaker 1:An edict in his last agonies was published in his name and the joint names of Constantine and Licinius, to permit the Christians to have free use of religion and to supplicate their God for his health and the good of the empire, on which many prisoners in Nicomedia were liberated, and, amongst others, donatus. At length, constantine the Great determined to redress the grievances of the Christians, for which purpose he raised an army of 30,000 foot and 8,000 horse, which he marched towards Rome against Maxentius the emperor, defeated him and entered the city of Rome in triumph. A law was now published in favor of the Christians, in which Licinius was joined by Constantine, and a copy of it was sent to Maximus in the east. Maximus, who was a bigoted pagan, greatly disliked the edict but, being afraid of Constantine, did not openly avow his disappropriation. Maximus at length invaded the territories of Licinius but, being defeated, put an end to his life by poison. Licinius afterwards persecuting the Christians, constantine the Great marched against him and defeated him, and he was afterwards slain by his own soldiers, and he was afterwards slain by his own soldiers.
Speaker 1:We shall conclude our account of the tenth and last general persecution with the death of St George, the titular saint and patron of England. St George was born in Cappadocia of Christian parents and, giving proofs of his courage which promoted the army of the Emperor Diocletian, during the persecution, st George threw up his command, went boldly to the Senate House and avowed his being a Christian, taking occasion at the same time to remonstrate against paganism and point out the absurdity of worshipping idols. This freedom so greatly provoked the Senate that St George was ordered to be tortured and, by the emperor's orders, was dragged through the streets and beheaded the next day. And we'll stop there and continue the next time. All right, we're going to read a few minutes out of History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Otis Warren. Or Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Otis Warren? I think yeah, we're starting chapter three.
Speaker 1:The British colonies at this period through the American continent, contained exclusive of Canada and Nova Scotia, the provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, bay of Rhode Island, connecticut, new York, new Jersey, pennsylvania, the Delaware counties, virginia, maryland, the two Carolinas and Georgia, besides the Floridas and an unbound track of wilderness not yet explored. These several provinces had been always governed by their own distinct legislatures. It is true there was some variety in their religious opinions, but a striking similarity in their political institutions, except in the proprietary governments. At the same time, the colonies, afterwards, the 13 states, were equally marked with that manly spirit of freedom characteristic of Americans, from New Hampshire to Georgia, aroused by the same injuries from the parent state, threatened in the same manner by the common enemies to the rights of society among themselves, their petitions to the throne had been suppressed without even a reading. Their remonstrances were ridiculed and their supplications rejected. They determined no longer to submit. All stood ready to unite in the same measures to obtain that redress of grievances they had long requested and that relief from burdens they had so long complained of, to so little purpose. Yet there was no bond of connection by which a similarity of sentiment and concord in action might appear, whether they were again disposed to revert to the hitherto fruitless mode of petition and remonstrance or to leave that humiliating path for a line of conduct more cognate and influential than the contests of nations.
Speaker 1:At some point, folks asking and pleading, petition and remonstrance fail they failed prior to the Civil War to get any effect I mean the Revolutionary War, which was a civil war to get any effect out of the king and parliament or to change the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens who were loyalists. They failed going into the Civil War to get a change out of the southern states and the citizens that demanded to continue on with the evil of slavery. To continue on with the evil of slavery. At some point today, barring a miracle by god, there's a real good chance that history is going to repeat itself and and there's going to come a point we're probably really already there, folks, maybe past the point where we should have that pleading with citizens on the left to reject the evil that they've supported for so long. It's simply not going to be possible or even worthwhile, and the choice is either going to be to acknowledge the left, the bucket of isms leftism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism as superior and go under their slavery and Islam, which goes hand in glove with that bucket of isms, and to submit to their tyranny and admit that we're slaves to them, or to fight.
Speaker 1:A circular letter dated February the 11th, 17, 1768, by the legislature of Massachusetts, directed to the representatives and burgesses of the people through the continent was a measure well calculated for this salutary purpose See note 6 at the end of this chapter. We'll go look at that in just a second, maybe, a second Maybe. This letter painted in the strongest colors the difficulties they apprehended, the embarrassments they felt and the steps already taken to obtain relief. It contained the full opinion of that assembly relative to the late acts of Parliament, while at the same time they explained on their duty and attachment to the King and detailed, in terms of respect, the representations that had been made to his ministers. They expressed the boldest determination to continue a free but loyal people.
Speaker 1:Indeed, there were few, if any, who indulged an idea of a final separation from Britain at so early a period, or that even wished for more than an equal participation of the privileges of the British Constitution. So, even as late here as 68, folks, there were very few that truly wanted separation from Great Britain. All they wanted was equal participation, to have the same privileges that every other British citizen had under the Constitution. That's all they were looking for. You have to wonder if the king and parliament had simply given them representation, if we would still be part of the UK today, just like you have to wonder if we would have abolished slavery at the Civil War, if we would have not had to suffer through all of the racial tensions over the past two centuries plus and the Civil War that we had to deal with.
Speaker 1:Let me see if I can find note six. Yeah, note six is pretty lengthy. We'll come back and read that the next time. That was the circular letter from February 11th 1768. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages, if you're married. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. God bless America. We'll talk to you all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.