Thursday, December 21st | Christmas in the New World

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That's it. Let's start the show. Help us keep this conversation going. You can support the show by sharing it online with your friends and family. You can leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify, where you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from Psalm 69, verses 17 and 18. And do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in trouble.

Hear me speedily. Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of my enemies.

I actually wrote a song here at Clearview that you are singing on this upcoming album that is literally this psalm. It's this prayer. Let me draw near to you. Draw me in. And it's a thing that it's sort of there's always this kind of back and forth between do I seek God or does he draw me to him?

And that raises a bunch of theological questions. But I love the prayer of this psalm. It's like, God, don't hide your face from me. Let me see you. I need to be where you are. Not only that I just want to feel peace and calm and all that stuff, but for my soul's sake, I need to be near you.

Draw me in and redeem it. Deliver me. There's just this very childlike simplicity of God.

I need you. And I love that. And that's what kind of sort of brought that song to the forefront of our minds.

Yeah, and just the whole process of kind of learning that song, learning the lyrics, learning the melody, recording it. It was profound for me because it's a cry. It's a prayer, but it's deeper than just a prayer. It's crying out to God, Lord, draw me nearer to you. You are the one who is the source of life. You're the one who is the source of blessing, the source of protection. I need to be as close to you as possible. And I know that I can't get there on my own, so I need you to draw me.

I need you to draw me in. We were talking to somebody on the show last week. I think it was either Mike Watley or Gary Miller. But somebody made that point, or maybe they made it off Mike.

I can't remember if it was on the show. But they were like, when Peter stepped out on the waves, he couldn't just step out and keep his eyes on Jesus. He was like, you have to call me. And he had the wisdom to ask for that. And if only we would have that wisdom, like, Lord, call me and put me in a position where I can obey you. Very, very, very powerful stuff. You know, it's Thursday.

It is. Thursday, this is our segment, Advice No One Needed. This is where we come and bring you guys some practical, good, healthy Christian advice. Because we love you so much.

And it's something that we feel like is going to really benefit you in your life. And this one specifically, specifically now, is for the men. It's for the boys. Even more specifically for the husbands.

And I can't get much more specific than that. This is for husbands, because I feel like there's not a woman or a wife out there alive who doesn't know how to do this. Men learn how to fold towels. Yeah.

Learn how to fold towels. And here's why. Your wife more than likely is taking on 85 percent to 100 percent of all the domestic labor, right? To 100 percent. Yeah, somewhere between that.

She's definitely not doing less than 85 percent. So, folding laundry. That's where we've often, Ellie and I have often got into kerfuffle.

Because she feels that that's well within my range. Not a kerfuffle. Yeah, we've gotten into kerfuffles because she's like, I feel like you can be folding laundry. Now, here's the secret. I'm going to tell you all this. I don't want to fold laundry. Well, here's the deeper secret. Nobody wants to fold laundry.

Nobody likes it. I don't got no desire in me to fold laundry, but folding towels is pretty easy. Yeah. You can take a towel. Here's what you do, man. Get you a towel. Show your wife this, all right?

I'm about to set you all up for success right here. Take a towel. Take it by these ends right here.

That's the one. Fold it just like that right here. Hold it with these two fingers right here.

Grab it on this side. Flip it. Make it look big.

That impresses them. Make it look real big. Lay it down on the floor. Fold it over. You just folded a towel.

She's looking at that and she's like, oh my goodness, he does care. You don't fold your towels in thirds? Sometimes I do.

Oh, okay. Depends on how big they are. The big ones I'll fold up. So I'll go, I'll take out, I'll go one, put it there. Yeah, I do fold it in thirds.

Okay, I skipped a step. When you do it that long ways, then go on ahead and fold it one more. No, that's different than how I fold my towels. Yeah, if I had a towel here, I'd show you.

But here's, here's what I'm saying. She'll see you folding the towels and she will, her respect for you is going to rise. Now, in reality, where, where us men live, you're not really doing nothing. I can look at TV and fold a towel. Now, then the danger is she'll be like, hey, will you fold some pants and some shirts? Now you got to, now you got to put your foot down because we don't know how to fold pants. We don't know how to fold shirts and we don't got no, no incentive to do so because that's kind of hard and it's scary. Do you agree?

No, I don't agree with that. You fold a pant and a shirt? Yes. I don't know.

I can't figure it out. Pants I feel like I could probably figure out. Do you fold a pant? I'll fold a, I'll fold a pant if she shows me how, but that's incredibly exhausting for her and she doesn't want to do it.

So I just fold the towels, I fold the washcloths and I get even more of a bonus. Get your kids to help. Get your kids to help. If mom comes in and sees the boys folding towels in the living room, you're in the, you're in the good.

I will tell you this, the sweet spot that I am right now, I have kids with ages ranging from five to 11. Okay. The sweet spot that I'm in right now, the kids do their own laundry.

Yeah. Now the flip side of that is the kids are also responsible for doing their own laundry, which usually means they have a big pile of dirty clothes in their room. So I'm like, hey, now we have 17 loads of laundry to do. What's up with that? But they fold and put away their clothes.

I just kind of like, here, here you go. That's my advice, man. Learn how to fold towels. It's very little effort and the reward that you get, which is respect and gratitude from your wife is astronomical. You don't have to fold the shirts. You don't have to fold the pants. You don't have to fold blouses or drawers or none of that stuff. Just fold the towels and the washcloths and you will see, you will see an immediate change in the atmosphere of your home.

Well, there you go. That's my advice. Advice no one needed.

You take that advice right in and let us know. I wonder what laundry looks like in Dr. Sean's house. It's terrible. Oh.

Nicole don't do what she's supposed to do. Well. I'm just joking. I don't know. I don't know about that. Write in and let us know.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. Maybe you have a laundry hack. Help a brother out. Like, I'm doing most of the laundry. Really?

Yeah. Why? Well, because Elizabeth has to be at school in the mornings at like 7-15 and the kids have to be at the school with her.

So, I got some time to myself. I just usually do a lot of laundry. Probably put my foot down with her, man. I mean, it's got to get done. Someone's got to do it. Yeah, she's going to have to do it.

She's going to have to do that when she gets home. What? I'm just joking. No, we don't do that. We don't play that way. I'm just joking. 2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8 or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com.

We'll be back after this. Elizabeth, my darling bride, what would you say is the most beneficial thing you could do for yourself in the morning? Probably drink an entire pot of coffee when sitting.

I'd say that's a close second. Now, the best thing you can do for yourself is to start every morning with a daily devotional. Only be one to talk about.

Well, as it turns out, we have two. Right now, you can unlock the power of daily inspiration, wisdom, and spiritual growth in our devotional series, 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning. Written by our pastor, Dr. Abadan Shah, and his wife, Nicole, the 30 Days devotional series is designed to reveal new biblical truths every single day. That's right, and every day is a new revelation to guide you on your Christian journey toward a more meaningful and purposeful life. You can pick up your copy today from our website, that's clearviewbc.org, or you can grab both books on Amazon, Apple Books, and Audible.

That's 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning by Abadan and Nicole Shah. And don't forget, these are only the first two in an expanding devotional series, so keep your eyes peeled for future installments. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right, and we are here once again in the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah. Laundry. Let's talk laundry for a second, because we had some advice earlier today, and I gave some advice to the husbands out there saying, listen, all you got to do is learn how to fold towels, you know, fold washcloths. They're squares, you know, you just fold them in on themselves. When you fold laundry, if you fold laundry, do you go beyond to pants and shirts and all that other stuff, or do you stay in kind of towel land?

Ooh, I have no answer. So let me tell you, my responsibility in our home is simply always put away your clothes. So when I come home, my shirt, hands, of course, the undergarments have to be, you know, thrown in the laundry, whatever. Belt, don't leave them lying on the bed, by the foot of the bed.

They need to be hung up. So my shirt goes on. So all my clothes that I wear, like shirt, hands, belt, shoes need to be put away. I have shoe trees for pretty much all of my dress shoes. So all of them are put away.

And that way I keep things clean. And there are a few things that kind of stay out there, like shorts. Like if it's a warm evening, sometimes, you know, even in the middle of the winter, we'll have 70 degrees.

A pop of warm weather. Right, so I wear shorts. But then it gets 30 degrees, so I have these long, what do you call, pajamas.

Oh yeah, yeah. Those kind of sit at the foot of the bed. So those are my few little clothes. They pick up for laters.

They pick up for laters or just there, just because I need it. But you're very much the everything has a home kind of household. Basically, basically.

But Nicole really does the laundry folding. Got you, got you. You know, I'm thinking about everybody having their home and coming and finding your home.

I'm thinking, you know where I'm going with this. People come. Much like the first settlers.

Could be. The Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower to find their home. They did. They found a home waiting for them.

It was all neat and orderly. Sometimes it was laid out just for them. I'm picking up what you're putting down. I'm picking up what you're putting down, much like the Pilgrims first put down roots at Plymouth Rock. They saw a rock, right? And they just carved their name on it. Pilgrim was here.

Sometimes the segue just rolls out right in front of you. You know, this is the day. This is that day.

December 21st. The Pilgrims came over today. It actually happened right as we were getting into the studio. I saw it come up. I got a notification. Pilgrims just landed.

People are posting like crazy in Massachusetts. No, today, back in, what was the year? 1620? That's what's on the rock. The rock has 1620 on it.

I'm going to go ahead and assume. Our history teachers are cringing as they're listening to this episode. Let me Google December 20th, 1620. Look at that. Pilgrims came ashore at Plymouth.

There you go. After 66 days at sea. Ain't that something? Golly, 66 days at sea.

I can't even imagine. Would you spend 66 days at sea to discover or to land at a new world? Well, if I was going through religious persecution, as some of these people who are going through, definitely. That's a fair point.

It's worth doing that. Yeah, that is a good point. It's not like they were just like, I think I'll just casually set sail. No, they were fleeing intense religious persecution.

Right. And that's something I think we tend to ignore. We think about the pilgrims coming over here and all the ramifications that that has for life as we know it in America today. But these people were seeking asylum. They were seeking sanctuary. And, you know, I know you've said this before, Dr. Shaba. That's a very common thing for people to see America as that safe space, that safe place, that safe haven to flee to. Right. Now, people came to America at different times. Of course, we know of Leif Erikson.

Henga Dinga Durgan. David is the expert on that. So that's one. And of course, the Native Americans were here. And then there are a lot of theories on how different people came at different times to America. But we're talking about the English settlement more specifically. Have you been to Plymouth?

No, never have. I'm planning on it. I hope it's going to be next year. Oh, very nice. Because it's very close to where our second daughter, Abigail, is going to school. Not very close. When I say very close, I'm talking about compared to where we are.

Right, right. So from Boston, it's like an hour and a half to get to Plymouth Rock. So when we're talking about these different English people coming, the first one we know of is the Roanoke Colony.

This is somewhere in the 1590s. And what we know about them is that they came. And then because of poor management or just inability to adapt, I mean, they were gentleman explorers or whatever, they had to go back. Some had to go back for help.

Some were lost. And so, you know, the whole myth and history behind that. And there are a lot of shows. If you live on the East Coast, especially in North Carolina or near Virginia side, you know about them. It's a big thing.

It's a big thing. The Roanoke Colony. What happened to them? But then in 1607, you hear about the other group coming here, which is the Jamestown Colony. Now, this is a group that were, again, the gentleman explorers.

These people are very good at who they were, but they were not as good at doing manual labor. They were not as good as, we're going to survive. We're here to survive. We're going to plow the ground as we need to. We're going to sow the seeds. We're going to hunker down. You know, they were like, somebody should do this.

Not the barn raising time. Yeah. Someone help. Somebody. Somebody.

Where is my servants? I was told the New World was full of them. Yeah. So, you know, that kind of went crazy. But then when we're talking about the Plymouth Colony, we're talking about in the 1620s. And these people came expressly for the purpose of freedom to worship according to the dictates of the conscience. But, you know, in a way, that first Christmas, where the pilgrims are realizing this ideal of a fresh start, of getting away from religious persecution, that would have been so Christmas. That would have been the most Christmas, because Christ provided a fresh start for the world.

That's right. And I'm thinking about even the religious persecution that was going on even during Jesus' time. Like, you know, all of the religious leaders of his day, I don't want to say persecuting him, but they definitely made life difficult for him. They harassed him.

I guess they even drove to killing him. Yeah. So. That's right. That's right.

I agree. And another thing to keep in mind is when we look at these two colonies, we almost tend to make it such that the Plymouth, oh, definitely, they are struggling with religious persecution. And just like we're talking about the Christmas part of things, how this would be reminiscent of how Jesus, when he came, he also had to run for his life.

His or his parents had to take him to Egypt and all that. But the Jamestown colony, I mean, nothing Christian about it. That's not true. Yeah, that's right. They were also operating from a Judeo-Christian foundation. Now, I will never say that they were exactly the same mindset people.

Right. One came sort of more conquering. The other one came more for religious freedom. Having said that, they were both from a Judeo-Christian foundation. They both believed in the importance of Christianity as part of their settlement, their life, their future. But definitely, the Pilgrims would have been much more biblically-minded or Christmas-centered than the people in Plymouth. Again, let me rephrase that. They were not always happy about Christmas, but we'll talk about that later.

Yeah. But we don't see them as exiles, really. We see them as pioneers.

Which ones are you talking about? The Pilgrims at Plymouth. We don't think about the ramifications of their separating from that Church of England and coming over here.

We always see the Pilgrims as they're the pioneers. They're conquering this brave new world for the sake of Jesus Christ. It kind of goes back to that theme that we were talking about even a couple of years ago, to live in exile. Not that they were exiled, but in a sense, they were coming and making a fresh start where God was planting them.

And look at what the world has become today because of them doing that. Yeah. What does the exiled life look like? Right. I mean, that would have been a concept that they resonated with.

They're living apart from their homeland. I was thinking about the Mayflower Compact. This is something that was an agreement that they signed.

This is how we're going to govern ourselves. To this day, it's fascinating how much this document is based on scriptures. I was going to read some portions of this. Hopefully that will help us and see if I can find a section of that right here. Of course, we don't have the original document. It's gone, but it's found in various versions.

And here's one kind of modernized for us to understand. It says, in the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James. They don't want to make him mad. I mean, they're here, of course.

He's not happy with them. But at the same time, you want to maintain peace. And this is the same King James like the King James Bible, King James? Absolutely. King James 1611. 1620, they're landing. Right. This is it.

This is the same guy. King James of Scotland. So, our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith in the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Do by these presence solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for a better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid.

And by virtue hereof do enact constitution and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time as shall be thought most need and convenient for the general good of the colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. Jamestown guys didn't do this. That's true. This was not their way of thinking. It kind of encourages me because I'm seeing that not only were they extremely courageous people, but they understand the importance of unity and pursuing that religious freedom and sharing that faith. And there's such a lack of unity in America today where like even small, there are huge disagreements, of course, but even small disagreements lead to such polarizing factions splitting off. And the pilgrims are showing that even though we have different beliefs, we can live together in harmony.

We can make a nation out of this. That's it. That's it. And they're trying to be cordial and nice to King James. They're not like, you know what, what a jerk. Thank goodness we left.

Because they know sooner or later he can reach this way and we want to maintain good relationships. So, hey, we left the kingdom. We're here. We're still part of the kingdom of Great Britain because it goes on to say in witness thereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November in the reign of our sovereign Lord King James. So they're still giving deference to him of England, France and Ireland, the 18th, and of Scotland, the 54th, Anno Domini, 1620. Wow. Do you think we've lost in America this pursuit of religious freedom? Do you think too many Christians are too willing to lay down their religious freedom in the face of authority?

I believe so. I think we've lost sight of what made us who we are. And it's very tragic to see.

I totally agree with you on that. What are some of the things, if you could, I guess, distill maybe two or three character traits that these pilgrims would have embodied, what are some of those that we need to recapture in America today? So somebody did this very well and I thought this would be worth sharing. When you look towards, and I know you asked me more specifically regarding Plymouth Colony, but Jamestown, they said, here's where we find our national mission. And I think that's a great way to look at it. So the Charter of 1606 and all of that is a legal proclamation about the mission and purpose for both the Jamestown and then the Plymouth settlements. And the Charter, again sealed by King James, it says, by the providence of Almighty God hereafter tend to the glory of His divine majesty. I mean, this is Jamestown.

In propagating of Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God. I mean, this is Jamestown Colony. Yeah, to have that vision so early on in the life of our nation. Yeah, and the pastor, Pastor Robert Hunt, and if you ever go to Jamestown you'll see that there's a monument there. There's a chapel there and then you can see the monument. He kneeled by Cape Henry at this wooden cross and what he said was, May this covenant of dedication remain to all generations as long as this earth remains and may this land along with England be evangelist to the world.

Wow. So already there was a mission. There was a forward driving mission of evangelism. And this is Jamestown. We're not talking about Plymouth. Right. Because that's what we had this hard distinction between Jamestown and Plymouth. Jamestown, a bunch of these Englishmen who couldn't survive just taking advantage of people and killing Native Americans.

And then Plymouth, oh, those are the nice ones who sat with the Indians and celebrated Thanksgiving. Right. That's not how you see this. Right.

I am not for a single moment excusing bad behaviors and people doing horrible things. Not for a moment, but I'm talking about the mission that was there, which unfortunately got lost. Right. But it is evidence and a testament to the fact that God was working and there was a clear vision that was brought over to America in both landings.

That was the intention. Like John Smith said, we had daily common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday, two sermons, every three months, the holy communion till our minister died. But our prayers daily within homily on Sundays, we continued two or three years after till more preachers came.

And surely God did most mercifully hear us till the continual inundations of mistaking directions, factions and numbers of unprovided libertines near consumed us all as the Israelites in the wilderness. This is John Smith. Wow. And all we see is like the Ken doll running with Pocahontas. With Pocahontas, yeah. That's not what you see here.

He had the little musket, he's like shooting at the raccoon. Boom. Yeah. That's, you know, you want to know the national mission, that's where you find it. It was to spread the gospel. But when you go to Plymouth, this person said, it's like America's hometown. This is where you learn how to govern yourself. This is where you learn what it means to submit and to work together to build a colony, a hometown vision. So, you know, I just read from the Mayflower Compact, but in the name of God, this is how we build our society. So one is the mission, another one is how we are built as a nation. Two different things, but both of them are built on a Christian foundation. And again, for a single moment, I will not say that all the atrocities that were ever committed by those who came from Europe or England over Native Americans or anything like that is acceptable.

No, no, no, never. That simply reflects the evil, the sin of human heart. That's right.

Right? But let history be complete history, not just part. Oh, yeah, you don't want to capitalize off of false history or an incomplete picture of history, I should say. Or the bad behavior of some to say, oh, this whole thing was terrible, awful.

It's almost the reverse Genesis fallacy where the genesis of this thing was actually good, but there were some bad things about it, so we're going to make the bad things the actual root of the problem. Right, but that was not how it began. Right.

Yeah, very derivative. But it keeps us from understanding that our nation was, like we've always said, founded on biblical values. That's right. Both Jamestown and Plymouth.

Right. So good for us to remember. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if maybe you found it educational about the beginning of our country, especially the Pilgrims and when they came over, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, and don't forget, you can partner with us financially on that same website. Click that donate button and become part of our Clear View Today Show family. Also, make sure you visit MightyMuscadine.com. They have great gifts, especially for this Christmas season, wonderful wellness products made with the Mighty Muscadine grape. And make sure you use that promo code TODAY, T-O-D-A-Y, for a discount on your checkout, as well as a portion of those proceeds going right back to the Clear View Today show.

That's right. Jon, what's coming up tomorrow? Tomorrow is our final pre-Christmas episode. That means we're going to be taking a walk down memory lane, looking at some of those different Christmas memories that we all have. Maybe you guys can share some of your Christmas memories with us before tomorrow's episode.

Hey, listen, maybe we'll read them on air. Like a Thomas Kinkade painting with snow on the sidewalk, cobblestone streets, and street lamps. After all, there's only one more sleep till Christmas. That's not going to be true until this coming up Sunday, but still, you get the picture. You get the picture. You get the picture.

Hermit the Frog style. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today. Thank you.