The American Soul
The American Soul
The Hope That Sustains Us: From Daily Struggles to Eternal Rest
Jesse Cope explores what it means to prioritize our relationship with God and our spouses through our daily actions and time investments. The episode challenges listeners to examine whether their professed values align with how they actually spend their time, while offering encouragement that though none of us is perfect, we should continually strive toward Christ-like character.
• Comparing our spiritual growth only to our past selves rather than to others
• The persecution of Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and what we take for granted
• Biblical teaching on marriage and mutual responsibilities in physical intimacy from 1 Corinthians 7
• Reflections on 2 Thessalonians and the hope of eternal rest that awaits believers
• The importance of clergy addressing contemporary issues from a biblical perspective
• Historical wisdom from John Adams on the role of pastors in speaking to cultural challenges
If you're looking for clean, wholesome, family-friendly fantasy, check out my book series "Countryside" - two books available now with a third one in the works. Please leave a review if you enjoy them!
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. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. I will try and use it wisely For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it. Thank you for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you very much, very, very grateful for those prayers, need them and want them.
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, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast and share it. Please be with them, be with their families, bless them, guide them, surround them with your angels. Help us to do your will, father. Help us to love your Son Jesus Christ and to follow his commands truly, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Give us the perseverance and wisdom and courage to run the race all the way to the end, to fulfill our roles and responsibilities, regardless of our feelings, father, whether we feel like doing it or not, and fill us with your peace and your joy and your comfort. Help us to cling to that hope that we have in Jesus Christ, that one day we're going to get to spend all of eternity with you, father, and your Son, and there will be no more sorrow or suffering or hurting, heartache, injury, illness, and what a great hope, father. Thank you so much for that. Help us to encourage others with that hope as well. Be with those around the world, father, who are hurting, who are hurting, who are alone, who are isolated, especially those who are being persecuted because they follow your Son, jesus Christ. Help us to help them as much as we can. Help us to provide whatever comfort and relief we're able to. And God, my words here Father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: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, have you made time for your spouse? Folks, we can say we care about God and our spouse, all we want. But if we're not, if our time, if our actions, our energy, our efforts, if they don't line up with that, then we don't. That's the simple truth. We don't really care about God, we don't really care about our spouse, and we can fail, we're going to fail. None of us is perfect. The only perfect human being, right?
Speaker 1:You've been listening to this podcast for a while. I used to say this more often than I do. I probably ought to say it more often still. I am not even remotely perfect. I have done things in my life that make me want to curl up in a ball under the sheets and never get out of bed, folks. So if you're listening and you're looking for perfection, I'm not going to give it to you, but I can point you to the one single man, human being, in all of history that can, and that's Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:That being said, there's two sides of the same coin, folks. We need to be grateful for all the blessings that we have, and that includes the grace and mercy of God through his son, jesus Christ, god through his son, jesus Christ, but we cannot use that as an excuse to sit back and rest on our laurels and be like, oh, I'm just an imperfect person and that's just the way I am. You know, that's the way God made me. No, we have a responsibility to strive toward Christ every day, and the older we get theoretically, the more mature we get, the better we ought to do at following his example, not compared to other people. Folks, I'm not saying don't compare yourself to other people, compared to ourselves, right? That's one of the things. I got two little stories here and then we'll move on.
Speaker 1:One of the things one of the instructors I've had over the last few years talked about with martial arts and just in the gym in general right, you can't go to the gym, whether you're just talking about lifting weights and working out, trying to stay healthier, whether you're talking about a specific skill set, right, and compare yourself to other people. You have to compare yourself to who you were yesterday, last week, last month, last year, five years ago, ten years ago. That's who you're competing with and you're constantly striving toward Christ, toward perfection. Don't ever strive toward somebody else because they're not perfect and so you're going to be striving for a lower standard. Always strive toward Christ, strive toward perfection, but only compare yourself. When you're looking, just you look at the improvements that you've made in yourself. Otherwise you get overwhelmed, you get depressed, you want to throw in the towel, you want to quit. Right, and that ought to be the same that we do for our faith, our relationship with God and Jesus Christ. That ought to be the same that we do with our marriage, right?
Speaker 1:The other little story and this is a I don't know, it's not a little story and it's sad this is from the organization Voice of the Martyrs We've talked about a couple of times on here. It's out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, right, and there was an Islamic group called the Allied Democratic Forces, I believe, that attacked a group of Christians on Sunday, july 27th, so a little over a month ago, and it occurred at night during a prayer meeting, and they killed 40 of them. And I read this story and there were two thoughts that popped in my head immediately. How much in America do we take for granted the ability to read our Bible each day in our house without fear of persecution by either the state or the church? Right, because people used to get tortured and imprisoned and murdered by the church in Europe for reading the Bible and two, you know, go back to one for a second, like how much do we appreciate that? And what are we really willing to sacrifice? Are we willing to sacrifice friends today, family, jobs, to promote the gospel? Because this is a pretty good example here, these people willing to go to church knowing that they might not go home? What are we willing to do? Am I willing just to simply be looked at strangely by people because I try and follow God and I promote scripture? I mean, I ought to at least be willing to do that, shouldn't I? And then the second thing here is again, folks, if you think, peaceful coexistence with people who follow Islam or leftism or communism or socialism, it's possible. It's not. The only time that adherents to those evil ideologies want to talk about peace and tolerance is when they're in a position of weakness, and until they can get in a position of power. And as soon as they get in a position of power, they're no longer interested in talking about peace or tolerance. You need to understand that. History, experience shows that time and time and time again.
Speaker 1:So the marriage verse today is 1 Corinthians 7, verses 2 through 6. But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise the wife also to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband also does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement, for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But I say this by way of concession, not of command. I always throw verse 6 in there because it's kind of like the story of the woman caught in adultery. In the very last verse there, jesus says you know, go and sin no more. And we like to throw that one out. And a lot of people like to use verse 6 to say oh well, god didn't really mean that, we're not supposed to deny ourselves, deny our spouses, sex. But when you go back and look, especially at some of the older commentaries that aren't corrupted by modern leftist, feminist ideology, you see what he was really saying is he's saying look, I'm not even telling you you have to abstain during periods of prayer and fasting, just that you can. If you both agree to, you can still pray and fast and not abstain, right? And that's the way that a lot of the commentaries handle that. So I always kind of throw that in there.
Speaker 1:Bible verses for today. Kind of throw that in there. Bible verses for today 2 Thessalonians 1 1-12. This letter is from Paul, silas and Timothy.
Speaker 1:We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Dear brothers and sisters, we can't help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God's other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering, and God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his kingdom, for which you are suffering. In his justice, he will pay back those who persecute you, and God will provide rest for you, who are being persecuted, and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven, and also for us. When the Lord Jesus appears from heaven, he will come with his mighty angels in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the good news of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. When he comes on that day, he will receive glory from his holy people, praise from all who believe, and this includes you, for you believed what we told you about him, so we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live. Psalm 83, verses 1 through 18.
Speaker 1:O God, do not be silent, do not be deaf, do not be quiet, o God, don't you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don't you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes against your people. They conspire against your precious ones. Some they say let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence.
Speaker 1:Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you, these Edomites and Ishmaelites, moabites and Hagarites, jebelites, temanites, amalekites and people from Philistia and Tyre. Assyria has joined them too and is allied with the descendants of Lot. Do to them as you did to the Midianites, and as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River. They were destroyed at Endor and their decaying corpses fertilized the soil. Let their mighty nobles die as Orb and Zeb did. Let all their princes die like Zeba and Zalmonah.
Speaker 1:For they said, let us seize for our own use these pasture lands of God. O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind, as a fire burns a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze. Face them with your fierce storm. Terrify them with your tempest, utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, o Lord. Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace. Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, that you alone are the Most High, high, supreme over all the earth. Proverbs 25, verses 11 through 14. Timely advice is lovely like golden apples in a silver basket. The one who listens to valid criticism is like a gold earring or other gold jewelry. Trustworthy messengers refresh like snow in summer. They revive the spirit of their employer. A person who promises a gift but doesn't give it is like clouds and wind that bring no rain.
Speaker 1:You go back to 2 Thessalonians a few things here this persecution to show his justice, to make you worthy of his kingdom. I think, for me at least. Often, folks, I forget that this suffering has a purpose and that you know. You see, in verse 7, god will provide rest for you who are being persecuted, and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. There is going to come a day, because of Jesus Christ, that we're going to be at rest forever, folks. Peace and joy and happiness and love. There's going to be no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more tears, no more brokenness, injury, illness, and that's a great hope to cling to. And then this just kind of caught me.
Speaker 1:I had a conversation with an extremely close friend of mine recently, talking about hell and whether it was real or not, or et cetera. This verse nine they will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. Whatever it is at the end, folks, for those who don't believe in Jesus Christ, I don't want any part of it. Whether it's a physical location or not, I don't want anything to do with it. It's not going to be good, and that's the bottom line. And then, lord, what a prayer here. So we keep praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Lord, please give us that, because of your grace, Father and your son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Medal of Honor for today. Orson W Bennett. First Lieutenant High Strength Major US Civil War Alpha Company, 102nd US Colored Infantry, us Army. November 30, 1864, honey Hill, south Carolina, usa, after several unsuccessful efforts to recover three pieces of abandoned artillery successful efforts to recover three pieces of abandoned artillery this officer gallantly led a small force fully 100 yards in advance of the Union lines and brought in the guns preventing their capture. Accredited to Dubuque County, iowa, not awarded, posthumously presented March 9, 1887. Born November 17, 1841, union City, branch County, michigan. Died January 8, 1904. Buried at Westminster Cemetery. Lands down TAC 94, tac 1, bala, pennsylvania. Orson W Bennett Another name to add to the list folks History reading from today, 1774, john Adams in Novanglis.
Speaker 1:A History of the Dispute with America from Its Origin in 1754 to the Present Time. And he's talking about the clergy and their responsibility to speak out about public events. It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue? If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them? So their nature ends, limitations and restrictions, how much soever it may move the gall of Massachusetts. Huge point, folks, huge point.
Speaker 1:And there's two things today. One again is this you know we need our pulpit talking about the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects. We need to talk about that today, just like our founders did going into the Revolutionary War, and we need our pastors talking about that. You know we go back to that sermon by Jonathan Mayhew every so often on the podcast. Do we have a responsibility for unlimited submission to authority, no matter what they do? We need to talk about that inside the church.
Speaker 1:Another area that is desperately, and has been for decades, needed to be talked about is feminism. Today that's a huge issue across the nation, inside the church and outside Our pastors need to be talking about that. We need biblical, godly leadership from Scripture on those issues, and it doesn't matter whether that offends people or not, and one of the reasons the Bible doesn't change folks. That's why we need Scripture. And so this idea, for example, that you see, oh well, it changes with the times, right, it's like the Constitution being a living, breathing, evolving document, like somehow it suddenly means something today that it didn't mean, however, long ago. Suddenly, in the context of society today, the roles and responsibilities that God laid out for men and women aren't the same anymore because we've evolved? No, anymore. Because we've evolved no, that's not true at all. And so, again, this idea that John Adams was talking about here, that you need the clergy talking about these important issues that are going on in the public today, and we desperately need that. We need that great awakening that was John Adams. Again, a History of the Dispute with America from its Origin in 1754 to the Present Time.
Speaker 1:If you're looking for a clean, wholesome, family-friendly, middle-grade fantasy, I would humbly recommend Countryside, two books in the series so far, working on a third one. If you get a chance, check it out and if you like it if you would leave a review somewhere. I would greatly appreciate that as well. 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. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.