The American Soul
The American Soul
The Cross of Christ is All That Matters: Reflections on Faith and Family
Jesse Cope explores the importance of prioritizing our relationship with God and honoring our marriage commitments while examining how America's founders viewed biblical principles as essential to good governance. Scripture readings from Galatians, Psalms, and Proverbs provide spiritual guidance while historical perspectives from influential American leaders illuminate our nation's moral foundation.
• Making time for God should be our top priority
• Marriage should reflect Christ's relationship with the church
• Scripture emphasizes bearing each other's burdens and not growing weary in doing good
• We will always harvest what we plant - both in our spiritual and earthly lives
• America's founders repeatedly referenced the Ten Commandments as the basis for moral law
• The idea that our founders wanted to separate God from government contradicts historical evidence
• Medal of Honor recipient George H. Bell demonstrated extraordinary courage during the Civil War
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 listening, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks, 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, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure, do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to support and share the podcast with others, tell others about it, thank you, and most of all, for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you 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 the time to record this podcast. Thank you for the people that listen to it. Please be with them. Thank you for the time to record this podcast. Thank you to the people that listen to it. Please be with them, be with their families, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind, guide their thoughts and their words and their actions. Help us to do your will, father, each day. Above all else, help us to love your Son, jesus Christ, and to follow his command. To love our neighbors as ourselves, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. Be with our educators across the nation Home school, public school, private school. Guide them, give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help us to get our priorities in order as individuals and make sure that our priorities are the same as yours, father, are in line with yours. Be with those around the world suffering for the name of your Son, jesus Christ. Help us to comfort them. Be with those who are heartbroken or hurting injury, illness, relationships, whatever it is. Father, please be with them, comfort them. Help us to mourn with those who mourn, to weep with those who weep, to laugh and celebrate with those who laugh and celebrate. Help us to do your will, father, in all things. Be with our leaders, both in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule and lead in the fear of you, father, not man and God. My words are out of place. 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 talk to him, to pray, to listen to him? Is he at the top of your priority list? Is he at the bottom? Is he somewhere at the middle? Do you just try and shove him in around the edges when you can?
Speaker 1:And your spouse this person that's supposed to be one out of seven billion? Do you treat them like that? Do you treat them like an absolutely irreplaceable treasure? Or are they just somebody that you have a business partnership with, at best? Are they somebody that you like to use but you don't really need them, don't really want them around? Do you want the privileges or the status of being a husband or a wife but you don't want to fulfill your responsibilities, your roles as a husband or a wife? And they're real clear folks. We haven't talked about them in a while.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll go through on a podcast coming up and read through them again. But 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Peter 3, titus 2, ephesians 5, hebrews 13, 4, proverbs 5, 19,. Song of Solomon those are all real good places to start. And just remember God tells his folks to cleave to each other as a husband and wife and we're supposed to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the church. There is no stronger relationship in our lives. There's no stronger. There's just nobody else in this life, if you're married, that you ought to bind yourself to each day, throughout the day, to give them your first energy, efforts, affection, attention, touch than your spouse. Galatians 6, 6, verse 1 through 18.
Speaker 1:Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you, who are godly, should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Bear each other's burdens and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else, for we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. Do not be misled. You cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith.
Speaker 1:Notice what large letters I use as I write these closing words in my own handwriting. Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don't want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don't want the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples. As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died. It doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle. They are the new people of God. From now on, don't let anyone trouble me with these things, for I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus. Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Psalm 65, verses 1-13. What mighty praise, o God, belongs to you in Zion. We will fulfill our vows to you, for you answer our prayers. All of us must come to you. Though we are overwhelmed by our sins, you forgive them all. What joy for those you choose to bring near those who live in your holy courts. What festivities await us inside your holy temple. You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds. Oh God, our Savior, you are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas. You formed the mountains by your power and armed yourself with mighty strength. You quieted the raging oceans with the pounding waves and silenced the shouting of the nations. Those who live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your wonders. From where the sun rises to where it sets, you inspire shouts of joy. You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water. It provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it. So you drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops. You crown the year with a bountiful harvest. Even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture and the hillsides blossom with joy. The meadows are clothed with flocks of sheep and the valleys are carpeted with grain. They all shout and sing for joy. Proverbs 23, verse 24. The father of godly children has cause for joy. What a pleasure to have children who are wise. We are not that important folks and pay attention to our own work instead of comparing ourselves to others, for we are each responsible for our own conduct. You cannot mock the justice of God. I think a lot of people need to hear that today. And then this part again about circumcision Folks, if you're part of a denomination or church that tells you that you've got to do all these other things in order to receive salvation and eternal life, including just being part of their particular denomination, they're not teaching you scripture, and you just look again at Paul's words here. They only want you to be part of their denomination so they can boast about their denomination. They don't really want you there in order to save you, and you can tell that when you are around these people that belong to those certain denominations that make that false claim no-transcript, those who are trying to force you to be circumcised, want to look good to others. They don't want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of christ alone can save. As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our lord jesus christ. That ought to be our start and finish, folks. The cross of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Medal of Honor for today. George H Bell, captain of the Afterguard US Civil War. Uss Santee, us Navy. November 7, 1861, galveston Bay, texas, usa Navy. November 7, 1861, galveston Bay, texas, usa. Served as a pilot of the USS Santee when that vessel was engaged in cutting out the rebel-armed schooner General Rusk than was ever before witnessed by his commanding officer. Although severely wounded in the encounter, he displayed extraordinary courage under the most painful and trying circumstances. New York, new York, not awarded. Posthumously presented November 21, 1864, hampton Road, virginia, on board the USS Brooklyn.
Speaker 1:Presented by Captain James Aldean, born March 12, 1839, sunderland, england. Died September 26, 1917, newcastle, england. Buried Ellswick Cemetery, newcastle, england. Died September 26, 1917. Newcastle, england. Buried Ellswick Cemetery, newcastle, england. George H Bell. John Witherspoon. Signer of the Declaration.
Speaker 1:The Ten Commandments are the sum of the moral law. Noah Webster. The moral law is summarily contained in the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments written by the finger of God on two tablets of stone and delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. William Penn commented that civil magistrates, people and government rights should draw upon the Ten Commandments or moral law. John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, I believe, john Quincy Adams, our sixth president, I believe Vain indeed would be to search among the writings of profane antiquity, secular history, to find so broad, so complete and so solid a basis for morality, as this Decalogue lays down Again and again, folks, you see so many of our leaders in the history of our nation talking about the need to look toward the Ten Commandments, to look toward the Bible, to look toward the precepts of Jesus Christ. Our nation, our republic, simply can't function without a people that follows those principles of Christ and a government that looks toward those commandments as the basis for moral law.
Speaker 1:William Blackstone, second most invoked political commentator by our founders, talking about the laws of nature and the laws of nature's God.
Speaker 1:Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being and consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will, the will of his Maker, is called the law of nature. This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if, contrary to this, the doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed of the divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures. On these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human lives. That is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these Laws of nature and of nature's God. That sounds a little familiar, huh Declaration. And we shouldn't suffer any human laws to be made that contradict God's laws.
Speaker 1:And where do you find God's laws? In Holy Scripture and the Bible. The idea, folks, that our founders, that our great leaders, did not want God and Jesus Christ involved in our government is just absolute nonsense. 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 listening, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks, looking forward to it.