Thursday, October 26th | What You Say is What You Become (pt. 2)

Hello, everyone. Today is Thursday, October the 26th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm Jon Galantis. I looked over to where my camera usually was. Yeah, if you notice, we rearranged things a little bit, so you're having to kind of track where our new camera is.

Yeah, it's been a week, but it's still not. It's nice to kind of sit together in another conversation. That's good. You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abba Don 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 to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

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We're going to leave a couple of links in the description so you can do just that. The first verse of the day today comes from Colossians 3, verse 14, But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. You can't get simpler than that. As deep of a book as Colossians is, you really can't put the gospel into simpler words than that. Put on love, which is the bond of perfection. I love the way that Dr. Shah says it sometimes, because he reminds us that the gospel is simple, but it's not simplistic.

That's right. It's easy to grasp, but there's so much depth there. Because love encapsulates everything we're meant to do as Christians. We're meant to think of other people more highly than ourselves. We're meant to put their needs first.

We're meant to serve people. Because love is not a feeling. Love is an action. So we're meant to go out of our way to make sure other people understand not only that we love them, but that Christ loves them through our actions. And it's biblical love, too. It's not just tolerating people's sin, looking the other way, thinking about all the things that people had to go through in life. Love and empathy are not synonymous. You know what I mean? And so biblical love requires correction. And it requires discipline.

And it requires an intentionality to grow and to change and be transformed into the image of Christ. You know what today is? It's Thursday. It is Thursday. Which usually we do this on a Tuesday earlier, but I said it was Thursday earlier. That means today is the time for the gripe vine.

That was a convoluted way to get there. I was like, today is Thursday, but it's not Tuesday. I have got some gripes. Normally we do it on what? Yeah, I have got some gripes for y'all. Let me pick this off the graph. What's on the gripe?

What's on the vine today? Traumatic experiences from my childhood. This got dark quick. My dad used to make me eat all my food. Oh.

Okay, so here's the thing. I was thinking about this the other day. When I was young, my dad would make me finish my plate. And what I mean by that is I had to eat every scrap of food that was on the plate. I couldn't be done with the meal until the plate was bare. Until it was clean. But I didn't control how much I put on the plate.

You had no say in the portion size. So he would give me what he was eating. And I'm looking at Gavin now. He's like two, three years old. He's got a little stomach. So when he says he's full, even now to my mind, I'm doing what my dad did. Which he would look at my plate and be like, there's still food there. You're not full. You can't be full. There's food on your plate.

Even though I'm the one that put this adult-sized portion on your plate. And I remember as a kid having to sit there and cry and cry and cry. Especially if it was stuff I didn't like. And have to actually finish the entire thing before I was done.

Before I could say that I was done. Yeah, my parents did that, too. I hate that. I absolutely hate that.

And then it was the whole guilt trip. If you left food on your plate and you're like, I can't eat anymore. I'm so full. There's starving children in Africa. There are children starving in the world right now that would love to have this food. I'm like, then can we mail it to them? Because I don't have any more room. Yeah, put it in an envelope.

Mail it over there to Africa where they are. And they can eat it. I don't want to. I am with you. I have caught myself with that mindset with my kids. So I've tried to check how much am I actually spooning onto the plate. And I'll actually err on giving them less and then have them come back for seconds. Come back and ask for more.

I've made that adjustment, but only in recent years. So when the twins were little, I would pile things on their plate. Maybe not an adult-sized portion, but I would be like, you didn't clean your plate. Full doesn't equal I'm out of room. Full equals an empty plate. Right, right, right. Exactly.

Full means that you had a task set before you and now you've completed the task. Exactly. Which is dinner time. Exactly.

I'm also noticing that you can't, I lure, I'm noticing that I can't put for what works for one kid for the other one. And what I mean by that is Holden will eat two straight-up grilled cheese sandwiches, entire sandwiches, and he's less than one years old. Yep. I can't get Gavin to barely nibble on one.

Yep. He's also, this is turning from griping about my dad to griping about my son, but he's also doing this thing where it's like, I'm going to take a little nibble. Holden or Gavin?

Gavin. Okay. I'm going to take a little nibble and then I'm going to just talk about things in the kitchen. And I'm like, hey, it's time to eat. Let's, let's go ahead and eat so we can get up.

I don't want taking, I don't want eating a sandwich to take 45 minutes. Yep. And he's like, ah, I'm, I'm doing this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's like, oh, okay.

Now I'm going to take another little, I don't want grilled cheese. He puts it down. Get it.

He's like, I get up, I'm, I'm done. I'm going to play. All right. I'm throwing the sandwich away. No, no, no. Yep.

I don't want to be face full so much that I got to watch him from choking. Yep. I don't know.

They're so drastically different. Yep. Did your kids do that?

Here's, here's, here's perspective for you. So the other night we had lasagna for dinner. Oh, that sounds good. It was very, it was delicious. My son, Noah, he's 11. Grown boy. He eats a lot. Joanna, my youngest girl, is seven years old. She eats like a seven year old. Right. Joanna's a slow eater too.

Here, here's where the story's going. So I serve their plates at the same time Joanna takes three bites in the time it takes Noah to eat three plates. Yeah. And you finish your plate before like anybody's even sat down, basically. I do. Yeah. That's why I serve myself last cause I just kind of, and it's gone.

That's my gripe, man. I couldn't stand when I used to have to finish my entire plate rather than just be full and be done with dinner. We can't be alone in this.

You guys write in and let us know if your parents made you do this or if like in your household full with synonymous with an empty plate, text us and let us know at 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com. Stay tuned. We're going to get Dr. Shaw. We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm John Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shaw's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 days series and the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner like I know I've done several times.

I know that's right. 30 days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View 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 any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right.

If today's your first time joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon 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 find all of his work on his website. That's AbbadonShah.com. Speaking of author, if you haven't done so already, go pick up a copy of Can We Recover the Original Text of the New Testament? Now navigate to another browser window. You wrote that.

It's still playing. No, I did not write this. Okay, that's funny, because you didn't say the author's name, so I just got confused. It's just here? Yeah. Yeah. But this is a radio show, though.

That is true. It is a radio show. Edited by Dr. Abbadon Shah and Dr. David Alba. It just struck me that if you've been listening to the radio show, you haven't even seen the cover. Look at it.

It's nice. Oh, well, you can't if you're on the radio. Dr. Shah, how did you know when you were a kid, how did you know that a meal was done? Did you have to clean your plate completely? Yes. Really?

Yes. Growing up, I had to do that, and Dad would tell me, he'd say, you can't have any drinks. Mom, really?

Dad didn't care. But Mom was usually like, can't drink water until you're done. So yeah, I still to this day, I don't drink water, and I have to make myself drink water, because it's kind of rude. Like during the meal? Yeah, because you're sitting there eating away, and you need to wash it down.

Yeah, yeah. I was talking about how my dad always, like, I didn't control when I was done. Whatever he put on my plate, I had to finish it. Nicole told me at one point that in some parts of India, it's rude to finish your plate. Or it's not rude, but it means it signals to them that they didn't feed you enough. Is that true?

Uh, how do I say this? Used to be. Used to be that was the case.

But unfortunately, those folks are becoming westernized. Oh yeah. I know.

Because when I was in India about three weeks ago, or a month ago now, you know, well, more than that, maybe a month and a half now, for my mom's sickness, and then unfortunately she died, but I know where she is. Praise God for that. But in that period, I was able to go out or go to different people's homes and invited me to come and eat with them. So we went, and they don't do that anymore as much. Oh really?

Yeah. I was like, you know, I kept getting down to the last couple of bites, and the wife or the lady who was serving would be like, hey, let me get you some more. And I'm like, oh, I'm okay. But usually what's supposed to happen is for them to put it on your plate anyways.

They don't do that anymore. Oh no. I'm okay. It's like, okay, okay. I'm like, what? Wait a minute. There was a whole system.

We had a whole ritual going. Like, I was going to say no. Then you were going to put it. So you're messing up a great Indian customer, forcing, and it's for somebody who doesn't get to eat Indian food much, put some on the plate. Put some on the plate, man. That's why I left a little bit.

I've been leaving in about a day or two. Yeah, I don't want to go back to McDonald's. Why is there always one? There's one at every table. I honestly was disappointed.

I'm like, what happened to this wonderful country? There's one at every table. Inserts himself, uses words that stop things. After I was done, left, he probably went back in the kitchen and got some. He probably got some seconds for himself.

That's probably why he said that. He's okay. Let him be.

It's all right. He was sitting there during the whole dinner just stressed. He was like, I really want another plate. I want another plate.

I got to get this guy up out of here so I can go have me a second plate in the kitchen. His motivations came through in what he said. Yes. Shameful behavior.

Shameful. We're talking specifically about the power of our words and the danger of the words that we use. We talked on yesterday's episode about how our words can speak our world into existence. The words that we say, you can track where a person is going based on the kind of words they're using.

Dr. Sharpe, we ended on yesterday's episode. You told us that our words can cause a chain reaction. Yes. We're talking about James chapter three, verse seven. It says for every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue.

So I can take Shamu right out of the ocean, teach him how to jump up and do tricks. People have big old lions and tigers in their bedrooms walking around them, but you can't control your own tongue. It says it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. And then it says, see how great a forest a little fire kindles. So I created a scenario. Imagine Mr. Kindle, you know, forest, a little fire Kindle.

Imagine a person named Mr. Kindle. One Monday morning, Mr. Kindle was running a little behind for his 9 a.m. appointment. And so he checked his rear view mirror and gently stepped on the gas. Five miles over is all right. He's thinking it's not a big deal.

No one's out there. And he looked at his watch again and decided to make it 10 and then 15 miles over the speed limit. Mr. Kindle, you better calm down. Unbeknownst to him, a policeman at the intersection clocked him at 20 miles over the speed limit. 20 over. Yes. Five to 20 now.

Pulled him over and gave him a tongue lashing. Yep. Yep. Got him, bro.

Yeah. You got him, man. And a ticket to go with it. They're going to get you every time. And Mr. Kindle was furious. He said, look at this cop giving me a ticket instead of catching some real criminal out there.

Right? And that's what Mr. Kindle says. And so now he's late because he was pulled over. So he marches into his office yelling for his secretary, Mrs. Henderson. Oh, she about to get it.

Yeah. Unsuspecting Mrs. Henderson. She's just sitting there quietly typing away at her desk. She's like, where are the files that I told you to have ready for the meeting? Now if Mr. Henderson knows what's up, she was just going to lay low, keep her mouth shut. And she's like, well, you told me not to worry about them.

Come on, Henderson. And that you would print them for yourself. Oh, no. Lady. Mr. Kindle's like, stop making excuses and get me those files.

Don't think that I cannot replace you. Ooh. Ooh, he hit her with the jeopardy of her position. I'm actually going to blame Mrs. Henderson for that one. She should have had the self-awareness to be like, you know what?

I'm going to get you them files. She walked right into that whooping. He's out of line, but he's right.

He's out of line. And now Mrs. Henderson is furious. So she stomps back to her office mumbling, how dare he talk to me that way? And as she is turning on her computer, she noticed a new temp. Should we call her Karen?

Oh, no. Karen the temp. Karen the temp.

Let's do it. And she said, Karen, we did not hire you to play on your phone. Get busy or go home. That's how it goes. Now Karen is furious.

All because this dude sped. She's like, how dare Mrs. Henderson talk to me like that? You know, I was simply trying to access Google Docs to help her out.

Fine. She can find it herself. Oh, now she's not going to get the files to Mr. Kindle. And Karen decides to take an early lunch, still fuming over the morning's happenings. And just then, a young Nick comes by her window to take her order. Nick.

Bro, I didn't know you worked at Burger King, but oh, I see. And so this is our first week on the job, his first week on the job, and he's nervous. He's still trying to figure things out. He forgets to greet her. Oh, Karen just don't like that. Karen is not going to go along with that. She's like, look at these kids these days.

You know, when I was working, we had standards. We would greet them first, and he'd say, yes, sir, and no, sir, and yes, ma'am, and no, ma'am. And so she gets her order, and as she is driving off, she notices that her fries are missing. Nick's about to get it. Oh, poor Nick.

Nick has no clue. She's had it. So she stomps back to the window, and she says, I need to see your manager, and I need to see him right now. There it is.

There it is. Has that ever happened to you, David? Anybody ever come in wanting to see the manager on you, man? All the time. The manager comes over, and she points over to little Nick, and she said, this young man right there was extremely rude to me, and he purposefully messed up my order.

I just want to let you know that. If you don't do something about it, I'm going to call corporate. Would they call corporate on you, man? Missing fries in the order immediately escalated to call the corporate. To the corporate manager. So the manager is a little scared. He's like, man, I don't want this. You know, hey, Nick, you got to go home, man. Coward.

Nick. Lost a day of work. Lost a day of work because Karen didn't get her fries, because she got yelled at by Mrs. Henderson, because she got yelled at by Mr. Kendall, because he got a speeding ticket. Because he was late. Because he was late. He was late, man. So now Nick is mad. He said, that's so unfair.

I didn't do anything wrong. And so he, of course, heads home, and when he gets home, he, you know, here comes his dog. Spot. Spot. Sweet little innocent spot, bounding over. The dog.

Go get it, too. He came bounding over. Dog.

Link in the description if you don't get that joke. He comes over to jump on Nick. Nick is in no mood for to pet this dog. He said, leave me alone, you dumb dog.

And he kicks at him. Aw. Spot. The dog. I didn't think the dog was going to get it, too, man.

You were always a good boy. What he doesn't realize is that as Spot jumps back to avoid the kick, he turns over the charcoal grill from last night. This is bedlam.

Oh, no. This is just bedlam. And Nick's dad had cooked some burgers for the family. It was a wonderful thing, because Nick got a new job and all that. His dad is happy, but didn't completely douse out the flames. So there was a little ember still there in the grill. And guess what happens when Spot jumps back?

He bumps over that grill, and the ember sort of rolls down into the patch of dry grass. That's all it takes. And the entire woods behind Nick's house is on fire.

One little win. This is bedlam. I know. This is just absolute chaos. The fire started in the 90s so fast. So who started the fire? Was it Spot? Was it Nick? I think it was Mr. Kendall. I think it was Mr. Kendall himself. He has no clue.

He has no idea. Isn't that crazy? That chain of events? This seems like an absurd example, but if you track this, I guarantee you, maybe not a forest fire, but this has happened in people's lives.

100% this has happened. Not only Mr. Kendall is a verbal arsonist, he set a whole set a whole flock of woods on fire. Nick, you're going to have to bill Mr. Kendall's insurance for this one. Yeah. And then Mr. Kendall has never seen those woods.

He has never been back there, but he has caught fire. He is the ultimate culprit. Wow. And so that's what James is saying here. And he goes on to say in James 3.9, with it, talking about the tongue, we bless our God and father and with it, we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God out of the same mouth, proceed blessings, blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Now James has shifted the terminology from word to tongue to mouth.

Now think about that for a moment. Why mouth? Maybe because Jesus used that word in Matthew 12, 1234, brutal vipers, how can you being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, whatever is in your heart, that that valve is the mouth. That's right.

That verse is always like a gut check for me. Yeah. It's not that this person made me say mean things or this person made me have an outburst in anger. They just gave me an opportunity to display what was already inside.

Once you say something, that's something that I think about a lot is that once I say something, I can always hope that the other person thinks I was joking or thinks I was kidding or thinks I was having a bad day, but it has conveyed at least to some degree what's inside. Yeah. Right.

You know, it's one of the most vulnerable things you can do is to misspeak or to not take care of the words that you choose. Yeah. It's the escape valve.

That's what it is. The mouth is the escape valve of the abundance of gunk in our hearts. That's why a lot of times, you know, people talk about, well, you know, especially if they're intoxicated or if they're drunk or whatever, it's like, well, I didn't mean to do those things because that wasn't me, but really that's the truest you. You know, you've lowered your inhibitions and now your mouth, like you said, is letting all the realness escape.

We are very uncomfortable by how ugly that realness is sometimes. Yeah. And so what is the problem, the root of the problem in James 3.11, does this spring send forth fresh fat water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grape vine bear figs?

Thus, no spring yields both salt water and fresh. So James explained the Freudian slip. You know what the Freudian slip is, right?

You say things without knowing, but it's sort of revealing, displaying what was in your heart. Right. James and Jesus explained the Freudian slip centuries before Freud. That's true. Interesting. That's what we know is in our heart. It's what's inside of us. Yeah.

Freud didn't come up with it. It's an old problem. Yeah. So the content of the old well, this is the pre-Christ well, is a sin nature, of course, upbringing, how you were raised, bad examples, people you admired or you were sort of forced to live around, bad experiences, things happen to you, daily barrage from the world, the flesh and the devil. That becomes the content of the old well. Now what is the content of the new well? Here you have the new creation through Christ, feeding on the word, the Bible, godly fellowship, rejection of worldly values, new habits.

These are part of the new well. One thing that you told me years ago that has stuck with me for almost a decade now is when I first started leading worship here at Clearview, I was very awkward bridging the songs. I was like, well, what should I say between the songs? I remember the advice you gave me was that you can't think up things to say. You have to be a deep person, and that's going to come out. It was a frustrating answer because at the time I wasn't deep, and I wasn't spending the time that I needed to be being transformed and being in the word. I thought that if I could just memorize a script every week, it would somehow make me deep. But it's the exact opposite. I couldn't find—and I see that all the time on YouTube.

What to say between songs, how to transition your songs for worship, or what to say from the pulpit. But nobody in any of those videos ever says you have to be a spiritually deep person. They never do. I mean, you cannot speak deep things from a shallow well, right? You cannot draw clean, clear water from a shallow well. So someone said it this way. Show me a harsh tongue, and I will show you an angry heart. Show me a negative tongue, and I will show you a fearful heart. Show me an overactive tongue, and I will show you an unsettled heart. Show me a boastful tongue, and I will show you an insecure heart. Show me a filthy tongue, and I will show you an impure heart. Show me a critical tongue, and I will show you a bitter heart.

Show me someone who says hell all the time, and I will show you what's inside. Wow. That's incredible. That's chilling. Yeah.

Isn't it? That's an awesome indicator of what's actually in us coming out and what we're putting on display for the world to see without even knowing, without even understanding. We think our sins are so cleverly hidden, but anybody who listens to me talk will know. And that's the hardest thing, I think, to come to grips with is that I have to be okay with them knowing and be okay with striving to work better through God's grace. Dr. Shawn, maybe there are some listeners who are here today, and they have recognized that they need to make a change in the words that they use and the way in which they speak.

What are some steps they can take to begin that process? What are some practical things they can do in order to start to check their speech? The first thing I would suggest is stop. Stop and think before you speak. I know many, many, many, many times I have messed up when I have just said what was coming in my mind, and that's not good ever. I've never walked away saying, well, that was great. I immediately responded to that, and I have no regrets.

I would say 9.9 out of 10, I regretted that. So stopping and then maybe thinking through, what is it that God wants me to say? That would be the next question, but you cannot get there unless you stop. And so stop, pray and ask God, God, how should I respond to this thing?

And that can be for everything. Advice people need, correction people need, encouragement people need. All of these things require you to stop, think, and then tap into the spiritual source, which is Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, based on the truth that comes from the Bible, you can then speak and speak life and hope and correction, correction needs to happen. Grace, all of these things can come, but it comes when you stop, think. Sometimes it's also important to stop, write down what you want to say.

Yeah. Because I've always heard people say that, like, well, I've never regretted just not saying something. It's like, yes, but that's incomplete, because God has put you here to speak life into people's hearts and minds. And even if it's a difficult situation, you have to correct somebody, whatever, write it down, and then what you'll find is that by the time you edit what you want to say, you'll end up saying things that will help. I know many times I haven't, and I have to go home and go, okay, that didn't go well, and I need to work on that. Yeah. That's so good.

So important for us. Thank you so much. Stop, pray, write it down, and really think through, is this worth saying, and if it is, say it in grace, say it in love. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if you found it helpful, maybe those things were things that you needed to hear as far as checking your speech and how to proceed in a way that where your words reflect what you believe inside, send us an email and let us know. You can email us at contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. You of course text us, 252-582-5028. Make sure you visit that website, clearviewtodayshow.com, lots of important information up there.

There's a link down at the bottom. Scroll down, click that link, and become a giving partner with Clear View Today Show. Let us know if that gift is coming from our Clear View Today Show family. Jon, what's coming up on tomorrow's episode? Hand me that hat right there.

I'm going to show you right now. This one right here? Yeah, because we've got a special guest on tomorrow's episode. Oh, who's a special guest? Dr. Questions himself, my friend.

Dr. Questions! On tomorrow's episode, the doctor is in for a round of lightning round questions. We're doing lightning round questions tomorrow. Tell them where to send their questions to. 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.