What Happens When A Nation Forgets God

Fear has a way of shrinking your world down to one dark room, so we start where Scripture starts: “Have mercy on me, O God.” Psalm 57 becomes a map for the moment when you need protection, patience, and a place to breathe while the danger passes. We pray for our listeners, our families, our marriages, and for the strength to trust God in both the good days and the crushing ones. 

From there we get practical about relationships, reading Genesis 2:24–25 and reminding ourselves that marriage advice has to come from God first. Then we step into Luke 1 and sit with Mary’s honest question and her steady surrender. Her words challenge us: how often are we truly willing to do whatever God places in front of us, even when it disrupts our plans and raises our fears? 

We also connect biblical wisdom to public life, reading Proverbs 11 on words that tear a community apart, reflecting on stories that highlight violence and vulnerability, and remembering sacrifice through a Medal of Honor account. To close, we read Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” and wrestle with what vigilance, courage, and moral clarity demand in a tense cultural moment. If you’re looking for a Christian podcast that blends Bible reading, prayer, marriage encouragement, and faith-and-freedom reflection, this one is for you. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part of the readings hit you hardest today?

#PatrickHenry 

#DailyScripture 

#TrueIslam 

Transcript

Psalm 57 As A Refuge

Tragedy And A Life Lost

Welcome And Gratitude To Listeners

Opening Prayer For Strength

Marriage Grounded In Genesis

Mary’s Yes In Luke 1

A Personal Check On Obedience

David’s Cave Prayer Revisited

Proverbs On Words And Cities

Book Recommendation And Support Request

A Crime Case From The UK

Medal Of Honor And Immigration Contrast

Patrick Henry And The Cost Of Liberty

The Lord’s Prayer And Closing Hope

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Psalm fifty seven verse one through three. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy. I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God most high, to God who will fulfill his promise for me. He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. Marcella Simone Franco, March thirty first, twenty twenty five, Carol Stream, Illinois. Thirty-three-year-old mother of two was stabbed multiple times and murdered in her home by Baltazar Perez Estrada, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had entered the U.S. illegally just two weeks prior. 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. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others 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 grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for this day that you have made. Help us to rejoice and be glad in it. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast. Please be with them, be with their families, bless their marriages, guide those who have children in raising them to know you. Protect us from evil, Father. Help us to trust you in the good times and the bad. When things seem to be going really well, when there's heartache, it just seems to be crushing, Father. Be with those who are sick, injured, ill, those who have lost loved ones, parents, children, siblings, friends. Help us to focus on eternity with you and to know that we are just passing through here, Father, that we're just visitors, that this pain and heartache is just temporary. And that one day, because of your son Jesus Christ and your gracious gift to us, that we will spend all of eternity with you and your son and those we love. Where there will be no more tears or sorrow or sadness, but happiness and joy and love and peace and safety. Be with our military and our law enforcement, firefighters, our EMS, Father Please. Be with our farmers and our ranchers, our foresters, our fishers, those who raise our food, who harvest lumber and mine, drill for the resources that you have blessed us with. Be with them, guide them, draw them close to you. And guide my words here, Father, please. In your son's name we pray. Amen. Marriage verse for today. Always like this one. I like a lot of them, but uh Genesis 2, 24, 25. This is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife and they become one flesh. The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they weren't embarrassed. Folks, just again and again, make sure you're getting your marriage advice from God. You can get it from other people, but just make sure it's in line with God and not the world. Right? There's nobody else, for example, not a single other person in your entire life, not kids, not parents, not best friends that you're going to cleave to and become one flesh with. That you should be able to be naked around and not embarrassed. Where are we going? I don't even know. Luke 1, 26 through 56. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. Don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will never end. Mary asked the angel, But how can this happen? I am a virgin. The angel replied, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age. People used to say that she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month, for the word of God will never fail. Mary responded, I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true. And then the angel left her. How often are we willing to do whatever God has for us to do? Hmm. How often am I? A few days later, Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zachariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You were blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. Mary responded, Oh, how my soul praises the Lord, how my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one is holy, and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things. He has scattered the proud and haughty ones, he has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant Israel, and remembered to be merciful, for he made this promise to our ancestors to Abraham and his children forever. Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. Psalm 57, verses 1 through 11. This is a time regarding the time when David fled from Saul into a cave. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy. I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God most high, to God who will fulfill his promise for me. He will send help from heaven to rescue me. Disgracing those who hound me, my God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey, whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens, may your glory shine over all the earth. My enemies have set a trap for me, I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it. My heart is confident in you, O God, my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises. Wake up, my heart, wake up, O Lear and Harp. I will wake the dawn with my song, I will thank you, Lord, among all the people, I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth. Proverbs eleven nine through eleven. With their words the godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous. The whole city celebrates when the godly succeed. They shout for joy when the wicked die. Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart. Oh the proverb, the whole city celebrates when the godly succeed, they shout for joy when the wicked die. Doesn't that hit home these days in America? Countryside, if you are looking for a family-friendly little grade lead, this is actually the second book in the series. There's some reviews on the back. If you want to pause it and check them out, this is the first book in the series. If you get a chance, check it out and you enjoy it. If you would leave a review somewhere online, that helps quite a bit. And if you um can do the same for the podcast, and if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast, if you have five or ten dollars a month you can donate, uh that helps us keep going. So very grateful for either or all of those. Four teenage girls, Bristol grooming gang victims. This is Bristol, UK, 2010 to 2013. Uh four girls aged 13 to 16 were groomed, plied with alcohol and drugs, repeatedly raped and prostituted by a gang of 13 men, all Muslims from Somalia. Hmm. Isn't that interesting? Somalia Muslims. The men were convicted in 2014 of offenses, including rape, sexual activity with a child, facilitating child prostitution, etc. Islam. Every day, folks. This we have a new one. We've been doing this for these little segments, I don't even know, for a month now, I think. And it's a new one every day. Medal of Honor winner. John Brown, also known as Thomas Hayes. That's different, isn't it? Rank Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Civil War, USS Brooklyn, U.S. Navy, August 5th, 1864. Mobile Bay, Alabama. On board the USS Brooklyn during action against rebel forts and gunboats and with the Ram Tennessee in Mobile Bay, 5 August, 1864. Despite severe damage to his ship and the loss of several men on board as enemy fire raked her decks from stem to stern, Brown fought his gun with skill and courage throughout the furious battle, which resulted in the surrender of the prize rebel ram, Tennessee, and in the damaging and destruction of batteries at Fort Morgan. Accredited to New York, New York, not awarded posthumously, born 1826, Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, Scotland. Wow, sorry about that. Died November 1st, 1883, Sonoma, California. Compare this example of an immigrant from Scotland with the illegal and Muslim immigrants that we read about every day on the podcast. We're going to read just the last paragraph and a half of Patrick Henry's Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech from March 23rd, 1775. So applicable today in America internally. But I just wanted to read the last little bit here. There's one other quote if we get a chance today, we'll read it from Patrick Henry if we don't. That's all right. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable and let it come, I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace. But there is no peace. The war is actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God, I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. Just those couple paragraphs, there's so much that applies, folks. There's no peace with followers of that umbrella, that bucket of leftism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism. It's nowhere in the 20th century are you going to find evidence of Marxism, Leninism, that whole group where you can peacefully coexist with them. And the same with Islam for even centuries longer. You cannot have leftism and Islam followers of that inside the United States and expect to maintain safety and security, peace, liberty. We have choices coming, minus a miracle by Almighty God, which would be awesome. And those choices are slavery and chains, like Patrick Henry talks about here, or a fight. And maybe freedom at the end of that. Maybe. For sure, chains and slavery the other way, though. For sure. 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 the stay, 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. A good reminder, folks, to trust God. We can't get out of this mess unless we trust God. And it may be too late anyway, but if it is, either way, He's going to guide us. He's the only hope that we have. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages if you're married. God bless your nation around the world, wherever you are. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.