Guard The Rarest Bond: Marriage, Faith, And Honest Repentance

What if the rarest bond in your life is the one you treat like an afterthought? We open with Genesis and a clear call to guard marriage as a one‑flesh covenant, not an accessory that gets leftovers after screens and noise. It’s a simple test with huge stakes: where your time goes, your heart follows. That theme threads into a vivid reading of Matthew 26, where betrayal comes with a kiss, the sword flashes, and Christ chooses obedience over force. The scene reframes strength and reminds us that fidelity is quieter than bravado and stronger than impulse.

From there we turn to Psalm 32, a song that traces the ache of concealed guilt and the breakthrough of confession. Joy returns when we stop hiding and accept real forgiveness through Christ. We talk about honest repentance as a daily habit that restores trust in marriages, families, and communities. The conversation widens to public life with a sober look at violence and ideology, not to score points but to insist that ideas have human costs. We remember a Medal of Honor sailor, Patrick Francis Bresnahan, as a model of duty and ordinary courage that often goes unseen yet sets a standard worth following.

Noah Webster’s charge that nothing can be honorable if it is morally wrong gives us a North Star in a culture that confuses popularity with virtue. We apply that lens to personal choices, civic responsibility, and how we treat those closest to us. Along the way, we share practical ways to reorder attention, protect the covenant of marriage, and live with integrity at home and in public. If this conversation moves you, share it with someone who needs a lift, subscribe for more, and leave a review so others can find the show. What one priority will you change this week to give your best to what’s most rare?

Transcript

Welcome, Prayer, And Intentions

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cooper 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. Sure do appreciate you joining me and giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you very much. Very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, and your forgiveness of sins. Through the merit of your son Jesus Christ alone. Thank you for the people who listen to the podcast. Thank you for the people that share it. Please be with them, be with their families. Guide them and bless them. Surround them with your angels. Protect them from evil of any kind. Help us, Father, to help those who have less than we do. Help us to help our country turn back to you. Help us to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength to love our neighbors as ourselves. Forgive us our sins. Forgive us our greed, our pride, our arrogance, our judgment, our lust, our covetousness, our cowardice and our unbelief. We do believe. Help us to help those that have less than we do. Help us to help the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Be with our farmers and our ranchers, our fishers, our foresters, those who go out and bring so much bounty that you have blessed us with and give them bountiful crops and herds and harvest.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Be with our families. Be with our priests and our pastors, our leaders, president, vice president, admirals, generals, senators, representatives, governors, judges. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you. Be with our educators, public school, private school, home school, parents. Help us to guide our children to know you and your son. And please guide my words here, Father. Your son's name we pray.

unknown 2:39

Amen.

Priorities: Spouse Over Screens

Matthew 26: Betrayal And Trial

Psalm 32 And Confession

Forgiveness, Unbelief, And Hope

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Marriage verse for today, right? Is Genesis 2, 24 through 25. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and use and is united to his wife and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. That's the NIV in the CEB, the common English Bible. This is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife and they become one flesh. The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they weren't embarrassed. There's a lot there, folks, just in those two short verses, become one flesh, embrace naked and not ashamed. There's no other relationship that you're ever going to have in this life where God tells you to cleave to that person, to become one flesh with that person. The only relationship like that is your spouse. It's literally one out of seven billion. Even if you lived in a country where they allowed uh polygamy or you thought that that was okay, and a man had two wives or whatever, that's still two out of seven billion, folks. If we anything that was that rare, any treasure that was that rare, uh, we would guard fiercely. And yet, so many of us, we just throw our marriages away. We we treat our spouse as if they're an appendage, an accessory, right? They get the leftovers. But when you read this, you go back to Genesis, your spouse should never be a leftover, folks. They should always get more time and attention than your phone or your TV remote, social media, entertainment, sports, right? And how we spend our time tells the world what our priorities really are, no matter what we say. All right, scripture for today, Matthew 26. We're going to start with verse 47 through 68. And even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests and elders of the people. The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal. You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss. So Judas came straight to Jesus. Greetings, rabbi, he exclaimed, and gave him the kiss. Jesus said, My friend, go ahead and do what you have come for. Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him, but one of the men with Jesus pulled out his sword and struck the high priest's slave, slashing off his ear. Put away your sword, Jesus told him. Those who use the sword will die by the sword. Don't you realize that I could ask my father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now? Then Jesus said to the crowd, Am I some dangerous revolutionary that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn't you arrest me in the temple? I was there teaching every day. But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the scriptures. At that point all the disciples deserted him and fled. Then the people who had arrested Jesus led him to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of religious law and the elders had gathered. Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the high priest's courtyard. He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it would all end. Inside the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus, so they could put him to death. But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone's testimony. Finally, two men came forward who declared, This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, Well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself? But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, I demand in the name of the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus replied, You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God's right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothing to show the horror, his horror, and said, Blasphemy. Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict? Guilty they shouted, He deserves to die. Then they began to spit in Jesus' face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him, jeering, Prophesy to us, you Messiah. Who hit you that time? Psalm thirty two verses one through eleven. Oh what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what a joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. When I refused to confess my sin my body wasted away and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me, all my guilt is gone. Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the flood waters of judgment. For you are my hiding place, you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. The Lord says I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control. Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord. So rejoice in the Lord and be glad all you who obey him. Shout for joy all you whose hearts are pure. Proverbs eight verse twenty seven through thirty two. I, wisdom, was there when he established the heavens, when he drew the horizon on the oceans, I was there when he set the clouds above, when he established springs deep in the earth. I was there when he set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries, and when he marked off the earth's foundations, I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence, and how happy I was with the world he created, how I rejoiced with the human family. And so my children, listen to me, for all who follow my ways are joyful. You go back to Psalm 32. I don't know if I just haven't paid attention over the years reading this, or if this particular translation really strikes me, but what a joy for those whose sin is put out of sight, whose disobedience is forgiven, whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are in complete honesty. I confess my sins and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me all my guilt is gone. That's what happens, folks, when we trust in Jesus Christ. When we confess Christ as our Lord and Savior, as the risen Son of God, and seek forgiveness through Him alone to God.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Every sin, folks, is forgiven. Right?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

The only sin that's unforgivable is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And I you need you need somebody that's more of a theologian than me to explain that, but I've always assumed in my simple mind that what that means is choosing to reject God and reject his gift of the Holy Spirit. That that's the only way that we can lose our salvation or or not have it, is by choosing to reject God, Jesus Christ. Right? The Holy Spirit. Otherwise, folks, there's nothing you can do, nothing you've done is too bad. I mean, you look at David.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

David committed adultery, had the girl's husband murdered.

Taliban Attack And Ideologies

SPEAKER_01 12:04

I mean, he did about all you could do wrong, and yet he was still a man after God's own heart. He still was forgiven. Right? So and then you look you look at Peter, who and the disciples who abandoned Jesus Christ, fled, left him alone. I always take great comfort in that. I hope that y'all do too. All right, so our little section that we've started on the actions of the followers of leftism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, Islam, right? So on February 2nd, 2009, in Tarin Khat, the capital of Uruzgan, a province in southern Afghanistan, if I said any of that right, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police training center. The bomber was disguised in a police uniform, walked in around 11:30 in the morning, local time, and blew himself up, killed 21 officers who were training to be police officers, I think, wounded at least seven to 20 more, and damaged some of the facilities there, right? The Taliban, which is, if you don't know, is their followers of Islam. Uh they immediately claimed responsibility, and their spokesman, whose name I won't even try and pronounce, uh, declared it a victory because of their war that they were waging against really the West, the Afghan security forces that were working, right? Um, we worked with a lot of these guys. I I've said this before on the podcast, right? There were some men overseas that I worked with uh that were nominally Muslim that I knew if I turned my back on in a dark alley, they were going to give their life to protect me, right? I knew that the only way that the bad guys were gonna get to me is if they had already killed them. Uh but I also always say, in my experience, every single one of those men, they weren't very good Muslims. And what I mean by that is it's kind of the same as being Christmas and Easter Christians, right? You go every once in a while, you kind of go through the motions, but you're not really a follower of Christ. And and these men uh they were Muslim, but they they weren't really devoted to the Quran and Muhammad.

unknown 14:48

Right.

Medal Of Honor: P. F. Bresnahan

Noah Webster On Rights And Honor

Book Plugs, Support, And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Um, and so anyway, this this February 2nd, 2009, trying Taran Khat in Afghanistan. Uh, and there's so many stories like that, folks. And and the other thing that that this really shows you when we're talking about these ideologies is if the people were really concerned, right, if if it was really a big deal, then you would hear this huge outcry from followers of socialism, communism, Nazism, leftism, Islam, but you don't. You don't. All right. Medal of honor for today. Patrick Francis Bresnahan. Bresnahan, I don't know. Uh his rank was water tender, the interim 1899 through 1910, USS Iowa, U.S. Navy, January 25th, 1905. The USS Iowa at sea. Serving on board the USS Iowa for extraordinary heroism at the time of the blowing out of the manhole plate of Boiler D on board that vessel 25 January 1905. Folks, I'm not enough of a naval person to even tell you what that means, but I bet it wasn't good. I bet it wasn't good. Accredited to Vermont, not awarded posthumously, presented April 14, 1921. Born May 1, 1872, Peabody, Essex County, Massachusetts, died January 29th, 1940. Buried St. Mary's Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts. Patrick Francis Bresnahan. Another name, folks, that we ought to remember a lot more than pop singers, professional athletes, actors, or actresses. Uh, especially we have so many that like to tear our country down today. So we are going to go back into uh Noah Webster and this advice for the young that he wrote uh as an appendix to his history. And we're gonna start today with this is paragraph 42. We're gonna read a couple more. Now, are you to be less careful of the rights of others than of their reputation and property? By the laws of creation and by our civil constitution, all men have equal rights to protection, to liberty, and to the free enjoyment of all the benefits and privileges of government. All secret attempts by associations or otherwise to give to one set of men or one party advantages over another are mean, dishonorable, and immoral. All secret combinations of men to gain for themselves or their party advantages and preference to office are trespasses upon the rights of others. This is a great example, folks, of what I talk about so often. When people throw slavery in your face, talking about the United States as horrible, one of the things that they obviously don't understand, excuse me, is slavery was a mistake, obviously, but in the sense of the founding principles of our country, it should never have been. It went directly against those founding principles that said all men were created equally by God. There was no place for it. It should never have existed. It should have gone out of existence at the time of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It didn't. It's easily arguable that that was God's penalty, was the Civil War. Lincoln talked about that. We've talked about it a number of times on the podcast. But so when somebody says, well, the America was built on the backs of slaves, it was, you know, that's a founding principle. No, it wasn't. That was one of the mistakes that should never have been, because it's not in line with the principles of Christ, which, as John Adams told us, uh, those were the founding principles of America. Paragraph 43. In every condition of life and informing your opinions on every subject, let it be an established principle in regarding and regulating your conduct that nothing can be honorable which is morally wrong. Need to read that again, folks, today. Nothing can be honorable which is morally wrong. Men who discard or disbelieve revelation often err from the true standard of honor by substituting public opinion or false maxims for the divine laws. The characters of God, his holy attributes, and perfect law constitute the only models and rules of excellence and true honor. Whatever deviates from these models and rules must be wrong and dishonorable. Crime and vice are therefore not only repungent to duty and to human happiness, but are always derogatory to reputation. All vice implies defect and meanness in human character. Folks, I mean that's feminism, abortion, LGBTQ lifestyles, rejection of God, bigotry, racism, DEI, CRT, like this all falls under this category that Noah Webster was talking about. Nothing can be honorable which is morally wrong. There's no way to honorably defend those stances that are morally wrong. Noah Webster again. We were going to read some more, but we're pretty much at the end of the podcast. So if you were looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, I would humbly recommend Countryside, right? This is the second book. This is the Tears of the Dina. And then the first book, the Book of the Wise. And if you get a chance to check those out, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoy them, if you would leave a review, there's hardback, paperback, ebook. Pretty much any bookstore can order them for you. And if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast and you have five or ten dollars a month you can donate to the podcast, I would very much appreciate that. And if you can leave a review of it also, that would be very helpful. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stay 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.

unknown 21:29

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

God bless you 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 y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.