The American Soul
The American Soul
Love is not just what we say, but what we do
The divide between our words and our actions reveals everything about our true priorities. When we claim to love God, our spouse, or our children, but our actions tell a different story, we're living in contradiction with ourselves.
In this thought-provoking exploration of authentic faith, we dive deep into 1 John 3, examining how "children of God love one another" not merely through words but through sacrificial action. The scripture challenges us: "Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but in deed and truth." This principle applies universally - from our relationship with God to our marriages to our civic responsibilities.
Marriage serves as a powerful example where this disconnect often appears. Husbands who fail to cherish wives as Christ loved the church, or wives who withhold respect and submission, both demonstrate through actions what words alone cannot disguise. The fundamental question remains: are we doing what God has called us to do, regardless of what others around us are doing?
Robert F. Kennedy's powerful words remind us that every righteous action, no matter how small, creates "ripples of hope" that can transform communities and nations. As Benjamin Harrison observed, America has been blessed with "power and wealth beyond definition," but these gifts come with the condition that "justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power." Our individual choices to practice virtue daily combine to shape our national character.
Have you made time for God today? Have you prioritized your spouse? These simple daily decisions reveal whether we're truly living what we claim to believe. Join us in examining how our actions demonstrate our genuine priorities, and how recommitting ourselves to biblical principles can restore both personal integrity and national virtue.
The American Soul Podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe
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 y'all joining me and giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. I know y'all have other things pulling at your attention, so I'm grateful, grateful, that you're spending a little time here with me. Try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the ring. Or hopefully it'll draw us all a little closer to you. Yeah, father, got a little ahead of myself. Draw us all a little closer to you. Or draw yeah, father, got a little ahead of myself. Draw us all closer to God and Jesus Christ and our nation as a whole because of that. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. I'm incredibly grateful for your prayers. For those of you all that have been around for the last four years, plus now, I'm sure, I'm glad you're still coming back. For those of you all that are new. I'm glad that you're here. 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 your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your Son, jesus Christ. Thank you for time, father. Thank you for time to spend with you. Thank you for your word to read and the time to read it. Thank you for the time to record this podcast. Thank you for the people that listen to it. Please be with them and their families, guide them, bless them, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind. Help us, father, to do your will, to follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, and therefore, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength To love our neighbors as our sons. Help us to make sure that our priorities are in the right order, father, that our priorities are in line with your priorities. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy, to take care of those who have less than we do, and to remember that all of our blessings that we have, whether we're talking about talents that you've given us, like beauty or intelligence, or speed or strength, or whether we're talking about financial blessings, land, et cetera, that everything that we have comes from you, whether you give, whether you take away. Father, praise you, thank you. Be with those in particular, father, our priests and our pastors across the nation, of all different denominations, who truly preach the gospel of your Son, jesus Christ, and help spread that light across our nation, here in America and around the world, in nations where different people are listening. Be with them, be with their wives, be with their children, protect them, keep them safe. God, my word to your father please, have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to just his word? Have you made time to just sit and talk to him?
Speaker 1:Folks, sometimes, in the moments in my life where I have been really brokenhearted, there have been times where my normal prayer list just didn't cut it. I just didn't feel like going through it. I didn't even know what to pray. I just sat there and talked to God. Sometimes I wasn't real kind about it, but I don't think he cares about that. I mean, I think he cares about us, but I don't think he minds when we come to him and we're confused, angry, even upset. We just can't figure out why things are going the way they are, even upset. We just can't figure out why things are going the way they are. And I have to assume that because, as a parent myself, I'm okay with that when my kids come to me and they don't understand something and they're upset about something, and I would rather that they come to me than not said about something, and I would rather that they come to me than not. And if you're married folks, I picked on this a little bit on the previous podcast. I'm probably going to pick on it on the next podcast too. It's really bothered me for a long time. I haven't talked about it in a while, but it came up on X. I said this, as I said, on the previous podcast.
Speaker 1:I think, folks, the problem isn't that men are the problem or that women are the problem. The problem is when we don't follow scripture, and we ought to be willing to call that out on either side, and we haven't been for decades in a church. We've really only focused on the men, and the problem isn't that we're focused on that. There's no excuse for a husband cheating on his wife. There's no excuse for a husband watching pornography. There's no excuse for a husband not loving his wife as Christ loved the church, not nourishing his wife as he nourishes his own body, right, we go through those scriptures all the time 1 Corinthians 7, ephesians 5, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13, 4, proverbs 5, 19. There's no excuse for a husband not being satisfied by his wife when she offers satisfaction. Right, and that's the flip side of all. Of these have two different sides, folks. There's no excuse for a wife not offering satisfaction to her husband. There's no excuse for a wife not respecting her husband and submitting to his authority.
Speaker 1:As to Christ, the problem is when we only focus on one side, even when the other side needs focusing on, and that's exactly what we've done for too long. Folks, you ought to be willing to call it out either way. If you see that men are typically engaged in moral activity when it comes to marriage and sex, ought to be willing to call that out. It doesn't matter about the female side. That's not the point. You focus on the men. The same is true if you see women not submitting, respecting, physically satisfying their husbands. You ought to call that out. And it doesn't matter about the men. It's not well, but but, but no. It's just, you're not doing what you're supposed to. As we used to say in the Marine Corps, you need to fix yourself. You need to square yourself away, don't worry about anybody else.
Speaker 1:How many of y'all that have kids or are a kid with siblings, and you've got one of those kids that seems to always bring up what everybody else is doing right? They've done something wrong and you're getting on to them as a parent and they say, well, but brother or sister, they're whatever. Right, you know what I'm talking about. Some of y'all that are siblings with brothers and sisters. You really know what I'm talking about, because every time that brother or sister got in trouble, they started dragging you under the bus with them. Well, don't you remember that time that they did this? And, in trouble, they started dragging you under the bus with them. Well, don't you remember that time that they did this and you didn't do anything about that or whatever?
Speaker 1:Right you with me when we get to heaven, folks, and the Bible is pretty clear about the fact that we're going to have to stand tall before God. Man, I hope that standing tall looks a lot like Jesus has got all this. His blood has covered it. Because I've made so many mistakes in my life, oh, I don't even want to think about having to stand there and answer all of them, even with Christ. It's going to be humiliating, I feel like. But when I get to heaven, folks, god's not going to look at me and ask me, well, did you do what I told you to? And I'm going to say, well, I would have, but my wife didn't do what she was supposed to. And he's going to be like that's not what I asked. I didn't ask that at all. Some of y'all that have had a really good coach or really good parents you know what I'm talking about there too and good coach or really good parents, you know what I'm talking about there too and the coach or the parent looks at you and goes why didn't you execute this the way that I told you to? And you think, well, I would have, but. And that coach or that parent looks at you and goes, no, no, no, I didn't ask about the circumstances. I asked why you didn't do what I told you to, and I know I've taken quite a bit of our time together on this, folks, but it's a huge, huge deal.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor black, white, brown, orange, green, purple, red, yellow. It doesn't matter what your skin color is. It doesn't matter if you came from North America or South America or Europe or Africa or Asia or Australia or Antarctica or the moon. It doesn't matter what language you speak. It doesn't matter who your parents were. It doesn't matter how much money you have or don't have.
Speaker 1:The question is do you choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and submit to his authority or not? And within marriage, it's the same thing, because that's supposed to represent that relationship between Christ and the church. Are you doing your job or are you not? Between Christ and the church? Are you doing your job or are you not? Doesn't matter whether you're male or female. Are you doing your job or are you not? And I need to hear this as much as anybody else, folks, because I like things to be fair. Quote unquote fair Can't stand it when I'm accused of doing something that I didn't do or when the situation has been deemed unfair in my brain. Housing group folks. So I get it. I'm talking to myself here too, but the question is simply whether we're doing what we're supposed to or we're not. Are we following John Quincy Adams? Duty is ours. Results are God's All right. So I beat that horse. I'm probably going to beat it again, though, folks, because it is not dead. And if you think it's dead, you just need to look around at the marriages in our nation today and the family situation in our nation today, and you will quickly find out that that horse is very much not dead.
Speaker 1:We're going to go into the Bible, 1 John, chapter 3. Children of God love one another Probably basically just sums up what we've been talking about. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know him Beloved. Now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is him, because we will see him just as he is, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
Speaker 1:Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins. No one who sins has seen him or knows him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous the one who practices sin righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. This scripture has always kind of bothered me a little bit, because it makes it seem like, if you just read it at face value, that if we're not perfect then we can't get to heaven. But of course that doesn't make any sense, because it clearly says that Jesus Christ is the only one who's ever been perfect. If we could be perfect, then we wouldn't need Jesus right, which is also why, if somebody tells you that there's another human being throughout history that's ever been perfect, they're not preaching the scripture, because that person wouldn't need Jesus, they could get to God on their own. And so again, not a priest, not a pastor, not a theologian folks, but reading this. What he's getting at here by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. Are we striving to follow God, to love our brother, to practice righteousness, to love our brother, to practice righteousness? Or are we practicing sin and evil and lawlessness, which is another point? But are we practicing those things? And that shows us. You know Proverbs. We've talked about that proverb a number of times. Even a child is known by his actions. I found this verse really interesting today just reading it. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. This is why the idea of the fiscally conservative but socially liberal is just. It's a pipe dream, it's a fantasy, it's a fallacy. Eventually, that immorality, that sin that you're practicing on the social side you know marriage, sex it's going to transfer over to the fiscal side. That lawlessness is going to transfer over to the fiscal side. You're not going to remain this socially conservative or socially liberal person and not have that immorality, that lawlessness eventually transfer over to the fiscal side. You just can't do it. The fiscal cannot drive the social. You have to have the social driving the fiscal. You have to have the morality and the righteousness following the law driving the other.
Speaker 1:For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Do we love our brother or do we hate our brother and pretend to love them? What do your actions show folks? Jesus Christ's second command love your neighbor as yourself, right. Do you really love your neighbor as yourself? Who are some of your closest neighbors? Your family, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, right? Do you love them Really? Good friends, close friends that you consider a brother or sister? Do you love them as yourself, spouse? There is no closer neighbor besides spouse folks. Are you loving them as God commands us, right, or are our deeds evil?
Speaker 1:Verse 13 says Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. Abiding in him. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
Speaker 1:Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our heart before him in whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart and not condemn us. We have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his Son, jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. We know by this, that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So there's a ton here, just in this last little section, right, a couple things. It goes back to actions again. Right, little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
Speaker 1:It doesn't really matter what you say, folks. If you claim to love God but you're not following Jesus Christ, the commands of Christ, then you don't really love God. Not perfectly, again, folks. Not perfectly, but striving for perfection, striving for that example that Christ said. If you claim that you love your children but you don't ever spend time with them, if you claim that you love your children but you don't ever spend time with them, you don't love them. If you claim that you love your wife as a husband but you don't put her first, love her, nourish her, cherish her as your own body, as Christ laid down his life for the church, right, put her needs in front of your own, then you don't. If you're a wife and you claim to love your husband but you don't respect him, you're not meek and gentle and submit to his authority, you don't make a point in how you dress and act to satisfy him physically each day, then you don't love them.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter what you say, folks, it doesn't matter what words we use to try and convince our children, our parents, our spouse, our friends, the world, that we're such a great person, that man we really love and care about these people. If we don't act like it, then we don't, and then it's even worse, right, because then we're just hypocrites, then we're liars, because we're pretending to be something that we're not. And we've talked about that a lot today. And there's a reason why. There's a reason why it's talked about a lot in the Bible, because it's a weakness of ours as humans. We want all the accolades.
Speaker 1:I saw there's a lady that I follow on X and she put a post up this week it just reminded me of it week. It just reminded me of it and she made the comment something along the lines of women want the privileges of being a wife, but they don't want to put the effort in to be a wife. I'm paraphrasing, I don't remember exactly how, and you can flip that around. You can certainly say that men want the privileges of being a husband, but they don't want to put the work in to be a husband, right? The point is that in so many different arenas of our life. Right, it's JJ Watts.
Speaker 1:I've used this quote. I think I don't even know, I'm not going to embarrass myself. I'm pretty sure he played defense for the Houston Texans, but I don't know what position. I don't watch football near as much as I used to, sadly sometimes. But anyway, he was a phenomenal football player and he made the comment I've used the quote on here before.
Speaker 1:He said everybody wants to be a beast until it's time to do what beasts have to do in order to be a beast. And I know the English is horrible, I know it's cringy, it makes you roll your eyes, but you get the point. Everybody wants to win the NCAA championship in whatever sport they're in, or Wimbledon, or the US Open or a World Series. They want to be that pitcher on the mound in the seventh inning. Right, everybody wants those things until it's time to put in the work to get to that place.
Speaker 1:And I think that's kind of what this lady was getting at is everybody wants the benefits in a marriage of a really great spouse, but they don't want to be a great spouse themselves. They don't want to put the work and the effort in that's required to have a great spouse and, I would argue, most importantly of all folks, especially for those of us that claim to be Christian, but for everybody really, whether they know it or not, the most important thing in our lives is to have a strong relationship with God and Jesus Christ and to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven and man. I'm telling you what I'm talking in my heart right now, as much as any of y'all. But we don't want to put the effort in to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. We just want them automatically there. We want to live the way we want to live here on earth, and then we want to get to heaven one day and pretend like we really served God and Jesus Christ. Well, and that's got to hit with some of y'all right now. You've got to know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:We want to live life the way that we want to live it. We want to do what we I want to. I want to do what I want to do. I want to live life the way I want to live it, and then I want to die and go to heaven and I want Christ and God to reward me as if I had lived life the way that they told me to Just let that sit there for a little bit.
Speaker 1:This other thing here, I think this is I know this is a huge point there's absolutely nothing, zero, kind and caring about taking from others to pretend to be benevolent, which is what welfare really is. There's absolutely zero that's Christ-like in stealing from others, especially at the point of a sword or pistol or rifle stealing from others, to quote unquote give right and you see this verse here. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Christ always gave him himself, and that's what he calls us to do Not to take from somebody else and then pretend to be benevolent, because you can't be kind with what belongs to somebody else. It's no skin off your back, right? That's the same problem that we have in taxation today. We have people that get to vote that have no skin in the game. They don't care how they vote because it's not their money, it's somebody else's. Because it's not their money, it's somebody else's.
Speaker 1:If we truly want to care for the poor and the needy and the widow and the orphan and help the lost find their way to Christ. That giving that sacrifice, that dedication has to come from us. But whoever has the world's goods to come from us. But whoever has the world's goods, if you have money, clothing, fame, fortune, a platform to talk on, et cetera, et cetera, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him?
Speaker 1:Look, folks, I'm not telling you that you have to be destitute as a Christian. David wasn't destitute by any means and he was a man after God's own heart and he called Jesus, christ, lord. But if you have an abundance in this life, you have a responsibility. I have a responsibility. Let me say it this way so that I'm putting myself I have an abundance in this life. I'm not the wealthiest, I'm no Bill Gates or anybody else like that. Whoever you want to, the rock movie stars, pick whoever you want to pick athlete, professional, otherwise I'm not those people. But I have an abundance, I have a lot. I have a responsibility to use the talents and the resources that God has given me to try and care for the poor and the needy and the widow and the orphan Me, not go over to my neighbor and take something out of their yard and give it away Me, and I don't think we understand that as clearly as we should, especially perhaps in Christian circles today.
Speaker 1:And then the last thing is to take comfort. Is to take comfort, right, and God knows us Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. Right. But earlier it says and whatever our heart condemns us, we don't have to worry about that, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our heart before him and whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart. Right, your heart's deceitful God tells us that. Right, your heart's deceitful God tells us that God is greater than able to assure us of eternal life, salvation and eternal life through his son, and hopefully that encourages you. It encourages me every time I read that verse, especially when I forget about it and then stumble back across it. All right, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:A few quotes from history today. This is 1966, senator Robert F Kennedy. Sue will have the greatness to mend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and, crossing each other, from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Every time you choose to follow Christ, folks, you light a little candle in the darkness. Every single act we make, we execute, makes us a little bit more like Christ or a little bit more like the devil, brings a little bit more light into the world or a little bit more darkness. And it's kind of like voting folks so many people today, I think, feel like their vote doesn't really count, maybe not as much as in some previous years, but you never know what your act is going to do, what your commentary, but really your actions, how they're going to affect others.
Speaker 1:You have no idea when somebody sees you stopping to pick up trash that's not your own, what that says. I was at a business recently past week or so to get tires and there was a gentleman helping me. So to get tires, and there was a gentleman helping me and he was walking back across the little four year area where they are the cash register area and there was a piece of trash down on the floor that obviously wasn't his because he'd been helping me for the last five or 10 minutes and he bent over to pick it up and throw it in the trash. And he's not the owner of that business. He was just one of the workers, but something a little like that. You notice that he took pride in the place of business, wanted to make sure that it was clean and properly presented, and it gives you a clue about the people there in that business. Right, and the same thing for you. Every time you stop to help somebody, somebody sees it. Folks, somebody's always watching. Maybe it's just God, but so often it's other people. And when you do what you ought to do, that affects others. That affects others.
Speaker 1:We desperately need, as a nation, a great awakening. We need us, as individuals and citizens, to make those little right decisions in our lives, in our marriages, in our families. Each day we need to choose what's right in our own lives. You can't have national liberty, national morality, national virtue if you don't have virtue and morality practiced on an individual level right. You can't expect your state, wherever you are across America, to be moral and virtuous if most of the cities are not, if most of the towns are not. You can't expect the town or the city to be moral and virtuous and religious Christian right If most of the people there are not. And so it really gets back to Patrick Henry's quote that we've read so often on this podcast over the years you know, wherever you are, whatever your sphere of influence, practice virtue and encourage it in others. Your sphere of influence. Practice virtue and encourage it in others. James Garfield, 20th President of the United States, who, by the way, only served four months before he was assassinated.
Speaker 1:The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains have been peeling along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring canons and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian, the humble listener, there has been a divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon. I know that's not right. I'm sorry Days to come. I want to say, halicon, there's a hope that you have as a Christian, or at least we should hope.
Speaker 1:I remember a couple pastors over the years talking about the fact that as Christians we ought to have joy, and sometimes we needed to remind our faces of the fact that our hearts had that joy right, of the fact that our hearts have that joy right. We look so down in the dumps too often instead of expressing that joy and sharing that joy with others. That's like one of our great leaders multiple actually who wrote letters to those suffering under the loss of a loved one, making the comment that we didn't mourn in the same way as the pagans or the infidels because we had the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ. So, though it hurt our hearts to lose those we loved, we had the hope of seeing them again, the knowledge that we would see them again in eternity and there wouldn't be any more. There's not going to be any more tears, sadness, heartache, illness, injury, defamation, right, deformed bodies. There's not going to be any more of that at all. Just joy, happiness, hope, laughter, love, maybe one more. Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president, 1889.
Speaker 1:Or a land, so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all people. God has given our nation so many blessings, folks, and for the past 80 years, to one degree or another, we've sit in his face, told him we didn't need him, lincoln noted. We've imagined in the vanity of our own hearts that we were responsible for all these blessings, that we did all these things. I imagine some of y'all can see that in your own life, points at which you really had no control over what was going on, and yet God made a way somehow for you. And yet when you come to the next hard moment in your life, as I am too guilty of, you forget that God has made a way for you in the past and you weren't grateful enough to begin with.
Speaker 1:Folks, as a nation we have to turn back to God, and not just once a year on a national day of prayer. We have to turn back to God each day. That's why, at the beginning of every podcast we talk about have you made time for God? Have you made time for your spouse? Those are the two most important things that you can do any day, every day, if you're married and if you're not married, then it's the first one. Have you made time for God? Have you made time for your spouse? Have you made time for your spouse? God's given us all these blessings, folks.
Speaker 1:You hear President Harrison's words. He's laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But there's responsibility that comes with that right. The old nobilityse, noblesse. Nobility bears responsibility, or something like that. My Latin's extremely rusty. It always has been. But the more we have been given folks, the more responsibility we have, particularly toward God, and not just in our individual lives but as a nation, publicly. You see all of those public—my vocabulary has just absolutely gone away this morning or today, I'm sorry—but you see all of these examples where our leaders expressed publicly the adoration and the submission, the reverence due to God, the Father, jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We've got to get back to that point and a huge, huge factor in that is getting back to educating our children and the principles of the Bible, god and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Go back and read just a little bit today from our Fox's Book of the Martyrs. We'll read about the persecution of the Christians by the Goths and Vandals, many Scythian Goths having embraced Christianity about the time of Constantine the Great, the light of the gospel spread itself considerably into Scythia, Though the two kings who ruled that country and the majority of the people continued pagans. Scythian king of the West Goths was an ally to the Romans, but Athenaric, king of the East Goths, was at war with them, was at war with them. The christians in the dominions of the former lived unmolested, but the latter, having been defeated by the romans, wrecked his vengeance on his christian subjects, commencing his pagan injunctions in the year 370. Espius, bishop of Samosata, makes a most distinguished figure in the ecclesiastical history and was one of the most eminent champions of Christ against the Arian heresy. Euspius, after being driven from his church and wandering about through Syria and Palestine encouraging the Orthodox, was restored with other Orthodox prelates to his see, which, however, he did not long enjoy, for an Arian woman threw a towel at him from the top of the house, which fractured his skull and terminated his life in the year 380.
Speaker 1:The vandals passing from Spain to Africa in the 5th century, under their leader Jensurik, committed the most unheard of cruelties. They persecuted the Christians wherever they came and even laid waste to the country as they passed, that the Christians left behind who had escaped them might not be able to subsist. Sometimes they freighted a vessel with martyrs, let it drift out to sea or set fire to it, with the sufferers shackled to the decks. Having seized and plundered the city of Carthage, they put the bishop and the clergy into a leaky ship and committed it to the mercy of the waves, thinking that they must all perish, of course, but providentially the vessel arrived safe at Naples. Innumerable Orthodox Christians were beaten, scourged and banished to Casper, where it pleased God to make them the means of converting many of the Moors to Christianity. But this coming to the ears of Jenserich, he sent orders that they and their new converts should be tied by the feet to the chariots and dragged about until they were dashed to pieces. Amponion, the bishop of Mansuetus, was tortured to death with plates of hot iron, the bishop of Eurus was burnt and the bishop of Habanasa was banished for refusing to deliver up the sacred books which were in his possession.
Speaker 1:The Vandalian tyrant, censeric, having made an expedition into Italy and plundered the city of Rome, returned to Africa flushed with the success of his arms. The Arians took this occasion to persuade him to persecute the Orthodox Christians, as they assured him that they were the friends of the people of Rome. After the decease of Aneric, his successor recalled him and the rest of the Orthodox clergy. The Arians, taking the alarm, persuaded him to banish them again, which he complied with when Eugenius, exiled to Languedoc in France, died there of the hardships he underwent on the 6th of September AD 305.
Speaker 1:You read this again, folks. Each day we read a little bit of this. God may not ask us to die a martyr's death, but what he may do is he may give us the opportunity to prevent others from having to suffer that fate. He may give us the means to promulgate the gospel of Christ, to spread it to those who haven't heard it. It to those who haven't heard it. The reason that America has ever been a shining beacon on a hill is because the light of the gospel of Christ has shown from here. Whatever liberty we're able to spread throughout the world is in direct proportion to how closely tied we are to God and Jesus Christ, and so, as Christians, it's hard for me not to see that the great responsibility that we bear in America today is to stand up and defend the place of Christianity and the gospel of Christ in America today.
Speaker 1:Not a particular denomination, folks, and that's really dangerous, because there's quite a few people out there that think that their job is to promote their denomination, not Jesus Christ, and you can tell it, because that's what they always talk about first. They talk about how wonderful their denomination is. Tell it, because that's what they always talk about first. They talk about how wonderful their denomination is. They rarely talk about Christ, except as an afterthought, as second place. In fact, they'll often put people in front of Christ, mary or some others. Right, you'll notice that when you talk to people from those particular denominations that they rarely talk about Christ first and foremost. And if they do, there's always a context at the end saying oh, but you can only really understand Christ if you belong to our denomination or if you pray to Mary or Joseph or one of the disciples. That's how you really understand Jesus.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of getting sidetracked here, folks, but the point is we have a responsibility today as Christians to ensure, or do the best we can to ensure. You know, duty is oursults are God's, but the tie between Christianity, jesus Christ and America maintains strong. It's been weakened for the past 80 years. That's again one of the reasons we talk about Everson v Board of Education so often, which, under the guise of separation of church and state, was really executing separation of God and state. And we've got to get back to joining together God and state and not the coexistence nonsense that all religions or all faiths are equals. There's not. There's only one true faith, one true religion, and that's God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Religion, and that's God, the Father, jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:The only center for publicly funded education in America should be the Bible, should be God and Jesus Christ and the Bible. That in no way infringes on an individual's religious freedom. They can go home and practice something else that they want, but if you're going to be in America, we're a Christian republic. We were born that way. That's the only way we can function. And if we're going to take money from taxpayers in order to fund public education, that public education has to strengthen our nation and therefore has to be Bible-centric, non-denominational, the general principles of Christ, as John Adams said. That was the only way that our founders could unite. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. If you're married, god bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, god bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks looking forward to it.