The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - A Strategy for Lent

Episode Date: March 8, 2019

Stick to the three pillars of Lent for the full forty days with this strategy from Jeff Cavins. We hear about fasting, almsgiving, and prayer so often during Lent that the words can become bland and lose meaning. But these practices are not arbitrary measures designed to make us miserable for forty days. They are spiritual disciplines specifically aimed at three areas of weakness in our souls. They help us overcome sin and become more like Jesus. Jeff compares biblical figures from Genesis and 1 John to Jesus’ example in the Gospel of Matthew. He also provides some alternate ways of thinking about fasting, almsgiving, and prayer to help rejuvenate our commitment this Lent. Want to full shownotes? Email us at [e-mail] OR visit the website at ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show, episode 105, a strategy for Lent. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. And welcome to the show. It is currently the beginning of Lent for us right now.

I know that you might be listening to the shows out of order, but it's Lent right now, and I want to talk about a strategy for Lent this week and give you some real concrete ideas on how you can make the best out of Lent. I am still down in Louisiana in the swamps. I'm at the hunting camp, and you might hear some noise in the background. One of those noises will come from one of the two roosters walking around here for the last couple of weeks. They've been joining me, and they've been making noise all night and all day. And I only thought that roosters made noise when the sun was about to come up. And I did some

research on it and found out that's a fallacy. It's not true. That they actually will make noise oftentimes if it's territorial. And I've got two of them in the back here. When one crows, he's saying to the other one, this is my place. The other one's crowing back. No, it's my place. And so it's going back and forth. And I, being a biblical guy, I hear the roosters crowing, and I constantly saying to the Lord, I didn't deny you. I didn't deny you. So it's good for me on that plane. But I have named them, the two roosters, lunch and dinner. But they're still out there. But it's good to be in the South, you know, at this time of the year. Back up in the deep in the woods in Minnesota, they've had an all-time record snow of over 40 inches now and, you know, 10 below, 15 below, but I'm down here in the

swamps of Louisiana. I just got a taste of Mardi Gras, just a little bit of a taste over on St. Charles Street in New Orleans. And, you know, it's interesting for a northerner to come down and experience that and have people throw bags of beads at you. I think that Mardi Gras basically is a basically a course in defensive strategy so you don't get hit by all those beads. But I know it's a lot of fun. And we've got a lot of good friends down here. Really enjoy their company. Okay, we're going to talk about a strategy for Lent, and you know that Lent is a preparation time for the resurrection of Jesus, the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. and we talk in the scriptures in Matthew chapter 3 and Matthew chapter 4 about preparing for the coming of the Lord

and John the Baptist talks about this. He talks about repenting. In fact, next week I'm going to talk about repentance all next week on the show and get deep into that. But I want to give you a basic strategy to make the best of Lent, make the best of it in your life. And oftentimes find myself, you know, suddenly Lent is upon you. You've got the ashes on your head, and here's Lent, and everyone's asking you, well, what are you giving up for Lent? And that seems to be, you know, kind of the totality of strategy is, what are you giving up for Lent? Well, I'm giving up alcohol. I'm giving up meat, I'm giving up TV, I'm giving up social media, whatever it is. But I think that Lent is more than that. Lent is really all about your soul. It's about your heart and

preparing yourself to meet Jesus, but also to become like Jesus. I'm reminded of what the Proverbs says. Proverbs 29-18 says, without a vision, my people perish. And that's true, isn't it? It's true that we've got to have a vision for life, and we have to have a vision that keeps in mind eternity. That's one of the reasons I put together that series, Walking Toward Eternity one and two, where we talk about virtue and vice. But without a vision, my people perish, and without a vision for Lent, you have to ask yourself, well, what are you going to do for Lent? Are you just going to give up meat and call it a Lent? Is that really what it's all about? No, not really. You know, it's really about your heart and your soul. And I want to talk about three areas of your soul and your life

that you can work on during Lent. It is during Lent that Luke chapter 9 is read. Luke 9 in verse 22 through 25, and it talks about your soul. And it says, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day, be raised. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man? here it is, listen, for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? That's pretty powerful, isn't it, really? When you think about that, what good would it

do you if you gained the whole world, you know, everything? You know, you gained everything in the world, material things and status and authority and, you know, just all kinds, awards, everything. you gained all of it. But you lost your soul. You lose yourself in it. And then we think about giving up things for lent. Well, I gave up meat. Well, yay. You know, we want to focus on something even deeper than that, and that is your soul. And whatever you give up should remind you of going deeper in an area of your life. So we see in Luke's Gospel chapter 9 in verses 22 through 25 that your soul, you are more important and valuable than everything in the world, that if you stacked up the value of the world in terms of property and things and assets and all of that, your soul is more important. And it is. It's more

important, and that's why we take 40 days during Lent to focus on your soul and to really become more like Jesus. You know, as I think back in my life and, you know, everyone's life really in general, there are three areas that we really struggle with. And Lent gives us an opportunity to put all three of those in the crosshairs and go after them, and to walk like Jesus, become like Jesus. and you'll find in the Bible three major areas where we talk about these three areas. And one of those is the solution on how to deal with these three problems that we face in our life. And it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were in the garden, and I'll read this to you, it's in chapter three, and it deals with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

and they were told not to eat of it. And Eve made three observations about that tree, which coincide with the three areas that you and I struggle with, and that during Lent we have an opportunity to really go after them and become more like Christ in these three areas. And I'm going to share with you on the other side of the break coming up how to actually do this. So we read in Genesis 3, the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, did God say, did God say you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it, Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So the woman saw, now this is what she's going to observe about the tree, and these three things that she observes coincide with three areas of our life that we struggle with, big time, and it really saps us of our energy and takes us off target of what we're supposed to be doing, and that's walking as Christ and becoming like Jesus Christ. So when the woman saw that the tree was, number one, good for food, and that it was, number two, a delight to the eyes,

and number three, that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. And you know the story after that. What happened to them is that they fell, and that's original sin, and everything changed for all of us. But it goes back to that tree and what they were going after in that tree. She noticed three things, and you don't have to write the down. If you're in the car, I'll put these in the show notes for you. And by the way, if you don't

get the show notes on a regular basis, send me an email in the subject line say show notes. And my email is the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And we'll make sure you get on that list. And we'll send you the show notes every week. So you don't have to worry about it. I don't want you getting into an accident or anything like that. So the three things that are represented here in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 6, our number one, she noticed it was good for food. In other words, it's tasty, tasty, right? It's good for food. My body wants this, right? So number one, good for food. Number two, it's a delight to the eyes. It's beautiful. You know, it's wonderful and beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So this relates to our eyes and what we're seeing and what we might be lusting after.

she notices that it's to make one wise, that this fruit will make one wise. And don't we want wisdom? Don't we want to become something in our life? Don't we want to pull ourselves up by the bootstrap? You know, you've got what it takes. Go get them tiger. Look in the mirror and you can become the best you, you know. So we've got these three things that we struggle with. John chapter two, way at the end of the Bible, the Bible sort of bookended by these three things. You've got these three things in Genesis 3, but in John, first letter of John, chapter 2, he mentions these three things as well. And it goes like this, it'll be in the show notes, it goes like this, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father

is not in him. For all that is in the world, here we go, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passes away and the lust of it, but He who does the will of God abides forever. Now, I want to share something with you. I just read to you not only the problem, but the solution, that if you're struggling with the lust of the flesh, which corresponds to it's good for food, right? Good for food. Lust of the flesh. And the lust of the flesh, and the lust of flesh during Lent can represent to us not only just eating, but anything that we're lusting after, you know? We're lusting after things. We're lusting after not only food, but maybe it's power

and authority or something else. Well, the second is the lust of the eyes. And that really kind of corresponds to, you know, what Eve noticed, that it was beautiful to look at, the lust of the eyes, and that could be lusting after things we're looking at, or we want to buy. Oftentimes, when people go to the mall, there's not only the lust of the flesh, but there's the lust of the eyes. Are you having a problem really, you know, taking custody of your eyes, in what you see, and what you're viewing online, for example, or just out in the wild, you know, at the mall or at church. It's amazing how many people, their eyes run away with them and what they're looking at and what they're thinking, and not only what they're desiring with the lust of the flesh,

but the lust of the eyes. And then the third was the pride of life, and that corresponds to make one wise. So you have three things in Genesis. You have something she noticed that was good for food, and in John 2, it corresponds to the lust of the flesh. In Eve, Genesis 3, a delight to the eyes. John, lust of the eyes. In Genesis 3, it makes one wise. John 2, pride of life. Pride of life. And so you've got these three areas that we really, really struggle with. And John brings them up at the end of the Bible as well. And so I want to talk to you about how we actually go about dealing with the lust of the flesh. and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And I'm going to do that on the other side of the break. And when I give you these three keys to deal with those three areas, the real decision-making point is, are we going to do something about it during Lent? Are we actually going to, are we going to actually go about tackling these problems? So we're going to do that right after the break. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Every one of us is made in the image of God.

We are unique, worthy of love, and called to greatness. In this world, though, we can be distracted from that truth and begin to doubt God's love is real. You see, we live in a world that tells us we are not smart, attractive, thin, or rich enough. It is easy to focus on the ways we fall short of worldly perfection and forget that we are already made perfect. We are already enough. I'm Danielle Bean, author of You Are Enough, what women of the Bible teach you about your mission and worth. You Are Enough dives into the stories of women in the Bible so that you can fully see God's plan for your life. To order, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon.

Welcome back. We're talking about a strategy for Lent. And while I've got you in the car or you're sitting on the back porch, we want to talk about three areas that you can focus on. And a lot of people wonder, well, what should I focus on during Lent? And that absence of purpose oftentimes comes up when someone asks you, what are you giving up for Lent? I don't know how that became the sole question. I think really it should be, what are you doing for Lent? What are you going to focus on in your life? Because you're not going to change by just giving up something, you know? If I say, well, I'm going to give up alcohol. Okay, great, yay. But what's the outcome? What are you trying to accomplish in your life? I'm going to give up meat, yay.

But what are you trying to accomplish, you know, in your life? Or I'm going to give up television or whatever it is. What are you actually attacking? What are you going after in your life as you review your life? as you review your heart and where you're at and your weaknesses, what are you going to target? Well, these three things that I mentioned prior to the break, good for food, good for eyes, make one wise, correspond in John chapter two of first John, first letter of John, to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So I can narrow down the strategy for Lent into three areas.

Are you dealing with the lust of the flesh? eating, consuming? Are you dealing with the lust of the eyes? Is that your eyes are getting away with you? You're going to the mall, and all you want is things, and all you can think about is things. Well, also the pride of life, the pride of life. I'm going to make something to myself. I'm really, you know, I'm going to improve in this area and that area, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when it runs away with you and you start to think of yourself as the center, then you do have a problem. So we get to how do we combat this? How do we actually combat it? I'm going to give you three things. And the three things that I'm going to give you,

you correspond to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And you can find these three things in Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six. And this is part of the sermon on the mount. And these three things, typically you will hear them described as piety, piety, right? And that piety is fasting, alms, and prayer. Now, before you stop the show right there because you're thinking, oh, no, those words fasting, alms and prayer, alms giving him prayer, those sounds so simple and so old fashion. Hold on a second, because I want to describe these three things in their relationship to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And I think you'll see that what Jesus gives you

in classic first-century Jewish piety, fasting, alms, giving, and prayer are actually weapons. They are skills and weapons that will deal with those three areas that you struggle with so much. And the key is they have to leave the page and go to the pavement. We've got to put them into practice. Now, if you're thinking about fasting, how do you combat? what Eve saw. It was good for food, right? Or what John brings out in 1st John chapter 2, lust of the flesh. How do you deal with the lust of the flesh? Well, the way you deal with it is through fasting. Now, when you're fasting during Lent, you may say, well, I'm going to give up meat.

Great. But you have to have the intended purpose in mind. And the goal, which is, I'm dealing with the lust of the flesh in my life, right? I am out of control. I'm out of control, and I need to deal with it. So what do we do? We fast. We go without it. And when we go without it, we also pray, and we ask the Lord. You help me, Lord, with this lust of the flesh in my life.

Now, if you don't like that word fasting, and that's a turnoff for you, or it's an impossible thing, let's put a new name on it, shall we? I'll give new names to fasting, almsgiving, giving, and prayer. Instead of fasting, let's call it dynamic avoidance. there's a good one for you. Dynamic avoidance. Well, don't you take that into Lent, part of your strategy for Lent, and someone says, what are you doing for Lent? Well, I'm employing dynamic avoidance. What's that? Fasting. So if you're going to fast from something, you have to have in mind

the vice or the thing you're struggling with you think in your life and say, Lord, I want to deal with that. And I'm going to deal with that, not just with pure willpower, you know, I'm just going to focus. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. No, go without and fill that time with something else to grow in holiness, prayer, Bible reading, and so forth. The second thing that we can go after is the lust of the eyes. And this is a real problem in America today. Our lives are so filled with things and wanting things. And to be honest with you, it's become so much easier for us. us to lust after things through our eyes with the internet. You can buy anything you want in short

order. You can look at anything you want in short order. And, you know, if you can type it in, you can look at it. And that can be a real problem, both at the retail level, but also morally, you know, you can really get yourself into trouble, and it can defeat you, this lust of the eyes. So how do you deal with the lust of the eyes or a delight to the eyes, you know, the possibility of you can get something, you know, on QVC or Amazon or, you know, Prime, we can get it tomorrow, that type of thing? Well, the way that we deal with this lust of the eyes during Lent, as fasting dealt with the lust of the flesh, how do we deal with the lust of the eyes?

Almsgiving. Now right away, again, you're going to think almsgiving. That sounds so old-fashioned. I mean, Jeff, I'm struggling. with the lust of the eye, as you're saying, if I write a checkout for $25 to a ministry, it's going to take care of it? No, it's not that simple. The whole idea behind almsgiving is that you need to divest yourself of that which has got a hold of your heart. You give it away. Give it away. That's how you do. You don't just resist. You give it away. You give it away.

and we could call this, as I called fasting dynamic avoidance, we could call almsgiving. I'll put a new name on it for you, so it'll refresh your strategy for Lent. We'll call almsgiving power redistribution. How about that? That's a pretty up-to-date term, isn't it? Power redistribution. But I'm not talking about socialism. No, that's not what we're talking about. It's just crazy, cray-cray. We're talking. We're about power redistribution. We're talking about giving away what has a hold on our lives. So if you're serious about Lent in the area of lust of the flesh, fast, dynamic avoidance. If you're serious about attacking that lust of the eyes, alms giving, power redistribution. And then third, if you're struggling with the pride of life, you've got pride going on in your life.

You don't need anyone's help. You can do this on your own. You're a self-made man. You're a self-made woman. You pull yourself up by the bootstraps. You're independent. You don't need anybody. Pride of life.

I can figure this out myself. Boy, I remember as a teenager, you know, my father trying to teach me something on, I just had that stubborn look on my face. I know. I know. I can deal with this. I know. I'm not stupid.

Well, I was stupid. I was stupid. But I was struggling with pride in my life, you know. And I'm going to find the wisdom. I'm going to do this. I'm clever and all that. Well, that's not true. And how do you fight the pride of life? If you're struggling with that in your life right now, and you want to go after that during Lent in your life, then you need to do the third thing in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 6, and that's prayer. Prayer. Well, Jeff, how can prayer combat pride of life? Well, pride of life, sort of has this attitude of I don't need any help from anyone, including God. I mean, we're living in the teens now, you know, 2019, going on 2020. I have everything at my disposal through the internet. I can figure this out. And you know what? We can't. The scripture says, God says, my ways are not your ways, right? My plans are not your plans. And we need to find out what his heart is.

we need to find out what his plan is. Paragraph 236 in the Catechism. We need to know his heart. We need to know his plan. We need wisdom in our lives. And part of your problem and my problem is that we have a limited view of wisdom and we walk in it and think we're really something. And everybody thinks that way. So we have all these autonomous people walking around filled with self-actualized wisdom and it's just not working. We need to turn. We need to turn. turn to the Lord, humble ourselves, and turn to the Lord. In fact, that's what the catechism tells us, you know, is that humility is the foundation of prayer. And this is a reliance on God. That's what prayer is. Prayer is a reliance on God. And so if you're struggling with pride in your life,

this Lent might be a wonderful time to begin a fresh new prayer life. And I would highly recommend Lexio-Devina in the morning, listening to God, asking them what he's saying to you today, and then bringing that wisdom into your day. I've been saying in a lot of the churches in the South recently, I've been speaking in Mississippi and Louisiana, I've been saying to people, you know, if the shape of your life is not the shape of Jesus' life, you need to change the shape of your life. And if the shape of your day is not conform to Jesus, you need to start with the shape of your morning. and that is spending time with him. And so as an activated disciple of the Lord, we need to be seeking

him every day and his wisdom and his insight in order to know how to live. That's very, very, very important. So we've got three things. Let me just kind of wind this up and challenge you during this Lent. Number one, are you struggling with the lust of the flesh? Be honest with yourself. Go to confession if you are struggling with the lust of the flesh. Men, are you struggling with pornography? Are you struggling with food? Are you struggling with, you know, being envious of other people? Take it to confession and give it to the Lord. And if you're struggling with that lust of the flesh, then you need to begin this fasting. Or, you know the new word, dynamic avoidance. Sounds better, doesn't it? And you know, it's hard to give up something when you don't have a taste for God. And part of our problem is that we

don't have a taste for God. And if you don't have a taste for God, you're going to go after the lust of the flesh. I'll say that again. It's hard to give up something when you don't have a taste for God. In Lent, develop a taste for God. As it says in Psalm 34 in verse 8, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Do not settle for just that lust of the flesh. It's not going to fulfill you anyway. It isn't. You know it. Men, you know that. It's not going to fulfill you. Develop a taste for the Lord. Number two, lust of the eyes. What are we going to do? Lust of the eyes? we are going to divest ourselves of that which we are lusting after with the eyes. We do that with power redistribution.

You know what it is, right? Almsgiving, almsgiving. And by the way, fasting, almsgiving and prayer, these are classic Jewish forms of piety, and these are weapons to deal with the things that we are struggling with. The third one, the third one is the pride of life. And we deal with that through prayer. We deal with it through prayer. And if you want a good place to start, start with the rosary.

I was on a pilgrimage to Israel a couple years ago, and one of the gentlemen on the trip, he must have been in his 90s, I think. We were standing in the valley of Ila, and that is where David fought Goliath. And he looked at me, and I was talking about the weapons of our warfare, you know, and he raised his hand, he says, I've got a weapon, and I've got a weapon, I everybody looked over at him and said, a real cute old guy, and he said, I got my PB 59 with me.

And everybody's like, what's a PB 59? And he held up his rosary. Prayer beads 59 of them. He says, it's my PB 59, and that's how I fight the enemy. And so if you're struggling with the pride of life, take out the PB 59. And that's also effective in the lust of the flesh

and the lust of the eyes as well. Well, those are the three things that if you need a strategy for Lent, go after those three things. Good for food, lust of the flesh, delight to eyes, lust of the eyes, make one wise, pride of life. How do you deal with them? Fasting, dynamic avoidance, almsgiving, power redistribution, prayer. I didn't give you that new name, did I. Cosmic communication. Those might sound better to you. Instead of fasting, we got dynamic avoidance instead of alms, power redistribution, prayer, cosmic communication. You know, I'm having a little fun with you this week, but who knows? Maybe you'll remember those a little bit better. Hey, a few things before we leave today, I want to

remind you, I'm on Instagram, and I've been using Twitter and Facebook and some other things for years, kind of avoided Instagram for some reason. I don't know why, but finding out that's where the party is now, so we're going to join and I encourage you to join me on Instagram. I'm just simply Jeff Kavens on Instagram, putting some not only notices of where I'm speaking around the country, but some other wonderful things about family and some of the things I'm studying. So I'm going to communicate to you quite a bit through Instagram. Go ahead and sign up. Say hi, and I'll be your friend there. By the way, coming up, we have a few places left on our September trip to Poland. You can find out about

that. Father Josh Johnson is joining me for the pilgrimage to Poland. And you can can find that information as well as all my pilgrimages. Emily and I go on several. That's on my regular page, web page there, the homepage, and that's jeffcavens.com under pilgrimages. You can find the information. Coming up next year in January, Emily and I will be leading two pilgrimages to the Holy Land in January. There's going to be an early January and a late January pilgrimage. You can sign up for either one. And sign up will begin about the second week of March 2019, and we look forward to seeing you there, as well as an amazing trip. And we're going to be giving this to you any week now. You can sign up. But Father Mike Schmitz and myself and Emily, we're going to be leading an amazing

trip in June of 2020 to the Holy Land for young adults. Please spread the word, get the word out there. It's going to be in June of 2020. Father Mike Schmitz and I are going to be leading a pilgrimage, and we've got some amazing singers who are going to be with us. Taylor Tripodi, Ali Ali Aliya, Brother Isaiah. We're going to have concerts outdoors, and we're going to have concerts indoors in Jerusalem. And it's going to be an amazing time for young adults to meet with other young adults around the country. Franciscan University is co-sponsoring this trip, and we've got some wonderful people from Focus that are coming. with us, it's going to be an amazing trip. Please get the word out and put it on your calendar. Now, that's going to be Father Schmidt and myself, along with some of the greatest singers in

Catholicism today, joining us in Israel in June of 2020. Two new books out, activated disciples doing well. We're speaking about that around the country. And the TGA Bible, the Great Adventure Bible, guess what? Back in stock. Go to ascensionpress.com. And you can get a hold of your copy of the Great Adventure Bible. And that has the Great Adventure Timeline chart baked in with wonderful articles and all kinds of maps and things to help you read the Bible in chronological order. Well, let me pray for you as you begin your Lent and you're coming up with your strategy. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you for my friend that I'm traveling with right now in the car, at home. And I pray, Lord, that you will help them during this.

lent to come up with a strategy, an honest assessment of where they are at with you and the areas that need to be targeted. And Lord, if they're dealing with lust of the flesh, help them in fasting. If they're dealing with the lust of the eyes, help them in almsgiving, divesting themselves of that which has a grip on their heart and their eyes. And if it's a pride of life, Lord, may we step up our prayer and truly look to you with a foundation of humility. We have a ask for help in our lives. And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, in the name of the Father and the Son, and then the Holy Spirit. Amen. I love you. Go to iTunes, go online, go ahead, subscribe to the show, and rank the show, leave comments. That actually

helps in the algorithm to get these important topics out to people who are searching on the web. In other words, you and I, we're partners right here on the the web, and I look forward to talking to you next week. We're going to go deep next week into the meaning of repentance. God bless you.