We Keep Trading Truth For Approval

A single Psalm can feel like it was written for the headlines. We start with Psalm 54 and its urgent cry, “Rescue me,” then connect that prayer to the real-world weight of violence and the need for God’s protection in our homes and communities. I also take time to pray for you and your family, for our military, police, firefighters, EMS, and for leaders in the pulpit and in government, because faith has to show up in what we ask for and what we do next.

From there we move into straightforward biblical teaching on marriage and family from Colossians 3:18–21. It’s not trendy, and it’s not designed to win applause, but it is designed to build a stable home. If you care about Christian marriage, raising kids with courage, and bringing your daily life under the lordship of Jesus Christ, this portion is meant to be practical and clarifying.

Then we read Mark 15 all the way through the trial, Barabbas, the crowd’s demand, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus. Along the way, I stop and ask what envy and mob pressure look like in modern life, and why the cross still confronts us with the cost of sin and the meaning of mercy. We also return to Psalm 54 and Proverbs 11, then shift into remembrance of September 11, honoring sacrifice through a Medal of Honor citation, and reading John Adams on religion, virtue, and the foundations of freedom.

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Transcript

Welcome And Thanks To Listeners

Prayer For Families And Servants

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Psalm fifty four verses one through three. Come with great power, O God, and rescue me. Defend me with your might. Listen to my prayer, O God, pay attention to my plea, for strangers are attacking me. Violent people are trying to kill me. They care nothing for God. Carmen Unilda Navas Zum Zuninga, may twenty first, twenty twenty three, El Paso, Texas. A woman was murdered by Eddie Jose Ortega Alvaredo, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who had been released into the U.S. by federal authorities one day prior. 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 share the podcast with others 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.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Thank you for your love and your mercy. Thank you that you defend us.

Marriage Wisdom From Colossians

Mark 15 The Trial Begins

Envy And The Demand To Crucify

Death Of Jesus And Confession

Psalm 54 And Proverbs 11

Books, Reviews, And Support Links

9/11 Memory And Hard Warnings

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Thank you for those who listen to the podcast and share it. Please be with them, be with our families. Protect them. Guide them. Please be with our military overseas, wherever they are. Be with them at home too, Father. Be with their families. Bless their families. Bless their marriages. The same with our police officers. Please be with them, Father. Guide them. Protect them. Give them all wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Our firefighters. Our EMS workers. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Give us perseverance, Father. Help us to do your will. To follow the commands of your Son Jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with the widow and the orphaned, the poor and the needy. Be with the children who are abused and abandoned. Help us to care for them, Father. With actions and deeds and not merely words. And please guide my words here. In your son's name we pray. Amen. Marriage verse for today. Colossians three, eighteen through twenty-one, really eighteen and nineteen. Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. It's not correct today, folks. It's not politically correct, but what's politically correct doesn't do a very good job in our country. Right. You can see you just look at the the breakdown, the destruction of the family of marriages. Whatever we do in marriage, it ought to be in line with God. Mark 15, 1 through 47. Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law, the entire high council, met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate asked Jesus, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus replied, You have said it. Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, Aren't you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you? But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate's surprise. Now it was the governor's custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner, anyone the people requested. One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner, as usual. Would you like me to release to you this king of the Jews? Pilate asked. For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy. But at this point the leading priest stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barnabas instead of Jesus. Pilate asked them, Then what should I do with this man you call the King of the Jews? They shouted back, Crucify him. How often do we do we demand that in the modern sense, the crucifixion of those that we envy? Why? Pilate demanded, What crime has he committed? But the mob roared even louder, crucify him. So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor's headquarters called the praetorium, and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a purple robe and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, then they saluted him and taunted, Hail King of the Jews. And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. A passer by named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus, and they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull. They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it. Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. A sign announced the charge against him. It read The King of the Jews. Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. The people by passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. Ha! Look at you now, they yelled at him. You said you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross. The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. He saved others, they scoffed, but he can't save himself. Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him. Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him. At noon darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. Then at three o'clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, Lema, Sebakani, which means My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it to him on a reed stick so he could drink. Wait, he said, let's see whether Elijah comes to take him down. Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, This man truly was the son of God. Some women were there watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph, and Solomon Salome. They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there. This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. As evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. Joseph was an honored member of the high council and he was waiting for the kingdom of God to come. Pilate couldn't believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. Joseph brought a long sheet of linen cloth, then he took Jesus' body down from the cross, wrapped it in a cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where Jesus' body was laid. Psalm fifty four, one through seven. Come with great power, O God, and rescue me. Defend me with your might. Listen to my prayer, O God, pay attention to my plea. For strangers are attacking me, violent people are trying to kill me, they care nothing for God. But God is my helper, the Lord keeps me alive. May the evil plans of my enemies be turned against them. Do as you promised and put an end to them. I will sacrifice a voluntary offering to you. I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. For you have rescued me from my troubles and helped me to triumph over my enemies. Proverbs eleven five and six. The godly are directed by honesty, the wicked fall beneath their load of sin. The godliness of good people rescues them. The ambition of treacherous people traps them. If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade series that hopefully has a little bit more of God and Jesus in it, than a lot of entertainment these days, if you would check out the countryside series, you would think that I would figure out to put these books over every night. Anyway, this is the first book in the series. This is the second book in the series if you get a chance. And if you enjoy them, if you would leave a review online somewhere, that helps immensely. Same thing with the podcast. And also if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast, if you have five or ten dollars a month, you can donate. There's a link in the show notes where you can do that, and I would be very, very grateful for that. Hmm. This, folks, we ought to remember this every single day. It ought to be taught in our schools at least once a month in every single classroom across the school, across the country. September 11, 2001, New York City, Arlington, Virginia, Pennsylvania. Nineteen Muslims hijacked four commercial airliners, crashed two planes into the twin towers of the World Train Center, causing both the collapse, third into the Pinega, and the fourth in a Pennsylvania field after passengers heroically intervened. The attacks killed 2,977 people, excluding the terrorists, and injured thousands more.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Muslims. Whatever else you want to say, folks, Muslims.

Medal Of Honor James Brown

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There is no peaceful coexistence. There's no such thing as a moderate Muslim. Not long term. There are Muslim nations around the world. There are leftist, communist, socialist, Nazi fascist nations around the world where where those people can go and live. But to continue to pretend that we can peacefully coexist inside the United States is to invite our own destruction. Medal of Honor winner for today, James Brown, quartermaster, U.S. Civil War, USS Albatross, U.S. Navy, May 4th, 1863. Fort de Russie, Red River, Louisiana. Citation. Served on board the USS Albatross during action against Fort De Russie in the Red River area on 4 May 1863. After the steering wheel and wheel ropes had been shot away by rebel fire, Brown stood on the gun platform of the quarter deck, exposing himself to a close fire of musketry from the shore, and rendered invaluable assistance by his expert management of the relieving tackles and extricating the vessel from a perilous position, and thereby aided in the capture of Fort De Russie's heavy works. Accredited to New York, not awarded posthumously, born 1826, Rochester, Monroe County, New York, United States. And that's it, folks. That's all the other information we have. James Brown. Need to remember, folks, those who have given so much for our country.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

The men who have risked life and limb, and the the women who have offered them up.

John Adams On Virtue And Liberty

Lord’s Prayer And Final Blessing

SPEAKER_01 13:42

There's not a single penny of welfare money or money to illegals or mass Muslim immigrants that ought to go to those people while we still have one even one veteran or their family suffering. We're gonna read a couple quotes from John Adams. Wrap up August 28th, 1811. Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society. If you want a free government, you need virtue. Religion. Christianity. That's what he means when he's saying that here. If you want a happy, healthy, peaceful society, you need virtue. You need the principles of Jesus Christ. This is a letter to uh Mr. Warren. This form of government is productive of everything which is great and excellent among men. But its principles are as easily destroyed as human nature is corrupted. A government is only to be supported by pure religion or austere morals. Private and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. And where do you get that private and public virtue? You get it from the principles of Christ. Every other religion, every other ideology that has any positive virtues are always in line with the principles of Christ. Because everything goes back to Christ. One more. We read this one often. It's important to remember it today. We've forgotten it. June 28, 1813, letter to Thomas Jefferson talking about what were the founding principles of our nation? What were they really founded on, right? You hear so many people today say that we're a secular democracy. The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite. And what were these general principles? I answer the general principles of Christianity in which all these sects were united. And the general principles of English and American liberty in which all these young men united, and which had united all parties in America and majorities sufficient to assert and maintain our independence. We'll come back to it. 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. 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 you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.