Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Today is Thursday, November the 24th. I'm Ryan Hill. Gobble, gobble. I'm John Galantis. Gobble, gobble. I'm going to hit him with the gobble, gobble. Oh, that threw me off.

It's okay. And you're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, suggestions for future episodes, make sure you text us at 252-582-5028, or send us an email at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

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That's right. And you guys can help us keep the conversation in the airwaves by supporting the podcast, sharing it online, and leaving us a good review and a five-star rating on iTunes. You know, actually last night, I went through my contacts list on my phone and sent a link to the podcast to every single person on my phone one by one, along with a photo of me on my knees begging Dwight Schrute-style for them to rate the podcast. Did anybody respond? Many people responded.

None of them were good. Oh, no. They were like, how did you get this number? Please don't text me again. You didn't come to my wedding.

I haven't seen you since high school. I mean, it was bad. Wow. I was like, y'all, just a five-star review would be nice.

I'm sorry that you had to go through that. Yeah. Yeah. You want to hit them with the word of the day? Maybe we can have a... Lift your spirits a little bit after... Yeah, on this cold, dreary Thanksgiving.

Absolutely. So today's verse of the day comes from Romans 8, verse 28. And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose. That verse has helped me more times than I can begin to even recount. There's something in that where, again, I think I said this last week on the podcast, but we tend to think that all the bad things that we go through in life, all the things that come against us are just things to be gotten through. We just have to grit our teeth and see it through to the end. But that almost takes God out of the equation because then all those trials are meaningless. They're just hardships to get to the other side, and they don't really serve a purpose. But a passage like this reminds us that God works all things together, not for net zero, but for good. Things that aren't convenient, things that aren't obvious to us right away, He works everything together for good.

And that has helped me a great deal over the years. Amen. Absolutely. Yeah.

What's new with you, man? You having fun on Thanksgiving? Did you leave your family to come up here on Thanksgiving Day? I did. I left them alone in the house. I said, I'm out of here.

Could not have been a popular decision. No, I'm just kidding. We didn't record this on Thanksgiving.

Because we do batch episodes. But with it being Thanksgiving, do you have any fun Thanksgiving stories? Any memories of Thanksgiving specifically? I don't feel like I have a lot of significant Thanksgiving exclusive memories. I've got one, but it's not fun.

It's kind of sad. So basically, it was Ellie and I's first Thanksgiving, and we were at home. My family had gone up to West Virginia to visit other family, but I was working here.

I don't think we were married. So I said, let's just stay home and we'll do our own Thanksgiving. So we didn't realize that we didn't know how to cook. Neither one of us knew how to cook at all. You didn't realize this before Thanksgiving?

Not really. Because I had always woke up and mom had always fixed Thanksgiving and dad had kind of just sat on the couch and watched football. So I was used to that. When neither one of those were going on, I was like, I'm not sure. Let me just sit down and just see what kind of happens. So Ellie was like, all right, I'm going to cook corn and mashed potatoes and you cook the meat. And I was like, well, I definitely can't cook turkey. I'm not cooking a ham. I was like, do you want hamburger helper?

And she was like, I guess, yeah. So I made hamburger helper. She took some like canned corn, put it in a pot and then she started making mashed potatoes, but she was like, I want to make them legitimately from potato on boil potatoes and then mash them. Oh, like, like from scratch mashed potatoes. I don't know why she thought that was a smart idea because and she'll even tell you if she were here, she would tell you it was a disaster. They were like clumpy hard rocks that had a little bit of like slimy starch on them. And so we sat at the kitchen table.

Yeah. We sat at the kitchen table eating hamburger helper, cold corn from a can and that was like swimming in its own corn juice and lumpy mashed potatoes. And we vowed from that moment on that we would always mooch off someone else's Thanksgiving. We would never try this again. We were both like, I'm sorry this happened.

I'm sorry that we did this now. So our, our first couple of Thanksgiving is together. Elizabeth and I, Elizabeth has always been a good cook. I have noticed that she's always, she's always done very well in the kitchen. She's sort of just, it's kind of intuitive as to what works together. But the first, you know, the first little bit, it was like, here's some mashed potatoes, here's cranberry sauce from the can, which I think is superior anyway. Sure. And then, you know, maybe a ham, but that has since transformed because now, you know, we've gone from just the two of us to a family of seven.

So she has like, that will change the dynamic a little bit. Enormous casseroles, deviled eggs and turkey and desserts. And it's just, I mean, it is an ordeal at our house.

Yeah. Well, in just a few minutes, we're going to go get Dr. Sean and talk more about Thanksgiving. You know, we talk about what we're thankful for right here on this holiday, but we have so much to be thankful for.

And what does the spirit of Thanksgiving look like over the course of the year, especially for us as believers. So we're going to go get Dr. Sean, but if you have any suggestions for new topics, make sure you text us at 252-582-5028. Or again, visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be right back. Hey there listeners. My name is Kelsey and I'm John. And we want to pause the show for just a second to talk to you guys about Clearview Church's original EP, Together Forward. Yeah. These are five songs, five original songs that we wrote right here at Clearview Church. Myself, Dr. Sean, David Williamson, our engineer on the Clearview Today show, some of the other guys on the worship team. But sometime during all the shutdowns of 2020, we noticed this really horrible isolationism setting in all over the world.

It was like nothing we've ever seen before. That's right. And one of the things that we've always been about here at Clearview is forward motion and community.

Those are both very important. So the whole heart behind the EP was, Hey, let's just take these two things and let's put them together because we truly feel like that's the antidote to what's happening in the world today. We're right in the middle of writing a whole bunch of new material as a church, but while all of those projects are still in the works, we want to help point you guys towards these songs that God has given us. You can listen to all of them right now on Spotify. Just look up Clearview worship, or if you want to support what we're doing here at Clearview Church, you can buy it on iTunes right now. And always remember you can support us directly at the Clearview Today show by visiting us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

That's right. Thanks for listening. We hope these songs are as much a blessing to you as they were for us. Amen. Let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com, or you can always send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah is with us in the studio today. Dr. Shah, happy Thanksgiving to you.

Same to you guys. Happy Thanksgiving. If you guys are brand new, if you've never seen the show before, never listened to us before, Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD, New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of Today Show. I noticed what you didn't hear earlier is that at the beginning of the show, right when we're getting into the front of the show, Jon leads with gobble gobble. So I say, I'm Ryan Hill and all I hear in my ear is gobble gobble.

Gobble is Jon Galantis because it's Thanksgiving. You can't do it every episode. It would lose its specialist if you do it every episode. Holiday episodes only. You're right. You're right. I might say on Christmas day, I might say ho ho ho, it's Jon Galantis.

I might. Well, as you may have guessed by this point, we are talking about Thanksgiving today. You know, that's what's on everybody's minds. Maybe you've already enjoyed that meal with your family, but we're going to talk more about what is this holiday of Thanksgiving? What is the idea behind the holiday? You were talking a little bit about the history, a little bit about the concept of Thanksgiving and how it applies to us as believers today. Well, I'll go and tell you, I didn't grow up celebrating Thanksgiving.

It was not a holiday where I came from. So to me, coming to America the first time I remember the Thanksgiving week, the college shut down and I had no idea what was going on. I had studied history, so I knew what was happening, but it was kind of odd because everybody's gone. Just the empty empty campus, right? And then few of us were left on campus, the international students nowhere to go.

So there was this German lady who was, who would host international students at her home and she had this ministry. And so I remember going there and they had international students from everywhere, from university of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, of course from Tocqueville college where I was from. So some of the friends, you know, who were there, international students, they said, Hey, you want to come with us? I said, where are we going? We're going to this place where there's a lot of people there.

And so I had no clue what I'm doing. And so we went there and had a great time. I barely remember some things, but I remember this beautiful ranch style home and then food laid out for us.

Good food? Yeah, it was good food. I don't remember what it was, but I do remember a lot of food and a lot of international students. So this wasn't just Tocqueville Falls. This was, this was the surrounding colleges as well. Apparently this lady had a ministry. I don't even know if she still does or somebody else is carrying that on to reach international students with the gospel, which I think is pretty awesome. Now at Tocqueville Falls, all of us were coming from, you know, believing backgrounds. So there was some, something distinct about us, but the others who came there from other colleges and universities in the area in a, I would say an hour radius area. I doubt many of them were Christians. So this was their exposure to Christianity. So that was your first Thanksgiving.

What was your, what was the year? This is 1991. Okay. Wow. Yeah.

Wow. It's funny because we think about Thanksgiving and I always think back to like what I learned as a kid, like with the pilgrims and the turkeys and like the little hand turkeys and stuff like that. And I often wonder like how much of that was actually accurate, this harvest festival or whatever that the pilgrims had with the native Americans. I often think back and I'm like, is it, was it really like that?

Is that sort of romanticized as a little of both? Well growing up overseas, we studied American history. So we learned about the pilgrims and the native Americans celebrating Thanksgiving together that the native Americans had helped the pilgrims plant corn and things like that. And then they invited them to come back and celebrate Thanksgiving. So when I came here, that's the basic understanding of, of Thanksgiving that I had. And so, you know, I had a lot to learn and I did, I had to educate myself into what Thanksgiving is all about.

And through the years I did. But what I do want to say something about the lady inviting us over, what a great opportunity. I encourage people, you know, there's two ways to look at people coming here. Of course, you know, we need to have a sense of understanding of who's coming here. You know, do they support America?

Do they stand for what we stand for, the values that we have? So we need to be mindful and careful and discerning in that direction. But on the other side, Hey, take every opportunity to educate those who are coming here. That's right.

With the truth. Yeah. What better way to win them over than to educate them and, and share with them the true history of history of America, right?

God's providential history of America. And then maybe even share the gospel with them. Yeah. That's such a great opportunity, especially in that, in that holiday season where, I mean, like you said, international students, they're obviously not going to go home for the holidays because I mean, they're, they're here. So having that time where they, you can pour into them, feed them, care for them, love on them, right.

And then direct them to a true American history and to the truth of the gospel. And going back to what John was saying, I had to educate myself because I had such a basic understanding of Thanksgiving, but in time I learned that it was, you know, the rich history of the United States. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of Americans today even have just the most basic, uh, understanding of Thanksgiving. I know I do.

I learned a little bit about it in school, but I don't think anything super, I mean, nothing that actually resonates or stands with me today is sort of just American tradition. Right. You know? Right. I think there's, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Okay. So there is a romanticized history of Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and the Indians sitting side by side and, and eating turkey and then playing games and then going our separate waves, you know, our ways after waving at each other, you know, by English, by Indian. And then there is, you know, people on the completely extreme side who will say nothing like that happened, nothing like that happened. And that all of this has been embellished by people through the centuries, through the decades. And so, you know, where is the truth?

I believe truth is somewhere in the middle. Years ago I read this book called the first Thanksgiving by Robert Tracy McKenzie. The subtitle of the book is what the real story tells us about loving God and learning from history. Great book. I don't a hundred percent agree with this book. Okay. I do agree with a lot of it because this scholar took the time to go back and examine the documents and see where we have, you know, embellished history and where's the truth. So I do like, I would say a lot of it, but then again, I think he went too sharp with his knife almost to the point of we really don't know when Thanksgiving began almost. It seems like he's saying that.

And so I disagree with that. I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle and the middle is this, the Plymouth colony, right? We have the Jamestown colony, 1607. These were those who came with the Virginia company. They came as gentlemen planners.

They were going to somehow find the way to the Pacific. They were going to, you know, plant the English flag on this new soil, stop the Spanish expansion, the Jamestown colony, John Smith, Captain Raleigh, and all those people. But then, you know, many of them, some of them died, had not so good relations with the native Americans, the Powhatans.

So that's one. Of course, prior to them, the Roanoke colony that was sort of lost and forgotten and kind of intermingled with the native Americans. That was going back into the 1590s. But then what about the Plymouth colony? These were actually pilgrims, right? And who were the pilgrims? If you remember, in one of our previous episodes, we talked about the pilgrims were the separatists who left England somewhere about 1608, went to Holland, and there they realized very quickly their children were drifting away going into the world. We can't stay here.

We have to go somewhere. And they heard about what's happening in this new land. And so they came in 1620.

You know, we hear about the Mayflower, the two different kinds of ships. When you talk about Jamestown, have you ever been to the Jamestown colony? Have you been there? I think I have.

It was a long time ago in school. Right. If you ever go to that village that they have built, have you been there? I have. It's been years, but I've been there. Yeah. And, you know, they have the ships there, the mock, you know, the model ships, I guess you can say.

You can climb on them and all that. The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. Well, the Plymouth colony had a different set, and they were the Mayflower, Speedwell.

Speedwell messed up, was abandoned. The Mayflower, before they landed, they came up with the Mayflower Compact. This is how we're going to govern ourselves.

This is how we're going to keep God first. And so in 1621, you know, it was it was a tough time for them. It was, you know, many died. And I think the year following, I think 1621, December, is I think when Governor Bradford declared that this is going to be a Thanksgiving unto the Lord. Right. So a very different mentality, albeit both colonies were foundationally Christian. The Jamestown would be the Anglican type.

The Plymouth would be the separatists, sort of the cousins of the Puritans. Right. But I do like how you point out, though, that there even in the Mayflower Compact, there was this desire, this almost divine desire and this divine guidance to keep God at the center. I feel like even now with Thanksgiving, we know that there's some part of us that knows that we have something to be grateful for. Right.

Every good thing that we have comes from God. And I feel like that's what at the core of Thanksgiving, that's what we're saying. Right.

Exactly. You know, so sometimes the revisionist historians tend to make it look like all of these guys, whether it's Jamestown or Plymouth, they were nothing but pioneers. They were settlers.

They were doing whatever it takes to destroy the Indian population and establish themselves here. There is some truth to that when it comes to the Jamestown colony. There is a place where the relations were not that great with the Native Americans. But when it comes to the Plymouth colony, it was different because they were trying to work things out. They were trying to build good relations.

Yet there were times things didn't go as planned, but better relations, and I think they were coming from just who they were. They were, I believe they were more Christian than the ones at Jamestown. Not to say that Jamestown were not Christians or coming from Christian foundation. Were they truly born again, saved Christians?

I think only God knows. So I think, and then you hear about Squanto and all that, that's with the Plymouth Rock. That's with the Plymouth colony, where this Native American who had been taken and enslaved and all that stuff, and he learned English, and then he was later back on the soil, and he helped the Plymouth colony.

Yeah. I think back to that lady you were talking about, the one that ran the ministry for the international students. And I think about the impact that she had on your life. I mean, it was something that I didn't even register that you wouldn't have celebrated Thanksgiving growing up, because it's so ingrained into American culture. But look how it's impacted you, and now that you do celebrate it with your family. You celebrate it every single year. Absolutely. I chose this because as an American, because I consider myself an American, it is foundational.

It's a foundational value that we know deep in our core, in our fiber, in our DNA, that our very existence is because of God's favor. Now, there are many ways to look at American history, founding history, and right now that history is being wiped out. It's been deconstructed.

And my challenge to people is, stop. Stop for a moment. Yes, there are a lot of things in our history we may need to correct, and we need to get back to the sources and make sure we're not selling a kind of history that is not accurate.

I get it. I'm a historian myself. But at the same time, let's not be unaware of the fact that God's hand has been upon this nation. And Thanksgiving is an evidence of people, whether they were solid born-again evangelical Christians, or were they Christianized people, or some of them were not very nice people who came here. Let's also agree to that.

They were very mean, hateful, evil people. Having said that, overall, people had an understanding that this nation was created by God's grace. And so Thanksgiving very quickly became part of our culture, our psyche. Of course, President George Washington declared that this is the day. And then, of course, later on, Lincoln also declared it the fourth.

I believe that came in 1941, something like that, and was made the day for Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say, it just seems like even some of that stuff is true that you were talking about with our history. It seems that our modern-day American sense of gratefulness is still built on God's word. There's still this divine understanding that at the end of the day, yeah, there's a lot of things that we can complain about, but we have way more to be grateful and thankful about.

And it's just rare to hear that. And when you live in another culture, okay, because when you grow up in America, you can only mostly see bad things. You can see people being ungrateful. You can see people moving away from God. You can see the secularism rising that is anti-Christian. And I see that. Don't misunderstand me.

I see that. But having grown up in a different culture, I still see a lot of wonderful things in America. As secular as we're becoming, unfortunately, people still get on the road and travel to go see their families and celebrate Thanksgiving. Do they really acknowledge that God is the source of all their blessings? Do they really acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the one who made the heavens and the earth? Do they truly understand the providential foundation of our nation?

Probably not. But at least they're getting on that road and blocking traffic. You're contributing to a Thanksgiving in some way. Yeah. It's part of our nation.

That's right. And that notion of thankfulness just seems to be a little bit closer to the surface for people during the Thanksgiving holiday. Absolutely. It should be year-round. We should always kind of operate in that spirit, especially if you're a believer, if you're a Christian.

How much more? Should be always at the forefront, I would think. Because God's blessing is not just in this life. It's the fact that in the life to come, God has prepared things for you. How much more you can be thankful. Right.

Absolutely. I remember even going into, I think it was like 2018 or 2019, we made that our theme for the year. That this was going to be our year of gratefulness.

And the beautiful thing about that was when the year was over, there was no understanding of, hey guys, we did it. You don't have to be thankful anymore because we spent a whole year being grateful. We're done being thankful now.

Yeah. It just kind of plants that seed of genuine gratefulness in you. Just grateful that I'm alive today. Grateful that we have this radio show. Grateful that you guys are listening to it. There's so much to be thankful for. Paul says in First Thessalonians 5, he says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Yeah. So much to be thankful for. What I take away from that most is that it's not only integral to who we are as Americans, but who we are as believers.

That's right. And it should be a part of our daily walk of life. What a great discussion. If you guys enjoyed today's topic or you have suggestions for future topics, let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at cleerviewtodayshow.com.

Don't forget that same website. You can support us financially by clicking that donate button. We view this as a partnership that we're building with you. We're thankful for you. We're grateful for you as we talked about being thankful. We're grateful to all of you for the partnership that we've built, for all those texts and emails that are coming in and for your partnership in supporting us financially as we seek to get the gospel to as many people as possible. If you're listening to this today on Thanksgiving Day, that already goes to show that Jesus is working.

Jesus is moving in your life. And there's something that's happening within you that I think exploring is worth acting on. And so when we talk about that, when we say, Hey, listen, we want you guys to donate. We want you guys to subscribe to everything that we're doing.

It's not just to gain. It's because we know that Jesus is moving in your heart. You're listening to this on Thanksgiving Day. There's a reason for that. That's right.

There's a reason for that. Absolutely. Well, it's time for our last minute advice. Okay. John, you are up for last minute advice today.

This is a Thanksgiving related advice. Okay. We got a little bit of time.

We got a little bit of time. I'm going to go into this one. Okay. Your son-in-law's mother taught me this one and I've got it. Which son-in-law?

Oh, that's right. You do have two. Jared. Jared's mother taught us this. I have two son-in-laws now. You got two son-in-laws.

That's kind of crazy. Let me pull it up. Two for the price of one.

I think I lost the text, but here's what it is. Put Ritz crackers in your mac and cheese. You got to put Ritz crackers inside your mac and cheese. Basically what happened was at Abigail's wedding shower, Jared's mom, who was now her mother, made some mac and cheese. I've never forgot. And the reason is because it was so delicious. She sent me the recipe so that I could read it on the air and I cannot find it at all. But it was... Oh, wait. I know how to find it.

I know exactly how to find it. I'm gonna do this right here. I do remember that because it was the creaminess of the mac and cheese, but there was also another layer to it. It was so delicious. Very good. I'm not a huge mac and cheese fan.

I like it, but that one was good. Oh, yeah. Here's what you're gonna do.

I'm gonna read it for you guys on this Thanksgiving day. Melt one stick of butter in a bowl, a whole stick. Already starting off strong.

Yeah, start off strong with that. Crush one sleeve of Ritz crackers. You're gonna add the crackers to the butter.

Stir it with a fork. All those crackers are gonna get nice and coated. Then you're gonna spread that evenly on top of your mac and cheese and you're gonna bake it at 350. David, what do you think? Do you like mac and cheese?

I have an interesting relationship with mac and cheese. Every day over the summer, what happened, David? So when I was... I don't even know how old I was.

I was probably like between seven and maybe 11. During the summers, I would go over to my grandma's house and I would eat, not a serving, not a cup, but a whole box of mac and cheese at my grandma's house. Not just on Thanksgiving, every day?

Every day. That's a lot of mac and cheese. That's a lot of mac and cheese. That's a lot of sodium. Be careful, David. That's a lot of sodium.

So I have an interesting relationship because it was very good, but it caused for some not so fun times later down the road. Wow. That's insane. That blue box will get you.

You gotta watch the blue box. But I will say on Thanksgiving, may as well just go for it, man. I do agree because anytime there's, you know, you can mix up that mac and cheese with a different texture in there.

So good. Especially like the outside where it gets kind of crispy on the outside. You would think that mac and cheese, it's two ingredients. It's difficult to get that right. It's difficult to get mac and cheese right.

Well, the basics of it are, it's pretty straightforward. But I mean, if you want to add like layers to it and kind of some nuances to it, you know, there's a little bit there. Well, let us know how y'all like y'all's mac and cheese. Send us a picture of your Thanksgiving plate. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.