America’s Real Crisis Is Spiritual

John 3:16 is familiar, but the verses around it are a confrontation: God sends Jesus to save, yet people still choose darkness because the light exposes what we’d rather keep hidden. I read John 3:1 to 21 and sit with the hard questions it raises about belief, spiritual rebirth, and the daily tug-of-war between confession and concealment. If you care about a biblical worldview, Christian repentance, and what “born again” actually means outside of slogans, this one goes straight to the nerve.

Then we bring that same honesty into marriage through Song of Solomon 4. Scripture does not treat spouses like roommates or accessories, and it does not treat intimacy like an optional add-on. I challenge the drift that happens when TV, sports, hobbies, or friends become more exciting than the person you vowed to love. If your marriage feels stuck, we start with the simplest place to look: the mirror.

I also read from Psalm 104 and Proverbs 14 to connect worship with real conduct, especially how we treat the poor and the people right next to us. From there, I pivot into cultural and political concerns, including property taxes and a historical reflection on Franklin D Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, using his words on fear and reality as a lens for our current moment. My bottom line stays consistent: if we reject God, we should not be surprised when everything else fractures.

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Transcript

John 3:16 And A Tragic Headline

SPEAKER_00 0:02

John three, starting with verse sixteen. For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. 2019, Alyssa Ann Rivera was 34-year-old woman murdered by Luis Fernando Benitez Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Interesting thing about this particular case is that he was also linked to a second murder in the Austin Bastrop County, Texas area in 2025. It's a repetitive, systemic, cultural issue with both illegal immigration and mass Muslim immigration, really just Islam in general, period.

Welcome And Opening Prayer

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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 to appreciate y'all uh joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention. I know y'all have other things vying for your attention, so I appreciate you joining me here. And for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and 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. Guide our steps, guide our thoughts and our words and our actions. Help us to turn to you, to follow the commands of your son Jesus Christ with actions and deeds, not merely words. Help us to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Help us to care for our disabled veterans and the widows and the orphans of those who have defended our country and our military, our law enforcement firefighters, EMS. Please be with those who are out defending our country, uh both overseas and here at home. Protect them. Thank you for them. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Please be with their families. Bless our marriages across the nation, Father. Help us to truly follow you and your son Jesus Christ in our marriages. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. President, vice president, admirals, generals, senators, representatives, governors, judges, pastors, priests, cardinals, bishops. Help them to all rule in fear of you, to lead in fear of you. Be with those who are brokenhearted, Father, please draw close to them. And guide my words here. Your son's name we pray. Amen.

Song Of Solomon Marriage Reading

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Marriage verses for today out of Song of Songs or Song of Solomon 4, verses 1 through 7. How beautiful you are, my darling. Oh, how beautiful. Your eyes behind your veil are doves, your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is alone. Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, your mouth is lovely, your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. Your neck is like the Tower of David, built with courses of stone. On it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your breasts are like two fawns, the twin gazelles, twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense. You are altogether beautiful, my darling. There is no flaw in you.

Intimacy And Honest Self-Examination

SPEAKER_00 4:34

I I think Christians, it's pretty obvious that Christians that don't think that physical intimacy is supposed to be a daily integral part of your marriage, they they have not read God's commands throughout the Bible, but they certainly have not read Song of Solomon. Or if they have, they they have decided that they get to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they like, which we all do, right, folks? But the point is when we try and pretend that it's okay for us to pick and choose which parts we like and which parts we don't. Right? Which parts we're gonna follow and which parts we're gonna ignore. John 3. Another thing I can't I cannot let this go, folks. If you are more excited or interested about a TV show, a sporting event, um, a hobby, seeing your friends than you are your spouse in your marriage. And I'm I'm assuming here, I'm talking about if you have even a halfway decent spouse, the problem with your marriage, the first problem you need to look at is in the mirror. John

Nicodemus And Being Born Again

SPEAKER_00 5:49

3, 1 through 21. There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening he came to speak with Jesus. Rabbi, he said, we all know that God has sent you to teach us your miraculous signs or evidence that God is with you. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God. What do you mean? exclaimed Nicodemus. How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind, but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born with the Spirit. How are these things possible? Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony. But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned, but the Son of Man has come down from heaven, and as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him, but anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light, so others can see that they are doing what God wants. Love those last few verses, folks. How true they are. How often, at least for me, folks, I I want the darkness too much, right? But I will say the more you read the Bible, the more you pray, the more you want that light. That's a great thing. Thank you, Father.

Psalm 104 And God’s Provision

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Psalm 104, verses 1 through 23. Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are. You are robed with honor and majesty, you are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens, you lay out the rafters of your home and the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariot, you ride upon the wings of the wind. The winds are your messengers, flames of fire are your servants. You place the world on its foundation so it would never be moved. You clothe the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains. At your command the water fled, at the sound of your thunder it hurried away. Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed, then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth. You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains. They provide water for all the animals, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home, and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor. You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth, wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength. The trees of the Lord are well cared for, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests, and the storks make their homes in the cypresses. High in the mountains live the wild goats and the rocks, form a refuge for the hyraxes. You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun to sun knows when to set. You send the darkness and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about. Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God. At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest. Then people go off to their work where they labor until evening. Proverbs

Proverbs On Poverty And Neighbor Love

SPEAKER_00 10:50

14, verses 20 and 21 The poor are despised even by their neighbors, while the rich have many quote unquote friends. It is a sin to belittle one's neighbor. Blessed are those who help the poor. Father, help us to help the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan. In the name of your son Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

Countryside Books And Listener Support

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Countryside. If you are looking for a middle grade fantasy, kind of like Narnia the Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Fablehaven, that hopefully I've done a decent job putting a little bit of Christ into, at least. If you would check out the Countryside series, this is the first book in the series, Countryside, The Book of the Wise. And if you enjoy it, or the second book, if you would leave a review online, I would appreciate that a great deal. This is a little excerpt from a five-star review on Amazon by Diane Burkowski. Captivating. As an adult, I found the book to be an easy and enjoyable read. I was so thoroughly engrossed in the characters that I did not want to put the book down until I had finished it. There is depth in the characters' personalities, which makes them interesting to young and adult readers alike. Very kind review. We might read some more of it another time. If you get a chance and you enjoy the book, if you would leave a review on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever you get the book online, there's hardback, paperback, ebook. And same thing for the podcast, wherever you're listening to it. If you feel like you're getting something out of it, Apple or Spotify or whatever, if you would leave a five-star review there too, that helps immensely, helps other people discover the podcast and the books. And there's links in the show note show notes for the podcast and for the book. And also you can set up a monthly donation there for five or ten dollars a month, and that helps both as well. So thank you for any or all of those.

Crime Story And Cultural Warning

SPEAKER_00 12:54

October 4th, 2025, Brighton Beach, UK. Woman was repeatedly raped on Brighton Beach by three men, all Muslims from different countries, actually, Egypt and Iran. Isolated her after she became separated from friends. And in the case, they were described as predatory and callous. Islam, folks, is predatory and callous. And man, if you see the stuff going on in parts of the United States now, Muslim has spread its cancerous tentacles over here. You can't peacefully coexist, folks, with people who follow the left. You know, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism. And that always goes hand in glove with Islam. It's just not possible, folks. It's not going to happen. We're living a pipe dream to think that we can.

Medal Of Honor Bravery Remembered

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Captain Newt H. Hall's Marine Detachment from the USS Newark, U.S. Marine Corps, June 20th, 1900, Tiensun, China. In action against the enemy at Tiensen, China, 20 June, 1900. Crossing the river in a small boat with three other men while under a heavy fire from the enemy, Burns assisted in destroying buildings occupied by hostile forces. Accredited to California Knot awarded posthumously, presented April 21st, 1902. Born January 14, 1870, Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Medal of Honor again. James Burns. We're not going to get to this today, but I wanted to show you anyway.

Property Taxes And True Ownership

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Epic Times, this is an article. It's a great article talking about citizens across the country taking on property taxes. If you get a chance, check it out. Man, we don't own anything today, folks. Absolutely zero because of property taxes. And it's it's a really fascinating article. If we get a chance to go back, there's a lot of groups across the country working to either abolish or reduce dramatically property taxes, as it should be. There's no excuse in America for the government taxing us for property that we own. Government doesn't own it, right? We own the land, the people. So, but you have to go back to being a Christian nation in order for any of this stuff to work, right? I wanted

FDR On Fear And Hard Truths

SPEAKER_00 15:31

to read just a little bit today from FDR's inaugural speech. This is off the Avalon project that Yale law produces. Just the first couple paragraphs. Saturday, March 4th, 1933. This is FDR's inaugural. First inaugural. I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our nation impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. In such a spirit, on my part and on yours, we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels, taxes have risen. Our ability to pay has fallen. Government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income. The means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade, the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side. Farmers find no markets for their produce. The savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. I wanted to, I know we're over, folks, and I'm I'm sorry about that. I wanted to read this today because it struck me those first three paragraphs as speaking to today, especially that last sentence. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

A Nation’s Only Way Back

SPEAKER_00 18:02

We face storm clouds on the horizon, folks, and they are created because we have rejected God and Jesus Christ. Every single ill we have today in America goes back to the fact that we as a people have turned away from God and Jesus Christ. And we have enemies inside the gate, and those are individuals that live here that follow leftism, that whole bucket of Islam, of leftism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, and Islam. But worse than that are the people that claim to be conservative but are not Christian, that claim Christless conservatism, right? The fiscally conservative but socially liberal. That enables those two evils, folks. That trifecta, that perfect storm, is the danger that we have today. And only we're only being foolish if we deny those dark realities. We have a fight coming, most likely, or willing slavery, but we've got problems coming one way or the other. And there's a pretty good chance that we're past the point of voting our way out of it. But this is super encouraging. You've got to remember how dark these days were when FDR was talking about this. And one of the reasons that we have that fear that he was talking about, that darkness, is we've turned away from God and Jesus Christ. And the only solution is to turn back to him as a people, as a nation. Our

Lord’s Prayer And Final Blessing

SPEAKER_00 19:35

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 a kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages if you're married, 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.