The American Soul
The American Soul
The Bible's Role in Preserving America's Republic
Jesse Cope explores how Biblical principles and founder wisdom can guide America today, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing God and family in our daily lives. The episode challenges listeners to examine where they're investing their time and whether they're truly living according to their professed values.
• Gratitude for podcast listeners who share and pray for the show
• Challenging question about prioritizing God and spouse above distractions
• Scripture readings on generous giving (2 Corinthians 9)
• David's powerful prayer of repentance in Psalm 51
• Warning about the company we keep from Proverbs 22
• Tribute to Medal of Honor recipient Edward James Bebb
• Founder quotes warning about democracy versus republic
• The Bible as the foundation for maintaining a republican form of government
• How separation of church and state has been misused to remove God from public life
Join us for our other podcast where we're reading through "Countryside, the Book of the Wise" - available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or through any bookstore.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope 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. Sure, do appreciate y'all joining me. And for those of y'all who have started to join us over on the other podcast where we're reading through Countryside, the Book of the Wise, thank you. I hope y'all are enjoying that story there too.
Speaker 1:For those of y'all that continue to support the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much for those of y'all who share the podcast and for those of y'all who pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you very much. Very, very grateful for those prayers, need them and want them. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love, your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins. For all your. Many blessings, father, the ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Many blessings, father, the ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Forgive us our greed, our selfishness, our pride, arrogance, judgment of others, rash words and actions, our cowardice and our unpolished. Help us to overcome them all. Help us to do your will, above all else, help us to follow the commands of your son, jesus Christ, to love him, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with those who are hurting, father, those who are suffering in any way heartbroken, illness, injury. Be with those who have lost loved ones. Be with the families of the law enforcement officers that we've lost across the nation recently firefighters. Be with those who have been lost in floods. Be with those who are used and abused by other trafficking. Help us to fight against that evil. Help us to push back on that and to offer comfort and peace to those who have suffered through it. Help us to care for the least of these and please be with those, father, who are listening today, wherever they are. Be with their families, bless their marriages, give them strength and hope and courage and wisdom. And God, my words are your place In your son's name. We pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today and have you made time for your spouse? If you're married, what all are you going to give time to? What have you already planned to give time to today, above God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and above your spouse, and why? Why are you giving time to social media, workouts, tv phones, screens of any kind, kids, parents, friends, sports in person, playing them, watching them? Why are you giving time to any of that stuff before your spouse and, more importantly, before God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? You need to be able to answer that, at least for yourself, folks.
Speaker 1:Second Corinthians 9, verses 1-15. I really don't need to write to you about this ministry of giving for the believers in Jerusalem, for I know how eager you are to help and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Greece were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving. But I am sending these brothers to be sure you really are ready, as I have been telling them, and that your money is all collected. I don't want to be wrong in my boasting about you. We would be embarrassed, not to mention your own embarrassment, if some Macedonian believers came with me and found that you weren't ready. After all I had told them. So I thought I should send these brothers ahead of me to make sure the gift you promised is ready. But I want it to be a willing gift, not one given grudgingly.
Speaker 1:Remember this a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully, and God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. As the scriptures say, they share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever, for God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two good things will result from this ministry of giving the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met and they will joyfully express their thanks to God as a result of your ministry. They will give glory to God For your generosity to them and to all believers, will prove that you are obedient to the good news of Christ and they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words.
Speaker 1:Psalm 51, verses 1 through 19. A psalm of David regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, o God, because of your unfailing love, because of your great compassion. Blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin, for I recognize my rebellion. It haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned? I have done what is evil in your sight.
Speaker 1:You will be proved right in what you say and your judgment against me is just, for I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. O, give me back my joy again. You have broken me. Now let me rejoice. O, give me back my joy again. You have broken me. Now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, o God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels and they will return to you. Forgive me for shedding blood, o God who saves. Then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, o Lord, that my mouth may praise you. You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, o God, look with favor on Zion and help her Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar. Proverbs 22, verses 24-25.
Speaker 1:Don't befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people, or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul. There's a lot here, folks, but basically, do we give generously, do we give willingly? Do we give abundantly? Do we plant abundantly to try and save lost souls? Do we give to those that we claim to love abundantly? Then, do we really repent when we commit sins? Are we really sorry? Do we seek to restore that relationship, to turn back to God, to seek His forgiveness and His grace and His mercy? Are we really sorry? And then the Proverbs folks. It matters who we hang out with. It matters what we associate with, who we associate with music, books, movies, tv people. What we take in becomes our character.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to try and get back to putting in one of the Medal of Honor recipients each day. This is Edward James Bebb, private US Civil War Delta Company 4th Iowa Cavalry, us Army. April 16, 1865, columbus, georgia, usa, capture a flag and that's the entire citation Accredited to Mount Pleasant, henry County, iowa. Not awarded. Posthumously Awarded June 17, 1865. Born April 28, 1839, butler County, ohio. Died July 12, 1916, marshalltown, iowa, I believe. Buried New Salem Cemetery, linville, iowa, united States. Edward James Webb.
Speaker 1:A few quotes Again. If you're looking for really good resources, folks, I highly recommend America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes by William J Federer. America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes by William J Federer, the Patriot's Bible by Dr Richard Lee and the Founder's Bible by the Wall Builder Association, john Adams, talking about warning about democracy. Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mold itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science To the wanton pleasures, the capricious will and the excrucible, abominable cruelty of one or a very few. That's what socialism, communism, leftism, nazism, fascism, islam. That's what they lead to the cruelty, the abominable cruelty of one or a very few.
Speaker 1:How do you get there? Through democracy, through mob rule. Everybody does exactly what they want. Nobody's property, reputation, liberty is secure. You don't care about what other people have, you don't care about their reputation, you don't care about their liberty. You don't care about their reputation, you don't care about their liberty, you don't care about their property, you, just everybody does exactly what they want, and all of our moral virtues become subordinate to what Pleasure. Doing what we want to do, being who we want to be, you know, taking care of me. Does that not sound familiar today? So anyway, it's just a good reminder, folks, that our founders did not want a democracy, they wanted a republic. They set up a republic and they were rightfully fearful of a democracy because it leads to so many evils. And we seem to be on that path today.
Speaker 1:Another one from John Adams how do you keep those republican principles, how do you keep that Republic right? The Bible is the most Republican book in the world. Benjamin Rush I have always. He was one of our great founders, a signer of the Declaration Noah Webster right Webster's Dictionary. A lot of us should at least remember that. Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct Republican principles is the Bible. So you see this over and over again. Our founders wanted a republic. How do you sustain a republic? How do you keep a republic? The Bible, the principles laid out in the Bible. So it ought to make sense. We ought to be able to connect the dots and see why the left has fought so hard for the last 80 years, particularly especially since Emerson or Everson I always want to say that wrong versus Board of Education back in 1947, which claimed to be about separation of church and state, but it was really about separation of God and state.
Speaker 1:They used that phrase separation of church and state but what they were really doing is to try and separate God and Jesus Christ out of our nation and our founders just they would never have countenanced that folks, they would never have agreed to that. And we have a pretty good quote by Joseph Story that we read often on the podcast One of our great Supreme Court justices, commentators on the Constitution, talking about the fact that if that founding generation as a whole had ever thought that the First Amendment would be used to take God and Jesus Christ out of the nation, they would have never agreed to it. I do appreciate y'all joining. Hope y'all are enjoying the podcast, getting something out of it. Hope you're able to listen to it with somebody else Again.
Speaker 1:If you have a chance, come and join us over on the other podcast where we're reading through Countryside, the Book of the Wise, and if you enjoy that, if you're looking for a good kids book, you can buy it at Amazon, barnes, noble, any bookstore can order it. So we'll talk to y'all again real soon. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. If you're married. God bless your nation. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.