Tuesday, November 14th | Answering Your Emails!

Hello, everyone. Today is Tuesday, November the 14th. I'm Ryan Hill.

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 252-58-25028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going and supporting the show.

You can share it online with your friends and family, anyone who you feel needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ today. And you can—what else do they do? What else do they do? They leave us a five-star review. Of course, nothing less than five stars.

Absolutely nothing less. I just had a brain blank right there. It just went completely blank on me.

It's because you were thinking about a review that was less than five stars, and it just made you like just disassociate from reality. I went blinding hot with rage, and the only thing that's going to quell it is the verse of the day. The verse of the day today comes from Proverbs chapter 10, verse 7. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

I must not be blessed because my memory just gave out on me during that intro. But I love that. You know, we all want to—and I think men feel this especially, not that women don't—but I think men kind of feel this the older they get. They want to leave a legacy. They want to leave an impact behind. Nobody, really nobody wants to live and get to the end of their life and be tucked away in some corner cemetery somewhere, and be like, well, I may as well have not ever lived.

Yeah, that's the big thing. I want it to make a difference that I was here. I want it to matter that I was here and make something that will outlive me, which is why I love Dr. Shah's view about written word, because buildings can come and go, structures can come and go, organizations can come and go, but the written word is forever. So if you write things down, if you craft things like books and products and music and things like that, it will outlive you because that's the nature of those things. That's right. And the name of the wicked will rot means people may remember you, but I mean, think of all the wicked rulers throughout history that have come and gone.

We still remember them, but man, what a legacy to leave behind to be universally seen as the example of what I don't want to be. You know, God's word proves itself more and more and more relevant as time goes on. You know, I really don't know how to segue out of this, but I have a gripe for the gripe vine today. A gripe for the gripe vine! You know that it's Tuesday, which time for the gripe vine! It's the gripe vine, everybody! I'm feasting on my harvests of gripes as this one's juicy. It's a ripe gripe.

It really has no reason to bother me as much as it does. But I have, and I've mentioned this on the show before, I have a worship coach, and this is a person who Dr. Shah has met, who has kind of hooked me up with, and who comes on Thursday nights. He's actually part of the worship team as well, but he basically coaches me through the finer points of lead leading worship, structuring songs, doing all this stuff.

Great dude, has helped me a lot. I hate texting him. I hate texting this guy! Because of the way he abuses emojis. Yeah, so this friend, I'm going to call him a friend because he is a dear friend of ours. He's a good friend.

He's the parent of one of my students. So I text him as well, different context, but I text him as well. It is almost to the level of a hieroglyphics status.

It's full sentences, but only in pictures. So the emojis, number one, don't make sense. Number two, I don't know who's even using emojis anymore to begin with. When I text people, I never see emojis. But this guy's emojis don't make any sense at all. He has a couple of favorites that he goes between. So one of them is the little emoji that thinks like this.

I'll text him, hey man, hope you're having a good day. Should I do you hold it all together without the hymn? Because sometimes we put a hymn in front of it to make it different.

Or do you think that takes too much away? He sends me the sunglasses emoji, followed by the one thinking. So I confront him and I go, hey, what the heck does that mean? He's like, it means I think it's all good, whatever you do, but let's think it through. Huh?

Why couldn't you have said that? What do you mean? So then he sends me another one a couple days later. Hold on, let me find it.

Let me find it. This one is one that he's a lot of use to. This one right here? This one, yeah. I don't know what this is.

It's like the hang loose. Hold on, hold on, I've lost it. Oh, oh, oh. He texted me going to his father's funeral, by the way. I texted him after the funeral, I said, how did it go? He said, how did what go? I said, singing at your dad's funeral. He said, it's tomorrow. Thumbs up emoji. I was like, okay, cool. He said, we're getting ready to head to the airport. I said, gotcha.

I'm praying for you. He sends me the hang loose and the guy surfing. It's a surfer.

It's a guy on a surfboard. As you do. I'm like, what do I, so just to respond, I sent him a kangaroo. I just sent him a kangaroo because I was like, I genuinely don't know what else to send this guy.

Like a kangaroo would keep their, their kid close in their pouch. I'm keeping you close to my thoughts and prayers. He texted me. He texted me yesterday. Maybe switch, Hey, just a thought, maybe switch, hold it all together in spirit of God.

That way you could start out singing out of the congregational prayer time as an extension without having to talk to everyone again and instead of leaving the keys alone. It was just good worship advice. I said, sure. He said, how you doing? I said, pretty good.

Headed to a lunch meeting. You hallelujah hands emoji, sunglasses, emoji, crying out loud, laughing, emoji, surfboard, emoji, Nicholas, just, I know you don't have a mic, but do, do you use emojis? Does anybody your age use emoji that you do? Really? I see it sometimes. It's not, I didn't think that sentence. Yeah.

But I'll see it sometimes. You said earlier, it was like hieroglyphs. Like he's constructing a sentence. It's like a full thought paragraph with just pictures.

So let me try to parse this. I said, Hey, I'm doing pretty good. Heading to a lunch meeting. How are you? Hallelujah hands.

So I guess I'm blessed. Praising God, praising God, sunglasses, emoji, everything. It's all good. Everything's cool.

Crying out loud, laughing like the silly face laughing. Yeah. And then the surfboard had a lot of fun and I'm like, relax. I almost, I'm vibing. I almost want to call him.

I almost want to call him and see what's up. What does this mean? Yeah. Translate this for me now. Yeah. We've got a texting number, two five two five eight two five zero two eight. I want you to text us a message to the Cleary Today show, but only use emojis. Only use emojis and we'll try to figure out what it means.

Yeah. Only we'll bring Dr. Shaw in. We'll try to figure out what your message is to us. Those I know there are some of you out there, you emoji experts who use this as your primary form of communication. I want to see those emojis into that number. Let's do it.

Five zero two eight. Leave us a hidden message in the emojis and we'll see if we can see if we can translate it live on the air. I love it. Stay tuned after the break. We're going to bring Dr. Shaw in for our discussion. Love you guys.

See you soon. Hello Clearview family. I'm Nicole and I'm David and we want to talk to you today about the Clearview app. You know, there are so many churches out there that put their sermons on YouTube and their announcements on Facebook and their prayer list on Periscope.

I didn't even know Periscope was still functional. Oh, it's not. And that's why nobody can find their church's prayer list and nobody's prayers be getting answered. But here at Clearview, we believe in making our content as accessible as possible. That's right. Clearview produces so much content every single week, including Dr. Shaw's sermons, original music, a full online store, weekly prayer gatherings, and so much more.

Not to mention the number one best selling Christian talk show of all time. I don't know if that's accurate. Well, maybe not yet, but that's why we want people to download the app. If you're listening from the triangle area, we encourage you to check out Clearview church in person, but if not, you can still follow all of our content on the Clearview app.

It's 100% free on the Apple store and Google play store. And best of all, all of our content is right there in one convenient spot. Make sure you download the Clearview app today and let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at Clearviewtodayshow.com if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. That's right. We are here today once again in the Clearview today's studio with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is of course a PhD in New Testament Textual Criticism, also a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of today's show.

To find all of his work on his website, that's abbadanshaw.com. Dr. Shah, have you ever talked to people who misuse emojis, really abuse emojis? Well, let me start from the beginning. Do you use emojis when you text? I do, but not as frequently because emojis are those little tiny faces and all that.

Yeah, because I don't know. I don't know if I know how to use them. Well, so anytime I've texted you and you've used emojis, you've used them correctly and they've been in the appropriate place and just like a seasoning, you just need just enough. There's the etiquette, if you will. And some people, and we know who this person is.

They either use emojis wrongly, like you use the incorrect emoji in a certain application, or you use way too many. And this person that we're talking about, and I'm not going to say his name, we don't need to do that, but he knows who he is and he knows that he's misusing them and it gets on people's nerves. Do I know this person? Oh, yes you do. Oh boy, do I need to ask who this person is? You know, this person, let's just say, I don't even know if they listen to the show. After this, they won't listen to me. Maybe you just need to not talk about it. Yeah, maybe just scoot on past, but you know who you are.

Stop misusing them. You know who you are. Well.

We had, this is something we haven't done in a while. We had some people write into the show and we've been getting so many lately that we've kind of fell off on reading them, but this one I thought was really cool. This is from an Elizabeth P. in North Carolina. Good morning. I would really like some more information on King Tut as the firstborn child. That episode was fascinating. Wow. Okay. Well, I would love to talk more about King Tut. It is fascinating to me and I had a selfie made with King Tut. How many people in the world can say that? I mean, come on. Not many.

Yes. For starters, it's not King Tut. He was not even a king. He was Pharaoh in training, a Thutmose, this little boy whose name is actually Tutankhamen. There's no Tut. Tut is the American abbreviated simplification of that name, but the king attached to it, but there is no King Tut. Tutankhamen.

Yeah. So he's the one who died and as you know, Howard Carter, the famous archeologist discovered the tomb. They knew the vicinity of the tomb, but did not know this was it until they opened it up. And when you go into the museum in Egypt, the museum, the one from the 1930s, the one that resembles the Mummy movies, you know that big, massive opening and huge, huge statues of pharaohs and sarcophagus everywhere and all that stuff. When you go in there, upstairs on the backside is nothing but King Tut's.

And I'm using the name because that's how people know it. But everything, his chair is there, his face mask. When they found his face, when they found his tomb, he was inside a sarcophagus and underneath there was a shell and underneath that was the body. But it was not just the body lying there. On top of the face was the face mask. That's what you see, typically the beautiful face mask.

And it still had, it just gets me, it still had sort of like a garland with flowers and everything on him. When they discovered it. Now when you see it, it's behind a glass case and it's just a death mask. But when they found it, that's what I like to know more. How was it discovered?

Not just what you polished and cleaned up and put in a glass case. That's beautiful. But it was just. What was it like? What was it like when you first saw it?

When people first made contact with that. Because you kind of want to feel like you're discovering it. You want to see it in the state that it was in. And some of the pictures, I see where the chariot is and I see where the chair is and his spear and all these things that are found all over in the upstairs of that museum. But the pictures that they took, it was a hastily filled tomb. Like the chair had turned over, the chariot was sort of lying down. Means they did not even have time to properly do, of course, they did not have time to properly mummify the body. That's why it looks kind of odd. It's mummified, but it's not what it should look like. The other pharaohs that you see mummified, they're so much better.

But Tut, well, of course, you have barely a few days and you have to get out of there because you got to go save your country. So that's the case there. And then, of course, everything the pharaoh touches, as I mentioned the last show, is sort of thrown in there. So you see things and you go, wow, this is really his footstool. Remember the section where it says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. King Tut's footstool is in the museum upstairs.

His footstool. And so when you look at it on the footstool are images of peoples who were coming against Egypt and all that. So when you're putting your foot on top of this golden stool, it's also kind of symbolic that you're going to so rule over all people, especially those ones who want to take your kingdom away.

You're ruling over there. Stuff like that is fascinating to me because you begin to see history through the Bible, and you see history within the Bible, and it just shows how linked things are and how young our history is. I mean, this wasn't... Thousands and thousands of years. No, this is barely 3,600 years. Yeah. We're not so far removed from that. No.

3,600, 3,500 years is all it is. And one more thing before we move on. I get excited. Oh, that's awesome. This is what she wanted.

This is what she wanted. The massive box, so to speak, that was surrounding this tomb, okay? Inside the tomb was this massive container. It looked like a shipping container. Maybe not as long, but it looks just as big and tall. All around on the top and the middle are nothing but cobra heads, just ready to strike.

Wow. Just all snakes. Including this container that contained the body of Tutankhamen. So, I mean, this Exodus story is a showdown between God and the serpent, between Jesus and Satan. That was a showdown. So that's my firstborn you're trying to take out.

Because if he had killed all the Hebrews, in a sense, he has killed the firstborn, which is Jesus. This seed that was supposed to come through the woman. It's gone. Now, another plan has to be put together.

How can you do that? The world is already moving. You cannot go back in time travel and say, let's restart this thing and let's start with Noah and his three sons and Shem and through Shem and all that. That's a great point that you made because one of the things that I've thought about and I know people have done it, is that it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. So it's like, okay, well, God didn't even give Pharaoh a chance to repent. So if Pharaoh had repented, this would have never even happened. But this is bigger than just Pharaoh. Like you said, this is God's showdown with the enemy, with the serpent.

There was something much bigger than just this man and his decisions on the line. I mean, Egypt, right on Pharaoh's mitre, the top hat they wear, is a snake. And everywhere you go inside the tombs are snakes. Massive snakes, small snakes, tons of snakes.

I mean, they're everywhere. Even in the tomb builders' tombs, you see snakes. Because this is what this culture really believed. They had the creation story backwards or the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. They had it backwards where the serpent was a good guy and God was a bad guy. He was the villain.

Wow. He was a villain. Ain't that something? So... Yeah, no wonder they made all the decisions they did. Then you look at a person like Pharaoh and you're like, well, how could he be so hard-hearted or how can he be so blah, blah, blah, ignorant and small-minded?

And we actually do the same thing where we blame God and say, well, look, God hardened his heart and didn't give him this chance. Yeah. No. And maybe someday we can talk about that as well. What does that really mean? I would love that.

What does that look like? Absolutely. Egypt is a fascinating place. We're going there very soon. When we go, we have a wonderful guide there, good friend, and we see sites and then we also talk the biblical history.

I do that with our people. I'll be doing that with our people so they can understand that same story, but in a different way, more biblical. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for writing in. We actually have another email that we wrote, that someone wrote in this morning.

It says, hey guys, I love the episodes from Harold B. from North Carolina. Harold has written the show a good number of times. Thank you for keeping on writing in, Harold. Keep those emails and those texts coming in. Hey guys, I love the episode you guys did about life with Father. My grandfather used to have a collection of Clarence Day's works on his bookshelves when I was little. It's sad what has become of how people view fatherhood in America, but I really appreciate it to how you guys pointed out that fathers, alongside men in general, are allowed to have flaws without necessarily being toxic predators.

Being the head of the household shouldn't come alongside an expectation to be perfect in every area of your life. Love the show. Keep doing what you're doing, Harold B.

Very cool. Thank you, Harold. We're hoping that this show, not only, bottom line, it's about Jesus Christ.

It's about the truth of the Bible, but also it's about certain aspects of life and culture and civilizations that have made us who we are. So that's one of those things about fathers that you love them in spite of their idiosyncrasies or their, you know, this is what he does, his thing, unless it's abusive or toxic, we're not talking about that, but it's just this. He wants this like this. In our culture today, it's like, no, you can't. No, we're not going to allow that. No, that is so destroyed. And I'm like, okay, you can go do that, but you're missing something wonderful. Just like for ladies or moms, mom likes it like this and this is how she likes to do things.

No, no, nobody does that. But no, that's just too abusive and no, this is different. Okay, you can do that. You can remove all these wonderful emotions laden, you know, memories. Okay, but what are you left with?

What are you replacing it with? It seems like today's society talks out both sides of its mouth because on the one hand, you see corruption and you see just a decline of values and it's like, of course, it's because of all the absent fathers. There's no fathers and kids need fathers. On the other hand, you have fathers who are present and who are the primary influence in their children's life and it's like, y'all are too overbearing.

This is toxic behavior. You can't do this to your kids. What dad needs to do is just get down hands and knees and just be there. Well, of course you can do that, but can dad not be like, hey, that's my chair. When dad walks in the room, that's his chair.

Oh no, we cannot do that. That's just a male chauvinistic, whatever, whatever. Okay, well you're creating a whole different kind of dad that probably doesn't exist. Does he have a chair? Like dad's chair?

Not in our home. There was, not in the living room, but there was in his office, there was a chair and that was his chair. If he walked in the room and I'm sitting on his desk and doing some work that I did sometimes, without fail, I would ask, dad, you want your chair back? He said, no, no, I have to go. So he would do that.

But I would not just sit there and say, well, I have just as much right to sit in this chair as you. I'm sorry, you did not grow up right. That's right. I remember, that's a hundred percent true. And I, in our home, dad had his spot on the couch.

That was the best spot. And dad had his spot at the dinner table and we could not sit in that chair. Like if he wasn't eating, it was like, all right, whatever. But if it was dinner time, we couldn't sit in that chair. And you know what's funny is even to this day I don't sit in that chair, but I walk over there sometimes and my son is in that chair and my dad is sitting in another chair and I'm like, what is the story here? Why is he in dad's chair? Even that is a beautiful thing because that's how you remember and you go, wow, isn't that great?

And then you find parallels of that in other families. They say, oh, your dad does that too. Yeah, we wouldn't have dared done that, but he does that for grandkids. I walked in and I was like, Gavin, hey, you need to get out of papa's chair. He was like, wow, he's all right. Why is he all right? What do you mean?

That's dad's, that's papa's chair. Like growing up, like I remember playing with dad, but I would never like climb all on top of him, like kind of stuff. I wouldn't do that. I would play with him. I remember doing that, but never like climbing on top of him and all that.

Just not going to happen. But then we have pictures of Abigail when we went to visit back in 2000 and she is like climbing on top. And I'm like, I'm like, Cole, get him, get her.

And she's like, okay, come here Abby. And he's like, that's okay. That's all right. Yeah.

I saw, I actually saw some of those home movies. That would not have happened with us. Dad, dad, when dad becomes granddad, there's a shift that changes. But like you said, that's a beautiful thing. That's a sweet moment in, in life where you can see your dad kind of take on that grandfather role. But you can't have that if, if you never had the dad who had his chair.

Don't mess with that. But you want the shift. Well, what are you shifting to?

There is nothing to shift to. It's almost like you want dad to be the fun grandfather without the authority side. Yeah. And it doesn't work almost that you want dad to be that primary authority, but not over you. You know what I mean? Not, not, not over me, but I want him to be my protector and be my provider. I want him to give me all the things that he's supposed to give me, but I don't want to submit to his authority. Well, there's a reason the Bible has a lot to say about fathers, about parenting, but father specifically. Well, God is, is that father. You know, we're learning fatherhood from him.

It's not the other way around. We're learning fatherhood from him. And he is that kind of a father who is authoritative, who is holy, who will punish, destroy sin.

Right now he disciplines his children, but he punishes sin. So there is that side of him, but there's also the side that we can lovingly come to him and sit in his lap or talk to him and be casual with him, knowing the whole time that he is this above and beyond father. At the same time, he's also very kind and very understanding towards us, especially towards kids who are not kids anymore.

They are young adults, emerging adults in their 20 somethings. How is God like that with us? Well, think about it with us. God doesn't just dominate us.

He gives us the freedom. Okay. All right. You want to do that? You can do that, but I don't want you to do that. That's also an attribute that comes from God.

Yes, you have the freedom. You're an adult, but I wouldn't suggest that. And so there are many who go away from God. You know, I told somebody what I had heard one time, who is that one dad who has the most wayward children? And he said, pastors kids. Pastors.

I'm like, no, that's not what I meant. Some pastors kids may be wayward, but he said, who? I said, God. He has the most wayward kids in the world. That's a good point. Yeah.

Wow. The most wayward kids in the world. So if anybody is listening today, you're like so disappointed with yourself or you blame other people for why your kids are not walking with God. Think about God as that father who has the most wayward kids.

We don't think about God being grieved in that way or God having, you know, I don't even say those problems. So many prodigals. Yeah, exactly.

So many prodigals. Yeah. We don't think about that. And we tend to put blame and guilt on ourselves for that. Maybe some of it's just, but a lot of it is just self-pity. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Because remorse, shame. Yeah. But, but God is the one father who has so many prodigals and yet he doesn't say, that's it. I'm done.

I'm not going to love anybody anymore. Yeah. No, he still loves us.

He still welcomes us back. And who came up with the whole prodigal story? It's Jesus. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Wow. I think that's, that's an encouragement for, for me specifically, as, as you're bringing up that this is, this is God's calling because if we're truly going to be instructors or models or protectors for our children, it's not that I have to live up to this picture that my society or my culture has painted for me.

This is God's calling. Yeah. You know, because if I'm looking to what the world says a father needs to look like, I'm just going to be like an accessory.

You know what I mean? I'm just kind of there to make, to support mom and to support her journey. Or fill whatever society has created as a prototype of where a father is supposed to be. Right.

And, and yeah, I can do that. I can be the hip dad or I can be the, the dad who goes along with whatever, or I, or could there be a model for dads? Could there be a template that is across cultures and generations that appealed to me as a little boy sitting in the church yard because everything was being painted and I found the life with father book and I was like, I'm reading it. I'm not looking at my dad now.

He's not completely like this, but he is like this. And that's in India in the 1970s thinking about dads portrayed by Clarence Day from the 1930s America. I almost wanted to say, what advice would you give to dads? But what advice would you give to people about the dads in their lives?

How to relate to them, how to show them honor, how to show them respect? Well, I have in front of me 1 Corinthians 4.15. This is Paul. He says to the Corinthians who were not being very nice children.

No, not at all. You foolish Corinthians. He says, for though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers.

Damn, mic drop. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ. These are the ways of a father with his children. Beautiful. As I teach everywhere in every church.

So beautiful. So important to show the dads in our lives honor and respect and have that relationship that points us back to God as our father. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, maybe you learned something about how to relate to your dad or dads, maybe you learned something about how to step up as a dad. Let us know by sending us a text, 252-582-5028. Visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

You can learn more about the show and learn about how you can partner with us financially. Stand shoulder to shoulder with us as we impact the nations with the gospel. John, what's coming up on tomorrow's episode? Tomorrow we are talking about the Mack Daddy of daily devotionals. I'm talking about Brother O. That's Oswald Chambers. Brother O. Brother O. Oswald. I'm going to be really disappointed if I go to pick up a copy of my most recognized and it doesn't say the Mack Daddy of all daily devotionals on the top. That needs to be the tagline. If you have read daily devotionals in your life, probably you have read one of Oswald Chambers' devotionals.

I think that's a fair assessment. Let's check it out tomorrow. Love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.