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Link is in the description below. We're here in the studio with Dr. Avidan Shah, who's a PhD in retesting textual criticism. Dr. Shah, welcome to the show.
Happy, happy Thursday. First day back post-NRB. I'm going to say first show back in the studio. In the studio it is. I missed it.
I really did. It's been a busy season, as some of you know who are listening to us or watching us. It's been a busy season with NRB, and then right after NRB, teaching at Liberty University.
Just a class on hermeneutics, studying Romans, and then so many other projects that are happening back to back. So it's been busy, but this is our priority. Clearview Today is very, very important to us because this is where we talk to all of you.
This is where we have a family conversation. That's where things are right now. Lots of great news coming about, I should say. We'll probably get into that. We can't talk about it now, right? We'll probably wait. Probably wait. Alright, let's probably wait. Not much longer, though.
Stay tuned. But I'm with Dr. Shah. We are glad to be back.
Oh, yes, we are. Our verse of the day today is coming to us from Proverbs chapter 3, verse 6. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Dr. Shah, I have no problem acknowledging God when it comes to my church life. When I'm sitting in the church building, of course you want to acknowledge God, but then what about my private life?
My thoughts, my eating habits, my workout, my discipline or my lack of my discipline, my thought life? It says in all your ways acknowledge him, and I think if we're honest with ourselves, we don't acknowledge God in all our ways. Yeah, unfortunately we don't. In a Sunday morning we may acknowledge him while we're sitting in the church, but then when we go about our lives, we don't make him our chief consultant. We just kind of keep him on the side, somebody we don't necessarily need in our lives unless we need him, but yeah, he is not that important.
We don't acknowledge him. Right, and I think it's telling because it's that the way it follows it up, he will direct your paths. You know, we're always looking for the way that we should go, and we're always looking, and I think NRB even kind of tricks you into thinking like, alright, should I take this path or take this path or take this path?
Maybe I'll talk to this person and I'll come over here. I think even in life we tend to do that, but I think what set this NRB apart from last year's was that number one, you were there, and so it was a lot easier for me when like your, I mean of course Jesus Christ is our anchor, but at the same time you're sort of our anchor of this show, and so it was much easier to kind of go out and find those paths when your anchor is there, and I think each time that we talk to someone we could feel that God was putting the right people in our conversation. All those conversations we had, I would say none of them were planned. Yeah, honestly.
The people that we planned to talk to either didn't have time for us or just, it just didn't work out. Yeah, but the ones we ended up talking to were opportunities that we would have had to hire an agent to talk to them, and even then it would have been like maybe three months out that you'll get to talk to them, and later God just like kept connecting us with people who were, people we had prayed for to help us grow the vision here at Clearview today. That's right. And so I thought that was quite amazing. Every step of the way. Looking at it, I mean there's no doubt that God is the one who orchestrated it. There's no doubt that he was the one who lined those opportunities up, and that just proves that proverb true over and over again. If you trust God, if you acknowledge him, he's going to direct your paths. Amen.
Guys, don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more Clearview today. That's right. Every single donation, big or small, goes directly to the production of this show. It helps us keep the lights on in the studio.
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Thank you for being part of this community. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back 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 Clearview todayshow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, just yesterday, President Trump addressed both chambers of Congress for the first time since he took office. Right. In the second term.
Right. This is the second term that for the first time since he took office in January, he actually addressed both chambers of Congress. And he said this, and I thought this was a great quote. He said, six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it's been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four or eight years. And we're just getting started.
And you know what? I think he might be right. I think he might be right.
I think he might be right. It was a great speech. I'm just going to come out and say I thought it was a great speech. I thought that it was very interesting, some of the reactions that he got.
Yeah, it was a great speech. And it's one that I don't care whether you're Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, whoever you are, you should be able to say, okay, so this means you're going to work for the American people. You're going to help the betterment of our culture, our society. So we will support you. Now, of course, as opposition party, they can always say, okay, we're not supporting that, or we're going to fight you on that bill. We're not 100 percent behind this one.
We're going to see there needs to be some negotiation here before we go 100 percent. We're going to sit there from first words of that speech and with those silly little signs. Those little signs. Yeah, they look like little fans. They look like church fans. It's like little auction signs. Yeah, so one of them, I think they said save Medicaid, and then the other side just says false.
So if he said something they perceived as a lie, they could just hold it up and people would be like, oh, oh, he just lied. Yeah. Can I talk to our congressional leaders? That made y'all look very cheap. Yeah, the whole thing looks out lower the dignity of that building of that that hall by doing that. Yes. Okay. Few years ago when Obama was giving his speech and one of our senators said something from the balcony. That's not correct. That's not right. Even though I agreed with that person, I was like, respect the dignity of the office.
That's right. Exactly. It's a respect thing. And you prove yourself classless when you engage in behavior like that. It's not the form of social protest that you think it is.
No. The thing is, it's childish. It's childish and it looks almost hilarious. If it weren't so much at stake, like the future of our nation, it would look hilarious. These grown men, like older than you, Dr. Shaw, like 60s, 70s holding up little signs that say false and raising it when they hear something they disagree with.
That's not right. Extremely childish. In fact, I believe Mike Johnson needs to just tell them, hey, listen, to maintain the decorum of this building, of this edifice, those are not allowed.
Yes, I 100 percent agree. We didn't say anything. I know verbally you're not saying something, but visually you are.
And it's about the same thing. So you know you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to. You can sit there and not clap. You can sit there and not stand.
We get it. But to do that is not allowed. I agree. They actually, so Al Green, who's one of the representatives from Texas, he interrupted and started shouting and they did kick him out. Yeah, that was so low class. They kicked him out and I was like, I thought it was so, I thought it was appropriate that they kicked him out.
Right. Because he said that we have to maintain the decorum of, but I'm with you. I feel like the signs also lowered the decorum of what it is that they're doing. Like all of this, this open descent while the president is speaking. No, I don't.
I just haven't seen that in the past. And I think if it were anyone other than Trump, they would never allow it. Yeah, this isn't news, but it's just, it's saddening to see people who are so, and I mean, he's not your candidate. He's not the one you voted for. Fine. But you're so anti Trump, you're so anti the president that you can't even celebrate the good that's happening in our country.
Yes. Objectively good things are happening and you can't acknowledge that because you're so focused on how much you hate this man. Do you feel like Dr. Shah, that the policies are really a mask? Because this whole thing, I don't think that Al Green was so into Medicaid, like like that was the whole thing. Like Trump was claiming there was going to be a mandate and this proposed cut budget cut to meant to Medicaid. And he was so offended, so outraged that he just could not contain himself from standing up and screaming, no mandate, no mandate.
But I think Ryan just kind of hit nail on the head. This has nothing to do with these policies. I think this is anti Trump. Yeah, I think you're 100% right. I think, you know, they did not, they did not, not each of those senators were at home making those signs for themselves. They were given those signs by somebody. That's great. Okay. They're all exactly the same.
They look the same, same color, same height, same stem. So these signs were handed to them. Now that should tell you that that whole, whole theatrics was created and crafted by somebody. Now I'm not saying for a moment that these people are not guilty because for them to hold those signs up and do what they did is wrong. But somebody said, hey, so here's what we want y'all to do. Now these are senators, my goodness. Yeah.
Yeah. This isn't like the high school year committee. These are not, these are not like your, your high school you know, running for the local class president. No, no. These are very, very important, powerful people with law degrees, with, with with you know, years of experience and have worked on Capitol Hill, have worked in their state Senate.
I mean, these are very accomplished people taking orders from whoever that was who said, here's a, here's a fan for you. Here's a sign for you. Now here's what we want y'all to do. The moment he does that, the moment he says anything, hold that sign up. Okay. We'll play the part. Some of these people have gone to University of Chicago Law School.
Some have gone to Harvard Law School, Yale Law. And you're taking a sign from somebody? Yeah, some little paper sign and holding it up in the, in the House of Congress. And it's not some little paper sign.
It's some paper sign designed by somebody and then passed out to all these people. Right. Right. Have we seen any like this sort of behavior before?
Maybe not with the signs necessarily, but like this level of childishness. Yeah. Shouting at the president, you know, at times this has happened.
It just not, not not right. Yeah. Well, not in the middle of the speech. Yeah. I'm glad that you brought up the whole thing with Obama and people have done it to George Bush and I'm sure people have done it to other presidents.
But when it happens, it was almost laughed off. Like, what an idiot. What a moron. The president's doing his best. And now it's like these people, the ones shouting down the president from within the halls of Congress, they're the heroes. They're standing up for America's rights. And I'm wondering where this new, this new narrative is coming from. It used to be that people who, I mean, even take like, just like a church or like a, like a town hall, if someone stands up and causes a disturbance, they're not heroes. They're disturbing the order of, of procession. I think it's just a photo op so they can send it back to their constituents and say, look, I spoke up, I held a sign, I held a sign.
And so they can get votes the next election. That's pretty much all that is. Yeah. President Trump made a point and we have a, we have a clip on it. This is going viral right now.
Everybody's talking about it since this just happened yesterday. But I want you to, I want to play this and listen to what he's saying because I think he's speaking a lot of truth, something that I hadn't considered before. This is my fifth such speech to Congress. And once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do.
I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announced the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won't do it no matter what. Five, five times I've been up here. It's very sad and it just shouldn't be this way. Look at the signs. Musk steals. Grown people. There's more than one sign there. Like the same Medicaid sign, same, same Musk steal sign, same, same falls.
Of course, most of them have falls behind there. It's like, come on man, who gave you the sign? And do you not have enough dignity in your own self and self worth to say, Hey, look, I can make my own voice heard. I don't need you to give me a sign that I need to hold up.
So this, this is pretty cheap. It does not, does not reflect much brain power there. No, not at all. None. Yeah. Get my picture. Get my picture. Send it back to my people back home. Oh, yep.
You get Medicaid. Somebody says like, I didn't get the picture. So Democrats sitting before me for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America for the good of our nation. Let's work together and let's truly make America great again.
So to the video cuts off there, but there was half a standing ovation. The Republicans of course all stood up and of course there's no Democrat moved, but um, I thought he made a great point there and I, I didn't really consider it when I did consider it just made me sad where he said, there's, there's nothing I can do. I can't say anything until for the next four years, this is how it's going to be.
I will be just diametrically opposed on principle. Yeah. Yeah. It's sad. It's sad. But here's the thing. Their people, the ones who are holding up these signs, their people are definitely waking up and realizing, oh, wait a minute. Not all of them.
Of course there are some who will never change. This is, this is the, this is an ideological war, but many of the people are like, wow, the jobs are coming back. The economy is getting better.
Difficult to argue with results. Yeah. I'm paying less at the grocery store, less at the pumps for gas. So war, we're not like launching into world war three. We're not just throwing our troops out there in harm's way left and right. Maybe maybe, maybe there's something to this, but I better not say it.
Yeah. Uh, speaking of war, a lot of people were writing into the show asking us, uh, why we weren't talking about the whole thing with, uh, prime minister, Liz Zelensky and president Trump. And the answer is, cause we were getting back from NRB. Yeah, we were not here. We were not here and that doesn't made it difficult, but no, we'll be glad to talk about it. Uh, it's sad.
It's sad. Uh, Zelensky should have been briefed properly. Yeah. On how you approach the office of the president. He knows better, but sometimes, you know, all the theatrics gets in the way.
I mean, he's an actor, so all the theatrics gets in the way and, and he sh he should have known better than to get in there and, and do that and should have just been a little humble and stopped and said, wait a minute, wait a minute, I'm here to get help instead of what do you mean? You know, what is happening? Do you understand? Have you been there? I mean, come on, what are you doing?
Well, I love, what are you doing? I loved, and I think a lot of Americans really loved that the president put him back in his place and even cause he started coming at JD Vance too. Like until you know, until you've been there until you've seen, you don't know. And then president Trump was like, like, ew, stop. Are you coming in the oval office talking crazy? Yeah.
Are you really coming to the oval office talking crazy like that? Well, I've heard different, different things. You know, I've heard that somebody told him said, look, when you go in there, do not take any deal from him unless it's like this millions of dollars and all that stuff. And maybe he came in with that false understanding that yeah, I'm going to go in there and I'm just going to, you know, flex a little bit. And, and it was like, oh yeah, whoever gave me that advice was not your friend.
Yeah. They, they messed you up cause you came here looking for aid. Well, you came here looking for salvation posture of someone in need of help.
I like bowing up to the person who's going to help them. Like, now let me tell you what you're going to. It's like, it's like he was, it's like he was ashamed to be on the losing end of invasion. Objectively look at it. I mean, you've got the U S like, like, like if you've ever been in a fight and you just got your knocks, your lights knocked out and then you had to stand up and act like you won the fight. Like you keep talking, but the guy's gone.
That's what it was like. Personally, I think Russia is wrong. Ukraine should allow to be their own country and do their own thing. It is wrong what Putin has done. It's wrong, wrong, wrong. Every way is wrong. But I think the way this has been handled, I would say it's very Democrat driven. And it has not been handled well, but now it's so unfair.
Now it's so unfair that president Trump is a bad guy. Jenny Vance is the bad guy. Trust me, I've been there.
Two people are fighting. We come to help or there's a bad situation. We come to help and all of a sudden, you know, the art of deflection. Now, now you're the problem. You're the problem.
And that's what happened is like, wait, stop, stop. No, it's not. No, it's not.
I'm not buying it. Yeah. Well, you know, he's challenging and I like this because you don't often see or you haven't often seen US presidents negotiating with foreign leaders to accept diplomacy on the United States as terms. And I think that's how it used to be. And it's showing us that assertive leadership actually does work. And it is working.
It has been working. And I think the American people have forgotten that. I still believe what Russia has done to Ukraine is wrong. I still believe that we need to help Ukraine.
And I still believe Zelensky can be a good guy. It's time to get on the right side, buddy. Get on the side that will actually help you instead of taking advantage of you. So get on the right side. And the right side is with President Trump and with J.D.
Vance. I mean, these are the good guys. I haven't heard any more come from that situation.
But do you think there's like other conversations in the future where he might come back and say, look, I think so. I truly believe so because we cannot let Russia do what they're doing. Russia, China, Iran.
Come on. South North Korea. I mean, put North Korea in that mix, too. But Russia, China, Iran. I mean, come on.
We cannot we cannot side with them. That's right. It just it proves the point over and over again that, you know, President Trump is trying to do what's good for America. He's trying to he's trying to be helpful. He's trying to be a good guy. But he continually gets the blame. He continually is the one who's like, this is your fault, whether it's from the Democratic Party, whether it's, you know, Zelensky coming in here and pointing a finger in Trump's face.
He's the one who is kind of extending the olive branch. And yet it's thrown back in his face. Why? Why does that happen often with strong leadership? That is a great, great question is one I identify with because sometimes I've been in that situation. It happens because you're dealing with people of small minds, small visions. So when they get around somebody who has a much, much, much bigger vision of life and of the people he is serving, what happens is the people who are small minded, they they have nothing to lose.
So they can only see the immediate like, all I want right now is this. And again, I don't think Zelensky himself is a bad person. I think he has been given some very, very wrong advice over the past four years or ever since this conflict began. So it's easy to say America is not helping. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Time out.
Time out. Now that President Trump is in the office, you need to rephrase that. Maybe start with the Democrats haven't helped. Then maybe talk about Democrats may say all the things like, hey, Russia is wrong. We just stand with Ukraine.
Russia is going to keep going. By the way, that's what Republicans were saying. How interesting it is that the Democrats are saying that now. I mean, that's what the conservatives were saying. Ever since the invasion began.
Snag a script when it works for you. Yeah. And they kind of snagged that script and made it into like, as if, as if it's a, you know, it's, it's their, the liberals duty to go ahead and protect this little country of Ukraine.
No, that's not the case. America has always been standing, especially conservatives. Republicans have been standing against Russia, right? So I don't know how that makes sense, but it's very easy to blame that person because you have nothing to lose.
They have a lot in their favor. So you feel like, yeah, I can, I can deflect this bullet. You're wearing three bulletproof vest.
I don't hardly have anything. You can survive the bullet. So I'm going to back up. Let you have it. Let you have it going. Oh, you got shot. But see, you got three bulletproof vest.
So you can get back up. You're fine. You're fine.
Now can you help me again? Please. Please, sir. Please, sir.
I want some financial and military aid. Yeah. So any, any word to the American people? Cause I think a lot of people are seeing this and, and for, for what it's worth, I do believe, like you said, Dr. Shah, that people are waking up. This is not, this is not, I don't think the outrage on this as as far spread as people would have. You see that from people who have, you know, historically stood with the Democratic party or stood with the left.
I mean, we have people coming forward saying like, this isn't me anymore. Oh, my father in law. Maybe, maybe I'm not leaning full Republican, but I'm not, I'm not for whatever that is. My, my father in law is as staunchly anti Republican as it gets. And he voted for president Trump. He said the Democratic party is, is not what it was.
And the values are no longer the same. So the question he asked me a few moments ago, what was that question again? Any word to the American people just about what they're hearing and, and just any encouragement that you would have? Here's what I would say. I would tell them what my, my professor back in the day, he was a professor of pastoral ministry and this is going back to 1995. He told me a simple statement that has helped me tremendously over the years.
I haven't often followed it, but when I did follow it, I realized I need to follow it more, which is this. Don't let your enemy define you or don't let your enemies define you. The enemy would put, would, would put a label on you. And instead of immediately peeling that label off and throwing it back at them or saying, no, no, no, that's not me.
What many times we ended up doing is like, that's right. And let me tell you why. So we accept the label and then try to justify it even though the label doesn't have to apply to anything that doesn't have a great point. So if somebody says, you know what, you are a jerk, you are, why are you a jerk? Why are you a jerk? And then if you come back with like, let me tell you why it may look like I was a jerk, but this is no, no, no, no, no. You have to stop and say, I am not a jerk.
You are putting the label that belongs to you on me. Why are you such a bully? I mean, you are such a bully that some of the things you do are so wrong and evil.
You just say, wait a minute. No, I'm not a bully. Let me tell you why I'm not a bully. Let me also tell you why I think you are the bully because you're bullying me by putting that label on me and then saying you're the bully.
That itself is an act of bullying. So I believe what Republicans should do is immediately reject the narrative that we are for Putin, that we are supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine and say, no, we're claiming it back. I mean, that what we do in that church, we claim back what belongs to Jesus, right? That old statement that was by one of my favorite theologians, Kuiper, Abraham Kuiper, who said there's not a single inch of ground in this entire creation over which Jesus, the Lord and King does not say it's mine.
Means it's all his. So claim it back. I would tell the Republican Party claim back, claim back what is rightfully yours, which is this. We fight for the sovereignty of Ukraine. We fight against a communist run regime like Russia with these old USSR KGB people who are running this show. No, we stand against that.
That's right. And we said this at the very beginning of President Trump's second term is that we see lots and lots of great days for America. And I think these last 43, what did he say, 43 days that he's been the president, I think we have seen a lot of great stuff. So it's not that we're like predicting the future and we're saying, hey, we just have this feeling.
It's that God is revealing to us through all of these things that he's showing us through the media, through he's showing us through the Clear View Today show, through all these articles that we get on our phone, that he's moving and that he's working. God's not done with America yet. And I would also say, send someone, talk to the president of Ukraine and say, hey, let's talk again. For one, you should not have gone to the Democrats to get help because you didn't get any help, did you? Did you?
No. Now here's a man who can help you. Okay, so now let's shake it off and go back and say, I'm sorry. I went to the wrong people because who else can I go to? They were in power. They didn't help me squat, but here I am.
Can you please help me? And maybe, maybe put on a suit. Yeah, that maybe you're not in an active war zone right now. Well, I shouldn't say that.
They are an active war zone. He just needs to, he just needs to, you know, respect the office. That's right. Man, for, for so many of these instances it comes about to respect the office.
Oh yeah. Respect the office of the president. You might not agree with everything that he stands for, even if you're on the opposite, especially if you're on the opposite political party, but respect, respect the office.
I'm sure if we had had the chance to go and meet previous presidents, we would have at least put on a suit. Yes, absolutely. I will tell you this. I mean, if, if I don't care if it's a Democrat president or whoever, but if I were invited to go see him and you know, had the opportunity, I would definitely be on my best. Oh yes. A hundred percent. That's just what you do.
That's the office of the president. That's right. So helpful for us guys. Make sure you join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clear Read Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes. If you want to re-listen or share it with a friend and you can always support us financially at Clear Read Today show.com. John, what do you want to plug as we close the show today?
Definitely want to plug Dr. Shot and Nicole's book, 30 Days of Praying for America. Lots of great reviews on this. Lots of praises, lots of plaudits on Amazon. I was going to say that... Plaudits? Plaudits.
Yeah. It's praise to praise. I was going to say that President Trump was looking for praises and plaudits, but I didn't want to paint him an immediately. But you can absolutely get this book. That was the secret word. Plaudits. It means to praise. You can get 30 Days of Praying for America daily devotions to heal our nation along with the other two books in this series on Amazon.com. Book four is coming out very soon. You can also get all of our original music from Clear View Worship on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, anywhere digital music is streamed or sold.
That's right. Make sure you guys join us tomorrow. Lots of great conversation to be had. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.
