Put Down the Phone, Pick Up Your Spouse

We pray through Scripture, confront the weight of folly, and argue that marriage should look unmistakably faithful—so faithful it seems “too clingy” to a watching world. From Song of Solomon and Melchizedek to boredom’s hidden gift and early American sources, we tie devotion to daily habits that renew homes and civic life.

• cleaving in marriage as a living witness of Christ and the Church
• practical calls to pray, read Scripture, and be still
• Song of Solomon’s pursuit and protection of love
• Melchizedek and Christ’s enduring priesthood
• Psalm 105 on provision leading to obedience
• Proverbs on the heavy cost of foolishness
• boredom as a path to reflection and renewal
• Churchill’s daily quiet as an example of mental rest
• Medal of Honor courage as a model of faithfulness
• founding-era texts tying faith to public virtue
• closing prayer and blessings for families and nations

If you are looking for a family-friendly, middle grade fantasy read, kind of along the lines of Narnia or The Hobbit, if you would check out Countryside, I would be grateful
And if you enjoyed, if you'd leave a review, I would be very grateful
And if you are getting something out of the podcast, uh, if you'd share it with other people, y'all help it to spread
And B, there's a donation page on the Buzz Sprout website associated with the podcast
If you can donate three bucks a month, five bucks a month, that would be wonderful

Chapters

• 0:00 Prayer and Opening Blessing
• 2:45 Marriage As Covenant and Witness
• 4:05 Song of Solomon and Devotion
• 6:12 Melchizedek and Christ’s Priesthood
• 9:10 Psalm 105: Provision and Obedience
• 11:20 Proverbs on Folly’s Heavy Weight
• 13:00 The Hidden Gift of Boredom
• 17:00 Churchill’s Quiet Routine
• 19:15 Medal of Honor: Matthew Bickford
• 20:45 Founding Sources and Faith in Public Life

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

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 menu you're in. Sure to appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time. Hopefully, y'all get to listen to it with somebody else. Hopefully, it gives us some extra tools for our toolbox. And for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, and those who continue to pray for me on the podcast, thank you very much. Very, very grateful for your prayers. 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. Guide our steps. Father, guide us in all that we do. Guide our thoughts. Guide our words, guide our actions. Help us to guard our heart, to know that everything we do springs from it. Help us to trust you, to lean on you and not on our own understanding. Forgive us when we fail, Father. Help us to accept that forgiveness because of your Son Jesus Christ, to know that that's not a burden that we have to carry, but to also strive to do your will in all things, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with those around the world who are hurting, who are being persecuted because they follow. The name of your son Jesus Christ, help us to boldly share the gospel in any way that we can in our sphere of influence. Be with our leaders, both in the pulpit and in the state, our pastors and priests, our governors, president, vice president, senators, representatives, mayors, admirals, generals, judges. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you, Father. And guide my words here, please. And watch over those who are listening, Father, wherever they are, around the world, here in America, be with them, be with their families. Guide, I'm gonna bless them. 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 pray, to talk to him, to listen to him? Have you made time to be still? And if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Are they getting the best of your effort? I I go over this the time and again because we obviously don't get this if you look at the state of our marriages today. Folks, but when we're talking about marriage, right, it's supposed to be glue, it's supposed to be cleaving to one another. It's supposed to, you ought to be too clingy, according to the world. The world ought to look at you and say, man, there's something wrong with them. They're too into each other. They pay too much attention to each other as husband and wife. And why as Christians? Because what's our marriage supposed to exemplify? It's supposed to illustrate to the rest of the world the relationship between Christ and the church. That is the deal. It's not a deal, it's the deal. If you're married. Married verse for today. A troubled knight the Shulamite bride. I think, yes, the Shum the Shulamite. By night on my bed I sought the one I love. I sought him, but I did not find him. I will rise now, I said, and go about the city. In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love. I sought him, but I did not find him. The watchman who go about the city found me. I said, Have you seen the one I love? Scarcely had I passed by them when I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go, until I had brought him to the house of my mother and into the chamber of her who conceived me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases. The coming of Solomon, the Shulamite Who is this coming out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense? With all the merchants' fragrant powders. Behold it is Solomon's couch, with sixty valiant men around it. Of the valiant of Israel, they all hold swords, being expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh because of fear in the night. Of the wood of Lebanon, Solomon the king, made himself a palaquin. He made its pillars of silver, its support of gold, its seed of purple, its interior paved with love. By the daughters of Jerusalem, go forth, O daughters of Zion, and seek King Solomon with the crown, with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day of the gladness of his heart. This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem, and also a priest of God most high. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means king of justice, and king of Salem means king of peace. There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors, no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God. Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. Now the law of Moses required that the priests who are descendants of Levi must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham. But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham, and Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God, and without question the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed. The priests who collect tithes are men who die. So Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. In addition, we might even say that these Levites, the ones who collect the tithe, paid a tithe to Melchizedek, when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. For although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him. So if the priesthood of Levi on which the law was based could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron? And if the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it. For the priest we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members have never served at the altar as priests. What I mean is our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe. This change has been made very clear since a different priest who is like Melchizedek has appeared. Jesus became a priest not by meeting the physical requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. And the psalmist pointed this out when he prophesied, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Psalm one hundred five verses thirty seven through forty five. The Lord brought his people out of Egypt loaded with silver and gold, and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled. Egypt was glad when they were gone, for they feared them greatly. The Lord spread a cloud above them as a covering, and gave them a great fire to light the darkness. They asked for meat, and he sent them quail. He satisfied their hunger with manna, bread from heaven. He split open a rock and water gushed out to form a river through the dry wasteland, for he remembered his sacred promise to his servant Abraham. So he brought his people out of Egypt with joy, his chosen ones with rejoicing. He gave his people the lands of pagan nations, and they harvested crops that others had planted. All this happened so that they would follow his decrees and obey his instructions. Praise the Lord. A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier. There's some different translations, obviously, of this verse in Proverbs, but I can't tell you how much you know there's certain verses that you just know are true, and it strengthened your faith. And there's a lot of those for me in Proverbs. I I've lived some of them. And one of them is the times in my life when I have been foolish. And then the consequence of whatever that foolishness was, man, it's heavy. It's a burden to bear, that foolishness. And it just has been every single time. And I can think of a couple just spectacular examples in my life where I have done something foolish, sinful, and the weight has been extremely heavy. And then verse 45 in Psalm 105, all this happens so they would follow his decrees and obey his instructions. I wonder how often we have things that happen in our life, and we're so upset by them. For whatever reason, we feel that it's unjust or it's just hard, right? And we miss the point of God drawing us to himself, putting us in a position where we'll follow him, obey him, which is always better for us in the end, right? Even when it doesn't feel like it. Um, right, like a loving parent disciplines their children. It just kind of struck me today when I was reading that. There's an article in the recent Epic Times I talk about often by Walker Larson, and it's called The Hidden Gift of Boredom. And the subtitle is Boredom is an Opportunity for Growth, Creativity, and Self-Discovery for those willing to embrace it. It's a pretty lengthy article in this newspaper. It's a full page, and there's some great quotes in it. But I think the parts that really struck me is him talking about how many of us, 71% of us check our phones within the first 10 minutes of our day, right? 74% of Americans feel uncomfortable leaving their cell phones at home. We have this constant in your face ability to look at screens, whether it's our computer, our TV, video games, phones. And it has taken away our ability to be bored, right? And there's another quote in here talking about the fact that if we're constantly going, and I can't find it right now, but it's like a bow being pulled back under tension all the time. Eventually it loses that ability to be tight, right? Like a bow and arrow you're shooting. And our brain is kind of like that. If it's just constantly going, and the only break it ever gets is when we sleep, uh, we're we're degrading our abilities, actually. Anyway, if you get a chance, it's a great article talking about our need to reflect. And I think a lot of times we don't like to reflect because we don't like what we see in ourselves in those moments of boredom. So we try and fill all our time with distractions. The other comment, and then we'll move on, is it reminded me of in the Churchill biography that I talk to y'all about every once in a while. It talked about the fact that Churchill, once a day, when he was at home in the in the 30s leading up to the war, there was a part of each day where he would go and sit by this little pond and feed the fish. And that's all he would do. He would just sit there and take some cell bread and feed these fish and just sit there. Nobody would talk to him. He wasn't reading anything, he wasn't doing anything, he was just sitting there. And a lot of us, I think, would be really bored by that. But it let his mind, even the author, this biographer, it let his mind kind of rejuvenate. I think there's a lot there, folks. If you get a chance, great article by Walker Larson in the Epic Times. I would recommend checking it out. Medal of Honor for today is Matthew Bickford, Corporal, Civil War, Gulf Company, eighth Missouri Infantry, U.S. Army, may twenty second, eighteen sixty three, Vicksburg, Mississippi, gallantry in the charge of the Volunteer Storming Party. Accredited to Elmwood, Peora County, Illinois, not awarded posthumously, presented august thirty first, eighteen ninety four, born april tenth, eighteen thirty nine, Trivolia, Peora County, Illinois, died april eighteenth, nineteen eighteen, buried Bayview Cemetery, MH 14, 20 Tac one, Bellingham, Washington, Matthew Bickford. All right, historical quotes. Again, if you don't have a copy, I highly recommend America's Guided Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, Patriots Bible, edited by Dr. Richard Lee, and the founders Bible by the Wall Builder Association as at least a starting point reference books. Homeschool, just in general, they ought to be primary textbooks in every school across the nation. Charter of Privileges of Pennsylvania 1701 by William Penn Almighty God being the only Lord of conscience, and author as well as object of all divine knowledge, faith, and worship, who only doth enlighten the minds and persuade and convince the understandings of people. I do hereby grant and declare that no person or persons inhabiting in this province or territory, who shall confess and acknowledge our almighty God and creator, upholder and ruler of the world, and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under civil government, shall be in any case molested or prejudiced in his or her person or estate, and that all persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior of the world shall be capable to serve this government in any capacity, both legislatively or executively. That just so illustrates what we've forgotten today that our founders knew. You can't force people to faith, folks. They've got to have the ability to make their own decision. But if we don't have a people that follow the principles of Christ, we're going to lose our republic, right? Benjamin Rush, one of our three greatest founders, according to John Adams, I think, who was our second president, he noted that the teachings of teaching children the Bible, the principles of Christ, is the best way to perpetuate our free institutions, our Republican form of government, which produces liberty, right? Republican form of government produces liberty. That's the goal. In addition, in a Christian nation, if you're going to be a leader, you have to profess and believe in Jesus Christ. And we talk about that in these original state constitutions, so many of them, right? The requirement for faith in Christ and the commentary of so many of our leaders. You shouldn't have a Muslim running for office in New York or Minnesota or anywhere else, because it it shouldn't be a possibility for a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Jew or an atheist. You can be what you want in your own home, but if you want to be in the Senate or the House, or President or Vice President, or a judge, or a governor, or a mayor, or a city council member, or any office or place of trust, you're gonna have to profess Jesus Christ. William Penn again, no people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of their religious profession and worship. You've got to have that ability. One more for today, Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. We the people of Pennsylvania, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of civil and religious liberty and humbly invoking his guidance, do ordain and establish this Constitution. Frame of Government, Section ten, and each member of the legislature, before he takes his seat, shall make and subscribe the following declaration. I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked, and I do acknowledge the scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration. When somebody tells you that we didn't have a requirement, or we can't have a requirement in the United States, in order to serve in a public office or place of trust, you know they don't know history or they know it and they're choosing to ignore it. If you want to serve again, say it just one more time for the people in the back to make sure we're all on the same page. In America, if you want to serve as president, vice president, senator, representative, admiral, general, governor, mayor, council member, judge, you need to be a Christian man. If you are looking for a family-friendly, middle grade fantasy read, kind of along the lines of Narnia or The Hobbit, if you would check out Countryside, I would be grateful. And if you enjoyed, if you'd leave a review, I would be very grateful. And if you are getting something out of the podcast, uh, if you'd share it with other people, y'all help it to spread. And B, there's a donation page on the Buzz Sprout website associated with the podcast. If you can donate three bucks a month, five bucks a month, that would be wonderful. Father, thank you for today. 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 to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, God bless your marriages if you're married, God bless America, God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.