If You Don’t Want Marital Duty Don’t Marry

Saul is certain he’s doing the right thing and then everything changes in a flash of light. We start with Acts 9 and the road to Damascus, where Jesus confronts Saul’s persecution and turns a ruthless mission into a story of repentance, obedience, and a brand-new calling. From Saul’s blindness to Ananias laying hands on him, we talk about what real conversion looks like when pride breaks and truth takes over. 

We also get painfully practical about prayer and marriage. I share why praying for yourself is not selfish, and we read 1 Corinthians 7 on marital duty, mutual authority, and self-control. It’s a direct look at Christian marriage values that refuses to sugarcoat what covenant requires, including the need for intimacy, sacrifice, and agreement when a couple sets aside time for prayer. 

Then the tone shifts to public safety and moral clarity, including a horrific 1993 Houston case used to argue about justice, capital punishment, and the future we leave our families. We also talk about AI bias and why you can’t outsource discernment to a tool, then close with a Medal of Honor spotlight and Rev. Francis J. Grimké’s warning that nations often collapse from inward corruption when they abandon righteousness. If you want Christian commentary that ties Scripture, American history, and daily action together, listen through the end and then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review where you listen.

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Transcript

Saul Meets Jesus On The Road

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Acts chapter 9, starting with verse 3. As he was approaching Damasochus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. And the voice replied, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.

A Brutal Crime Sets The Stakes

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June twenty-fourth, nineteen ninety-three. Uh two young girls, fourteen and sixteen, were raped, tortured, and murdered. For over an hour, I believe. Perpetrator was a gang of boys, in particular, Jose Ernesto Medelian, who's an illegal immigrant from Mexico. We're going to come back to that one in a minute. Hey

Welcome And Why We Pray

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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. I sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I'll try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to uh share the podcast with others, tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who are joining us over on America's Christian Heritage Podcast, thank you. For those of y'all that have checked out the countryside series and left reviews of that or the podcast, thank you. And for those of y'all who are donating to the podcast each month, thank you. Very, very grateful uh for each and all those, especially the prayers, folks. Uh, you know, I don't say it often enough. I tell you, thank you, but though, you know, those prayers, there's little that we can do more effective for our nation, for each other, than to pray. I have a lot of doubts in my faith and my life over the years, but uh that's one thing that I that I firmly believe. We don't always see the results we want, and sometimes that causes more doubts, perhaps, but uh at least it has in me at times. But at the same at the same time, folks, there's little that we can do more effective than pray. Pray for our nation, our communities, our marriages, our families, each other, ourselves. I had a uh gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps that asked me one time about that, folks, and I just want to mention that while I'm thinking about it. He he asked me to pray at one point for him. He was going through a pretty rough divorce. And I said, Absolutely. And he made the comment because you know I can't pray for myself, and I and I asked him why. And he said, Well, you just you know it feels selfish. It's not selfish, folks. And I told him that. God wants to hear from us. Don't ever doubt that. Father, thank you for the ability to pray to you that you want to hear from us, that you long to hear from us. Thank you for your son Jesus Christ, that he was willing to come and die for us, for our sins. Thank you that there's hope in this broken world, despite the pain and the heartache, just and the horrible things that happen to the Father, to us, to others. Help us to remember that we're not alone, and that this is not unique to us, to remember the stories of the prophets, the persecutions that they suffered, to remember the stories of the disciples and the persecutions that they suffered, and so many of our fellow saints along the way, to remember most of all your son Jesus Christ, and the fact that though he had done nothing wrong, Father, that he had done everything that was right, that he still suffered horribly, and help us to encourage each other, strengthen each other. Be with our leaders in the state and the pulpit, and be with those who protect us. Please protect them and their families. And God, my words here, Father. Your son's name we pray. Amen.

Marriage Duty And Intimacy

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Marriage verses for today. 1 Corinthians 7, 3 through 6. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not refuse to meet each other's needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I'm saying this to give you permission. It's not a command. You don't have to abstain. You can if you both agree to, but for a short period of time. Specifically to devote yourselves to prayer and fasting, some translations say. For women, that looks like asking their husband to go out and work in the hot, in the rain, and the cold to sacrifice his body in that sense, year after year, day after day, week after week, month after month, to provide, to protect, to take care of the family. And I would submit to you that for most husbands, looking at their wives, that is sexual intimacy. Just like Proverbs 5, eagerly satisfy, always and at all times. Not once a month, not once a week, right? Always and at all times, it's straight out of scripture. And so, but the point is that we both give authority over our bodies to our spouse when we get married. And if you're not interested in that, folks, then just don't get married. It's not hard. It's like if you don't want to have credit card debt, don't take a credit card out. Pretty simple. Acts

Acts 9 And Saul’s Calling

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9, 1 through 25. Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way he found there. He wanted to bring them, both men and women, back to Jerusalem and change. I think it's it's it's important to notice here, folks, that a few times in Acts, but really all over the Bible, they say things like both men and women, because it's important to note that there's a distinction. It's bad enough that he was arresting men that were following Jesus Christ. It's even worse that he was arresting women because there's a difference there. We're not the same. We don't have the same roles and responsibilities. Our place in life and marriage and society is different. As he was approaching Damasochus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. And the voice replied, I am Jesus, the one you were persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone's voice, but saw no one. Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind, so his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink. Now there was a believer in Damascus named Anias. Ananias. Always struggle with that name for some reason. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling Ananias. Yes, Lord, he replied. The Lord said, Go over to Strait Street to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him in a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again. But Lord exclaimed Ananias, I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem. And he is authorized by the leading priest to arrest everyone who calls upon your name. But the Lord said, Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings as well as to the people of Israel, and I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he was reg and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days, and immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying he is indeed the Son of God. All who heard him were amazed. Isn't this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus' followers in Jerusalem? They asked. And didn't he come here to arrest them and take them into chains to the leading priests? Saul's preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn't refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him. But Saul was told about their plot. So during the night some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall. I don't

Quieting The Soul And Avoiding Gossip

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concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother's milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord now and always. Proverbs 17, 4 through 5. Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip, liars pay close attention to slander. Those who mock the poor insult their maker. Those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.

Books Reviews And Monthly Support

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If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade series, if you would check out the countryside book series, hardback, paperbook, ebook, whatever you like, there's two books in the series so far. It's kind of like uh Narnia, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Hobbit, Fable Haven, that kind of stuff. And if you enjoy it, if you would leave a review, I would appreciate that very much. Those help immensely. Same thing for the podcast. If you feel like you're getting something out of the American Soul Podcast here or America's Christian Heritage Podcast that we're doing uh once every two weeks, if you would leave a review for those online wherever you listen to the podcast, that helps a great deal. And if you have five or ten dollars a month, sadly, the price of a cup of coffee in many places today, if you could set up that monthly donation, there's a link in the show notes where you can do that. And I would be grateful for that too.

Houston 1993 Case And Justice

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So I want to go back instead of doing uh typically we do one illegal immigrant and one uh Muslim case out of the USA and out of the UK. But I want to go back to this case from Houston from 1993 because I did a little more research. And these two girls had been uh dropped off at a party by their parents. It was a pool party, and they had a curfew, and they were gonna miss it, and so they decided to go home, and they were worried about getting there in time, so they took a shortcut that led along some uh train tracks, and this gang had been there indoctrinating one of their new members and uh drinking, et cetera. And these girls came along and they raped and tortured them for about an hour. This gang of men did this uh led by this Jose Ernesto Medelian, who's an illegal from Mexico. And then once they got through with them, they decided to kill him. And the way they did that is they strangled him uh with a belt, but then the belt broke, and so then they did it with a shoelace. And uh one of the girls tried to escape. Uh, they caught her, beat her, broke some ribs, kicked her teeth in, then killed her anyway. Folks, I I know that's a horrible story. I can't even imagine. Uh I remember a quote from reading this: the father of one of the girls, they executed the ringleader. The rest of them got varying sentences because a lot of them were under 18, folks. These these were not even fully grown men in many cases. Uh there were some couple of young boys in this gang. I mean, young, you know, middle teenagers. Uh, but they gave lethal injection, which a lot of people cried about, always shocks me. They don't seem to be too concerned about the victims. But the father made the comment at the end, said, I wish that my daughter had died as peacefully as this man did, and that this man had suffered as much in his death as my daughter did. You know, when you hear people complaining about capital punishment, you think about that. Capital punishment today is extremely quick. It's always been pretty quick for the most part, at least in the United States, um, with few exceptions.

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The victims, it's rarely quick. Or at least often not quick.

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This is all that we have to offer our wives and daughters, granddaughters, and even grandsons, if we continue to allow the flood of illegal immigrants and Muslims from across the world.

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This is their future.

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All you have to do is look at history. Really interesting thing, too, is so I use the AI grok from X Musk's AI often to kind of get me pointed in the right direction to the right documents or something, you know. Uh

AI Bias And Media Narratives

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but you've really got to pay attention. It's you you can't trust it completely. You've got to make sure that you have some solid documents to back it up. But the interesting thing is, I I asked for this case, I asked a few times for a case from this year, and I didn't get it back time after time. About went through about, I don't know, two, maybe four renditions of this until I finally put the exact name and date in. And not only did I not get the case, even though it was extremely well documented, when I got the responses from this AI, it kept making the comment that the uh, you know, this wasn't common among illegals or Muslims, which is just astounding, for example, because when you look at the case right now in in Britain, there's a quarter million, and that's a conservative estimate when you look at this report. Quarter million little girls have been raped by 90% Muslim men. So basically almost all Muslims in Britain. To pretend like that's a small number or that it's not important. Again, folks, the AIs are only telling you there, they have a foundation, just like we do, like God is our creator. The creators of each AI put a bias into them. And and the easy way to find it is just ask the AI if it's a Christian. If it was truly independent, an AI would immediately become Christian. But they're not independent. They have a bias based on the creators that designed those AIs. And you just need to be aware of that. We're going to go over today, folks. I can already tell you, but and I'm sorry about that, but I feel like that was kind of important. A couple things to talk about.

Medal Of Honor Daniel J Campbell

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Daniel J. Campbell is our Medal of Honor winner for today. Private Spanish-American War on board the USS Marblehead, U.S. Marine Corps, May 11th, 1898, San Fuegos, Cuba. On board the USS Marblehead during the cutting of the cable leading from Sinfuegos, Cuba, 11 May 1898. Facing the heavy fire of the enemy, Campbell set an example of extraordinary bravery and coolness throughout this action. Credited to Boston, Massachusetts, not awarded posthumously, born December 26, 1874 in Canada. Died April 28th, 1955, buried Mount Hope Cemetery, M.H. Saw Tac 2, Tac 11, Matapan, Massachusetts, if I said that right. Daniel J. Campbell. So we're going to wrap up the podcast today. I had a number of these. We'll come back and cover a few more later.

Righteousness Corruption And National Survival

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The Proverbs 1434, which says, righteousness exalteth the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, has been used a number of times by a number of leaders throughout the history of our nation. One of them, the one I'm going to read today, is from Reverend Francis J. Grimke. And say, well, why is that particular Reverend relevant? 1850 to 1937 is when he lived. He was a black Presbyterian minister, civil rights advocate, pretty eloquent speaker, apparently, and this quote of his is just phenomenal. If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will be from inward corruption, from the disregard of right principles, from losing sight of the fact that righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people. The secession of the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter, with the secession of the Union itself from the great principles inunicated in the Declaration of Independence, in the Golden Rule, in the Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness, our union will be only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. Look at abortion, look at LGBTQ, look at Islam, look at feminism, read that last line again. Unless we hold and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness, our union will be only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. This is from a sermon that Reverend Grimke gave. Published later in a collection, multiple different collections. If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will be from inward corruption, from the disregard of right principles. That is exactly what we have done for the last 80 years. And America, folks, more and more is disregard the only true source of right principles.

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God.

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And if we want to fix it, and there is hope, folks, if you want that hope, there is nothing more effective you can do today than spread the gospel of Jesus Christ every chance you get, in any way, big or small. Live it out in your life. Pray. Read the Bible. Post scripture online, social media, talk about scripture to people in your lives. Any way you can do it.

Closing Prayer And Blessing

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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 a kingdom of the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless you all. God bless your families, your marriages, your children, your nation. God bless America. We'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.