The American Soul
The American Soul
Soul Food: A Shepherd's Warning for Modern America
Jesse Kissel explores the critical connection between spiritual faithfulness and both personal relationships and national prosperity. Examining how luxury and indifference mirror ancient Israel's downfall, he challenges listeners to reconnect with God and recognize the Christian foundations of American governance.
• Making time for God and prioritizing our spouses should be daily commitments
• Philippians 4 teaches contentment, joy, and focusing on what is true and honorable
• Exploring the limited biblical grounds for divorce while acknowledging human relationship complexities
• America's prosperity has led to spiritual indifference similar to what prophet Amos warned against
• Chief Justice Rehnquist documented extensive biblical imagery throughout Washington DC's government buildings
• The First Amendment was designed to prevent denominational favoritism, not remove Christianity from governance
• Medal of Honor tribute to George Greenville Benedict from the Civil War
Check out my middle-grade fantasy series "Countryside" on Amazon Kindle, currently available for 99 cents. I'd appreciate your reviews and recommendations if you enjoy it.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Kissel, 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 do appreciate y'all joining me. I'm going to be a little bit of your time, A little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me, for the podcast, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you Very grateful for that.
Speaker 2:Father, thank you for today.
Speaker 1: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. Forgive us, father, all of our sins. We need all of our inequity from this. Forgive us our greed, our pride, our selfishness, our judgment, our confidence, our pride, our selfishness, our judgment, bothers, our gossip and our slander, our covetousness, our lust, our cowardice and our unbelief. Help us to overcome the doomsday. Be with those who have less than you do. Help us to hold on. Give us a strong faith, father. Help us to follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, to love you with our heart, mind, soul and strength. Love our neighbors as ourselves. Guide ourselves. Be with our leaders. Cross the nation, our president, vice president, adults, senators, general representatives, governors, judges. General representatives, governors, judges. Help them all to be fair to you, father. Help them to be just men who refuse bribes and corruption and who seek to do your will above all else.
Speaker 2:Be with those who are listening today, Father.
Speaker 1:Be with their families, bless their marriages, comfort them, heal them, help them to feel your presence and God. My word to your Father, please In your Son's name we pray Amen.
Speaker 2:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him, to listen to him? And if you're married does your spouse know it? Are they your top priority each day? Do you even know what your roles are as a husband or a wife? If somebody asked you what your job was as a husband or a wife, would you know. Have you read scripture often enough? And then, if you do know, are you actually following that each day or are you making excuses?
Speaker 1:so that you can do what you want to do.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a very good friend of mine recently and I think we were discussing the topic of divorce.
Speaker 2:I think it's pretty clear that the only reason for divorce that's acceptable to God is unfaithfulness, sexual immorality, and you can argue that that takes a few different forms, but one of the things and y'all can hold me accountable for this or not maybe you agree with it, but some of these marriages where one spouse or the other doesn't care at all about their spouse, about their actions, is completely indifferent. I don't know that I would ever allow myself to use that as an excuse if I was in that situation, but I would never, ever, condemn someone for choosing to leave that situation.
Speaker 2:You know, we are married to a human being, whether it's you're the husband or the wife, and as much as we try and follow Jesus Christ, there is a limit for most of us and I think too often we take our spouse, we take advantage of our spouse when they're the person that ought to get the very best out of us. They get the leftovers and we just assume that they're always going to be there.
Speaker 1:We assume that they're not going anywhere, so we don't have to work that hard when really we ought to work the hardest to please them each day.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll flesh this idea out a little bit on another podcast. At any rate, we will move on for today. Scripture for today is Philippians 4, verses 1 through 23. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work. You, dear friends, for you, are my joy and the crown I receive for my work. Now I appeal to Yodia and Sintke please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement and I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the good news. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers whose names are written in the Book of Life.
Speaker 2:Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considering all you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything, tell God what you need and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about these things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn't have the chance to help me, not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty. As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the good news and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent help more than once.
Speaker 2:I don't say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. At the moment, I have all I need, and more. I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God, and the same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Now, all glory to God, our Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 2:Give my greetings to each of God's holy people, all who belong to Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you their greetings, and all the rest of God's people send you greetings too, especially those in Caesar's household. May the grace of the Lord, jesus Christ be with your spirit. Psalm 75, verses 1 through 10. We thank you, o God. We give thanks because you are near. People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.
Speaker 2:God says at the time I have planned. I will bring justice against the wicked. When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil, I am the one who keeps its foundations firm. I warned the proud stop your boasting. I told the wicked don't raise your fists. Don't raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance, for no one on earth, from west or east, or even from the wilderness, should raise a defiant fist. It is God alone who judges. He decides who will rise and who will fall, for the Lord holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs. But as for me, I will always proclaim what God has done. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob, for God says I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly. Proverbs 24, 17 through 20. Don't rejoice when your enemies fall. Don't be happy when they stumble, for the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them. Don't fret because of evildoers. Don't envy the wicked, for evil people have no future. The light of the wicked will be snuffed out. Medal of Honor for today.
Speaker 2:George Greenville, benedict 2nd Lieutenant, us Civil War, charlie Company Powered Guards, 12th Vermont Infantry, us Army. July 3rd 1863, gettysburg, pennsylvania. Passed through a murderous fire of grape and canister in delivering order and reformed the crowded lines Accredited to Burlington, chittenden County, vermont. Not awarded. Posthumously Presented June 27, 1892. Born December 10, 1826, burlington, chittenden County, vermont, united States. Died April 8, 1907, camden, north Carolina. Buried Greenmont Cemetery, f-tac 3, burlington, vermont, united States. George Greenville Benedict Another name to add to our list Folks that's far more important than singers or pop stars or NFL players getting engaged.
Speaker 2:I have a children's Bible that we read from time to time, and there was a little section that really struck me the other day when we were reading from it. In accordance with Elisha's dying words, israel won three battles against Syrian forces, but after the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II, son of Jehoash, israel became weaker and weaker, caught up in a series of internal political intrigues and assassinations. This beginning of Israel's end was predicted with scorn and vehemence by a visionary shepherd from Judah. Israel's end was predicted with scorn and vehemence by a visionary shepherd from Judah. This was Amos, the first of many prophets to forecast the downfall of the Hebrew nations. He preached in Israel during the end of Jeroboam's rule, around the middle of the 8th century BC. In particular, he attacked the life of luxury and spiritual indifference that he saw as the source of Israel's weakness. Do you see that today in America? The life of luxury and spiritual indifference. I think so. I think we see that extremely clearly. We have become so blessed and so opulent that we have forgotten God and we are lukewarm to him, ignoring the fact that our political prosperity is directly tied to our spiritual life.
Speaker 2:It seems fitting to talk about this quote today from Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the US Supreme Court, talking about the Ten Commandments in government buildings just in Washington DC alone. We need only look within our own courtroom. Since 1935, moses has stood holding two tablets that reveal portions of the Ten Commandments written in Hebrew. Reveal portions of the Ten Commandments written in Hebrew. Among other lawgivers in the South, representatives of the Ten Commandments adorn the metal gates lining the north and south sides of the courtroom, as well as the doors leading into the courtroom. Moses also sits on the exterior east facade of the building holding the Ten Commandment tablets.
Speaker 2:Similar acknowledgments can be seen throughout a visitor's tour of our nation's capital. For example, a large statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments alongside a statue of the Apostle Paul has overlooked the rotunda of the Library of Congress's Jefferson Building since 1897. And the Jefferson Building's Great Reading Room contains a sculpture of a woman beside the Ten Commandments with a quote above her from the Old Testament, micah 6.8. A medallion with two tablets depicting the Ten Commandments decorate the floor of the National Archives. Inside the Department of Justice, a statue entitled the Spirit of Law has two tablets representing the Ten Commandments. Lying at its feet In front of the Ronald Reagan building is another sculpture that includes a depiction of the Ten Commandments. So, too, a 24-foot tall sculpture depicting, among other things, the Ten Commandments and a cross stands outside the federal courthouse that houses both the Court of Appeals and the District Court for the District of Columbia. Moses is also prominently featured in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.
Speaker 2:This is just one more example of so many folks that, even alone, by itself shows that the idea that our founders wanted to separate God and Jesus Christ from the state is just absolute nonsense. You can't even make that comment without showing gross ignorance or malevolence. You just read through this quote by Chief Justice Rehnquist. There's so many places where our nation is associated with God and Jesus Christ. The First Amendment, again, was never written to kick God and Jesus Christ out of the state. It was written so that no one Christian denomination was favored over any other. And it certainly was not written to pretend that the imposters like Islam and Buddhism, hinduism, were on equal footing with Christianity.
Speaker 2:If you get a chance and you're looking for a middle grade fantasy that's clean, wholesome, a little bit of family fun, you could check out Countryside If you would. There's two books in the series so far. You can get it on Amazon it's actually on Kindle right now for 99 cents, I believe and if you get a chance and you enjoy it, if you would tell some other people about it and leave a review, those help immensely. I would be very grateful for that. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world.