The American Soul
The American Soul
When your heart is overwhelmed, Christ is your towering rock of safety
We explore the critical importance of prioritizing God and spouse in our daily lives as Christians, examining how faith in Jesus Christ—not adherence to law—brings salvation. Drawing from Galatians, Psalms, and historical American figures, we make connections between Christian principles and America's founding as a republic built on biblical truths.
• Christians must prioritize God first, then spouse, before anything else
• According to Galatians, righteousness comes through faith in Christ, not by keeping the law
• When our hearts are overwhelmed, God serves as our "towering rock of safety" (Psalm 61)
• We should remember American heroes like Medal of Honor recipient Thomas Belcher
• Abigail Adams emphasized heaven's "remarkable interpositions" in America's founding
• America functions properly only as a Christian republic founded on biblical principles
• We cannot separate our personal faith from our public lives and responsibilities
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.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. I'm sure to appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. Hopefully y'all are getting to listen to it with somebody else. And for those of y'all who continue to share it with other people and tell other people 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.
Speaker 1:Very, very grateful for that, 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 that we can trust that one day we'll get to spend eternity in heaven with you, not because of anything we've done or haven't done or haven't done, simply because of your son Jesus Christ and accepting him as our Lord and Savior, putting our faith in him and the fact that his blood will cover our sins. Help us to truly repent of those sins, father, not just with words, but to actually make the changes in our lives that show repentance. Help us to bear fruit in our life, to spread the gospel of your son Jesus Christ around the world, in our own little community, wherever that is, in our families, in our churches and our families and our churches and our schools. Help our nation here in America and those nations around the world where others are listening, to turn back to you, father and your Son Jesus Christ. Be with our military and our law enforcement, our firefighters, our EMS. Comfort them, give them strength and courage and wisdom. Bring them home safe to their families. Watch over our farmers and our ranchers, our fishermen. Give them success, give them bounty. Give them bounty. Heal our land. Forgive us for our support of abortion and feminism and LGBTQ relationships, father, and whatever else that we've done to go against you. God. My words here Father, please, in your son's name, we ask and we pray, and please be with those listening, father, wherever they are. Bless them, bless their families, bless their marriages. In your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time for your spouse today? What did you do? How did you spend your time in the last 24 hours? How have you spent your time over the last 10 years? What are you giving the majority of your time to each day?
Speaker 1:If you're a Christian, if you claim to follow Christ and you're married, right, your top two priorities each day before anything else. So it's way, way before anything else before kids, before parents, before friends, before social media, phones, tv workouts phones, tv workouts, sports in person or on TV before any of that stuff, your priorities have to be God, and then your spouse, and everything else comes way after that. You look at Jesus Christ's top two commandments Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Your closest neighbor is your spouse. It's not a negotiation, folks, it's not a debate. If you claim to be a Christian, your top priority has to be God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and if you're married, your second priority, right behind that, has to be your spouse. Each day Leaving. It's not something light and transitory, it's not something you kind of maybe do think about. It's a huge deal. It requires your effort and your energy and your attention and your affection. And, sadly, too many of us on too many days myself included we give half-hearted effort at best and we give our real time and energy and affection and attention to other things that do not matter in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1:Galatians, chapter 3, verses 10 through 22. But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse. For the scriptures say cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God's book of the law. So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the scriptures say it is through faith that a righteous person has life. This way of faith is very different from the way of the law, which says it is through obeying the law that a person has life. But Christ has rescued us from this curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the scriptures cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree For Jesus Christ. God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
Speaker 1:Dear brothers and sisters, here's an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement. So it is in this case. God gave the promises to Abraham and his child, and notice that the scripture doesn't say to his children, as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says to his child, and that, of course, means Christ. This is what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1:The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later, when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise, for if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God's promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise. Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins, but the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. The law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now, a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement, but God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham. Is there a conflict, then, between God's law and God's promises? Absolutely not. If the law could give us new life. We could be made right with God by obeying it. But the scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin. So we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Psalm 61, verses 1 through 8. O God, listen to my cry. Hear my prayer From the ends of the earth. I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me. Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings, for you have heard my vows. O God, you have given me an inheritance reserved for those who fear your name. Add many years to the life of the king. May his years span the generations. May he reign under God's protection forever. May your unfailing love and faithfulness watch over him. Then I will sing praises to your name forever as I fulfill my vows each day.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 23, verses 17 through 18. Don't envy sinners, but always continue to fear the Lord. You will be rewarded for this. Your hope will not be disappointed. Don't envy sinners. You go back to Galatians, verse 22. But the scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin. So we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. That's the whole deal, folks right there. There is no way to get right with God by following the law. By following the law and we are every single other human being that has ever existed outside of Jesus Christ is a sinner, and anybody that tells you otherwise isn't reading scripture. They're not telling you God's word, and the only way for every other single human being that's ever existed to get right is through Jesus Christ. I can't explain to you how that looks prior to Christ coming in the flesh. I don't know how God worked that out, but the only way to be made right with God is faith in his son.
Speaker 1:Medal of Honor Thomas Belcher, private US Civil War India Company. 9th Maine Infantry US Army. September 29, 1864, saffin's Farm, virginia, took a guidon from the hands of the bearer, mortally wounded, and advanced with it nearer to the battery than any other man. Accredited to Banger, penobscot County, maine, not awarded. Posthumously presented April 6, 1865, born 1834, banger, maine. Died May 22, 1898, augusta, maine. Buried per death certificate no cemetery. Togus, maine, united States. Thomas Belcher One more name we need to remember folks a little bit more than professional or college athletes and their statistics.
Speaker 1:Abigail Adams, on June 20th 1776, writing to her husband John Adams I feel no anxiety at the large armament designed against us. The remarkable interpositions of heaven in our favor cannot be too gratefully acknowledged. He who fed the Israelites in the wilderness, who clothes the lily of the field and who feeds the young ravens when they cry will not forsake a people engaged in so right a cause. If we remember his loving kindness, if we remember his loving kindness, do we gratefully acknowledge God's help in the history of our nation and our lives? We seek his blessings, we want to be taken care of by him, but do we acknowledge his favor? And, as Lincoln said, are we concerned about God being on our side or are we concerned about being on God's side because we know that God is always right? That ought to be the goal each day, folks, both as individuals in our personal lives and as a nation, as a Christian republic, in our public lives. That should be the concern. Are we on God's side Because God is always on the right side? And no, not all faiths are equal. This was not a Muslim nation. It's not a Jewish nation. It's not a Jewish nation. It's not a Buddhist or a Hindu nation. It's not an atheist or a satanic nation. It's a Christian republic and it can only function as such, folks. We can only have liberty functioning as a Christian republic based on the principles of Jesus Christ. We will lose liberty on every other path.
Speaker 1:One more March 20th 1780, another letter from Abigail Adams to her son, john Quincy Adams the only sure and permanent foundation of virtue is religion. Let this important truth be engraven upon your heart Justice, humanity and benevolence are the duties you owe to society in general, to your country. The same duties are incumbent upon you, with the additional obligation of sacrificing ease, pleasure, wealth and life itself for its defense and security. This is a great point, folks that I don't know. The left, among others, has done a really good job of propagandizing and twisting, of propagandizing and twisting the idea of socially liberal but fiscally conservative right, the idea that you can love America but hate the principles upon which she was founded.
Speaker 1:The duties that we owe to society in general, those virtues that are extolled, that are laid out in the principles of Christ. We don't only owe those to society, we owe those also to our country as a whole. You can't separate those things out. You can't put Jesus Christ and his principles in this little box over here and then try and have public life over here. It's like I've heard a pastor say so many times you can't live one way Monday through Saturday and then try and live a different way on Sunday. It has to apply across the board. 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, looking forward to it.