You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And normally, normally now, on a normal day, I would say that we are here in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abbadon Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of today's show.
Now, one of those two things is true. We are here today. We are here in the Clearview Today studio. If you look around, you can see this nice, well-lit, well, the aroma is real pleasing. It smells real good. That's how I know it's coming. I didn't have nothing to do with it.
That's how I knew someone else. We are here. Dr. Shah is not here, unfortunately. He is overseas working on a filming project right now. He's in, I don't know where he's at today. He said Lake District. I think that's in Wales. I think he's in Wales. So he's traveling throughout the United Kingdom.
We're doing a filming project. I don't know how much I should really say, but we are definitely tracing the heritage of Christianity through Europe, through the United Kingdom, through Britain, I'm sorry, through England, Wales, Scotland, and then I think back to Britain. I think there's some Ireland in there, but I don't think he's going to Ireland. Yeah, I don't think he's going. But while Dr. Shah is traveling with Nicole, we are here holding down the fort.
So prayers for Dr. Shah, prayers for Nicole. It's gonna be a good day, though. We got a great, great episode for you today.
I do want to talk about something before we read the first of the day, and that is a huge tactical error that I made yesterday. Oh no. So, Nintendo Direct. I don't know if you're aware. Did you watch the Nintendo Direct? Do you know what Nintendo Direct is? Okay, Nintendo Direct is like, you know how they do E3 every year?
Nintendo's never part of E3. They do their own thing. Oh, like a, this is what's coming up.
Yes, yes. And it's all online. It's all digital.
They don't do like a, so E3 is like a big conference. It says here's what's coming up in games and entertainment and all this stuff. Nintendo does their own, but it's all online, so they can do a few of them a year.
Maybe like two or three a year, and they're called Nintendo Directs, and they show just, here's everything that's coming. I made the mistake of watching it with my son. Bad move. And when I say watching it with my son, I don't mean like having it on the TV, and then he comes in and I said, hey Gavin, let's watch it. Let's sit down and watch this.
Let's watch the Nintendo Direct, because the Nintendo Switch 2 is coming out, and let's watch all the new games that are gonna come out that will be fun for you to play. Parents. Bad move. Bad move.
Bad move. My son is a lot like me in a lot of ways. One way in which he is not like me is his memory is sharp. He will remember this till the day he dies.
Every day since, this wasn't yesterday. This was, this was a couple of days ago, I said, but he has been asking, can I get the Switch 2? Are we getting the Switch 2? Are we getting Mario Kart? Are we getting Mario Kart? Are we getting the Switch? When are we gonna get the new Switch? And I was like, Gavin, number one, the new Switch is not out. Right. Number two, Mario Kart is not out. Number three, if you keep worrying me to death, I'm gonna throw away the Switch that you have.
So I have a Nintendo Switch, and then Nana, my mom, got him his own Switch Lite, which doesn't, the Switch Lite doesn't detach from the dock, it's just a handheld thing. They have more or less wrecked both of them. Yeah.
Spilling Dr. Pepper all over them, grinding them into the carpet, just sticky. I don't know what I was thinking. I gave, I gave Gavin access to my Switch. That was a critical mistake. Nana got him his own Switch.
That was a critical mistake because that barely works anymore. I'm sure, like, there's Dr. Pepper, Goldfish, Peanut Butter and Jelly, all in the circuitry. And now he's at, I showed him the Switch 2, now he wants to know when that's coming out so he can get one. And I goofed up. You did. I goofed up. You messed up.
You understand where your error was. Yeah, I should not have, I should not have told him that the Switch 2 was even a thing. That's the equivalent of, like, when we were kids, parents taking us to the toy store and saying, we're just gonna look. Yeah, that was a big mistake. We're just, we're not buying anything today, we're just gonna look.
That was torturous. I remember my mom, yeah, and I remember my mom making that mistake because I was a little easier to say no to, but my sister? Nah, shit, we didn't leave the toy store without toys. What makes me jealous is this, your kids have switches. How many, two or three? There are two, well, there are two switches in the house. Currently, one of them is broken.
Here's the nutty thing about this. It's the charging connector that's broken, so like the little part inside of the Switch where the charger plugs in, it won't charge. Right. So we can, if the Switch has a charge, it's still functional, but that little one piece part is broken. In order to repair that part is $150. To send it for repair.
Hold on, the part itself costs $12. So where's the other, where's the other 80 something dollars going to? Nintendo, apparently. So what makes me, what disappoints me, not disappoints me, what frustrates me, I should say, about your kids is that your kids have each have two switches, not each have two switches. We have two switches, yes. But I see your kids play their Switch like they're supposed to play them, get done, turn it off, put it in their bag, and go on about their way.
Right. Why won't my kids do that? Well, why won't my kids do that? My kids are a little older than yours, and they got the Switch at an older age.
Like when the Switches came into the house, my twins were 10, maybe 11. So would you have given your four year olds a Switch? No. I would not have. Would you have let your mom buy your four year old's own Switch? No. So I had goofed up.
Yes, you have. I would have told her, I'd be like, you know what, if you want to buy it for them, that's fine. It's staying at your house.
Staying at your house is not coming to my place. That's how we ended up with two because we bought one for the kids and then our family got one for them as well without communication. So like, oh, we should have two Switches now. Because now Gavin doesn't have a Switch. And now I barely have a Switch. My Switch barely works.
Right. We went so far as, you know, when we started getting the games for the Switch, we set up different profiles on the Switch. Like you can go in and it has different save data based on your profile. So I told him, I was like, you play on your profile. You do not touch my profile. If you log into my profile, you are banned from the Switch. Because if I log into Pokemon Scarlet and all of my data is gone, it's a fight.
So that, so I had the exact same conversation, but with a four year old. So I goofed up because all of my, I've gotten it all back since, but I was playing a Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening. I got to like the third or fourth dungeon, not super far, but far enough to where if it, if this gets deleted, I'm going to be really upset. And guess what? Of course. Yeah. Deleted. I saw, I saw three save files.
They all said Gavin, which means he went on his and then saved over each and every file. So I was like calling Nintendo. I was like trying to do everything I can. I was like, it's just gone.
It's just, it's just gone. Those were my woes. I needed to, I needed to draw near to the Lord in order to be comforted. And I think that led us to today's verse of this. Let me, let me read the word of the Lord and hope that it will soothe your soul. The verse of the day comes to us from James chapter four verse eight, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. You know, a lot of people don't know this, but this verse was actually the inspiration for one of the greatest hymns I think that was ever written. And it's a hymn that you really don't hear that much in church. It's called, it's called, Oh, what was the name of the hymn? I think it's called, it's not draw me nearer because that's the name of our song. Draw me nearer blessed Lord. What is the name of the, what is the name of the actual hymn?
I'm going to look it up real quick. But anyway, that hymn was one of the first hymns that I ever heard after getting saved. It was, it was, Oh, I am thine O Lord.
That's what it's called. It's called I am thine O Lord. And this verse, James four eight was inspiration for that hymn. And it's basically talking about that, how like, Lord, you have to draw me near to you.
Yes, I can draw near to you. But that first interaction, that first coming to know Christ is something that God does. He draws us near. And when it says cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded.
That's really the response of being drawn near to God. And so a part of what we did at Clearview was we actually took that hymn and converted it into a worship song that is on our, our debut album. And Ryan, you led that song. I did. You actually were the one who went to Kannapolis and recorded.
Yeah. Dr. Shah, David and myself wrote that song, which really it's just reworking that hymn. But we felt like it was so what's the word I'm trying to, it was, it wasn't getting to the point we wanted to get to.
It wasn't reaching that apex of like emotion and passion and feeling. And I remember it was either Dr. Shah or it might've been our producer who was like, you have to raise the key. And I was like, I can't sing this, but I knew that you could hit those, those high notes right at the top of your range. But I remember going to the studio that day and hearing you sing it.
And I was like, Oh my gosh, this was the right choice. It was a, it was an honor to be able to, to sing that song and to work with, work with you and work with Dr. Shah and bringing that song to life. It's such a powerful song. I mean, just recording it and you know, when you record it, you have to sing over and over and over and over and over again. But the more I sang it, I didn't get tired of it. It was almost like the more I sang it, it was more kind of emotionally compelling because it really is a cry.
It's a prayer to God to, to be drawn nearer to who he is. There's a lot of people don't know this, but that song is very vocal heavy. There's lots of vocals on that song, but only two vocalists.
It's you and it's my wife, Ellie. And all the harmonies on that song are either Ryan or Ellie. Normally like on all the other songs, we took a big group in, we would have like altos and sopranos and tenors and tenors twos and tenors threes and lots and lots. Cause we're, we're very, if you'd never heard Clearview Worship before, we're very vocal heavy. We're very harmony heavy, but that song was special.
Now, number one, because, and David, I don't know if you want to weigh in on this too, cause, cause you were, you were part of that process along with Dr. Shah. Dr. Shah went the day that we recorded vocals for this song. This song was the least developed and ended up becoming one of our favorites. And what I mean by the least developed is we literally had the vocal melody and a pad.
That was all we had when we went to actually start doing the drums. And so that song started getting developed more and more and more, the more that we were actually in the studio. And so the day that we did the vocals, it was literally you and my wife, Ellie.
I think the others were there, but they didn't sing on that song because you and Ellie. And it got to the point where it was so thick and it was so powerful. I was like, Oh my goodness. I think we, we call it done. And the song that we ended up, that almost got cut because it wasn't developed enough, ended up becoming an album favorite that ended up becoming one of everybody's favorite songs. I thought it would be kind of fun because typically this is where we're like, why don't you go and listen to it and go buy it.
But it would be kind of fun if we just played it on the show. We're about to take a commercial break here in a minute. Why don't we listen to the song, come back, maybe say a word or two on it, and then we can take a break. Sure.
All right. So this is Draw Me Near by Clearview Worship. It is done in the name of Jesus. A perfect sacrifice. My well of grace. Draw me nearer, nearer to you. To the cross where you gave me life. Draw me nearer, nearer to you.
My well of grace. Draw me nearer, nearer to you. Draw me nearer, nearer to you. Draw me nearer, nearer to you.
May I lift it up? Draw me into sweet communion. Do you scanned in the arms My soul will sing Draw me nearer, nearer to you To the cross where you gave me life Draw me nearer, nearer to you My Savior crucified Draw me nearer, nearer to you To the cross where you gave me life Draw me nearer, nearer to you My Savior crucified I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice And it told thy love to me But I long to rise in the arms of faith And be closer drawn to thee I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice And it told thy love to me But I long to rise in the arms of faith And be closer drawn to thee I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice And it told thy love to me But I long to rise in the arms of faith And be closer drawn to thee Oh, drawn to thee Oh, drawn to thee Oh, drawn to thee Oh, drawn me nearer, nearer to the cross Where you have given me life Draw me nearer, nearer to the cross My Savior crucified There's no fudging, there's no getting around them, there's no lowering the key, it's gotta be there. I mean, like, second or third take, you nailed it, and I was like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe he nailed those notes. Not that you couldn't do it, but man, just the energy of that song, I really, really fell in love with it. Yeah, absolutely, it's a great song, and thank you for trusting me with it, and for the opportunity to sing on the album. I would say thank you to David and Dr. Shaw for helping me write it, because man, if it weren't for those two guys, if it weren't for the team that we had here, man, our music, I don't know where it would be. God has really brought us somewhere cool.
That's right. Today's check-in is coming to us from Franklin T. over in Virginia. Franklin T. writes, hi Dr. Shaw, I'm writing in today because I'm deeply concerned about my son Jared. Lately, it feels like he's been wandering away from God, and as a father, it's heartbreaking to see him drift. Jared, I cannot imagine, I mean, Franklin, I cannot imagine, my friend. Jared has grown up in church all his life, but he's simply not interested anymore. I've tried to talk to him, but he seems distant, and I'm unsure of how to reach him. Could you please pray for him and offer any advice on how I can help him find his way back? I just want to see him walking with God again. Wow. You know, with Dr. Shaw not being here, I do want to hold onto this question, because I know that Dr. Shaw can give you a great word of encouragement, and as soon as he gets back, we'll be sure to bring this check-in back so that you can have his perspective on that as well. But in the meantime, you know, this kind of goes along with what we were talking about, being drawn near to God.
There's a sermon that he preached back in July of 2022. It's called Wanderer, and we're going to link it below, but it basically talks about this. You know, there's people who say that, who say, you know, not all who wander are lost. You ever heard people say that?
Yeah. And it's kind of funny, because typically when people say that, they're talking about, you know, well, I live life as a free spirit. You know, I walk to the beat of my own drum. It's always in a positive way.
I don't want to be stuck in some program or some itinerary. I just like to go off the beaten path. You know, they don't actually know. That's a Lord of the Rings quote.
Yeah. So I think it's Gandalf who says it. He says, all that is gold does not glitter. Not all who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither.
Deep roots are reached by frost. And so the whole point of that is he's not talking about, he's not talking about being free spirited or hiking. He's talking about, you know, Aragorn, who's the king of Gondor.
He's wandering Middle Earth to learn about all these inhabitants so that he can know what it's like to be the king one day. So it's just kind of one of those things where maybe, you know, someone's, if you've told yourself that, like, you know, people in my life, they're wandering, but they're, that doesn't mean that they're lost. Yeah, true. But that's also not the point of that quote.
Right. It's so that one day when they do return, they will be all the better for it. There's always a sense of returning. There's always a sense of coming back. You don't just wander for the sake of wandering. There's always a goal in mind. Even if you go off the beaten path or even if you like to go, you know, it says march to the beat of your own drum and all those things, there's always a coming back. Yes. There's always a returning.
I mean, the movie titles, the book titles themselves lend to return of the king. So Aragorn was always, always intended to come back. And the same is true with, you know, our lives, especially as we think about our kids, those who have been raised in church, have been raised to understand the Bible. They may wander at times.
Yes. There may be some wandering. I mean, just like we heard about with Franklin's son, Jared, there may be some wandering at times. But if you train up a child in the way that they are supposed to go, namely in the Christian life, in following after God, they will come back.
That's right. It's something that we all deal with in life. And some of us are going to deal with it more explicitly than others. Some of us are going to go through it deeper and for longer than others. Like, I felt like I've wandered from God in my life, even though I was saved. You know what I mean? It's not a mark of I guess I was never saved or I've never been saved.
And I would say same for you and for your son. It's not that he's lost, you know, it's not that he's lost his salvation or something like that. The Bible is full of stories about people who wandered.
You know what I mean? Like, I think about even Cain. And I know Cain seems like a weird example because he's the guy that killed his brother, right?
It's like, yes, but think about it. Think about Cain's journey, how his frustration takes him to violence. He went through the same human emotions that envy that frustration and he took it to an extreme. It's not that his anger is just about, well, God didn't accept my offering. It's rooted in self-worth. It's rooted in envy and jealousy. And so all of us can relate to that.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you think about Cain, you think about the Israelites themselves. As they're going in Egypt, what were they doing in the wilderness? They were wandering in the wilderness. And there was that sense in which they turned away from God because they keep calling back to what's familiar. They keep calling back to the life that we had in Egypt.
And I wish we could do this. At least we weren't starving there. And we had water to drink. But you were in slavery. You might have had all of those basic needs, but you were not free.
You were in slavery. And so many times we point to the Israelites and laugh. Like, y'all just really didn't get it. But we did the same thing. Oh, 100%. You think about, man, when life was simpler, when life was like this. Well, yes, life was simpler, but you weren't walking with Jesus then. Right, right. It's really easy to point at these stories and say, well, I would never do that.
One of the biggest ones that I think about is the prodigal son. He's got everything he ever needs at home. But he still thinks, you know what, kind of like we talked about yesterday, I think I can do this better on my own.
If I plow through, if I do this, if I plan out my life, chart my course, I can do better. And so he took his inheritance. He runs off. He wastes all of his inheritance, all his money. And he's like broke. He's hungry.
He's like eating with the pigs and the pig pod. And he thought his freedom was out there somewhere. But it turns out he already had it at home. And we think, I would never do that. If I was rich, if my daddy had money, I would never. Dude, it happens all the time.
God has the perfect thing in store for us if we just stay on course with his plan for our life. And we don't do it. That's right.
Because we think we know better. And a lot of that, it doesn't feel like wandering, but that is wandering. Yeah.
Like starting off, going ahead, forcing. Wandering, it feels kind of passive. Like, oh no, I'm just kind of disillusioned or kind of Jared son.
I'm just not interested. Sometimes wandering is like, I'm going forward with my life. I'm going to make sure that I get this right, even if I say it's for God's glory. That can be wandering. You can tell too because the result of wandering is always a sense of feeling lost. Even if you set off toward a destination, if you get there and you're like, I feel like I'm lost. I feel like I am kind of aimless. And I made it to where I was intending to go, but it didn't have all the glitz and the glamour that I thought it was going to.
Right. Could it be that you've been wandering away from God? Could it be that you've walked away from the truth that you knew to be true, either for a time or intentionally or maybe unintentionally? If you arrive at that destination, but you end up feeling lost instead of where you need to be or where God would have you, there's a sense in which you've wandered away. So if you find yourself there and you've wandered and you feel lost and you get to your destination and you're like, what in the world am I doing? What do we do next?
Right. What happens? How do we then unwander? How do we make it back from where we have wandered to?
That's a great question. And Dr. Shaw has said something. I've said this so many times on the show. I've repeated it until I'm almost sick of hearing it. But it really has had a great impact on my life.
And now that we've got a new audience on Pray.com, I don't mind saying it because for a lot of you guys, it's going to be the first time you've ever heard it. Most of your life is coming back to God. That's what most of life is. It's not that I'm going to stay on the straight and narrow for the majority of my life and every now and then I wander and then I just get scooted back on and then I have another stretch of faithfulness and then I wander and scooted back on. Most of life is coming back and saying, God, I'm sorry, I'm ready to start again. And we feel, I think we trick ourselves into thinking if I do that 20 times in my life, I'm okay.
But if I do it like 50 or 60, then each one means less. But the coming back to God, that's what life is. And I think you said that in the beginning, Ryan, that there is a sense of returning. There's a sense of being destined to return. And I think that's one thing that always keeps me in those times of wonder that keeps me hopeful is that I know that I'm saved.
I have that assurance. When you think about being spiritually lost, it's not like you're wandering in the woods, no way to go. You are dead. There's a difference between my son is sort of wandering or my brother or whoever in my life that I love. They're sort of wandering. They're lost. That's not what being lost is. Being lost is you are dead in your trespasses. There's no hope. There's no anything apart from Jesus Christ.
So never think that that's what's going on. That if he's wandering, he must have lost his salvation. If he lost his salvation, he's dead. And so I think there's some hope in that. There's some hope in the being destined.
If you're a child of Christ, you are destined to return. Absolutely. So as a parent or as someone else, what do you do if you have someone in your life that's wandering? I mean, pray.
Yeah, of course. Pray for them. Trust in how they've been brought up. Trust in how they've been raised.
Dr. Schott talks about that all the time. That passage from Proverbs where it says train up a child, that is a promise. It's not just kind of like a wise saying to live by.
It's a promise. So if we train up our children under Christ, if we train up our children in the church, if we train up our children following God's word and hiding God's word in their heart, then that is going to anchor them. And they may drift. They may wander at times, but that anchor is always going to pull them back, which is why it's so important when your kids are young, bring them to church.
That's right. Bring them to church. Get your kids in church. It is okay. It is okay. It is good for you to force your kids to go to church.
Yes, a hundred percent. Like the church in our house is not an option. There's no like, I mean, my kids are like two and four. So right now there is no, well, I kind of want to sleep. They're excited. They love to get up and come to church. But I know that day is coming where they're 15, 16.
They're, you know, staying up late, playing video games, drinking soda. They're crashed out in the morning and they're like, I just, I don't want to go. Can I just skip one day? And of course not. Of course you can't skip one day. And it's not because that one day might be the, be the, it's not that that one day might be the key to your downfall. It's not that.
It's just that this isn't an option. This is just like waking up and going to work, going to school. This is something that God has put on our plate to do. I think also what helps me thinking about people who wander is that they're not wandering aimlessly. And what I mean by that is they are probably almost certainly being pulled towards something. It might be money. It might be success. It might be some dream, some purpose. Everybody wants purpose in life. Even if you're, if you're saved, you know, if you're a Christian, you don't just suddenly drop all your ambition.
You still have, you want to mean something. And so a lot of times people think that they're not going to find it in God or they're not going to find it immediately. So they start looking for it elsewhere. So like, I would think like, what is it that you're just talking about Franklin who wrote in, what is it your son's looking for? You know, what is it that he truly wants? Is it money? Is it success in his job? Is it a partner? I don't know if he's married or whatever, but is it love?
Is it, what is it that he's being pulled away by? You know what I mean? And I think like, like even you, like you, you've got a counseling degree and I know you, you, you, you talk to people a lot about the things that they chase and that they feel like God is not going to satisfy that particular desire that I have. Well, that's the old lie that we've been, you know, struggling with since our first parents, Adam and Eve. God doesn't really love you enough to give you the things that you want. I mean, Eve wanted spiritual knowledge. She wanted knowledge to make her like God and, and the serpent said, did God really say, did God really, did God really promise this to you? And, and we've been struggling with that lie ever since. So when we realize, you know, God really does have our best interest in mind and God really does care about us and God really does have a course, a destination for our life, then that's where the returning comes from wandering.
Yes, of course. And I think, you know, one of the things that I've thought about is that one of our favorite songs that we do for worship is Psalm 90, which is actually drawn from Psalm 90, believe it or not. But it talks about how God, only you can satisfy us. None of those other things that we chase, that promotion, that job, that relationship, that bigger house, that newer car, any of that stuff, none of that stuff is going to satisfy us.
Only God is going to satisfy us. And sometimes it just takes getting it, getting that new house, getting that new job, getting that new whatever it is, that new relationship and still feeling sad, still feeling lost. And so I think there's a, there's a level of, I hate to say it, but like there is almost that level of maybe I should just go back to God. Like not, not like he's a last resort, but do you know what I mean? Like when all else fails, I can always go back to God. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the, that was the mindset of the prodigal son.
Like, uh, he gets to the point where he's eating the food that the pigs are eating and he's like, you know what? I was better off with my dad. I went, I chased after all this stuff and I got what I chased after, but I'm left with nothing. I'm left with emptiness. I was better off with my dad.
True. And it turns out when I was in the church, I actually was feeling good. I actually had people who cared about me, people who checked up on me. Maybe I'll start going back. Yeah. That's a great place to be spiritually.
I was better off with my dad. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clear View Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes and you can always support us financially at ClearViewTodayShow.com. John, what do you want to leave our listeners with? I was just going to say, you can also support us on Pray.com.
Maybe you're listening to us there right now. Go ahead and head on over to Dr. Abbadan Shah's page. Dr. Shah is going to be back in the next couple of weeks. No, maybe like a week.
Maybe like a week from now. I think we've got it scheduled out where he'll be back next week in the studio with a lot of new footage, a lot of stories to talk about the heritage of Christianity throughout Britain. But make sure you support us on Pray.com. You can also support us over on his website. That's AbbadanShah.com. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.
