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Now let's jump into the show. I'm a loser. I'm dumb. I've got nothing going on in my life. I had, oh man, I was going somewhere with that.
Hold on.
Well, that's what happens when you say those things. You don't go anywhere. You speak your world into existence. You just spoke your world into existence. Figure out what went wrong.
Come right now. Should we just use this? Yeah. All right, let's just use this. Keep rolling.
You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis, one botched intro. Later, we are coming at you live with the Clearview Today show.
Thank you for joining us in the studio today with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio. I'm going somewhere.
Words are a funny thing. Hey, hey, hey. You're done a loser. Thank you, man. Thank you.
I sure correct those words. No, I needed to hear that today. I needed to hear that, honestly. You know, Doug Show, we've been talking about words, right? And how funny words can be, how fickle they can be, but also how true they can be.
That's right. Yeah. Well, James talks a lot about that. He talks about words. He talks about if you're a teacher, if you're a leader, then you will have a stricter judgment.
So better watch your words. And then in the last episode, or when we talked about James chapter 3, we focused on how words. Control our actions. And James uses two examples. He uses the example of the horse and his bridle, and then the ship and his rudder.
That's right. The bridle is very small. The horse is a huge animal.
So also the rudder is very small. The ship is a huge vessel. And yet these tiny little objects control. Direction of this animal as well as this ship.
So, also the tongue is a small element, a very small member, and it controls our whole body.
So, just like you started out your introduction to the show, by the way, that was not stage. That was real. That was a real, yeah, that was a real flow. He called himself loser and all that, and all of a sudden, he couldn't see. What a perfect example of what happens when you say those words.
That's right. You bring your world into existence. That's right. That's right. Yeah.
And then, and we fall into this trap so often. I feel like there's a lot of us that struggle with kind of this negative self-talk. You know, the way that you speak to yourself, if you were to speak to someone else that way, or you were here someone talking to someone else that way, you would step in. You'd be like, hey, hey, don't talk to him like that. Don't speak that way.
But we talk negatively to ourselves so much. Yeah, because we think it's humility, right? We think that when Jesus wants me to be humble, God wants me to be humble, it means to criticize myself, puts myself down. Because as long as I'm down and I'm low, then. He's lifted up.
And it's just false humility. All it does is, like you said, bring negativity into existence. Even though it's not the topic of our discussion, let's just say something about that. Sure. You know, if you're trying to put yourself down to raise Jesus up, you don't understand how high he is.
Amen. Amen. You know, he is already high and lifted up. When John the Baptist says, you know, I am not even worthy of loosening the shoestrings on his sandals, he was not trying to bring himself low. He was saying I'm already low.
He is so high and lifted up.
So, also with us, you don't have to lower yourself for Jesus to be exalted. Amen. You just have to acknowledge who he is.
So good. That's going to be a real. Yeah, that's going to be a real social media tomorrow. Guaranteed. Guaranteed.
You know, talking about our words, Dr. Shup, you know, we're talking about this idea of speaking into existence these things that we're really trying to avoid. Do you think there's any relevance to the fact that as Christians, we're saying these things that we really don't mean, right? Like, I don't actually think I'm a loser. I don't actually think that I'm dumb or I'm stupid or I'm even lowly.
I'm saying these things that I don't mean in order to be humble. And in the same time, I'm actually speaking something into existence that I don't want to be true. Right, right. And so we need to be very. Spirit-filled.
You know, spirit-filled words of people can change the direction of your life. and the direction of the lives of others.
So make sure your spirit filled, because that's when your mouth will be under the control of the Holy Spirit. That's what you and I need. How can you have the words of Christ? How can you have the mind of Christ? How can you have the thoughts of Christ?
The Holy Spirit helps you in those areas.
So you have to daily surrender yourself to the Holy Spirit. Ask him to cleanse you of any sin in you, any distraction, any. uh feeling of self-deprecation or Envy or bitterness towards somebody. I mean, just you have to get the Holy Spirit to help you. Remove that, cleanse you.
And then what's going to come through is. is the words of are the words of Jesus, is the life of Jesus.
So Yes, spirit-filled words of people can also change the direction of our lives for the better. You know, you've been a source of those spirit-filled words in my life. I think when I first met you, and I think it was just bad examples of what True humility is, I was operating very much in this like negative self-focus. Like, what were we talking about? I need to put myself down so that Christ can be lifted up.
But really, that's pride. It's just in a different wrapper. It's just in a different skin, like you download from a video game. It's just wearing a different skin because I have to think less of myself. I have to make sure that I'm not prideful.
I have to make sure that I'm worthless. God is better than me. I'm terrible. But the whole time, it's about me. It's me, me, me, me, me, still.
And I'm not focused on God. And when I naturally turn my focus to who Christ is, you taught me that. When I naturally turn my focus to who God is, to who Christ is. He's going to be lifted up. I'm going to put the focus where it needs to be without this self-deprecation, self-pitying talk.
And to speak to the other side of that, you know, when I started working here, Dr. Shah, back in 2013, I think 2014, 2015 onwards, our lunchtime conversations would always kind of be focused on the work that we're doing. And I remember having a distinct feeling after a lot of those lunch conversations, getting up and feeling like, man, I feel like I could conquer the world right now. Because you never shied away. And I think this is what makes you a really great leader and a great pastor is that you never shied away from saying, hey, guys, the work we're doing is not only important.
It's going to change the world. Absolutely. Clearview Church is going to be one of the churches that changes the face of modern Christianity. That's a bold claim. And it gravitated, like I gravitated to talk like that because that's what I want in my life.
I want to matter. I want to make an impact. Absolutely. And I remember thinking that I can't think of other pastors who would say that.
So now we were doing our AV training for our AV volunteers last week. And I shared that with them. And I said, because Dr. Shah did that for the last 10 years, now I have the privilege of telling you. Clearview is changing the world.
You know, we're on Prey, we're on TBN. This show that you guys are listening to right now is on Prey.com, TBN plus Truth Network. I mean, it's covering most of the United States and a lot of international countries. That doesn't even count things like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all that.
So I guess the point of what I'm saying is because you spoke like that to me for 10 years.
Now, I have the privilege of telling this next wave of volunteers, we are touching the world. It's happening. Amen. Absolutely. So, definitely, when we say speak your world into existence, this is not some pop psychology or some.
Aberrant theology of calling things that are not as if they. No, no, no, this has got nothing to do with that. We're talking about. James chapter three. And that's exactly what James is talking about.
But the second thing that James talks about is how devastating our words can be. Yeah. How devastating They have such impact On the course of events in our lives or in the lives of other people. And he gives us two examples again. He says in verse 5, even so the tongue is a little member.
And it boasts great things And then two examples. The first is a wildfire. And the second is a wild animal. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. That's crazy.
A few years ago when those California wildfires were happening, it was the year before my sister got married. My dad took a job in California to go in, to go and replenish power to cell towers that were destroyed in the wildfires. And I remember calling him and asking him, like, how bad is it? And he said, even if I told, even if I showed you video, you wouldn't believe the devastation. Even if you were here looking at it in person, you wouldn't believe it.
It's crazy because fire can spread so quickly. Oh, yeah. It gets out of control so fast. That's right. Which is why wildfires are such a danger.
We don't think about that quite as much living, you know, in the climate that we live in, but wildfires are. devastatingly dangerous. Yeah, it happens around here too. It happens in the mountains. It happens on a dry, windy day.
I mean, you know, just a little spark and next thing you know, acres and acres. And I'm talking about thousands of acres of forest land just gone. Oh, yeah. And then we saw the LA fires. Yeah.
You know, homes and subdivisions just gone, burned. Yeah. Entire neighborhoods were wiped out because of these fires. And they still don't know. You know, they say, you know, there was an arsonist here, or there was a data reveal, one of the ones.
Yeah, they said that, or they said there were people out there setting fire. I mean, who knows what's going on? But I want to think about it differently. Whether there was a real arsonist or not in LA.
Some people are verbal arsonists. Oof. You know, they're starting fires. In their homes. They're starting fires in their relationship.
They're starting fires in their churches. They're starting fires in their communities. And these are not good fires. These are not revival fires. These are fires that are very destructive.
That sometimes destroys relationships, destroy lives, destroy people's spiritual growth. And I I often wonder if those people have ever read James chapter three. Do you think these people who are verbal arsonists are aware of what they're doing? Or do you think it's like it's an unintended consequence? I don't know.
I mean, I don't know. Their hearts must be pure evil for them to do that.
So I pfft. Maybe a little bit of both. I think a lot of them do. And I'm speaking as someone who used to be like chronically online. The way that online trolls operate, you know, that is what Dr.
Shah is saying is exactly right. The goal is to make the other person angry. There is none of the, like you always see this wrapped up in this like facade of, okay, well, I'm just trying to understand. I'm just trying to ask questions. But I mean, from personal experience, I'm telling you, when trolls go online to do that kind of stuff, and they might come into your comments, especially in like Christian content, they'll do this.
The goal is just to provoke you. The goal is just to make you mad because it's kind of funny. That is so, that's so unfathomable to me. But I know that it exists. I've seen it.
It certainly exists. And I think what you're talking about, like. Postulating if it exists in the heart, you can see clearly online. Because if I do that to you guys, like here in person, I'm just trying to make you mad, it's going to result in a confrontation. Online, there's zero consequence.
Right. You can get away with it because you're completely in honesty. And you feel, you know, you can take on a higher, high moral ground and you can gaslight somebody. I mean, you can do so many things. And if you are.
You know, cunning. We talk about being cunning. God has called us to be wise, not cunning. Cunning has this element of destruction. Wise is fine.
Wise means I need to figure out what's going on here so that I can do what God wants me to do.
So maybe I can protect myself, protect those who are around me, so I can know where you stand. That's different. Cunning means I'm trying to take you down. That's not many people. Yeah, I I am being destructive.
And many times people use their tongue. In a cunning way. Yeah, you're right. And here in verse five, James chapter three, verse five, it says, See how great a forest a little fire kindles, and the tongue is a fire. A world of iniquity It is a fire.
Wow. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by. Hell. That's you know what's funny? I don't even know I don't even know if You know what it's called when People in message forums like online air in like those comment conflicts.
It's a flame war. I never know, I never thought. That's a good way to say that. If you go onto a lot of these online forums, like you like Reddit or others, you'll see people arguing in the comments, and it's literally called a flame war. Wow.
I never thought about this fire imagery from James. Wow. I mean, it's coming from the Bible. Yeah, absolutely. 2,000 years ago that James said this, and he was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Yeah. You know, the half-brother of Jesus. And we don't know where he got it from. Of course, the Holy Spirit, but maybe he heard it from Jesus. Maybe he heard it in a synagogue.
Maybe he heard it from his parents. We don't know. Yeah. But he was passing on this very important principle that people can be verbal arsonists. They can destroy the reputation of a person, of a church.
of an institution With just a few words, they can set fire. And then sit back. And watch.
So You know, I don't know what your motive is when you're talking to people. Always check your motive. I'm saying these things. Am I saying this to truly warn people? I have to do that because sometimes I will talk to our staff about.
people in situations, I have to go, what is my motive? Is my motive just To tear someone down, or is my motive to warn this team just be careful? Just be aware. Just defend yourself, protect yourself against this situation that can. Turn crazy, or this person can do things that will shock you and surprise you.
I think that goes back to your differentiation between wisdom and cunning. Wisdom is the protective. Like, I want to be aware of what's happening so I can protect myself and protect the people around me, and I'm able to do what God has called me to do. Cunning is, I'm trying to take you down. I want to see you suffer.
I want to see you brought low. I want to see you destroyed. You ever see Christians do that in prayer? Oh, yeah. Lord, smash the teeth of my enemies.
Well, just even that, or just like you're in the women's Bible study, it's like, let's pray. It's like, Lord, I just want to pray for Joni. Lord, Joni and her husband are fighting. They're fighting, Lord. They're on the verge of divorce, Lord.
And all the other women are like, What in the world? And, you know, Lord, we know that there was unfaithfulness in that marriage. And the other women are like, I didn't know that. Have you ever seen Christians do that? Yeah.
And it doesn't have to be female only. I mean, men can do that too. Yeah. Yeah. All I would say is, man, you need to check your motives.
Every other prayer request. Yeah. But the second example in this destructive nature of the tongue is the wild animal. James takes us to a circus. He says every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue.
Wow Ringling Brothers style. Yeah. Even back then. Yeah, I know, right? Even back then, they were training elephants and lions and dolphins and whales.
And they said, you know, you can tame all these animals, but you cannot tame your tongue. Wow. That is crazy. You'd like to think about the amount of effort. Like, I remember seeing the elephants at the zoo.
Like, they would have like, not the zoo, at the circus, and they like that elephant step through the hoop. I was like, how now at the time I was like, wow. But now I'm like, how in the world did they do that? But that same guy who trained him can't control what he says. Yeah, can't have any cell phone or something?
It is something. I mean, it's your mouth, you know, just the moment you think, I'm good, having a great day, everything is going my way, everything is working out great, life is wonderful. Couldn't get bad. Nothing. And then you say something.
You may not do something. You may not walk over and you may not punch somebody or steal someone's wallet. Or but you may say things in the moment. It may be a snide remark, it may be uh just a jab. It may be the, you know, the honorary tone of your voice because, you know, for whatever reason, you're having a bad day.
and you take it out. And before you know it, You you are not You're not taming the tongue, the tongue is Out of control. That elephant is on a rampage. That dolphin has just, you know. Head butter cheek.
Head butter chief. A hit or punch might be easier to recover from, but that word. That harsh toadic is thick. That's right. That's true.
Or whatever else. It doesn't have to always be a harsh tongue. It can also be just a. A judgmental tongue, or a tone, or it may be something that causes you to question your heart. You know, it just.
just doesn't feel good. And then James adds here It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Ugh. Makes me think of like a snake. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm. He's talking to saved people. He's talking to Christians and he's saying, Your tongue has deadly poison. Yeah.
Yeah. Did you ever see, like, I know it's a thing in India, like a stereotype in India that there's like lots of snakes out in the open. Is that true?
Some parts of India. Like where I grew up, there were not lots of snakes. There were snakes there. Like cobras and stuff? No, not where I grew up.
Right, right. But just in some parts of India, there are.
Some parts of India, yes, there are cobras. But they don't just like move around freely through your neighborhood. Gotcha. Yeah, there may be snakes there. I never personally, I never saw a snake in The open.
Really? Yeah. Gotcha. Never saw one. But I mean, I did see people walking around with snakes.
These are like beggar not beggars. I mean, they walk around and you give them some money because they show you the snake, you know. Really? Do they have them like in the basket? Do they have like the snakes in the basket and they play the music?
Oh, yeah, many times. Wow. Yeah, many times. Snake charmers. Yeah.
This is before having cell phones where I were taking up plenty of videos.
So I'm sure they do that now. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, many times I've seen that. But You know, that one bite, the cobra has that venom inside of it.
But it doesn't do anything to the cobra. Sure. That's a good point. The cobra is moving around, doing its thing. But it doesn't kill the cobra.
It's only until it gets in you, in me. Yeah. Yeah. So that venom is, you know, even in Christians. We have to be very careful that it can become a venom in somebody else.
Right? Yeah, absolutely. So the question to ask is: do your words encourage and build up, or do they discourage and tear down? I think it's especially true for Christians because you've got the capacity for both, right? Right.
And it's in that. It's in that conflict of having both. Like, I could lift you up and really encourage you, and I can make you feel really bad in the same conversation. Yeah. Yeah.
And the same instant too, that power in your tongue is incredible. Yeah. And then finally, here, James says that our words communicate. Get ready for this. What is inside?
That's a good point. Uh so With it, this is James chapter 3, verse 9. With it, we bless our God and Father. And with it we curse men. Who have been made in the similitude of God?
Yeah. Means made like God. Yeah. First ten. out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Like he knows that's a problem, and it's an old, old problem. We bless God with the same mouth. We'll turn around and curse each other.
Well, the dangerous thing is, what does that say about what's in your heart? If what comes out of your mouth quickly in the moment, Is hateful, is rude, is crass, is, you know, just venomous. What does that say about what's inside?
Well, even then, it's like just the presence of it. Like, we are so drawn to that, to that negative. And I'm thinking of an example of if I get up on stage and I were to speak, like, like during music, or if Dr. Shah, even, I just don't want to put that image in people's head, but if Dr. Shah were to get up on stage and preach for an hour, And it's just the best preaching we have ever heard.
And right as he's getting down, he just says one little cuss word. Just one. No one is thinking about the sermon at all. It's over. It's over.
Because now they're wondering what's inside of your heart. Yeah. Because those words came from inside of you. Mm-hmm. So inside must be corrupted, inside must be filthy, and you've been covering it up for so long, maybe the 29 minutes, you covered it up really well until that one minute or even 10 seconds where that one word.
just flew out. Yeah. That's crazy. So what is inside of you? You know, what is inside is going to come out.
Yeah. I like the one that you told me where you. You told me just to pay attention to how people talk. You know what I mean? If you pay attention to how people talk, you can ascertain what's going on inside them.
Do you want to kind of build on that, clarify that? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, when you think about it. If a person is talking negatively or harshly, let's say harshly. it shows that that person has an angry heart.
If they're harsh Very harsh.
Sometimes people grew up with parents who were very harsh. They've been angry. What are they angry about? Maybe they're angry over their childhood. Maybe they're angry over their boss.
Maybe they're angry with their sibling who keeps taking advantage of them. I mean, they're grown, they're in their 50s, but they're still angry, harsh. They're angry. That's what is revealing. It shows someone who has a fearful heart.
Negative, always negative. Why are they negative? Any time you say, Hey, this is great going up, but I don't know. I mean, it's gonna be like Eeyore. Yeah.
Always gotta roblocker. Yeah. If it is a good day. Because he was always scared. Yeah.
Unlike me, the Pooh or Piggler. Piggler was scared too. Tigger. Tigger was not. Tigger was scared too.
They're all scared. But Eeyore definitely was negative. Yeah. Yeah. Very negative.
Show me an overactive tongue, and I will show you an unsettled heart. That's a big one for me. Yeah. That's a big one for me because unsettled. Yeah, I'm a rambler.
And I know I'm a rambler. And when you get nervous, you're like, okay, I just got to take control however I do it. And however I do it is going to be by talking. Even now. Seriously, that's the one I think that.
Impresses on me the most. Show me a boastful tongue, and I will show you an insecure heart. You know, boastful, insecure. Try to make up for those insecurities by putting out this confident image that I want everybody to respect. Yeah.
Yeah. Lateral to, when really inside, I feel less. Right. Right. Boastful.
You know, you have to be careful how you boast.
Now, there is a place to boast in the sense of telling people your accomplishments so you will understand what's happening. Mm-hmm. And what is the source of the success? You know, politicians have to do that. People are like, oh, they should stop boasting.
How would you know? Because the media keeps spinning it around. Yeah. Yeah. So sometimes you have to say, hey, I did this.
President Trump does that. Yeah. And people are like, Man, he brags all the time like Yeah, because the media is so diametrically against him.
So when he has to say, hey, I did this, you know, nobody did that, I'm doing it. Why? Because the media is too cowardly and too duplicitous to even acknowledge hey he did it. Yeah. He did it.
He did something good. He did something right.
So somebody has to.
So, what I'm saying here, boastful. It's not the same thing. This is boastful in the sense of you just constantly are stuck on yourself. It's all about you, it's not about other people. It's only about your success and your coffers.
You're just trying to fill your own coffers. And that's why you're boasting. And that's coming from an insecure heart.
So, Dr. Shah, in the time that we have left, The if if someone is listening to the show. And they're saying, I'm recognizing that the way that I'm speaking is not a good thing. The words that I'm using, the tone that I have, the things I choose to say. I don't like what it says about what's inside of my heart.
Right. What hope is there? How can we get a clearer picture on what the path to change is? Yeah, definitely. You need Jesus Christ in your heart.
You need him in your life. You need a daily walk with him. Whoever you hang around is what you're going to sound like.
So when you walk with Christ, then you're going to sound like him. The Holy Spirit will help you. Say the words that he wants you to say.
So, just like we talked about: harsh tongue, angry heart. Or negative tongue shows a fearful heart, or an overactive tongue shows an unsettled heart. A boastful tongue shows an insecure heart. A filthy tongue shows an impure heart. A critical tongue.
shows a bitter heart. And someone who says hell all the time. They're showing you what's inside.
So, what's inside needs to. Be cleansed. That's right. And only Jesus can do that. Amen.
Amen. I think it's one of those things where we think we just have to learn the right things to say. But I love that the way that you end it there is that only Jesus can provide you those things. That's right. Yeah, I love that.
That's right. Love that picture. Guys, make sure you join us next time. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today show.
Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And if today's your first time listening to the show, hey, we love you. We're glad that you're here and we hope you join us for the conversation again tomorrow. Don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show anywhere podcasting content can be found. And you can always support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give.
A couple of things we want to let you guys know before we let you off the hook today. Number one, we've got a big, big apologetics conference coming to Clearview Church, Henderson, North Carolina, on March 28th. You can get all of the details in the description. You can purchase your tickets in the description. And if you use promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y, you're going to get 20% off at checkout.
We've got a couple of new shows for you guys to be checking out. Number one of them is learn to. read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. You can find that on iTunes.
It's a video podcast, so we're updating it with new episodes every single week. There's vocab, there's grammar, there's the alphabet. It's going to start you off very slow. But our goal and our promise to you is this, that you will be reading the Old Testament in its original language by the time that you're done. Also, the Book of Job, new podcast series that we just started on Pray.com exclusively.
You can always listen to it on sermons by Dr. Abadan Shah. But if you go to pray.com and follow Dr. Abadan Shah, you're going to see an exclusive book of Job sermon series, how to understand and unpack your trauma through the book of Job. That's right.
We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearby Today.
