What Happens When Leadership Loses Its Foundation

Start with a hard question: who gets your final say—public opinion or God? We open with Jesus’ authority challenged in the temple and find that “we don’t know” is not a refuge but a verdict. From there, we follow the parable of the tenants to its sharp edge, where the cornerstone is rejected and fear of the crowd distorts judgment. That tension isn’t ancient alone; it hums under our headlines today, shaping how we decide, vote, and lead when the costs are real.

We dig into the famous charge to “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” teasing out the deeper claim about image and allegiance. Coins bear Caesar’s face; we bear God’s image. Taxes are a civic duty; worship is a life’s orientation. With Psalms and Proverbs as our compass, we explore how God’s sovereignty offers a lasting foundation when storms hit—not by promising pain-free lives, but by anchoring us when the wind howls. That foundation calls us to trade performative piety for practical faith that shows up in work, family, and country.

History grounds the conversation. We revisit the FARC bombing in Bogotá to name evil plainly and honor the innocent, then spotlight Medal of Honor recipient PFC Leonard Brostrom, whose courage under fire opened the way for his unit. These moments test our theories: do we truly value the vulnerable, and do we admire sacrifice enough to imitate it in our own spheres? We also reflect on founding sources, citizenship, and the moral character expected of leaders, asking what happens to a nation when duty to neighbors yields to applause or foreign favor.

If you’re navigating the pull between comfort and conviction, this episode offers Scripture, story, and a steady challenge: choose the authority that lasts. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find the show.

#VermontConstitution #DailyScripture #MariaGonzales 

Transcript

Opening Scripture And Dedication

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Psalm forty seven eight and nine God reigns above the nations, sitting on his holy throne. The rulers of the world have gathered together with the people of the God of Abraham. For all the kings of the earth belong to God. He is highly honored everywhere. Maria Gonzales, twelfth August 2023, Pasadena, Texas. An eleven-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and strangled in her family's apartment by Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Hey folks, this is Jesse Coke, 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 y'all 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 share the podcast with others, 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. Thank you for the blessings that we forget about, Father, or refuse to acknowledge for whatever reason. Simple things are what we take for granted, clean water to drink, a warm, safe place to sleep, a roof over our heads.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Thank you for the blessing, the privilege of being born in America. Thank you for people who love us.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Thank you for those who have gone before us and risk and given so much that we might have liberty. That we might have the ability to worship you and your son without fear of reprisal or violence. Help us to care for those around the world who don't have that privilege. Father, help us to relieve the pressure, the stress, the violence visited on them in any way that we can. Be with our law enforcement, our firefighters, EMS. Be with our military around the world. Right now, Father, please keep them safe. Be with our families back home here in the United States and in the nations that are our allies around the world. Please bring them home safe. Give their families courage and wisdom and a strong faith.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Give those men the same. Guide our steps.

Authority Of Jesus And Personal Choice

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Continue to be with our ICE agents here in America as well. And the immigration officers in nations around the world doing their job. Be with the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan. And guide my words, your father place, in your son's name we pray. Amen. Marriage verse for today, Proverbs 5, 18 and 19. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth, a loving doe, a graceful deer, may her breast satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love. Mark 1127 through twelve seventeen. Again they entered Jerusalem. As Jesus was walking through the temple area, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. They demanded, By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right to do them? 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? Answer me. They talked it over among themselves. If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn't believe John. But do we dare say it was merely human? For they were afraid of what the people would do because everyone believed that 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. We don't know is not going to be an acceptable answer when we get to heaven, folks. We're gonna have to give an answer. And the answer is going to be that Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God, is Lord over all. The only thing that's gonna matter then is whether we made that decision before or after the last chance.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Right?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

That's why it's so important to make it now. To choose to acknowledge, I I acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died for my sins, and yours, by the way, that God raised him from the dead, and that He alone is my salvation, the reason I have eternal life. He is my Lord and Savior. Do I always act like it, folks?

unknown 5:51

No.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Hence the need for forgiveness. You're not going to be perfect, you don't have to be perfect. And and there's there's no magic formula to it, folks. It's just a choice. And you make it all the time. We don't talk about this enough, but evolution, for example. Evolution is a choice to believe in something. The people that believe in evolution, the people that believe in creation, neither one of them was there. Whether it was six thousand years ago or five billion years ago, nobody was there. They can't tell you I was there firsthand. Make an educated guess, make a good guess. But it's still a choice. You get to choose whether to believe in Jesus Christ or not. Right now, you have that choice. It's a choice you make. There's no magic.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

It's just a choice.

Parable Of The Tenants And Fear

Taxes To Caesar And Allegiance To God

Psalms And Proverbs On God’s Reign

Book Plug And Listener Support

FARC Bombing And Civilian Targets

Medal Of Honor: Leonard Brostrom

Founders’ Sources And Citizenship

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Then Jesus began teaching them with stories. A man planted a vineyard, he built a wall around it, dug a 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 one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty handed. The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. The next servant he sent was killed. Others he sent were either beaten or killed until there was only one left, his son, whom he loved dearly. The owner finally sent him, thinking, Surely they will respect my son. But the tenant farmers said to one another, Here comes the heir of this estate. Let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves. So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard. What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do? Jesus asked. I'll tell you. He will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others. Didn't you ever read 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. The religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was talking, telling the story against them. They were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away. You notice that's the same mantra, the same story. They were afraid of the crowd. They were afraid to tell the truth about John because they were afraid of the crowd. They were afraid to arrest Jesus because they were afraid of the crowd, folks. How often are we driven by fear of the crowd instead of fear of God and worrying about what he wants? Later the leader sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. Teacher, they said, We know how honest you are. Anybody ever starts off that way, folks, it's a good idea to be careful. You are impartial and don't play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or shouldn't we? Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin and I'll tell you. When they handed it to him, he asked, Whose picture and title are stamped on it? Caesar's, they replied. Well then, Jesus said, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God. His reply completely amazed them. Psalm forty seven, one through nine. Come, everyone, clap your hands, shout to God with joyful praise, for the Lord most high is awesome. He is the great king of all the earth. He subdues the nations before us, putting our enemies beneath our feet. He chose the promised land as our inheritance, the proud possession of Jacob's descendants, whom he loves. God has ascended with a mighty shout, the Lord has ascended with trumpets blaring. Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our king, sing praises. For God is the king over all the earth. Praise him with a psalm. God reigns above the nations, sitting on his holy throne, the rulers of the world have gathered together with the people of God of Abraham, for the all the kings of the earth belong to God. He is highly honored everywhere. Proverbs ten, twenty-four through twenty five. The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled, the hopes of the godly will be granted. When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation. Love the way that says lasting foundation, folks. When the storms of life come and they will come, uh it doesn't mean that we're going to avoid those storms. It doesn't mean we're even going to survive those storms, but we're going to survive those storms eternally because we have God and Jesus Christ. Right. Countryside, if you're looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, this is the second book in the series. And the first book in the series, there's some reviews. If you want to take a look at those, and some reviews for the second book. And if you're interested, if you like that kind of stuff, get a chance, check it out. I would appreciate it. And if you leave a review online, I would be very grateful for that as well. Those help a lot. Also for the podcast, if you can leave a review of that somewhere. And if you have five or ten dollars a month you can spare for the podcast, there's a link in the bottom of the show notes where you can do that. And I would be very grateful for that also. February 7th, 2003, Bogota, Colombia. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, leftist Marxist Leninist group, detonated a car bomb outside El Nagal Social Club during a busy evening. Collapsed part of the structure, killed thirty-six people, women and children, entering over two hundred others, many with severe burns, shrapnel wounds, and trauma from the debris. You notice that's the same between leftists, communists, socialists, Nazis, fascists, Muslims, right? Civilian targets, soft targets, women, children. Medal of Honor for today, Leonard Carl Brostrom, PFC World War II, Fox Company, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, October 28th, 1944, near Dagamy, Layette, Philippine Islands. I murdered that. I'm sorry, I apologize. He was a rifleman with an assault platoon which ran into a powerful resistance near Dagami, Layette, Philippine Islands, on 28th October, 1944. From pillboxes, trenches, and spider holes so well camouflaged that they could be detected at no more than 20 yards, the enemy poured machine gun and rifle fire, causing severe casualties in the platoon. Realizing that a key pillbox in the center of the strong point would have to be knocked out if the company were to advance. PFC Brostrom, without orders and completely ignoring his own safety, ran forward to attack the pillbox with grenades. He immediately became the prime target for all the riflemen in the area. As he rushed to the rear of the pillbox and tossed grenades through the entrance, six enemy soldiers left a trench and a bayonet charge against the heroic American, but he killed one and drove the others off with a rifle, with rifle fire. As he threw more grenades from his completely exposed position, he was wounded several times in the abdomen and knocked to the ground. Although suffering intense pain and rapidly weakening from loss of blood, he slowly rose to his feet and once more hurled his deadly missiles at the pillbox. As he collapsed, the enemy began fleeing from the fortification and were killed by riflemen of his platoon. PFC Brostrom died while being carried from the battlefield, but his intrepidity and unhesitating willingness to sacrifice himself in a one-man attack against overwhelming odds enabled his company to reorganize against attack and annihilate the entire enemy position. Accredited to Preston Franklin County, Idaho, awarded posthumously, presented November 29, 1945 by Brigadier General Robert M. Hardaway to his father. Born November 23rd, 1919, Preston, Franklin County, Idaho, died October 28, 1944, Philippine Islands, buried Preston Cemetery District, NW1 Tac 18, Preston, Idaho. Location of Metal, LDS Museum of Church History and Art, Salt Lake City, Utah. Leonard Carl Brostrom. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Sorry. I lost my train of thought. So this is another resource I use quite frequently, Founder's Bible. Again, you can find most of this stuff online in different places. This kind of puts it all together, though. It's a great resource, just like the Patriots Bible and the American Quotation Encyclopedia of Quotations. Highly recommend a hard copy of all of those. No person except a natural-born citizen or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the office of president. I read this because we have a lot of people in power in the United States today that seem to care a lot more about other nations than they do America. And there are quite a few of them that are not native-born. There are a number of them that are native-born that still seem to care about other nations a great deal more than the citizens of the United States. Our elected officials ought to care about American citizens. That's part of their job, right? If you have leaders that are responsible for caring for their citizens, right, they ought to care for those citizens prior to illegals, mass Muslim immigrants, other countries' citizens, ours should have precedence. And maybe it would be a good idea if we focused on that just a little bit more. And maybe it would be a good idea if we were required, had some more stringent requirements. One thing for sure is if we went back to our original state constitutions, for example, this is Vermont, original state constitution 1777. Chapter 1, Article 2, Declaration of Rights. Nor can any man who professes the Protestant religion be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right as a citizen on account of his religious sentiment or peculiar mode of religious worship. And then also from chapter 2, section nine, and each member, before he takes his seat, shall make and subscribe the following declaration. I state your name, do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of the wicked, and I do acknowledge the scripture of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration and own and profess the Protestant religion. And no further or other religious tests shall ever hereafter be required of any civil officer or magistrate in the state, but you had to be a Protestant Christian. America can't survive if we don't have a people that follow Christ, and certainly we are not surviving with a large number of leaders, senators, representatives, governors, judges, admirals, generals who are not Christian. That ought to be a requirement. The requirement to be in any position or place of trust in the United States to be a professing Christian. 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 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 y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.