Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What if the good old USA is part of the inheritance that God gave to you to steward every moment of every day in every home and business and public place in your nation, glory is being handed to a God.
It's either the false gods of your locality or thanks to faithful disciple making Jesus worshiping homes, that glory and allegiance is shifted back to the true God, the God of Gods as he calls himself, Jehovah.
This America series on Abraham's Wallet is about reclaiming that ground lock, stock and barrel. So stay tuned because today we're going to review why every Christian everywhere must work in God's name for the good of their place.
Run your home and your dough like a biblical boss. Hey guys. Welcome back to Abraham's Wallet. I'm Stephen Manual, joined by Mark Parrott. Today we are going to kick off a special four part series called America.
And why are we doing an America series on Abraham's wallet? Well, not only because it's the 250th anniversary of our great nation coming up on July 4th, but I was thinking about how we talk about training kids to receive an inheritance, that being an important, that's an important thing, right? We don't hand a million dollars to a 20 year old who isn't prepared for it.
It'll be lost in very short order and the kid will be worse off for it. Similarly you, if you're an American listening to this, I know not all of our listeners are, but if you live in America, you've been given a giant inheritance that is life in the usa and you mustn't jettison all that's been given to you through the USA's godly heritage.
Don't squander that. Give thanks for it, celebrate it and build on it.
I believe God's glory is at stake as we'll see today and along the way in this, in this four part series, we're going to take some jabs at the powers that would keep you from enjoying this inheritance the way that you should. And that would include, sad to say, many parts of the organized church. So before we get into that today.
Hello Mark.
I've recorded a couple of loner episodes that have aired recently and nice to see you.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Good to see you.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Have you heard any of those loner episodes?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: I did. I listened this week to the episode you did about the body as the temple of God.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: I don't know how that struck you, but it seemed very at the time I recorded it. Oh, there was a lot of heart and gusto and listening back to It. I thought that was kind of unwieldy, that was kind of all over the
[00:03:10] Speaker B: place where, yeah, I was hitting golf balls and trying to clear my mind while I was listening. So. Okay, I don't know, can I. Before we dive into this meaty topic on hand, it's been a very bad week here and I will talk about that at some point. I'm going to skip over that. I think I have something to share and I just want you to react because I'm coming to you at this meeting, at this podcast recording straight from middle school graduation and I'm headed to high school graduation tonight and I this
[00:03:51] Speaker A: is part of your bad week. Middle school graduation.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Well, degrees of bad week. But I have a strong conviction that really felt like it solidified as I sat and listened to middle school graduation that any graduation ceremony that happens prior to high school should be illegal in the United States of America.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Agree.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: I want. I. Unless a good percentage of these kids have decided, you know how in high school it's like, what are you doing next? And some of them are going to go to trade school and some of them are going to go to colleges and others are going to take a gap year. Well, if in middle school we had 8th graders saying I'm joining the family business, I'm going to bust tables after this, I'm not continuing my. Then we can celebrate that they have achieved the pinnacle and, and high school, I mean, where I went to high school, I always said this is a little bit silly too because we're all going pretty much for more education. But, but at least I'll give you high school, please. I don't need fifth grade graduation. I don't need eighth grade graduation.
Unless, unless you're going to kind of go and enter the workforce. Then I'll clap for you and you can walk across the stage and we can have the Bible verse that personifies who you are.
But other than that, no, I don't, I don't want a graduation. I don't want a kindergarten graduation. Do a Christmas pageant, that's fine. Yeah, don't give me a graduation.
I'm not proud of you for finishing little Timmy. No, totally agree.
Okay, that's all.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: I will. I'll just share very quickly. A little, a little.
Speaking of bad weeks, it's been a little bit of an emergency crisis around our family.
My adopted mother in law broke her neck earlier this week, shattered, shattered vertebrae, spinal surgery, which is something you want to avoid, and was paralyzed from the shoulders down.
That was a trying day, really. Traumatic.
I would like to just report to you, Mark, and to others with it seems every passing hour.
Oh, I should, I should preface this by saying we immediately set up a 24, 7 prayer chain where people are signing up for prayer windows to pray for our, our Grand Molly, as we call her Grand Molly.
And people have signed up and there's a lot of prayer happening and we sending out specific prayer requests as you do the caring bridge, the whole thing.
And it seems with every passing hour there are, there are new strides made.
She is just regaining sensations and feeling and pushing her legs down and she moved her hands today and it is miraculous and incredible what's happening to her. So if you want to throw up a little arrow prayer for Molly, that'd be great. And we're so encouraged. I was just telling my wife this morning, I'm really. God is so clever how he uses trouble.
And I'm so pleased that my daughters have front row seats to this miracle at this stage of their maturation and can see that investing prayer moves the heart of God. So anyhow, that's current events around my house. Okay, ready? Here's the big overriding statement today as we get into the America series and getting to this topic. Here's today's idea. Every Christian anywhere on earth is called to work for and seek and strive after the good of their streets, their neighborhood, their city, their state and their nation.
An Abrahamic dad, as I said on my little solo episode that you saw, is a presence steward and a temple builder in his geography.
I don't expect that my house, where I'm trying to build a temple of God in my home, is going to affect the spiritual climate in Salt Lake City.
I do have hope and expectations that it would affect Cincinnati, Ohio, maybe surrounding environs as godly families saturate an area. The spiritual landscape, yes, and the financial landscape and the social landscape and the civic landscape, and maybe even the landscape begins to shift back toward Eden. Like shalom, order, fruitfulness, the presence of God. This is our divine mandate as a people. We actively seek to demean, oppose and insult the regional gods of our place.
While exalting Jehovah. We counter Babel style centralization and false sacred spaces with humble, local, fruitful presence.
Your home is ground zero for this renewal and loving your country properly is part of table stakes.
That's what I'm saying. So I'm going to read a couple of Bible passages. We'll consider those together and we'll proceed from there. So this is the universal biblical call. Jeremiah 29, 7 says, Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. So just a couple of therefores. Looking at this verse, seeking the welfare of what again? Where you are. So again, what does that mean?
It means everywhere that you would locate yourself, the company that you work at, seek its welfare.
The church where you find yourself, seek its welfare. The street where you live, seek its welfare, your city, state, nation, et cetera. So that for an American, that at least.
Don't you think that at least means voting?
I know that's a, that just, just that question is, like, contentious these days. You could hear somebody teaching a godly person doesn't vote. You could also teach a godly person has to vote.
But I'm just going to ask the question. Don't you think that if you seek the welfare of the place where you live, that that would mean, at the very least raising your hand and say, I want the guy with more godly sounding policies to win and the person with less godly sounding policies to not run our city, our school district, our school board, city council, et cetera, et cetera. Right, Mark? Am I. Is that crazy?
[00:11:07] Speaker B: So far you have not said anything crazy.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Okay. That seems reasonable to me. And if somebody said to me, as my good friend David Russell said, I feel compelled by God, I'm going to run on the school board. Run for the school board, buy gum.
Yes.
Mark Parrott says I'm going to sit on the school board.
Yes. Good. What are you doing? I think you're seeking the welfare of the city that God places you in.
So what? Whatever degree of activity that you feel. I mean, we, we have done volunteer days where we go, my family goes and volunteers for the city park and shoveling.
I always want to end that phrase with shoveling manure. But we weren't shoveling manure. We're shoveling mulch and repainting benches, et cetera. Why would we do that?
Because we have a deep, profound love for the city parks. Not really. It's because we want to have a heart that says, we seek the welfare of the city in general. We want things to be better.
We believe that that gives God glory. Okay, I'm going to give an example that I know is on the fence.
I acknowledge that.
But here's the thing. I'm just going to refer to Nehemiah.
Nehemiah Leaved. He left the comfort of his very cushy life as being very important. He was a Cup bearer of the king, to rebuild Jerusalem's walls for his people and for God's name.
Now, this is where things get woolly, because we don't get to just take anything that's about Israel or the king of Israel, et cetera, and just assign those two. Well, that also means the President of the United States. Anything that talks about Israel, I live in this country now. Hold on. Israel's unique. There's not going to be another country like Israel in the history of the world because that's the apple of God's eye. He said that he's put his name on the city of Jerusalem, et cetera. So that's unique. However, I do see the example of.
Here's a godly guy, Nehemiah, who wants to sacrifice himself for the good of his municipality, and so he rebuilds the walls.
We're going to go into more of this next week, but I just going to throw out to you. There are precious few nations that have ever been created that were dedicated to Jehovah God at their inception. Israel would be one of those nations.
As you might. As you may or may not know. United States is one of those nations that was dedicated to God at its inception.
Armenia is an. Is a very, very, very old country that was dedicated to God at its inception. Then there's been reinventions of nations. Modern Samoa, modern Georgia have been dedicated to God. And there's other places like Poland that have said that God is our Jesus is our king, et cetera. But I'm talking about the inception of a nation to dedicate the nation to God. That happened in the United States.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Did the Vatican people not do this?
[00:14:37] Speaker A: I'm really confused about whether the Vatican is a nation, a state, or a district owned by a corporation. What do you think?
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Well, it is a country.
You know, they have.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Let's call it. Let's throw the Vatican in there. Why not?
[00:14:53] Speaker B: I don't know if they've ever dedicated to God or not. I mean, if the shenanigans had already begun by the time they were.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm just gonna. I'm just not gonna touch it. I'm gonna move on.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, continue.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Second Chronicles 7:14.
If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I would hear them from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.
So that would assume that God knows that my people are going to be in sick lands.
I'm going to be sending my people all over the earth into sick lands. That need to be healed.
There seems to be an insinuation or an insinuation that God's people are going to be the minority. They're going to be going into a place that is not godly. He wants them to pray and to repent and pray for the good of the place where they live, and he's going to change where they live.
Do. Do you think that God wants this in every nation on earth or that he just wants this in Israel?
I. I feel strongly he wants it in every nation on earth.
Which leads me to my next passage. First Timothy, chapter two. First of all, then, I urge that petitions, specific requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be offered on behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in positions of high authority, so that we may live a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
This kind of praying is good and acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who wishes all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge and recognition of the divine truth.
I'm not going to do the math and tell you how many years ago it was, because this is 2026. Okay. Was it? Say it was six years ago. I knelt on this carpet in this room and we recorded an episode wherein I prayed for the newly declared president of the United States, Joseph Biden.
And we applied this passage and prayed for him that he'd be led with wisdom, that he would come to saving knowledge if he wasn't already saved. And we were praying for kings and all who are in positions of high authority.
I say that to.
I. I'm not going to spend a lot of time caveating everything in this series. But this is not a Republican series.
This is not a politically conservative series.
I simply want to see what does the scripture tell us to do with regards to our nation.
So the question on the table is like, well, what would a godly father do about the 250th anniversary of the United States? Should we have a passing? Ah, yeah, that's happening. It's kind of like Valentine's Day. It's on the calendar. I don't know. You can celebrate if you want.
What does a godly dad do with this day?
Is he Stars and Stripes forever? Is he just out of control? I don't know. I don't know what he would do if he's out of control. Wear a flat hat? Roll out the barrel?
[00:18:32] Speaker B: He would drink, like, 16 Miller Lights.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. That's right.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: I think if he was out of
[00:18:38] Speaker A: control, he would say it was Miller Miller time.
My point in reading this passage is clearly God's intention is that people all over the world are praying for the leaders of their country. That they would be what? Well, it's obvious that this is a follow to Jeremiah 29. Why would you pray for the leader of your country? Well, because we seek the good of the land. Why do we seek the good of the land? Because it's stolen ground, to use a popular phrase, but not the way that it's popularly used. It's stolen ground because all land belongs to God and it's been stolen. His glory has been stolen. The worship of God has been stolen. And we want all of these lands to come back as they will, all coming back to worship the name of Jesus and the one true God.
So that's my first basic point, the universal biblical call for Christians everywhere to go wherever I am. I want it to be more godly because I'm here and because of my tiny little influence in this place. There, point one is over. Talk to me.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: I don't know if I can be too controversial on this. I think that before we started recording, Steve, I said, okay, I was nervous, I admit, because we're stepping into waters that I think especially you and definitely my generation have been taught that it's kind of this gross thing to be pro America. We grew up, Steve, with American flags on the stage.
And I've. I've seen some of the excesses of replacing the worship of God with the worship of America in the church.
And I think we'll get there as we go down this series. Like, well, okay, I'm glad that we had some Founding Fathers who seemed to have some devotion to our God. I've been told that some of them weren't really into Jesus at all. Like, is that true? We're probably going to unpack some history in this series.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Yes, we will.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: But I think what you said just, hey, if you are in a place, you know, salt and light means you're supposed to flavor the thing that you're added to.
And as somebody who's in, like, a totally godless place at the moment, I would say it's challenging because I, I would. Even before we started recording, I was going to say, I asked you, well, what about when you get to the point where you throw your hands up and go, I'm done. I'm done with this place. Is that. Is that forsaking God's calling? And I think the answer is maybe, maybe not. But, yeah, I don't think anything you said, I have Disagreement with. At all. I just am going, okay, every situation is unique. Like, what are the general principles that apply to every guy that's listening to this and even the occasional female that might listen?
How do we take this concept that in the abstract we can all agree, okay, yeah, we're supposed to be for the peace of wherever God plants us. But then how do we shut some of those escape valves that make me want to go, well, unless this, or except in this case, because it's easy to kind of affirm the, the generality, but then not have any specifics apply to my life. So that's what I hope we're going to get into. I don't disagree with anything you said, though.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: That's great. I.
I think it's a good question to go, well, what does that mean, Boots on the ground?
And it's like, for instance, I'm thinking of. I told you that I was at the school board meeting this past week.
My girls are at a Christian school.
They'd said some policies that I thought, that's not how you build a disciple.
So I could cross my arms, go, I wish they wouldn't do it that way, you guys, and kick a rock and walk out to the car.
But I had to do a, a little more costly, more vulnerable thing, which is raise my hand, stand up, say my name in front of all of the parents here. Hi, everybody. And challenge something that was just said to the. To the whole auditorium, as this is fiat. So it is. It's been declared. And everyone silently agrees. And I stand up and go, I don't agree with that.
I didn't like our policy before about electronics in the school. I don't think that's the best way to develop kids. Let me ask a couple questions about going forward. What's on the table? What are the possibilities?
And I got a couple of dudes with some facial hair turning around going, that's a good. Hey, good point. Yeah, thanks for saying that.
And I think that's a version of what we should be doing civically and locally. And when we get the chance to speak at a city council meeting, we get the chance to weigh in by voting. It's just easier to shrug your shoulders and go, like, eh, it's gonna. Whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen.
I just, I chafe at that.
I think that there is a giving up of responsibility there, and I want to shoulder all the responsibility that God wants me to shoulder while I'm in a place.
So to the question of moving, I mean, I don't I guess if the Lord could appear to me in a dream and say, you must never leave Cincinnati, Ohio, I haven't heard that word yet, but I used to live in England, and while I was in England, I had the same attitude, which is, I want this to be a godly place. I want this to honor the Lord. I want this to be a fair place and an organized place. I want the laws to be right.
And wherever I had opportunity to weigh in or to make my presence felt to those ends, I did it. I think that should be our heart. And to that point, righteous rule and just laws should be something that we care about.
Proverbs 29:2 says, when the righteous thrive, the people rejoice.
When the wicked rule, the people groan.
There's other proverbs I'll just. I'm not going to read them all and just throw out Proverbs 11.
Proverbs 14:34 says, Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
A grade that you could give. What is the righteousness of this nation at any point. And when that bumps up one tick, God's people should cheer.
And when it bumps down one tick, because we just passed legislation that you can smoke marijuana anywhere, God's people should groan and pray in sadness and go, oh, God, the sins of our nation are ever before our eyes. Would you please forgive us for the sin? And would you please, in this land, give us righteous leaders and godly laws that would undo this evil, et cetera.
Righteousness brings joy, stability, and blessing, and corrupt rule brings mourning. That's a biblical idea for any, any nation. I believe that that vying for these things isn't optional for fathers. We're called to labor so that our kids and neighbors, and certainly our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, experience the blessing of. Of just systems.
I just feel like we should be little active civic agents everywhere we go, because we have in our hearts, we carry with us this picture of Eden, this picture of the kingdom of God and everything. Again, I'll say this again.
Every time your local culture or laws or leaders get one bump up towards righteousness, God's people should go, thank you, Lord. Yes, God, yes. And every time there's any degree of we're going to throw more money. This happens in my city all the time.
Our schools failing, failing, failing, failing. And they say we're going to write more and bigger checks to throw down this black hole of the Cincinnati public education system.
Oh, I'm grieved because the whole thing needs an overhaul. It's failed. It's sad. It's a sad system.
So anyways, that's what I'm vying for. And I want the context for all this. And we're going to get to America in detail. But I felt like I couldn't get into America specifically without talking about this. I can't start with let's play. You're a grand old flag. And we should have parades down the streets because we're going to be dealing with everybody's confusion and haze about, wait a second. I don't even want to America to go good. There are Christians by the million in this nation who would say that I don't want things to go well for America. I want America to be dismantled. That's a godless stance. No matter how bad it gets, that's a godless stance.
There are Christians all over the world who are in very bad shape, existing under awful governmental leadership. And the attitude is not blow it all up, Lord.
The attitude is, oh, God, bring a righteous standard and testimony from your people so that that would reverberate out and bring healing to this country. So I want to get into the glory shift and opposing false gods, and that's where I'm going to close for today. Any reaction to all of the stuff about civic involvement, Mark?
No.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: I mean, I think that the one thing I'll chip in there is that there's a lie that I don't know if it's. It's not generational, because I know boomers who are in this pit, and I know college guys who think this is their battle. But that says civic engagement is rage. Posting on Twitter or Facebook or like, yeah, you know.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: Angrily shouting into your television when you watch the news. Whatever the.
I'm really convinced that a lot of people watch the news. That will make them the maddest as a hobby.
But. But that's like, I'm politically involved because I get pissed off about whatever it is that I'm about. And I. I sure do let you know, Dale, that I went to high school with, hear it when he posts some stupid post about something I disagree with. That's my civic engagement. And it's like, it's. I think it's easy to get, like, delusions of grandeur here. And those guys over at the Remnant Radio, they're always saying about these kooks that do national prophecies every year. I've got a word for America. Okay. I bet you and your YouTube channel is what God chose. But they're always saying, like, make prophecy local again. And their idea is you should really focus in on places where you can actually minister to people that you have a relationship with, where there's accountability, all of that. I would just say, yes, I'm for voting, I do it.
Even the times where I go, it doesn't matter, I still go do it.
And I would encourage people to spend the bulk of their energy in places where they're having real impact and influence and not thinking about those huge problems that they really, you know, like if, if you're ticked off that abortion is legal in your state, you know, you
[00:31:15] Speaker A: could
[00:31:18] Speaker B: donate 10 bucks to the Republican Party out of some hope that maybe they've gotten less abortion loving people. Whether that's true, I don't know. But yeah, but I would rather see you go down the street and find a pregnancy resource center and say is there a mom that I could just bring groceries to this week? Or whatever.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: Let's go.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: So like, yes, political involvement, but really it's just pushing the kingdom forward in places where you are and that may or may not look to anyone else like it has anything to do with politics. You know, it could be man. My students, my kids are in a school where they offer a. I did this the last two years. They offered junior achievement all over the country. It's a thing to help kids learn about business and money and stuff. Well, you can teach that from a godly perspective. Even in a public school setting where you're not going to read Bible verses, you can teach true principles about stewardship. And so there's all sorts of ways you can get involved and push the kingdom forward. And I would even say those are political.
But they don't look to the world like I am knocking on doors and trying to get you to vote for xyz Republican or Democrat. That I think is going to be a good candidate. So that's my shtick on. I love it, getting involved.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: I think that's a great point. I.
I'm here saying that we should care about such things and we should seek the good of where we, wherever we live. But I don't give them the bulk of my time to trying to get on the city council. I've considered that before. And if God, if that's what I'm supposed to do, I will.
But I am trying to make a huge difference in the city of Cincinnati. Do you know how I do it? I spend time with young dads that's. I'm trying to make disciples out of young men. And obviously that would have Repercussions into the financial situation.
If you could make a thousand disciples, it'll change the way voting works wherever you are, et cetera. So, yes, I agree with that. I'm not trying to tell anybody that politics and civic duty should be the main thrust of your life.
I, I agree with that. I just want, I just want to bring it back inside the, the outline of godly concerns because I, I think that it has come to a place where we think that it's a real strange kind of person that's interested in politics, so to speak. And I'm gonna talk about that more in week three.
But I just want to close in talking about the glory shift in opposing false gods. So the logical outcome of Abrahamic homes would be less glory for competing regional gods and more for the God of the Bible. If I can take that out of the strange and spiritual sounding when I say competing regional gods, I just mean what do you think people worship around you? I'll tell you one thing people worship around me. Ohio State football.
That is a competing regional God around me. Another thing that people worship around me, pleasure and materialism. I'm sure there's nobody like that around where you live, but that's something that people worship near me. I really don't see pleasure and materialism when I visit Kenya.
I mean, there are some, you can go to Nairobi, there's some well to do people, but you go to the villages of Kenya.
Pleasure and materialism, I wouldn't say are the strong suits of what people build their lives around. But it is here where I live. Those are regional gods.
There are real dangers in material success and I see them everywhere around me.
So that's what I mean like, I mean like the competing spirits that people worship opposed to the true God of the Bible.
So here's Isaiah 60. It says, Arise, shine. You might have heard some of these verses before. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples. But the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
Now, I think that means you personally. I think it would also mean your home.
If his glory rose in you, it would affect your home. The next verse says, nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Again, God has on his mind the redemption of nations.
That must include governments and government leaders. When he's talking about nations will come. Verse 16. Your gates will always stand open. They will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations their kings led in triumphal procession. Verse 16.
You will drink the milk of the nations and be nursed at royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the Lord am your savior, your redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.
My point is that God has this manifest destiny in the way that he sees the story of the gospel worldwide. And it includes the harvesting of the nations and the glory of all of the nations to Himself. Revelation 21 says, the nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor and into it, meaning the heavenly heaven.
So imagine the flags of every nation.
It's hard for us. The only time we usually see the flags of the nation is the godless un, pagan occultic un. And the flags of every nation not at some UN gathering, but laid around the throne of Jesus in the new Jerusalem. That future should pull us forward.
And God's intention is that we would saturate all of our geographies with these homes, reversing Babel and advancing God's filling of the earth.
So my next step for you, I want you to do one step this week. I just simply want you one day at the dinner table this week. I want you to gather your family and I want you to pray Jeremiah 29:7 for your city and your nation. God, we're going to seek the welfare of this place so that we could find our welfare in it.
You could throw in 1 Timothy 2. Pray for the leaders of your nation. Do it at dinner. Easy. Just say, God, we're coming into this season. That's highly patriotic. So we're just going to pray for the welfare of this nation. We'll pray for our leaders. If you know the name of your mayor. Great. Some members of your city council, your governor. Great. Pray for those people and pray out loud and speak gratitude out loud to God for the land that you live in.
Acts 17 says that he placed us. He chose the time and places that we would live. He chose you to live where you're living right now. Bless him for it and pray for your leaders.
I'm going to close up shop. Mark, unless you have any closing thoughts.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: No, I mean, I'm looking forward to getting into.
Is episode two history.
Yeah, Yeah, I.
I noticed that. We. We have precious few history teachers in the world now. It's all social studies. Social studies.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: You're exactly right.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: It's not a real topic.
I pulled a Stephen and I raised my hand at our school and I said, why? Why do we have social studies? They're like, well, that's what we call history and a couple other subjects, but the class themselves are called history. And so I was like, okay, I don't need to die on this hill, but. But I'm looking forward to it because, you know, now that I've got a little bit of background, I can, I can do a little research too. I can maybe add to to our next episode some some truths about history that will be maybe very contra to the narrative you have been taught. Even the narrative I was taught 25. I don't know more than that, maybe years ago in my school days.
So I'm looking forward to it. But yeah, in the meantime, let's be praying for the peace of the place where the Lord has planted us. And I think that can also cultivate some gratitude instead of the prevailing soup of anger and discontentment as hobby that seems to be the flavor of the day.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: And it might be that people don't know what to be grateful for with regards to America. I'm going to help you in that. We're going to give you some stuff to be thankful for. I don't want you to squander your inheritance. As an American, you're called to receive it with thanks and oppose the false gods in your geography and exalt Jehovah. This is how Abrahamic fathers work for the good of their place. So if this hits home, Share this episode with another dad Next week we're going to move into episode two, which is our heritage, which I think is noble and insulted.
Until then, seek the good of your place, love your family, and trust the Lord. Now, I thought of leaving you with. I wrote a tune around that if my people verse. I thought of leaving you with that song, but I'm going to do something better, which is, I think for each one of these episodes, I'm going to read to you the lyrics of a patriotic song that's going to help you. So I'm going to.
I think we're going to use John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes throughout this series, which, by the way, John Philip Sousa was a Christian and he said explicitly that God gave him the tune to Stars and Stripes Forever.
I won't. I won't read that story, although it's a great one.
I'm just going to read the verse. I'm going to read the first three verses of America the Beautiful to you, and I hope it inspires you to be grateful for this land that has a godly heritage as you enter this patriotic season. Here we go.
Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain America America God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea Abrahamic brotherhood O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom Beat across the wilderness America America God mend thine every flaw Confirm thy soul in self control thy liberty in law Amazing words O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life America America May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness and every gain divine.
