Hey guys, John here with the Clearview Today show and I want to just take a second and talk to you about today's sponsor, WatchSafe. If you're a parent, you know that your child going on YouTube unsupervised is a no-go. Even a few minutes of unchecked viewing can expose them to content that is inappropriate, confusing, harmful, downright evil. This is a very real danger in a digital world that moves too fast for us to control. That's why we need apps like WatchSafe.
It lets you create a personalized profile for every child in your household. You can approve only the channels you trust. You can set daily time limits and you can monitor exactly what they're watching. It's going to give you control and more importantly, it's going to give you peace of mind.
So don't leave your child's screen time to chance. Take action today. Download WatchSafe and right now you can get 30% off your subscription with our promo code today. That's T-O-D-A-Y. Take a step today and protect what your children watch before it's too late.
Thanks for listening.
Now let's get into the show. There are some things that Christians just won't talk about. We're not going to talk about our sins. We're not going to talk about problems in our lives and in our marriage. But the one thing we certainly ain't going to talk about is money.
And that's exactly what we're going to talk about coming up right now on the Theory Today Show. 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. It's so good to see you back again. We are so glad you're joining us for today's conversation with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. And if today's your very first time ever tuning into the show, we want to say thank you, and we're going 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. I'm excited today.
Today's going to be a good, good talk. You know, this is something that Christians don't like to talk about. We like to pretend that we're above all this. Yeah. Right?
Money. Money is, you know, I actually had, I don't mind saying it, but I had my mom tell me one time, money. Is the devil money is just evil? And I was like. At the time, I was like, oh, okay.
But now I'm like, nah, I don't think you'd feel that way if we had a little bit of it. But this is one of the things that you talked about in your series on James years ago: money is never to become your master. Yeah. Well,. I know about a guy who had a lower back pain.
And he It felt like it was a herniated spinal disc. And so he goes to the doctor, and the doctor diagnosed him with what's known as the valeta. I can't even say it. Latina for it. The valetta sciatica.
Waleta sciatica. Valera sciatica. Have you ever heard of that? I've never. Y'all have with me in my class.
I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe not.
Okay.
So, in layman's terms, voletta sciatica is because. His wallet was putting pressure on the static nerve and causing the symptoms.
So you're wondering, it's like, what do you mean by wallet was pressuring against his static nerve? You know, many guys like to put their Wallet in the back pocket. And so you have so many receipts and cars and money. And it's like this big.
Now, imagine he's sitting on a wooden block like that. Yeah, my dad did that. Still does to this day. He doesn't carry no cards, nothing like that. It's just all his cash, all the money he owns, is in his back pocket.
This big old boulder. Oh, yeah. Mac's been hurting a lot. I don't know why. I can't figure it out.
So, is that a real thing? Did you know a guy who like who he didn't know a guy who did?
Well, let's put it this way: it wasn't like a doctor said it's Walletta Sciatica, but definitely. But definitely, I had a friend who was a truck driver. And he said that he said, That's 100% true. He said, Many truck drivers used to have that problem because they would put that wallet in their back pocket and drive for like. Eight hours.
Yeah. Now, imagine eight hours sitting crooked like that. Yeah? Sitting off to one side. Yeah.
Well, you wanna wonder why you're backsturing. Nicholas, actually, Dr. Shaw's son turned me on to not even carry in a wallet anymore.
Now I just keep everything in my phone. But do you carry cash? Do you have cash on me? I do. I can't remember the last time.
Do you carry cash?
Sometimes. I don't have my wallet. No, let me see. Is it on your phone? It's not in my phone.
Where's the cash in your pocket? It's in my wallet. It's not on my person at the moment. No, but it is rare that I have cash on me. Yeah, yeah.
I remember one of the things that I like. I remember liking about this wallet was I never had to keep up with it anymore. Yeah, it went from like you know how when you leave the house, check wallet, phone, keys. I definitely a hundred, like a hundred percent. I would, when I got this, I would be like, All right, keys, phone, where's my wallet?
Where's my wallet? And I'd go looking around for it, not really, remember, I had thrown it away. That's the two pats turned into one. But Dr. Cho, talk to us a little bit about money because I think a lot of people would be like they think they know where this episode's going.
Like, oh, yeah, Christians and money don't mix. We're not called for that. Yeah, that's not true. This passage, if it's interpreted incorrectly, you will become a socialist or a communist. or a Marxist, and that's not what this passage is about.
James is going to talk to us about What do you do when money Becomes your master. Yeah. Just like this man. Who Was allowing money to mess with his posture. to cause pain in his life.
And that's what happens to a lot of people. And good people. Christian people, church leaders, if they're not careful, then that money is going to control their lives or make them feel discouraged, depressed, fearful. I'm not saying for a moment that you should just be uh completely reckless with money and make bad decisions. No, of course not.
Uh definitely need to be careful, definitely need to be Uh You know, manage your money well. At the same time, don't let it control your life. Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people, they, especially Christians, they want to not talk about it because when they think about Christians and the topic of money, they close their eyes.
And I'm not going to say no names. But certain evangelists pop in their sure, yeah. I'm not saying no names, and if you and if you're listening to this and you had one of them pop in your mind, hey, that's on you, that's that's that's on you, we didn't say the name, but you know what I'm saying? It's like I want to disassociate so hard with that from the pulpit, from the radio show, from whatever. We're never talking about money.
I think money can often become a tricky thing for people because you need money in order to live, you have to have it. There's no way to exist in this world without money, right? But it can so easily fall into that category of this is my one focus, this is my desire, this is my driving force, and this is what I'm going to devote all of my time to. Yeah, maybe you can talk to this, Dr. Shah.
Maybe it is the case that some people, like, yeah, it's just endless ambition. I just always want more. But maybe some people, money becomes their master because they think I can't survive without this. I'm so insecure without it. Right.
Well, let's begin with. staying the first things first, which is The Bible does not condemn people Who had money or wealthy people? You see them all over the place. You see Job. The first book in the Bible.
Job was a wealthy man. In fact, his wealth is described in the livestock he had, in the servants he had, very wealthy. Abraham, wealthy, Joseph. Wealthy. He was second in command in Egypt.
That's a big deal. Moses, wealthy. Go down the the list, David, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was also probably the wealthiest man who ever lived. And then in Jesus' ministry, there were people like Nicodemus or Barnabas, Or Lydia, who we don't know for sure if Lydia was the seller of purple was really wealthy, but she was a businesswoman. Right.
So I'm sure she was a woman of affluence.
So Wealth in itself is not The problem. The rich Whom James is addressing in this passage, which is in James chapter 5, are not the Christians who were wealthy, but the wealthy. Landowners who were mistreating and abusing those who were working in their fields.
So it's not a status, it's a behavior. It's a behavior. And you can be Middle lower middle class? And mistreat the people under you. And I've seen that happen as well.
People over Three people in a warehouse, they can be so hateful, so mean, so controlling.
So manipulative. That they are doing exactly what these wealthy landowners were doing. In Roman times. You know, it's funny. I like the way that you mentioned that where.
One of the markers of God's blessing upon his people was their material wealth, them being wealthy people. And yet, here in 2026, we want to pretend like we're so above that. I'm so above asking God for money, asking God to bless me financially, because I don't need it. His presence in his relationship is enough. And so, yeah, fine, true.
But one of the markers that God uses to show us that he's blessing people is your wealth. Dr. Shaw, do you think that is a reaction against people who maybe have been prominent Christian names but have misrepresented or misapplied wealth? Explain again to me. The, I guess, reaction of Christians against money so harshly, like money doesn't matter.
We shouldn't be about money. We shouldn't be focused on money at all. Do you think that's a reaction against the popular names that we've seen who have said, I'm a Christian personality, or I'm a televangelist, or I'm a pastor, a mega pastor of this mega church? Who maybe we look at that and that's the wrong view of life. Like they want so bad to be anti-prosperity gospel that they say, I don't, not necessarily.
Let me get away from this for a moment and talk about the time of, say, the Methodist circuit riders like Francis Asbury, Bishop Thomas Coke, who was not really a circuit rider, but he he was going around planting churches. And when they would come around and raise money For ministries elsewhere. This is going back in the. I would say early 1800s, maybe even late 1700s, early 1800s. that when they would come around in certain communities they were harshly treated.
How dare you come in here asking us for money? to build a project somewhere where we are not sure That you're going to use the money for the right purpose. What do you mean coming here? in your horse-drawn carriage and asking us to dig deep and help. I mean, where were the prosperity gospel preachers?
Where was television? Yeah. Television would not be invented for another. I would say 120 years.
So, no, it's just a mindset people have. Gotcha. It's got nothing to do with the prosperity.
Now, of course, the prosperity gospel preachers have not helped anything. Right.
They haven't helped the matter by begging and crying and flying in their jet planes and while you are struggling. to make ends meet and you know you need to sow the seed here so you're gonna see Prosperity in your life, in your life, in your life.
So send some money here. Yeah, they haven't helped the case. But People have always been that way. Just I'm not sure where my money is going. And I don't want to fault them for that.
Of course, I get it. Would you like to give money to somebody who just shows up and says, Hey, I'm going to go build a school in the country of Liberia. Can you give me $1,000? You'd be like, Yeah, I know where the country is in Liberia is. But how do you know?
How do I know for sure? Yeah, who are you? I'll build it for you. You just need to trust God. And if you're being faithful, I'll build that school for you.
Yeah, nah, get out of here, man. I'm with you. I wouldn't do it. Yeah. So that so it's not it's not.
That tied to what's what has happened since the eighties, nineties. No, it's been going around for a long time. In some ways, that feels frustrating because money has always been a sticking point for people. But in other ways, it it's kind of comforting because You know, our issues with money s go back to our behavior. It's not the money itself that's the problem.
It's not the position itself that's the problem. It's the person behind it. It's the sinful condition of our heart. Yeah, and this whole thing about like, how much do I have? How much does he have?
Why don't I have as much as him? You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's, and I get completely how people take that way too far. And like you said, you do end up with situations like socialism and communism where we're all just going to be equal. It's like nothing is going to, that, no government program, no financial economic program is going to fix my envy.
Yeah. Nothing's going to fix my greed and my covetousness. It's just not going to happen. I'll find it to be covetous about something else. That's right.
Well, let's walk through James chapter five and let's see what James can teach us about. Money. Yeah, let's do it.
So, James 5, verse 1. Come now. You rich. Who is he talking to when he says you rich? He's talking to the rich landowners in that first century Roman Period, okay, who were wealthy, who controlled large tracts of land, and most people were simply.
not even sharecroppers, but they were just just You know, they were they were they were just Just laborers? Laborers. I mean, that's all they were. Yeah. So He's talking to them.
Weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Wow. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Yeah, it's pretty harsh. That is harsh.
That means at the end of the day, you're not in control of your money. Mm-hmm.
Now of course James is talking to these These people not church people. wealthy, wicked landowners. But in some ways he's also looking at us when he's saying those words. Like, yeah, I'm talking to them. But I hope the same spirit is not operative.
In your heart. Like, I'm addressing this to them, but don't think for a second that it also couldn't be you. Right.
Make sure you're paying attention. Given the right amount of money, given the right amount of power and influence, that could just as easily be you. Yeah. Yeah. So ask yourself that question.
Are you. Aware of the miseries that are coming upon you because you are hoarding that money, and that money may not be like a billion dollars, but it may be your $100 that you, whew, this is mine, nobody can have it, this is mine. And again, I have to be careful how I say that because, yeah, in some ways you earn that money, some ways you need to be careful about how you spend that money, manage that money, have self-control. But I hope You're not letting that money control your life. I hope you're not Being ungrateful.
I hope you're not being stingy. I hope you are being generous to help somebody who is worse off. 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.
If you've been looking for a natural way to support your health, these guys are doing it right. From 100% Muscadine grape juice to really high quality supplements, everything they make is handcrafted. It's backed by science. And best of all, it's grown right here in our home state of North Carolina. Visit mightymuscadine.com, use promo code today.
That's T-O-D-A-Y at checkout, and you're going to get 10% off your order. And every time you use that, code, you are directly helping us here at the Clearview Today Show continue spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So thank you for that. Thank you to Mighty Muscadine for sponsoring this episode. Let's jump in.
So While we keep our eyes on the On the unrighteous, wicked, worldly rich who exploit and abuse the poor. I hope we're also looking in the mirror. Am I unrighteous, wicked, and worldly? Am I? Am I unrighteous?
Are there things in my life that Are not right? Wicked, is there wickedness in my heart? Am I worldly, just wanting the things of the world so much? Do I exploit and abuse other people? Do I care about other people?
Am I generous to other people? Yeah. Do I A share? But I don't have to. I'm not obligated to.
There is no tax. Bracket that says, thou shalt. Serve those who are less than you. There's no such thing. But is there something inside me that says, yeah, you don't.
Deserve this, you didn't earn this. But I need to do this because Because this is what Jesus did for me. He didn't have to, but he did it. Yeah. He was generous with his life.
He was self-giving. He shared his life with us.
So that's why I'm going to do this for you. Do I have the same spirit? Yeah, I think it's something to recognize. And I think the older I've gotten, the more I've recognized it, is that. You know Am I generous because I truly believe all those things that Dr.
Shah said, or am I generous because I really don't have any other choice? You know, I don't have the means. And the money and the power to abuse people. You know what I mean? Like, I've, the older I've gotten, the more I've started to, not fear, but started to become sober to the fact that given the right circumstances, I could be that person.
Oh, yeah. You know, the enemy could use me. If I got all the money I wanted, all the influence and all the power that I wanted, yeah, I could turn into something really ugly. Yeah. And that's a sobering thought.
I think it forces us to take a harsh look at ourselves. I mean, to confront ourselves, much like James is confronting people in this passage, to say, you know, what are the depths of my heart? What am I capable of? Given the right or wrong circumstances, what sort of sinful patterns could I fall in? And I know you've said this in the past, Dr.
Shahs, that a lot of times, because the fact that I'm not where I want to be in life is God's grace to me. It's God protecting you. Yeah. Well, if you think about your own lives right now, you're exactly where you need to be. You have what you need to have.
You're blessed beyond measure. Every day should begin with thanking God for how good He is to us. Look around and see the blessings He has given to us, blessings we don't deserve, blessings that we cannot earn. There's so many, many blessings.
So take the time to not just say, God, protect us, but God, thank you for blessings and help me.
So, how do you pray for that? Not just saying thank you, thank you, but also saying, Lord, help me to remember. your goodness in my life. Help me to Always be aware of your grace, your provision in my life. That's the prayer.
Yes, absolutely. For God to keep your mind sharp and aware. That can be a prayer.
So. But let's keep going because James then tells us three attitudes. That the worldly rich have towards money. Again, we're talking about the unrighteous, the worldly, and the wicked rich. But again, keep the mirror in front of you.
Is that attitude in you? The first is How the unrighteous, worldly, wicked, rich guard their money. Again, look in the mirror. How do you guard your money?
Well it says right here in verse two. James chapter five, verse two, Your riches are corrupted. And your garments are moth eaten Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days, heaped up treasures a treasure in the last days. The key there is the heaping up of treasure.
Now, a worldly wicked. Unrighteous person will heap up massive. Oh. you know, mounds of treasure. You may not have the massive mound of treasure, but you do have a molehill.
Yeah, I agree with that. And you are definitely heaping up that molehill. I saw, I've seen that firsthand in my own life where. no matter how big that emergency fund gets. You still feel insecure.
You know what I mean? You could have a thousand dollar emergency fund. You could have a $10,000 emergency fund. It's not, there's no number, as much as I keep chasing it, there's no number that's going to make me feel safe. That's where I was like, I think this is a behavior thing.
I think this is a mindset thing. This is not a money thing. Yeah, and it's a reminder that security isn't going to come from money. Yeah, that's right. Money helps.
I mean, money's going to help you navigate things. Money can help when things, you know, if something unexpected happens. But finding your security and money, you'll always be chasing. Yeah, nothing wrong with having that emergency fund. I think that's wise to plan ahead.
The book of Proverbs is full of those planning-ahead passages.
So nothing wrong with that. But if you say if that goes away, I am done. No, that's not true. You should plan, you should prep, you should save for that rainy day. But just know that at the end of it all, it's God who's in charge.
That's right.
Don't be frivolous with your money. Don't waste your money. Don't throw money away just because you have a little extra in your pocket. Let it not burn a hole in your pocket. But.
Don't think That if that goes away, we're done. Yeah, we're cooked. I don't know how we're gonna make it. And the enemy, you know, we've been talking about the enemy lately, will definitely use that fear. To make you feel paralyzed.
To make you feel discouraged, defeated, hopeless. You know, that's one of the ways the enemy operates a lot, is a feeling of hopelessness, like. And it's contagious. If I have hopelessness in my heart, And if I don't handle it the right way, which is through the Word of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. With the truth of Jesus, I will infect you with that hopelessness.
I'll take my fear and put it upon you. It may become a little easier for me because now I've got you infected, but in time it's going to almost like infect each other back and forth, and we will make more problems for ourselves than we had before.
So Yes, planning is good. Saving is good. Having a rainy day fun is good. But don't ultimately think If I don't have those things Life is over. What's the difference?
Like if someone's listening and they're like, well, how do I know if I'm saving or how do I know if I'm heaping? How do I know if I'm heaping up all this treasure?
Well, there's a difference between saving and heaping. Heaping or hoarding or guarding implies a sense of obsession and dependency. That's the key. Obsession. Means I'm like, oh, I gotta put more in there.
Oh, I gotta look at it again. Oh, is it still there? Let me check on it. And that's very easy to do. And My philosophy has been keep God first.
Keep him first.
Sometimes we may say that, but we're not doing that.
So, keep him first consciously. Ask yourself: Am I keeping God first? Is this about him? And then. Ask yourself that question.
If he is first, Then Am I obsessed? With money? Am I. afraid if I lose Money, how am I going to survive?
Okay.
Stop obsess obsessing. Work hard. Don't sit there. Once you keep God first, don't sit there and go, Well, I have enough.
Okay, I know God is first, but I want to make sure. No, go out there and work hard, create. Create. We did an episode on that. Work hard and money will follow.
I'll link it to you. Yeah, great. Create. Go out there and create new things. Go the extra mile.
Don't sit back. You know, like we have some publicity we're doing right now for big production coming up. Don't stay paralyzed. Go out there, find something. Create something.
Get it out there. He said, Well, I don't know. No, you're being paralyzed. You're being dependent on somebody else to work this out. No, no, no.
Go out there, create something. What can we do to create? Create some excitement about this. And then put it out there. And and make some more and talk to some more people.
So I I try not to sit there obsessed or dependent Keep God first and then go. Get busy. Get busy on the next task. What will draw people? We're talking about church play and church programs.
What will draw people? What will engage them? What will hook them? What is the other thing we need to do? Instead of because the tendency is.
Obsession and dependency will very quickly lead to. Retrieving. will very quickly r lead to guarding. Obsession and dependency will retrieve. Guard?
Sit on your nest egg? protected Become slow to spend. And that's the beginning of the end. Yeah. There's no expansion, there's no growth, there's no investing.
Because now you're on the defensive. Right.
I mean, imagine a ball team. Who's like, hey guys. This is the the third quarter. And y'all are down. Should we get aggressive?
No, you need to hang on to the score. Focus on defense. Focus on defense, hang on to the score because you don't want to be defeated by like, you know, 10 to 2. I'm already down. Yeah, you're like 5 to 2.
What if we Get busy. Yeah. Start playing ball third quarter. Say, we're going to score at least two goals. Yeah.
Well, what will that do?
Well, big into four to s I mean, I'm sorry, it it'll it'll make it two to two. But we still need one to win.
Well, that's what you got the final quarter for. You'll score two more goals.
Well, I don't know. We're down by two. We need to hang on to this. That's not how that works. I need to protect these two points.
No, no, no. It doesn't work like that. Get out there. Yeah. That's right.
Even the score in the third quarter and exceeded by two in the last one, and it'll be okay. Yeah. So same same same Kind of understanding here. Keep God first and then get busy. Get busy creating, get busy being creative, get busy and getting things out there.
Whatever you can. Amen. I love it.
So that's great encouragement for us. And there's more to be had in this conversation about money, but it's so important for us to have the right understanding of how to handle money because God brings money into our lives. I mean, he can bless people and he can order our finances, but not if we're going to let that be our master. And yeah, absolutely. And the thing to remember, and I think for a lot of Christians too, is money is not just like the icing on the cake where it's like, all right, you did the Christian life well.
Now I'm going to sprinkle some money. Money can actually improve your Christian life. It can improve this ministry. How do you think we do radio shows? Do you think we just do it without any funding at all, any financial assistance at all?
No, it's because people are using the money God has given into their life to help us and to help thousands and thousands of other ministries who are doing the exact same thing. That's right.
Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow. We're going to continue this conversation here on the Clearview Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that if you're listening to the show and the show has been a blessing to you, you can always support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give. You can support us also by subscribing to the show anywhere podcasting content can be found and sharing those episodes.
With your friends. That's right.
And we also want to thank you guys for pre-ordering the Byzantine text form. This is the Robinson Pier Punt 2026 edition. You can find it at clearviewbc.org. You can get that pre-order, or you can just follow the link in the description below. But so many of you guys have been texting into the show, 252-582-5028, by the way, and pre-ordering your copies.
We want to thank you guys and let you know that until this Greek New Testament is out, the pre-orders are still there.
So make sure you go ahead and get your copy today. Also, want to let you guys know that the new show that we're doing, How to Read Biblical Hebrew, with Dr. Abadan Shah, is releasing new episodes every single week. We want you guys to be able to read the Old Testament in its original language.
So we're going to start off small. We're going to start with the alphabet, gradually work our way up week by week by week. It's a video podcast, so you can watch Dr. Shah teach you in real time. But our promise to you is this: if you stick with this program, you will be reading the Old Testament in its original language.
That's starting. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.
