When the word of God is spoken into your life, you respond to it. But little do you know that when you respond to it, in fact, every time you respond to it, a transformation begins to happen in your heart and in your life. Understanding this and more coming up right now on the QB Today Show. Yeah. 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. Thank you again for joining us for the Clearview Today Show. We've been having so many great conversations this week, and we've got a bunch more coming your way.
But for right now, we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you. Our host is 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, we've been talking about the word of God.
I'm excited to continue. I am too. We're talking to the book of James on not just being a listener, but a doer. Not just hearers of the word, but a doer of the word.
So it's very important. We talked a little bit yesterday about how being a pastor, especially a pastor in the Bible Belt, you meet a lot of people and you see a lot of people, I'm sure, as you're preaching to them, where they're nodding their heads and their face is completely passive. And they're like, yes, I agree with everything you say. I'm just not going to do it. I won't do it.
It's gonna, I'm gonna catch it and I'm gonna promptly release it. Just let it go right back in the wild. It might be habit. It might be like unaccounted for pride. It might be whatever it is.
But whatever it is you're preaching to me, I like it. I support it. I'm just not going to obey it. How do you do that? How do you proceed?
Well, for me, as I mentioned, you know, there's two options. Either you grew up in a culture which is devoid of the scriptures. The scriptures are not the foundation. And so, yes, there is more authenticity there. But at the same time, there's also persecution where the scriptures never have the opportunity to take root.
And so people never grow because scriptures are not there. And maybe there's persecution.
So if scriptures are found on you, then you may go to jail or you may be persecuted in some other way.
Some of the pressure may be put upon you. But then you look at the other kind of culture, which is like in the South, where there is so much scripture that everybody is a quote unquote Christian. They go to church on Sunday, but they live another way on Monday. And so what do you do about that?
So if I were given an option to live in one or the other, I would choose the Christian culture. I don't think either of them is the best, but I would choose the Christian culture over the non-Christian culture.
Now, somebody may say, oh, that's no, no way, no way. I'd rather have nothing and go through persecution as long as I have authentic Christianity. Right. That person hasn't lived in that world. Yeah, and if you have lived in that world and you're still saying that, I don't know.
Some's a little weird. I've lived in that world and it's not fun to go through persecution. It's not fun to. To have to struggle just to find a scripture.
So I'd rather be in the world where. Favorable to Christianity, even if it's not authentic. I can work with that. At least I have the freedom to work with that. That's right.
I love the example you gave us on the last episode of the sniper at the fishing hole. Like, you could go to the fishing hole where, yeah, you know, maybe you'll get some fish, maybe you won't get some fish. And the fish that you get, maybe they'll be good, maybe they won't. Or you could go to the fishing hole where, like, the fish that bite are really good fish. But you're also getting shot at by yeah, there's a sniper taking pot shot.
Which one would you rather? I'm going to fish at the one where the fish are like, yeah, you know, rough. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's how I see it. And so having lived in that world and that world has become darker now where I grew up, where Christians are being persecuted, churches are being persecuted, pastors in certain areas, not every area, so pastors do get beat up Sunday morning.
You know, Christians going to church in most areas, okay, but then there are places where you're taking your life into your own hands if you do that. Yeah. Not a good thing. Yeah. And we ended yesterday's show talking about this illustration that James gives about be hearers of the word and not be doers of the word and not hearers only, right?
And he talks about how if you don't do that, you're deceiving yourself. And we talked about it a little bit because it's sort of funny where you feel like you're deceiving others. You know, you think that I'm playing the Christian part. I'm dressing up in my Sunday best. I'm giving my money.
I'm volunteering. But really, you're only following. Fooling yourself. And how foolish do you have to be for you to actually legitimately self yourself? Yeah.
And that's what James says here. But be doers of the words, not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves, meaning being blinded to our own. On true. Religious state.
Yeah. You're deceiving your own self. You know, and that can happen in many areas of life where people deceive themselves. They deceive themselves with their health. They claim, like, I'm good.
I'm good. I'm going to just have a little candy here. I've done that. And then. I'll be okay.
And then your blood sugar goes up. It's like I'm not okay. But I told myself that I'll be okay and that it was just a little piece. No, it was a whole candy bar. Yeah.
No, it's not, it's not, you're deceiving your own self. Right. Your body doesn't care about all the stress that you went through earlier in the week that made you justify the work. Right. And it's funny too, because like deceiving yourself means like it actually worked.
There's lying to yourself and then there's actually tricking your own brain. Like imagine doing a magic trick for yourself and then you're like, you do the magic trick and you're like, what? How did I do that? You think I might actually be magic? It's like knowing the trick, but you still deceive.
Yeah, you just are willingly, you're willing to be duped. You're willing to be fooled. I think that just shows the wickedness of the human heart. We're so ready to believe falsehood if it kind of puts our conscience at ease.
Well, it's also easy to laugh at, but the Bible also gives very clear instructions on how to live the Christian life. And there's many of them that I don't do. And I'm like, oh man, yeah. But the example that. James himself gives in verse twenty three is very powerful, humorous at the same time.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was.
Now, very interesting here. The first century mirrors were simply highly polished metals. And I mean, I've seen those.
So, some of you have gone with me to Greece and to Israel. You see these in the museums, even Egypt. They're highly polished metals, and they, I mean, you can see yourself. That's why people sometimes are amazed that the ancients had such technology. In a sense, they did.
Yeah. They made. They didn't have a glass mirror, but they had this kind of mirror. And What is also very interesting is It's not a woman, it's a man. Because that's what men do.
A woman will, most women I should say, will take hours and hours and hours just to. Fix their hair and then be like, I'm not ready right now. I just got to do this, I got to do that. A man just like, man, I am good to go. Yeah.
Looks at me. Look at me. I can tell you, I can show you, like, physically, I can act out my getting out of the shower in the mornings. I literally, this is how long it takes. I'm going to show you in real time.
Get out of the shower, look at my hair, right? All right, let's go. That's about how it goes.
Now, if I'm really, it's a special occasion, I might get a comb. I might get a comb, I might get a brush, I might take a few more moments. You got a comb right here? Just some moments. Yeah, where you know, guys will look at themselves and then walk away and just be like.
You see? I have my comb cheek. Dude, we look cool. I mean, you know, when you have hair like mine, which very quickly gets blown by the wind, it's not like I'm vain over here trying to. Make myself constantly priming and stuff.
No, it's not that. It's just that I know my hair. Yeah. And if one gust of wind hits it, it's just going to be gone. It'll do it.
And then I'm looking like I just got out of bed. Yeah. And all directions. It just looks terrible. Yeah.
And so. It definitely definitely is important. A typical man observes his natural face in the mirror and immediately goes away and forgets what kind of a man he was. If you do that, then you miss the point of the mirror. The point of the mirror is to help you fix yourself.
What's the use of getting up and going, huh? Still me. All right, I'm going to go. Yeah. Like, it's imagine like, imagine you see food in your teeth, you see acne, you see dirt on your face.
You're like, oh my golly, I need to fix that. And then just walk off without doing it. Like, you wouldn't do that. You were confronted with the truth, but you didn't take the right action step. But that's what we do with our sin.
We look at our sin and go, oh my gosh, that's ugly. I need to get on that. Yeah. All right. The problem for not right now.
Yeah, back to work. It's purpose. The mirror's purpose is to show you what you need. If you just hear the word of God, but do not do anything about it, then what's the use? That's the whole point.
That's right. So if I'm going through trials, I need to pray for wisdom. But if you know that The mirror of the word of God tells you to pray for wisdom. But if I don't pray for wisdom, if I just get up and start strategizing what is my next course of action, who do I need to call? I'm an action person, so I'm going to go ahead and start making some decisions.
You're not praying. You haven't spent even five seconds praying. for that need, for that situation.
So pray, If I'm facing temptations, I need to focus on God's goodness. Apply the Word of God. Think about how many things Are on the line if you take that step towards sin. What will happen if you say look at pornography or if you steal something or if you you know, lash out at somebody. What is at stake?
Mm-hmm. Once you realize that, once you focus on God's goodness, how God has blessed you with a great wife or a great future, and how God has. you know, giving you plenty of things to live by.
So, you don't have to steal. Once you focus on God's goodness, then you will not do those things. If you have a problem with anger, I need to be swift to hear, slow to speak. and slow to wrath. That's what I need to do.
That's right. Swift to hear. Am I listening to what? say, my husband or my wife is saying, Am I listening to what The people in the church are saying, Am I listening to what people in the community are saying? Am I really paying attention?
Am I really processing what is being said, or am I just ready for the rebuttal? Right, yeah, swift to hear, slow to speak. Means don't just give something you know, clever. or something you picked up from a podcast, or something that you know, it's poetic or rhymes. No.
Slow to speak and slow to wrath means don't just blow the top. And we do that. And sometimes it happens when you least expect it. All of a sudden, you're gone from zero to 90. And what happened there?
Maybe you are stressed, maybe you are busy, maybe you have lots on your mind, maybe you have a lot of things to get done, maybe you have a very frustrating situation that you're dealing with, maybe it's a financial issue, maybe it's a physical issue, maybe it's a relational issue. We don't know.
So in those moments, you need to be slow to wrath. Pray to God ask Him to help you Beslow to wrath. Think about the consequences. or what will happen. If you go ahead and lash out.
So slurrata.
So if you don't care about any of those things, then. Just like that man looking himself in the mirror and then walks away thinking, I'm good. Yeah. So let's say someone's listening and they're saying, no, no, no, I care. I care about this and I want to learn how to respond to God's word.
I'm hearing it preached to me right now. I'm hearing it spoken to me. I hear it preached to me on my Sunday mornings. Yeah. I'm no longer running from the truth.
Yeah. What do I do?
Now, I'm walking out of the door. And I think this is something that Christians, like a lot of times, they think, but they don't either know how to ask or they just don't want to ask. But, like, what do you want me to do? It's a Monday morning. What do I do?
Yeah, I would say, you know, definitely begin with prayer, begin with the word of God, and just say, God, help me, help me to now face this week with joy, with purpose, with focus. Help me, Lord, to fulfill your purpose in my life. Let me not allow the enemy to get into my head. And to wreak havoc in my life. Let those unplanned moments where Satan will jump in and try to distract by some confrontation or some unexpected situation help me not to give in to that.
So those are things that I would do. Yeah. Can you speak for a little bit about building the practice of prayer? Because I feel like there's some people who are listening who prayer is not their immediate response. Prayer, like they have to be reminded or consciously think, I need to pray about this.
How do you build that in as a habit to where that's that's your reflex? That's your automatic response.
Well, just like a child, you know, I mean, we popped our kids' hands when they would. Do something like stick their finger in an electrical socket, or they would try to reach for a stove, or they would try to get into the car when we're not there. You know, if the car, especially if the car is running, like mom would run the car just to get it warm, and you're trying to get in the car. I mean, you can put it in drive. Oh, my kid, my son got in the car without mommy knowing one time.
Yeah, we were doing a show, yeah, and she called me. Yeah, I mean, you know, stuff like that.
So, what happens? What do you do? There has to be some consequences. You know, sometimes parents are very loving and they love their kids, and they're like, oh. You're not doing your child any favor because.
you are not giving them immediate evaluation of what was wrong.
So what you're telling them is You can do that. And there'll be a little stern talk, but there's nothing else.
So, what do they do? They just go about life doing it again and again. But when there is a pop on their hand at a young age, you can't do that when they're teenagers. People do that as a joke or whatever, and that's fine. But that moment has passed.
That's right. It has to be done early enough. where the pop on the hand is then remembered through life. He said, man, that's a that's a That's a tall order that you have to pop them so hard that they will remember throughout their life. No, when they are young, at their level, that pop in the hand is the immediate.
Evaluation of what just happened. That's 100% true.
So when they become teenagers or when they become young adults or when they become Adults, they remember that pop, but in a whole different way. Like, this will bring. A negative feeling very quickly.
So I'm not going to do that. Yeah. I'm that way. I'm wired that way to where. Mm.
If I know, like if I'm just taught that something is wrong. If I think I can get away with it, I will try. Yeah. But if I am taught that something hurts, I'm not going near it. Yeah.
You know what I mean? And that happens when you are young, not when you are in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Right. Because at this age, popping your hand will only anger you. It will be a bad day because we're going to fight with each other.
I mean, it's going to go really bad really quickly.
So that popping the hand has to happen. at an early age. There can be a talking to The talking too can happen in the teenage years. not in the fifties or forties or thirties for that matter.
So what I'm saying here is Correcting people is very difficult. It has to begin In the early years of life. Yeah. But correcting people can happen. You can do that if you are and God does it with us when we Get prideful, there's a problem that comes.
Maybe it's a physical problem, maybe it's a mental issue, maybe it's a relationship problem, maybe it's a financial. You know, famine, something happens that makes you go, wait, I'm not. I'm not in charge of my world, God is. And it in that humility you you get back on track. Yeah.
You see what I'm saying? I hope that makes sense. Yeah, it does. That's such a good way for us to think about it, too, especially going back to what you said about kids and parenting and discipline. You know, kids, when they get on our nerves, it's because they're pushing boundaries.
It's because they're testing to see how far we can get away with that. I mean, you think about little kids who are constantly into everything. Why are they into everything? Because they want to see if I'm allowed to be here. That's right.
Am I allowed to do this?
So that. Immediate evaluation is helpful. It hurts, but it ought to hurt because it helps them understand this is the boundary. This is what happens when you step outside of the boundary. And same is true in our lives.
When we step outside of that boundary where we get prideful, we get full of ourselves. We have that immediate evaluation. We have that physical problem, that relationship struggle that comes in. And we're like, I mean, just like you said, I'm not in control of my world. And that's a good place for us to be.
And all of us have had those kids in our life. If you have kids, you know that there's that one kid who does, like my second born, my second kid is absolutely the boundary tester. My first kid is way more like I am as a child. Like, oh, I'm kind of scared of that. I'm not going near that.
Holden is not that way at all. And I've seen it with Ellie where she will get onto him and he was like. I think. I can take another step. I can go a little bit further.
I'm going to try it. And it's kind of like you said, the stern talking to will work with some kids. It will not work with others. You know what I'm saying? Like, like a stern, like, even me, like, when my parents were like, I'm just really.
really disappointed with you. I'll be like Is that it? Is that it? Are we good? Are we okay?
Okay. Hey, I'm sorry about that, but are we?
Okay, I'm going to go to the bathroom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That wouldn't work with you, though, huh? No, no, huh. No, if my parents looked at me and said, and they did, there were a couple times, they said, hey, I'm not mad.
I'm just really disappointed in the choices you made. I would rather you hit me. I'd rather please beat me. Take my stuff away, ground me. I would rather that than to think that I disappointed.
But you know what, Dr. Chu? Man, you're 100% right.
Some of the things that I have told my first son when he was like a little, little, he still remembers to this day. He still talks about me. I remember one time we were here at a prayer vigil. And David came to the door to open up the door, and I said, Hey, go run to David. And he's like, I can't.
I'm in a parking lot. Right. And I was like, Oh, good. That one stuck. Good work, Gala.
That one hung on. Yeah, I'll never forget that. I'll never forget. I can't. I'm in a parking lot.
That's funny.
Okay, you're right. Dr. Charlotte, people who have been on the receiving end of that sort of immediate correction, immediate evaluation from God in their lives, they're kind of recognizing that they're maybe in that or they've just recently encountered that in their lives. Where do they go from here? How do they move forward?
Well, the next verse, I'm going to capture that here while we can. It says in verse 25, but he who looks into Literally, it means stooping down and investigating. He who looks into stooping down and investigates the perfect law of liberty. and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, But a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
So, number one, you have to take the time to look into the word of God, stoop down and investigate. What the scriptures are saying, what God is saying to you in your situation. Spend some time. Studying the Bible, spend some time. Maybe talking to somebody who understands the Bible, a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, a small group leader who.
understands the Bible better than you do, and ask them the same question. You know, I'm I'm facing this situation, where should I be? Secondly, don't be a forgetful hero. It means don't be like all passionate. I want the answer to this issue.
And then by the time you get home, it's like, oh, I'm not as a forgetful person. I will say with 100% authority that what you consider a quirk, other people find annoying. Right. The older I've gotten, the more I realize that being forgetful is okay when you're a teenager and you're in your early 20s and you're figuring life out. When you're in your 30s and you forget things really easily, people get really annoyed by it.
And I imagine God sending trial after trial after trial in your life and you forget the wisdom that you've heard. It gets a lot less quirky real quick. Yeah. That's right. It's not a cute character trait.
No, not at all, especially after you've learned the same lesson three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times. Right. Yeah. Right. So definitely look down and investigate.
Definitely remember what will happen. But a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Means you will have blessing in whatever you're doing if you do those things. That's right. That's right.
So that's what it's about. And then in verse 26, it says, if anyone. Anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Useless.
So. You think you're a Believer, you're a person of faith, and yet you cannot control your mouth. You know, James has already talked about the mouth, but he brings it up again. This one's religion is useless.
So speech, what's your speech? Second, your service. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. Mm-hmm. So number one, speech, number two, Service.
Service. Yeah. It means do things to help people. And number three, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. And this is separation from the world.
It means live a life that is holy, that is. You know, stands up against sin, does not give into every Temptation.
So speech service. And separation. That's what needs to follow next. I know this isn't maybe not exactly what James is talking about, but talking about separating ourselves from the world. Dr.
Shell, we've been seeing a trend. And I think you even called this years ago that this was going to happen. But it seemed like for a time the church was trying so desperately to look like the world, to get people in. You know, you wanted the blacked out stage, you want the haze machines, and the fog and the lights and the laser shows and all these things in church to emulate what attracts people to the world. And I remember having this conversation, like, hey, as a church, we're not going to go that way, number one, because that's just not our identity.
But also, number two, is because we want to look different. We want to stand out. And within 10 years from that initial conversation, the church at large is going to be doing this. I've been following a lot of like church design, stage design, worship. YouTube channels and good gracious, it's right.
Yeah, people are flocking to the more traditional, more stand-apart look for the church. Yeah, it's crazy and gravitating away from that performing arts center feel. I'd say those churches are bad or evil or do anything wrong, but people by and large, they want something different, they want something distinct, something that feels like and looks like church. We talked about this on the show. We looked at actually, we actually looked at the numbers.
I might link this episode in the show notes, but there's a significant portion of Gen Z, especially young Gen Z-aged men, young men, who are seeking out. More traditional Christian media and more c traditional Christian experiences in the church itself. And and the pendulum has swung for sure, and it may swing again, and people may go back into wanting things, you know, like like they did at one time, very seeker friendly. Yeah, I think the pendulum may swing back. in that direction.
I don't know. But at least for now I think we need to be wise, number one, technologically wise, because we don't need all those blacked-out windows. You have LED walls, but also recognize that the world shifts. Yesterday, everybody wanted to be authentic, now they want to be more traditional.
So. you know make sure That if you do that way, that you still are a different person when it comes to your theology and your application of scripture. That's right. I love J.B. Phillips.
Famous translation from Romans 12, 2. Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold, but instead let yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformed. That's what we're talking about here in speech, service, and in your separation from the world. On the tombstone of D.L.
Moody, they put these words. But he that doeth The will of God abides forever. Amen.
So. And of course, you know, Moody's legacy still goes on. That's right. That's what connects us. That's what inspires us.
And that's what helps us to go on beyond our lives is doing the will of God, representing the one who is timeless. Amen.
I love it. 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.
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