30 Days to a New Beginning (ft. Nicole Shah)

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, December the 14th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. And you guys can help us keep the conversation alive by supporting the podcast, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasts from, and just help us keep the conversation of Jesus Christ alive today. So important. And make sure you're following us on social media as well, Facebook and Instagram.

You're going to get fun stuff to share with people, with your friends and family, so make sure you're following along. And Facebook, you can watch the video podcast. Don't you want to look?

Look at this face. They can't. They're on the radio.

They're on the radio. They can't look at it. That's the point.

Are you serious? Yeah. I mean, they're just looking at a screen right now. A screen? While they're driving? I guess I'm thinking like a dashboard. Yeah.

I'm talking about all the people who are driving this stuff. Don't you wish you could be seeing this face right here? I know. Look at that one right there. Come on, y'all.

Come on. John, you got the verse of the day for him today. I do, my friend. Today, I'm going to read the verse of the day out of a very special book.

Very special. Check it out. You can get this on Amazon. We're going to talk about this just in a little bit. Buy the book. Hopefully you've already bought it because we've been playing ads for it for a while. But just in case you haven't, buy this book right now.

We're going to convince you that you should have it. But the verse of the day, it's coming from Deuteronomy 2 verses one through three. And we skirted Mount Seir for many days. And the Lord spoke to me saying, you've skirted this mountain long enough.

Turn northward. I love that verse. I love that.

Just kind of a punch behind it. Like, hey, you've been literally walking around in a circle. You're done.

Yeah. Nothing will kill a Christian spirit like hesitancy. That's gotten me almost all my life. That's a great point. Just kind of that, I don't know, should I?

I'm not really sure if I can. God's like, hey, move forward. Move forward.

Because look, I'm blessing you. I'm with you every step of the way. And that's where I typically forget because I don't want to move forward because I might fail. I might mess up.

That's right. Well, we want to talk to you guys today about something very important. You've heard us talk about it on the show before. You've heard ads for it, but Dr. Shaw and his wife, Nicole, have written a brand new devotional, 30 Days to a New Beginning. Many of you have already heard 30 Days Through Crisis, the devotional that was written back in 2020 in response to everything crazy that was going on in the world, but not directly related to that, pertaining to any crisis you go through in life. Well, here's the thing. 30 Days to a New Beginning, it's not time sensitive. You can start over any time in your life. You really can.

A lot of people think, well, I'm just going to keep this bad habit until New Year's. I'm going to keep this whatever I've got going on until it's convenient for me to start over. But you can start over at any point in your life. And I think that's something that is highlighted very well in this book, but it's also just highlighted in the discussion we're going to have today.

You know, you can start over because God wants you to start over. He's with you every step of the way. That's right. And we're going to bring Dr. Shaw in a very special guest on the show in just a few minutes. Who's the special guest? Well, they'll find out in just a few minutes.

Oh, I need to know because I didn't put it in my run sheet. All will be revealed soon. Dude, you can't do this. This is radio. Patience, young Padawan. Patience, young Padawan.

Because of the Star Wars reference, I'm going to get you. Appreciate that. But in the meantime, if you can pause this, don't pause it if you're driving, but if you can pause this, go order this book now. It's available on Amazon. You can get it as a paperback. You can get it as an ebook coming up as an audio book very soon. Very soon. Very soon, if that's your thing. But go pick up a copy for you and for a loved one.

Make great Christmas presents, especially as you're headed into the new year. We're going to go ahead, Dr. Shaw, but if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. Hey there, listeners. My name is Jon.

And I'm David. And we just want to take a second and talk to you about Dr. Sean Nicole's new book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, Daily Devotionals to Help You Move Forward. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

You're going to have goals that you just can't seem to reach, and you're going to be looking for some new way to start over. Unfortunately, life does not have a restart button, but here's the good news. God's mercy is new every day, right? And so that means every day is a new chance for you to start over. Now, Dr. Shah and his wife, Nicole, have written a new 30-day devotional in their 30-day series designed to give you practical tools for starting over. No matter where you are in life's journey or what pitfalls you've encountered, this devotional is going to help you move forward, refocus your mind on God's truth, and meditate on his word. And you guys can pick up a copy right this second on Amazon.com.

Unless you're driving. Yeah, don't shop and drive unless you're driving, in which case, wait till you get home. But we're going to leave a link for you right here in the description of this podcast, so it'll be waiting for you when you get home. That's 30 Days to a New Beginning, Daily Devotionals to Help You Move Forward. And for the remainder of November and all through December, we'll be sending a free copy to anyone who supports the podcast by visiting us online and donating to the show at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

That is a very, very good incentive, gang. That's 30 Days to a New Beginning, Daily Devotions to Help You Move Forward by Abaddon and Nicole Shah. Thank you guys so much for listening. David, you want to jump back into the show? Let's go.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah is with us in the studio today. Dr. Shah, you've brought someone into the studio with us today. Will you introduce us to our very special guest today?

My lovely wife, Nicole. Hey. Hi, everybody. Hi, Nicole. Welcome to Clear View Today. Yay. Yay.

Hi. Also, if y'all listening on the radio can't see Nicole, it's because y'all need to go listen or go watch the video podcast. And where can they find it? They can find it on ClearViewTodayShow.com. They'll also find it on Clear View Today Facebook. Facebook page. Absolutely. And follow us on Instagram because you'll get those little images the rest of the day. You can share them with your friends.

That's right. If y'all want to see Hardem, you can get a preview of what the week's going to hold. Lots of good stuff.

I appreciate y'all Hardem, too. That makes me feel comfortable. Yeah, it feels good. It feels encouraging. If you guys have never seen the show before, it's your very first time joining in. Dr. Abidjan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can follow his work on AbidjanShah.com. Speaking of authors, I think today's episode is kind of cool. I know we've talked about it a little bit in the past. Uh-huh. That was a hard tone shift. Oh, yeah.

You got to snap them away. You guys wrote a book. Yeah. Yeah. Not only did you write a book, you wrote a book again. Yeah. You wrote a book again.

Yeah. The first one was our 30 days through a crisis, daily devotions to navigate your faith. I don't have the hard copy on me, but I have the Kindle copy right here. Very nice. We wrote this back in 2020 and it had so much success and so many wonderful things came out of this devotional, 30 day devotional. And so prayerfully, we decided to write again.

And this one is 30 days to a new beginning. And of course, you guys are not new to this because you helped us in the process tremendously. Our team helped us tremendously. Well, it was a great time. It was lots of fun. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Nicole, do you want to talk about just... Because you were there for the very first brainstorming session where we all sat down and started talking about it. Well, we wanted to write another 30 days. We wanted to start doing a series and we decided, what about doing a new beginning because now we've kind of moved out of the pandemic and people are beginning to get back into life, but now we find ourselves somewhat stuck in a rut at times.

So now what do you do? How do we get out of that rut? How do we get out of the habits that we have formed over the last couple of years? I love that because that thought process is the things that worked in the past, those old patterns of behavioral patterns of thinking, they're not working, but we're still trying to spin those wheels and still trying to move forward in that track. So we need a new beginning.

And just to clarify, this is not just regarding the pandemic and moving forward from the pandemic. This is about just life in general. We tend to get stuck. In fact, that whole idea, if you look at the cover of the book, 30 days to a new beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward is a mountain or a mountain range. And believe it or not, that's the mountain around which God's people were circling, right? So Mount Sinai, they were stuck and God told them, you know, enough circling, go forward. And that is the basis of this book is stop circling the mountain as good as that mountain is, or as bad as it is, it's time to take a tangent and keep going.

Right. I think one thing that I appreciate about you two as authors specifically is that both of these 30 days books have been about meeting the people where they are. You know, I think a lot of times what I would, the trap I would fall into is like, well, what do I want to write about? You know, what's fun? What do I know? What am I good at? What do I, what do I want to say? But I think what I like about 30 days through a crisis and 30 days to a new beginning is it's looking at the world around you and looking at the people of your church and saying, where are they right now?

How can I meet you where you are? And I think that for a devotional, that's perfect. Yeah. When you first wrote 30 days through a crisis, did you have plans then to make this a series? I would say maybe, yes. Because when the thought came into my mind, you know, when we were in the thick of the crisis or the beginning of the crisis, really, you know, it was like a month or maybe three weeks into it when the shutdowns were happening, right?

Am I right? First couple of weeks of the shutdowns, this is in March, God just spoke to my heart, not audibly. It was not a sign just to my heart and said, you need to write, write something that can get in the hands of people even if you cannot assemble or even if you're not allowed to assemble. Because, you know, we assembled, we did whatever we could to keep the lights on in the church and keep sharing the gospel and keep the doors open, take the necessary precautions. But hey, we cannot stop assembling. Church is essential. But what can we give to the people as they can take it with them and send it to their family members, send it to people who are up in age or have pre-existing conditions?

How can they move through the crisis in a way that would help them, you know, have peace and serve God and capture His purpose in their life? And so that's how that began. But when the whole idea of 30 days happened, you know, we felt like maybe we need to keep that theme in mind. So that's as far as it went. I know that was a long answer for a short question. That was perfect.

So it was just there. It's like maybe 30 days could become something one day. But at that moment, it was just a crisis.

The pandemic was our focus. It's also like perfect because it's a built-in time span. You know what I mean by that? Like 30 days is a very sizable chunk where you can get stuff done and you can feel accomplished. Yes. 30 days is definitely not what it takes to form a habit, but you're moving in the right direction. Right. It's enough to notice progress.

I think that's something that you guys have done by design. There's even points in here where you're talking about having a game plan ready, but also just having a theme to where it's okay to fall short sometimes. I think one of the things that you put in here that I really liked was, you know, keep in mind setting goals for yourself isn't bad because setting concrete markers of progress for yourself is a good thing. But themes are helpful because they're broad ways to accomplish your goals a little bit at a time. I think the thing about it is there's something in here for everybody. There's something in here to meet everybody, whatever walk of life they're at.

That's right. Talk to us a little bit about the structure of the devotional. I know because we're on this side of things, but it's set up very intentionally in how each of the chapters are laid out with the content and then what's available at the end of each chapter.

What was the thought process behind how the chapters are organized? Well, I would say and then Nicole can jump in and talk about the scriptures at the end. Each devotional we both wrote, you know, this is pretty interesting that she would write the chapters first and then I would write the chapters and then we would prayerfully bring them together. So it's not just me coming through. It's not just Nicole coming through. It's both of us and then meshing them together.

So when we read it, we can tell what lines are whose. I asked her that again because, you know, I wrote considerable. So I would ask Nicole, do you see yourself? She said, oh yeah, I can see myself sometimes in the beginning. Mostly, I would say definitely I would start us out and maybe even have the ending and Abaddon would have the meat of the devotional.

He would really go deeper, but I would get us started. And sometimes I remember as we were going through the process, he said, you know, I didn't really think about going in that direction when we were talking about a specific chapter. But my take on it, he was like, that's something that I hadn't thought about. Because sometimes, you know, it's just the way I'm wired, the way I think, especially as a scholar, as an academic, I tend to go deeper. I tend to find, you know, the historical context and then how that scripture spoke to those people or how does the scripture reflects what they were going through. And it is accurate, it is applicable, but sometimes you have to really think and it goes, oh yeah, I feel it. Nicole, on the other hand, can take that same word, the key word, for example, some of the words we have in our devotions, the 30 days through to a new beginning, the new one, the first one is feeling stuck. And so in feeling stuck, you know, Nicole began with, I'm kind of going over here for a second on page one.

This is her line. Human beings are prone to getting stuck in a rut. It's inevitable, no matter how well organized we are, no matter how far ahead we plan, we all fall into a rut at some point, a rut of complacency and action on and on. My part comes in where I'm talking about the people of Israel were stuck for 40 years in the wilderness, 11 months at Mount Sinai on and on. And then again at Mount Sire, so twice they were circling a mountain.

I mean, they were prone to going around mountains. There's a mountain, guys, let's go in circles. Take a lap. God's like, no, don't do that. They go like, all right, we'll move forward.

They see another mountain. They're like, should we just, we're going to take a lap. We're going to take a lap. Yeah.

And it's not like once or twice, it's like 11 months. It's like, we'll just circle this thing. And so that's my part. And then Nicole would come back again and, and ground things back to a level where people are, you know, so it's a, it's a, I think it's a good combination we have.

I love that. It's a, it's a beautiful representation of, of both of you, of your hearts and where you are and your desire to reach people and just reading through it. And then, you know, the editing process and all that kind of stuff to be able to see both of you come through in that writing. It was just, it was, that was very special. I think one thing that you guys do exceptionally well, I think you did it in 30 days through a crisis, but one thing you did, especially in this one, is you made Bible characters into human beings. You know what I mean by that?

There's, there's applicable things. Because a lot of times I've felt before this, I have trouble relating to Bible characters. I've never slown it, slew a giant. You know, I've never circled a mountain. I've never walked on water.

It was never in a lion's den. Right, right. It's, it's difficult when you tell the story at face value to connect and to relate to those characters. I think one thing that you guys do exceptionally well is you point out the humanity of those people. Each one of these, they struggled with, you know, Joshua and Caleb and Moses. They all struggled with other things that I do struggle with and that I think people at large struggle with. And so pointing out the humanity in those characters and, and their flaws even at points, I think helps to ground the devotional in a way that applies to my life, I know, and I think people at large. Well, it helps change the way that we even read scripture outside of this devotional. If you, if you humanize the characters through this devotional, then you, like you were saying, John, it kind of sparks that thinking like, oh, these are actual human beings. These are people who struggle with these, you know, grandiose things like parting the red sea or, you know, coming up against giants, but they also struggled in how they relate to people.

And they struggled in their relationships and they struggled to trust God, even though he's proven himself faithful and I struggle with all of those things. So it helps me even in reading the Bible outside of this. Right. I mean, there's a section we have a chapter nine on emotions, you know, because when you're talking about being stuck in a rut, you know, or moving forward or, or, you know, having a new beginning in, in chapter nine, our emotions can get in the way.

Right. Emotions can be wonderful, right? They can, they can be like the way we wrote it. And I think some of you guys who are like, John was the main editor on this book. Ryan was, you know, with, with all the design and, and, and again, also editor as well, but, but focusing more on the design side of things and getting things ready.

David sitting in the back was also a reader providing information and support in this. So in this chapter, we talk about how emotions can be natural boosters when pressing toward your goal, they can give us the afterburner to thrust forward. That's what emotions are. That's why we sing is to get our emotions going along with our beliefs. That's why we sing, but emotions can also get in the way, like in, in chapter nine or day nine, the third paragraph, fourth paragraph, really. Ryan, you want to read that?

Just yeah, absolutely. So the fourth paragraph here says we can all agree that Simon Peter was an emotional man in the middle of a storm on the sea of Galilee. He sees Jesus walking on the waves and begs to join him kind of that emotional gut response. Then he sees the boisterous wind and starts doubting causing him to sink.

Man. How many times have we been there? How many times have we been like, yeah, Jesus, we're going to go with you. We're going to follow you wholeheartedly start saying, Oh, there's wind and waves here. Oh, this is difficult. Now I'm scared and anxious. And now I start to sink. And then again, he falls in the same kind of trap. If he, the top of page 35, you want to read just a section that that paragraph.

Yeah, absolutely. It says, and when Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16, who do men say that I, the son of man am only Peter gives the correct answer. You are the Christ, the son of the living God, Jesus commends him. But in the very next passage, Peter scolds Jesus for talking about his imminent crucifixion and resurrection here, we encountered Jesus's infamous rebuke of Peter, get behind me, Satan, similar incidents occur when Peter decides to follow Jesus on the night of the crucifixion, even though he was warned not to do so. He even denied Jesus three times. So the point of that is we all struggle with emotions and biblical characters were no different, right?

They also struggle with like, yes, I am going to work hard and lose weight, or I'm going to go back to school, or I'm going to do better in my marriage, or I'm going to be a better father or mother or whoever. And then all of a sudden problems come and it's like, Oh, you know? Yeah. But, you know, we don't want to spend a whole time reading the whole chapter, but the point is he comes back and he ends up leading the disciples on the day of Pentecost. He's the one who stands up.

Peter stands up and preaches. Yeah. I think it's imperative that we continue to write this way. And I think as we continue to write and produce going forward, because each of us have a fictional character that is our favorite, like that's my favorite fictional character. The reason is because there's something in that character that I relate with, but more than likely, none of them are biblical characters.

They're always someone else because people don't portray biblical characters as real live human beings who lived and who lived in a world that I can relate to. So that's what I like about these. And I think even in a 30 days through a crisis. In the process of writing, I guess both 30 days through crisis and 30 days to a new beginning, what was the main takeaway for the two of you? What is the thing that kind of spoke to you the most in the process of coming up with this devotional? Hmm.

Wow. There were so many when, as we were going through the chapters and I would say, okay, now what's the next chapter? And he would say it and I'd sit there and look at it and go, wow.

Now, how am I gonna approach this? And then... That blank document just staring back at you. Sometimes, or then as you begin to write, I don't know if you've ever begun to write something. And I mean, you're thinking about it, but all of a sudden you stop and you reread what you've just typed or what you've just written and you think, wow. I think that was God, because that wasn't really me. It is me, but he was really speaking through what I was writing.

If I were to ask you, what is your favorite chapter? Oh, well, you had to ask me that. Well, I agree. I mean, that was the main takeaway is putting ourselves in the chapters and asking that question, does it really work? Is this how we responded? Has this been our mindset? And what we found is, yeah. Now there are places where we can see where we still have some learning to do. Oh boy. So we did not just write chapters that we have conquered.

No, there are places like, I'm looking at the content list over here. Find strength in God. There are times that you don't have strength in yourself. You want a new beginning, you want to move forward, but then you find yourself just completely weak and exhausted. But in that moment, right? It's like a runner's high. You find your source, you plug into the source and the source is Jesus.

And you begin to draw upon him. And that's a high. I cannot have a runner's high sitting on my couch, eating Funyuns. Are you sure, man?

Are you sure? Because that sounds really easy. I just cannot do that. I feel like I can do it if I can figure it out. Just maybe one more Funyun and I'll get there.

I'll get it. I have to be running. I would think now, as you were, you were talking about that. Funyuns? I was looking at... No Funyuns. Okay.

That's not what John is doing. Can we get some Funyuns in here for her, please? I would have to say the one that would speak to me the most, because I try to do this every year, at the beginning of every year, is have a word or a theme that I'm going to work on, whatever it is. And it can be joy, it can be obedience, it can be anything. That I feel like I'm really lacking in this particular thing. And I really want to every day concentrate on doing this or being this or whatever. And I think that to me, because I feel like you can have a theme every year and you can work on that particular... And there's gonna be those days that you miserably fail at whatever your theme or whatever your word is, but that doesn't mean that you don't pick yourself back up and dust yourself off and say, all right, today is a new day and I'm gonna do it again.

I'm gonna try it again. And to add to what Nicole is saying, it can be a word or it can be a verse. And we've given some examples of Martin Luther, the German reformer, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author abolitionist, Charles Spurgeon, they all had a verse. And Joanie Erickson Tada, who's such an inspiration. I read her biography, by the way, when I was probably 11 or 12 years of age. I read her biography put out by Billy Graham Crusade. And her theme verse is Romans 8 28, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the call according to his purpose. So she has lived it out.

And you can too, the listeners can as well live out that theme. All they have to do is find one. Let God show you one.

Beautiful. If you had to summarize your hope for what this book does for people who pick up a copy, who go through it in their 30 days and who maybe go through it again in their 30 days, what would you hope this book does for people? I would say, for me, I would hope that if they are stuck in a rut or if they just want to feel refreshed in their walk with the Lord, this is a place to start.

That's what I would hope for. I want it to be a place where I want it to be something that they can pick up and say, I really feel like I need a fresh start because of whatever. I feel like I've just been doing the same thing over and over again, and I'm not getting anywhere. I want to start afresh, and I want to start afresh with God.

That's what I hope for this book. It's tragic to see people who are stuck. You can just see in their face, you can sense the feeling of defeat. They may be up in age, they may be young, some tragic situation, someone didn't treat them right, whatever, or things happen. No one to be blamed, but just the fact of life, and they're stuck. They're stuck now, and there's no one there to pull them up.

They just feel like it's done. We're hoping that this book is not about making money, and so we're hoping that this book is not about making money, because we're really hoping that this book will help people come out of that pit, that mire, that bog, whatever they're stuck in, and go, okay, with God's hand, God's grace, I can move forward. Wow. I love that so much, and these books are available now. They're available on Amazon as a paperback or as an ebook. Whatever works best for you, get a copy of each if you like to take books daily.

I really need to get a copy each. Audible is coming very soon. I would say in the next month, Audible should be online. Maybe not that long, but soon.

Maybe even by the start of the year, but just keep checking back. We'll let you guys know as well when Audible is done. If you 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 clearviewtodayshow.com, and on that same website, you can support us financially. We are grateful for your partnership.

Every gift goes not only to supporting this show, but countless other ministries for the building up of the kingdom of God. As we close, Dr. Shaw and Nicole, what is your favorite place that you have ever visited? Oh, wow.

Oh, goodness. Favorite destination, favorite location that you've ever visited? The last one, I would say for me, Egypt. Wow. Egypt. Right.

That's at the top. For both of you. Egypt over Israel. Well, I would say not over Israel, but I would say...

Still the hype is wearing off. I'm still in Egypt. Gotcha.

Wow. We would probably say different places in Egypt. Right. But Egypt, I think, has topped the list at this point.

And next year, Israel again, and Israel will be the top of the list. Very cool. Yeah. Come join us. That's right. That'll be awesome. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.