Praise God Even When The News Is Dark

Gratitude is easy when life is calm. It gets harder when the news is ugly, people are hurting, and it feels like the world is coming apart. We start with Psalm 100, a psalm of thanksgiving that doesn’t ask for a polite smile. It commands a response: shout, worship, sing, acknowledge, and enter God’s presence with thanks because His love and faithfulness endure. Then we ask the uncomfortable question that follows from real worship: do we repent and do we praise, or do we drift into silence and excuses?

From there we get personal and practical. We pray for listeners who feel anxious, depressed, alone, or brokenhearted, and we pray for leaders in the pulpit and in government to rule with wisdom and fear of God. We also pull a clear marriage lesson from Song of Solomon: you don’t “belong” to your phone, your entertainment, or your social circle the way you belong to your spouse. That covenant mindset cuts through modern marriage pressure and calls us back to loyalty, affection, and priority.

The centerpiece is Luke 24 and the Road to Emmaus, where grief and confusion meet a risen Jesus who walks alongside His followers before they recognize Him. We trace how Jesus opens the Scriptures, confronts doubt, and even eats broiled fish as a grounded, physical witness to the resurrection. Along the way, we touch on cultural warning signs like attacks on churches, honor courage through a Medal of Honor story, and revisit Thomas Jefferson’s own words about God’s providence and guidance.

If you want a Christian podcast episode that ties Scripture, repentance, gratitude, marriage, leadership, and cultural reality into one thread, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadiness, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Psalm one hundred is a psalm of thanksgiving. Starting with verse one shout with joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness, come before him, singing with God.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Acknowledge that the Lord is God.

Welcome And Opening Prayer

SPEAKER_02 0:25

2025, Essex, UK. 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by Hadouche Kabatu, an Ethiopian national who had arrived in the UK on a small boat just days earlier. There's gonna be a huge price to pay, folks, for those of us who have turned a blind eye or encouraged or supported any of this in form or fashion. We're not being kind or caring. Especially in the widow and the orphan, poor and the needy, women and children. 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 your attention. For those of y'all who continue, especially to share the podcast and pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you very, very much. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Thank you for those people who have gone before us. Wonderful example of following you and your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for those who have risked so much to spread the gospel of your son to preserve liberty, freedom. Help us not to do any less, Father. Help us to do your will above all else.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Be with those listening to the podcast, wherever they are around the world, comfort them. Be with those who are anxious, who are concerned, who are depressed, who are alone, brokenhearted.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Comfort them. Heal their hearts, draw them close to you.

Marriage Means Belonging To Your Spouse

SPEAKER_02 3:00

And be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. From the president, vice president on down, senators, representatives, generals, admirals, judges, governors, mayors. Give them wisdom. Help them to rule in fear of you, Father. And guide my words here. In your Son's name we pray. Amen. Marriage verse for today Song of Solomon, Song of Psalms. I belong to my lover, and my lover belongs to me, the one grazing among the loves. You're not just friends when you get married, folks. You can be friends with anybody. Your lovers, that's an important part of this person. The other thing is important. You don't belong to your parents, you don't belong to your children, you don't belong to your ride or die bestie, you don't belong to your phone, you don't belong to TV shows, sports.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

The only relationship where you see that you belong to here in this life is your spouse.

Repentance And Praise As A Habit

Book Recommendation And Listener Support

SPEAKER_02 4:35

As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. I'm reckoning. He asked intently as you walk along. They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, Cleopus, Cleopus, replied, You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there in the last few days. What things, Jesus? They said, He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death. This all happened three days ago. Then some women from our group of his followers were tomb that came back with an amazing report. Some of our men ran out to sea, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said. Then Jesus said to them, You foolish people, you find it so hard to believe that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before his glory. Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the things. By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, stay the night with us, since it is getting late. So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it, and he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were opened. And he disappeared. Said to each other, Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the law? And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, who said, The Lord has really risen. He appeared to Peter. And how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. And just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. Peace be with you, he said. Why are you frightened? he asked. Why are my hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands, look at my feet. You can see that it's really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost. As you see, as he stands at his feet. Still the disbelief filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, broiled fish, and he ate it as they watched. Then he said, When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said, Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. To all the nations. You are witnesses of all these things. And now the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised, but stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. And Jesus blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. So they worshiped him and they returned filled with great joy. And they spent all of their time in the temple praying. Do we repent? Do we praise God? I don't enough. No. Father, forgive us. When we don't praise you, when we don't repent, help us to do both. Your son's name we pray. Amen. Psalm 100 through five of Psalm. Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. His people, the sheep of the pasture. Enter his gates with thanks. Go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is his unfailing love continues forever. And his faithfulness continues to each generation. I love, I talk about this on the podcast often. Every year, November, December, one of my favorite times of year each year on the podcast. November. But really throughout the entire year, right? A psalm of Thanksgiving. Verse 14, 11, and 12. The house of the wicked will be destroyed. But it ends in death. Countryside, Book of the Wise. If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade series, kind of like Narnia the Hobbit, etc., with hopefully a decent bit of the principles of Jesus Christ thrown in there. If you would check out the countryside series, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoyed, if you'd leave a review. If I remember. Brilliantly magical. Harry Potter type fantasy. You'll really like this one too. If you get a chance, check the series out. I appreciate it. Also, podcast, if you feel like you're getting something out of it, if you would leave a review online for that. And if you have five or ten dollars, you can donate. There's a link in the bottom of the show notes where you can set up that monthly donation, and that helps agree. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Brittany Frank.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Notre Dame des Flots.

Medal Of Honor Courage In Vietnam

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Candles broke into the Catholic Church, smashed candles, turning up, returned vases, and causing general chaos inside the building. This was one of multiple attacks on the same church in a short period. Describing folks, how many churches in Western civilization are being attacked these days and with an increased Muslim population. Medal of Honor for today. Robert Charles Burke, PFC Vietnam War. PFC stands for private. Lanam won Goni. On Lanam. For conspicuous gallantity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call for service as a machine gunner with India. While on Operation Allen Brook, India Company was approaching a dry riverbed with a heavily wooded tree line that borders the hamlet of Lee Nam. When they suddenly came under intense mortar, rocket-propelled grenade, automatic weapons, and small arms fired from a large, well-concealed enemy force, which halted the company's advance and wounded that key points had to be eliminated to allow the units to advance and casualties to be evacuated. PFC Burke with seized his machine gun and launched a series of one-man assaults against the fortified emplacements. As he aggressively maneuvered the edge of the steep riverbank, he delivered suppressive fire upon several enemy bunkers, which enabled his comrades to advance and move the Marines to positions of relative safety. As he continued automatic weapons emplacement and poured intense fire into the position, killing three North Vietnamese soldiers as they attempted to flee. Observing that a fellow Marine had cleared the malfunctioning weapon and moved into a dangerous area and saturated the hostile tree line until he was mortally wounded.

unknown 14:40

P.

Thomas Jefferson On God And Nation

The Lord’s Prayer And Sign Off

SPEAKER_02 14:41

C. Burke's gallant actions upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps. Accredited to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, awarded posthumous, presented April 20th, 1970 at the White House by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew to his family, born November 7, 1949. Died May 17, 1968, Republic of Vietnam, buried Monticello Cemetery, MHN TAC 324, TAC 1, Tac 10, Monticello, Illinois. Robert Charles Burke, one of those names of meeting today, folks. Thomas Harrison, who is often held up as a darling of people who claimed that America was founded as a deist nation at best, secular, more like. March 4th, 1805, in his inaugural address. I shall need to the favor of that being in whose hands we are, who are people of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you join in supplications with me that he will soon enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their counsels, and prosper their measures. The reference to Israel leaves no doubt he's talking about God the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And he openly asked God to guide our counsels and prosper their measures, policy, institution, courtroom, institution, education, law, ministership. Jesus Christ are very much involved in the nation. And they did not consider Christianity lowered down to the levels of other false imposter religion. Hallowed be thy name. Come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Plus this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as those who trespass against us. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again soon, folks. Looking forward to it.