The American Soul
The American Soul
America's Christian Roots: Are We Living Our Heritage?
We explore the vital importance of prioritizing our relationship with God and our spouses above all other daily concerns and distractions. The episode challenges listeners to examine whether they're giving their best time and energy to what matters most according to biblical principles.
• Making time daily for God through Bible reading and prayer
• Recognizing marriage as the most important human relationship
• Reading from Song of Solomon about pursuing our spouse wholeheartedly
• Exploring Colossians' warning against empty philosophies and human rules
• Learning from Psalm 78 about trusting God completely, not partially
• Acknowledging America's Christian heritage through historical Supreme Court quotes
• Understanding our responsibility to share the gospel in our sphere of influence
If you want to make America great again, there's nothing better you can do than spread the gospel of Jesus Christ—through conversations, handing out Bibles, social media posts, or talking to people you meet in daily life.
The American Soul Podcast
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Thank you, folks. This is Jesse Cote, 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 are. I appreciate you joining me here For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast and tell others about it. Thank you For those of y'all that continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you Very, very grateful for your prayers, need them and want them, and hopefully you're getting to listen to it with somebody else.
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 and your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the promise of eternal life because of your son, jesus Christ. Help us to confess him and you before men. Help us to lean on you, father, to trust you and not our own understanding. You, father, to trust you and not our own understanding. God, our words, our actions, our thoughts, our deeds. Help us to get our priorities lined up with your priorities, father. Help us to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to help those that our whole heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to help those that have less than we do. Help our country to turn back to you, father, your Son Jesus Christ, here in America and those countries around the world where people are listening. Be with those men who go out and keep our power lines up and running, our roads up and running. Be with those in our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters. Bring them home safe to their wives and their children. Be with our doctors, nurses. Be with our doctors, nurses, dentists, all of those who care for us, care for our bodies. Thank you for knowing, and God, my words here. Father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God and Jesus Christ today? Have you made time to read your Bible? Have you made time to listen, to sit still, to pray and talk to God? It doesn't have to be fancy folks. There's no certain path that has to be taken to talk to God. And if you don't know what else and I don't do this often enough on the podcast just start with the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 1:And if you're married, do you act like it? Are you behaving like it? Are you fulfilling your roles and responsibilities as either a husband or a wife, or are you giving your time and energy and effort to things besides your spouse? There shouldn't be anything in your day, each day, folks, that gets more of your attention other than God, jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and your spouse. Not sports, not social media, phones, tvs, workouts, children, parents, friends. There is no other relationship that you will ever have that is like your spouse.
Speaker 1:Bible verses for today are from Song of Solomon, chapter three, the bride's troubled dream On my bed. Night after night I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but did not find him. I must arise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares. I must seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him but did not find him. The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me and I said have you seen him, whom my soul loves? Scarcely had I left them. When I found him, whom my soul loves, I held on to him and would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother's house and into the room of her who conceived me. I adjure you, o daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds in the field, that you will not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases Solomon's Wedding Day.
Speaker 1:What is this coming up from the wilderness? Like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all scented powders of the merchant. Behold, it is the traveling coach of Solomon. Sixty mighty men around it, of the mighty men of Israel. All of them are wielders of the sword. Expert in war, each man has his sword at his side, guarding against the terrors of the night. King Solomon has made for himself a sudden chair from the timber of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its back of gold and its seat of purple fabric, with its interior lovingly fitted out by the daughters of Jerusalem. Go forth, o daughters of Zion, and gaze on King Solomon with the crown with which his mother has crowned him on the day of his wedding and on the day of his gladness of heart.
Speaker 1:Do we pursue our spouse every day as the most important person in our life outside of God? Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit Are we chasing after them with the best of our time and effort and energy throughout each day? Scripture reading for today starts with Colossians 2, 8 through 23. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world rather than from Christ, for in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Speaker 1:When you came to Christ, you were circumcised, but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of your sinful nature, for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ and he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of charges against us and took it away by nailing it to a cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Speaker 1:So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths, for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come, and Christ himself is that reality. Don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels saying that they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body, for he holds the whole body, together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. You have died with Christ and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world, so why do you keep on following the rules of the world such as don't handle, don't taste, don't touch? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial and severe bodily discipline, but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires.
Speaker 1:Psalm 78, verses 1 through 31. O my people, listen to my instructions, open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past, stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children. We will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his mighty power and his mighty wonders, for he issued his laws to Jacob, he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children so the next generation might know them, even the children not yet born, and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their ancestors, stubborn, rebellious and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.
Speaker 1:The warriors of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle. Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle. They did not keep God's covenant. They refused to live by his instructions. They forgot what he had done, the great wonders he had shown them, the miracles he did for their ancestors on the plains of Zion, in the land of Egypt, for he divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls. In the daytime he led them by a, and all night by a pillar of fire. He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water as from a gushing spring. He made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river.
Speaker 1:Yet they kept on sinning against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They stubbornly tested God in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved. They even spoke against God himself, saying God can't give us food in the wilderness. Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat. When the Lord heard them, he was curious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel, for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them. But he commanded the skies to open. He opened the doors of heaven. He rained down manna for them to eat. He gave them bread from heaven. They ate the food of angels. He gave them bread from heaven. They ate the food of angels. God gave them all they could hold. He released the east wind in the heavens and guided the south wind by his mighty power. He rained down meat as thick as dust birds, as plentiful as the sand on the seashore. He caused the birds to fall. Within their camp and all around their tents, the people ate their fill. He gave them what they craved. But before they satisfied their craving, while the meat was yet in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them and he killed their strongest men. He struck down the finest of Israel's young men.
Speaker 1:An honest answer is like a kiss of friendship. You need those kind of friends, don't you that tell you the truth, even when we don't want to hear it right. And then in Psalms, do we set our hope on God or do we not trust God, like verse 22 in Psalm 78, for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them? How many of us folks I have done this at times in my life we trust God on X, y and Z or whatever, but not A over here. We're going to keep a hold of that. We don't really trust him that much. We don't want to let go of this. We're going to let go of everything else and trust you on everything else, god, but not this over here. This is too. I just. I don't think you can handle this. Pretty, pretty, pretty weak faith folks and I've been guilty of it far more often than I even want to admit or think about and then go back to colossians this is great folks when I think definitely this falls under the category of people telling you you've got to belong to their particular denomination and they're you've got to do this, that and the other, that Christ isn't enough. You know and you see here in Colossians God telling us look, the important thing is to cling to Christ, to follow Christ. We're not going to get into heaven by doing this, that or the other. We're going to get into heaven because Jesus Christ paid for our sins and and. But the kicker right is, if we really love God, then we strive to follow his commands. And what are his two greatest commands? To love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Speaker 1:Medal of Honor for today is John F Benjamin, john Francis Benjamin, corporal. Us Civil War Mike Company, 2nd New York Cavalry, us Army. April 6, 1865, deatonsville, sailors Creek, virginia. Capture of the battle flag of 9th Virginia Infantry CSA. Accredited to Newborough, orange County, new York. Not awarded. Posthumously Presented May 3, 1865. Born, orange County, new York. And that's all we got. John Francis Benjamin. One more name, folks. One more name to add to the list, all folks today. One is from Justice, john McLean.
Speaker 1:For many years, my hope for the perpetuity of our institutions has rested upon Bible morality and the general dissemination of Christian principles. Our mission of freedom is not carried out by brute force, by canon law or any other law except the moral law and those Christian principles which are found in the scriptures. It's on the court from 1830 to 1861. And one more, justice, david Brewer. Christianity came to this country with the first colonists, has been powerfully identified with its rapid development, colonial and national, and today exists as a mighty factor in the life of the republic. This is a Christian nation. This is a mighty factor in the life of the republic. This is a Christian nation. The calling of this republic a Christian nation is not a mere pretense but a recognition of a historical, legal and social truth. Again, justice David Brewer, he's on the court from 1890 until 1910. Folks, we are a Christian nation.
Speaker 1:If you want to make America great again, there's nothing better that you can do than to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. You want to be an influencer on social media TikTok, youtube X, facebook, instagram, wherever it is that you want to be. If you want to really influence America in a positive way, there's nothing that you can do better than to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in whatever form you can Conversation, handing out Bibles, your posts online, talking to people that you meet in the grocery store. You know, as Patrick Henry said, we all have a sphere of influence and we need to practice virtue in that sphere and encourage it in others. If you get a chance and you're looking for a good kind of family, wholesome, clean, middle grade fantasy for kids, grandkids, or, if you like that as an adult, I would humbly recommend Countryside.
Speaker 1:I've written two books in the series so far. Working on the third one. If you get a chance, you can check it out. Amazon, barnes, noble pretty much any bookstore ought to be able to order it. I think maybe it was 99 cents on Amazon Kindle, but I think maybe that has just ended, so maybe it'll go back down at some point, but it's still like $3.99 for the Kindle version and there's paperback and hardback. God bless y'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 y. Wherever you are around the world listening, we'll talk to you all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.