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Now let's get into the show. I've got so many plans for the future. I've got big dreams. I see bright lights. I see my name up in the sky.
But listen, planning the future without God is a recipe for disaster. Helping you sort your future coming up right now on the Clear Vee Today Show. Two. 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. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. We're so glad you're joining us here in the studio for our conversation today.
And if today's your first time ever listening, we want to say welcome. We want to let you know exactly who's talking to you. Dr. Shah 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, welcome. It's time to go to the future. Time to go to the future, OPA Raven Baxter style. Where we're going, we don't need Rhodes. No, wait, not Raven Baxter.
What's the other Disney Channel show that the kid came to live from the future? I cannot remember. Oh, Phil of the Future. Phil of the Future. That was the greatest.
Phil of the Future. You remember Phil of the Future? No, I don't. Y'all were not at Disney Channel. Oh, that was a great show.
I love Phil of the Future.
So, Dr. Shah, we're talking about our futures, right? Because All of us got big plans. We want to dream big. We want to make this thing happen.
We're going to set a five-year plan, 10-year plan, 20-year plan, and all that is great. But a lot of us, we leave God out of the planning. Yeah, and Absolutely nothing wrong with planning. In fact, you should plan. People who don't plan and just shoot from the hip, you know how I feel about that.
I feel that the Holy Spirit is out there when you are in the moment, spontaneous. He is just as much with you as he is in the planning when you're sitting down, planning things out, exactly what you're going to say, how you're going to say it.
So I believe that planning is a must. Nothing wrong with planning for the future. But there are some cautions that we need to understand and exercise if we're going to plan God's way. Right. Because if you're not going to exercise those cautions, you will find yourself in a lot of hazard in the future.
What are some mistakes that most people make when they're thinking about the future, thinking about their plan? Where do you find most people fall as they're thinking about? Planning for the future.
Well, in my opinion, now we're going to come to what James has to say in a moment, but in my opinion, a lot of people try to do things. I don't know how to say this. Others have said it more cleverly, if I can say that, than I am. But they try to do a whole lot in a short time. Instead of doing A whole lot.
Long ways. Right. And that's not very clever, the way I said it. You know, we underestimate what we can do. in the long run, and we overestimate what we can do in the short time.
Is it fair to say most people are focused on immediate success versus long term sustainability? I think they they over Again, this overestimation. I'm trying to explain this as best I can. They think, oh, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to buy a house and I'm going to buy a big farm or something else.
Next year or in the next six months. They underestimate how long it's going to actually take. It's going to take a very long time. Yeah. And then they underestimate what they can do 10 years from now.
What are you going to do in 10 years from now? Man, I hope I still have my strength and my health and life. You're talking to like a 20-year-old? Yeah. And then 40 years from now, they're just wondering what life's going to be.
Yeah. But I think you should turn that around. Underestimate what you can do in a short time and overestimate what you can do in the long run. And that has helped me tremendously. People have shared that with me, and some of my mentors have taught me that.
In a short time, don't overdo it. But in the long run, Think big. Plan big. Yeah. Expand your vision more than you can imagine.
But in the short time, don't try to do super big things because it may not work out and you may be disappointed. But then don't think that just because in the short time you cannot plan big, than in the long run It's the same thing. No, in the long run, you can do a whole lot more if you keep accumulating and planning and developing. To answer your question I think we underestimate what we can do in the long run and we overestimate what we can do in the short time. Yeah, I think you're right on that because I can definitely tell from my own perspective growing up, seeing the rise of the internet and all of these people having this big famous boom off of their online content or whatever, that it is very much.
The spoken standard, right? Or maybe even the unspoken standard that by the time you're 30 years old, you should pretty much be a millionaire. Like, you should pretty much be the big time. Yeah, you should be your prime self before 30. And it's because of the dot-com boom that took place in the early 2000s, or maybe even the late 90s, where the internet had just come on the scene and people were latching onto this.
They were getting on board with this. And all of a sudden, they were overnight successes, overnight millionaires. People were doing things. And you're going, how? He's only.
Eighteen, how? He's only thirty, he's got all this. I should be doing that too. But that boom became a bust. Yeah.
So we're still operating with that mindset that I can also hit the big time. People do that with music. They think, man, I should be doing this now. But then it also goes back to What were you doing when you were nine or ten years of age. In fact, even earlier.
What were you doing? What lessons were you taking? What You know, where were you? Playing or singing or performing or competing? Were you doing any of those things?
No.
So, you're going to now all of a sudden hit the big time? Right. Well, yeah, because I'm the main character. Yeah. It's a part of my character.
It doesn't work like that. But here's what I can suggest to you. You may not hit the big time in your 20s or your 30s, but in your 40s and your 50s, you will capture the complete market. Mm. But I want to be the hip person.
I want to be out there doing fun stuff when I can do it. Mm-hmm. But trust me, if you trust God, He may know you better than you know yourself, which means at a younger age, if he had given you that, you may have destroyed your life and the life of everybody around you.
So he did not allow you to have that early start. But he's going to give you a great later success. If you trust him, if you obey him, if you. Follow him. Again, it goes back to We underestimate what we can do in the big In the long run, God is such a good father for us because He doesn't give us what we think we want in the moment, He gives us what He knows that we need in the long term.
Well, I mean, it's such a rudimentary example, and I know people have always gone to it. But I think of my kids now when they're in the stage that they're in, where they're begging for ice cream for dinner. They just want to eat chocolate for dinner. We got all this Easter candy, and can we just have that for dinner? It'd be easy for me to be like, Yeah, absolutely, go for it.
And knowing it's gonna cause a stomachache, it's gonna be you make you sick. But because I'm a good dad, I'm like, No, you can't. And they don't like it. They pitch a fit, they cry, they scream, they beg for, but that's the thing: is like you know, as your father, that's not what you need. And when you're 15, 16, 30 years old, and you've got good health, you're gonna be a lot better off.
That's right. And I think about that too. Like, all of us, especially I think people in ministry who look out and they're so susceptible to envy and wanting that ministry and that stage and those lights and that pulpit and that congregation. God knows in his wisdom, and I think that's what you're saying, Dr. Shah, is that's not what we need at this point in our lives, especially when you're young.
And I know our listeners, our viewers, are probably wondering: what does that have to do with what James has to say in James chapter 4, verses 13 on? We'll come to that. We're just talking to you, we're just sharing our hearts.
Sometimes when you see somebody get that early success. We can either thank God for that. and say, God, you're blessing them great. Please bless me as well. In your will, in your way, in your timing.
Or we can become envious and say, yeah. Yeah, they have all that success, but I promise you they're not happy. Let's take a quick break. Guys, John here from Clearview Today. Before we jump in, quick shout out to today's sponsor, Mighty Muscadine.
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So thank you for that. Thank you to Mighty Muscadine for sponsoring this episode. Let's jump in. Yeah, they're not happy. I wish I could tell you that I'm one of the first ones, but more often than not in my life, I've been more than second.
Yeah, usually the latter. I mean, you know, because they're not happy, they're probably not even getting to enjoy all their success. Who told you that? Yeah, how do you know that? Maybe they are enjoying the success.
Maybe they are giving God the praise.
So don't. Don't respond that way. Having said that, There have been many times I have seen those people who got that early success They Did not retain that success. In fact, later on in life, they lost everything.
So I want to have a balanced perspective. On one hand, when you see those people having early successes, don't immediately talk about must not be done the right way, they must have compromised. How do you know that? Maybe they didn't. Or they're how can they even enjoy all that hard work?
I bet they're just they're just workaholics. Maybe, but maybe they do have playtime. Yeah, true. True. Maybe working a lot does not drain them as it drains you.
Maybe it gives them energy. Yeah. So don't don't don't be so negative and so envious. But at the same time, also remember, there have been many people who went up the ladder so quickly. But that you were like, wow, that's amazing.
I wish I could do that. Yeah. But then. 10 years down the road, you also see them. Not come down the ladder, but fall off the ladder.
Yeah, absolutely. There are probably a lot of people who are listening to this who are like, you know, I want my ministry to grow and I want to have that success. And I'm okay with planning for the long term. But the problem is, I don't think I've ever sat down with my staff and actually planned out where we want our church to be in the next five years, 10 years, 20 years. Dr.
Shadow, you want to talk about kind of how we do it with our strategy planning and how we involve God every step of the way? Absolutely. It's done very prayerfully. You have to really, truly pray. For God to guide you, for God to Open your eyes.
to what he wants you to do. It's not just create a vision. and then go after it with everything you have. No, definitely Create a vision. We've talked about what it takes to form a vision, what it takes to Identify your skills, your gifts that God has given to you.
to identify the needs of people around you. The needs of people in the world, and how your gifts and talents, which are God-given, can meet people where they are. You know, so you use all those, what uh and also don't forget what are your core values? What are things that you will stand for, even die for? What are things that are You know, they are your convictions that you will not compromise.
So once you have this Values, mission, vision, you create the big picture. That's great. Do that. But I will also add something to it. Because that's very important for us as a team.
that when we create this future plan. Once you have the vision, then it comes to what is your strategy planning? What will you do? To reach that vision, what are the action steps you will take? What is a timeline?
that you have. What is going to happen in the next six months, a year, two? five ten twenty five maybe even did right now we have Was it a 5, 10, and 20? 20 year 20-year plan at Clearview. It's not like hard and fast, but it's there.
Yeah, I mean, it gets broader, of course. Like the five-year plan is more specific in certain places than the 20-year plan. The 20-year plans are much more broad, but it's there and it's on paper. Yeah. And we can see it.
Absolutely. All that Discovering your core values, discovering your mission, your strengths, your gifts, then the vision and casting the vision and then fleshing it out with the action steps and the timeline, all that. Behind all of that, it's not just like this is our vision. God, would you bless us? Boy, we're going after it.
Mm. That doesn't give me any energy. That doesn't It's not fulfilling for me. That is Okay, but that only is going to That's only going to... use people to achieve what you want to achieve.
Right. That That to me is not true, biblical, God-given, Christ-centered, spirit-empowered with vision. It's a vision. Don't get me wrong. A company, a business can take that and run with it.
And maybe they'll be successful. Maybe they'll run over people and make it happen. That's not true vision. True vision is how do you see the people who will be impacted by that vision. True vision is how you see the people who will help bring this vision To fruition.
How do you see them? Do you see the people who will be impacted or who will Benefit from the vision and then benefit you back as simply tools? Do you see the people who are helping you accomplish that vision as simply pawns? Then, then, yeah, you do have a vision and you do have a plan, but it's not probably what God wants for you. This is this reminds me of a book that we've gone through as a staff, High Road Leadership by John Maxwell.
Of course. And, you know, it talks about in the book, John Maxwell talks about the different forms of leadership: high road, middle road, and low road. And that leans in perfectly to what you're talking about, Dr. Shah. Low road leadership is: I'm going to use you as a means to an end.
Right. And I'm going to accomplish my goal, and you're just a tool in order for me to get there. But high road leadership is: how can I help you achieve your goals as we together are headed here? You value people. Yes.
But Dr. Shah. says our faithful listener. I'm hearing what you're saying, and it sounds great, but I'm not a pastor. I'm just a Christian.
I'm not even in ministry. You know, I want to plan for my future, but I'm really just planning for my life. Is all of this stuff that you're saying apply to me? Absolutely. This is not just ministry-only strategy.
This is for anyone, anywhere, a young person who is. in in high school. This is for that young lady who has gone off to college or a couple who just got married or a family young family or or or or mid middle aged person. I mean, it doesn't matter what stage in life you are. Maybe you have everything, maybe you've lost everything.
Maybe you've been walking with Jesus for years. Maybe you just came to the Lord. It doesn't matter where you are. This applies. Ministry or not, this applies.
So Valuing people means what do you want? What are you hoping that they will gain from this? For you to understand that, you have to see them the way God sees them. Every person is fearfully and wonderfully made. Every person.
Is such that if they were the only person on planet Earth, Jesus would have still come and died for them. God loves them, He listens to them, He watches over that single person. I mean, you know that God takes special interest in every single human being. Be that person in the heart of India somewhere, or Africa, or South America, or Europe, or Middle East, or United States. God cares about that individual.
What do you say to the Christian who says, you know, maybe if you even follow James' route where he says, you know, my life is nothing really but a vapor. You know, does God even want me to care about all of this stuff? I only got 70, 80 years' tops, and then I'm with God for eternity. Like, does what I do on earth matter that much? Absolutely.
You get only one shot at life. And it's a precious life. It's sad to me that life gets taken. Murder and killing and all these things. It's tragic, but you get only one shot at life, and God has given it to you as a gift.
Unfortunately, with sin and evil and Satan in this world, that life is complex, complicated, painful, horrible at times. But God wants you to turn to Him and He will take whatever situation your life is in. and bring something good. to you and through you. For his glory.
So I would say, yes, it does matter. Whoever you are, no matter what you're going through right now, you may be feeling horrible. Your plans may have crashed and burned, or maybe you never had a good shot at life. Maybe life started in a way that you were behind the eight ball and still are. And you feel like, man, what's the use?
You see somebody else, you say, man, they were born with a. Silver smoo there's a spoon in their mouth. They they had it made. They got it all. Maybe.
But you don't know their whole lives. You don't know what they've gone through. That's right. So you don't don't don't compare. Just Look to God.
Because God cares about you. He has a plan for your life, and He finds you valuable, valuable enough to give His Son for you. Amen.
So, when you're planning your vision, I would suggest make sure you see people as valuable, whether the people who work alongside of you or people who will be ultimately benefited by your vision, or if they catch on to your vision, they will benefit. You so you can do more. Either way, every single person along that journey. is valuable. That's right.
Our listeners, our viewers will understand that. Yeah, you know, we got about 10 minutes left in the show.
So, do you want to maybe just kind of dive into James? Just like practically, what does it look like when I'm planning my life? Say someone's listening there going, Okay, I'm with you. I want to start today, but I want to start the right way. How do I plan the rest of my life?
Well, let's listen to James. See, right here in verse 13, James 4:13, he says, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow. We will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit. Wow. Two guys are talking.
Maybe they're two businessmen. They have a plan. Of when they will go, today or tomorrow. Yeah. where they will go.
Go to this or that city. How long will they go, spend a year there? What will they do? Buy, sell, and make a profit. Prophet.
There's only one thing they forgot in their planning, which is life is. Uh Predictable. You have no guarantee What will happen tomorrow. Yeah, that's true. That's true.
You know, that's one thing that even I struggle with, and I'm sure everyone does: okay, this year, here's the things I want to do. I want to get in shape. I want to get a good handle on my mortgage and on my finances and get the kids in school. And never in my planning is, what if I get really sick? Yeah.
What if I'm in a car accident? What if or what if what if one of the cars breaks down? Yeah. What if we're driving and then just oh, uh oh, the world turns upside down, inside out, like like it happened during the pandemic, where everybody's world came to a screeching halt. Mm-hmm.
I mean, so many plans people had made to travel, to go to school, to get married, to. Have a vacation. Graduate. Yeah. Yep.
So everything was over. Everything was over. Everybody's plans came to a screeching halt. And that wasn't just like, oh, we'll delay it a month. That was just, that was, I don't know when we're going to be able to move forward.
I don't know when the world is going to get back to normal. Yeah. I mean, driving down the road and seeing. or on the interstate and seeing No cars. Yeah.
I'm like, this is. Crazy. Like the Walking Dead. Going down bizarre. Yeah, like driving from our town of Henderson to like Wake Forest Raleigh.
It looked like The Walking Dead. Oh, yeah. It was just no nothing. Yeah, going to the mall, and there was hardly anybody in the food court. Yeah.
Yeah. All the guards were stink eyeing you for being there in the first place. You're the one that's open. Yeah, you're open.
So, what does James say? He says, Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
So Vapor can also be translated as a mist or a thin fog.
So, think about on a cool day, if you breathe on a glass window, you can see the condensation for a couple of seconds and then it goes away fast. That is your life. Wow, that's crazy. That is your life in the grand scheme of eternity.
So, it can be easy for people to look at that or to read those verses and say, Well, what's the point of planning then? What's the point of even talking about all of this? If James himself, the Bible is saying my life is a vapor, then I'm just going to exist in the time that I have. And then I think it says a lot about you as a person because it's like, yeah, you can think of it that way. Or there's a lot of people who think of it like, I don't have a lot of time.
I got to make this count. I got 80 years tops to make an impact for God's kingdom. Right. Yeah. And there are other analogies in the Bible about this.
Sometimes it's called our days on earth are as a shadow. This is in 1 Chronicles 29, verse 15. Job says, Oh, remember that my life is a breath. Yeah. That's it.
Gone. Gone. Or as the cloud disappears and vanishes away, says Job in Job 7 or Psalm 102. My days are like a shadow that lengthens and I wither away like grass.
So two. Two different metaphors are being used here. One is as a shadow or simile, I guess. The other one is grass. Yeah.
Yeah. I think of all the messaging that we've gotten, like over mass media, just like all of the advertising agencies that want you to believe you're going to live forever. Like your youth is what's important. Have fun, live it up, smoke, drink, party, do what you got to do, and make it last. Whatever makes you happy.
Whatever makes you happy. Hold on to that happiness for as long as you can. Yeah. Yeah. I think about like how twisted a lot of our advertising and our marketing is to shove poison into us to shorten what short life we already have.
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Yeah.
My encouragement to people is don't take your life for granted. Don't waste your life away. Don't do things that in the moment may feel like, man, this is great. I'm having the best time of my life. I'm living it up.
I'm goofing off. I'm taking risks. I'm doing whatever. And because you have no guarantee that you will even finish out that day, finish out that week. That year, this may be the last year of your life.
Yeah. It's crazy how the older I've gotten, Dr. Shaw, I think you've seen this firsthand. The older I've gotten, the more seriously I've started taking my life. Like, I think about all the people that I went to school with.
A lot of people that didn't make great decisions, you know, in prison, dead, you know, just things that didn't go right in their lives, decisions that went bad. And at the time, I'm like, oh man, that stinks. But now that I'm in my 30s, I'm like, man, imagine being 20 and my life is over. I'm in prison. Yeah.
Or I've messed up every relationship I ever had.
Now that's my life. That's it. I'm done. Yeah. Yeah.
One of my best friends is. Is dead. Yeah. I grew up with him and I mean, we kind of drifted away different lives, but he's gone. Yeah.
He's gone. I mean, I see him. I used to see him on Facebook, but I don't see him on Facebook anymore. Yeah. He's not there.
There's a guy that I went to high school with. He was a couple of years older than me, but we were in high school at the same time. And when I was in college, we would have both been in college. I got the news that he died. I mean, we were in our 20s, and I was like, What in the world?
And it was, I mean, he. Maybe made some not great choices, but it was a medical event that took his life. Wow. And it was, it was crazy to think. I mean, he had somebody that he was, you know, planning a future with, and he had family that loved him and cared about him, and then just gone.
Yeah, very sad. God has given us life as a gift. Don't take it for granted. That's right. Also, if you have never given your life to Christ, don't put it off.
Don't. say, Well, this Sunday, or maybe when things settle down, or when I finish school, or when I get this job, or when I finish repairing the house, or when I get all my thrills and thrills out of this Affair or relationship, then I'm gonna get things going. Don't do that. Yeah, get things right with God while you still have your mind, you still have your understanding. Fix things, get things right.
And then if life does come to an end. You know where you're going. And I believe that God has led you, listeners and viewers, to this radio show because I think there's people out there who are recognizing they don't have that assurance, they don't have that eternal destination in mind. And maybe this is the first time they've been thinking about that. Dr.
Shah, as we close the episode today, do you want to just lead them through how to accept Christ? Absolutely. And for people who are out there listening and maybe have recognized they need that for the first time. Absolutely. You may be in the best health of your life, or you may not be.
Maybe you are just on the golf course or driving somewhere for a job interview or to make that great deal or sign the papers. And man, you got the account. Or maybe you are in the hospital room. Maybe you are getting ready to call that lawyer to begin the divorce proceedings, I mean, proceedings or whatever it is. I don't know what you're going through.
Jesus is right there with you. And all he wants you to do is call upon him and tell him, Jesus, help me, save me. You said, What do you save me from? Save me from sin, save me from death, save me from the judgment to come. Save me from myself, and he will.
He will. You may have a lot of voices coming against you, telling you, Don't worry about that. That's just silly religious talk. You know, people are to scare you. Don't let them scare you.
No, but God. will We'll call you to account one day. That's right. And what will you say?
So, I hope today you will receive Jesus in your life. Amen.
Amen.
Guys, make sure you join us next time. Same time, same station. We're going to dig further into this topic here on the Clear V Today show. Thanks to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And if today's your first time listening to the show, we love you.
We're glad that you're here and hope you join us for the next episode that we have. Thank you to everyone who is pre-ordering the Robinson Pier Pont Byzantine text form, the 2026 edition. You can follow the link in the description to pre-order your copy today. It's going to be out very soon. We know that you guys are very excited.
I'm getting like at least 60 or 70 texts a day asking people, people asking when it's going to be out. I promise you, it's going to be out soon. But you can pre-order your copy today at the link in the description. You can also check out our other show, How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah, Volume 1, which means this is a rudimentary beginner's course in how to read Old Testament biblical Hebrew.
We're going to start at the very, very basics. It's a video podcast. You can watch it on iTunes, but our promise to you is this: if you stick with this, You will be reading the Old Testament in its original language. New episodes are coming out every week. Make sure you check it out.
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