Righteousness Exalts A Nation When We Live It

Peace sounds simple until you ask what it’s built on. We start with Acts 9:31 and let Scripture set the standard: the church grows stronger when believers live in fear of the Lord and walk in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit. From there, we get painfully practical, asking whether that same reverence shows up in our churches, our families, our schools, and the choices we make when no one is watching. If you care about Christian discipleship, spiritual growth, and a biblical worldview that actually touches daily life, this conversation will meet you where you are. 

We also pause on Genesis 2:24–25 to talk about Christian marriage as a covenant of leaving, cleaving, and becoming one flesh. That thread runs straight into the story of Saul’s bold witness and Peter’s ministry in Acts 9, including the healing of Aeneas and the raising of Tabitha. These aren’t just dramatic moments, they’re reminders that courage, compassion, and obedience can turn hearts back to God and strengthen a whole community. Psalm 132 and Proverbs add a generational lens, pointing to worship, legacy, and the honor of family. 

Then we widen the frame to moral accountability in public life, reflecting on a disturbing 1955 UK criminal case as a warning about what happens when evil is minimized and people stay silent. We pair that sober note with a Medal of Honor story of duty and sacrifice, and we close with American Christian heritage voices like Patrick Henry and President Ulysses S. Grant tied to Proverbs 14:34: “Righteousness exalts a nation.” If this encouraged or challenged you, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

#Proverbs14

#UlyssesSGrant

#ChristianNation

Transcript

Acts 9 Sets The Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Acts nine, starting with verse thirty-one. The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit it also grew in numbers. Bradford, Yorkshire. Victim was from Middlesbrough Tea Side. This occurred in the Bradford area.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Four Muslim Pakistani men raped a fifteen-year-old girl.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

We're gonna come back to that.

Welcome, Thanks, And Why We Gather

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing what 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. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to join us on the American America's Christian Heritage Podcast, thank you. For those of y'all that have started to read the countryside series and left reviews, thank you there. And for those of y'all who pray for me and for the podcasts and the writing, most of all, thank you, folks, very much. Very grateful for your prayers.

Opening Prayer For Leaders And Families

SPEAKER_00 1:44

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. Forgive us when we fail. Forgive us when we turn our back on you, when we turn away from you. Help us to truly love your Son Jesus Christ and therefore to follow his commandments. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. To love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Help them to rule and lead in fear of you. Be with our military, law enforcement, firefighters, EMS. Protect them, bring them home safe to their families, protect their families. Be with those who are scared, hurt, injured, abused, alone, brokenhearted, injured, ill, depressed, anxious, afraid. Help us to trust in you, Father. To trust you with our souls, to know that you will keep us on the narrow road. Please do, all the way home to you. And guide my words here, Father, please. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.

Genesis Marriage And One Flesh

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Marriage verses for today, Genesis 2, 24 and 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. Only relationship, folks, we say this every time we read this, particularly these verses, it's the only relationship in your entire life you will ever be told to cleave, to cling to, to become one flesh with.

Saul’s Bold Witness And Peter’s Miracles

SPEAKER_00 4:06

They did not believe he had truly become a believer. Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus. So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. He debated with some Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him. When the believers heard about this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown. The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers. Do you think we live in fear of the Lord as a church today? Do you think we live in fear of the Lord as a nation today? What about in our marriages and our families? What about in our schools? It's part of the equation, folks. If we want any of those institutions to become stronger, it requires living in fear of the Lord. Meanwhile, Peter traveled from place to place, and he came down to visit the believers in the town of Lila, Lida. There he met a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, Aeneas, I think that's it, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your sleeping mat, and he was healed instantly. Then the whole population of Lida, Lida, and Shiron saw Aeneas walking around and they turned to the Lord. There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. About this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room, but the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lida, so they sent two men to beg him, please come as soon as possible. So Peter returned with them, and as soon as he arrived he took them to the upstairs room. The room was filled with windows, with widows, who were weeping and showing him the coats and the other clothes Dorcas had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room, then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body, he said, Get up, Tabitha. And she opened her eyes. When she saw Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up, then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive. The news spread through the whole town, and many believed in the Lord. And Peter stayed a long time in Joppa, living with Simon, a tanner of hides.

Psalm 132 And Proverbs On Family

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Psalm 132, 1 through 18. Lord remembered David and all that he suffered. He made a solemn promise to the Lord. He vowed to the mighty one of Israel, I will not go home, I will not let myself rest. I will not let my eyes sleep, nor close my eyelids and slumber, until I find a place to build a house for the Lord, a sanctuary for the mighty one of Israel. We heard that the ark was in Ephrath. Then we found it in a distant countryside of Jar. Let us go to the sanctuary of the Lord, let us worship at the footstool of his throne. Arise, O Lord, and enter your resting place, along with the ark, the symbol of your power. May your priests be clothed in godliness, may your loyal servants sing for joy. For the sake of your servant David, do not reject the king you have anointed. The Lord swore an oath to David, with a promise he will never take back. I will place one of your descendants on the throne. If your descendants obey the terms of my covenant and the laws I teach them, then your royal line will continue forever and ever. For the Lord has chosen Jerusalem. He has desired it for his home. This is my resting place forever, he said. I will bless this city and make it prosperous. I will satisfy its poor with food. I will clothe its priests with godliness. Its faithful servants will sing for joy. Here I will increase the power of David, my anointed one, will be a light for my people. I will clothe his enemies with shame, but he will be a glorious king. Proverbs 17.6. Grandchildren are the clouding crowning glory of the age. Parents are the pride of their children.

Reviews, Books, And Supporting The Work

SPEAKER_00 9:00

If you're looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, if you would check out the countryside series, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoy it, if you'd leave a review for the first or second book or both somewhere online, kind of like Narnia, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter. Same thing for the podcast. If you feel like you're getting something out of the American Soul Podcast or America's Christian Heritage, that's where we're doing about once every two weeks. If you would leave reviews of those online somewhere as well, that helps others to find it. And if you have five or $10 a month you can spare, then that helps the podcast and the writing too. So thank you very much for any or all of those.

A 1955 UK Crime Case And Ideology

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I want to go back to this case from 1955. The main reason is simply because it shows how long this has been going on in the UK in particular, but it just is a reminder, folks, that Islam, just like leftism, Marxism, communism, right, those ideologies don't change based on time or geography. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, it doesn't matter what your ethnicity is, it doesn't matter what color your skin is, doesn't matter whether you're male or female. What matters is the ideology. And those ideologies, Marxist, communist, leftist, Muslim, they're just evil at the core, folks. There is no moderate follower. There are followers that are explicitly, openly okay with the carnage and the chaos and the rape and the pillage and plunder. And there's followers that are complicit, that are that are okay with it quietly, that aren't going to stand up and condemn those actions. Right? And a little bit interesting here, the this 1955 case where these Pakistani Muslims gang raped this 15-year-old girl from Middlesbrough, that was 1955, right? The British Nationality Act in 1948 is what really opened the floodgates for or started to, right? And what it did is it allowed people from other areas of the British Empire Commonwealth after India, Pakistan independence, to enter and settle the UK without visas or any restrictions. And so you had a very large post-World War II migration from South Asia to Britain in the 1950s and 60s, right? And so what is, certainly today, what is the major religion ideology in Pakistan? Overwhelmingly Muslim, like 96 plus percent, right? You have to focus on that. And there's so many other. This was not unique by any stretch of the imagination, this 1955 case. There's other cases, uh maybe we'll talk about on different podcasts from 50s, 60s, and it just continues. Right.

Medal Of Honor James A. Campbell

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Medal of Honor for today is James A. Campbell, private U.S. Civil War Alpha Company, 2nd New York Cavalry, U.S. Army, April 5th, 1865. Woodstock and Amelia Courthouse, Virginia, USA. While his command was retreating before superior numbers at Woodstock, Virginia, he voluntarily rushed back with one companion and rescued his commanding officer, who had been unhorsed and left behind. At Amelia Courthouse captured two battle flags. Accredited to New York, not awarded posthumously, presented October 30th, 1897. Born December 20th, 1844, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Died May 6, 1904, Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Buried Arlington National Cemetery, MH3, TAC 1468, TAC SS, Arlington, Virginia. James A. Campbell.

Righteousness Exalts A Nation Quotes

SPEAKER_00 13:57

So I want to go back. We talked about this yesterday. The quote from Reverend Francis J. Grimke specifically for a couple of reasons, but it included the righteousness exalts a nation, right? Proverbs 14, 34. And so I wanted to read a few more quotes. One that we are familiar with, that we've used frequently on the podcast, is from Patrick Henry, right? And I can find it again real quick. He was talking about, this was uh after the Stamp Acts, or he wrote this on the back of the Stamp Acts. Here we go. 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. Another example is President Ulysses S. Grant. Proverbs 14, 34, right? That's the thing tying all these quotes together. And President Grant, I wish I could remember, he was talking to the children and youth of the U.S. I think 1875, 76, somewhere in there. Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties. Write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization. And to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Andrew Johnson, 1865, Thanksgiving Day proclamation. I can find that. Let me see the part. Well, I thought I had it. Whereas it has pleased Almighty God during the year, which is now coming to an end to relieve our beloved country from the fearful scourge of civil war and to permit us to secure the blessings of peace, unity, and harmony with a great enlargement of civil liberty. And whereas our Heavenly Father has also during the year graciously averted from us the calamities of foreign war, pestilence, and famine, while our granaries are full of the fruits of an abundant season, and whereas righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people. I think that's a Thanksgiving Day proclamation that we have not used before. One more for today. That's the he said the best expression of it, he was referring to the importance of moral Christian principles in politics, I have found in the Bible. It is the substance. It is in substance. Righteousness exalteth a nation. So just a few of our leaders over the years from a huge range, right? That have used that proverbs, who have acknowledged the fact that righteousness alone can exalt us as a nation. And sin is going to bring reproach, gonna bring problems, gonna bring heartache onto us, not only as individuals, but as a nation.

Lord’s Prayer And Final Blessing

SPEAKER_00 18:30

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. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages if you're married, your kids if you have them, your nation wherever you are around the world listening. God bless America. We'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.