July 7, 2025 • 50 mins
Right Thinking with Steve Coplon.
This week's show is in honor of the 4th of July and is called Reflections on Freedom. Tune in and hear Steve talk about the freedoms we enjoy in America and hear him provide encouragement to embrace our precious freedoms.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
This week's show is in honor of the 4th of July and is called Reflections on Freedom. Tune in and hear Steve talk about the freedoms we enjoy in America and hear him provide encouragement to embrace our precious freedoms.
https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
There must be lie burning brighter somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Got to be bird high in the sky. Good morning,
Welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm your host,
Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in. Let's have
a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning everybody. Today is a very very special day
for me. Tomorrow is July the fourth Independence Day, and
I love being an American. I love being free. And
so today we're just gonna have a celebration. I don't
(01:02):
have any other guests on and what I want to
do today is just talk about reflections of freedom, reflections
on freedom, and I hope that I can encourage you
to embrace our freedom, to take hold of our freedom,
(01:23):
to take charge of your life because you live in America.
I've got more stuff today that I'm going to put
out on the air now than I could probably do
in the next three shows. And that's a good thing.
But this morning, and when I was talking to my
wife about what we're all trying to do in life,
(01:46):
there are so many people that have the same good,
positive message, that are trying to live life in a
positive way, to live in a godly way. And so
a comment that I that I told Donna this morning
was you know, there have literally been millions and millions
(02:10):
of words written on the subject that I'm talking about,
and it's an endless conversation. I came up with kind
of an example that, you know, if you really want
to hang with somebody that you really admire, you like
(02:30):
their philosophy of life, you like the way they are,
and they they want you to be there to support them.
And they have a program and they say, hey, when
you get into my class, it's going to be for
four weeks, four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, for
(02:52):
three hours. But what they're going to talk about you
are so connected to them, there's very very little in
there that's going to be new for you to help
you be able to go out into the world and
encourage and love on other people in ways that will
help other people. But this person wants you to be
(03:14):
in their class to give them support. But that's a
lot of a time commitment. So what I'm here to
tell you as part of my conversation on freedom today
is one of the greatest things we have in America
is freedom of choice. And you need to choose how
you spend the time to be the most valuable to
(03:36):
others and to yourself. And we're going to talk some
more about that in a little bit. But I am
so blessed that I have so many people around me,
people that have been on the show, Jeff Heiser, Don Green,
Dave Richards, Lisa Davis, Robin Kassarzan, every one of those people.
(03:58):
Their message is the same as mine. They're just trying
to help encourage you and motivate you to take that
first step. That's the way Jeff says it, to go
out there and do things to make your life better,
to make the world a better place. So today I
just want to relax with you, and I'm just going
to give you a lot of stuff and let me
(04:19):
know after it's all over how you like it. But
my objective today is to be able to stimulate your
thoughts and get you to take action. And so now
I'm going to kind of start into it. I'm going
to start all over now. Good morning, everybody. It's been
a great week for me. I'm actually about three days
(04:40):
ahead of a schedule that I was on, and that
is highly unusual for me. As y'all know, I'll be
sixty six years old next week, and I'm kind of
a delink in life. I've taken a lot of time
to get to where I've been trying to go. I've
tried really hard but had a lot of setbacks. And
(05:01):
that's part of what I do is I talk about
perse avereance, not quitting, not giving up. But I'm generally
right down to the minute. And today I talked about
July the fourth last week and said that I'm going
to be doing an all American cookout. But I did
it not on July the fourth, but on Saturday, July
(05:24):
the first. That's three days ahead a schedule. And I
did it because my father in law, Ed was in
the hospital for a few days and we all had
a cookout with Ed and hung out with Ed. And
I just want to tell you, Ed, I love you
so much and I am so so blessed to be
(05:47):
your son in law. And I'm so glad that you
got out of the hospital so quick. And we had
a real Fourth of July cookout Saturday afternoon with Ed.
And so I'm three days ahead, which is a good thing.
So now let me just thank Dave Richards for last
week's show. He was my guest. It was the fourth
time and I think Dave and I got to a
(06:09):
new level. For those of you that haven't tuned n
Inyette and heard Dave Richards, please go back and listen
to his shows. Dave is a wonderful person. He's got
a lot of wisdom and he's got a lot of love,
and he's there to help other people. And our show
last week was all about quality, hanging out with people
that are quality, becoming equality, person understanding quality. And I
(06:34):
want to thank my racquetball buddy Gary. He is my
most loyal listener. Well, I have a couple other for
their direct family members, but Gary's like family. He listens
to every show live if he can, and he's done
almost every one of them. And then he talks to
me about it and he encourages me and we have
great conversation and I love him for that. But last
(06:58):
week Gary gave me a comment that I really appreciate it.
And I thought it was going to be overly critical
and feel like, well, my show wasn't very good, but
it really wasn't. You let me know that I stimulated
his thinking. But here's what his comment was. He said, Steve,
you and Daves you, you did about everything you could
to shoot all around what quality is without ever really
(07:21):
saying what it is. And I said, really, Gary, tell
me what your definition of quality is and he said,
quality is conforming to a standard. And I took a
silent pause for a second and I said, wow, Hey,
that's good Gary. Is there more? She said, no, that's it.
(07:42):
Quality is conforming to a standard. So we got into
this really deep conversation about a standard. Well, is it
a good standard? Is it inherent that if it's a standard,
that it means that it's that it's a high ideal. Yeah,
it does. And he also had given me a couple
months ago, and I'm going to repeat it because Gary's
really really good with this success. Success is the continual
(08:07):
pursuit of something worthwhile. So today, on this beginning of
the show on freedom, I just want to say thank
you Gary for leading me into that and for your
comments last week. And I hope that a lot of
people share their comments on today's show with me. I
would greatly appreciate that. Okay, so today reflections on freedom,
(08:32):
and I want to I want to start off like
I like to do. I've done my Bible study and
learned a whole lot, and I thank every one of
you for listening. But I have to be honest with you.
I believe that I get more out of this show
than anybody else ever could. Maybe that's a bad thing,
because y'all are supposed to get a lot out of
(08:54):
those of you that are getting me your time and
your choice to listen to me. But there is I
say that is is that my normal routine is that
my wife and I when we want to come up
with a verse to kind of set the tone for
the theme that I'm going to be doing on the show,
we come up with several Bible verses and then we
do study. And I've given over two hours every single
(09:19):
week to prepare for just the Bible verse for the show,
because I want to make sure that what I give
each of you is completely from the heart, not just
the cliche that sort of ties into whatever the theme is.
And so I have been growing myself getting closer to
(09:41):
the Lord as I prepare for the show. And I
thank y'all for giving me the opportunity to have this
show and take the time to do that. So the
verses for today that I'm going to give you are
Second Corinthians, verse chapter three, Verse seventeen. Second Corinthians chapter three,
verse seventeen. Now the Lord is the spirit, and where
(10:06):
the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now
the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom. The second verse is
from Galatians chapter five, verse thirteen through fourteen. You, my
(10:30):
brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do
not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve
one another humbly in love, for the entire law is
fulfilled in keeping this one commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself.
(10:56):
That one comes right to the heart for me. I
hope it reach as y'all the same way it reaches me.
Love your neighbor as yourself. The third verses Romans chapter
six twenty two. But now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves of God, the
(11:18):
benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. If you go back and study these scriptures
like like I'm trying to do, it will take you
to a deeper, deeper understanding and a deeper meaning of life.
(11:40):
The third verse fourth verse. Rather, the fourth verse is
from One Peter chapter two sixteen. Live as people who
are free, not using your freedom as a cover up
for evil, but living as servants of God. Thank you
(12:02):
very much. I hope that you go back and listen
to those some more and try to even meditate on this. Now.
You know, I'm surrounded by some wonderful people. I've named
out the ones that have been guests on my show,
all trying to communicate to others how to live in
a way that you can have a better life and
(12:24):
be there to help others. A couple of shows ago,
Dave Richards, he talked about Nelson Mandela and Nelson Mandela
he served as President of South Africa from nineteen ninety
four to nineteen ninety nine. He was the country's first
black head of state and the first elected in a
fully representative democratic election. Two quotes from Nelson Mandela on freedom.
(12:50):
I'm going to get today's section of the show is
to give you a series of quotes on freedom, for
to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances
the freedom of others. I'm gonna I'm gonna take a
(13:12):
pause for a second and before I start giving you
all the freedom quotes that I've got here, and I've
got a lot of them. I want to share something
with you. And you know, we live in America and
I've had an opportunity that has just been a wonderful
opportunity to have my own radio show where I have
(13:36):
a voice that I can try to speak to people.
And the radio show that is on the Talk network
Radio Jeff Heiser the producer. He also has an online
magazine that is a high, high quality magazine. I've talked
about it before. It has national geographic type type photographs
(13:59):
in there. And I started writing on the three issues
ago May, June, and now in July. Now the issue
is going to come out for July, I think on
July the fourth or the next day. And I wrote
an article on reflections on Freedom, which is the same
(14:19):
as today's show, and so I would like to take
the opportunity to share that with you. In celebration of
our nation's two hundred and forty first birthday this July
the fourth, I would like to reflect on the roots
of our freedom. May we teach our history to our
(14:40):
children and never take these great freedoms for granted. On
June the fifteenth, twelve fifteen, when King John of England
agreed to the Magna Carta to make peace with a
group of rebel barons, the foundations of democracy were lated.
(15:00):
It is one of the most important documents in history,
as it guaranteed the rights of individuals and put forth
the principle that even the king was subject to the
same laws as all men. Rights that it guaranteed were
religious liberty, justice, and a fair trial. On July the fourth,
(15:23):
seventeen seventy six, the Declaration of Independence was voted on
and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
announcing that the thirteen American colonies were now the United
States of America and were no longer under British rule.
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, who later
(15:47):
became the third President of the United States, wrote what
would become one of the most well known statements on
human rights, the most powerful being the second sentence quotes,
we hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
(16:09):
Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness in quote. The United States
Constitution was signed on September seventeenth, seventeen eighty seven by
delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. George Washington, who
(16:32):
later became our nation's first President, presided over the convention.
James Madison drafted the Constitution and later became our nation's
fourth president. The Constitution established our government, our fundamental laws,
and guaranteed certain basic rights to our people. On December fifteenth,
(16:54):
seventeen ninety one, the first ten amendments to the Constitution,
known as the Bill of Rights, written by James Madison,
were ratified and became part of the Constitution. The first
Amendment guaranteed five basic freedoms, freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
(17:15):
freedom of the press, freedom to peaceable assembly, and freedom
to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The
second Amendment guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms.
Democracy in our country gives us many rights and freedoms.
(17:36):
There is a difference between a right and a freedom.
A right is something that people are entitled to from
the government. That is a legal, social, or moral claim,
and once given, cannot be taken away unless the laws change.
People have a legal duty to honor your rights and
(17:57):
the law will protect you if your rights are violated.
A freedom is generally something personal that we enjoy that
does not involve the government. We have many freedoms, particularly
the freedom to make choices. We can choose where we live,
what we do with our lives, what kind of work
(18:20):
we do, who we marry, how many children we can have.
We can choose what we believe, what religion we practice,
what we say, and who we associate with. We enjoy
the freedoms protected by the First Amendment. Some opposites of
freedom are bondage, slavery, incarceration, restricted mobility, and constraints imposed
(18:44):
by obligations such as debt. We must not give up
our freedom to fear and addictions. There is much confusion
about freedom. Janus Joplin, one of the biggest female rock
stars of the sixties, had a huge hit titled Me
(19:05):
and Bobby McGee, written by Chris Christofferson. The song is
about two young lovers traveling around together to break up
to experience the world on their own with no attachments.
The most famous line in the song is Freedom's just
another word for nothing, less to lose. Janis Joplin died
(19:28):
of an accidental overdose of heroin at age twenty seven,
as reported by the media. If you are using heroin,
there is no such state as an accidental overdose. That
is like playing Russian Roulette with a gun and saying
that a death from the game could be called an accident.
(19:51):
We must not surrender our freedoms to drugs and other addictions.
Freedom without boundaries is chaos. We must not throw away
our precious freedoms. Many men and women have fought and
died to preserve and protect our freedoms. Zach Walk, who
(20:13):
represented Tennessee in the United States Congress for sixteen years,
said quote, with freedom comes responsibility, and I can think
of no responsibility greater than putting on a US military
uniform and standing in the gap between an enemy threat
(20:35):
and civilian life end quote. This fourth of July, I
will be relaxing at Virginia Beach, celebrating freedom. And then
I will be with my family and friends enjoying an
all American cookout hamburgers and hot dogs. I thank God
that I am an American. God bless America. WHOA thank you,
(21:04):
thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share that
with you. Now, I want to read the Oxford Dictionary
Definition of Freedom. As I continue on my reflections of freedom,
Oxford Dictionary on Freedom, the power or act, to the
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power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
Absence of subjection to foreign domination or to despotic government.
The power of self determination, attribute it to the will,
the quality of being independent of fate or necessity. The
(21:54):
state of being unrestricted and able to move easily, unrestricted
use of something. These examples of freedom, they resonate with me,
and I know they do for y'all too now. And
I want to go back and read some of the
quotes from some very very famous people that I am
(22:19):
just proud that I have the opportunity to read what
they have given the world. Nelson Mandela, I gave you
the first quote for to be free is not merely
to cast off one's chains, but to live in a
way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. I
(22:39):
really like it that Nelson Mandela is talking about the
respect for freedom to others. You know, one of the
thoughts about freedom is that freedom is not as free
as some people think. Respecting others. Yeah, let's keep on
Herendela gave another money won't create success the freedom to
(23:06):
make it will. I really like that. Most of these
books we could talk about for a long time, so
I try to keep it briefed today as I just
do an overview as a celebration of freedom and what
some great people have said about freedom. But so many
people set their goals on money. They basically just think
(23:28):
that if they if they have a life where they
make a lot of money, they're going to have a
wonderful life. Well, what Nelson Mandela is saying is is
that it's not the money that gets you the success.
It's the fact that you're free to be able to
pursue money, to be able to set your goals to
make the amount of money that you want, and not
(23:49):
let money just be your in goal. Okay, now this
one is by Sola Debt O'Brien. She's a newscaster on
a lot of the top see in that, s NBC
and a lot of others. She's had her own show
and stuff like that. But I really love this one.
This is a quote by Soladet O'Brien. I've learned that
(24:12):
fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders
to what maybe to what may be just a few
steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable,
but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self
work can empower you to walk down an even brighter path,
(24:36):
transforming fear into freedom. How great is that? End quote
Sola det You really put out something beautiful transforming fear
into freedom? How great is that? Here's one that is
very very old, in fact, to Lucidies. To Lucidies four
(25:02):
sixty to four hundred BC, this Greek Athenian historian and general,
and he studied the human condition. He was one of
the early historians that really tried to analyze what people
want and why they behave the way they do. This
(25:22):
one's really simple, but it's been around for twenty five
hundred years. The secret to happiness is freedom. And the
secret to freedom is courage. Oh boy, And the secret
to freedom is courage. Anybody ever sit down and want
(25:47):
to become something, to do something with your life, but
you just don't for some reason or another, you just
don't think that you can make it. Well, that's that's
what I want to ask you really quick. Here I'm
going to come back to the quotes. You need to
make an investment in yourself you need to read, you
need to get educated, you need to get a plan,
(26:09):
You need to work, you need to study, you need
to serve others. Why are you waiting for someone else
to give it to you? Why don't you take charge
of your life? That's what I'm trying to tell you
about today. Question what are you waiting for? Hey, I
can tell you when you take that leap of faith
(26:30):
to go out there and embark on a journey, that's
the unknown, something that you wanted to do, but you're afraid,
it is scary and it takes a long time. I've
already shared with you that I'm going to be sixty
six years old next week, and the same things that
I've been working towards, wanting, desiring, trying to attain from
(26:52):
the time I was sixteen or seventeen years old close
to fifty years, are just now coming into fruition. I've
just spent my whole life trying to figure out why
do some people make it become successful in what they
go to do. Why are some people authors that have
best selling books and motivational speakers that many people want
(27:13):
to listen to. Why do some people succeed and others don't? Well,
a big reason for that is because they have courage.
And in America, we have the opportunity to pursue whatever
we want, but it takes courage. So I'm encouraging you
to have the courage to go out there and embrace
(27:35):
this freedom, claim it, take ownership, do something about it.
But you have to take responsibility. You really expect somebody
else to give it to you. You want to wait
for that, and then nothing happens and you're still where
you were. You can do something with your life. Okay, now,
let me continue with some more of these quotes, because
they did me going. All right, let's see, we just
(27:58):
did the quote from so with it and then we
did tolicities. Okay, this one, this one's really powerful. Every
human has four endowments self awareness, conscience, independent will, and
creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom, the
(28:23):
power to choose to respond to change. That quote was
by Stephen Covey, and he is one of the most
successful American motivational speakers, educator. He's an author. His top
book that he wrote that is absolutely wonderful. I recommend it,
(28:46):
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey. Okay, now,
let's go back in history a little bit. This one.
I want you to connect this one the world that
we're living in right now, particularly all of the all
of the turmoil that we're experiencing in America. I'm not
(29:09):
going to get political, but the person that I'm going
to quote next is a political figure. And you can
hear what I'm going to tell you that was written
in the Civil War days, back in the eighteen sixties.
And here's what it is. America will never be destroyed
from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms,
(29:36):
it will because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President
of the United States, considered by many to be the
greatest president we ever had. Okay, here's a good one
for you. Education is the key to unlock the golden
(29:57):
door of freedom. Where repeating before I share who it's from.
Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.
Education is the golden freedom is a golden door in
education unlocks it. Okay, that's George Washington Carver for those
(30:21):
of you that might not know about him. He was
born in eighteen sixty and he lived all the way
to nineteen forty three and He was a botanist, an inventor,
and an environmentalist. And what he did that made him really,
really famous is he had one hundred and five uses
(30:44):
of the peanut. That's right, the peanut, and he spent
years and years developing uses for the peanut. And some
wonderful things about him, though, was he was one of
our first environmentalists. And he came along in an era
that was very racially polarized, and his fame went far,
(31:05):
far beyond the black community that he came from. He
was widely recognized and praised in the white community for
his many achievements and talents. George Washington Carver is a
phenomenally great American. All right, This next one is not
by an American, but it's about freedom. All the great
(31:29):
things are simple and many can be expressed in a
single word. Freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, and hope. That's
Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is considered to be
(31:51):
one of the greatest statements in the history of the world.
He led England through World War Two and he gave
hope and encouragement to England at a time when it
was probably in its most darkest hours. Winston Churchill. This
next one, it's going to set you up for part
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of the show that's going to come after I read
this a few more quotes, but I'm going to get
into a lot of songs, songs of freedom, but this
one should reach a lot of people. A hero is
someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.
(32:36):
I tell you that a lot of people tell you
that there's a lot of responsibility comes with freedom. A
hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with
his freedom. Well that was Bob Billan, one of the
greatest American poets and songwriters we've ever seen. He actually
won a Nobel Prize as a Poet Laureate. He has
(33:00):
been incredibly influential in pop music and culture for over
fifty years. Bob Dylan was a contemporary of the Beatles,
and some of his lyrics are just absolutely phenomenal. Okay,
So now I want to get into a couple of
things that are a little deeper than some of these.
(33:25):
You know, my foundation, right thinking foundation is about your thinking,
the importance of thinking right as opposed to thinking wrong
or negative. And I'm reading the book right now by
John mcauthor and it's called anxious for nothing. I highly
(33:47):
recommend it. John mcauthor is considered by many to be
the number one motivational speaker on the subject of leadership.
He's also got five decades of being a very, very boy.
He's had it. He's been mentoring people, he's had a
church for five decades. And uh. This is from a
(34:08):
chapter of his book that I was reading yesterday. The
term right r I g h T speaks of righteousness.
Our thoughts are to be in perfect harmony with the eternal, unchanging,
divine standard of our Holy God, as revealed in scripture.
(34:32):
Right thinking is always consistent with God's absolute holiness. I
want to I want to take a breath just for
a second. Not that I need to. I can keep
doing this pace here. But I just thank you. I
just thank you. Every week I come on the show,
and I and I talk a lot. I got we
(34:54):
got jokes about how much I talk. People have always
told me, Steve, you talk more than any human being
I have every met, and my response has always been, well,
you never had the pleasure to meet my mother. Yeah.
I was raised by a mother that we talked all
the time, but we talked about good things. We talked
about godly things, We talked about wanting to help other people.
(35:17):
When I gave my mother's eulogy, I described her as
my mother's name was Rose, and I said that everybody
that knew Rose knew that Rose was a synonym for love.
She gave it to me, and it's just the greatest
blessing to have a mother the mother that I had.
She put it in my heart. And so each week
(35:40):
I come on the show, and I spent hours trying
to find just the right scripture to give you so
that I can build around it with practical things. And
a big part of my life is to is to
navigate the treacherous waters between the kingdom living of the
Lord and the natural of the world. And so, sadly enough,
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you know, we're here to serve the Lord, but we
still have to eat and keep a roof over our
head and pay bills and things like that. But we
have freedom to be anything we want to be, to
do anything we want to do. But there's laws that
try to govern it, because some people abuse those freedoms
(36:24):
and they violate things, and so there's laws that to
try to keep it so that people stay within certain boundaries.
But I'll tell you this, the ultimate freedom is to
serve the Lord and go by his standards, so that
if you do that, you don't have to worry. You
don't have to be self conscious about who you are
(36:46):
or what you think. You can just open your mouth
and let the words flow out. Because if you're filled
with the Holy Spirit and it's godly coming straight from
the Lord, everything will be fine. And so I'm very
pleased that I'm reading John macauthur's book and that he's
talked about right thinking and that I have a I
(37:07):
have a national trademark on the on the phrase right
thinking as it relates to financial education, it takes money
to live. I'm sorry to tell you that. On other
shows we're going to come back to the tools that
I want to give you, But today is just a
celebration of what freedom is and and just reflecting on
(37:28):
some of our history and this wonderful land that we
live in. One of the one of the people that
I listened to a lot is Joyce Meyer, and she
talks about the importance of right thinking and and she
talks about, you know, the mind is a battlefield, so
you can get deeply into Joyce Meyer, and I highly
(37:48):
recommend her. Well. Napoleon Hill, for forty five years has
been probably one of the greatest influences in my life.
I did a show on my influences early Out about
two months ago, three months ago, and I said that,
other than the Bible, Napoleon Hill of Think and Grow
(38:10):
rich as the greatest influence in my life. And last
week I had the I don't even want to understate this,
the esteem, honor, and privilege and pleasure to go to Wise,
Virginia and spend an hour and a half with Don Green,
the executive director of Right Think. That's me. I'm the
(38:33):
executive director of Right Thinking Foundation, the executive director of
the Napoleon Hill Foundation, and I am just so blessed
to be in the presence of people that have dedicated
their life to serving others and to trying to make
the world a better place. I'm going to read you
three quotes from Napoleon Hill that relate to freedoms in
(38:55):
here somewhere. If you do not conquer self, you will
be conquered by self. Okay, that one doesn't have the
word freedom in it, but if you think about it,
if you do not conquer self, you will be conquered
by self. That one's very deep. We're going to talk
(39:16):
more about that later, but I'm going to leave it
out there for you, because freedom is to be rid
of sin and get out of the self and serve
the Lord. Here's another one by Napoleon Hill. Man alone
has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality.
(39:40):
Man alone can dream and make his dreams come true.
We live in America, and you can take your dream.
You can be like the immigrants that came here to
settle our country from all over the world with a
dream and a hope when they landed on Ellis Island
and saw the statue of liberty, let freedom ring. Here's
(40:03):
a beautiful thing here now, Napoleon Hill. The orderliness, order,
the order leanness of the world of natural laws gives
evident that they are under the control of a universal plan.
Man is the only living creature equipped with the power
(40:24):
of choice, through which he may establish his own thought
and behavior patterns. You have the power to break bad
habits and to create good ones in their place at will.
You are where you are and what you are because
of your established habits and thoughts and deeds. That's the
(40:47):
connection point for me to give you that once you
embrace your freedoms, it's going to take a certain amount
of effort and work and discipline and a plan. But
I'm telling you, in America, we have complete freedom of
our minds to think as we want to think and
to move toward that. Okay, the last section of the show,
(41:09):
we got a little less than ten minutes. I have
about ten or eleven songs here that are patriotic songs
of America. But before I lead into just the patriotic ones,
if you want to really really uplifting song that will
(41:29):
just really give you a spiritual level about freedom. It's
called Freedom and sung by Eddie James. And the line
that I want to quote is no more shackles, no
more change, no more bondage. I am free. Yeah. Okay,
So Eddie James song on Freedom. The Star Spangled Banner
(41:55):
baseball games is where we most know its sporting events.
But this song was written by Francis Scott Key and
he was in the Baltimore Harbor and the War of
eighteen twelve and and the bombs were landing in and
he wrote this poem and it was put to music,
and it's just incredible OSEI can you see, by the
(42:16):
dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the
twilight's last gleam in the star spangled banner. We know
that one. Now, this one here, this one here is
just an amazing song that I want to tell you here.
It's one of our most patriotic songs. It's America the
Beautiful and it was written all the way back in
(42:41):
eighteen ninety two or three, I don't know the exact
date there, and then it was put to music. But
I love this one. I'm gonna read this one all
the way through kind of fast. It's a poem, Oh
beautiful for spacious guys, for amber waves up green, for
purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain, America, America. God
(43:02):
shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with
brotherhood from c to Shining Sea. There's four more verses,
but I want to point something out to you. The
original thirteen colonies were settled. The number one reason that
they were settled and people came from England for freedom
was for religious freedom to be able to pray the
(43:24):
way they wanted to pray. So just always remember that
our country was founded for religious freedom as it's number
one objective, and that's one of the things that we've
got to stand up for and protect that. Okay, Now,
this song here is just absolutely wonderful. Kate Smith seventh
Inning Stretched, God Bless America. Now many many people sing
(43:48):
that song, but nobody sings it like Kate Smith. The
song was written by Irving Blind, one of the most
famous composer songwriters ever, and the lyrics of that song,
it leads into a beautiful voice, but it's a prayer.
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea. Let
us swear allegiance to a land that's free. Let us
(44:12):
all be grateful for a land so fair as we
raise our voices in solemn prayer. God bless America, land
that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through
the night with a light from above, from the mountains
to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam. God
(44:33):
bless America, My home, sweet home. God Bless America, My home,
sweet home. Now here's one that I really like, and
I've traveled across country a few times, and I'll tell
you more about it later. But two weeks from tomorrow,
I'm going to be driving close to eight thousand miles
(44:54):
and I want to thank every one of you again
for listening to the show and for supporting with right
Thinking does because I am going to finally go. I'm
going to take the car that the Auto Connection donated
to the Foundation a year and a half ago so
that I could take my message of love, hope and
encouragement across the nation and not just go to prisons
(45:17):
inside Virginia. Four hundred times in Virginia the last five
and a half years prisons, And now I'm going to
drive all the way out to the west coast and
I'm scheduled on Monday, July the thirty first to speak
to a prison out in Baker City, Oregon called called
Powder River Correctional Center. Jeff Heiser gave me the contact
(45:43):
and I called them, and so I'm going out there.
But I'm telling you that I love being on the
highway and driving and seeing America. This Land is your Land.
One of the best versions of it was sang by
Peter Paul and Mary and it is. It was written
by Woody Guthrie in nineteen forty and it is just
an amazing song. This Land is your land. This land
(46:06):
is my land, from California to the New York Island,
from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters. This
land was made for you and me. Yeah, there's a
whole lot of beautiful stuff there, but from California to
the New York Island, coast to coast. So that is
a wonderful song. Now, this next one is one of
my all time favorite songs. When I've been in prisons,
(46:28):
I've been singing these lyrics and just kind of I
say this when I'm trying to motivate people to take
action and take the right steps to move forward with
their lives and to don't quit plan ahead. It will
get better, and to start with your plan and start
learning how to take charge of your life. I just
go Only in Amerika, Land Up, Opportunity, wear Up, Paul
(46:55):
Boy Up, Paul Boy like me. Yeah, let me tell you,
I'm that guy that sings worship music in church that
everybody laughs at because that's coming from my heart. But
I'm always a half beat off. I know that. But
there's a couple versions of Only in America, and the
one that I like the most is fund Jay and
Americans in nineteen sixty three. I'm telling you that you
(47:16):
got a dream. You can do anything you want in
America because this is our country. Another song by the
exact same name was recorded by Brooks and Dunn and
Ronnie Dunn sang the lead vocals on it, and that
song came out in two thousand and one. And that's
an amazing song. It's let me see the first that
I like there. Well, here's one only in America, where
(47:40):
we dream as big as we want to. We all
get a chance, everybody gets to dance. Only in America. Oh,
that song is just full of wonderful, wonderful things about
the freedoms that we have in America. Yeah, here's another
line from the song. I like this son going down
on an LA Freeway. Newly weds and the act of
a limousine. A welder son and a banker's daughter. All
(48:05):
they want is everything. She came out here to be
an actress. He was a singer in a band. They
might just go back to Oklahoma and talk about the stars.
They could have been only in America. Yeah, So, anyway,
that's an incredible song. So I got another minute and
a half and I'm gonna finish it right on queue.
Here here is an amazing song. And I know I
(48:28):
know that, especially my mother in law, Agnes. She loves
Neil Diamond. And this is America. And then coming to America.
Oh my gosh, far, I'm not gonna sing it, but far.
We've been traveling far without a home, but not without
a star. Free, only want to be free. We huddled close,
(48:49):
hang on to a dream. On the boats and on
the planes. They're coming to America, never looking back again.
They're coming to America Home. Don't it seem so far away? Oh,
we're traveling light today in the eye of the storm,
in the eye of the storm. I'm gonna skip a
few verses because I got just a minute. My country
(49:11):
tiz a v today, sweet land of Liberty today. Okay,
that's Neil Diamond. And the last one is the Battle
Hymn of the Republic. That is just so, that's glory, glory, hallelujah,
and it's just they're beautiful. My k eyes have seen
the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is
trampling out the benach where the grapes of wrath or
(49:31):
storm he has loosened that faithful light. You know this
terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on. I want
to wish every single one of you the most wonderful
Fourth of July tomorrow, and all I can tell you
is thank you, thank you, thank you, and God bless America.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Thanks for listening to right thinking with Steve Cooper. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week, and remember,
don't quit. Plan ahead. It will get better. God Bush,
you can have a great week.
There must be lie burning brighter somewhere.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Got to be bird high in the sky. Good morning,
Welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm your host,
Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in. Let's have
a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning everybody. Today is a very very special day
for me. Tomorrow is July the fourth Independence Day, and
I love being an American. I love being free. And
so today we're just gonna have a celebration. I don't
(01:02):
have any other guests on and what I want to
do today is just talk about reflections of freedom, reflections
on freedom, and I hope that I can encourage you
to embrace our freedom, to take hold of our freedom,
(01:23):
to take charge of your life because you live in America.
I've got more stuff today that I'm going to put
out on the air now than I could probably do
in the next three shows. And that's a good thing.
But this morning, and when I was talking to my
wife about what we're all trying to do in life,
(01:46):
there are so many people that have the same good,
positive message, that are trying to live life in a
positive way, to live in a godly way. And so
a comment that I that I told Donna this morning
was you know, there have literally been millions and millions
(02:10):
of words written on the subject that I'm talking about,
and it's an endless conversation. I came up with kind
of an example that, you know, if you really want
to hang with somebody that you really admire, you like
(02:30):
their philosophy of life, you like the way they are,
and they they want you to be there to support them.
And they have a program and they say, hey, when
you get into my class, it's going to be for
four weeks, four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, for
(02:52):
three hours. But what they're going to talk about you
are so connected to them, there's very very little in
there that's going to be new for you to help
you be able to go out into the world and
encourage and love on other people in ways that will
help other people. But this person wants you to be
(03:14):
in their class to give them support. But that's a
lot of a time commitment. So what I'm here to
tell you as part of my conversation on freedom today
is one of the greatest things we have in America
is freedom of choice. And you need to choose how
you spend the time to be the most valuable to
(03:36):
others and to yourself. And we're going to talk some
more about that in a little bit. But I am
so blessed that I have so many people around me,
people that have been on the show, Jeff Heiser, Don Green,
Dave Richards, Lisa Davis, Robin Kassarzan, every one of those people.
(03:58):
Their message is the same as mine. They're just trying
to help encourage you and motivate you to take that
first step. That's the way Jeff says it, to go
out there and do things to make your life better,
to make the world a better place. So today I
just want to relax with you, and I'm just going
to give you a lot of stuff and let me
(04:19):
know after it's all over how you like it. But
my objective today is to be able to stimulate your
thoughts and get you to take action. And so now
I'm going to kind of start into it. I'm going
to start all over now. Good morning, everybody. It's been
a great week for me. I'm actually about three days
(04:40):
ahead of a schedule that I was on, and that
is highly unusual for me. As y'all know, I'll be
sixty six years old next week, and I'm kind of
a delink in life. I've taken a lot of time
to get to where I've been trying to go. I've
tried really hard but had a lot of setbacks. And
(05:01):
that's part of what I do is I talk about
perse avereance, not quitting, not giving up. But I'm generally
right down to the minute. And today I talked about
July the fourth last week and said that I'm going
to be doing an all American cookout. But I did
it not on July the fourth, but on Saturday, July
(05:24):
the first. That's three days ahead a schedule. And I
did it because my father in law, Ed was in
the hospital for a few days and we all had
a cookout with Ed and hung out with Ed. And
I just want to tell you, Ed, I love you
so much and I am so so blessed to be
(05:47):
your son in law. And I'm so glad that you
got out of the hospital so quick. And we had
a real Fourth of July cookout Saturday afternoon with Ed.
And so I'm three days ahead, which is a good thing.
So now let me just thank Dave Richards for last
week's show. He was my guest. It was the fourth
time and I think Dave and I got to a
(06:09):
new level. For those of you that haven't tuned n
Inyette and heard Dave Richards, please go back and listen
to his shows. Dave is a wonderful person. He's got
a lot of wisdom and he's got a lot of love,
and he's there to help other people. And our show
last week was all about quality, hanging out with people
that are quality, becoming equality, person understanding quality. And I
(06:34):
want to thank my racquetball buddy Gary. He is my
most loyal listener. Well, I have a couple other for
their direct family members, but Gary's like family. He listens
to every show live if he can, and he's done
almost every one of them. And then he talks to
me about it and he encourages me and we have
great conversation and I love him for that. But last
(06:58):
week Gary gave me a comment that I really appreciate it.
And I thought it was going to be overly critical
and feel like, well, my show wasn't very good, but
it really wasn't. You let me know that I stimulated
his thinking. But here's what his comment was. He said, Steve,
you and Daves you, you did about everything you could
to shoot all around what quality is without ever really
(07:21):
saying what it is. And I said, really, Gary, tell
me what your definition of quality is and he said,
quality is conforming to a standard. And I took a
silent pause for a second and I said, wow, Hey,
that's good Gary. Is there more? She said, no, that's it.
(07:42):
Quality is conforming to a standard. So we got into
this really deep conversation about a standard. Well, is it
a good standard? Is it inherent that if it's a standard,
that it means that it's that it's a high ideal. Yeah,
it does. And he also had given me a couple
months ago, and I'm going to repeat it because Gary's
really really good with this success. Success is the continual
(08:07):
pursuit of something worthwhile. So today, on this beginning of
the show on freedom, I just want to say thank
you Gary for leading me into that and for your
comments last week. And I hope that a lot of
people share their comments on today's show with me. I
would greatly appreciate that. Okay, so today reflections on freedom,
(08:32):
and I want to I want to start off like
I like to do. I've done my Bible study and
learned a whole lot, and I thank every one of
you for listening. But I have to be honest with you.
I believe that I get more out of this show
than anybody else ever could. Maybe that's a bad thing,
because y'all are supposed to get a lot out of
(08:54):
those of you that are getting me your time and
your choice to listen to me. But there is I
say that is is that my normal routine is that
my wife and I when we want to come up
with a verse to kind of set the tone for
the theme that I'm going to be doing on the show,
we come up with several Bible verses and then we
do study. And I've given over two hours every single
(09:19):
week to prepare for just the Bible verse for the show,
because I want to make sure that what I give
each of you is completely from the heart, not just
the cliche that sort of ties into whatever the theme is.
And so I have been growing myself getting closer to
(09:41):
the Lord as I prepare for the show. And I
thank y'all for giving me the opportunity to have this
show and take the time to do that. So the
verses for today that I'm going to give you are
Second Corinthians, verse chapter three, Verse seventeen. Second Corinthians chapter three,
verse seventeen. Now the Lord is the spirit, and where
(10:06):
the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now
the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom. The second verse is
from Galatians chapter five, verse thirteen through fourteen. You, my
(10:30):
brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do
not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve
one another humbly in love, for the entire law is
fulfilled in keeping this one commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself.
(10:56):
That one comes right to the heart for me. I
hope it reach as y'all the same way it reaches me.
Love your neighbor as yourself. The third verses Romans chapter
six twenty two. But now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves of God, the
(11:18):
benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. If you go back and study these scriptures
like like I'm trying to do, it will take you
to a deeper, deeper understanding and a deeper meaning of life.
(11:40):
The third verse fourth verse. Rather, the fourth verse is
from One Peter chapter two sixteen. Live as people who
are free, not using your freedom as a cover up
for evil, but living as servants of God. Thank you
(12:02):
very much. I hope that you go back and listen
to those some more and try to even meditate on this. Now.
You know, I'm surrounded by some wonderful people. I've named
out the ones that have been guests on my show,
all trying to communicate to others how to live in
a way that you can have a better life and
(12:24):
be there to help others. A couple of shows ago,
Dave Richards, he talked about Nelson Mandela and Nelson Mandela
he served as President of South Africa from nineteen ninety
four to nineteen ninety nine. He was the country's first
black head of state and the first elected in a
fully representative democratic election. Two quotes from Nelson Mandela on freedom.
(12:50):
I'm going to get today's section of the show is
to give you a series of quotes on freedom, for
to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,
but to live in a way that respects and enhances
the freedom of others. I'm gonna I'm gonna take a
(13:12):
pause for a second and before I start giving you
all the freedom quotes that I've got here, and I've
got a lot of them. I want to share something
with you. And you know, we live in America and
I've had an opportunity that has just been a wonderful
opportunity to have my own radio show where I have
(13:36):
a voice that I can try to speak to people.
And the radio show that is on the Talk network
Radio Jeff Heiser the producer. He also has an online
magazine that is a high, high quality magazine. I've talked
about it before. It has national geographic type type photographs
(13:59):
in there. And I started writing on the three issues
ago May, June, and now in July. Now the issue
is going to come out for July, I think on
July the fourth or the next day. And I wrote
an article on reflections on Freedom, which is the same
(14:19):
as today's show, and so I would like to take
the opportunity to share that with you. In celebration of
our nation's two hundred and forty first birthday this July
the fourth, I would like to reflect on the roots
of our freedom. May we teach our history to our
(14:40):
children and never take these great freedoms for granted. On
June the fifteenth, twelve fifteen, when King John of England
agreed to the Magna Carta to make peace with a
group of rebel barons, the foundations of democracy were lated.
(15:00):
It is one of the most important documents in history,
as it guaranteed the rights of individuals and put forth
the principle that even the king was subject to the
same laws as all men. Rights that it guaranteed were
religious liberty, justice, and a fair trial. On July the fourth,
(15:23):
seventeen seventy six, the Declaration of Independence was voted on
and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
announcing that the thirteen American colonies were now the United
States of America and were no longer under British rule.
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, who later
(15:47):
became the third President of the United States, wrote what
would become one of the most well known statements on
human rights, the most powerful being the second sentence quotes,
we hold these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
(16:09):
Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness in quote. The United States
Constitution was signed on September seventeenth, seventeen eighty seven by
delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. George Washington, who
(16:32):
later became our nation's first President, presided over the convention.
James Madison drafted the Constitution and later became our nation's
fourth president. The Constitution established our government, our fundamental laws,
and guaranteed certain basic rights to our people. On December fifteenth,
(16:54):
seventeen ninety one, the first ten amendments to the Constitution,
known as the Bill of Rights, written by James Madison,
were ratified and became part of the Constitution. The first
Amendment guaranteed five basic freedoms, freedom of religion, freedom of speech,
(17:15):
freedom of the press, freedom to peaceable assembly, and freedom
to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The
second Amendment guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms.
Democracy in our country gives us many rights and freedoms.
(17:36):
There is a difference between a right and a freedom.
A right is something that people are entitled to from
the government. That is a legal, social, or moral claim,
and once given, cannot be taken away unless the laws change.
People have a legal duty to honor your rights and
(17:57):
the law will protect you if your rights are violated.
A freedom is generally something personal that we enjoy that
does not involve the government. We have many freedoms, particularly
the freedom to make choices. We can choose where we live,
what we do with our lives, what kind of work
(18:20):
we do, who we marry, how many children we can have.
We can choose what we believe, what religion we practice,
what we say, and who we associate with. We enjoy
the freedoms protected by the First Amendment. Some opposites of
freedom are bondage, slavery, incarceration, restricted mobility, and constraints imposed
(18:44):
by obligations such as debt. We must not give up
our freedom to fear and addictions. There is much confusion
about freedom. Janus Joplin, one of the biggest female rock
stars of the sixties, had a huge hit titled Me
(19:05):
and Bobby McGee, written by Chris Christofferson. The song is
about two young lovers traveling around together to break up
to experience the world on their own with no attachments.
The most famous line in the song is Freedom's just
another word for nothing, less to lose. Janis Joplin died
(19:28):
of an accidental overdose of heroin at age twenty seven,
as reported by the media. If you are using heroin,
there is no such state as an accidental overdose. That
is like playing Russian Roulette with a gun and saying
that a death from the game could be called an accident.
(19:51):
We must not surrender our freedoms to drugs and other addictions.
Freedom without boundaries is chaos. We must not throw away
our precious freedoms. Many men and women have fought and
died to preserve and protect our freedoms. Zach Walk, who
(20:13):
represented Tennessee in the United States Congress for sixteen years,
said quote, with freedom comes responsibility, and I can think
of no responsibility greater than putting on a US military
uniform and standing in the gap between an enemy threat
(20:35):
and civilian life end quote. This fourth of July, I
will be relaxing at Virginia Beach, celebrating freedom. And then
I will be with my family and friends enjoying an
all American cookout hamburgers and hot dogs. I thank God
that I am an American. God bless America. WHOA thank you,
(21:04):
thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share that
with you. Now, I want to read the Oxford Dictionary
Definition of Freedom. As I continue on my reflections of freedom,
Oxford Dictionary on Freedom, the power or act, to the
(21:29):
power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
Absence of subjection to foreign domination or to despotic government.
The power of self determination, attribute it to the will,
the quality of being independent of fate or necessity. The
(21:54):
state of being unrestricted and able to move easily, unrestricted
use of something. These examples of freedom, they resonate with me,
and I know they do for y'all too now. And
I want to go back and read some of the
quotes from some very very famous people that I am
(22:19):
just proud that I have the opportunity to read what
they have given the world. Nelson Mandela, I gave you
the first quote for to be free is not merely
to cast off one's chains, but to live in a
way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. I
(22:39):
really like it that Nelson Mandela is talking about the
respect for freedom to others. You know, one of the
thoughts about freedom is that freedom is not as free
as some people think. Respecting others. Yeah, let's keep on
Herendela gave another money won't create success the freedom to
(23:06):
make it will. I really like that. Most of these
books we could talk about for a long time, so
I try to keep it briefed today as I just
do an overview as a celebration of freedom and what
some great people have said about freedom. But so many
people set their goals on money. They basically just think
(23:28):
that if they if they have a life where they
make a lot of money, they're going to have a
wonderful life. Well, what Nelson Mandela is saying is is
that it's not the money that gets you the success.
It's the fact that you're free to be able to
pursue money, to be able to set your goals to
make the amount of money that you want, and not
(23:49):
let money just be your in goal. Okay, now this
one is by Sola Debt O'Brien. She's a newscaster on
a lot of the top see in that, s NBC
and a lot of others. She's had her own show
and stuff like that. But I really love this one.
This is a quote by Soladet O'Brien. I've learned that
(24:12):
fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders
to what maybe to what may be just a few
steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable,
but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self
work can empower you to walk down an even brighter path,
(24:36):
transforming fear into freedom. How great is that? End quote
Sola det You really put out something beautiful transforming fear
into freedom? How great is that? Here's one that is
very very old, in fact, to Lucidies. To Lucidies four
(25:02):
sixty to four hundred BC, this Greek Athenian historian and general,
and he studied the human condition. He was one of
the early historians that really tried to analyze what people
want and why they behave the way they do. This
(25:22):
one's really simple, but it's been around for twenty five
hundred years. The secret to happiness is freedom. And the
secret to freedom is courage. Oh boy, And the secret
to freedom is courage. Anybody ever sit down and want
(25:47):
to become something, to do something with your life, but
you just don't for some reason or another, you just
don't think that you can make it. Well, that's that's
what I want to ask you really quick. Here I'm
going to come back to the quotes. You need to
make an investment in yourself you need to read, you
need to get educated, you need to get a plan,
(26:09):
You need to work, you need to study, you need
to serve others. Why are you waiting for someone else
to give it to you? Why don't you take charge
of your life? That's what I'm trying to tell you
about today. Question what are you waiting for? Hey, I
can tell you when you take that leap of faith
(26:30):
to go out there and embark on a journey, that's
the unknown, something that you wanted to do, but you're afraid,
it is scary and it takes a long time. I've
already shared with you that I'm going to be sixty
six years old next week, and the same things that
I've been working towards, wanting, desiring, trying to attain from
(26:52):
the time I was sixteen or seventeen years old close
to fifty years, are just now coming into fruition. I've
just spent my whole life trying to figure out why
do some people make it become successful in what they
go to do. Why are some people authors that have
best selling books and motivational speakers that many people want
(27:13):
to listen to. Why do some people succeed and others don't? Well,
a big reason for that is because they have courage.
And in America, we have the opportunity to pursue whatever
we want, but it takes courage. So I'm encouraging you
to have the courage to go out there and embrace
(27:35):
this freedom, claim it, take ownership, do something about it.
But you have to take responsibility. You really expect somebody
else to give it to you. You want to wait
for that, and then nothing happens and you're still where
you were. You can do something with your life. Okay, now,
let me continue with some more of these quotes, because
they did me going. All right, let's see, we just
(27:58):
did the quote from so with it and then we
did tolicities. Okay, this one, this one's really powerful. Every
human has four endowments self awareness, conscience, independent will, and
creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom, the
(28:23):
power to choose to respond to change. That quote was
by Stephen Covey, and he is one of the most
successful American motivational speakers, educator. He's an author. His top
book that he wrote that is absolutely wonderful. I recommend it,
(28:46):
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey. Okay, now,
let's go back in history a little bit. This one.
I want you to connect this one the world that
we're living in right now, particularly all of the all
of the turmoil that we're experiencing in America. I'm not
(29:09):
going to get political, but the person that I'm going
to quote next is a political figure. And you can
hear what I'm going to tell you that was written
in the Civil War days, back in the eighteen sixties.
And here's what it is. America will never be destroyed
from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms,
(29:36):
it will because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President
of the United States, considered by many to be the
greatest president we ever had. Okay, here's a good one
for you. Education is the key to unlock the golden
(29:57):
door of freedom. Where repeating before I share who it's from.
Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.
Education is the golden freedom is a golden door in
education unlocks it. Okay, that's George Washington Carver for those
(30:21):
of you that might not know about him. He was
born in eighteen sixty and he lived all the way
to nineteen forty three and He was a botanist, an inventor,
and an environmentalist. And what he did that made him really,
really famous is he had one hundred and five uses
(30:44):
of the peanut. That's right, the peanut, and he spent
years and years developing uses for the peanut. And some
wonderful things about him, though, was he was one of
our first environmentalists. And he came along in an era
that was very racially polarized, and his fame went far,
(31:05):
far beyond the black community that he came from. He
was widely recognized and praised in the white community for
his many achievements and talents. George Washington Carver is a
phenomenally great American. All right, This next one is not
by an American, but it's about freedom. All the great
(31:29):
things are simple and many can be expressed in a
single word. Freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, and hope. That's
Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is considered to be
(31:51):
one of the greatest statements in the history of the world.
He led England through World War Two and he gave
hope and encouragement to England at a time when it
was probably in its most darkest hours. Winston Churchill. This
next one, it's going to set you up for part
(32:15):
of the show that's going to come after I read
this a few more quotes, but I'm going to get
into a lot of songs, songs of freedom, but this
one should reach a lot of people. A hero is
someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.
(32:36):
I tell you that a lot of people tell you
that there's a lot of responsibility comes with freedom. A
hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with
his freedom. Well that was Bob Billan, one of the
greatest American poets and songwriters we've ever seen. He actually
won a Nobel Prize as a Poet Laureate. He has
(33:00):
been incredibly influential in pop music and culture for over
fifty years. Bob Dylan was a contemporary of the Beatles,
and some of his lyrics are just absolutely phenomenal. Okay,
So now I want to get into a couple of
things that are a little deeper than some of these.
(33:25):
You know, my foundation, right thinking foundation is about your thinking,
the importance of thinking right as opposed to thinking wrong
or negative. And I'm reading the book right now by
John mcauthor and it's called anxious for nothing. I highly
(33:47):
recommend it. John mcauthor is considered by many to be
the number one motivational speaker on the subject of leadership.
He's also got five decades of being a very, very boy.
He's had it. He's been mentoring people, he's had a
church for five decades. And uh. This is from a
(34:08):
chapter of his book that I was reading yesterday. The
term right r I g h T speaks of righteousness.
Our thoughts are to be in perfect harmony with the eternal, unchanging,
divine standard of our Holy God, as revealed in scripture.
(34:32):
Right thinking is always consistent with God's absolute holiness. I
want to I want to take a breath just for
a second. Not that I need to. I can keep
doing this pace here. But I just thank you. I
just thank you. Every week I come on the show,
and I and I talk a lot. I got we
(34:54):
got jokes about how much I talk. People have always
told me, Steve, you talk more than any human being
I have every met, and my response has always been, well,
you never had the pleasure to meet my mother. Yeah.
I was raised by a mother that we talked all
the time, but we talked about good things. We talked
about godly things, We talked about wanting to help other people.
(35:17):
When I gave my mother's eulogy, I described her as
my mother's name was Rose, and I said that everybody
that knew Rose knew that Rose was a synonym for love.
She gave it to me, and it's just the greatest
blessing to have a mother the mother that I had.
She put it in my heart. And so each week
(35:40):
I come on the show, and I spent hours trying
to find just the right scripture to give you so
that I can build around it with practical things. And
a big part of my life is to is to
navigate the treacherous waters between the kingdom living of the
Lord and the natural of the world. And so, sadly enough,
(36:04):
you know, we're here to serve the Lord, but we
still have to eat and keep a roof over our
head and pay bills and things like that. But we
have freedom to be anything we want to be, to
do anything we want to do. But there's laws that
try to govern it, because some people abuse those freedoms
(36:24):
and they violate things, and so there's laws that to
try to keep it so that people stay within certain boundaries.
But I'll tell you this, the ultimate freedom is to
serve the Lord and go by his standards, so that
if you do that, you don't have to worry. You
don't have to be self conscious about who you are
(36:46):
or what you think. You can just open your mouth
and let the words flow out. Because if you're filled
with the Holy Spirit and it's godly coming straight from
the Lord, everything will be fine. And so I'm very
pleased that I'm reading John macauthur's book and that he's
talked about right thinking and that I have a I
(37:07):
have a national trademark on the on the phrase right
thinking as it relates to financial education, it takes money
to live. I'm sorry to tell you that. On other
shows we're going to come back to the tools that
I want to give you, But today is just a
celebration of what freedom is and and just reflecting on
(37:28):
some of our history and this wonderful land that we
live in. One of the one of the people that
I listened to a lot is Joyce Meyer, and she
talks about the importance of right thinking and and she
talks about, you know, the mind is a battlefield, so
you can get deeply into Joyce Meyer, and I highly
(37:48):
recommend her. Well. Napoleon Hill, for forty five years has
been probably one of the greatest influences in my life.
I did a show on my influences early Out about
two months ago, three months ago, and I said that,
other than the Bible, Napoleon Hill of Think and Grow
(38:10):
rich as the greatest influence in my life. And last
week I had the I don't even want to understate this,
the esteem, honor, and privilege and pleasure to go to Wise,
Virginia and spend an hour and a half with Don Green,
the executive director of Right Think. That's me. I'm the
(38:33):
executive director of Right Thinking Foundation, the executive director of
the Napoleon Hill Foundation, and I am just so blessed
to be in the presence of people that have dedicated
their life to serving others and to trying to make
the world a better place. I'm going to read you
three quotes from Napoleon Hill that relate to freedoms in
(38:55):
here somewhere. If you do not conquer self, you will
be conquered by self. Okay, that one doesn't have the
word freedom in it, but if you think about it,
if you do not conquer self, you will be conquered
by self. That one's very deep. We're going to talk
(39:16):
more about that later, but I'm going to leave it
out there for you, because freedom is to be rid
of sin and get out of the self and serve
the Lord. Here's another one by Napoleon Hill. Man alone
has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality.
(39:40):
Man alone can dream and make his dreams come true.
We live in America, and you can take your dream.
You can be like the immigrants that came here to
settle our country from all over the world with a
dream and a hope when they landed on Ellis Island
and saw the statue of liberty, let freedom ring. Here's
(40:03):
a beautiful thing here now, Napoleon Hill. The orderliness, order,
the order leanness of the world of natural laws gives
evident that they are under the control of a universal plan.
Man is the only living creature equipped with the power
(40:24):
of choice, through which he may establish his own thought
and behavior patterns. You have the power to break bad
habits and to create good ones in their place at will.
You are where you are and what you are because
of your established habits and thoughts and deeds. That's the
(40:47):
connection point for me to give you that once you
embrace your freedoms, it's going to take a certain amount
of effort and work and discipline and a plan. But
I'm telling you, in America, we have complete freedom of
our minds to think as we want to think and
to move toward that. Okay, the last section of the show,
(41:09):
we got a little less than ten minutes. I have
about ten or eleven songs here that are patriotic songs
of America. But before I lead into just the patriotic ones,
if you want to really really uplifting song that will
(41:29):
just really give you a spiritual level about freedom. It's
called Freedom and sung by Eddie James. And the line
that I want to quote is no more shackles, no
more change, no more bondage. I am free. Yeah. Okay,
So Eddie James song on Freedom. The Star Spangled Banner
(41:55):
baseball games is where we most know its sporting events.
But this song was written by Francis Scott Key and
he was in the Baltimore Harbor and the War of
eighteen twelve and and the bombs were landing in and
he wrote this poem and it was put to music,
and it's just incredible OSEI can you see, by the
(42:16):
dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the
twilight's last gleam in the star spangled banner. We know
that one. Now, this one here, this one here is
just an amazing song that I want to tell you here.
It's one of our most patriotic songs. It's America the
Beautiful and it was written all the way back in
(42:41):
eighteen ninety two or three, I don't know the exact
date there, and then it was put to music. But
I love this one. I'm gonna read this one all
the way through kind of fast. It's a poem, Oh
beautiful for spacious guys, for amber waves up green, for
purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain, America, America. God
(43:02):
shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with
brotherhood from c to Shining Sea. There's four more verses,
but I want to point something out to you. The
original thirteen colonies were settled. The number one reason that
they were settled and people came from England for freedom
was for religious freedom to be able to pray the
(43:24):
way they wanted to pray. So just always remember that
our country was founded for religious freedom as it's number
one objective, and that's one of the things that we've
got to stand up for and protect that. Okay, Now,
this song here is just absolutely wonderful. Kate Smith seventh
Inning Stretched, God Bless America. Now many many people sing
(43:48):
that song, but nobody sings it like Kate Smith. The
song was written by Irving Blind, one of the most
famous composer songwriters ever, and the lyrics of that song,
it leads into a beautiful voice, but it's a prayer.
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea. Let
us swear allegiance to a land that's free. Let us
(44:12):
all be grateful for a land so fair as we
raise our voices in solemn prayer. God bless America, land
that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through
the night with a light from above, from the mountains
to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam. God
(44:33):
bless America, My home, sweet home. God Bless America, My home,
sweet home. Now here's one that I really like, and
I've traveled across country a few times, and I'll tell
you more about it later. But two weeks from tomorrow,
I'm going to be driving close to eight thousand miles
(44:54):
and I want to thank every one of you again
for listening to the show and for supporting with right
Thinking does because I am going to finally go. I'm
going to take the car that the Auto Connection donated
to the Foundation a year and a half ago so
that I could take my message of love, hope and
encouragement across the nation and not just go to prisons
(45:17):
inside Virginia. Four hundred times in Virginia the last five
and a half years prisons, And now I'm going to
drive all the way out to the west coast and
I'm scheduled on Monday, July the thirty first to speak
to a prison out in Baker City, Oregon called called
Powder River Correctional Center. Jeff Heiser gave me the contact
(45:43):
and I called them, and so I'm going out there.
But I'm telling you that I love being on the
highway and driving and seeing America. This Land is your Land.
One of the best versions of it was sang by
Peter Paul and Mary and it is. It was written
by Woody Guthrie in nineteen forty and it is just
an amazing song. This Land is your land. This land
(46:06):
is my land, from California to the New York Island,
from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters. This
land was made for you and me. Yeah, there's a
whole lot of beautiful stuff there, but from California to
the New York Island, coast to coast. So that is
a wonderful song. Now, this next one is one of
my all time favorite songs. When I've been in prisons,
(46:28):
I've been singing these lyrics and just kind of I
say this when I'm trying to motivate people to take
action and take the right steps to move forward with
their lives and to don't quit plan ahead. It will
get better, and to start with your plan and start
learning how to take charge of your life. I just
go Only in Amerika, Land Up, Opportunity, wear Up, Paul
(46:55):
Boy Up, Paul Boy like me. Yeah, let me tell you,
I'm that guy that sings worship music in church that
everybody laughs at because that's coming from my heart. But
I'm always a half beat off. I know that. But
there's a couple versions of Only in America, and the
one that I like the most is fund Jay and
Americans in nineteen sixty three. I'm telling you that you
(47:16):
got a dream. You can do anything you want in
America because this is our country. Another song by the
exact same name was recorded by Brooks and Dunn and
Ronnie Dunn sang the lead vocals on it, and that
song came out in two thousand and one. And that's
an amazing song. It's let me see the first that
I like there. Well, here's one only in America, where
(47:40):
we dream as big as we want to. We all
get a chance, everybody gets to dance. Only in America. Oh,
that song is just full of wonderful, wonderful things about
the freedoms that we have in America. Yeah, here's another
line from the song. I like this son going down
on an LA Freeway. Newly weds and the act of
a limousine. A welder son and a banker's daughter. All
(48:05):
they want is everything. She came out here to be
an actress. He was a singer in a band. They
might just go back to Oklahoma and talk about the stars.
They could have been only in America. Yeah, So, anyway,
that's an incredible song. So I got another minute and
a half and I'm gonna finish it right on queue.
Here here is an amazing song. And I know I
(48:28):
know that, especially my mother in law, Agnes. She loves
Neil Diamond. And this is America. And then coming to America.
Oh my gosh, far, I'm not gonna sing it, but far.
We've been traveling far without a home, but not without
a star. Free, only want to be free. We huddled close,
(48:49):
hang on to a dream. On the boats and on
the planes. They're coming to America, never looking back again.
They're coming to America Home. Don't it seem so far away? Oh,
we're traveling light today in the eye of the storm,
in the eye of the storm. I'm gonna skip a
few verses because I got just a minute. My country
(49:11):
tiz a v today, sweet land of Liberty today. Okay,
that's Neil Diamond. And the last one is the Battle
Hymn of the Republic. That is just so, that's glory, glory, hallelujah,
and it's just they're beautiful. My k eyes have seen
the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is
trampling out the benach where the grapes of wrath or
(49:31):
storm he has loosened that faithful light. You know this
terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on. I want
to wish every single one of you the most wonderful
Fourth of July tomorrow, and all I can tell you
is thank you, thank you, thank you, and God bless America.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Thanks for listening to right thinking with Steve Cooper. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week, and remember,
don't quit. Plan ahead. It will get better. God Bush,
you can have a great week.
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