Monday, January 1st | Redirecting 2024

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A healthier, happier you is just a click away. That said, let's start the show. Well, Happy New Year, Clearview Today family.

My name is John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview 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 ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have a question, anything that you want to write in, suggest we talk about here on the show, you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. As always, you guys can help us keep the conversation moving forward by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. Leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to go ahead and leave you a link in the description so you can do just that. Talking about the new year today, our verse of the day, very first verse of 2024. And it's coming to us from Psalm 65 and verse 11. It says, You crown the year with your goodness and your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks and the valleys are covered with grain. They shout for joy.

They also sing. Love starting off the year with the Psalms. You know, our theme last year, or maybe it was 2022, but I believe it was last year, was abundance.

And it's just really, really cool. I actually didn't even plan it this way to be able to see this, that, Lord, you crown the year with your goodness. Everything that we were able to do and accomplish as a church this year is crowned with the goodness of God. Because that's really the reward. When we say the crown, we mean the reward, the trophy, the award that we get at the end of the competition or whatever. It's not success. It's not money. It's not fame.

It's not notoriety. It's impact for the goodness of God. It's God's goodness shining through our church.

And our encouragement to you guys is that you would make that your theme as well. It says you crown the year with your goodness. Your paths drip with abundance. There are some translations that say it dripped with fatness. It's just this big, overwhelming, I guess just wad of God's goodness.

I hate to even say that here on the radio, but you can squeeze it and it just drips out. The paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness and the little hills rejoice on every side. That's what we're doing here at the Clearview Today Show. We are rejoicing in God's goodness.

We're glad that you're here joining us here in 2024. You'll have to excuse us. Ryan is not in today. Ryan is traveling for the holidays.

He's going to be out tomorrow too. But I feel like we could just chat, me and you. We're here on the radio right now. We're talking about all the things that we're going to be doing in 2024.

Not just Clearview Church, but even us as Christians in the world. We're sharing this world together. We're moving forward with God's goodness. And so planning out the new year.

Planning out, okay, what's going on in 2024? What is God doing through us as a show? What is he doing in your life, in your family's life, in your church's life, in your ministry's life? What is it that he's doing? Because one thing we're very well aware of is that he is doing something. He's moving and he's working. And so our job as Christians, especially Christians in the ministry, if you're listening to this, then I'm guessing you're either in the ministry or you volunteer in the ministry. Or if nothing else, you're sensitive to God's moving and working in this community and in this nation. What is it that he's doing?

And how can we be part of it? One of the things that I was actually talking to my wife about was how we're going to get our kids more plugged in this year. My oldest son, Gavin, he's three years old, he just started Awana. It was a big thing where we wanted him to be potty trained so that he could go to Awana with all of his friends. And he did it. One way that I was not proud of my son, and this is something I was going to share on the radio with you guys, is he shaved his own head.

It sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not. He actually shaved his own head. What happened was this. We were going to my parents' house to celebrate for the holidays or whatever. So my other son, Holden, he's a year old. He's actually a year old today. Happy birthday, son!

He was born on January 1st. He had my electric razor, so I got it for Christmas. I actually got a nose hair trimmer for Christmas, an electric beard set, and I was taking it out, shaving up or whatever.

I don't know how this happened, but I put it inside the drawer, and Holden actually opened up the drawer and took it out. So I'm in the hallway, and I just hear, and I'm like, what on earth did I leave the razor on? And I go and look, and he's got the razor in his hand.

And so Ellie, my wife, starts freaking out. She's like, get the razor from him! Get the razor!

Don't let him do that! So I picked the razor up, said it. I don't know why I did this. But I set it on the counter, got the baby out, and walked him to his room. Now, Gavin was in the bathroom this whole time. He was using the potty. We were potty training him.

That's where I was going with this. He looks at the razor that's on the sink, and he's like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to be like Daddy. And he picks the razor up, and I'm not joking, takes it to his own head, and just bzzt, bzzt. So I'm putting him in his crib, and Ellie's like, he just shaved his own head!

You need to get in here! He shaved his head! And I was like, what? Rushed in there, sure enough, my son has two big bald patches on the side of his head. So now I'm thinking, what's going to happen when he walks into a Juana?

He walks into a Juana, and now he's got two big bald patches on his head. That was not a stellar way to start off our 2024. But you know what? He's just going to have to learn this is the kind of thing that happens. You've got to take risks starting up on the new year. You've got to take risks. That one, unfortunately, didn't pan out for him.

But listen, that's no reason not to take them. We're going to talk about that a little more, especially as we're planning out our new year this 2024. We're going to talk about that on the show. We're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, I'll have Dr. Shah with me, and we're going to talk about this.

We're going to talk about how you go forward, planning out an entire year as you're in the ministry. Stay tuned if you have any questions, any topics that you want to hear on future shows. Again, that number is... No, that's not right. That's my own phone number. Sorry about that.

Again, if you have any questions or comments, anything that you want to write in, suggest we talk about on future episodes, you can always do that by texting that number, 2525825028. We're going to cut to a break, and we'll be right back. Hey, hey, you. Me?

No, not you. You, listening to the Clearview Today show. You're here right now because you love Christian talk radio, and I'm 100% down for that. But what if I told you that Clearview Church also produces original music?

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You can worship God in any situation. In the car, at home, in the gym, while cleaning your house, wherever you are, we'll be right there with you. You can check us out on Apple Music or on Spotify, anywhere digital music is consumed. We've got a few singles out right now. We have an EP out as well. And right now, at this moment actually, we are working on our first ever full-length original album.

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Let's hop back into the show. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us at our website. That's ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions, suggestions for Dr. Shah, things that we could talk about here on the show, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

You can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. And we are here starting off 2024 at the Clearview Today Studio with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament Textual Criticism. Dr. Shah, happy new year, my friend. Happy new year to you as well. So good to see you here on this brilliant 2024, starting off on a Monday, Garfield style. We know Ryan couldn't be here with us today, but we wanted to talk about some fun stuff that we've got coming up for the new year.

Yes. 2023, good, bad, ugly, some of the things that you felt like 2023 went well, some of the things that maybe a lot, and we've heard this a lot, that 2023 was a tough year for a lot of people. It was a tough year for us.

I'll be honest with you, it was a tough year. For example, a big one was my mom passing away. She got terribly sick, and as you know, the whole fiasco over getting the passport and the visa, and then to get there within a matter of two, three days, and then to see her for the final moments.

I would say half a day, but it's not even like half a day as in good 12 hours, no, it was just bits and pieces here and there, all together combined, it would have been maybe 30 minutes is what I got to see her. And then the next day she passed away, then the funeral and all that. So it was a tough, tough season in that way. There were some other things that we had to weather through, health and all that.

But on the other hand, we had a great year in so many ways. For one, I had the opportunity to go to Turkey. I always wanted to go there and follow Paul's missionary journeys.

Got to do that. Also got to go to Greece. Both in the same year. Same year.

Great year. And so again, we kind of extended Paul's missionary journey from Asia Minor into Greece and did that and took a good group with us as well and filmed out there. And then the paper, the article, Ephesians 5.30, came out and it went really well. And of course, several other things came out. The book came out. We reached the original text.

On sale right now, Amazon.com, link in the description. That's right. Shameless plug. So that was a good thing. And then, of course, the building next door. The new sanctuary is going up and it's amazing. But I just want people to know, sometimes all people see are the bragging points. The book, the new sanctuary, the trips, all these things. But you don't realize every day there are struggles.

That's right. There are health problems. There are financial problems. There are relationship problems. There are struggles people are going through that we're helping. So all these things kind of sort of come together. So anyways, I don't know if you were expecting a long answer. Oh, I love it.

I love it. Look, this is our show. We can answer long.

I love that you do because it reminds people that the struggles that they go through in life are part of life. And one of the things that you told me, I think back in like 2022 or a long time ago, you told me once that life is really messy. It is messy. Life is complicated. It is messy. It is complicated.

And we want to simplify it as best we can and present it for people to look at. Yeah. And I think one of the things that draws people to you and to our show is that the messiness and the complication of life gets talked about. Yeah.

Even in your field of study, for us to say, okay, we have complete, solid faith that all of these manuscripts, it's like, well, they are messy. Yeah. You know, it's complicated. That's right. And there's not one simple, easy answer, so also with life.

Yeah. It is complex. It is messy. But if you look at it from biblical, right, Christ-focused perspective, then there is meaning in the messiness. That's true.

There is a purpose behind it. I was talking to a gentleman just a little while ago, and he was talking about how life is a mess and it's crazy, but he is trusting God. And I said, you're right. You have to. If not, you will lose your mind. If not, you'll get discouraged. If not, you'll become hopeless and full of doubt and uncertainties and fears about the future.

I mean, it's not going to be a good place. Right. You have to put on the Christ lens. You have to put on the spectacles of the word of God. You have to let the Holy Spirit redirect your mind. Right. Did you like the way I did that? I did. Yeah, that was pretty good. Redirect your mind. That was slick. I was saying just from the earthly, fleshly, selfish perspective to the heavenly, spiritual, godly perspective.

That's right. One of the things that we're big about, and we talked about this all last week, is planning and casting that vision for the new year. What is God going to do, not only for Clearview Church, but for you listening out there in 2024? And I know I'm the type where if, and I got my wife to help me a lot with this, where you write it down. You put it in a bulletin board, or you put it in a bulleted list, I should say.

Put it on your whiteboard. Then when you come to the end of 2023 or whatever year you're in, you start to get disappointed because it didn't go the way that you wanted it to go. And you start to get frustrated. It's like when your GPS doesn't work on you.

Right. Like, I'm trusting in this thing. I laid the course.

I laid the plan. Do you ever talk to your GPS? Oh, man, it's not good when I talk to my GPS. It's funny, too, because Siri just never gets quiet.

This thing is so dumb. Oh, yeah. Like, what the heck?

Who made this? And some genius somewhere is like, I put a lot of work in that. I'm like, yeah, but it won't be quiet, especially when Siri's repeating super, super, super long directions.

And the turn is right up here, so she's going to say it three times. This took me around my elbow to get to my thumb. What in the world? Yeah. It's one of the weirdest things that you could... It's one of the greatest inventions to have, but then when it doesn't work, you want to make sure everyone knows. My dad still carries an Atlas.

Oh, does he really? Do you have an Atlas in your truck? I do when I go on long trips.

I definitely pull it out, because let's say if you're in a zone, in an area where the phone is not... The internet is not working as well, which is sort of hard to find. I know there are some people right now saying, oh, come on. My phone, when I go here, it doesn't work. I get it.

Android users probably say that. Most places are pretty good now. Things are changing, which is good. There was one trip we went on, I think it was Arizona or somewhere, where you pulled out the Atlas. And I was low-key impressed. I was like, oh, look at Dr. Shaw pulling out the Atlas. And he had it spread all over the dashboard, all big, tracing the roads and stuff. And then it was me growing up in... I mean, I grew up in the 90s, but I just wasn't using an Atlas, because I'm so young. And so I'm just sitting there kind of waiting.

I'm like, I trust he knows what he's looking at. That's right. But it is one of those things where you get to the end of the year.

Life or this year didn't go the way that I wanted to, and so now I'm frustrated. And it reminds me... I'm glad you brought up Paul's missionary journey, because it reminds me of the whole thing that we talked about before you guys went to Greece, which was that Macedonian call that wasn't on his radar. Yeah. I want to read from Acts 16, verse 6. So it sort of sets the tone for what we want to talk about, which is, now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Does not jump to mind when I think of the Holy Spirit's like... Forbidding. ...leading, yeah. Preaching the word.

You would think everywhere the Holy Spirit said it is, right? Go for it. That's right. Go for it. Here's an opportunity.

Here's an opportunity. But here, the Holy Spirit is actually telling them, not right now. No. And after they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. Wow. This is just not what I would call typical Holy Spirit behavior.

I'm putting that in air quotes for the radio audience. Right. Surpassing by Mysia, they came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately we... It means Luke is going along with him in this missionary journey at this point. Immediately, we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them, concluding.

Yeah. I love the... You pointed something out. We actually filmed a documentary. And when I say we, I mean you guys in Greece filmed this documentary...

In Macedonia, in Troas, or near there, I would say. We were documenting the Macedonian call. Yeah, and you pointed out that there's a... Even in this passage, you read the shift in perspective, because it says now we... I'm sorry, when they had gone through, but then it ends, we concluded that the Lord had called us to preach, meaning that you're right, this is the point... This is the turning point where Luke starts to join them, and now it becomes their mission throughout Greece. Right.

I love that. The passage that we just read gets misinterpreted and misapplied a lot, because any little obstacle is considered to be the hand of the Holy Spirit. So any odd dream is taken to be a vision for God.

You know, I had a dream, or I've been thinking, or I was... It just hit me. Before you use this passage of the Macedonian call to justify your dream, your vision, your thought, be careful that you are properly interpreting the word. Right. Right. So let's back up from Acts 16 to Acts 15 and see the context. That's the key.

Okay. So in Acts 15, verse 1, it says, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now, these men were from Judea, and they were insisting that the Gentiles should be circumcised in order to be saved.

And Paul gives us more information in Galatians. That's what I was going to say. Like, what do they gain by these... Are these the Judaizers? Yes. Okay.

Yes. It's like the door has been flung open to the Gentiles. Right. Now, keep in mind, the door has always been flung open to the Gentiles. Right. But they had to sort of follow the rituals, circumcision, purification laws, sacrifices in order to get to God. But with the coming of Jesus Christ, it was like, all that is done. So the door was always open to the Gentiles.

Right. But now you don't have to be circumcised. You don't have to keep the Old Testament law and become a Jewish person, become an Israelite, become a Hebrew in order to be saved, because that's sort of how it worked in the past. But the Judaizers disagreed with that. They said, this is making it too easy.

People are going to misuse this. What about righteousness? What about holy living?

Because these things contribute to a holy life. And you're taking that away? No.

They need to do this. Okay. Yes. Salvation is by grace through faith.

Anyone can come to Jesus. That's always been the way. That is always going to be the way.

But you also have to keep the law. So Paul basically had to take his gloves off and say, here comes the proverbial smackdown. Yeah.

Because he didn't play that. That's right. And what's awesome to me is that a Jewish man who was not just any Jewish man, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

That's right. He was trained under Gamaliel, a very famous rabbi of the time. He was steeped in Judaism. He was not a Jerusalem Jewish person. He was coming from Asia Minor. Sometimes people from outside are even more spiritual than people from inside.

So many things that Paul could have been like, you know what? Yeah, you got a point. Guys, that door has always been open to Gentiles. But in the past, for them to come to God, they had to do all these Old Testament things. For you to come to God now, you got to keep all these Old Testament things.

It's like they wanted them to suffer a little bit as they have suffered. Yeah. You got to do the circumcision, man.

Look, you may not have to go to the temple and stuff like that. Circumcision, that's part of life. Yeah.

And it's easy to hide behind that spirituality and say, circumcision is what sets the Jewish people, that's what sets us apart. Man, that's a sign of the covenant. Yeah. You got to do it. Yeah.

And it's easy to also point, I like what you said earlier about, make sure that you're interpreting scripture when you're looking at these dreams and these goals that you're having. Because they could easily have pointed descriptions and say, see, this is what it says. This is the law. I didn't write this. By the way, a little aside here. I find it funny when people say, you know, the Jewish people are no longer relevant. That the covenant now is with the church and we are the new Israel. I'm like, do you keep the circumcision?

No, you don't have to. Oh, why? Because it's infant baptism now. Huh? For real, they say that? I mean, they won't say it in those words, but that's really what they're doing.

Wow. That's like the mark of the covenant. So my response to them was, man, that's a cop out. Yeah, it is. So you don't want to be circumcised, but you'd rather just bathe a baby.

And you think, hey, that's good. That's good enough. Says who? What is the proof? Where does it say, oh, the infant baptism is now the new circumcision? Does it say that? Infant baptism is nowhere in the New Testament, is it?

No. Whereas the circumcision is actually there. There's a stronger case for that because it's actually there. But even then, the Judaizers are twisting this. And I find it funny because some of my heroes who I love and adore and read their commentaries and their systematic theologies, when they get to that point, again, just like Romans 9 through 11, they also lose their head here. And they'll make such a strong case for infant baptism.

And I'm like, are you serious? If somebody else had done this regarding, say, salvation by works, you would have tore them to pieces. And you would have done it contextually and grammatically, historically. And every New Testament hermeneutical tool you would have used to show how horrible that thing is. But then you do the same thing with infant baptism. Yeah, for some reason, infant baptism is like the golden goose.

That one's fine. That one is the true mark of the covenant. So there's zero New Testament evidence for it. Instead of circumcision, which is kind of painful, let's just baptize the baby. The baby doesn't know. Yeah, and then he's saved. And it's fine. So they will truly believe that.

They won't say necessarily that the baby is saved. It's sort of like it's part of the covenant community or something. OK, OK. But I feel like it just introduces so much confusion. It sure does.

And division. And I think it will ultimately lead, and not that it will, I'm sure it's been doing so for hundreds of years, but everybody's questioning each other's salvation. And I feel like the more things that you introduce, the less assurance you have. Bottom line, baptism doesn't save you. We know that. But it is a very significant part of our Christian life. And it should be celebrated, but celebrated the right way, not in this way. But anyway, going back to what you had talked about, so there was confusion and division in the early church. And people were questioning each other's salvation and all that stuff. So Paul and Barnabas had an argument over this. And there was a big fight about this. And next thing you know, the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to consult the apostles and the elders at the mother's church. And so in Acts 15, 7, when there had been much dispute, they, Peter stood up along with James and John and others, other apostles, elders, and brethren, and made the decree that the Judaizers had no authority to interfere with the salvation of the Gentiles, and that salvation is only by grace through faith.

Amen. And I love that they fought over something that truly mattered. And I think you've said this on the show so many times, but church people will fight over the silliest stuff, just the silliest stuff. But then it becomes time to fight over doctrine, over things that matter.

And those aren't things that we can give up without a fight. But I praise God for Paul and Barnabas. They stood up against this. And in the end, the Jerusalem church, or the leaders, gave them the right hand of fellowship, Galatians 2.9. And the question that comes to my mind is, why did God allow all this? Why couldn't he have just changed the hearts of the people in such a way that they would have been right from the get-go, on the right page, the same page, on the right track? We wouldn't have all this problem of people arguing and fussing and Judaizers coming in and confusing. Why did all this have to go on? My answer is this. All this mess, not just in the biblical context, but also in our personal lives, is a blessing in disguise.

That's true. God allows these things to happen, because let's just talk about Paul. He went through all this. And through all this came two very critical books when it comes to our salvation, the book of Galatians and the book of Romans. So having to go through all that drama and all that mess solidified Paul's thinking towards theology and doctrine. I won't necessarily say solidified, because I think he was being led by the Holy Spirit, but it definitely brought out two letters that gave us the teachings that we need today, Galatians and Romans.

Wow. And if he hadn't gone through that mess, good chance we wouldn't have those books. We wouldn't have those books. So that had to happen for these books to happen, so today you and I can read those books and be so blessed. But imagine him going through that, and I can imagine he must have felt like we all feel when we have to go through drama and mess, and it's like, oh my goodness, I gotta get through this.

I just have to put this behind me. Not seeing, and maybe being led by the Holy Spirit, maybe he did see or have some wisdom there, but same with us. When we go through things like that in life that seem to be just senseless suffering, or senseless draw, or senseless stress, God is not just getting us through it, he's working it together for good. Now another important thing that happened through all these controversies and ups and downs is that when all this was done, the dust settled, Paul wanted to go and visit those churches that were rocked by the controversy. And of course you know about the falling out between Paul and Barnabas over at John Mark. So Paul chose Silas, and they started going through Syria and Cilicia, and when they came to Derby and Lystra, this is where he met a young man. Do you know who that young man was? Hmm, Derby and Lystra, was it Timothy?

That's right, that's right. So as you know, Timothy's mother was Jewish, grandmother was Jewish, father was Greek, and on and on. We would have never had this happen if Paul hadn't gotten into that mess, and then decided to go back through those churches. He wouldn't have met Timothy, and we wouldn't have First Second Timothy. The pastoral epistles would not have been there. And when they came to Troas is when he heard the vision of the Macedonian man saying, come over and help us. So the whole ministry towards the Greek Isles would not have happened. Amazing how we've come full circle, that all that stuff Paul had to go through gave us these things that we're so thankful for today, these books of the Bible.

And then same with us, all the things that we have to go through in life, all the things that we went through in 2023, could it be that God is working and using them together for good? Amen. So important for us to remember, you can find us online at thecleerviewtodayshow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shaw, any future topics that you'd like to write in, suggest we talk about, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us those questions or those topic suggestions at contact at cleerviewtodayshow.com. Don't forget, you can also support us financially on that same site, that's cleerviewtodayshow.com. Big thank you to Mighty Muscadine for sponsoring this episode. Make sure you check out mightymuscadine.com. Any purchase that you make with that promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y, is going to help us at the Clearview Today Show. It's gonna help you live a better and healthier life. We love you guys, we'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.