The American Soul
The American Soul
Duty Before Feeling: The Christian Path to Joy
The spiritual darkness of our modern world stems from removing God's Word from our homes, schools, and public life, leaving us unable to discern basic truths about human nature and morality.
• Making time for God should be our top priority each day
• Marital commitment requires cleaving to your spouse regardless of feelings
• Actions should precede feelings—duty comes before emotional satisfaction
• Christians must follow Scripture over denominational traditions
• Physical discipline of children is biblical when administered properly
• Medal of Honor recipient Gary Burnell Beekrick exemplified selfless service
• Nations influenced by Christian principles demonstrably flourish compared to those without
God bless you all, God bless your families, God bless your marriages, God bless America, God bless your nation wherever you are around the world. We'll talk to you all again real soon, looking forward to it.
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 and whatever part of the day you're in. I'm sure to appreciate you joining me and giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps. For those of y'all who continue to support and share the podcast with others, thank you For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you so much, very, very grateful for your prayers, need them and want them.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for this day that you have made. Help us to rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you that your Son was willing to come and die for our sins so that we wouldn't have to. Thank you for the guidance of your Holy Spirit, that soft, quiet voice in the background that helps us, leads us, draw us close to you. Father, please be near those of us who are brokenhearted. Help us to feel your presence. Be with those who are listening to the podcast. Be with those who have thorns in their sides, father. Give them your grace and your perseverance them. Your grace and your perseverance. Help us to be concerned about what you think and following you and your son Jesus Christ, not what the world thinks, what men think. Help us to elect men like that, men who rule in fear of you, who don't want bribes, who are not interested in corruption, greed, power, but who want to, who strive to serve you. Bless our marriages, father. Be with us. Help us to fulfill our roles and responsibilities as both husband and wife. Help us to illustrate to those around us that relationship between Christ and the church, and help us to do it joyfully. Help us to give of ourselves joyfully. Help us to lead quiet lives and to do your will above all else, and please bring us home to you, father and your Son Jesus Christ in your timing. In your Son's name, we ask and pray these things Amen. Have you made time for God today? Is he really your top priority? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him? Do you do so throughout the day, continuously? And if you're married, are you cleaving to your spouse. We talked about this on the previous podcast, so that's a really strong word and we make light of it.
Speaker 1:You hear so many people. Well, I don't really. I'm not touchy-feely, slingy, I don't really need my spouse like that, I don't really want to be around them that much. Why in the world did you get married then? And what in the world does your feeling or emotion have to do with what you're supposed to do, your duty according to God? I hear so many people today talk about their feelings, their emotions, and it really gets quite sickening because all you're really doing is saying that I don't really want to do what I'm supposed to. Institutions, events, marine Corps, college, athletics, a number of places, jobs feelings will almost always follow actions. But if we wait around for our feelings to do what we're supposed to do, there's a real good chance that we'll never get either the feelings or our duty accomplished. But if you'll go out there and do what you're supposed to, day after day, you will look up and you will discover suddenly that you know what. I really enjoy doing this for a number of different reasons. I enjoy working out with my spouse. I enjoy cooking together with my spouse. I enjoy cooking together with my spouse. I enjoy having sex with my spouse. I enjoy going for walks with my spouse. I enjoy going for a ride, sitting and talking and listening with my spouse. But as John Quincy Adams said, duty is ours, results are God's. What do we got today? Let's see in the old Bible. My father and others before him have said Galatians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 16.
Speaker 1:Then, 14 years later, I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas, and Titus came along too. I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there, I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and that I was running the race for nothing. Agreement for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and that I was running the race for nothing. And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.
Speaker 1:Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there false ones really who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations, but we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you, and the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites. Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews, for the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles. In fact, james, peter and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles while they continued their work with the Jews. Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
Speaker 1:But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers who were not circumcised, but afterward, when some friends of James came, peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
Speaker 1:You and I are Jews by birth, not sinners like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Jesus Christ so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law, for no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. Psalm 59, verses 1 through 17. Psalm 59, verses 1 through 17.
Speaker 1:Psalm of David regarding the time Saul sent soldiers to watch David's house in order to kill him. Rescue me from my enemies, o God. Protect me from those who have come to destroy me, rescue me from these criminals, save me from these murderers. They have set an ambush for me. Fierce enemies are out there waiting. Lord, though I have not sinned or offended them, I have done nothing wrong, yet they prepare to attack me. Wake up, see what is happening and help me.
Speaker 1:O Lord, god of heaven's armies, the God of Israel, wake up and punish those hostile nations. Show no mercy to wicked traitors. They come out at night snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets. Listen to the filth that comes from their mouths. Their words cut like swords. After all, who can hear us? They sneer, but, lord, you laugh at them. You scoff at all the hostile nations. You are my strength. I wait for you to rescue me, but, lord, you laugh at them. You scoff at all the hostile nations. You are my strength. I wait for you to rescue me. For you, o God, are my fortress. In his unfailing love, my God will stand with me. He will let me look down and triumph on all my enemies. Don't kill them, for my people soon forget such lessons. Stagger them with your power and bring them to their knees, o Lord, our shield, because of the sinful things they say because of the evil that is on their lips. Let them be captured by their pride, their curses and their lies. Destroy them in your anger. Wipe them out completely. Then the whole world will know that God reigns in Israel. My enemies come out at night snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets, they scavenge for food, but go to sleep unsatisfied. But as for me, I will sing about your power Each morning. I will sing with joy about your unfailing love, for you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. Oh my strength to you. I sing praises For you. Oh God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love. Proverbs 23, verses 13 through 14. Don't fail to discipline your children. The rod of punishment won't kill them. Physical discipline may well save them from death. The only comment here is, when you go back to Galatians, folks, there's a lot of comments you could make. People that try to get you, that try and take away the freedom of Christ Jesus, that want to enslave and force you to follow regulations, denominational doctrine instead of Scripture. You don't have any reason to go along with those people folks. Scripture, yes, a particular organization, even a denomination. If what they say goes against scripture, not only do we not have a responsibility to follow it, we have a responsibility not to follow it. All right, the Medal of Honor for today is Gary Burnell Beekrick, sergeant Vietnam War Detachment B-24, bravo Company 5th Special Forces Group Airborne. 1st Special Forces US Army, april 1st 1970, dak Sang Special Forces A, camp Contum Province, republic of Vietnam, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, sergeant Beekrick, medical Aidman, detachment B-24, company Bravo, distinguished himself during the defense of Camp Dac Sang. The Allied defenders suffered a number of casualties as a result of an intense, devastating attack launched by an enemy from well-concealed positions surrounding the camp. Sergeant Beekrick, with complete disregard for his personal safety, moved unhesitatingly through the withering enemy fire to his fallen comrades, applied first aid to their wounds and assisted them to the medical aid station. Applied first aid to their wounds and assisted them to the medical aid station. When informed that a seriously injured American officer was lying in an exposed position, sergeant Beekrick ran immediately through the hail of fire. Although he was wounded seriously by fragments from an exploding enemy mortar shell, sergeant Beekrick carried the officer to a medical aid station. Ignoring his own serious injuries, sergeant Beekrick left the relative safety of the medical bunker to search for and evacuate other men who had been injured. He was again wounded. As he dragged a critically injured Vietnamese soldier to the medical bunker while simultaneously applying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to sustain his life, sergeant Beekrick again refused medical treatment and continued his search for other casualties until he collapsed. Only then did he permit himself to be treated. Sergeant Beekrick's complete devotion to the welfare of his comrades at the risk of his life are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit and the US Army. Accredited to Buffalo, erie County, new York. Not awarded. Posthumously presented October 15, 1973 at the White House by President Richard Nixon. Born August 29, 1947, rochester, monroe County, new York. Died December 26, 2021, greece, new York. Buried Whitehaven Memorial Park, pittsburgh, new York. Gary Burnell Beekrick. We have a responsibility to take care of men like that and their wives and their children. Folks. Samuel Colgate, who started, or helped start the Colgate Palmolive? What is now the Colgator was the Palmolive Company. The only spiritual light in the world comes through Jesus Christ and the inspired book Redemption and Forgiveness of Sin. Alone Through Christ, redemption and forgiveness of sin alone through Christ. Without his presence in the teachings of the Bible, we would be enshrouded in moral darkness and despair. The condition of those nations without a Christ contrasted with those where Christ is accepted reveals so marked a difference that no arguments are needed. It is an object lesson, so plain that it can be seen and understood by all. May the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Why do we struggle so much today, folks, with truth, with discerning truth, fact from fiction, truth from a lie? Because we have taken the Bible out of our homes, out of our schools, we don't teach our children, we don't teach ourselves, and so we become enshrouded in moral darkness and despair. We can't even tell the difference between a man and a woman today. We can't tell the difference between what our roles and responsibilities are as a husband or a wife. We can't tell whether it's right or not to commit abortion, because we've taken God's word away and we're in darkness and despair. And those nations, folks, this part down here, any honest person, any honest person that looks at the world and looks at those countries where Christ, the principles of Christ, have had a significant influence versus those that haven't. The difference is so marked that you don't even need arguments, as Mr Colgate says here. It's so apparent the difference how much better off those people and those nations are with Jesus Christ than those without. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world, listen, folks, we'll talk to you all again real soon, looking forward to it.