Are you tired of hearing the myth about separation of church and state? Are you tired of being told that America is not and never was a Christian nation? Do you want to have the information to stand up for the truth and fight back against this fundamental lie that’s invading our culture and education? Each week, host Jesse Cope will dive into quotes and excerpts from our great leaders and documents throughout our history showing how in President Woodrow Wilson’s words “America was born a Christian nation.” We have the truth on our side and together we can absolutely turn our nation around. Follow Jesse @jtcope4 on X for daily doses of the truth to help fight back. Subscribe to The American Soul and share the show with someone who needs to hear it. We're on a mission to spread the truth and get our nation back on the right track — and you can help us make this possible.
A single psalm can reset your whole view of the world. We open with Psalm 8, where God’s glory towers over the heavens and yet He still sees, values, and cares for human beings. That truth is not abstract for us. It’s the lens we bring to a heartbreaking story out of Edna, Texas: the murder of sixteen-year-old cheerleader Elizabeth Medina, and the hard question we keep circling back to. When people argue “compassion” in public debates, are we willing to show compassion to the victims and families living with the consequences?
From there, we slow down and pray for listeners, marriages, children, and leaders. We read Proverbs 5 with its blunt, biblical call to rejoice in the spouse of your youth, then turn to Acts 27 and Paul’s shipwreck. It’s a vivid picture of storms, fear, leadership under pressure, and God’s steady hand even when you still end up broken on shore. Along the way we touch Proverbs 18 on real friendship, and we honor courage with a Medal of Honor account of Chris Carr’s one-man assaults in World War II.
We close with Christian history that still feels urgent today: Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. Edwards describes “surprising conversions” and a town transformed as faith spreads house to house. We talk plainly about why we believe America needs another awakening, and why the deepest kind of national renewal starts with hearts turned to Jesus Christ.
If this speaks to you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What would a real awakening change first in your home and community?
Psalm eight Starting with verse one. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth. Your glory is higher than the heavens. You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you set in place. What are mere mortals that you should think about them? Human beings that you should care for them.
Elizabeth Medina from Edna, Texas, December 2023. Sixteen-year-old Edna High School cheerleader was stabbed to death in the bathtub of her family's apartment at the Cottonwood apartments. Her mother found her body after Lisbeth failed to appear at a community Christmas parade where she was scheduled to perform with the cheer squad. Rafael Govea Romero, Mexican illegal, who had entered the United States on a work visa in 2018, but overstayed and was living illegally in the country, was charged with capital murder, aggravated robbery and burger burglary. There's a couple things you you see here. One somebody coming on a word visa, right? And yet still committing these crimes. And part of this, you have to be willing to see the connection between people that don't really care about America, right? That are only here for what they can get out of the country. It's one of the things that I've been taught my whole life in different institutions, the Marine Corps, other places. You you take ownership, you take pride in the things that you care about, right? You have people come in that don't care about the nation. They obviously don't care about the people here. They don't care about the laws, right? They're not going to care what they do to the nation or to the people. And and again, you just, when you when you see people, the other thing that is just constant in all of these incidents, when you hear people defending illegal immigration and mass Muslim immigration as if it's somehow compassionate, where's their compassion for this 16-year-old high school cheerleader that was stabbed to death in her own bathtub? Where's the compassion for her mother who found her presumably naked body stabbed to death in the family's bathtub because she missed a Christmas parade, right? She was supposed to be at this Christmas parade performing with the other cheerleaders. And I'm not trying to make this girl out to be perfect by any means, but where's the compassion for that mother? Where's the compassion for that girl, the father, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles?
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. Uh, for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast, tell others about it, for those of y'all who continue to leave reviews for the podcast, both the American Soul Podcast and America's Christian Heritage Podcast, thank you. Very grateful for your time and effort there. Um, same thing with Countryside Book Series, for those of y'all who have checked out the book series, told others about it, left reviews uh for the first two books in the series. Thank you very much. Uh and most of all, truly, as always, for those of y'all that pray for me, uh, my family, the podcast, the writing, thank you very, very much, very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for this day that you have made. Thank you for all the many blessings you bestow upon us. Whether we admit them or not, whether we're grateful for them or not. Thank you for the just the overabundance of blessings that you bestow upon us. Even for the trials that uh that we don't seem very thankful for, Father, but that draw us closer to you and your son. Please be with those listening to the podcast, be with their families, that bless their marriages, bless their children, calm their anxiety and their fears, help them to feel your presence. Surround them with your angels, protect them from evil, give them a strong faith, wisdom, and courage, and perseverance. Help us to encourage one another, Father, support one another. Help us to spread the gospel of your son across our nation, here in America, people where people are listening around the world and just in general. And please be with our leaders, Father. In the pulpit, in the state, and our military, our law enforcement firefighters. Help them to rule and lead in fear of you. And guide my word too, Father, please, in your Son's name we pray. Amen.
Marriage verses for today. Proverbs 5, 18 and 19. May your spring be blessed, rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a lovely lovely deer, a graceful doe, let her breasts intoxicate you all the time. Always be drunk on her love. How many marriages inside the church would you say? Follow those verses.
Acts 27, 21 through 44. No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete. You would have avoided all this damage and loss. But take courage, none of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, Don't be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar. What's more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you, so take courage, for I believe God. It will be just as he said. But we will be shipwrecked on an island. About midnight on the fourteenth night of the storm, as we were being driven across the Sea of Adria, the sailors sensed land was near. They dropped a weighted line and found the water was 120 feet deep. But a little later they measured again and found it was only ninety feet deep. At this rate, they were afraid we would soon be driven against the rocks along the shore, so they threw out four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for daylight. Then the sailors tried to abandon the ship. They lowered the lifeboat as they were, as if they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship. But Paul said to the commanding officer and the soldiers, You will all die unless the sailors stay aboard. So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and let it drift away. Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. You have been so worried that you haven't touched food for two weeks, he said. Please eat something now for your own good, for not a hair of your heads will perish. Then he took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, and broke off a piece and ate it. Then everyone was encouraged and began to eat, all two hundred and seventy six of us who were on board. After eating the crew lightened the ship further by throwing the cargo of wheat overboard. When the morning dawned they didn't recognize the coastline, but they saw a bay with a beach, and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship aground. So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore. But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of the waves and began to break apart. The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn't swim ashore and escape, but the commanding officer wanted to spare Paul, so he didn't let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land. The others held on to the planks or debris from the broken ship, so everyone escaped safely to shore.
Your glory is higher than the heavens, you have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you set in place. What are mere mortals that you should think about them? Human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority, the flocks and the herds, and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth. Proverbs 18, 23 through 24. The poor plead for mercy, the rich answer with insults. There are friends who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. My grandmother used to say that if you have one really truly bloodthirsty friend in your entire life, you should consider yourself extremely blessed. If you have two, it's almost miraculous.
Medal of Honor for today, Chris Carr. Legally changed from Christos H. Karob Karoberis, under which name the medal was awarded. Sergeant, highest rank, sergeant first class, World War II, Lima Company, 337th Infantry, 85th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, October 1st through the 2nd, 1944, near Guanola, Italy. Leading a squad of Lima Company, he gallantly cleared the way for his company's approach along a ridge toward its objective. When his platoon was pinned down by heavy fire from enemy mortars, machine gun, machine pistols, and rifles, he climbed in advance of his squad on a maneuver around the left flank to locate and eliminate the enemy gun positions. Undeterred by deadly fire that ricocheted off the barren rocky hillside, he crept to the rear of the first machine gun and charged, firing his submachine gun. In this surprise attack, he captured eight prisoners and turned them over to his squad before striking out alone for a second machine gun. Discovered in his advance and subjected to direct fire from hostile weapons, he leaped to his feet and ran forward, weaving and crouching, pouring automatic fire into the emplacement that killed four of its defenders and forced the surrender of a lone survivor. He again moved forward through heavy fire to attack a third machine gun. When close to the emplacement, he closed with a nerve-shattering shout and burst of fire. Paralyzed by his whirlwind attack, all four gunners immediately surrendered. Once more advancing aggressively in the face of a thoroughly alerted enemy, he approached a point of high ground occupied by two machine guns, which were firing on his company on the slope below. Charging the first of these weapons, he killed four of the crew and captured three more. The six defenders of the adjacent position, cowed by the savagery of his assault, immediately gave up. By his one-man attack, heroically and voluntarily undertaken in the face of tremendous risks, Sergeant Carr captured five enemy machine gun positions, killed eight Germans, took 22 prisoners, cleared the ridge leading to his company's objective, and drove a deep wedge into the enemy line, making it possible for his battalion to occupy important commanding ground. Accredited to Manchester Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, not awarded posthumously, presented October 12, 1945 at the White House by President Harry S. Truman, born April 6, 1914, Manchester Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. Died September 16, 1970, Los Angeles, California. Buried Los Angeles National Cemetery, MH 275 G Tac 15, Los Angeles, California. Chris Carr.
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Wanted to go back to Jonathan Edwards again today. I think we talked about him on the previous podcast. He was third president of Princeton University. And the pastor preacher who is credited with beginning the revival known as the Great Awakening. He lived from 1703 to 1758. And the Great Awakening really is what brought the colonies together. Prior to both of our previous civil wars, the Revolutionary War, you know, it really was a civil war because we were British citizens at the point. And the Civil War, we had great awakenings. And we've got to have one again today, folks. We have to have that awakening to faith in God and Jesus Christ spread through the nation. Because we we really, it's hard not to see a fight coming logically. You can't have peaceful coexistence with people inside the United States that follow the evils of leftism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, Islam. That's just not possible. One or the other is going to have to give way. And so we need this Great Awakening again, which is the reason we're reading this. He married Sarah Pierpont. They had eleven children. And in 1900, somebody did a study on their offspring, their descendants. And they had committed to raise these children to know God, to respect God, to fear God, right? Thirteen college presidents, 65 professors, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, a dean of a prestigious law school, 80 public office holders, 100 missionaries, about, three mayors of large cities, three governors, three United States senators, one Comptroller of the United States Treasury, and one vice president of the United States. So you see how far-reaching their effect of raising those 11 children to know and fear and respect God was, right? That's a pretty good example of us. Not besides the fact that God tells us to raise our children that way. That's a good example of why. So I want to read something. It's kind of lengthy. We'll see how far we get today. It's out of his narrative of surprising conversions. And really think about the fact of the Great Awakenings, how much we need one today, the effect they had prior to the Revolutionary War, prior to the Civil War, right?
And then it was in the latter part of December that the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to work amongst us. There were very suddenly, one after another, five or six persons who were, to all appearance, savingly converted, and some of them wrought upon in a very remarkable manner. Particularly I was surprised with the relation of a young woman who had been one of the greatest company keepers in the whole town, prostitute, right? When she came to me, I had never heard that she was become in any way serious. But by the conversation I had with her, it appeared to me that what she gave an account of was a glorious work of God's infinite power and sovereign grace, and that God had given her a new heart, truly broken and sanctified. God made it, I suppose, the greatest occasion of awakening to others, of anything that ever came to pass in the town. I have had abundant opportunity to know the effect it had by my private conversation with many. The news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of lightning upon their hearts, upon the hearts of young people all over the town, and upon many others. Presently, upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees and all ages. The noise of the dry bones waxed louder and louder. Those that were wont to be the vainest and loosest, and those that had been the most disposed to think and speak slightly of vital and experimental religion, were not generally subject to great awakenings. And the work of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner and increased more and more. Souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. This work of God as it was carried on, and the number of true saints multiplied soon made a glorious alteration in the town, so that in the spring and summer following, Anno 1735, the year of our Lord 1735, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love nor so full of joy. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families, on the account of salvations being brought unto them, parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The goings of God were then seen in his sanctuary. God's day was a delight, and his tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful, the congregation was alive in God's service. Everyone earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were from time to time in tears, while the word was preached, some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for their neighbors. There were many instances of persons that came from abroad on visits or on business, who partook of that shower of divine blessing that God rained down here and went home rejoicing, till at length the same work began to appear and prevail in several other towns in the country. In the month of March, the people of South Hadley began to be seized with a deep concern about the things of religion, which very soon became universal. About the same time it began to break forth in the west part of Suffield, and it soon spread into all parts of the town. It next appeared at Sunderland. About the same time it began to appear in a part of Deerfield, Hatfield, West Springfield, Longmeadow, Infield, Westfield, Northfield, in every place. God brought his saving blessings with him, and his word attended with spirit returned, not void.
There's a lot there, folks. We'll try and come back and kind of break down a little bit of it, how it's relevant to today on the next podcast or two. But great, great little indication. We so desperately need a great awakening again. 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 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. Again, folks, if you want to save your country, if you want to save America, the very best thing we can do is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages, your children, your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listening, God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.
