The American Soul
The American Soul
Warnings of History: Standing Against Evil in Modern America
What do your actions say about your faith? Jesse Cope delivers a powerful message on aligning our daily choices with our professed beliefs, warning that "you can say all the nice sounding words that you want, but if your actions don't back those words up, it's worse than meaningless." This challenging perspective asks listeners to examine what they're truly prioritizing each day.
Drawing from the Book of Jude, Jesse explores how misusing God's grace as an excuse to continue in sin represents a dangerous spiritual trap. The epistle's warnings about those who "turn the grace of our God into licentiousness" resonate powerfully in today's culture where professed faith often contradicts actual behavior. Through careful examination of scripture, Jesse reminds us that our choices create ripple effects that impact not just ourselves but everyone around us.
The podcast takes a fascinating historical journey through Harvard University's founding principles from 1642, revealing how dramatically American education has shifted from its Christian foundations. These principles explicitly stated that "the main end of [a student's] life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ" – a stark contrast to today's secular academic environment.
Perhaps most moving is Jesse's recounting of Medal of Honor recipients from D-Day, highlighting extraordinary courage that raises uncomfortable questions about our own willingness to sacrifice for righteous causes. The episode concludes with FDR's powerful D-Day prayer, demonstrating how American leaders once openly acknowledged the nation's dependence on divine guidance.
Are you making time for God daily? Are your actions aligned with your professed beliefs? Join Jesse in examining what truly matters in life and how we can better honor God through consistent faith in action rather than empty words.
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, whatever part of the day you're in. I sure do appreciate you joining me and giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. Try to use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all a little something to add to our toolbox and hopefully it will help us all draw a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much, very, very grateful for your prayers. I definitely need them, want them. So thank you, 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, for all your many blessings, the ones we admit and the ones we don't. Thank you for the people that you put in our lives Family, friends, parents, spouses. Forgive us when we take them for granted. Forgive us when we put them for granted. Forgive us when we put things before people, when we put screens, social media, tv, youtube videos, father, whatever else, when we put sports or workouts or just any things of this world in front of people. Forgive us, father, and help us to follow the example of your Son and help us to practice true religion, and help us to practice true religion, which is to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Be with our leaders here in America, across the nation, from the president, vice president on down, admirals, senators, generals, representatives, judges, governors, mayors, council members, school board members. Be with them all, father. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help us to elect men who rule in fear of you, and be with all those who are listening to the podcast tonight. Be with their families, guide them, bless them, surround them with your angels. Protect them from evil of any kind. Draw us close to you, father. Help us to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, our neighbors as ourselves. Oh, israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. Amen, and God, my words here. Father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him?
Speaker 1:Folks, it's just, it's so much actions. I was talking to a really good friend of mine recently and we were talking about that, you know, as a friend, as a parent as a child, for that matter to your parents, as an employee, as a spouse, as a Christian, a follower of Christ, it's just your actions. That's what it boils down to. And you can say all the nice sounding words that you want, but if your actions don't back those words up, it's worse than meaningless folks, because then you're coming off either as a liar or as a hypocrite, which I guess maybe is just a different version of being a liar. But it's just your actions, folks. What are you doing each day? What are you giving your time to, your energy, your effort? Because there's nothing at all that should come before God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and there's nothing but God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that should come before your spouse each day, you know, and so many people talk about, I'm just so tired, I just don't have talk about, I'm just so tired, I just don't have the energy, I'm just overwhelmed and I'm not even saying that you're not those things. But if you are, you've got your priorities all out of whack, folks, and you need to fix that. You need to fix yourself, to square yourself away as quickly as possible Because it's hurting your relationship with God and Jesus Christ and therefore your functionality in every single aspect of your life. It's hurting your marriage and therefore those ripples.
Speaker 1:You know we talked recently on the podcast about ripples of virtue. You know, doing one small act, how much of an effect that has. It's like throwing a rock in a pond. But that's also true in the negative folks. Every, every negative thing we do, every time we do something wrong, that has ripple effects. It hurts others, not just ourselves. That's why that idea right Of socially liberal, liberal but fiscally conservative I can do whatever the heck I want to do in my bedroom and that's not going to affect anybody else. It's just you're affecting somebody, folks, and it's either positive or it's negative, but we don't do anything in a vacuum.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to read Jude, the warnings of history to the ungodly. You could have named the podcast that instead of the American Soul podcast, warnings of history to the ungodly, which appears to be what we want to do as a nation. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy and peace and love be multiplied. To you, beloved. While I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints, for certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe and angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode. He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they, in the same way as these, indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
Speaker 1:A couple things real quick. Verse 4. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Actions. Again and again, folks, if you've got somebody that comes into your circle whether it's church or friends, family, whatever just look at their actions. If they claim to follow Christ but they're sleeping around with people or going out and getting drunk all the time or stealing from people or they just constantly gossip and slander, right, look at the fruits that they produce. Are they really following God or are they not? And are they using so often folks? So there's two sides of this coin.
Speaker 1:We talk about this often. You hear a lot of people say we need to be grateful for the things that we have, that God has blessed us with, and that's absolutely true. But the flip side of that coin is we have a responsibility to use those talents that God gives us fully, to the greatest extent that we can use them, whatever it is strength, speed, intelligence, beauty, kindness, compassion, patience, leadership, the ability to teach humility. Whatever it is strength, speed, intelligence, beauty, kindness, compassion, patience, leadership, the ability to teach humility whatever it is, whatever gifts God, talents God has given you. We have a responsibility to use those, and this is the same as grace, right, mercy. We need to be grateful to God for his grace and his mercy, but we can't use that as a crutch to keep on doing whatever the heck we want to do whenever we want to do it, if you have.
Speaker 1:I was talking to a good friend of mine about this as well recently about kids in school. A lot of kids out there today have some really, really rough lives and they deserve some patience and some kindness. But at the end of the day, right is still right and wrong is still wrong. Even if we've had a rough life in some area, that doesn't give us the excuse to keep doing what we want to do if it goes against what God tells us to do. And I'm guilty of that too, folks. I think I've been pretty good at that at certain times in my life. Going well, I've just had such a hard row here. I'm just going to keep on doing what I want to do. It's God's grace right.
Speaker 1:The last thing here deny our master and Lord Jesus Christ. That's pretty simple, folks, if people aren't willing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Master and Lord Jesus Christ is my Master, my Lord, my Savior. If somebody's not willing to acknowledge that to you, that's beyond a red flag.
Speaker 1:This next chapter talking about saving people out of Egypt. He destroyed those who did not believe, the angels who didn't keep their own dominion. He put them in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment day. And Sodom and Gomorrah those who indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh are an example of undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Sodom and Gomorrah are a pretty good example. They ought to be a very fearful example for us in America today. Indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, men using men instead of women, women going after women instead of men, right, the destruction of those cities. We have a whole month, sadly, that we are in right now that our nation is celebrating gross immorality and going after strange flesh. Right, we have a whole month set aside now in this nation that was founded as a Christian republic, republic.
Speaker 1:It's going to be hard maybe, other than feminism and abortion, those two, to think of something other than just outright rejection of God, which all of these, basically all of those, fall into that category. Abortion, feminism, lgbtq lifestyles, basically all fall into this category of just rejecting God. But God, that's just dangerous folks. It's so dangerous for us to celebrate immorality, to celebrate sin before God, as if he's not going to do anything, as if we don't have a history just chock full of examples of when we go against God, of that not ending well. Look at Israel, look at the 20th century. You know we talk about that and that's one of the things. I would love to serialize that alone book from William Manchester on the podcast someday. Maybe I will get that opportunity.
Speaker 1:But a lot of people don't realize the sexual immorality that was rampant in Germany in the 20s and 30s. I mean it was. It rivaled some of the nastiness that we do today in America, in fact some of it probably. Well, I don't know if it exceeded it, but it certainly paralleled it. You go back and you look at some of the sexual immorality in Rome as it was falling. You just you cannot this idea of socially liberal but fiscally conservative it doesn't work. You know we talked about I think there was a quote recently from Teddy Roosevelt or somebody I can't remember, and they talked about the fact the idea of a nation being immoral and continuing to function it just, it doesn't happen historically. You won't find that example, verse 8,.
Speaker 1:Yet in the same way, these men also, by dreaming, defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said the Lord, rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed. Woe to them. By these things they are destroyed when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves. Clouds without water, carried along by the winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam, wondering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Speaker 1:It was also about these men that Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers finding fault, following after their own lusts. They speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. Keep yourselves in the love of God, but you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you in the last time, there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life, and have mercy on some who are doubting, save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some, have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
Speaker 1:24. Jesus Christ, our Lord, be the glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. 24, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless, with a great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There's no other way, folks, to stand before God. No denomination Protestant, orthodox, catholic it's not going to save you. Mary's not Joseph's not. The apostles aren't Peter Paul, the thief on the cross, any pope, pastor, priest. None of those people are going to be able to stand before God for you. Only Jesus Christ, and anybody that tells you otherwise, isn't teaching or preaching you the gospel of Jesus Christ. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Verse 21,.
Speaker 1:Waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. How many of us wait anxiously for heaven with Jesus Christ each day? Is that the top of your priority list? With Jesus Christ each day, is that the top of your priority list? I mean, is that something you look forward to each day? Or do we cling to the world? Are we more pleased and excited about things in this world than we are? God and Jesus Christ and eternity with them? There's nothing wrong with enjoying the things of this world. By the way folks, god put them there, your spouse, your children just laughter joy. But how many of us are more concerned about enjoying this life? I find myself caught up in that so often. I get concerned about whether I'm really getting out of this life what I ought to. You know, what's fair, what's my due, whatever, however you want to say it, that whole entitlement mentality Instead of really just being focused on God and Jesus Christ and eternity.
Speaker 1:I always go back to this example Reep a Cheep, a character out of CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, a little fearless mouse, and he fights bravely without fear, and he's in a couple books, I think, and at the end of I believe it's the Dawn Treader. He gets to glimpse and go to heaven, basically Narnia or the Aslan's land, the king's land, right, and we don't get to see it. The scene out of the movie is great, just the glowing smile that lights this space up and the laughter and the happiness. But, folks, heaven is going to be so far beyond anything that we can imagine, anything we've seen, and it's good to cling to that, cling to Jesus Christ and that hope of eternal life. Our preacher talked about verse 19. He didn't use verse 19 out of Jude, but these are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But he talked about this division that we see in Christianity so often.
Speaker 1:And, folks, if you're around, people that claim to be Christian, but they're more interested, most interested, when they start all their conversations about their denomination. That ought to be a red flag to you, whether it's Baptist or Methodist, church of Christ, lutheran, presbyterian, Roman Catholic, greek, orthodox, whatever it is. If their focus most of the time is on their denomination or Mary or Joseph or the apostles instead of Jesus Christ, that ought to be a huge red flag to you and you would do well to steer clear of them. The primary thing for all of us as Christians ought to be that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he alone live a perfect, sinful or sinless life, that he died for our sins, that God raised him from the dead and that because of that, because of his sacrifice and his blood alone, we have salvation and eternal life. That ought to be the core of every denomination and that ought to be what we preach most every denomination. That faith in Christ alone gets you to God and eternal life and heaven. And all the other things that we pick up are different doctrinal, denominational doctrine. Those ought to be so far secondary. We should be focused on unifying the body of Christ and the way our pastor said it I've heard him say this before. It's been a while, but I loved it of Christ and the way our pastor said it I've heard him say this before. It's been a while, but I loved it.
Speaker 1:So often the thing that gets in the way of the church. The worst is the church. It's us, you know we talk about. We want to bring all these people in, these lost souls. But they look at us and they see us fighting each other because we belong to our special little club over here and these people belong to a different club and it's not my club and they they're kind of weird. You got to look out for them Instead of Preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Read scripture, share scripture. You don't even have to make any comments. I worry about that. I talk too much. Anyway, we're going to move on now. Uh, just share scripture, share scripture.
Speaker 1:So we do these little history bits. One thing that probably other than outright rejection of God, one of the things that has concerned me most is our education system, because it affects our children, and Harvard is a great example of how far education has fallen, of how far education has fallen. And so in the next couple of days I just wanted to read through every once in a while we read through these rules and precepts where Harvard started, or pretty close to when they started. These rules and precepts are from the 26th of September 1642. And just a reminder here, folks, out of the first 108 schools that were founded in America, 106 of them were founded on the Christian faith. So anytime somebody tells you in our little neck of the woods in America that our American education system wasn't founded on the principles of Jesus Christ, they just don't know what they're talking about. So we're going to read through a few of these today and we'll read through a few of them tomorrow. There's eight of them.
Speaker 1:When any scholar is able to make, write and speak true Latin in verse and prose and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek language, he is capable of admission into the college. Nouns and verbs in the Greek language, he is capable of admission into the college. Now can you imagine if that was a requirement today for colleges, that you had to be able to speak just even in two different languages, even if they weren't Latin and Greek? That would certainly be a limiting factor in our education system. Two, let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider. Well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life John 17, 3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all, sound knowledge and learning and seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom. Let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret, to seek it of him. Proverbs 2 and 3. 3. This is Harvard again, folks. Think about Harvard, yale, columbia, brown. Think about these schools that were once our preeminent schools in the nation. And think about the schools in your neck of the woods, the big public universities, florida, texas, lsu my brain just went away USC, I mean. Wherever you are across the country, oregon, maryland, virginia Tech, nyu, byu, it doesn't matter, folks. Think about those schools.
Speaker 1:As we're reading through this, everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of language and logic and in practical and spiritual truths, as his tutor shall require according to his ability. Seeing the entrance of the word giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple Psalm 119, 130. We'll come back and read some more of this on the next podcast. Folks, that was just a little bit of history I wanted to go through today. All right, we'll get into a couple of Medal of Honors today and then we'll move on. So I did a horrible job of remembering D-Day this year, but I'm going to try and make up for it here and really any of those days. There's no bad days to remember those events and those people in particular on. So we're going to read a few Medal of Honors today, from June 6th or around that time frame, 1944. First one we're going to read is actually Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
Speaker 1:Ranked Brigadier General, world War II, 4th Infantry Division, us Army, june 6, 1944, normandy invasion, france. Her gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty. On 6 June 1944 in France, after two verbal requests to accompany the leading assault elements in the Normandy invasion had been denied, brigadier General Roosevelt's written request for this mission was approved and he landed with the first wave of the forces assaulting the enemy-held beaches. He repeatedly led groups from the beach over the seawall and established them inland. His valor, courage and presence in the very front of the attack and his complete unconcern at being under heavy fire inspired the troops to heights of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. Although the enemy had the beach under constant direct fire, brig general roosevelt moved from one loc another, rallying men around him, directed and personally led them against the enemy Under his seasoned, precise, calm and unfaltering leadership, assault troops reduced beach strongpoints and rapidly moved inland with minimum casualties. He thus contributed substantially to the successful establishment of the beachhead in France.
Speaker 1:Accredited to Oyster Bay, nassau County, new York, awarded posthumously Presented 21 September 1944. The Pentagon, presented by Secretary of War Henry L Stimson to his widow, born September 13, 1887, oyster Bay, nassau County, new York, united States, died 12 July 1944, normandy, france. Buried ABMC Normandy Cemetery. Mhd TAC-28, tac-45, st Laurent, sermair, france. Location of Metal Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, cove Neck, new York. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. John J Pender Jr. Rank Technician 5th Grade World War II, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, us Army. 6 June 1944, near Collaville, sermier, france. Citation as follows for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, above and beyond the call of duty, on 6 June 1944, near Colleville, sermier, france.
Speaker 1:On D-Day, technician 5th grade Pinder landed on the coast 100 yards offshore under devastating enemy machine gun and artillery fire which caused severe casualties among the boatload. Carrying a vitally important radio, he struggled towards the shore in waist-deep water, only a few yards from his craft. He was hit by enemy fire and was gravely wounded. Technician fifth grade Pinder never stopped. He made sure and delivered the radio, refusing to take cover afforded or to accept medical attention for his wounds. Technician 5th Grade Pinder, though terribly weakened by loss of blood and in fierce pain, on three occasions went into the fire-swept surf to salvage communication equipment. He recovered many vital parts and equipment, including another workable radio. On the third trip he was again hit, suffering machine gun bullet wounds in the legs. Still, this valiant soldier would not stop for rest or medical attention. Remaining exposed to heavy enemy fire, growing steadily weaker, he aided in establishing the vital radio communications on the beach. While so engaged, this dauntless soldier was hit for the third time and killed. The indomitable courage and personal bravery of technician 5th grade Pinder was a magnificent inspiration to the men with whom he served.
Speaker 1:Accredited to Burgettstown, washington County, pennsylvania. Awarded posthumously, presented 26 January 1945 to his father, john J Pender Sr, by Major General Philip Hayes at the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore, maryland. Born 6 June 1912, mckees Rocks, al-gahani County, pennsylvania, united States. Died 6 June 1944, france. Buried Grandview Cemetery, burgettstown Township, hanover, pennsylvania, united States. Location of Metal Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, pittsburgh, pennsylvania. As with some of these more recent medals, there's a lot of additional articles, if you're interested, on the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. They do a great job with this stuff, kind of all in one place.
Speaker 1:Frank D Paragory Paragory, technical Sergeant World War II, kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry, 29th Infantry Division, us Army, 8 June 1944, grand Camp France. Probably not saying that right, but that's the way it looks. On 8 June 1944, the 3rd Battalion of the 116th Infantry was advancing on the strongly held German defenses at Grand Camp France when the leading elements were suddenly halted by decimating machine gun fire from a firmly entrenched enemy force on the high ground overlooking the town. After numerous attempts to neutralize the enemy position by supporting artillery and tank fire had proved ineffective, technical Sergeant Paragory, on his own initiative, advanced up the hill under withering fire and worked his way to the crest where he discovered an entrenchment leading to the main fortifications 200 yards away. Ramifications 200 yards away. Without hesitating, he leaped into the trench and moved toward the emplacement. Encountering a squad of enemy riflemen, he fearlessly attacked them with hand grenades and bayonet, killed eight and forced three to surrender. Continuing along the trench, he single-handedly forced the surrender of 32 more riflemen, captured the machine gunners and opened the way for the leading elements of the battalion to advance and secure its objective. The extraordinary gallantry and aggressiveness displayed by Technical Sergeant Paragory are exemplary of the highest traditions of the armed forces Accredited to Charlottesville, charlottesville County, virginia, awarded posthumously Presented June 1945 to his widow, bessie Kirby.
Speaker 1:Paragory by Brigadier General ER Warner Cable at the Charlottesville Virginia Armory, born April 10, 1915. Estimant, albemarle County, virginia, united States, died 14 June 1944, france. Buried. Abmc Normandy Cemetery, mhg TAC 21, tac 7, st Lawrence, sermier, france. Location of metal ABMC Normandy Cemetery, normandy, france. Mc Normandy Cemetery, normandy, france.
Speaker 1:I can't help, when I read these folks, to think about the fact that a lot of these men did these extraordinary deeds, lived through that moment and then died days later, at this particular time in the war, and that there were so many others, there were so many who were lost that there's stories that probably aren't even known, or definitely stories that we've lost about their bravery, just the number of men who were willing to sacrifice their lives to fight against evil and defend liberty. What are we willing to do today? Are we even willing today to do anything? Are we willing to risk our lives and our fortunes, our comfort, to get our country back on track, to stand against those who support evil, and it doesn't really matter why. Folks, folks, you know, at the end of the day, why the Germans citizenry supported the Nazi party. It doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter why so many of good men and women in the South supported the Confederacy and slavery. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter why so many decent men and women supported the tyranny of the British. At the end of the day, at some point, folks, we have to stand up against evil, not even for our own sakes, but for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy, those who are going to come after us, and that might mean that we give our lives up. That might mean that we give our lives up. That might mean that we lose our fortunes. That might mean that our circumstances are drastically reduced. I don't like the sound of that any more than y'all do, but it's the truth.
Speaker 1:And you think about these men, think about their widows. A couple of these, a lot of these men that we read about on the podcast from the Medal of Honors. They weren't old. They were young men. Their wives were young women. Unless you're just a complete cynic, you have to assume that some of those marriages were wonderful. Those guys wanted to come home to their wives. Those wives wanted their husbands to come home and they didn't.
Speaker 1:You think about the disciples. I think we forget that too often with the disciples, that some of those disciples had families and yet they chose Christ. It's not that they didn't love their parents, their siblings, their wife. It's just simply that they loved God and Jesus Christ more and they knew that they had a responsibility to spread that light to other people. Like FDR was talking about the question that was asked that Musk reposted. If we really want to continue to spread light and liberty, we have to cling to the Bible, to God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Now, as I said, I did a poor job with D-Day, but I'm going to, I'm trying to make amends and so I read a few Medal of Honors we're going to read, if I can find it I know I have it because I just downloaded it we're to read through the prayer from FDR for D-Day. We typically read through this each year. This is June 6, 1944. We also typically read through Eisenhower's commentary, but I don't think I have that in front of me today, so we'll read through. Fdr's.
Speaker 1:My fellow Americans, last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome. I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far, and so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer. Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation this day, have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true. Give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard, for the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again, and we know that by thy grace and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. They will be sore, dried by night and by day, without rest, until the victory is won.
Speaker 1:The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the, the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise and tolerance and goodwill among all thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. I will never return. Embrace these, father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into thy kingdom and for us at home, fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them.
Speaker 1:Help us, almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in thee in this hour of great sacrifice. In this hour of great sacrifice, many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking thy help in our efforts. Give us strength to strengthen our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces, and let our hearts be stout to wait out the long travail to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons, wheresoever they may be. And, o Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in thee, faith in our sons, faith in each other, faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment, let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. With thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country and, with our sister nations, into a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men, and a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest soil. Thy will be done, almighty God, amen.
Speaker 1:It's always amazing to me how much better the prayers get when the times in our nation get darker. You look at during the Revolutionary War, during the Civil War. You look again here at World War Two. We talk about this each year at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The closer we get when we're going through the 30s often Christmas announcements each year that we got closer to World War II you notice the language becomes a little more pointed, a little more desperate toward God and Jesus Christ. You see, this prayer here, in this hour of trial, is so clear.
Speaker 1:Fdr is not asking people to pray to Allah. He's not asking people to pray to Mother Nature or Buddhism or Hinduism or anything else. He's not asking for prayer to any of those imposters, but to the one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And you see, he's also very clear, right, when he's talking to God, when he's talking about the men fighting overseas. They will need thy blessings, right, we know, by thy grace, renewed faith in thee, invoking thy help. Give us faith in thee with thy blessing, right and all of these together. He's making the point that we've been actually talking about all day. And it was accidentally done, that post Although I'm not sure anything's accidentally done, I wish I would remember that more often but that post from Musk about Western civilization.
Speaker 1:But we're not great folks. We have never been great in America because we were so bright or pretty or funny or smart or strong or fast. That's not the point. That is never, ever. What has made us great, that's just our arrogance and pride. What has made us great is our relationship with God and Jesus Christ. You see that in this prayer, fdr's, on D-Day, we got to have your help, god. We need your blessings, we need your guidance, not us. We need you to your help, god. We need your blessings. We need your guidance, not us. We need you to be with our sons, the pride of our nation. You see, this desire.
Speaker 1:He acknowledges these men. They're not over there fighting for money or greed or land. They want to come back home. They're just fighting for liberty, for freedom, and they're fighting against how does he say it? The unholy forces of our enemy Folks. We have problems today in America that are leading us to the same point of war, abortion, feminism, separation of God and state. And, make no mistake, the forces, the citizens that are involved with these forces. These are unholy forces, spiritual forces that are seeking to destroy our nation, not because America is just naturally so great folks, but because of our ties to God and Jesus Christ, and that gives us the ability to spread the gospel of Christ, to spread liberty, to spread light, to spread hope to people, to turn to God and Jesus Christ, to save souls. You have to understand that. About the left, all that bucket of isms and Islam the core value of theirs is anti-Christ. Because you have to understand the spiritual forces that are at work the devil and his minions. They don't want people to turn to Christ Above all else. They don't want people to turn to Christ Above all else. They don't want people to turn to Christ.
Speaker 1:There's a lot here, folks, but there's two phrases that caught my attention. One is keenness of our spirit. Let it never be dulled. Let not the keenness of our spirit, let it never be dulled right, let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporal events, of temporal matters, of but fleeting moment Let these, let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose Our life and our fortunes right After our sin. Don't let us get so concerned about the things of this life that we put them in more importance than things of the spiritual realm of eternity. With you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, let our spirit never forget what's really important.
Speaker 1:And then the other phrase here is this continuance of prayer. Folks, we're at this point. We ought to be praying, and I'm talking to myself here as much as y'all. I need to pray more often during our prayers together for the nation. I need to pray more often on my own in the mornings and the evenings for the nation, because we're just setting ourselves up for more failure, just surprise at failure, when we don't understand what Thomas Jefferson understood, which is I tremble for my nation, because I know that God is just and his justice can't sleep forever.
Speaker 1:Our support of abortion, feminism, most of all, separation of God and state, lgbtq relationships, no-fault divorce, just, we've got a pretty lengthy list of blood on our hands. We can't just keep going on. It's like the national debt. It's like any person that has a credit card that keeps running it up and doesn't pay it off. There's going to come a point when the bill comes due.
Speaker 1:We need to be in continual prayer or, as FDR said, in this D-Day prayer, we need to devote ourselves as a people to a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day and again when the day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts. Not to do it on our own folks, but to do it through God's strength. Great prayer, you get a chance. Go back and read through it again, something that we definitely ought to be teaching our kids in every home and in every classroom across the nation. You have to wonder if it is. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages If you're married. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.