Monday, October 2nd | Rededicating Your Life

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, October the 2nd. 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 visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text 252-5825028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. You guys can help us keep the conversation going. You can support the show, share it online, leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from Acts 17, verse 27, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. I think that's something that's really encouraging, to remember that he's not far from us. But sometimes it does feel like we're going through life just completely in the dark or in a fog, and we feel distance from God, and we feel lost, we feel confused, and it's like, I'm trying. I'm legitimately trying to get close to God, but I'm doing it in ways that I think are appropriate or ways that I think he wants me to do. Rather than just talk to him, be in his word, I'm just kind of groping in the dark. But I love that reminder that he's not far from each one of us. Yeah, the Bible promises that in many different places, not just here in Acts, but if you seek God, you will find him. If you seek after him with a true heart, with a humble heart, genuinely designing a relationship with him, you will find him. And how beautiful is it that in all the religions across all the world, there's this pursuit of knowledge of divine being, or there's a pursuit of knowledge of who that God or goddess is.

But in Christianity, it's the only religion in the entirety of the world where God has revealed himself to us. He's come near to us. He's intimate. He's close to us. Yes, he is transcendent, and he's majestic, and he's so much bigger than we are, but he is close.

He is near to us, and that's a beautiful truth. Speaking of things that are near and dear to us, you know that on this show, this is one of the only Christian talk shows where we talk about Star Wars, at least as much as we do, right? Yes. There's a lot of Christian allegory in Star Wars. Yeah, there is. There is.

There you go. Some people are wondering, they're like, why do you guys talk about non-Christian stuff on your Christian show? It's like, we're trying to be the salt and light to everybody. You know who listens to only Christian content? It's Christians. You know who loves Star Wars?

Everybody loves Star Wars. So, Ahsoka is almost done. He's wrapping up. Is it really? Wow, I feel like that was quick. How many episodes was it? Eight so far. Well, I guess that's about right for a Disney Plus show. Yeah, I think last week's was the finale.

Or maybe eight is this week, this coming up this week. I had someone write in. Also, people wrote this in, so I'm not out of pocket for asking this. Million dollars. This comes to us from Jackson M., good friend of the show.

Million dollars. But you have to convince the 100 most aggressive Star Wars fans to love the prequel trilogy. Define aggressive. Are we talking about physically violent?

On 4chan forums, posting on them daily, making YouTube video essays. They're not physically violent. Also, if they're Star Wars fans, you can take them. Here's the thing. I like Star Wars. I'm not a die-hard Star Wars fan. I enjoy it.

I enjoy to consume the content. I would certainly give it a shot, but I doubt my ability to pull this off. For those of you who are not Star Wars fans, who don't understand the prequels are almost universally hated by Star Wars fans, you would have an easier time convincing text critics that the Apocrypha should be canon. That's a good analogy.

That's a good way to put that. You would have an easier time convincing them of that than you would of convincing Star Wars fans that the prequels are actually good movies. I would certainly attempt it. I'm almost 100% confident I would fail. Would you do it? I don't see how I could.

I would try, but I just don't see how I could. Number one, I hate them. Well, that's not true. I don't hate them. I like the prequels.

I don't hate them. You like the prequels? I think they're fine. I don't think they hold a candle to the originals, but I think they're fine.

That's the trap most people fall into. I think if those movies were the only three Star Wars movies to exist, they would actually be pretty good. Three is actually really good.

Three is good. One is hard to get through. Two is a lot of exposition.

The first one just has no main character at all. No, it feels very disorganized. Yeah, it is.

It is. And then, if you really think about the plot, it's like, this is a Star Wars movie for kids, but the whole thing revolves around embargoes on trade routes that the trade federation is blockading a planet. And nothing says compelling sci-fi drama like embargoes on trade routes. I know. At the end, they bust out their lightsabers and they're fighting.

I'm like, why are they fighting so bad over trade routes? I would certainly attempt. I think I would attempt it, too. Does Dr. Strahl like Star Wars? I think he likes the original. He likes Star Trek. Which, honestly, I respect fully. Star Trek's great. Star Trek has been slept on.

I respect that. I can ask him which he likes more Star Wars or Star Trek, but I'm almost certain he likes Star Trek better. I think that was more prevalent. Star Trek came first. The original series came out in the 60s, I think.

Star Wars came out in the 60s. I wonder if he's a William Shatner or Patrick Stewart guy. Definitely William Shatner. Really? Yeah. I'm more Patrick Stewart myself.

Too bold to go where no one has gone before. I don't think he watched... I could be wrong, but I don't think he watched Next Generation. I think he watched the original series, yeah. Well, I'm excited to talk about this a little bit more on the show.

I want to get Dr. Strahl's take on this. Because I know he's seen Star Wars. What is his take on whether he would try to convince these aggressive fans? I don't know. I'm excited to ask him. Stay tuned. We're going to ask that question in just a second.

But if you guys have questions like this you'd like for us to ask on the show, text us at 252-582-5028. It doesn't have to be about Star Wars, but it can be. It can be. I always like when it is.

Yeah. Let us know what you think about the prequels. We're going to get Dr. Strahl, but we'll be back after this. Good morning, afternoon, evening, Clearview Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Strahl's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Strahl, Ph.D. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast.

David. I'm just playing. Hop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Strahl is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the word of God spoken into your life. And God's word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Avidan Shah PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes, but you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at ClearviewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading. You can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shah's website, AvidanShah.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Hey, everyone, my name is Elli 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 request. 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. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at Clearview todayshow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, and maybe today is your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View today show.

We want to welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a Ph.D. in New Testament Textual Criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. He's also the captain of the Starship Enterprise.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's abbadanshah.com. That is canon. You can quote that. Dr. Shah is the captain of the Starship Enterprise. I made a prediction, Dr. Shah, that you would choose Star Trek over Star Wars.

Is that a correct assessment? Absolutely. I knew it.

And I will choose Next Generation over... Really? Yeah. See, that's what we were talking about. I was like, I can't remember if Dr. Shah likes Shatner or if he likes Stewart. No, Patrick Stewart. Patrick Stewart. I stand corrected.

That's the one that I watched probably three, four times. I stand corrected. Wow. And Stewart was a phenomenal Picard. I loved Next Generation. Number one.

Yeah. I remember the one where he talks to that woman, and her people were still living in huts and stuff. And she thought he was a god, and he was like, I'm not. I can't remember if he says there's only one god, but he's like, I'm 100% not a god. And she's like, maybe one day my people will fly in ships. And he looks out the window all pensive. He goes, of that, I have no doubt. And I was like, geez, he really hammed that line up.

Exquisite delivery. I remember as a kid, I can't remember if it was Next Generation or not. And as I say this, you may be able to tell me. I remember watching Star Wars as a little kid, or Star Trek as a little kid.

Maybe five, six. There was one alien on there who had ridges on his forehead. That was the Klingon. I can't remember his name. No, it wasn't a Klingon. It wasn't Worf. I know who Worf is. It wasn't Worf.

He was taller, big guy, ridges on his forehead, real dark skin. Was he on the crew? I can't remember if he was on the crew or not. But there was an episode where he got vaporized or something, or teleported somewhere else. And I can remember that. You're talking about it was not Worf. I don't think it was Worf. He had a beard. I don't know, man. And I remember watching the episode.

I remember being so terrified in that moment. Worf had a beard? Yeah. Is it this guy?

Let me see. Is it this guy? Maybe it was. Who was the guy with the real big ears? Ferengi. Okay. That's who I thought was Worf.

Okay. Oh. So maybe it was Worf. Yeah. It probably was. Maybe that's who I was thinking of. Yeah.

Not always trustworthy. So that's Ferengi. That's different. Maybe it was this guy, Worf. Maybe it was Worf. Yeah.

He's the only guy with the ridges I could think of. I can't remember if it was teleported or vaporized or killed or something. And I'm sure that happened. Like, just instantaneously it was killed. It's been a while for me, but yeah.

I'm sure it happened. I can remember being so spooked in that moment. And any time Star Trek came on after that, I was like, ugh. You know, a lot of people are fans of these shows, but a lot of people are actually fans of our show. And I thought today would be a cool episode, because we had someone write in with some of the most encouraging stuff I have ever heard.

One of our episodes, Dr. Char really touched one of our listeners on the way. Okay. Yep. So this message comes from a listener of the show right here in North Carolina, Dane S. And Dane writes in, just finished listening to the Live Worthy of Your Name episode. I remember us talking about that. Like, you need to live worthy of the name that you've been given.

That's right. And just wanted to say this message hit hard. I've often had the thought recently of how God is, even in my life right now, with everything that I've been through, working and using those things to grow me. And he goes on to say, when I got saved, I wonder if I did it the right way. I got saved when I was seven. And the thing I remember most thinking back on is hearing in Sunday school that if you don't accept Jesus in your heart, then you go to hell. And all I remember thinking was, well, I don't want to go to hell, so I'll accept him in my heart. And then he closes the letter saying, I've been heavily considering lately rededicating my life to God, but have been unsure of how to go about doing that, or if there's a need for me to do it.

We'd love to hear more about what it is to rededicate your life to God. Wow. So, Dane, thank you for writing in. That was very encouraging. Love that that episode impacted you. As we're talking on the episode, we're impacted by these truths, and it's encouraging to know and hear from people on the other side of these cameras and the other side of the broadcast that these truths are impacting your life as well.

Absolutely. It's one of those things that we do this, and we do five episodes a week. And sometimes the return, not that y'all owe us or anything, we're not saying that, but sometimes the return, it feels like we're just talking into empty space. So to be able to hear feedback and hear like, hey, something that Dr. Shah said impacted my Christian life, that is so rewarding to us. The whole idea of rededication is very special to me.

I've seen many individuals rededicate our lives right here at Clearview, in the community, and even personally, I remember when I rededicated my life to God. And I think many of y'all have heard that. I like to share that in a few moments, but it's also a biblical concept. It's found in the Old Testament and it's King by the name of Hezekiah, who was not always walking with God. He sometimes made decisions that were contrary to what the prophets told him to do. But then in 2 Kings 20, it tells us that Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said to him, thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. And when he heard that news, the Bible says that he turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord saying, remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth and with a loyal heart and have done what was good in your sight.

Now that's sort of half truth. He didn't always do what was good. And he wept bitterly. And it happened before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father, I have heard your prayer.

I have seen your tears. Surely I will heal you. And on the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.

And I will add to your, to your days, 15 years, I will deliver you. And this city from the hand of the King of Assyria, I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. So through a trial, which was a sickness unto death, Hezekiah in a sense, rededicated his life to God. Unfortunately, even after that, he did make some mistakes and God had to correct him on that. But there is a great example of rededication.

Go to the New Testament and you see somebody like Peter, in a sense, he is rededicating his life. When I believe we knew Jesus Christ, you know, we often think that it's after the resurrection that they all realized that he was savior and they got saved. No, they already had the Holy Spirit. Right.

How in the world can they have the Holy Spirit and not be saved? That's right. Exactly. And we can make it like a one time event that, oh, that happened then. But again, Holy Spirit to have God with you and not be saved. That's, that's, you know, it doesn't work. Well, it's also not practical to, to make exceptions for something that doesn't need it. You know what I mean? Like, well, that only happened that one time. Why?

What is the purpose? We need nothing from saying that. That's right. So I believe Peter and the disciples, except for that one, Judas Iscariot, rest of all of them were saved. And Jesus told them that you're all clean. And he had also breathed on them and given the Holy Spirit. So Peter was saved, but then momentarily he lost his focus when he tried to do what he was told not to do.

Right. Don't follow me. This is not your cross. But Peter went after Jesus anyways. And that night, just like Jesus had warned him three times, he denied Jesus. And this was what Jesus had also told him that Satan wants to sift you like wheat, but I prayed for you that when you return to me that you will take care of these sheep.

Wow. So when you return, what is return? That's rededication.

That's right. It means you're going to go away for a little while. You're going to go out there and cry bitterly.

You're going to go out there and doubt yourself and question everything you've known so far. But when you return to me, when you come back to me, then make sure you follow me. Right.

I love that. That when you return, not if, not just in case you do, but when you return, when you come back to God, it almost gives us kind of a sense of permission. Rededicating your life is not just, okay, it's biblical. Right.

Right. And it's not permission to wander or permission to go out and sow your wild oats and come back to Jesus, but it's permission to say, listen, you don't have to live in regret. You don't have to pay that price of penance indefinitely. The door to Jesus is always open. Dr. Jha, do you see like a sort of parallel between what Peter went through and the average Christian? Like if you ask the average Christian like how their spiritual life is and they come back with remorse, like I know I ought to be doing more or I should do better.

I do, I'm doing the best I can. Do you see like a parallel between what Peter went through and that? Oh, absolutely. We mess up when we trust in our own selves. We mess up when we have a certain vision of how spirituality should be or Christian life is supposed to be, and then it comes crashing down. And I believe, I would say 99% of the time our spiritualities come crashing down because we have something or someone at a place that only belongs to God. And so God will not tolerate that. He wants your first love, your prime love reserved only for Him.

So He will bring you down. And so there are disappointments, there are failures and all these things sort of add up to, I'm sort of, you know, just living my life right now. Yeah, I need to be more involved. And yeah, you know, one of these days. And you are saved, but you're living in this place of doubts and despairs and remorse and failures and whatever.

Yeah. Do you ever feel like people start to see the Christian life as an obligation or a duty? There was an episode we did a while back where you talked about how to delight in God's will, like where God's will is something that we delight in. And it's not to be looked at as a chore or a job or a burden or a list of things to check off so that I'm okay. Things become a chore when you stop growing. And if you're not growing every single day, something you're learning about God, something you're learning about yourself in your relationship with God, of course. But something, if there is not a movement in that needle in your growth in Christ, then you are already down the slippery slope. It may not be sliding down, but it says down a slippery slope of being backslidden or just going through the motions and duty becomes a drudgery. That idea that none of us are ever static. We're either growing toward God or growing away from God.

Where did you first, I guess, latch onto that or where did you first learn that? Well, I saw that in my own life. When I came to America, I went from being on fire for God, loving Jesus Christ, to wanting to serve him, to seeing behaviors in Christian leaders that really left me in a state of disillusionment because I saw people that I looked up to, admired, people that were supposed to be Christian models and examples to our students doing things that were so wrong, so underhanded, doing things that could not be justified and yet they tried to justify them. I went through that phase of just, not that I stopped trusting God, but I became sort of bitter and just like, you know what? I love Jesus Christ and no one can take that away.

I am saved. But right now, I don't need to sit there and listen to you. I don't need to be in a church with these kinds of people. So when people tell me that I'm not going to church, I get it. I understand.

I've been there. And for, I would say a good year and a half that I sort of, I would say a year maybe, stopped going to church. I just kind of backed away and just didn't care. And then I went through a trial in my life. I lost relationships. I lost finances, just all these kinds of things. And that's when it was time to come back to God. So did you see that like as a form of rededication in your life at the time?

Yes. I had to go through some very humbling experiences in my life where I realized that I can only turn to God. There's no other way. I can only turn to God.

He's the only one who can help me. And I cannot keep justifying why I'm angry or I'm frustrated or I'm just, you know, distanced from God and church and people and whatever. I had to come to the place where I submitted and surrendered myself to God. And you guys know my telephone booth story where my brother had called me and said, look, just come to Philadelphia.

Just spend some time here for Christmas. I was like, no, I'm good. I'm not going. And he sent one of my friends to come, one of his friends actually, also my friend because of him, to come and take me with him. And so I rode with these three other people headed north to Philadelphia and had to stop on this side of the turnpike. And I'm at this dropped off at this exit at about like five, six o'clock in the evening. And I thought I would see my brother there and he's not there. And I'm standing here by this gas station. I even went inside the gas station and then they shut down. And so I came out, there was a telephone booth.

Some of y'all may remember those telephone booths. It's cold outside, huh? It's cold. There's snow out there. It's cold. So I get inside the telephone booth and just to stay warm, but people are coming up there to use the phone. And I'm like, I'm not getting out of this place. I held onto the phone, pretending to be on the phone. And I took out every stitch of clothing that I had in my suitcase and just put it on because it was so freezing cold. And this is, this is like in 90, what year was this in?

This was in 1993. So there's no cell phone. He can call you and say, Hey, I got lost.

I'm just no communication at all. No, no. And my friend and those other two or three guys who were all hitchhiking for Christmas break, we not hitchhiking, kind of riding together. We they're all gone. And I'm just there alone at an exit thinking my brother will be there. And it's like two o'clock in the morning and I'm like, okay, I guess it's time to walk. I can just stand here in this telephone booth forever.

Even that one little light that was shining in the parking lot is also gone. So I grabbed my suitcase and I'm walking down this road, not even knowing where I'm going, who, what am I going to see? But I got to walk somewhere and just sit in here forever. And I'm walking past houses, dogs are barking and it was kind of like crazy feeling. And next thing I know there's a car behind me. So I'm like, I'm not looking, I may be dying tonight. It is what it is.

I don't know what they want. They can have the suitcase. And it was my brother. And he said, where have you been? I was like, I've been at this exit.

He said, Oh, I know what happened. The northbound and the southbound exits are in different parts of the city. So he was in a whole different place waiting for me there.

Not thinking that there is no northbound here. So anyways, long story short, that telephone booth was my turning point because I, I told God in that, in that moment, I said, Lord, I don't know what's happening in my life, but I feel like all alone and just at the bottom. And I, and I know that you are it. So I am rededicating my life to you. I didn't say the word rededication. I just said, God, I'm giving my life back to you. Whatever you tell me to do, I will do, and I'll follow you the rest of my life.

And that was my rededication. And I use that as a big marker in my life where things change forever. I think it's, I think it's so helpful to come to that moment in your life. And even if, if you haven't had that moment yet, it's, I think it's safe to say it's coming. You know, there's always, there's always going to be that moment. I like the way you said that turning point that you can look back to as an anchor in your life.

And when things get bad to look back to that moment and say, remember, I've been here before and this was my response and how faithful God was in that response. What advice would you give maybe our listener, Dane, or others who are considering this idea of rededicating their life? Absolutely do it.

Do it a hundred times if you have to. You know, every day should be a rededication anyways. You're offering your life anew to God. So rededicate away.

Yeah. Do you feel, do you think people feel shame that maybe I wasn't saved all this time and now I'm doing it for real? Or do you think there's some hesitancy to rededicate? The prodigal son never stopped being his father's son just because he was away. So coming back home is not that he was going to now go through the adoption process.

Now he was always his father's son, but he had lost his way. And coming back was just coming home. So look at it as coming home. I love that. That is a beautiful truth. Look at it as coming back home. You've never stopped being your father's child. Right. Well, that's the thing is I think we attribute so much shame and so much expectation on ourself.

And I'm not saying that like give yourself a break. I'm just saying that the work has been done for you. The foundation has been laid.

Like you said, you're already, if you're a Christian, you're already your father's son and you can always come home. That's right. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if you have questions about rededicating your life, what that would look like, or how to take those next steps, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

Of course, you can visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. And on tomorrow's episode, we're talking about, we are talking about one of the most famous staples of the South is the anniversary of one of our favorite TV shows. Whoa, save it for tomorrow, my friend. Don't give it all away for free. I got excited. I got excited and I jumped the gun. Stay tuned. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear Read Today.