Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah

Most of us pray like everything is under control, as if we're just dropping in to say hi to a buddy. But what if God is looking for a little desperation from us? We walk through Jesus' two parables on prayer, the friend at midnight in Luke 11 and the unjust judge in Luke 18. Then we ask what "how much more" means for the way we pray, and how we can come to God with real need. 0...

Most of us think of sin as a mistake, but what if it's actually a debt we can never repay? And what does Jesus' parable of the two debtors say about the One who paid it for us? We walk through Luke 7 and the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears. Then we look at why Simon the Pharisee missed the point, and how we can avoid missing it too. 0:00 Death, Taxes, and Debt 4:08 Why G...

God has already given us blessings that can't be bought, can't be earned, and can't be taken away, and many of us have never noticed them. What are these spiritual blessings, and what do they have to do with why we worship? We walk through Ephesians 1 and what Paul says we have in Christ, hear a clip from our Ephesians series, and take your calls. Then we look at a scene from heaven...

Why does everyone stand up and sing together before the sermon? Is worship really about the music, or is something much bigger happening when God's people gather? We head into Ephesians 1, hear Psalm 148 in a clip from our Ephesians series, and take your calls on what worship means to you. 0:00 What Is Worship, Really? 4:34 Why Does Church Singing Seem So Odd? 8:43 If You Don't Like Sing...

You may have wandered away from God, but the story of the prodigal son shows us how God sees us when we come back. It's one of the best-known parables Jesus told, but is it really about the younger son? We walk through why Jesus told this parable and who he was speaking to in Luke 15. Then we look at the Pharisees, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the brother who stayed home. 0:00 The Kind...

There's a real place called hell, and a lot of churches won't even preach on it. But Jesus spoke about it often, so why have we gone quiet? We walk through what salvation really rescues us from and why the stakes matter. Then we look at the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13 and what it says about the end of the age. 0:00 Why Churches Won't Preach on Hell 4:19 Why Jesu...

Everybody has an opinion on where America is headed, but a lot of Christians plan to stay home on election day. We take your calls live and ask why, and what the Bible says about it. We walk through why we vote biblical values, why we look at a candidate's platform instead of their offers, and what pastors can say from the pulpit. Then we look at 1 Timothy 2, the lesser of two evils, and what...

Who is the parable of the sower really about? We pick up the parables with Nathan's story that caught King David, and see why Jesus held up a mirror instead of offering an explanation. Then let's walk through Matthew 13 and its four soils, from the hardened wayside to the stony and thorny ground to the good soil, and ask which one is ours. 0:00 Nathan's Parable and "Thou Art th...

Every time we hear one of Jesus's stories, we're supposed to look inward and ask which character we are. Make no mistake, we're in that story somewhere. Let's look at why Jesus told parables, what most of us miss in the prodigal son, and who the Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees really were. Then we ask which of their hearts looks most like ours. 0:00 – Why Jesus Told Parables:...

Why did Jesus tell stories that some people were never meant to understand? The answer runs through one word in the Bible: mystery. Let's trace "mystery" from the parables in Matthew 13 back to the word raz in Daniel 2, and walk through Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue and the stone cut without hands. Then we ask what God's covert operation means for how we live. 0:00...

Over the past few decades, our culture has made its position on sexual issues very clear. But what does God think about all this? Let's walk through Sodom and Gomorrah, Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, and Paul's words in Romans and 1 Corinthians, and ask whether the God of the New Testament is any different. Then we look at what it would take for America to turn back to God. 0:00...

Who decides when a human life becomes valuable? That question sits behind nearly every major headline right now: Supreme Court shield-law fights over abortion pills crossing state lines, and a case out of the Netherlands where a two-year-old child was euthanized. In this special extended episode, we host Truth Talk Live on the Truth Network for a full hour on the sanctity of human life. Dr. Abidan...

We tend to think of evangelism as a destination, a finish line called conversion. But what if it's not a goal you're working toward, it's a mindset you live inside of every day? In this episode, Dr. Abidan Shah makes the case that the people who actually share their faith aren't doing it out of guilt. Somewhere along the way, something shifted in how they think. We talk about w...

Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations, which means every Christian has an obligation to evangelize. But is that really so different from what other religions do? In this episode, we compare Christianity's evangelism to the spread of Buddhism and Islam, and make the case that only one of them comes without coercion. Islam spread largely by the sword and a tax on those who refused...

Our salvation is by grace through faith alone — just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. But surely it can't be that simple. In this episode, we continue the conversation from yesterday's Truth Talk Live and trace one unbroken thread through the whole Bible: from Adam and Eve's covering in the Garden, to Cain and Abel's offerings, to Abraham and Isaac on Mou...

Everybody wants to go to heaven — but how do you actually get there? In this special extended episode, we host Truth Talk Live on the Truth Network for a full hour on salvation, assurance, and what heaven will really be like. Dr. Abidan Shah walks through several popular theories of what Jesus accomplished on the cross — that He defeated Satan, paid Satan a ransom, set an example, or undid Adam&ap...

As believers, our judgment is sealed. It is finished. It is done. So why are we still talking about judgment? In this episode, we continue our series on eternity by working through the judgments that are still coming — not for your salvation, which is already settled, but for nations, and for how believers actually lived. We trace the judgment of the nations through Joel 3, Isaiah 2, and Matthew 2...

We are mortal creatures created for eternity — and that should shape how we live. But there's one uncomfortable truth we have to reckon with first: everybody wants to go to heaven, just not right now. In this episode, we launch a new mini-series on eternity, starting with the one place theology has to begin: God as judge. We work through why holiness, not love or mercy alone, is the hub that...

We know what communion is — but why the bread, why the cup, why this specifically? In this episode, we go deeper into yesterday's conversation and trace communion all the way back to its origins: the very first Passover, when God told the Hebrews to eat standing up, belts fastened, ready to run for their lives. We work through why God commanded that same meal to be repeated every single gener...

Believers have disagreed on the form and function of the Lord's Supper for centuries — some churches don't even practice it anymore. In this episode, we pick up right where yesterday's conversation on baptism left off, comparing our own very different memories of communion growing up, and then digging into what it actually is: a symbolic act of remembrance, looking back, around, and...

Believer's baptism should be the one Christian practice we can all agree on — Jesus himself modeled it for us. And yet a sermon clip about baptism went viral for all the wrong reasons, with hundreds of comments and even accusations of heresy. In this episode, we tell that story and then walk through what the Bible actually says about baptism: complete immersion, always after salvation, with n...

We have full confidence that the blood of Jesus has cleansed us of our sins. But there's still that one dark figure on the horizon that quietly terrifies a lot of Christians: the unpardonable sin. In this episode, we close out our ten-day series on sin by tackling it directly. We start by correcting a myth that's caused real pain for real families — no, suicide is not the unforgivable si...

We know that every sin makes us equally guilty in the eyes of God. But come on — some sins have to be worse than others, right? In this episode, we tackle degrees of sin: legally, there's no difference between a white lie and murder. In consequences, the difference is enormous. We work through Adam and Eve's single act of disobedience and why one sin carried such catastrophic weight — us...

Yesterday we talked about sin. Today we're answering the harder follow-up questions you've been sending in — are all people really sinful, even the good ones? What happens to babies who die? And can generations of unbelief in a family ever really be broken? We work through Psalm 14 and Romans 3:23 on why every single person stands guilty before God — including history's most admired...

If you're a Christian, you probably do have a genuine desire to worship and obey God. But there's one three-letter word that keeps getting in the way. In this episode, we continue our Systematic Theology series by tackling sin head-on — starting with the ways we all try to rebrand it as a "struggle" or a "character opportunity" rather than call it what it is. We defin...