Log in to see your favorites.

Log In
Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah

Series

Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah

Dr. Abidan Shah

Engaging mind and heart for the gospel of Christ. If you like this content and want to support the show you can visit us at clearviewtodayshow.com. Don't forget to rate and review our show! To learn more about us, visit us at

See more

clearviewbc.org. If you have any questions or would like to contact us, email us at contact@clearviewtodayshow.com or text us at 252-582-5028.

Podcasts

Share
More from Dr. Abidan Shah

Older episodes

  1. 25Nature Tells You There's a God — Only Scripture Tells You Who He IsHow do we dig into who God actually is? In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Systematic Theology series by moving from yesterday's question — does God exist — to today's: who is He? Our inner sense tells us there's a God out there. It doesn't tell us His name, His character, or what He wants from us. For that, Scripture is essential.We walk through why the Bible simply assumes God's existence from its very first four words — "In the beginning, God" — and why nature itself, according to Romans 1:20 and Acts 14:17, testifies to a Creator without ever naming Him. Then we take on one of the hardest questions people ask: what about those who've never heard the gospel? Dr. Abidan Shah reframes the whole question — humanity does not seek God; God seeks humanity, knocking on every heart since Eden, and His plan for reaching the person searching in one century was often set in motion generations earlier.The episode closes with a story Dr. Shah has never fully told on the show before: his own father's search, growing up Muslim, watching his devout great-grandfather weep because Islam offers no assurance of salvation, wandering through Hinduism and Buddhism looking for answers, and finally opening a secondhand Bible to John 3:16 — where, as a student of mathematics, he saw the cross as a plus sign, the place where fallen humanity is attached to a holy God.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  2. 26How Do We Know That God Is Real?Does God exist? It's the question that's been plaguing mankind since the very beginning. In this episode of Clearview Today, we launch a brand-new series — Systematic Theology — where over the next couple of months we'll dig into what we actually believe as Bible-believing Christians: God, sin, humanity, salvation, and the end times. And we start exactly where we should: does God exist, and how can we know?Dr. Abidan Shah lays out two reasons we know God is real: our inner sense, and Scripture. Romans 1:20 says God's invisible attributes are clearly seen in creation, so that no one is without excuse — meaning even the most convinced atheist knows, deep down, that God is there. We talk through why someone might suppress that knowledge, how one honest question can turn a self-proclaimed atheist into an agnostic in thirty seconds flat, and why the reason a thief can't find a policeman is the same reason someone actively avoiding God will never find Him.But an inner sense alone was never meant to save you. The episode closes on the harder truth: you can't get to God around Jesus, only through Him — because sin has broken the image we were made to bear, and only Christ can stand as the mediator and restore it. Scripture alone tells us what that inner sense cannot: that we need a Savior, and that Savior has already come.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  3. 27Ephesians, Church Fathers, and the Doctrine of the Trinity (ft. Dr. Clark Bates)The book of Ephesians is a treasure trove of doctrine — and in this special episode of Clearview Today, we're joined by Dr. Clark Bates, a textual critic and scholar-missionary serving in Italy, whose recent work is a study on an ancient commentary on the very book we've just begun preaching through.Dr. Bates walks us through his research on the pseudo-Ecumenian Catena on Ephesians — a "chain" of church-father voices linked together into a single commentary — and a striking pattern he uncovered: again and again, the early fathers quietly changed Paul's "in Christ" to "through Christ." What looks like a tiny swap of prepositions turns out to be a deliberate guarding of the Trinity, marking out who was orthodox and who had drifted into heresy. It's a fascinating window into how carefully the early church thought about the nature of God.From there, the conversation opens up to a question every believer eventually asks: Why should I care what the church fathers thought? Why not just read the Bible for myself? Dr. Shah and Dr. Bates make the case that a faith with no history is no faith at all — that we are not spiritual orphans or lone rangers, but heirs of a living tradition that runs all the way back to the New Testament. Scripture remains our only infallible authority, but the fathers help us see how it's been read, where the church has gone wrong before, and how to course-correct today. The episode closes with Dr. Bates's mission in Italy, where Protestants make up less than 1% of the population, and how he's helping train pastors who will train others.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  4. 28Love Is a Commitment, Not a FeelingEverybody wants to be loved, and everybody wants to feel loved — but too few of us can even define what love actually is. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with one of His most familiar and most misunderstood attributes: the love of God.We talk about why the pictures of love we absorb from movies, music, and novels are an incomplete picture at best — good writers who know how to pluck our heartstrings — and why the only place to find both the definition and the demonstration of real love is Scripture. Working through Ephesians, 1 John, and Jeremiah 31, we look at a God who chose us in love before the foundation of the world, who loves not because of anything we perform but simply because He is love, and whose love is everlasting — not infinite in quantity but in chronology, reaching back before time itself began.Along the way, the guys share personal stories of learning what love really is: Dr. Abidan Shah on the handshake with Nicole's father that showed him a love he couldn't explain, and the season in 1993 when his life fell apart and he surrendered it back to God; and a youth-camp night at fifteen when the words "God loves you" landed for the very first time. The episode closes where it has to — love is a commitment, not a feeling. Facts come first, faith follows facts, and feelings follow faith. Don't wait to feel it before you come to the God who has loved you all along.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS31 min
  5. 29The Difference Between God's Grace and His MercyWe treat grace and mercy like they're the same thing — but they're actually very different, and understanding the difference changes everything. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with the grace of God, one of the communicable attributes He shares with us and calls us to reflect.We break down the three tiers of God's justice in the simplest possible terms: justice is getting what we deserve, mercy is not getting what we deserve, and grace is getting what we don't deserve. Grace is the good we never earned; mercy is the bad we never received. Dr. Abidan Shah illustrates it with a disobedient son who deserves discipline but gets lunch bought for him anyway — and then a milkshake on top. That milkshake is grace. We also tackle why grace is so hard for us to accept: we're raised to earn our keep, to never take a handout, and we carry that same works-based mindset straight to God, where it simply doesn't work.From there we go deeper — what it means to be "dead in trespasses and sins" and still able to receive the free gift, why grace was every bit as present in the Old Testament as the New (Noah, Moses, and the same unchanging Christ), and how the cross was the plan before Genesis 1:1. The episode closes on the most practical question of all: how do we live by grace, and extend to others the same grace God has lavished on us?Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  6. 30Why God's Sovereignty Is the Real Antidote to WorryIf you struggle with fear, anxiety, stress, or worry, there's an antidote — and it's the sovereignty of God. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with the truth that God is in control of everything: nothing happens that He does not either directly cause or consciously allow.We talk about why that truth, which should calm us, so often makes us uncomfortable instead — because it means relinquishing control and handing over the reins. We work through the antinomy of God's sovereignty and our free will, two parallel rails that run side by side without colliding: God is completely sovereign, and yet your choices genuinely matter. Dr. Abidan Shah shares the motto that carried him through 2020 — you cannot stop God from getting where He wants to go, so the only question is what you'll look like when He arrives — and we look at Job as the man who held onto God's sovereignty when everyone around him told him to let go.The conversation also tackles the hard questions head-on: if God is sovereign, do my prayers even matter? How do sovereignty and human responsibility both stay true, as they did at the cross? And why does tacking "according to Your will" onto every prayer sometimes reveal weak faith rather than humble submission? Through it all, one truth holds — God is sovereign, we are responsible, and His will is not something to reluctantly accept but something good, beautiful, and worth stepping toward in faith.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  7. 31What Is God's Wisdom Actually For?God's wisdom isn't just some ethereal force floating out there for its own sake — it has a goal. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our conversation on the wisdom and knowledge of God by asking where all that wisdom is actually pointed, and how it grows in the life of an ordinary believer.The answer starts in Romans 11: everything God does in His wisdom is ultimately to glorify Himself — not out of selfishness, but because there is no one greater to please and no one more worthy of praise. We work through why that truth puts us in our proper place, using the picture of the sun and the moon: God is the source of light, and we are simply reflectors. The more we look into the face of Jesus, the more we glow — and that reflected light is exactly what draws lost people to Him. We also talk to the believer who feels dim and smudged, unable to reflect much of anything, and how to get back to shining.The episode lands on one of the most freeing distinctions you'll hear: small decisions are knowledge decisions, but the big decisions of life — honesty, integrity, loyalty, self-sacrifice — are wisdom decisions. If you're connected to Christ, you already have that wisdom, and you're growing in it, even when it doesn't feel like it. Dr. Abidan Shah closes with the words his own father once spoke about him: "In the small decisions he's made mistakes — but in the big decisions of life, I've never known him to make one."Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  8. 32The Difference Between Knowing Things and Being WiseYou could fill an infinite number of books with the things we don't know. But aren't you glad we serve a God who not only knows everything, but is the very source of all wisdom? In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with the omniscience of God — and the difference it makes that He knows all things, both actual and potential.We talk about why this attribute is a little bit of both communicable and incommunicable: we'll never be all-knowing like God, and yet He invites us to grow in real knowledge and wisdom. We unpack the crucial difference between the two — knowledge is knowing the facts; wisdom is knowing what to do next — and land on one of the most reassuring truths in the Christian life: you don't have to know everything, you just have to know the One who does. From Psalm 139 to the "foolishness" of the cross in 1 Corinthians 1, we see that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals, even when His wisdom looks like weakness to the world.The conversation closes where real wisdom always leads — to the simple gospel, and to sharing it. The wise, Daniel says, are those who turn many to righteousness and shine like the stars forever.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  9. 33What the Bible Actually Teaches About Money and Wealth | TRUTH TALK LIVECan a Christian be wealthy and still faithfully follow Jesus? Does the Bible condemn the rich? In this special extended episode, we hosted Truth Talk Live on the Truth Network for a full hour on a subject rarely touched from the pulpit: money, wealth, and the rise of social Marxism in America.We walk through what the Bible actually teaches about wealth — more is said about money in Scripture than heaven and hell combined — and take the harder cultural question head-on: is the church right to worry about socialism, and is James himself a social Marxist? Dr. Abidan Shah lays out the history of economics from Adam Smith to Karl Marx, explains why the labor theory of value breaks down, and shares what it was actually like to grow up in a socialist country. Along the way, callers phone in with real questions: Can you pursue financial success without it becoming sin? What does "the love of money is the root of all evil" really mean? And is it wrong to want to be financially successful at all?The through-line is simple but freeing: love God, use money — never the other way around. Money is a great servant but a terrible master, and the goal of wealth for the believer was never security. It was stewardship — creating and investing all of it back into the kingdom of God.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS44 min
  10. 34God Is Everywhere — So Can I Just Worship Him from My Couch?God cannot be contained by space — which means He isn't limited to any one church, any temple, or any building. You can worship Him anywhere. But does that mean you don't need to gather with other believers at all? In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our conversation on the omnipresence of God and what it really means that He is free of all limitation.We work through Solomon's prayer at the temple — "heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you" — and Jesus' words to the woman at the well that a day was coming when God would be worshiped not on this mountain or that one, but anywhere. Then we get honest about the consumer mindset that says, "If I can worship God on my couch, why go to church at all?" The answer isn't guilt; it's that we were made to gather, to encourage one another, and to pool our lives together for the kingdom in ways we simply can't alone.The episode lands on the story of Jacob at Bethel. Running, exhausted, and surrounded by cold slabs of limestone in a harsh and lifeless place, he lay down — and saw the gate of heaven. "How awesome is this place," he said, "and I did not know it." Wherever God has placed you right now — a warehouse, a dorm room, a small town, even a prison cell — He is there. And if you ask Him to open your eyes, that very place can become the gate of heaven.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  11. 35What It Really Means That God Is OmnipresentNobody can be in two places at once. You can only live in the here and now — but God is everything, everywhere, all the time. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with the attribute of omnipresence: the truth that God is fully present in all places at all times.We work through what that actually means — not that God is spread thin across creation like a force in the trees and the water, but that all of Him is fully present everywhere at once. We talk about the two sides of this doctrine: the fear that He sees everything, and the deep comfort that He is bigger than any circumstance and completely present with you in your pain. Then we turn to a surprising application — the quiet way we "play God" by assuming we know what others are thinking or doing, and how taking every thought captive can free us from a lot of self-inflicted heartache.The conversation also wades into deeper water: how God is specially manifested in different places, what it really means to say God is present in hell, and why "hell is the absence of God" needs careful clarifying. Through it all, one truth holds — wherever you are, however alone you feel, God is there in His full presence and power, and He wants you to know Him.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  12. 36What All-Powerful Actually Means — and What It Doesn'tLife is unpredictable, and that unpredictability can leave us feeling completely powerless. But we serve a God who is all-powerful. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series by exploring the omnipotence of God — and the harder question underneath it: if God is all-powerful, why doesn't He always step in?We work through what omnipotence actually means — that God is able to do all He wills to do — and why the things people raise as "limits," like the fact that God cannot lie or sin, actually strengthen His power rather than weaken it. We talk through the classic "can God make a rock too heavy to lift" puzzle, why God owns logic rather than being bound by it, and why so many of our questions about His power are really questions about His wisdom, justice, and mercy. And through the illustration of a father who lets his child receive a painful shot because it's for their good, we get honest about why an all-powerful God sometimes allows pain.The heart of the episode is Jeremiah 32, where God tells the prophet to buy a field in his hometown just as the Babylonian army breaks through the gates — the worst possible time to buy land. It looks like defeat. But God's power isn't shown by driving Babylon away; it's shown in the promise that one day He would bring His people back. Obedience in the face of what looks hopeless is exactly where God's omnipotence shines.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  13. 37The God Who Cannot Change — And Why That Steadies EverythingOver the course of your life, you will change dramatically — you are not the same person you were ten or twenty years ago. But aren't you glad that's not true of God? In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with one of His most steadying attributes: His immutability, the truth that God never changes.We work through the difference between God's incommunicable attributes — the ones we can never share, like self-sufficiency and changelessness — and the communicable ones He extends to us, like holiness and love. We talk about why this isn't just a fun fact but something that puts us back in our proper place, makes our worship real, and gives our relationship with God real weight. Along the way we wade into some deep water: the eternal nature of Christ, what it means that He was manifested in our realm two thousand years ago, and why we can only touch God through the humanity of Jesus.The episode lands somewhere intensely practical. If you're walking through something painful right now, the fact that God never changes is exactly what you can hold onto. You may not be able to trust your own flesh and blood — you may not even be able to trust your own thoughts and emotions — but you can trust a God who is who He has always been, and whose promises still hold thousands of years later.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  14. 38God Needs Absolutely Nothing — And That Changes EverythingTo exist, we need oxygen, food, water, and shelter. God needs none of it. In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with one of the attributes that's hardest for us to grasp because it's so unlike us: the self-sufficiency of God.We talk about why this truth is so difficult for dependent beings like us to accept — how a power outage, a plane ride, or an unexpected health scare quietly reminds us how little we actually control. From there we get honest about prayer: how a false sense of self-sufficiency shows up in how little time we spend with God, why treating prayer like a coin in a slot machine misses the point entirely, and why "get to the point" praying is closer to the real thing than the template prayers we recite without meaning. Dr. Abidan Shah shares a recent night of being wide awake at three in the morning and how the Holy Spirit turned those restless hours into some of the most meaningful prayer he's had.We also draw the crucial distinction between God's communicable attributes, the ones He shares with us like holiness and love, and His incommunicable ones like self-sufficiency, which we can never possess. And we land somewhere deeply reassuring: being dependent on God does not make you meaningless. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and He delights in you.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  15. 39Are We Really Surrounded by the Saints — Or Is It Just a Metaphor?"We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." But where are they — in heaven, on earth, or somewhere else? In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series by exploring one of the most fascinating and least-preached ideas in Scripture: the "Christ time," and what it means to walk the hall of faith as if those who've gone before us are cheering us on right now.We work through Hebrews 11 and 12, where the writer invites us to step by faith into another realm and see Abraham, Moses, and Ruth not as figures from a dusty past, but as witnesses running alongside us. We talk about why the Word of God is living and powerful, how entering the Christ time reframes the way we read Scripture, and how this truth steadies us in our own moments of doubt, stress, and decision. Dr. Abidan Shah also shares the story of his own father walking out into the night with nothing but the clothes on his back, and why he now counts him among that same cloud of witnesses.We also draw a clear and important line: this is not the culture's idea of ancestors watching over you. Satan always offers a counterfeit, and apart from Jesus Christ there is no access to God's time at all. This is a real realm, opened only through Christ, and it's meant to help you run your race with endurance.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  16. 40What It Means That God Lives Outside of TimeEverything we experience in this world is temporary — and yet we serve a God who is eternal and outside of time. How do we even begin to wrap our minds around that? In this episode of Clearview Today, we continue our Getting to Know God series with one of His most staggering attributes: His timelessness.We work through what it actually means that God is eternal — that He has no beginning, no end, and no succession of moments, and that He sees all of history equally vividly. He is just as present in George Washington's day as He is in this moment, and just as present in your future. We also take on the question every philosophy student thinks is a checkmate — "well then who created God?" — and walk through why God stepping into time for our sake, in the person of Jesus, changes everything.The conversation lands where it matters most. Because you are bound by time, the present is all you truly have. Don't live trapped in the past, don't presume on a tomorrow that isn't promised, and don't put off the one decision that carries into eternity. It's a deep episode, but a deeply practical one.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  17. 41How People in the Bible Saw a God No One Can SeeIf God is invisible, how did people in the Bible see Him? Scripture says two things that sound impossible to reconcile: "no one has seen God at any time," and yet "the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." In this episode of Clearview Today, we work through how both can be true.We start with what it means that God in His essence is unseeable — using the strange, heavy experience of standing at a casket to illustrate the difference between a body and the person who once filled it. From there we explore the visible manifestations of God throughout Scripture, the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ, and Stephen's vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God.Then we get to the harder question: if people once saw God, why won't He show Himself to us now? The answer runs in two directions. First, faith — the people who saw Him face to face still walked away, so seeing was never what produced belief. And second, God's holiness — to reveal Himself fully, in His inner essence, would not comfort us. It would destroy us. We close where the whole conversation lands: without faith, it is impossible to please God.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  18. 42How to Make an Invisible God VisibleHow do you make an invisible God visible? It's the mission statement of our church — and one of the most important questions in the Christian life.In this episode of Clearview Today, we dig into the invisibility of God: what Scripture means when it says God is spirit, why His inmost essence can never be seen by us, and why that doesn't make Him any less real. We work through Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, the way children grasp an unseen God through the eyes of faith, and the simple illustration of the wind — you can't see it, but you can see everything it does.From there we talk about how God makes Himself visible through His people. It isn't enough to only preach the truth, and it isn't enough to only love and serve — Christ becomes visible when the truth of God and the people of God come together. We close with St. Patrick's breastplate prayer and a simple challenge: when people look at you, do they see Jesus?Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  19. 43Why God Can't Just Forgive Your SinIf God is all-powerful, why can't He simply forgive sin and be done with it? It's one of the most common objections to Christianity — and the answer reveals something most of us have never considered about what our sin actually costs.In this episode of Clearview Today, we wrap up our study on the holiness of God by looking at why forgiveness was never free. Dr. Abidan Shah uses a simple illustration — a borrowed pen, broken and handed off — to show what happens every time we take something that belongs to God and twist it. Mercy is easy to give when it costs you nothing. But real forgiveness always has a price, and someone has to pay it.We walk through Leviticus 17:11 and why blood represents both death and life, why the Old Testament sacrificial system was only ever a placeholder for the real thing, and how nearly every ancient culture on earth — Aztec, Egyptian, Hittite, Scandinavian, Irish — understood instinctively that someone had to die. What sets Scripture apart is that God didn't demand a substitute from us. He provided one Himself.The episode closes in Isaiah 53, written centuries before the cross and describing it in detail, and then lands somewhere practical: the response to all of this is humility. There is nothing in you that you can take credit for. Begin every day grateful, and give yourself back to the God who paid for you.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  20. 44We've Made God's Holiness Too SmallWe know God is holy — but what does that word actually mean? In this episode, we pick up where yesterday's conversation left off and work through what Scripture reveals about the holiness of God: that He is absolutely pure, and that He is awful in the truest sense of the word — full of awe, a consuming fire.We look at what happened every time someone encountered that holiness directly, from Moses hiding his face to Isaiah crying out that he was undone. We also talk honestly about how easy it is to carry a diminished, distorted view of God — bringing Him down to our level the way the Greeks did with their gods — and why the standard of righteousness was never the person next to us, but God Himself. The episode closes with real pastoral guidance: look at your sin honestly, but don't stay there. Conviction is meant to lead you to confession, forgiveness, and healing.Dr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. Join the family: https://abidanshah.com/join-the-family/If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing. Another great way to support the show is to use promo code TODAY when checking out at mightymuscadine.com.To learn more about Clearview Church, visit us at clearviewbc.org. If you have any questions or want to contact us, email us at contact@clearviewtodayshow.com or text us at 252-429-6069.Check out the links below for more content from Dr. Shah and the Clearview team!Read - https://abidanshah.com/books/Watch - https://www.youtube.com/@abidanshahphdListen - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sermons-by-abidan-shah-ph-d/id619888508Clearview Worship - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2m3OQUdBsucUTj6AFHg81SSupport the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  21. 45Why HOLINESS Is the Most Important Attribute of GodIt's easy to relate to God through attributes we can grasp — love, grace, forgiveness. But holiness is different. In this episode, we continue our Getting to Know God series by starting where Scripture starts: not with God's love or His creative power, but with His holiness, the central attribute that everything else about Him rests on.We talk about why holiness is so hard for us to even discuss — because sin is so woven into who we are that we've grown numb to it — and why understanding the weight of sin is the doorway to understanding God at all. From the temple vessels to the stained-shirt problem to the truth that even one sin is enough to separate us from a holy God, we work toward a beautiful conclusion: you can't truly grasp the love of God until you first grasp His holiness.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  22. 46The Difference Between Knowing About God and Actually Knowing HimThere's a real difference between knowing about God and actually knowing Him. In this episode, we continue our Getting to Know God series by looking at why this pursuit isn't optional for the Christian life — and why, despite that, it's one of the most neglected things we do.We talk about how what you believe about God shapes everything else: how you see yourself, how you treat others, and how you handle everything from minor inconveniences to real heartbreak. Along the way, we look at Job's response to devastating loss, Abraham's attempt to help God keep His promise, and Augustine's famous line about restless hearts. Dr. Shah also shares the story of his father climbing a Himalayan mountain to ask a guru whether he'd found the meaning of life — and the answer he got.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
  23. 47Your Prayers Don’t Need All Those Extra Words | TRUTH TALK LIVEIn this special extended episode, we had the opportunity to host Truth Talk Live on the Truth Network for a full hour on one of the most important topics in the Christian life: prayer.Prayer isn't about padding our words or performing for God — as John R. Rice put it, it's about asking and receiving. We unpack what it means to pray with real confidence, how our view of God shapes the way we talk to Him, and why the bold prayers of people like George Mueller still teach us to ask God for big things. Along the way, we take live calls and pray over listeners walking through prayer fatigue and praying for wayward children — pointing again and again back to the God who loves to answer His people.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS44 min
  24. 48The Biggest Question You'll Ever Answer: WHO IS GOD?Everyone believes something about God — even those who say they don't. But is what they believe actually true? In this episode, we kick off a brand-new series called Getting to Know God, starting with the biggest and simplest question of all: who is God?As A.W. Tozer put it, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We explore why that's true — how your view of God shapes what you believe about yourself, about others, about where you came from, and about where life is headed. It's a foundational conversation and the beginning of a journey to know God more deeply, not just learn facts about Him.Support the showDr. Shah writes a personal letter every week — reflections on Scripture, faith, and living it out with clarity and purpose. GET THE LETTER If you enjoyed the show, please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. This is an excellent way to stay connected to the Clearview team and ensure you don't miss a thing.PRE-ORDER BYZANTINE TEXTFORM: https://subsplash.com/u/-MPJ586/forms/d/1090d08a-49c0-498a-ad97-5c0fd575fa9eSUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:MIGHTY MUSCADINE SUPPLEMENTSLEBLEU ULTRA-PURE WATERKEEP YOUR KIDS PROTECTED ONLINE--->> DR SHAH'S BOOKS>> SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE>> CHECK OUT ALL OUR SHOWS30 min
NewerLoad more

Get the Pray app

Keep listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah on your phone, and pick up where you left off.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play