Roof-Digging Faith, Roof-Edge Marriage Advice

Scripture opens the door, but real life walks right in. We start with Psalm 35 and the name of Larisha Sheryl Thompson, a sober reminder that justice, mercy, and grief are not abstractions. From there we pray for guidance, for marriages that mirror Christ and the church, and for the courage to love neighbors, protect the vulnerable, and keep our steps on the narrow road.

The heart of the conversation moves through two demanding paths: the home and the soul. Proverbs on quarrelsome homes force honest vetting—of a future spouse and of ourselves. Then Mark’s Gospel ignites our imagination: Jesus heals, prays in solitude, and meets a leper with a touch. Friends tear open a roof to lower a paralyzed man, and Jesus forgives before he heals. That moment reframes faith as relentless love, gritty service, and a hunger for union with God rather than a quick fix. We ask whether our discipleship reaches that kind of urgency, and whether our homes can become sanctuaries that train such courage.

We widen the lens with a remembrance of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and a spare Medal of Honor citation for Elijah A. Briggs. Memory is moral ballast; it keeps our speech about evil and sacrifice grounded in names, not slogans. Finally, we draw from Jonathan Mayhew’s 1750 sermon on the Christian’s duty to civil authority, warning how tyranny grows by drops until it becomes a flood. The charge is clear: guard conscience, resist domination in church and state, and bind liberty to Scripture and common sense. By the end, faith, family, and freedom braid into one narrow way—prayerful, principled, and ready to serve.

If this resonates, share it with a friend, leave a review to help others find the show, and consider supporting our work so we can keep building homes and hearts that hold fast to truth. What step of roof-breaking faith will you take this week?

#JonathanMayhew #DailyScripture #BeirutLebanon 

Transcript

Opening Scripture And Tragedy

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Psalm thirty five verses nineteen and twenty Don't let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat. Don't let those who hate me without cause gloat over my sorrow. They don't talk of peace. They plot against innocent people who mind their own business. Larisha Sheryl Thompson, may twenty twenty five, Lancaster, South Carolina, mother of two, was fatally shot in an attempted robbery and carjacking by six illegal immigrants from Honduras.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

And they put the names here, but I won't try and repeat them.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

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. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it. Thank you. Very, very grateful, especially 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 in the merit of your son Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Guide our steps, Father. Please.

Marriage Wisdom And Vetting

Healings In Mark And True Faith

Psalm 35 And Folly’s Trap

Book Plug And Support

Beirut Bombing And Islam Claims

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Help us to stay on the narrow path, a narrow road all the way home to you. Forgive us when we leave that path, Father. When we take the wide, easy road. Forgive us our weakness. Help us to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. Help us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Forgive us when we turn a blind eye to those stumbling toward the edge of the cliff. Help us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, Father. Not here on earth. Be with those listening to the podcast today, wherever they are. Guide them, bless them. Surround us with your angels, Father. Protect us from evil of any kind. Be with our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters, EMS. Keep them safe. Bring them home safe. Be with our marriages, those of us who are married. Strengthen them, bless them. Help us to illustrate the relationship between Christ and the church. Comfort those who mourn, who are heartbroken, who are sick, who are injured. Help us to comfort them as best we can. And bring us all home to you, Father, and to your Son Jesus Christ. And guide our nation here in America and all the nations around the world where people are listening back to you and your son. And guide my words here, Father, please. In your son's name we pray. Amen. Marriage verses for today. Proverbs 21. Better to live on the edge of a roof than with a contentious woman in a large house. Proverbs 25, 24. Better live on the edge of a roof than to share a house with a contentious or some translations say quarrelsome woman. Folks, we put all this effort into academics and athletics and profession, right? Career. Most people are through with athletics by the end of their high school career. A few more get to play in college, and then a very, very small percentage get to go to the Olympics, get to play professional sports. Academically, that affects our career, that's true. But our profession, very few of us even stay in the same profession for our entire lives. Also, there's a huge chunk of us that don't even use college degrees if we got them, or if we went straight out of high school, we changed fields multiple times. And even if we do, that job has an end date. There's very few people that want to work until the very end of their life. There comes a time. I was just talking to a teacher recently who, for a number of reasons, is looking forward to retirement, right? There comes a time when that job ends. But you're married for your entire life, and your faith affects eternity. But in going back to these marriage verses, folks, you hear people talk about vetting a lot today in a number of different ways, but I've heard people use that in reference to their friendships, relationships. We ought to vet our spouses and be prepared to be vetted as a potential spouse. Pretty hard, folks. Pretty hard. You're going to be stuck with them for the rest of your life. And you want to make sure that you're married to somebody that it doesn't feel like you're stuck or trapped with. Mark 129 through 212. After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew's home. Now Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away, so he went to her bedside, took her by the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a meal for them. That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. The whole town gathered at the door to watch. So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. Before daybreak the next morning Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found him, they said, Everyone is looking for you. But Jesus replied, We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them too. That is why I came. So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you were willing, you can heal me and make me clean, he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing, he said, Be healed. Instantly the leprosy disappeared and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a strict warning. Don't tell anyone about this. Instead go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required by the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed. But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn't publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him. I wonder if we come to Jesus in that manner. Are we so desperate that we would travel long distances, painful journeys just to see Jesus? And are we just merely concerned with getting something out of him, or are we concerned with I guess getting eternity with him? When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room even outside the door. While he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd. So they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, My child, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, What is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or stand up, pick up your mat, and walk? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home. And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, We have never seen anything like this before. Do we have the faith of his friends, of this man's friends? Would we dig a hole through a roof just merely to get next to Jesus? Psalm thirty five, seventeen through twenty eight. How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing? Rescue me from their fierce attacks, protect my life from these lines. Then I will thank you in front of the great assembly. I will praise you before all the people. Don't let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat. Don't let those who hate me without cause gloat over my sorrow. They don't talk of peace. A plot against innocent people who mind their own business. They shout aha, aha with our own eyes we saw him do it. O Lord, you know all about this. Do not stay silent, do not abandon me now, O Lord. Wake up, rise up to my defense. Take up my case, my Lord and my God. Declare me not guilty, O Lord my God, for you give justice. Don't let my enemies laugh about me and my troubles. Don't let them say, Look, we got what we wanted. Now we will eat him alive. May those who rejoice at my troubles be humiliated and disgraced, may those who triumph over me be covered with shame and dishonor. But give great glory, great joy to those who came to my defense. Let them continually say, Great is the Lord, who delights in blessing his servant with peace. Then I will proclaim your justice and I will praise you all day long. Proverbs nine thirteen through eighteen. The woman named Folly is Brash. She is ignorant and doesn't know it. She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city. How many people does that identify today? How many times are we identified with that? Ignorant and don't know it. She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business. Come in with me, she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says, stolen water is refreshing. Food eaten in secret tastes the best. But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave. Countryside. If you were looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, if you would check out Countryside, I would appreciate it. The Book of the Wise and the second book, Tears of Edina. And if you enjoy them, if you would leave a review online, I would very much appreciate it. Helps a lot. And if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast, the marriage verses or scripture or medal of honor citations, etc., if you would leave a review somewhere. And if you have five or ten dollars a month, you can donate to the podcast. I would appreciate that very much. Very grateful. Oh yeah. Near and dear to my heart. October 23rd, 1983. Some of y'all already know this date. Beirut, Lebanon. That might be cluing a few more in. Two suicide truck bombers, uh Muslims, struck the U.S. Marine barracks and a nearby French paratrooper barracks housing multinational peacekeeping forces. The massive explosions killed 241 American service members, 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers, and 58 French soldiers along with several civilians. This remains the deadliest single-day loss for the U.S. Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwajima in World War II. Muslims immediately claimed responsibility, stating the attacks were intended to expel Western infidels from Lebanon and advance the Islamist agenda. 83, folks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is 40 plus years ago. Right? 50? Gotta do the math. Yeah, 40. 40 plus. And we're still. You gotta remember the very first external war that we fought was the Barbary Pirates, the war against the Barbary Pirates, Muslims. Folks, there's there's no place for Islam in any country where you want liberty or peace or security, but certainly not in the United States, in a Christian nation. Those two, it's like oil and water. They're never gonna mix.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

There were men who were Muslim that I saw overseas, uh, who risked their lives for us, for the United States.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Interpreters. They loved America deeply. None of them were very good Muslims that I knew.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Those are the exceptions that prove the rule, as my father would say.

Medal Of Honor: Elijah Briggs

Jonathan Mayhew On Tyranny

Closing Prayer And Blessing

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Islam cannot have any kind, even small amounts of power, and have liberty and peace and security. It just doesn't work, folks. Medal of Honor citation, Elijah A. Briggs, Corporal, highest rank sergeant, U.S. Civil War, Bravo Company, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, U.S. Army, April 3, 1865, Petersburg, Virginia. Capture of battle flag. That's the whole citation. I wish these older ones had more, because you know that there was a lot more to it besides just merely walking up and grabbing a flag, right? Credited to Salisbury, Lichfield County, Connecticut, not awarded posthumously, presented May 10th, 1865. Born October 26, 1843, Salisbury, Lichfield, County, Connecticut. Died March 10th, 1922, Beacon, New York. Buried Fishkill Rural Cemetery, MHD Tac 406, Fishkill, New York. Elijah A. Briggs. So usually, once or twice a year, we go through a sermon by Jonathan Mayhew from 1750 that is really regarded by many to have been a spark that kind of lit the fire of the revolution. And he's talking about the responsibilities of Christians to civil authorities, and particularly the question of if civil authorities are going against the principles of God and Jesus Christ, do we have a responsibility to still obey them? And so we're going to read a few. I don't know how many days we'll spend in this, but we'll read a few quotes from it. This is out of the preface. It was the near approach of the 30th of January that turned my thoughts to this subject on which solemnity. And the dissenters from the established church represented not only as schismatics, with more of triumph than of truth, and of cohler than Christianity, but also as persons of seditious, traitorous, and rebellious principles. God be thanked, one may in any part of the British dominions speak freely if a decent regard be paid to those in authority, both of government and of religion, and even give some broad hints that he is engaged on the side of liberty, the Bible, and common sense, in opposition to tyranny, priest craft, and nonsense, without being in danger either of the Bastille or the Inquisition. Though there will always be some interested politicians, contracted bigots, and hypocritical zealots for a party to take offense at such freedoms. Their censor censure is praise, their praise is infamy. A spirit of domination is always to be guarded against both in church and state, even in times of the greatest security, such as the present is amongst us, at least as to the latter. Those nations who are now groaning under the iron scepter of tyranny were once free, so they might probably have remained, but a seasonable caution against despotic measures. Civil tyranny is usually small in its beginning, like the drop of a bucket, till at length, like a mighty torrent or a raging or the raging waves of the sea, it bears down all before it and deluges whole countries and empires. Thus it is as to ecclesiastical tyranny also, the most cruel, intro intolerable, and impious of any. From small beginnings it exalts itself above all that is called God and that is worshipped. People have no security against being unmercifully priest ridden, but by keeping all imperious bishops and other clergymen who love to lord it over God's heritage, from getting their foot into the stirrup at all. Let them be once fairly mounted, and their beasts, the laity, may prance and flounce about to no purpose, and they will at length be so jaded and hacked by these reverend jockeys, that they will not even have spirits enough to complain, that their backs are galled, or like Balaam's ass, to rebuke the madness of the prophet. There's so much truth here, folks. If the if you can go back and you can look at the church in Europe and Britain, the cruelty that was there in the centuries leading up to people, the pilgrims, just the whole exodus over to America, you can see the cruelty of the church. You see the same thing anywhere that socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, Islam, when it gets a foothold, and that's what you see today. So clearly, you can look at Britain, you can look here in the United States. When those evils get a foothold, when the camel gets its nose under the tent, it is all but impossible to get it back out, especially without bloodshed. 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 this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who are Who trespass against us and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and 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.