When Ordinary Days End

Business as usual can be the most dangerous setting of all. We open with Jesus’ words from Luke 17, where normal life keeps rolling right up until the day everything changes, and the warning is blunt: don’t cling, don’t delay, don’t live like you have endless time. I read the passage aloud and sit with the hard question behind it, what does readiness look like when there are no flashing signs and the kingdom of God is already among us?

From there, we move into the story of the ten lepers and the one grateful man who comes back to thank Jesus, then into a practical challenge from Hebrews 13:4 about honoring marriage. I push past the obvious definition of cheating and ask what happens when we give our best attention to sports, screens, hobbies, or anything else and hand our spouse whatever scraps remain. If you want Christian marriage encouragement that deals with real habits and real priorities, this one goes straight to the nerve.

We also read Psalm 84 and Proverbs 13 to anchor the heart and the conscience, then spotlight courage through a Medal of Honor citation. Finally, I return to a prayer from June 1775 tied to the Second Continental Congress, breaking down its language about God’s providence, confession, fasting, and public prayer, and why that history matters in today’s argument over whether America’s foundation is Christian or secular. If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

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Transcript

Business As Usual Warning

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Yes, it will be business as usual right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a person out on the deck of the roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. Remember what happened to Lot's wife. If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let go of your life, you will save it. That night two people will be asleep in one bed, one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill, one will be taken and the other left. Rachel Moran, Bel Air, Maryland, August 5th, 2023. 37-year-old mother of five was raped and murdered while jogging on the Ma and Pa Trail by Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Hey folks, this is Jesse Coke 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. 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. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, to share the podcast with others and tell others about it. Thank you very much. I'm very grateful for your prayers and for you sharing the podcast. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The kingdom come, thou 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. 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. Father, please be with us. Be with those listening to the podcast. Be close to the brokenhearted. Bring us home safe to you. Be with those who are injured, sick, alone, abandoned, anxious, who have lost loved ones. Comfort them. Help them to feel your peace. Help us all to feel your peace, Father. Help us to trust you. To know that we can trust you. Give us assurance. Give us perseverance. Be with those who defend us. Protect us. Seek to save us. Military law enforcement, firefighters, EMS. Our pastors, our priests. Walk beside us, Father. Help us to draw near to you. Draw us close to you. And guide my words here, Father, please. Your Son's name we pray. Amen. Marriage verse for today, Hebrews 13.4. Marriage must be honored in every respect with no cheating on the relationship because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery. Always makes me think when we hear this verte voice and verse. I was just talking about this with a good friend of mine. Are we truly faithful? Even if we don't physically cheat, if we give our time and energy and efforts and affection to other things. If I am not physically cheating on my wife, but I sit and watch four hours of sports and then I tell her that I don't have time for her, am I really being faithful? Am I really being loyal? And you can implement whatever social media, just TV of any kind, screens of any kind, hobbies, workouts, whatever it is, reading for fun. When we give hours of our energy and attention and time each day to something else, and then we tell our spouse we have nothing left, are we really being faithful? Are we really honoring in every respect and not cheating on the relationship in any respect? Luke 17, 11 through 37. As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered the village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, crying out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. He looked at them and said, Go show yourselves to the priests. And they went. And they were cleansed of their leprosy. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, Praise God! He fell to the ground at Jesus' feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, Didn't I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And Jesus said to the man, Stand up and go, your faith has healed you. One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come? Jesus replied, The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs. You won't be able to say, Here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you. Then he said to his disciples, The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won't see it. People will tell you, Look, there's the Son of Man, or here he is, but don't go out and follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes. But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation. When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah's day. In those days the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat, and the flood came and destroyed them all. And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business, eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building, until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be business as usual right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day a person out on the deck of the roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. Remember what happened to Lot's wife. If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. That night two people will be asleep in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill. One will be taken, the other left. When will this happen, Lord? The disciples asked. Jesus replied, Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near. Psalm eighty-four, one through twelve. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of heaven's armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body, and soul I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your wall your altar, O Lord of heaven's armies, my King and my God. What joy for those who can live in your house always singing your praises. What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the valley of weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem. O Lord God of heaven's armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield. Show favor to the one you have anointed. A single day in your corpse is better than a thousand anywhere else. I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our Son and our shield, he gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of heaven's armies, what joy for those who trust in you. Proverbs thirteen, five through six. The godly hate lies, the wicked cause shame and disgrace. Godliness guards the path of the blameless, but the evil are misled by sin. Countryside. If you are looking for middle grade fantasy, kind of like an army, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, if you check out the Countryside series. This is the first book in the series. You can check it out. And there's two books in the series right now. If you enjoyed, if you would leave a review somewhere online, I would appreciate that a great deal. I'll read a little bit of one review. This is from Daryl P. It's a five-star review on Amazon. I highly recommend this fantasy novel to all ages: middle grade, teen, adult, even recycled teens such as myself. I definitely plan on reading the rest of the series. You should too. Very kind review by Daryl. And the podcast, if you feel like you're getting something out of it, if you would leave a review somewhere for the podcast online, I would appreciate that. And if you have five or ten dollars a month you can donate to support the podcast, keep it going. I would be very grateful for that as well. There's a link in the show notes where you can do that. Fatima Ali, October 18th, 2024, Lacey, Washington, United States. A 17-year-old high school girl was attacked and nearly strangled outside Timberline High School by her father, Ashan Ali, an Iraqi Muslim immigrant, and mother, Sara Ali, in an attempted honor killing after she refused an arranged marriage to an older man in Iraq. Bystanders and school staff intervened to save her. Medal of Honor for today. Henry G. Berman, ranked private, U.S. Civil War, Hotel Company, 54th Ohio Infantry, U.S. Army, May 22nd, 1863, Vicksburg, Mississippi. Gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party. We've read a group of those over the last few months. Accredited to Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, not awarded posthumously, presented July 12, 1894. Born 1844, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, died June 1st, 1906, Johnson City, Mountain Home National Soldiers Home, Tennessee. Buried Mountain Home National Cemetery, MHC Tac 2, Tech 12, Johnson City, Tennessee. Henry G. Berman. Wanted to go back, we read this recently, but I wanted to go back to it to kind of break it down a little bit. The prayer from June of 1775 from the Second Continental Congress. When you hear people talk about America being a secular nation, look back at some of these examples and realize that our founders, pretty much consistently, but certainly in their times of major duress, turn to God and Jesus Christ. As the great governor of the world whose supreme providence conducts the course of nature and influences the minds of men, it is our indispensable duty to acknowledge his superintendent care, especially in times of danger and calamity. Let us, therefore, with united hearts, confess our sins, implore his merciful interposition, and humbly beseech him to forgive our iniquities and remove our present calamities. Humility, indispensable duty, ask for forgiveness, confess our sins. Those are not the comments, folks, of people who did not want God and Jesus Christ involved in the political life, the public life of our nation. They're turning as a political body, as a Congress, to God and Jesus Christ because they said it's their duty to acknowledge his care. It's especially in times of danger and calamity, which we certainly face those today in America. And with united hearts as a whole, right? People talk so much today about we need to have a unified America. We're so politically divided, but why are we politically divided? What's at the base of it? What's at the foundation? We need to ask those questions. The difference is those people that acknowledge America as a Christian nation with a Christian foundation and those who don't. That's the divide in America today at the base, and it's irreconcilable, folks. You can't have those two sides coexist peacefully. This Congress earnestly recommends a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may offer up our joint supplications to the all-wise, omnipotent, and merciful disposer of all events. May he inspire our civil rulers and representatives with wisdom to discern and pursue wise measures, preserve the Union, and secure the just rights and privileges of the colonies under the care of a kind providence. They're talking about the civil rulers and representatives here, not in your private life, but in your public capacity. And if somebody says that it was deis, just go look at the breakdown of delegates to the Continental Congress and the fact that over 90% of them were openly avowed Christians. They were talking to God the Father of Jesus Christ, not Allah, not anybody else, not any other false God, just the one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Father who art in heaven, humbled 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages, if you're married, your nation, wherever you are around the world, listen. God bless America. We'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.