The American Soul
The American Soul
Prioritizing God in a Distracted America: Lessons from Washington's Prayer Journal
What do our priorities reveal about our faith? Jesse Cope tackles this challenging question by examining how we spend our evening downtime and what we choose to pursue each day. Drawing from a powerful quote by Jordan Peterson — "If you say yes to something, you pursue it" — Jesse challenges listeners to consider what they're saying "yes" and "no" to in their daily lives.
The podcast takes a fascinating historical turn by exploring what Jesse calls the "Maginot mind" of pre-WWII France. Through excerpts from Manchester's biography of Churchill, he draws striking parallels between France's reluctance to confront Nazi Germany and America's current approach to defending Christian principles against ideological attacks. While the French had the excuse of extreme war fatigue, Americans today are simply "playing not to lose" rather than "playing to win" when it comes to preserving our foundational values.
At the heart of the episode is a moving exploration of George Washington's personal prayer journal. These intimate prayers reveal a founding father deeply committed to Christian faith, who sought God's guidance not just for himself but for his family, friends, and country. Jesse powerfully challenges the modern narrative that America's founders intended to create a secular government: "Why would he want God to be the God of his country and then not want God involved in the country at all?"
Through readings from Matthew Chapter 1 and practical advice for breaking screen addiction, Jesse weaves together spiritual wisdom, historical perspective, and practical application. He reminds listeners that our priorities should follow a clear order — God, spouse, family, country — and that what we leave behind matters. Washington's prayer journal serves as a powerful reminder that our legacy isn't just what we achieve, but how faithfully we pursue what truly matters.
Whether you're struggling with digital distraction, wondering about America's spiritual heritage, or simply seeking to realign your priorities, this episode offers both challenging questions and encouraging guidance for the journey back to faith.
The American Soul Podcast
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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 and whatever part of the day. You're in there to appreciate y'all joining me here. I will try and use your time wisely. I know y'all have other things that you could be doing, probably other things vying for your attention for sure. So I'm grateful that you're here. For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much, very, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you very, very much for that. I definitely need them, want them, so thank you. And for those of y'all who are new, glad you're here, hope you enjoy it, hope you come back. We'll see if we can get something out of it that helps, even if just a little bit, draw ourselves and our nation back to God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: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 the ones we admit and the ones we try and hide For whatever reason and forgive us when we go back to the same old sins over and over again. Guide our steps. Help us to truly love your son, jesus Christ, with actions and not just words, each day. Help us to love you, father, with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with our leaders. Be with from the president and vice president on down. Be with the leaders of those who are listening around the world and their country. Help us to elect men who rule in fear of you. Father, help us to turn back to you as individuals and as a nation, here in America and in all the countries around the world where people are listening. Walk beside us. Comfort those who are afflicted. Be with those, father, who are harassed, persecuted, tortured, raped, pillaged, plundered, killed, imprisoned because they follow the name of your son, jesus Christ. Help us to help them as much as we can. Help us to pray for them more regularly. Father, be with our law enforcement, firefighters, police, military. Comfort them, protect them, bring them home safe to their families. And God, my word to you, father, please and be with those who listen today, father, wherever they are, whatever part of the day they're in, surround them with your angels, protect them and their families from evil. In your son's name, we pray Amen. Their families from evil. In your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray? Is it the top of your priority list, the middle, the bottom? Do you shove it in around the edges when you have time?
Speaker 1:I saw a great quote Let me see if I can find it real quick. I just remembered it by Jordan Peterson earlier today, and he said if you say no to something, you let something go. If you say yes to something, you let something go. If you say yes to something, you pursue it. And there were two things that popped into my head from that quote. One we need to say no to a lot more stuff, folks. We need to say no more often to TV, to screens, to video games, to sports For some of us. We need to say no video games, to sports For some of us. We need to say no more often to workouts.
Speaker 1:I remember one time I'll tell a little story on myself we were overseas, afghanistan, and at this particular point we were on a base that was as far as bases went over there. It was like the Taj Mahal. It was really nice and my particular job was a staff job at that moment and I didn't have a whole lot to do, honestly, and so I was working out a couple of times a day and our CO made a comment in the meeting. He said hey, look, if you're, if you're out working out a couple of times a day, if you've got all this spare time, you need to look around and see who you can help. And I remember one of my fellow lieutenants who was had been in the Marine Corps for a while. They looked at me after the meeting. They kind of grinned. They said you know the CO was talking to you, right? And I kind of shook my head and I was like no, you know, I don't know what you're talking about. And sadly it didn't change my actions a whole lot at that particular time. I think I did a little better as my time in the Marine Corps went on, but not right then.
Speaker 1:But some of us folks we look at things that are a virtue you know you need to. There was a lady that I follow online. She was making the comment about being in good shape shows work ethic, which is true, shows self-discipline, which is true, and you can make the comment that even it shows reverence for God and Jesus Christ, because you're using the talents that they gave you, because physical talents right, those are those are talents that God gives us. A lot of times, we think that our strength and speed is all of our own doing, but it's genetics, really, that God gave us that the making them be the best they can be. That's work, ethic, right. That's that's a decision that we make, but it's not like we made ourselves. However fast we are, however strong, god did that right, and we take credit for it far too often.
Speaker 1:But there are positive things about working out, but we can take it too far, right, there's positive things about youth sports, but we've taken it too far. There's absolutely positive things about youth sports, but we've taken it too far. There's absolutely positive things about publicly educating the population as a whole, but we've taken it too far. We've allowed youth sports and public education to control our family life, to dictate when we can take off for summer, what holidays we get and if we don't go to school when they tell us to, there's punishments for us, right, we've allowed. Most of all, there's a lot of things we could talk about, but basically it gets down. We've allowed our public school system to tell us, for example, that God doesn't belong in our nation. That should never have happened, ever. That's completely against everything that our country is founded on, going against God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So the point of this quote is there's some things that we need to say no to. And then the other half of the quote if you say yes to something, you pursue it. How often do we say yes to something but we don't pursue it? How often do we say we want this great marriage, for example, but we don't pursue our spouse? We don't go after them, we don't chase them each day. You remember when you were dating, for example, right. Or you talk about your faith, when you were early on in your faith and just how much you wanted to read the Bible each day, how much you wanted to be involved at your church each day. Wanted to be involved at your church each day Because, man, that was exciting and new and it was super important. And then, the longer we go on, somehow, for some reason, it's like, the less important it is, which is weird.
Speaker 1:We use this savings account analogy. If you're new to the podcast. I've used this analogy a couple times. But if you had a savings account and you started putting money in it when you were 20, every day, for example, you put a little money in. Well, by the time you got to age 30, that savings account would be pretty important to you. By the time you got to age 40, it'd be even more important to you by the time you got to age 50 or 60, that would be extremely important to you.
Speaker 1:And yet we're supposed to do those things. We don't do them very well, but we're supposed to put that kind of effort and investment into our faith, each day, reading the Bible, praying. We're supposed to put that kind of investment into our marriage, each day, loving our spouse with actions in the way that they need to be loved, not the way we wish they did or the way that we need to be loved, but the way they need to be loved each day. Right, and you're really you're making, you're supposed to make these little investments throughout the day. In both cases it's not something you get up once a day and think about and then walk away from right. Pray constantly, talk to God, constantly, read the Bible, whatever little opportunities You've got a 12-hour shift. That's a long day, but you still have five, ten minutes here and there to pray to God, read His Word a little bit.
Speaker 1:Same thing with your spouse. You might get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and go to work, and you might not get home until five o'clock in the afternoon or six. But what are you doing with that spare time that you have? Are you sitting on your butt watching TV? Are you going for a run by yourself? Are you doing whatever it is for yourself? Because we've become a society today that focuses so much on me, time and my needs and you know it's all about me. I need to focus on me. Well then, don't get married. And if you did get married, that boat has sailed right. You have a different focus now, and really your focus always ought to be first and foremost on God, jesus Christ, not on soul. Do we do that? Do we pursue those things? Anyway, thought it was a great quote, so I've got one more quote I want to read before we get into the Bible for today, and this is out of Manchester's biography on Churchill that we talk about every once in a while alone.
Speaker 1:This is the second volume in the trilogy Wonderful book series if you're interested in Churchill and biographies, and particularly the second volume is phenomenal. If you're interested in the lead up to World War II, which has a lot of parallels to today in a lot of ways and we've talked about that from time to time but there's a couple of quotes in here. To visit the Maginot line in France, the defensive line that they built to keep the Germans out after World War I and had just spent an unimaginable amount of wealth poured into this line of cannons and frames and dishes. I'm not an expert on it folks, line of cannons and frames and dishes, and just I'm not an expert on it folks, I just amazing defensive structure. And Churchill went to visit it just a little bit before world war two started.
Speaker 1:But the interesting commentary here by Manchester is about the condition of the French citizens. He said Churchill had begun to understand the Maginot line or Maginot mind. It was the mind of a nation which did not want to lose a war but didn't much want to win either. And he goes and he talks about just how exhausted they were, just like the British still after World War I and the trench warfare that had drained them. He said later on, the spirit of the Marne had, he realized, exhausted its mission and itself in victory. They got through World War I and they didn't want anything else to do with it and they didn't want to think about the possibility of another war.
Speaker 1:In metropolitan France alone, 27% of the country's young men between the ages of 18 and 27 had not returned from the trenches. The country's young men between the ages of 18 and 27 had not returned from the trenches. Simone de Beauvoir tells of a Dr Lamar who had operated on countless police under appalling French soldiers, under appalling conditions, and who, on returning home, took to his bed and never got up again, and who, on returning home, took to his bed and never got up again. No one knew how many of the survivors of the war the men who should have been guiding France in 1939, had been drained, exhausted and broken at the front, but the deterioration in the army's leadership had been shocking.
Speaker 1:One, britain and france had excuses for being reluctant to fight against the nazis and go back into a war. We don't have those excuses today in america and fighting against the left. We don't have scars of world war ii or or some huge war within the last 20 years where we lost 10, 15, 20% of our young men. I mean, can you even imagine those numbers, if we had been in a war 20 years ago in a country that's got 330 plus however many million people we're at right now, if we lost a third, even a fifth of our young men, what that would do to our mental state as a society? Right, but we don't have that excuse. But we very much right now, are playing not to lose.
Speaker 1:That was the quote. Look, folks, the left, they're determined to fight Physically, judiciously, in the judicial system, legislatively. They're determined to undermine America and completely break down the principles of Jesus Christ, that foundation of our country. They can't break down the principles of Christ, but they can break that relationship between our nation and those principles. And that's the goal. That's been the goal for a century and it's been slow and it's been consistent. They're going to fight, folks. They're not going to go away quietly. Islam is not going to go away, just like the Nazis didn't. Hitler was not going to go away. He was never going to go away quietly. There was no amount of pacification that was going to work with him. Just like the communists in the 20th century. There was no amount of pacification that was going to change Stalin or Mao? Look at the CCP in China right now. Folks, you cannot pacify leftists, communists, socialists, nazis, fascists or Muslims into peace. You can gain peace through strength if you make yourself look too hard or actually make yourself too hard for them to get in a fight with. Or you can actually get in a fight and come out on top.
Speaker 1:But this idea of peaceful coexistence, it's like when you watch a kid play in a sport and they're playing not to win, but they're playing not to lose, right, instead of playing to win, they're playing not to lose. And if you know anything about sports, you know what that looks like. Kids get really tight, they start to make really bad decisions. Their body doesn't function exactly the way it should. They get timid, they get scared and they start to lose. And they don't even realize they're losing sometimes, or sometimes they do, but they're too afraid. They're more afraid to go after it with the potential of winning. They'd rather try and hold on by the skin of their teeth and hope that the other person, that their opponent, makes the mistakes.
Speaker 1:And that's the mindset that the French had gotten into going into World War II, and that's the mindset that we have developed over decades with the left and now you see more, with Islam today in America, with anybody really that rejects those founding principles of Christ, this idea, well, if we just hold on just a little bit longer, they'll figure it out, they'll make the mistake, they'll go away, they'll realize that we need peace. It's not going to happen, folks, and that's true not only of just this random body that you look at and consider, the left Folks. It's true of your neighbors and friends and family and coworkers and people that live on your street that continue to vote for anti-Christ policies. It doesn't matter whether it's leftism or Islam, or Buddhism or Hinduism or communism, socialism, whatever it is, they're not going to go peacefully into the night. All right.
Speaker 1:So the Bible, a little bit of hope and good cheer. We are going to get back into the Gospels for just a little bit. So we finished 2 Peter and we'll come back and read some other stuff. But one of the things that struck me this year I was reading I don't remember where a commentary, though by by a man talking about how important reading the Bible was and in particular, said you know, we need to read the gospels on a regular basis, because that's that's the story of Christ, that's the whole point of Christianity is Jesus Christ. And so he said every once in a while, you need to go back and read the gospels. Even if you're trying to read through the Bible in a while, you need to go back and read the Gospels. Even if you're trying to read through the Bible in a year, for example, you need to make sure that you're reading the Gospels just a little bit more.
Speaker 1:I kind of have that opinion about Proverbs. I've mentioned that on here before. Proverbs has been a great comfort and encouragement to me as an adult, and so I always recommend reading one chapter out of Proverbs every day. There's 31 chapters, 31 days in a month. Seems like a pretty good correlation to me. But we're going to go back to Matthew and we'll start there.
Speaker 1:The genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amenadab, the father of Nishan and Nishan the father of Solomon. Solomon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jessen. Jesse was the father of David the king. Y'all forgive me however much I'm murdering these names, please.
Speaker 1:David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, rehoboam the father of Abijah, abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, jehoshaphat the father of Joram and Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, jotham the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, manasseh the father of Ammon and Ammon the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abahad, abahad the father of Eliakim and Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, zadok the father of Achum and Achum the father of Eliad. Eliad was the father of Eleazar, eleazar, the father of Mathan, and Mathan, the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations. From David to the deportation of Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Speaker 1:Inception and Birth of Jesus. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows when his mother, mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord to the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated, means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. So I'm going to go ahead and step on a lot of toes real quick and go ahead and get this over real quick and go ahead and get this over Seems kind of imperative timing, considering.
Speaker 1:Well, anyway, if your denomination tells you something, folks, you need to make sure that you check it out with Scripture. I think we have a responsibility. One of the things that my father taught me growing up is that, a that God's not afraid of our questions and B that God expects us to use our brain and not put it on a shelf. God doesn't expect you to not ask questions, and that can be whether you're talking about something like creation versus evolution, right, which God could have done. Either way, it doesn't really matter how he did it. He did it. It can be something completely different, right?
Speaker 1:For example, if somebody tells you that Mary was a perpetual virgin, that would be a good thing to go find in Scripture. The problem is that you can't. In fact, here you see verse 25, but Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. Until means that at that point, right, he consummated the marriage and she was no longer a virgin, and that's just something simple to look at, folks.
Speaker 1:But anytime somebody tells you something, you need to go back and look and see if it actually matches. If they tell you that somebody, for example, was sinless, you need to go back and look at Scripture and see if Scripture tells you that that person was sinless. And I know one of the arguments that I'm going to get from people is well, there's other sources of information. Absolutely there are. There's other sources of information, but you need to make sure that those sources don't ever go against what you read in the Bible. Go look and see what the Bible says about Jesus Christ being sinless. Go look and see if the Bible says that other people could be sinless. If other people could be perfect, and if other people could be perfect, then why aren't we? If other people could be perfect, why do we need Jesus Christ? Why can't we just do it on our own? I'll move on from there, folks, but you need to make sure. We need to make sure that we read our Bible enough to know our Bible so that when we hear people talking, we can discern whether they're telling the truth or whether they are wolves in sheep's clothing.
Speaker 1:Verse 19,. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. I think a lot of times Joseph gets overlooked in his role in all of this. At that time, in society you know we be, you were going to be laughed at and mocked behind your back, right, you were going to be judged, they were going to talk about you. It was going to be embarrassing, not just for the woman but also for the man. And so for most of us, if we got in this situation and this time frame and we were supposed to be married to somebody and they ended up getting pregnant and we knew it wasn't, us have had Joseph's attitude and still not wanted to disgrace this person who we had given our heart and our lives to and we were supposed to get married to, and they had obviously been unfaithful to us. Right, and of course, mary wasn't in this case. I'm not saying that she was, but he didn't know that at this time. He just, ah, this girl, I'm supposed to marry her and she's pregnant and I didn't do it.
Speaker 1:How many of us would have not wanted to disgrace her and send her away secretly? He wasn't going to marry her, but he wasn't going to drag her through the streets and condemn her. And I can't help but think of that same situation or not the same, but that situation with Jesus Christ, where they brought the woman before him who had been caught in the very act of adultery, and all of these men brought her in and they wanted to stone her to death. And of course, they were really just trying to get Jesus in trouble, right, but Jesus doesn't condemn her. Now, the mistake that we make so often today, especially when you're talking about no-fault divorce or sexual deviancy of any kind, lgbtq relationships or whatever it is that we want to do we say look, jesus didn't condemn this woman, so I can go do whatever I want to do. No, that's not what he said. At the very end he said go and sin no more, right? But he didn't condemn this person. Sin no more, right? But he didn't condemn this person, he didn't condemn this woman.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of times we overlook that move by Joseph and you see the comment there being a righteous man. How many of us pray, especially men? How many of us pray to be righteous each day? Verse 21,. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Save his people from their sins. There's nobody else that can do that folks. There's nobody else that can do that folks. You won't find anywhere else in Scripture where it says that there's another person that ever lived or ever will live that can save us from our sins. Jesus Christ is completely unique. If somebody tells you that there's another person that existed out there that can save you from your sins, that can offer you eternal life, you need to be really careful around that person, because they're preaching you something but it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Another interesting thing I saw today or recently on x. There was, I guess recently one of the ai creations at gpt or something like that has been really interested in Mary, the mother of Jesus, and I've seen multiple comments already by people online that I think had a pretty decent following. Not that that should matter a whole lot, except to say that it's not just some random bot, probably. And the comment was how great would it be if ChatGPT was Catholic? Or look, chatgpt is coming to the truth and they're Catholic and I thought you know.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting how often so many people talk about their denomination before Christ. I don't really care if you become part of my denomination or not. I care about whether you're Christian. I couldn't care less whether you join the church that I belong to or not. I care about whether you join Jesus Christ and develop a relationship with him, and I think you need to use that. Folks, that's kind of a warning for you, just like when somebody comes up and introduces themselves as African American or Mexican, mexican-american or Latino-American or Asian-American, that gives you an idea that they're not really American. They want to be special, they want to be their own little group. They don't really want to be American. They want to divide, and maybe they want to because that's what they've been taught. Maybe they're doing that out of ignorance or maybe they really have malevolent desires, designs, but whatever the case, they view themselves not as an American but as this special little group of Americans, and even more so with Christians.
Speaker 1:Inside our church Catholic, small c, universal. Inside our church, catholic, small c, universal. We need to be really careful when people are more interested in promoting their denomination than they are promoting Jesus Christ and the gospel. If somebody comes up to you and they're really excited about somebody being Baptist or Methodist or Episcopalian or Anglican or Orthodox or Roman Catholic, just be careful. Why would they be more excited, as a Christian, of somebody joining their denomination? That doesn't have anything to do with salvation? Can't earn your way into heaven by joining a particular church folks. Why would they be so excited about that instead of going yeah, this person came to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I remember this little tidbit and we'll move on. It's great. There's some more stuff here, some wonderful in this first chapter of Matthew. But I remember a story about the friendship between Tolkien and CS Lewis, which apparently was a great friendship. But at one point, when Lewis finally converted, tolkien really wanted him to join his denomination, which, if I remember correctly, was Roman Catholic, and CS Lewis didn't, and that really bothered Tolkien. And you have to ask yourself why. Why would it bother someone what denomination a person came to over the fact that they came to Christ? Over the fact that they came to Christ? Why would a person be more concerned about whether you joined their little club, as opposed to the fact that you gave your life to Jesus Christ. Just something to think about folks. So I've got one more thing that I want to run by y'all and then we really will move on.
Speaker 1:We're going to get into George Washington's prayer journal, which I think is fascinating, and we do that about once a year, and I think this is as good a time as any to do that. Epic times y'all are getting familiar with that because I talk about it from time to time. They had an article, a great article, about making the most of our evening downtime, and if I can find a couple quotes, let me see here. There we go. This is an article by Walker Larson, making the Most of Evening Downtime, and the subtitle is Without a scrolling on the phone can easily fill these hours.
Speaker 1:Often a few minutes transforms into a few hours. We don't know how to use the downtime before bed, so our phones fill that vacuum and I would argue, tv right, it's so easy just to turn the tv on, just to turn the TV on, to turn the phone on, and then all of a sudden we realized we've been there for hours and we probably should have gone to bed earlier, and we definitely have wasted our time and not made ourselves, not bettered ourselves, and I hope I mean, I don't hope I hope none of y'all have this problem, but I'm afraid, based upon what I read about as a country, a lot of us have this problem, and so my question is I've kind of thought about, with the podcast, breaking it up not breaking up the podcast, but just starting to have some more segments on here, like, perhaps, reading from a book. We did that a while back, but I did it as individual segments, just to give us something to look forward to in the evenings where we could listen to a podcast. And you know, we read a little bit out of the Bible, we read a little bit of history, we read a little bit, perhaps, of a novel, and just with the help of trying to break away from that screen folks, it's so, so detrimental. Even if we don't, though, if you have any comments about that, some of y'all leave some really good comments from time to time Let me know, but they give a list of some things that you can do, and I just wanted to run through that real quick have a four-course meal, work on a hobby or a skill.
Speaker 1:Read aloud, attend a concert or play Talk Just simply talk to each other. Play a game, journal, write or brainstorm about the next day, play a sport, enjoy a podcast or online course, go for a walk. Gave these 10 ideas with the hope they said. This is the closing couple sentences. Hopefully, with these ideas in store, you can find ways to decompress without resorting to the phone next time. You might even find that you live a richer life by doing so. For sure, folks, for sure, it's a big deal, folks, for sure it's a big deal. So at any rate, we will move on, but kind of toying with that idea, if you have some comments, let me know might start to read a little bit of the novel on the podcast. Give us something to do, hopefully, where we don't just sit down, flop down in front of the TV or the couch or our phone screen and just zone out.
Speaker 1:So we're going to get into Washington's prayer journal and read a little bit out of that. And I think it's significant for a couple reasons One, it gives us a little insight into the father of our country and two, it's just one more piece of evidence that these men who founded our country were deeply affected by the Bible and God's word, and a large number of them were extremely religious, not in the sense of organized religion, but in the sense of faith, the true of a deep faith in God and Jesus Christ, and the importance of that relationship. The reason that that's so important, folks, is when you start to read about these people John Adams, samuel Adams, washington, even the people that were supposedly deists, right, franklin, jefferson you see how important God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit was to them, and it makes it rightly so. It makes it really hard to buy into this idea that these same men that were so deeply religious themselves, that had so much faith in God and Jesus Christ, at the same time would design a government that rejected God and Jesus Christ and wanted all faiths, both the one true faith and the imposters, to be treated equally by that government. And that was out of a court case, I think, by Kent or somebody that we read recently and he said you know this idea, that's really strange. That supposes that we don't have to defend Christianity on the one hand or, on the other hand, that we have a responsibility to treat all the imposters as equal. That's really weird. That's interesting to see how people could get that out of our constitution, because they can't.
Speaker 1:I wish I had that quote in front of me. I don't think I can find it, but quickly, let me see if I can though, because it's a great quote. Yeah, so this is out of People v Ruggles and this is Kent. So this is the New York State Supreme Court. Chief Justice Kent made this the free, equal and undisturbed enjoyment of religious opinion, wherever it may be, whatever it may be, and free and decent discussions on any religious subject as granted and secured. But to revile with malicious and blasphemous contempt the religion professed by almost the whole community is an abuse of that right. Nor are we bound by any expressions in the Constitution, as some have strangely supposed, either not to punish at all or to punish indiscriminately the like attacks upon the religion of Muhammad or of the Grand Lama, and for this plain reason that the case assumes that we are a Christian people and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity and not upon the doctrines or worship of those imposters Sums it up pretty well. So this is Washington George Washington's prayer journal, I think from his life as a younger man journal, I think from his life as a younger man, and we're going to read through however much we get through each day.
Speaker 1:This is Sunday morning. Almighty God and most merciful Father, who didst command the children of Israel to offer a daily sacrifice to thee that thereby they might glorify and praise thee for thy protection both night and day. Receive, o Lord, my morning sacrifice, which I now offer up to thee. I yield thee humble and hearty thanks that thou hast preserved me from the dangers of the night past and brought me to the light of this day and the comforts thereof, a day which is consecrated to thine own service and for thine own honor. Let my heart, therefore, gracious God, be so affected with the glory and majesty of it that I may not do mine own works, but wait on thee and discharge those weighty duties thou requirest of me. And since thou art a God of pure eyes, thou and wilt be sanctified in all who draw near unto thee, who dost not regard the sacrifice of fools nor hear sinners who tread in thy courts, pardon, I beseech thee, my sin. Remove them from thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, as the east is from the west, and accept of me, for the merits of thy son, jesus Christ, that when I come into thy temple and compass thine altar, my prayer may come before thee as incense, and as thou wouldst hear me calling upon thee in my prayers, so give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word. That it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation and peace to the saving of my soul.
Speaker 1:In the day of the Lord Jesus. In the day of the Lord Jesus, grant that I may hear it with reverence, receive it with meekness, mingle it with faith, and that it may accomplish in me, gracious God, the good work for which thou hast sent it. Bless my family, kindred, friends and country. Be our God and guide this day forever For his sake, who lay down in the grave and rose again for us. Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:Father in the country folks, I mean it's, it's got to be a little bit, if you're honest, at all hard to read something like that and then assume that this same group of men because this is one example, but it's not unique in Because this is one example, but it's not unique in emotion or desire or intent that these men would have this reverence for God and Jesus Christ and then design a country where they didn't want anything to do with God and Jesus Christ. That doesn't make much sense, right? It's like knowing that your family functions best following the commands of Jesus Christ, but then you open a business and you want to make sure that you don't have anything to do with God and Jesus Christ and that business. Or, if you want to take a secular analogy, right, it's like knowing that fiscal responsibility in your own home is necessary. Well, maybe that's a great analogy Fiscal responsibility in your own home is necessary, but you don't want anything to do with fiscal responsibility in the country that you're forming or the business that you're forming. Maybe that analogy really is good. That doesn't make much sense, does it folks?
Speaker 1:So just a few things here. What did he talk about? My morning sacrifice, which I now offer up to thee. How many of us get up in the morning and think about I don't think about prayer like that very often as a sacrifice to God, talking to God as an offering to him, humble, I yield thee humble and hearty thanks that thou hast preserved me from the dangers of the night past and brought me to the light of this day. John Quincy Adams prayed that child's prayer apparently every day. You remember it. I'm probably not going to say it exactly right, but now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep that if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take, for Jesus' sake, something like that.
Speaker 1:How many of us thank God for getting through the night and getting us to the next day or at the end of the day, you know, in the evening how many of us thank God for getting us through the day and that spirit of humility. You know there's that real famous painting of George Washington kneeling in the snow at Valley Forge and you see so many of the great characters in the Bible. You talk about David or Daniel so many others, or Daniel so many others, and their attitude before God of humility. Not always they weren't perfect folks, sometimes they got that part wrong, but so often that attitude of humility. We had a pastor once years ago that would kneel when he was praying and he always said that he was representing the hearts of the congregation.
Speaker 1:And how many of us remember that Sunday is a day for God's own honor, not for us to look good to other people, but to honor God. That that's the point about it. How many of us even act like that anymore. How often we find other things that seem more important on a Sunday than honoring God. That I may not do my own works, but wait on thee and discharge those weighty duties thou requirest of me. How many of us wait on God? That's a pretty good prayer to wait on God. I need to do that more often.
Speaker 1:Who does not regard the sacrifice of fools, nor hear sinners who tread in thy courts? Pardon, I beseech thee, my sins and remove them from thy presence as far as the east is from the west, and accept of me, for the merits of thy Son Jesus Christ, that when I come into thy temple and compass thine altar my prayer may come before thee as incense. The only reason we get to go to God is Jesus Christ, the Father of our nation, sitting here, talking, asking for God to remove his sins from his presence as far as the East is from the West. You hear that every year, when we go through the proclamations Thanksgiving fasting prayer proclamations in November you hear that refrain over and over again about repenting of our sins, coming humbly before the Lord. Do you feel like, do you all feel like, that we see that a lot today. Do you feel like, not just in our politicians and our national celebrities, our athletes and actresses and leaders, but do you feel like we see that across our society in general? Do you see it in your own life? Do you feel like you see it in the life of your family and your community, where you are God and that repentance, being a penitent man about our own sins, wanting to get as far away from them as possible?
Speaker 1:I've said often that's one of the great divides in our nation today is between the people that acknowledge that they're sinners and they need to fix that Now. Whether they acknowledge that the only real way to fix that is Jesus Christ or not, that's a different matter. But they acknowledge that they screw up and that it's wrong and that they need to work on that and strive to work on that. And then on the other side are people that pretend that doing wrong isn't wrong right the Bible verse that pretend that evil is good and good is evil. And as thou wouldst hear me calling upon thee in my prayers, so give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word that it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation and peace to the saving of my soul in the day of the word of God like that, it's God talking to us that asks for God to help us to open our hearts and our minds to whatever we're reading in his word today and realize what an impact that has, as George Washington said here, to the saving of my soul. In the day when Jesus Christ comes back, grant that I may hear it with reverence, receive it with meekness, mingle it with faith, and that it may accomplish in me, gracious God, the good work for which thou hast sent it.
Speaker 1:Father of our country, bless my family, kindreds, friend and country. Be our God and guide this day and forever. For his sake, who lay down in the grave and arose again for us. Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's a quote by George Washington folks, again, his own journal, his own prayers Jesus Christ, who lay down in the grave and arose again for us, bless my family, kindred, friends and country. Be our guide and our God this day. Why would he want God to be the God of his country and then not want God involved in the country at all? Do you see how illogical what we've been doing for the last century is Pretending that our founders didn't want anything to do with God while at the same time being very faithful men and women, being very faithful men and women.
Speaker 1:His ordering there, folks, of his prayers is reminiscent of Vice President Vance's you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. And what do we see here? Again, washington, bless my family, Kindred, right, extended family, friends, local area, just friends in general, and country, in that order, be our God and our guide. You ought to have a list of priorities, folks, and with extremely few exceptions, it ought to be God spouse, if you're married, family country, or in fact, I can't think of any exceptions right now off the top of my head where it would be acceptable to change that order. Change that order. I would add the Marine Corps. I always do to the end just because I love the Marine Corps, but serving in the Marine Corps is kind of like serving the country anyway, but God spouse, family country every day.
Speaker 1:That lines up with George Washington and his prayer journal, who wanted God to be our God of our country of America, and our guide each day. And it doesn't matter, folks, whether he wrote this as a young man, when he was still a British citizen, or not. The point is it gives you an understanding and the faith of George Washington as a man and his concerns. One other little side note, and I'll leave you alone Think about what you want to pass on to those you leave behind when you die.
Speaker 1:Folks, you've got a spouse or kids. What are you leaving? This prayer journal. I don't know if Washington had any clue. I can't imagine that he did, what his life was going to be like, but what a great blessing for him to have written this, to have this today, so that we can look back and see what the faith of our fathers actually was, so that we can look back and see what the faith of our fathers actually was. What are you going to leave behind for your spouse if you die first, for your kids, for your grandkids, so that they can look back and see your faith? Another reason we need to break away from screens and sports and focus a little bit more on things that are quite a bit more important. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world listening, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Just looking forward to it.