Truth That Costs Something

A “good” act can still be rotten at the core if it’s built on deception, and Acts 5 wastes no time showing why. We sit with the story of Ananias and Sapphira and ask the uncomfortable question: what do we gain by looking righteous while hiding the truth, and what does it cost our souls, our families, and our communities when we treat honesty like a tactic instead of a command? 

From there we pivot into practical Christian living with Titus 2, using Scripture as the standard for marriage advice and character formation. We talk about self-control, respect, patience, integrity, and why truth has to be the foundation if a home is going to stand. If your inputs are shaping you toward pride, gossip, slander, greed, or cowardice, we challenge you to replace those voices with God’s Word and with older, wiser examples worth following. 

We also read through the rest of Acts 5, where the apostles refuse to bow to threats and keep preaching Jesus Christ as the risen Son of God. Along the way we bring in Psalm 125 and Proverbs 16:25 to underline a theme that shows up in every generation: the “path that seems right” can still end in death, and courage often looks like simple obedience when it’s unpopular. We close by reflecting on American heritage through Patrick Henry, the power of virtue, and the sphere of influence each of us holds, no matter our age or job. 

If you care about biblical integrity, Christian marriage, and the moral roots that shape a nation, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What part challenged you most?

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Transcript

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Acts

Acts Warning About Lying

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five, starting with verse three. Then Peter said, Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wish. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us, but to God.

A Modern Crime And Moral Shock

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2026, actually 2025, Samuel Antonio Maldonano Arazzo, Florida, murdered a three-year-old, his three-year-old nephew, beat the toddler to death with seventeen strikes to the head, plus extensive bruising, burns, broken bones, and possible sexual abuse. Hondurian Honduran, the legal alien previously deported, re-entered. Hey

Welcome And Housekeeping

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folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are going well. Wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in, I sure do appreciate you joining me. Give me a little bit of time and attention, a little bit 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, uh, to share the podcast with others. Thank you very much. Very, very grateful for from both, especially the prayers. Hopefully, y'all have gotten to join us over on the uh America's Christian Heritage Podcast. Seeing some of y'all over there, so I appreciate that. Uh hopefully you're getting a little something out of it. We'll post the next one again on Thursday, a little over a week, give or take, every two weeks on Thursday. So the last one we were talking about some of the Ivy League schools that they're founding, and uh just really open Christian foundation that that most of those schools almost exclusively had.

Opening Prayer For Humility

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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 all your many blessings, Father, the ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason, both as individuals and as a nation. Help us to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to not rush through our time with you. Forgive us when we fail, Father. Forgive us our pride and our greed, our selfishness, judgment of others, gossip, slander, lust, covetousness, cowardice and unbelief. Help us to overcome them all. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage, help them to rule in fear of you. Be with those listening to the podcast. Guide them. Surround them with your angels, Father. Protect them and their families from evil of any kind. And guide my words here, please. Your son's name we pray.

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Amen.

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Marriage

Titus 2 And Marriage Counsel

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verse for today, Titus two through eight. Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not be slanderers, they must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the Word of God. In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely, and you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. Teach the truth so that your teaching can't be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us. Wherever you're getting your marriage advice from, does it encourage the young men to live wisely, to do good works, to have integrity, to focus on truth? Does it tell the young women to be submissive to their husbands? To work in the home, to love their husbands first and their children. And really, I think you could apply that across the board and then have additional teachings here for the older men and women, right? If your marriage advice is not coming from scripture, is not in line with God's word, it's time to find some new.

Acts 5 Ananias And Sapphira

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Acts 5, 1 through 42. But there was a certain man named Ananias, who with his wife, Sephirah, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife's consent, he kept the rest. Then Peter said, Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us, but to God. As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up and wrapped him in a sheet and took him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, Was this the price you and your husband received for the land? Yes, she replied, That was the price. And Peter said, How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out too. Instantly she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened. The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people, and all the believers were meeting regularly at the temple in the area known as Solomon's Colonnade. But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord, crowds of both men and women. As a result of the apostles' work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. A high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out, then told them. Then he told them, Go to the temple and give the people this message of life. So at daybreak the apostles entered the temple as they were told and immediately began teaching. When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council, the full assembly of the elders of Israel, then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. But when the temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported the jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there. When the captain of the temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. Then someone arrived with startling news. The men you put in jail are standing in the temple teaching the people. The captain went with his temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them. Then they brought the apostles before the high council where the high priest confronted them. We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man's name, he said. Instead you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death. But Peter and the apostles replied, We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross. Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this, so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him. When they heard this the High Council was furious and decided to kill them. But one member, a Pharisee named Gamalil, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. Then he said to his colleagues, Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men. Some time ago there was that fellow Phaetus or Theudus, who pretended to be someone great. About four hundred others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed too, and all his followers were scattered. So my advice is leave these men alone, let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God. The others accepted his advice, they called in the apostles and had them flogged, then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. The apostles left the high council, rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple, and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the risen Son of God, my Lord and Savior, who died for my sins, God raised him from the dead. I have eternal life and salvation because of him alone.

Psalm 125 And Steady Trust

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Psalm 125, one through five. Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion. They will not be defeated, but will endure forever. Just as the mountains surrounded, surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever. The wicked will not rule the land of the godly, for then the godly might be tempted to do wrong. O Lord, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are in tune with you. But banish those who turn to crooked ways, O Lord. Take them away with those who do evil. May Israel have peace. Proverbs sixteen twenty five. There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. Path

A Path That Ends In Death

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that seems right. May or June of this year. That was the sentencing period at least. Rape of a woman by a Sudanese asylum seeker. Sunderland, UK. Arrived in small boat. Perpetrator invited the victim back to his flat and then raped her. The victim described it as the worst day of my life. Leading to significant loss of confidence and trust. Muslim. Islam.

Medal Of Honor Profile

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John H. Callahan is our Medal of Honor winner for today. Private U.S. Civil War. Bravo Company, one hundred and twenty second Illinois Infantry, U.S. Army. April ninth, eighteen sixty-five, Fort Blakely, Alabama. Capture of flag. Accredited to Scottville, County MacApin, County, Illinois, not awarded posthumously. Presented july twelfth, eighteen sixty five by Lieutenant J.J. Lyon, Assistant Inspectant General of the sixteenth Army Corps at parade. Born january twenty fifth, eighteen forty five, Shelby County, Kentucky, died march thirteenth, nineteen fourteen, Manhattan, Kansas. Buried Sunset Cemetery, MH sixtech eighty four, Manhattan, Kansas, United States.

Patrick Henry On National Virtue

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Heritage, American heritage for today. Patrick Henry. He wrote this on the back of the Stamp Act resolves, which passed in the House of Burgesses in May 1765. And this is the ending of his little notes there, I think. This brought on the war which finally separated the two countries and gave independence to ours. Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will be great and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they will be miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation. Reader, whoever thou art, remember this, and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it in others. We used to talk about this in the early couple years of the podcast more often than I do now, folks, but you have a sphere of influence, whoever you are. Doesn't matter whether you're in junior high or high school listening to the podcast, college, whether you're 70 or 80 years old or anywhere in between or outside. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom, whether you're a janitor at a school, a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, an electrician, a farmer, a rancher out in the middle of nowhere. Whatever your vocation is, whatever position you're in in life at the moment, you have a sphere of influence. You have people that you can influence to practice virtue, to follow God and Jesus Christ. Might be a hundred people, thousand people, ten thousand people. Might be one. Might be a lot of influence, right? Somebody you just meet every once in a while, somebody you see at a gas station. Might be an extreme amount of influence. Like a parent with a child. I want to read one more quote. Um there's been some debate in recent years whether Patrick Henry actually said this or not. Uh whether he there's two comments to that. Whether he said it or not, the quote is still 100% accurate. And also, I be very careful today when you hear people, especially on the left, saying, Oh, he didn't really say that. Uh even if they point back to, like in this case, I think they point back to this being from uh a magazine in the 50s or something, I don't really remember, but it lines up with Patrick Henry's opinions when you dig into it to begin with. And B the onus on proving that a quote is false when it's been around for decades or centuries is on those people. So when the left comes and said, Oh, so-and-so didn't say that, okay, prove it. It's been around for a long time. Why should I suddenly? And and you gotta make sure that the proof is extremely convincing, folks. Not just because I say so. This is a quote, and we'll move on. It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians. Not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here. You cannot have that's such a huge, right? Asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship. You don't get that if you're not willing to follow the principles of Jesus Christ as a people, as an immigrant, asylum seeker, foreigner. America only works founded on the principles of Christ, with a almost universal population, as Cal McCulevidge said, that follow those teachings in the Bible. Our

Lord’s Prayer And Closing Blessing

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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 and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all, God bless your families, your marriages, your children, if you have them, your nation, wherever you are around the world listening. Thank you again for joining us here on the other podcast. For those of y'all who've checked out the countryside series. God bless y'all, God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.