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Now let's jump in. Here's a truth you need to know despite what anybody out there tells you. Everybody believes something about God. The question is: is it true? Welcome to today's episode of the Theory Today Show.
You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadanshah, 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 Studio.
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Thank you so much for your contribution and for your ongoing gift and efforts to make the Clearview Today Show possible. That's right. We definitely wanted to shout you out because you're an important part of what we're doing. And, you know, if you want to be able to give, There's a lot of ways that you can do that, but really the easiest way is abadanshah.com forward slash give, or you can become a monthly donor on pray.com. That's where a lot of our support comes from.
So we want to say thank you to that. Thank you to our sponsors. And one last thing that we wanted to say is that if you are enjoying this show on iTunes or Spotify, you may think it's an audio-only podcast. Not true. You're wrong.
Dr. Shaw. A lot of people don't know this. This has been a video podcast from the very beginning. We've been doing this video.
Yeah, we've been doing it for quite some time. And now, as much as we've grown, thank God for that. It's all by his grace. We are branching out. That's right.
Trying some new things. That's right. And one of the new things is iTunes and Spotify. Spotify maybe have done it longer, but iTunes just rolled out video podcasting.
So, guess what? If you're watching this episode, you can probably write this moment. Click on the episode, it's going to pop up in a video window. You've probably been wondering what we look like all these years. There's people watching us, Dr.
Shaw, they probably have no idea what we look like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think we look pretty good. I think these guys definitely look very good. I don't know about me, not at all.
No, but today's show is very special, and it is because we're starting a brand new series. That's right, and it's simply called Getting to Know God. Who is God? And that's something that we wanted to talk about, Dr. Peter.
What a short question, but what a big question. Yeah, extremely simple. Not a simple answer. Who is God? Yeah, everyone has some idea, even the atheist.
Has this idea of who God is not. Right. Right. I mean, but they still have an idea. Years and years ago, I heard this story about Ark Link Letter.
You know, he was, you know, had the Kids Say the Darkest Thing. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Cosby took it from him. I'm glad you said that because I had no idea who that name was.
Oh, really? He was the original. I was like, I don't know who Ark Linkletter is. You remember Bill Cosby's show, Kids Say the Darkness. Yes.
That was a remake of Art Link Letter. Yeah, no, I remember the show before Bill Cosby.
So I would have seen him. I just didn't know his name. Yeah, I mean, funny show, you know, asking kids some questions and then kids would respond. But one time he was talking to this kid and just kind of, you know, talking, but the kid was kind of engrossed in his, whatever he was doing. And what he was doing was making a drawing.
And so Our link letter asked him, you know, what are you doing? What are you working on? He said, I'm drawing a picture of God. Hmm. picture of God He said Ah, well, I didn't know that people Could do that.
How do you know what God looks like? And his answer was very simple: but they will when I'm done with this. Everybody's gonna know exactly what yeah, of course, they don't know what God looks like because I'm not done yet.
Well, I think, I think you, you. You hit on it, right? Because even atheists were like, You really think there's a big guy up in the clouds with lightning bolts and a white toga? And it's like, no, you think that clearly. Yeah.
But nobody else thinks that. Dr. Shuck. If someone asked you that question. Who is God?
Yeah. What would you say? Man, that's a deep question. And and what we wanna do is kind of walk through that. I mean, we're gonna we're gonna talk, we're gonna look at it scripturally, what that means.
We're gonna discuss from personal experiences. But the scripture will be our guide. We're not just going to grab things out of thin air or just talk about experiences. Our experiences will sort of validate, I guess you can say, or buttress what Scripture says. That is going to be our bottom line, the word of God.
But I want to back up a little bit. Does it even matter? Does it even matter what we believe about God? You know, I can hear keyboard warriors all over the nation saying no, not at all. You know, you Christians and Muslims and Jewish people, y'all all worship the exact same God.
Yeah, you just know my different names. Yeah, he goes by different names. You've got different stories, but it's all the same thing. Yeah, they're all roads lead to the same God. You just, you guys are complicating, and what you believe about God and all that stuff is causing all these wars.
I think that's a very simplistic, naive Understanding of history. That's not why people fight. It's just because we have different definitions of God. Not true at all. There are a lot of fundamental differences there.
And A.W. Tozer. A.W. Tozer was a great man of God. He was part of the Christian Missionary Alliance.
You know, I grew up in the Christian Missionary Alliance. He was. He was a pastor, he was a writer, he was also a kind of a Christian mystic. Uh again Christian mysticism is not evil. You just have to ground it in scripture, make sure it's coming from the word of God.
In a sense, we're all mystics. I mean, where is God? I mean, I don't see him, but where is he?
Well, he is there. But he's also in my heart. He's in my heart. Where is Jesus? He's in my heart.
Well, you are a little bit of a mystic there. God is all around us, but God is not everything around us. God isn't the tree. God isn't the squirrel. God isn't the ocean.
Right. But God is here and God is omnipresent. He's all around us. And you can sense his presence. Yeah.
Well, how can you sense his presence? No, that's part of. Being a mystic. Yeah, absolutely. Right?
There is that faith element to it. But A.W. Toso said, he said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Hm. What comes to mind When we think about God is the most important thing About us.
I think that's a great point to make with people who make that argument. You really think that it's as simple as having a man in the sky who cares what you do, but he loves you, but he's angry with you and he's got these rules. And it's like, man, the fact that that's what you think, the fact that you think. That's what Christianity is. That's what God is.
It says way more about you than it does me. Yeah, or religion is because that's not Christianity. Right, right. Yeah, you you're really revealing Your distorted understanding of God, that He is. This being A man upstairs.
I mean, that right there should be a little problematic. Yes, of course, we have our man upstairs as Jesus, fully God, also fully man. But we don't just think that he's a man upstairs, he's much more than a man. Right. And he's upstairs, which means he's not down here.
Yeah, he's looking down on us. He's not connected to us. Then we are in our you know, rolling in our Sorrow and misery and pain and suffering, and he is completely detached and living in his own penthouse apartment. Yeah, I think of the man upstairs as like the boss you don't want to make mad. Like, he's the one that he'll like, he'll come down here.
Is that how you see it? I see man upstairs as more as he has no connection here. Yeah. That's what I think, like a detached supervisor. Yeah, so I mean, I can agree with you.
In corporate speak, that's how I would say, but yeah, I think you're right. The detached man. I guess I sort of see like in a factory setting, all the people are down here working and all the conveyor belts are happening, and the one standing up behind the glass, kind of supervising it all. Yeah, that's my man upstairs. My father-in-law worked in an environment like that for years.
Oh, really? That's how he would refer to his boss, the man upstairs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I see it more as this person up there who has no connections with us.
He doesn't want to control our lives. He doesn't want to help us. He just is in his own world. There's nothing we can do to benefit him. And there's nothing he will do to benefit us.
So I see the same thing, but I see a little bit differently about the man upstairs. But if the person says that, Thus revealing a lot about Him that he is living either with fear. of the man upstairs or if you go by my definition He's living Just like like You know like someone out on the ocean in a In a sailboat and no wind. I mean, he just stuck. When you start taking your spiritual life more seriously, Dr.
Shah, and you start growing in your knowledge and understanding of who God is, I think there's a. Assumption that the people around you, the people in the world are on that same journey, on that same path. But I think as a pastor, you've seen that there are people who go decades without ever growing in their knowledge of God. And maybe they, maybe there's a Christian listening to this right now that says, you know what? I've never really given that much thought as to who God is.
Yeah, you should. Yeah. Yeah. It, it. impacts and informs Every other area of your life.
Absolutely. What you believe about God is. The bedrock for everything that you believe about everything. You know, it impacts. What do you believe about your origin?
Yeah. Where did you come from? Right. It impacts how you live in the present. And it impacts Where do you think life is headed?
Past, present, future. I mean, everything is impacted by your view, your perception. Your understanding of God.
So For somebody to say, I don't care about that. No, you do. You should care about it because that's. Definitely impacting how you see where you came from.
So, if you believe that God didn't make you. or God was not The person who created you then more than likely you're going to believe in evolution. Which means you are just a random Act of creation. And if you're a random act of creation, then you're not, as a psalmist tells us, Psalm 139, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Yeah.
Yeah. So. Abortion is not a problem because it's simply Convenience. We can argue all day about. you know, when does that life become When does that thing inside become life?
I believe it's at conception, right? Yeah, absolutely. But if you believe it's a random act of creation that human beings. are simply part of a process of natural selection or survival of the fittest, Then The fit can. Eliminate the unfit.
That's exactly right.
So, where do human rights fit into this discussion? If I'm a clump of cells that just sort of is spinning around this cosmic ball, Why are we talking about human rights? Yeah, and with the same token. At the end of life, if you feel like you are no longer useful, Or that you're hurting or that That You don't want to deal with pain, or you don't want to to burden anybody else. Then you can Exercise the same power over your own self.
That's right. and eliminate yourself. Because you're not fearfully and wonderfully made, you're just a clump of cells, as you said. Yeah, absolutely. And you can exit this life.
And that's why. Euthanasia is coming and coming very strong. In this country, that's. That's a big battle right now. Yes, absolutely.
People are deciding to go out on their own terms. They are deciding when life is over. They're deciding. It's not even about I don't want to suffer it. Physically, it's This is too much mentally.
I'm dealing with a lot. I'm dealing with depression. I'm dealing with anxiety. I'm dealing with heartache. And I don't want to deal with those things anymore.
So I'm going to choose my own. time of departure. And that's to me, that is such a shocking and heartbreaking thing. To think about A child, really. I mean, 13, 14, 15, even into the early 20s.
Life is hard. I mean, they're dealing with a lot of changes. They're dealing with a lot of ups and downs. They're on their own for the first time. And for them to make a permanent decision like that.
And to have that sanctioned and condoned by the government is is. Bizarre and yeah, you're referring to the sex changes and things of that nature as well. Yeah, I mean, think about it. If you're fearfully and wonderfully made, then the gender that you are born is the gender that you are. That's exactly right.
Right? So, for a person to say, no, I was really a male trapped in a female's body or a female trapped in a male's body, all that. Stems from your view of God. That's right. God makes you.
Yeah, that's exactly right. Because all of this, you know, what Dr. Sean Ryan are talking about, this assisted suicide, sex change operations, all of these things that we're seeing in our culture today, it's about power. It's about I'm taking my power back. And it isn't the case that I can do this because there is no God.
This is built on the presumption that there might be a God, but I want nothing to do with him because he has all the power.
Now, all those are very active issues. Let's talk about passive issues. What you believe about God also affects your daily. Life. How you see yourself.
You know, we talk about self-esteem. But what is self-esteem? How do you feel about yourself? How do you feel? How do you look at yourself?
Do you look at yourself as a failure? Do you look at yourself as unfit? Do you look at yourself as not amounting to much? Just a casualty of life and people and situations? What are you?
I'm just just I I just wanna I don't know. Worthl I feel worthless. Where is that coming from? That is also directly impacted by your view of God. Because if God made you, The God is still there.
And he has Something for you. He wants you to know him and he wants to know you. Of course, God knows us through and through, but he wants us to know us through his Son, Jesus Christ. He wants us to walk in that life. that he has made for us?
that life of Oneness with God. The life of forgiveness, the life of hope, the life of purpose that we're living. To share eternity with others. To the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, all of these things are yours, but if you're living in this, I'm just poor me, I'm just nobody, I'm, or angry, Some people are angry.
Angry because of the past, angry because of what people have done to them or families have done to them. They're angry. They never stop to think that God is also a God of justice. We're going to look at that in this series. He is a God of justice, means nothing that happens in this life.
Will not be judged. Everything will be judged. That's right. Everything. Go ahead.
I want to ask this question. If it's better suited for a future episode, let's punt it to another episode. But can you give us some examples of some wrong beliefs about God and his character and how that might play out in day-to-day life? I mean, so many. You think about the murders that happen, especially years ago, I heard about this father who threw his children into the river or ocean or whatever it was just to get rid of them.
Wow.
Now, Why in the world would somebody do that? Why did he throw his children over the bridge? Uh He was Angry at the children's mother? Mm-hmm. He Felt sorry for himself?
He felt like He was large and in charge. He's gonna do this. Listen, life doesn't belong to us, life belongs to the creator. Amen. He not only created life, but But he also owns it.
And any time We try to infringe on that right. He notices and he takes it very seriously. But this person decided to do this.
Now, I'm giving you an extreme example. Yeah, yeah. But it's Nonetheless, very true, yeah, because we do the same things.
So, whether it's a heinous crime, like what this person did to his own children. It can be a day-to-day Example as why we treat people the way we do. Yeah, I think one of the things that we take for granted is that everything in life can always come back to this question: what do I think about God? But we don't think of it that way because we think of God as separable. You know, my sin, this is what I go into over here.
And I'll come back to God when I'm ready, or maybe I just don't even need to address it. I can step another because we think we can separate God from our actual life when we really can't. No, every sin is a sin against a holy. And righteous God. That's right.
God's not only there on Sundays. You don't on the weekend. He's there all the time.
So, what you believe about God is going to impact your day-to-day 100%. That's right. And again, we're looking at some active examples, passive examples, but also think about more positive examples. I mean, those are all negative. Sure.
Some very harsh. Let's go more positive. What you think about Bagad is going to Help you live a good life. Yeah. I mean, can y'all give some examples?
Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, like, like when I'm leading worship on a Sunday morning, right? What do I actually think about God? It's like, well, God is worthy to be worshipped.
Okay, why? Because God loves me. God gave his son to die on the cross for me. Yes, but isn't God also holy? Yes, God's holy.
Okay, think about that.
Okay, I'm going to think about it. No, no, no. Really think about that. And it takes, it takes years. I think I've always tried to get it week to week to week to week.
But looking back on the scope of leading worship, I've grown in my understanding of God more so from what he's done for me. These things that he's done, sending his son, giving me blessings, giving me a good family, versus just who he is and growing to love him for who he is. Does that make sense? Yeah. I think for me, when I'm teaching or leading kids or teenagers, it's God is a God who saves us not just from sin, but he saves us for something.
He saves us onto the mission with him. I mean, throughout the Bible, point to a chapter in the Bible and you're going to find young people who are stepping up to the life that God has called them to. I mean, look, David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Esther, Ruth. Throughout the Bible, you have these young men and women who are stepping up into their purpose at a young age. And so I want kids and teenagers to understand that your God-given purpose doesn't begin when you turn 18.
It doesn't begin. When you realize you're 25 and you need some direction in your life, it doesn't begin when you're married and you have kids of your own and you try to get your life back on track. It begins now at seven, eight, nine years old, 13, 14, 15 years old. It begins now. God is calling you now to be obedient to Him.
Dr. Sha, you have a young staff. You have a fairly young staff. I mean, When you tell young people, especially people young people who are in ministry, that the things that you're doing. Have eternal impact.
What you think about God really matters with how you conduct ministry. I think when you tell that to young people, and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but it doesn't hit. It doesn't register right away. It's sort of like you ever seen those hydrophobic surfaces where you pour water on it and it just rolls right off and it's not wet? But the older I've gotten, the more I've started to see how eternal what we're doing is.
Yeah. And I think there are people listening to this show right now who maybe they're hearing this and they're saying, okay, I mean, I get it. I get it. Yes. But it's not clicking, it's not connecting.
Is there anything other than just time and maturity? That can help Bring that into place. Yes, time and maturity definitely help. Circumstances, trials in life definitely kick us to another level of growth. But I think we have.
We have The power And it's all God given, anyways. We have the power to help convince others. We have the power, whether it's in preaching, teaching, interpersonal communication, we have the power to influence others. to think more godly.
So With our staff, those talkings help. Does that mean they help 100% of the time? No. But I hope they're at least hitting 25 to 30 percent. I would say they're hitting more than that.
I would like to think more. Yeah. But if they're hitting 25 to 30 percent, I'm happy with that because. That means there is some changes where We're not only averting or avoiding some pitfalls, but we're also possibly building some good. foundations, some some some good beliefs and and actions.
So when I talk to our staff, and all of you are young, Some of the things I emphasize about the family, about working hard, about taking this role seriously, about owning this place. Of course, it belongs to Jesus Christ. but we also take ownership of it. My goal is to help them. See that God has really blessed them.
You are not here by chance. You are here because God has placed you here. That's right. And I think that even for me, as you were saying, that ties back to what you believe about God. For us who are listening to you as you lead, as you teach us, as you mentor us, you know, God has put authority figures in our lives for a reason.
You're not just, you're not just my pastor. You're not just my boss. You're not just, you know, someone who kind of directs day-to-day things and gives me things that I need to work on and follows up on projects. God has established you as a mentor in my life to speak into me and to encourage me and to direct me and correct me and guide me. And if I didn't believe that, I might receive that very differently.
Oh, yeah. I mean, you cannot offer people. tons and tons of money and things to say, hey, I'm not going to do anything for you. I'm not going to talk to you. When I said do anything, I'm talking about.
Talking to you, mentoring, guiding you. Here's a lot of money. Just keep working. You will do that. to a certain extent, but After a while you will question.
Whether or not this is worth it. That's right. You are hardwired to search for meaning. You're hardwired to search for impact and meaning in your life. And I think the people who say otherwise, I think they're lying to themselves.
I think they've given up on that task. I was thinking about this, Dr. Shubb, maybe you can speak to this. There was another example of how. What you think about God matters, especially in the fact that what you think about God was probably influenced not by God Himself, but by the people around you in your life, right?
Like when. Christians especially have to confront sin. We don't want to.
Well, we're all sinners. You know, all of us are sinners and You know, we just got to pray for him. Yeah. We just got to. Did Jesus didn't say that?
And I think I've definitely heard you say this from the pulpit, and I've heard you say it to your staff. Don't try to act like you're holier than God. If God calls sin sin and God calls it out, and God does something about it, For me to sit here and say, well, I'm a better Christian than that. But you see what I'm saying? I agree.
What I thought I knew about God impacted how I treated the people around me. Yeah. Whether for good or for bad. Exactly right.
So there's a good part, which is you should treat people with respect and dignity because Christ died for every human being. But also, on the other side, you cannot sit here and justify, rationalize, and validate someone's sin. That's right. All of that, what we're saying here. Those who are listening and watching us All of this is connected to our belief about God.
The old. You know, the principle is true. What you believe about God affects what you believe about yourself, and what you believe about yourself is. Is going to affect what you believe about other people. That's right.
That's right. And it's not just belief, it's how you treat them. That's right. Dr. Sean, the time that we have left, which is not much.
Is God truly knowable? Can we get to know God? Do we just get glimpses from scripture and that's it? Are we able to know God? I would say yes and no.
In some ways, yes, yes. I mean, the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 9: thus says the Lord: let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me.
So, there's any place that you want to have this sense of accomplishment, this. There's good pride. You know, there's bad pride, good pride. Good pride is: I'm proud of my kids, or I'm proud of this. This church for what they're doing.
That's a good pride. It's not arrogance. But if there's any place that you can be proud of, it should be that I understand and know God. That's right. That's right.
Does that mean you will completely understand and know him? No. Eternity is not enough. Is how about in one trillion years? Not enough.
Not going to happen. Not going to happen. You can just keep on adding zillion years. It's not enough to know God. Because If you ever say, Oh, I know him.
Which means now You have drawn a circumference around God, and you can't do that. Yeah, he'll break out of it every time. Every time he will surpass that, you know, you think about the universe. Every time they think, Oh, it is this big, they go, No, wait, we see more beyond that. I think it's this much more, and then we go, wait, no, more light.
New telescope, we're seeing more. Why the universe? I think it's just an example. I think it's real. Universe is big.
But it's an example, it's a way that God has given us a very practical image. Of how great he is. If he made this universe that we still have to get our arms around. Metaphorically speaking. Imagine how big God is because he is way beyond me.
Amen. And if you're listening to this right now, if you've made it to the end of the episode, we want to say thank you for listening all the way. Here's our promise to you. You can look at this one of two ways, this series. You can look at it as I'm going to learn some doctrine about God and these guys are going to teach me.
Or you can learn it as I'm going to take this next month or so that we're going through this series and I'm going to really get to know God. Yeah, man. What a privilege to be able to introduce you to a friend. That's right. I'm kind of viewing it as like, let us introduce you to our Father.
Let us introduce you to our Heavenly Father who loves you, cares for you. I mean, there's a reason that you found this podcast. There's a reason you found this episode that you're tuned in right now because God loves you and he cares about you and he wants to speak into your life. That's right. And we can guarantee you that at the end of this, if you stick with us through this month, month and a half, however long it takes us to get through this, you're going to know God better.
And that's worth it. That's right. Make sure you head over as we're closing today, head over to Abadanshah.com. You can join the mailing list layer there. Like John said, it's a great way to stay up to date with all future content that's coming out.
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