The American Soul

Bone Of My Bones

• Jesse • Season 5 • Episode 215

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A covenant marriage, a contested authority, and a crumbling standard—today’s conversation ties these threads into a single question: what do we honor with our time and our lives? We start with Genesis and the one-flesh promise that ranks marriage above every other human bond. From there, we walk through Jesus’ challenge to hollow authority, the parable of the two sons where obedience beats lip service, and the vineyard tenants who reject the Son and lose the harvest. Scripture refuses our shortcuts and asks for fruit, not slogans.

We lean into integrity with the Psalms and Proverbs, naming what God hates and what public life often rewards: pride, lying, scheming, and division. Then we bring in Fisher Ames—architect of the Bill of Rights—who argued that the Bible belongs back in schools for its moral clarity, elegant English, and unifying power. The point isn’t nostalgia; it’s standards. Techniques won’t save a generation when the bar keeps sinking. A shared moral and linguistic canon forms citizens who can think, speak, and act with courage.

Along the way, we honor a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and reflect on the terrible cost of national fracture. The warning is sober: drifting into conflict becomes easier when homes, classrooms, and pulpits lose their anchors. Renewal starts with reclaimed priorities—God first, marriage honored, integrity protected—and a willingness to rebuild on the cornerstone we’ve neglected. If this resonates, share it with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. Your voice helps carry these conversations into the places that need them most.

#FischerAmes #DailyScripture #BiblicalEducation 

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SPEAKER_01:

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well wherever you are, whatever part of the day you're in. Here to appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully, y'all are getting to listen to someone else. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, 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. Through the merit of your son Jesus Christ. Guide our steps. Father, please. Keep us on the narrow path home to you. Scared for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_01:

Comfort them. Draw them close to you, Father.

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Help us to help them in whatever way we can. The widow and the orphan, the poor and the knee. Give us courage, Father, help us to fear you and not man or woman. Be with our leaders.

SPEAKER_01:

Here in America and around the world, wherever people are listening to the podcast. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith.

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Both in the pulpit and in the state. Help them to rule and sphere as you.

SPEAKER_01:

Help us to overcome them. Help us to simply cling to you, Father, to know that we are not of this world or this is not our home, that our home is with you for all eternity because of your free gift through your Son Jesus Christ. Help us to focus on that, to cling to that, to share that joy and that hope and that comfort with others. To know that despite the pain, injury, illness, heartache, devastation that's in this world, that one day we will get to spend all of eternity with you and your Son Jesus Christ in heaven, where there will be no more tears or sorrow or sadness.

SPEAKER_00:

Just joy and love, happiness forever. Be with those listening to the podcast, Father, please. Surround them with your angels and protect them from evil. And guide my word too. In your son's name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01:

Marriage verse for today comes from Genesis chapter two, starting with verse 23. The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

SPEAKER_00:

There is no other relationship you will ever have in all of the world to equal that of your spouse. Do we act like it? Do we act like it? How many hours a day do we give to social media and sports entertainment? How many to God? Most of all, how many to our spouse?

SPEAKER_01:

Scripture for today, Matthew 21, verses 23 through 46. When Jesus returned to the temple and began teaching, the leading priests and elders came up to him. They demandeth, By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right? I'll tell you by what authority I do these things if you answer one question, Jesus replied. Did John's authority to baptize come from heaven? Or was it merely human? They talked it over among themselves. If we say it was from heaven, he will ask us why we didn't believe John. But if we say it was merely human, we'll be mobbed because the people believed John was a prophet. So they finally replied, We don't know. And Jesus responded, Then I won't tell you by what authority I do these things. But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, Son, go out and work in a vineyard today. The son answered, No, I won't go. But later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, You go, and he said, Yes, sir, I will. But he didn't go. Which of the two obeyed his father? They replied, The first. Then Jesus explained his meeting. I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn't believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening you refused to believe him, and repent of your sins. Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a deep pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. At the time of the grape harvest he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him. But the results were the same. Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, surely they will respect my son. But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, Here comes the heir to the estate. Come, let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves. So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him. When the owner of the vineyard returns, Jesus asked, What do you think he will do to those farmers? The religious leaders replied, He will put the wicked men to a horrible death, and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest. Then Jesus asked them, Didn't you ever read this in the scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful to see. I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on. When the leading priests and Pharisees heard this parable they realized he was telling the story against them. They were the wicked farmers. They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds who considered Jesus to be a prophet. Psalm twenty six verses one through twelve. Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity. I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked. I wash my hands to declare my innocence. I come to your altar, O Lord, singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders. I love your sanctuary, Lord, the place where your glorious presence dwells. Don't let me suffer the fate of sinners. Don't condemn me along with murderers. Their hands are dirty with evil schemes, and they constantly take bribes. But I am not like that. I live with integrity. So redeem me and show me mercy. Now I stand on solid ground, and I will publicly praise the Lord. Proverbs six sixteen through nineteen. There are six things the Lord hates, no seven things he detests haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who shows discord in a family.

SPEAKER_00:

Medal of Honor for today is William Brant Jr.

SPEAKER_01:

Lieutenant Highest Ranked Brevet Captain U.S. Civil War Bravo Company 1st New Jersey Veteran Battalion US Army, april third, eighteen sixty five. Petersburg, Virginia, capture of battle flag of the forty sixth, North Carolina. Accredited to Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, not awarded posthumously, presented may tenth, eighteen sixty five. Born eighteen forty, Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey, died March 2nd, 1898, Elizabeth, New Jersey. Buried Evergreen Cemetery, ATAC 136, Tac 4, Hillside, New Jersey, United States. For whatever reason it strikes me today, folks reading this, because a civil war seems pretty likely today, again, you gotta remember the numbers, the devastation that that civil war brought to our country, especially relative to the total population of the United States at that time. And it should cause us to pray, I'm talking to myself here, a lot harder and more frequently to God for a path that avoids civil war if possible. I don't have a whole lot of hope for that, to be honest, folks, but we should continue to hope and pray even as we prepare for the alternative.

SPEAKER_00:

William Brandt Jr. We're gonna read a little Fisher Ames today.

SPEAKER_01:

And this comes out of something. The works of Fisher Ames, volume one, maybe we have a good friend of ours who's their youngest is two years old, and you ask them something, and their response is maybe. It always cracks us up. At any rate, it's Fisher Ames, the works of Fisher Ames, and this is on page 134 of this particular edition. It's a essay titled School Books, first published in the palladium in January of 1801. It has been the custom of late years to put a number of little books into the hands of children containing fables and moral lessons. This is very well because it is right first to raise curiosity and then to guide it. Many books for children are, however, injudiciously compiled. The language is too much raised above the ideas of that tender age. The moral is drawn from the fable, they know not why. And when they gain wisdom from experience, they will see the restrictions and exceptions which are necessary to the rules of conduct laid down in their books, but which such books do not give. Some of the most admired works of this kind abound with a frothy sort of sentiment, as the readers of novels are pleased to call it, the chief merit of which consists in shedding tears and giving away money. Is it right or agreeable to good sense to try and make the tender age more tender? Pity and generosity, though amiable impulses, are blind ones, and as we grow older, are to be managed by rules and restrained by wisdom. It is not clear that the heart at thirty is any the softer for weeping at ten over one of Berquin's fables, the point of which turns on a beggar boy's being ragged, and a rich man's son being well clad. Some persons indeed appear to have shed all their tears of sympathy before they reach the period of mature age. Most young hearts are tender and tender enough. The object of education is rather to direct these emotions, however amiable, than to augment them. Why then, if these books for children must be retained, as they will be, should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the sacred book that is thus early impressed lasts long, and probably if not impressed in infancy never takes firm hold of the mind. One consideration more is important. In no book is there so good English, so pure and so elegant, and by teaching all the same book, they will speak alike, and the Bible will justly remain the standard of language as well as of faith. A barbarous provincial jargon will be banished, and taste corrupted by pompous Johnsonian affection will be restored.

SPEAKER_00:

Johnsonian affectation will be restored. Fisher Ames, eighteen oh one.

SPEAKER_01:

You can see a lot of good arguments there really quickly for the Bible. You maintain the same faith across the country, language, you know, we bemoan kids' inability to speak and write, and we look for all these new tricks and trades and gimmicks to teach them. It's the same with math. The problem, folks, isn't the teaching methods that we use. The problem is that we don't hold the high standard. It's the same as we talked about recently in military law enforcement, firefighters, etc. We have children capable, very capable children. We just need to hold the standard. And for a number of reasons, the Bible needs to go back to being the primary text in our schools. And you can look at who is this? This is Fisher Ames. This is the man that helped frame the Bill of Rights. And in particular, it always amazes me, in particular, worded the Establishment Clause, right? You want to talk about somebody that knew something about separation of church and state as opposed to the Supreme Court justices in 1947. This is the guy that actually wrote the Establishment Clause. And he's saying the Bible ought to be a prime.

SPEAKER_00:

There's a couple different quotes of his, a prime textbook. So I wanted to read y'all something today.

SPEAKER_01:

I was going back through The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. Read a little bit here and there over the last few months, and I came to a passage that I think is extremely applicable to our current political situation inside the United States and really in Western civilization as a whole, definitely in all of Europe. It's a great book, by the way. It doesn't have anything to do, well, it does, but the point is not what I'm about to go through. The point is can you believe the Bible? If you're a skeptic, Strobel was. And I recommend it. He does a great job of talking about the reliability of the Gospels, the New Testament, the likelihood of Jesus' resurrection. It's just a great book. But this little section in here, uh, they were talking about how why the slaughter of babies by Herod wasn't talked about more in non-biblical sources. And there's a number of reasons here that make a lot of sense. But as they were talking about this, they talked about the fact that in 1997 and 1998, there was a steady stream of news account about Muslim extremists repeatedly staging commando raids and slaying virtually entire villages, including women and children, in Algeria.

SPEAKER_00:

Extremists that shouldn't be there. It's just Muslims, folks.

SPEAKER_01:

1997-98. They're doing the same thing in Nigeria today. They've been doing the same thing for centuries. They've done it for all of the 20th century. We have repeated examples. This isn't fringe, it's not bar, it's not extremism. And to use terrorists denotes kind of a misnomer because it's approved of. It's mainstream in the Muslim world. And the way that you know that it is is because you rarely hear any criticism of actions like in Israel from a couple years ago, where they were putting babies in ovens, right? And doing all sorts of other atrocities that I don't even want to mention again.

SPEAKER_00:

You hear very little outcry from the Muslim world as a whole. In fact, you hear celebration. Overwhelmingly so.

SPEAKER_01:

There is no peaceful coexistence with followers of the left or Islam, folks. This isn't new, and it's not going to suddenly change. And hoping, right? What's the definition of insanity? You keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome. Hoping that suddenly followers of the left, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, leftism, and Islam are going to truly become peaceful and tolerant, that's insane. If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, if you would check out the Countryside series, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoy it, you would leave a review for the first or second book. They help a great deal. Kind of like Narnia, The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson. Definitely not claiming that it's as good as those, but I think you'll be entertained by it. And it has hopefully a little bit more of the principles. Of Christ and a little bit less the principles of the world. And if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast on a semi-regular basis, if you have uh if you can leave a review and also if you have five or ten dollars that you can donate per month, that would help a great deal. There's some links for the book and to support the podcast at the bottom of the show notes.

SPEAKER_00:

I would be very grateful.

SPEAKER_01:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be dying on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. 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 listening. God bless America. We'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.