rd | Christian Radio (ft. Stu Epperson Jr.)

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, January the 23rd. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. 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 find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the podcast. You can share it online. You can leave us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music. Anywhere you guys get this show, we want you to leave a good review. And we're going to leave a couple of links in the description so you can do just that.

That's right. If you talk to your Meemaw in person, leave her a good review by word of mouth. If you like Meemaw, listen to Clearview Today. Meemaw, get the wax out of your ears and listen to Clearview Today, Meemaw.

I'm not playing with you. Don't you think this is cute, Meemaw? We're not trying to be mean to Meemaw. Don't be mean to Meemaw. Don't be mean to Meemaw.

I'm just telling her, I'm just telling you to let her know about Clearview Today because she might not. I got a little bit fired up. Why don't you read the verse of the day to calm me down? Okay. All right, here we go.

Cause I'm furious. The word of the Lord soothes the savage soul. This comes from Philippians chapter four, verses 12 and 13. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. One of the most misquoted verses of all time, I think.

I can dunk that basketball. Because Christ gives me strength. Because Christ gives me strength. I can pass this math test that I did not study for because Christ gives me strength.

I can deadlift 800 pounds without even breaking a sweat because Christ gives me strength. Hey, maybe you can do all of those things, but this verse is not about like some supernatural ability, superpower that you're going to get. This verse is about being able to endure all things. It's about being able to go through every season of life, whether you have plenty or you are in want. Yeah. Yeah. If, if your happiness is based on your circumstances in life, well, I got news for you, Buster Brown, you're in trouble because sooner or later things are not going to be good.

Things are going to go very south. But the base of our happiness is not found in circumstances. Paul is saying he's learned the secret to living life above life circumstances and that secret is Jesus Christ. That's right. That joy comes from within us, not from what's around us. And you know what's great about that is that's an open secret. You know what I mean? It's, it's available to all. It's not actually a secret. It's just, it's just the key. It's just the key.

It's just the unlock code. I can't sleep because there's an infant in my bed. He's in my bed. So when I roll over at night, he's there and I need him to not be in the bed. He will not sleep. He sleeps all day. And then at nighttime and when it's time for me to go to sleep, he's like, I think I'll play.

Yeah. I was going to start squalling, but I don't feel like doing that because I feel like it's actually going to trigger me. He can't sleep. Won't sleep with Gavin. He's a sweet baby boy. He's a sweet baby boy. But with Gavin, we never put him in our bed.

Now I'm finding myself giving up just like that. I'm like, put him in the bed. And then I roll over and I get mad because I'm like, why is he in the bed? But I'm the one that said to put him in the bed. So here's the thing that I've noticed, at least for me, and I'm not speaking this over you as a dad, but at least for me, my principles, my principles became more quickly abandoned the more kids we had. Oh, mine is waning for sure. I need someone to come take this infant out of my bed.

It's not the place for a baby to be. I will pray you get some rest. We've got an exciting show planned for you guys today. We have a very special guest on the show. We're going to go grab Dr. Shah and our special guest in a second. But if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

We'll be back after this. Hey everyone, my name is Ellie and I'm David. We want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, 1 John 5 15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview Today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests, but the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at Clearviewbc.org, or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play.

You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayshow.com or if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah is with us in the studio today. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio today. Today's a very exciting day. It's very exciting. I'm more exciting than I'm more excited than I have been in all of it. You're an exciting guy, though. You are an exciting guy. Thank you. Thank you. You're pretty exciting.

I'm not going to lie. We've been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks now, but before we dive into it, I do want to say, especially if this is your first time ever listening to the show, tuning in, we want to thank you for being here. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. He's a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and he's the host of Today's Show.

You can follow his work online. What's the website, Ryan? It is abbadonshah.com. Sorry. I was like, wait a minute, which website? I was trying to deal with a cute banter. To be fair, you've got five or six websites rolling around.

Just rattling around at any given moment. Abbadonshah.com is where you can follow all of his work. Depending on what medium you listen to the show on, you may or may not know that this show, while it's available as a podcast, it's available on several different platforms. It is predominantly a radio show. Among other stations, Clearview Today airs on the Truth Network every single day.

That network is owned and operated by Truth Broadcasting Corporation, which is owned by our good friend, who is here with us today, Mr. Stu Epperson Jr. How are you, my friend? Wonderful. Great to be here. It's an honor to be sitting here with you guys. I've heard you on the radio, and I've heard the podcast, and now I'm in it.

It's kind of like, wow, this is going to be fun. Well, it is really an honor to have you here. The Lord is behind all of these things, but we couldn't have done it without you, your support, your invitation. We're really grateful to you. That's more than you know.

I hope you know that. Well, praise the Lord. Well, you all have been so encouraging, even of late, some tough stuff happening in radio.

You called me, and I think was it you, Ryan, and John called me. You guys are both kind of like just dual agents of the kingdom, and you're just blessing. But when you called me, it was really very encouraging, and just the prayers. But we're grateful for men of God that bring the Word of God to the people of God. And the primary place is just a few feet away from where we're sitting, from that pulpit, where you are breaking the bread and feeding the flock, which is what shepherding is so critical. And the Lord just, in His providence, connected our hearts and did our hearts together. And we were able to just facilitate the means, the way for you to be on the radio, thanks to some very generous, kind supporters.

Absolutely. To support you, to this awesome staff, the people that are in this room putting this together really are the... They're the behind-the-scenes folks.

They're administrating that a lot goes into these things. But we're grateful to the Lord that God has allowed this, and we're trusting Him for great fruit from it, too. Amen.

Amen. I want to kind of guide the conversation there, because I love what both of you two guys are saying, Dr. Shai and Mr. Epperson. You guys are talking about the kingdom and how broadcast fits into that as a very specific thing. So maybe if we can... Because I know your background, Dr. Shai, is in broadcast journalism. But what is your background? How did you get started in radio and why broadcasting specifically?

How did your life kind of end up there? Well, I got started in broadcasting. People ask me how long I've been at it. I'm 53 years old this year. I'll be 53 this year, so I'm still technically 52.

But I have been in broadcasting for 52 years and nine months, because I grew up into it. So I spent a lot of my time as a young man trailing my dad to these tower sites, and to these studios, and meeting people and DJs, and playing Frisbee with these cool vinyl things called records. I think my dad has some of those.

Oh, yeah. I've read about those. And it's funny, I could never find food at radio stations, but I could find sugar cubes. So I ate sugar cubes. That's all you could find. You got plenty of coffee there.

Yeah, that's right. I was too young to drink coffee. It was crazy. But I just remember all that, and part of my testimony is I actually was not going to go into radio. I had to tell God your plans if you want to get a nice, divine, heavenly laugh.

So I was like, I love my dad. I love radio. I've seen the impact of Christian radio, but maybe I want to play pro basketball, or go to law school, or go to seminary school, or do any number of things.

Even the leadership space, the business space, entrepreneurial space, even missions. And God, through a series of wild, wacky events, brought me back to radio. And so I went and got a degree, an advanced degree in broadcasting, and started in secular radio sales. And then the Lord just... I was working so hard to sell country-western music and oldies, 93.7 in Greenville, South Carolina, and the Rush Limbaugh Show, and all these things.

Wow. And at the end of the day, I thought, this stuff is entertaining, it's compelling, it's fun, creating commercials, helping clients, being a part of stations with big ratings and all that. But at the end of the day, who am I helping get to heaven with this? And all the while, I'm listening to other Christian radio stations. And the Lord's just... I'm hearing great teachers like David Jeremiah and Greg Laurie and others, and the Lord's just tugging at my heart like, wow. And then I'm thinking, wait a second, that's what my dad's been doing with his company for years.

What am I thinking? And so the Lord threw another series of events just to open the door for me to start The Truth Network. But I've seen firsthand, as have you, the power of broadcasting. But I guess it comes down to what you're broadcasting. Right. That's right. That's right. And so, an interesting fun fact, the word broadcasting, the term we get broadcasting, is a very biblical, and I know you've probably hit this in your journalism studies, Matthew 13, the parable of the sowers, the parable of the seeds.

That's right. And that word, a sower went out to sow, that word sow literally means broadcast. So you have it in the Bible.

Oh yeah, it's very graphically illustrated there in Matthew 13 from the Savior's lips to the disciples' ears. And the power of that parable, of course, is the power found in that seed being the Word of God. Wow. Wow. And so when you step into the arena of broadcasting something so sacred, something so powerful, something so convicting and piercing as God's Word, the enemy will be there, just like in that parable, to snatch that seed up, to choke it out with the cares of this world, to starve it out with the conditions and dryness in a dry and thirsty land. And so, but the Word of God goes out.

And when it gets in there and it takes root, oh my. Wow. You see, and everyone, I believe I can say, even the team behind us putting this together, everyone in this room has been impacted by the fruit of God's Word. Absolutely. Who would have thought that?

Absolutely. That I'd be sitting here. Well, God did it, but He did it in me. And He did it through me.

And the second I started to think, oh man, I'm pretty cool, I didn't know, hold on a second. God's Word is pretty cool. That's right.

The fact that He allows us to be laborers in that harvest, that allows us to sow. That's right. Or to broadcast. Again, same word. That's right. In the Greek, is what a privilege.

So there's a lot of cool etymology in that Word. That's right. And we're kind of doing it today. And of course, it all starts with the Master, right? Exactly. It all starts with... Amen.

The Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who walked in the Galilean seashores and sowed the Word of God. That's right. That's right. That's awesome. I love that. That's gonna change the way that I approach recording episodes. I know, right? When I sit down and think about it, I'm like, wow. I'm ready to go.

I can record five or six episodes today. I know. No pressure.

No pressure. But the nice thing about that is, is it actually takes the pressure off the pastor, because it puts the pressure on the Word of God. That's it. That's it.

Because this is where the power is. Absolutely. I'm not gonna teach about the Bible, I'm not gonna teach a book about the Bible, I'm not gonna reference the Bible and then tell all my wonderful stories in my nice woven homily with characters and tones and pastels. I'm gonna teach the Word.

Paul said, what? Amen. Preach the Word of Timothy. Amen.

In season, out of season. That's right. And let the Word do the work.

So now all of a sudden, wait a second. It's not on me. It's on God's Word.

That's it. So Paul steps forward and comes to Christ after this service today. If no one does, if a thousand people do, it's the Word of God at work. Absolutely.

And this is, whew, right? The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen. And so we have thrown, we've hitched our giddy up to God's Word, and we've thrown in with God's Word all in.

That's right. And that's why we love what God's doing at Clearview. Amen. And we're broadcasting through this man of God right here, and through you guys who are facilitating, putting that on there, because that's what, and that's why we're here. We're just a stage.

That's it. We're just a stage and a mic that opens up for the Word of God to go out through vessels like yourself, sir, and thank you for what you're doing to preach God's Word faithfully. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Amen. Did your journey into broadcast look similar? I mean, I know you, so you went into broadcast in college when you were in Toccoa Falls, that's where I did broadcast journalism. How did you decide that, coming to America?

Let me back up a little bit. Growing up in India, we didn't have a television until, I would say, 81, 82. Now, television came in our region, but we didn't have that right there. So we listened to radio, which was the radio station, the Christian radio station, songs, messages, and all of that. And I remember hearing this one story about this young man who was on his way to commit suicide.

I mean, he was done with life. This is back in the 70s. Young people were disillusioned, not sure what's happening in the world. It was not just in America.

It was also happening in India and places like that. And this broadcast was going on and he is walking past this house and he hears the radio and the announcer, the person behind the microphone, talks about how Jesus Christ can give people hope. All they have to do is turn to him. Now, this is a predominantly Hindu country, but also has Muslims.

And then Christians are like 0.0 somewhere. And he hears that and he stops. Instead of committing suicide, he gives his heart to Jesus Christ.

So stories like that always stayed with me. And so growing up, I was thinking about medical field and just the way Stu is talking about you grew up in a pastor's home or you grew up in ministry, you go, I'm going to try something different. I want something different. I just want to just follow in someone's footsteps. And then lo and behold, I come to Tocqueville Falls College and I'm looking for the most secular degree. My dad told me, he said, go here for two years for Christian education.

I just want you to have a solid basis. He was kind of concerned about me, even though I was saved. He wanted to make sure I was on the right track. But in those two years, I'm like, what is the most secular degree? Broadcast journalism.

I said, I'll take that. Wow. While I'm here, might as well do two years of that and have my Bible in theology. And I fell in love with it. And so amazingly did broadcast journalism, got into television broadcasting as well. Radio was primary, of course, and never imagined that today we would be sitting here doing this. God is amazing. Amen. And it's funny because you think, I think base instinct is to go, well, with the advance of technology and with the coming of the internet and everything on social media now, radio's just going to die away.

But God and his providence has not let that happen at all. Radio is stronger than ever. And people, like you said, it's changing lives and it's saving people's lives.

Still is strong. Before we go on, do you want to tell the story about the award you won? The award I won? The award you won in... Do I know this story? I forgot about that story. You know the one. I'm an international student.

We have nowhere to go. We just hang out on campus during holidays and all that. So I asked my professor, I said, do you care if I go into the audio room and just straighten things out? I mean, Sue will tell you that. People in audio business, they're not very good at cleaning things up. No.

They're organizing stuff. I said, do you care if I do that? He's like, yeah, knock yourself out, do whatever you want to do. So I spent that entire week organizing the campus radio station.

We also had Tocqueville Falls at WRAL radio station, not that one, but the campus radio station. I went and cleaned it up, got everything taken care of, categorize all these, you know, reel to reel, everything. And he came back from vacation. He said, what in the world? This is amazing. And so I said, well, I just thought I would do all this. And so they gave me a communication student of the year award for that. Now, unfortunately, I had worked all night security and I was asleep and the head of the department forgot to inform me that I was getting an award. So they called me up from the chapel and said, where are you? Your name is announced. The GM of this television station is here to give you an award and you're not here. So I got upset.

I thought it was a prank. So that's my story. Do you still have the award? I still have the award. Nice.

Oh, man. I love it. Well, so as we're talking about broadcasting, as we're framing this from a biblical perspective, Dr. Shah, how have you seen broadcasting make an impact through your ministry? I mean, how has broadcasting radio, specifically since we're talking about a radio show, how has that contributed to your ministry and Clearview's outreach overall?

Absolutely. I mean, just the way Stu was talking about this, we're simply giving the word. We're simply letting the word do the work. So when I sit and plan and pray over the messages, all I'm praying is, God, what is it that you want me to say? Because it's not just for this congregation, but it's also going out and touching lives.

I don't know how many, but now we're hearing a lot more. But it changed the way I preach and over the years, it has changed the way I think about the audience. It's not just people in the audience. I'm thinking out there, the lost person. I'm thinking about people who are outside the church realm because I grew up in that kind of a setting. So I'm thinking if there is a person like me coming from a foreign country, if there's a person who is not part of the culture and is not exposed to Christianity, how would they hear? So I think about those kinds of things. And so, yeah, in many ways, the weight is heavier, but it's not on me, just the way you said, Stu, it's on the word of God.

I just have to stay clean and pure and let the Lord work through me. I think one thing to consider as well is that with the rise of social media, live streaming, Facebook living over the internet, anybody can do that. Anybody can have that platform. There's not really a person or a heart like, um, what am I trying to say?

There's not someone, no one's going to tell you, Hey, this has to be up to a certain standard. I feel like with like radio and with like public broadcast, there's a standard of quality or there's a standard of the heart has to be in line with the message. You know, that's why I'm thankful for you Stu, because it's not just, Hey, you can get on the internet and say whatever you want to be part of a network, especially a network like the truth network. There has to be some level of trust and there has to be some level of, Hey, the heart of our message and our vision has to be, has to be similar. And doing this, partnering with people who are in that position, millions and millions of people get reached. You know what I mean? Rather than just put it out there on the internet and hope someone comes along with it. There's a partnership and there's a partnership based on a foundation of quality.

That's right. I mean, do you, do you kind of feel similarly? I totally agree and we spend a lot of our time on quality control. We spend a lot of our time on with ministries, like talking, Hey, how's the program sounding? What can we do better? Hey, there's some feedback. Hey, there sounds like you're 10 feet from the mic or there's some distortion in consulting with ministries and with listeners calling us. It's crazy. You would think we'd be upset if someone called and said, Hey, your station sounds terrible. We're like, thank you.

What's your address? We want to send you a book. Exactly.

Dr. Shaw's Devotion, Three Days to a New Beginning. We want to bless you for, for, for listening and caring enough to call because we want to be the best we can be in broadcasting. We want to, we want to sound better Christian radio stations should sound better than a secular radio station. That's right. Now, now I say that with trepidation because there's a lot of areas we fall short there, but we're trying, but we also want to make sure there's approximately 5,000 new podcasts at launch every day. Right. Wow. That's amazing.

I heard a number, a weird number a couple of months ago that some 40% of podcasters don't even complete like year two, they just, they just kind of dropped. And so it's kind of like, you know, you, you get a, you're a hardworking young 16 year old. You go get a, your license, you go get a truck and you go get a lawnmower and you're really good at cutting your folks grass. You start covering your neighbors.

Yes. Well now you're a, you're a landscaper. Now, the thing is you could be as amazing as a big landscaping company, right?

But you might not be licensed and bonded and there's a whole lot of stuff you got to do and you don't have a bunch of crews and you don't have a lot of things, you know, but so, so you, there, you have to get, when you go on the radio, it takes it up a little bit of a notch. Right. And so, so having said that, I'm not discouraging anyone, you know, I have a niece that wants to start a podcast. I'm like, go start it. Awesome. And if the Lord ever opens the door for that podcast to become a broadcast, we would love to help.

If it's the Lord's in it. If there's a whole lot of pieces that have to come together, it helps to have some sponsors. You can like afford to do it, you know, and be there and be steady and consistent. You want to put the creative part into it. You have to have like a sustaining model of growth, of revenue. You have to have a good sound elements.

You have to have a brand, a website that's connected kind of like an end game, like anything. You start anything. Right. You know, you just don't, you know, you just don't show up. Right. Although showing up is important. Right.

And so quality is really, really important. The quality of sound and that's, that's a, you know, and I would say we had this conversation with you guys, which was a very good conversation. I think it was at lunch. I remember that.

Not too far from here. I remember that. And, and, and I may have said something to this effect. Don't hold me to the exact wordage, but I said something to this effect that if you wait till the program is perfect and just sure in the highest level, you'll never come on the radio. We'll be in heaven with the Lord, the great, great, perfect broadcast, marriage, suffer the lamb, talking about, you know, that, that could have been a good program. I had all my notes ready to go.

I just needed to tweak it. So at some point you just got to go and you're, you're an, you're opening announcer may not be the same opening announcer a year from now, two years from now. You're closing, you're, you're, you're the different imaging, the different elements of the program, you know, the bumpers and the transitions and the music and all that. But the, the, the, as long as, again, going back to our first little segment, you know, part of the segment here, as long as the word of God is central and the, the mission and the vision that God's put on you, and that's what I love about Dr. Shaw and the ministry here. God's put a unique vision. That's, the gospel hadn't changed, the word of God hadn't changed.

We're not going in there and we're not saying, well, here's another revelation. You know, none of that, but God has put a specific heart, a specific ministry DNA on you. And so all your ministry is, is an outgrowth of that. That's right. Amen. You know, so you're not trying to be Charles Stanley or John MacArthur or David Jeremiah, some wonderful teachers. Right.

Absolutely. And they set wonderful examples. And of course we're going to look at their commentaries and they're going to, they've influenced all of us and how we bring God's word. But God's put a specific stamp on this place and on this, and the movement here, and it's just fun to see that work itself out, especially these two crazy characters on either side of me, doc.

I mean, I don't even know how you keep them corralled. Well, I mean, the great thing is, you know, the way they've set it up is that they get things going, they get the laughs going, and then they bring me in, I'm the, I'm the straight laced guy. This is what I am. This is, let's talk about the word.

Let's talk about apologetics. But ultimately I think just the passion you have has really impacted them, impacted me. And I'm grateful for you.

We pray for you. We, we are so thankful for this opportunity and what you're doing. We follow you on social media and you're out there always pushing the gospel forward, touching lives, encouraging pastors. I mean, it's, it's awesome to watch what you're doing and God is really using you. We're thankful. Well, I'm excited to push this out. So whenever this goes to air, I will be spreading it to everybody.

Amen. We're super, we're truth super spreaders. Oh, that's right.

If a, if a virus can scare people to death and be in third world countries in a matter of a couple of months, why can't we spread the truth of God that's going to not kill people. That's right. And take them to the grave. It's going to save people.

Right. You're transferring their hearts and souls forever. Eternal life.

It gives you eternal life. Absolutely. So awesome. Thank you so much for being on today's episode. We're going to continue this conversation tomorrow. If you enjoyed today's topic, make sure you send us those questions or suggestions for future episodes to two five two five eight two five zero two eight.

You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and on that same website is where you can partner with us financially. Like we talked about, we are so thankful for you, for all of your gifts, all of our giving partners and your contribution, your partnership, and getting the message of the gospel through the truth network to the nations, to as many people as possible. Our closing question today comes from David R. Dr. Shaw, closing question.

And Stu, feel free to chime in. What is the best breakfast? For me, I'm just sort of country there. So eggs, sunny side up, grits, bacon, that, that, that's, that's my thing. Okay. Okay.

How about you, Stu? Best breakfast. I'll tell you what, man, if I'm being, if I'm behaving, it's a couple of eggs, sunny side up and maybe like a turkey sausage, right? And you know, black coffee and try to keep it.

But if I'm misbehaving, pancakes show up. It's the Reese's Puff cereal. It's the, it's the, it's the honey spicy jalapeno chicken biscuit from Biscuitville.

It's so good. Okay. Hold on though. Hold on. I'm not done. I'm not done. Add pimento cheese.

Oh man, Stu. Add over easy egg, add a slice of tomato, and they have to double wrap mine because it's oozing everywhere. And my little, my little cub who just likes the chicken, you know, the fried, just a plain chicken biscuit.

She gets mad cause it gets all over hers and diet Mountain Dew. I'm sorry. That's not every day. I'm sorry.

You asked the question. Hey, so like if I'm on death row, I get one more breakfast. If I ate too much of it, I'll be on death row.

So I got to like, dude, let's shut the recording off. Let's go to Biscuitville. Let's go to Biscuitville. I love it. That's awesome. We love you guys. We'll see you today.