The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Activated Disciple Series Part 1: Are You a Fan or a Follower?

Episode Date: March 4, 2022

Are you a fan or a follower? In this first part of the Activated Disciple retreat, Jeff discusses the difference between being a fan of Jesus and being a follower of Jesus. What does it mean to be a follower and how do we get there? Snippet from the Show Fans don’t change the world, but followers do. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is episode 260, the activated disciple retreat, fan, or follower. And thank you for joining me on this 2022 Lenton retreat together, where we're going to dive deep into this whole issue of being an activated disciple, being a disciple of the Lord. I have been looking forward to this for a while now. And when I go into Lent every year, it really is that time of year where you kind of focus on what needs to change in your life. You know, how is God refining you, preparing you, and correcting you and guiding you in your life? And it's a 40-day

adventure every single year. You know, that number 40 in the Bible is really significant because every time we see the number 40, like Lent, we see a trial, we see a testing, an ordeal that takes place like Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights or Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. Well, we've got 40 days. Started on Ash Wednesday, just a couple days ago. And hopefully you got your ashes and you're ready to begin. All right, so let me just kind of give you a little bit of the game plan here as to what we're going to do in our Lenten retreat. It's based on my book, The Activated Disciple, which is put out by Ascension Press. I'll put the link in the show notes. You can still get that. We're going to be going through that, and I'm going to be giving you some

show notes, kind of an outline every single week during this retreat. The retreat, the retreat's going to go seven or eight weeks here. And I'll give you some show note outlines so that you can at least take some notes, you know, during the time that we have together every single week. Obviously, this is not a full-blown retreat in the sense of showing up at your parish for an hour every night for five nights. But we're going to cover a lot of good material here. And the goal of this is not just more knowledge, please. We've got so much. We have. We, have an embarrassment of riches in content in the Catholic world, in the United States, at least. And what we're really in need of is to put it into practice and to be the church that God called us to be,

to be that disciple that he has called you to be. So I will have show notes. If you don't have the show notes, all you've got to do is text my name. One word, Jeff Kavens, and you can text it to the number 3377. and you'll get the show notes automatically. And if you've, you had them in the past, but for some reason, they fell off. Just do it again and we'll get you set up once again. All right.

So today is kind of a little bit more of a deeper introduction. Last week I gave you some things to think about in your life in preparation for this retreat together for Lent. And today I want to talk about the topic of being a fan or follower of Jesus. We're going to be getting into issues like the biblical foundation next week. We're going to look the week after that at how we actually become a disciple. I'm going to go deep into how they actually did it 2,000 years ago and then compare that to your life today to see are you on course to really live as an activated disciple. And we got a lot more for you.

So let's begin with prayer, shall we, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. it. Lord Jesus, I thank you today for giving us the life that you have. I thank you for pursuing us and paying the price of our sin with your life and calling us to yourself to become like you, not just to believe in you, not to just listen to your teaching, but to actually become like you and to pick up your mantle, your mission, and take that out into the world and work and to do your will. We thank you, Lord, for all of this. In your name we pray, amen. Name of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, amen. Well, I'd like to talk to you this week a little bit about whether you are a fan of Jesus or a follower of Jesus, because this will be very important when it comes to building your life

as a disciple with the Lord, getting into scripture, prayer, sacraments, all of it. You have to kind of look at your life. Are you a fan or are you a follower? Every year, when I go to the Sea of Galilee. I say every year because every January, my wife and I lead a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. You can find that out on the website, my website. But when we go there, I love the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. As I walk along the shore, oftentimes I think to myself, how did those 12 men go beyond enjoying just the Galilean speeches and demonstrations of power and authority. How did they go beyond that into actually picking up his mantle and doing his work? The topics of his message, well, they were very powerful. They touched on every single aspect of

life, including an eternal, eternal dimension. And his messages involved radical change in both the way we think and the way we live. And those two things are so important when it comes to being a disciple of the Lord. The stakes were high. The stakes were very high. He talked about heaven and he talked about hell. And his call, his call to would-be followers was not in ideology alone. It didn't have this political bent, which is so popular today among Christians. It wasn't based on race or age, and his goal was not to get you to agree with him or to follow part-time to financial support his efforts as regards social issues and so forth. His call was to change your mind to get you to die to yourself and completely and radically give yourself to him in thought, word, indeed,

completely. And his call was for you to become like him and to receive the benefits of his mission, which included the benefits of his teaching, to be sure, but his example and his dying for. you. His focus was not on his will, but this mighty leader, Jesus of Nazareth, his focus was on the will of his father. Jesus worked flawlessly with the Father and the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. His messages, they weren't just good ideas. Wasn't a marvelous path to enlightenment that you might find on the Internet or cable television, or the key to becoming the best you possible. That wasn't his message. His message was the truth, because this Jesus is the way. He is the truth and he is the life. He comes into the world and he speaks to a group of people

in the world today that could best be described in 2. Timothy 3.7, which is always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. That's what we want to do in this retreat, my friend is we want to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. What is it about Jesus that would cause men to give up everything and follow him and ultimately die for his mission? I don't think there's any doubt that there is something different about these guys than there is the average Christian today. Whatever it was that took place between Jesus and these 12, we want it.

That's what we're going to be going after here when we look deep into this. The answer is that he is unlike any other person who has ever walked on the earth. He's different than Gandhi. He's different than the 14th Dalai Lama. He's different than Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Toll. He's different than Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, Joseph Smith, Krishna. Oprah Winfrey, Zoharaster. Scott Peck, Mary Baker, Eddie.

He's different than LeBron James. Believe it or not. Jesus is different. And the one thing that I want to really challenge you to think about in your own life at the beginning of this is, are you a fan of Jesus or are you a follower of Jesus? We know that if you look back in history, fans never changed the world, except for the Boston Red Sox in that playoff game. But fans have never changed the world. It is the followers who change the world.

And you have to ask yourself today if that Jesus was caught up in the social, media hype today. If Jesus had a Facebook or an Instagram page, would you like what he posted each day? Would our relationship come down to that? You know, that, yeah, I saw Jesus had a Facebook page and I liked his posts. I liked his tweets, right? Is that what our relationship would be like? Have we fallen in like with Jesus? Is that the extent of our relationship? I like what he talks about. I really get into the books. I really get into the talks. Would your interaction with Jesus stay at simply liking what he says?

Or the ideas that he has or the great virtue that he displays and the power that he walks in, you like it? Would you go beyond liking it to loving it, to loving him, to following him, and not just on social media? I like what Jesus talks about, you know, when he talks about the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all, all of your being, everything. Give him everything. I love what Jesus said. In John 1415, he said, if you love me, not like me, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. You'll keep my commandments.

That's so important. And so to be a disciple doesn't mean that we just like the courses that he's teaching. It means that we are going to actually follow him and we're going to become like him and we're going to be totally caught up in what he teaches, how he teaches, how he interacts with people, and we just simply want to be like him. And the only way that you can do that is we're going to learn in our retreat over the next number of weeks is to spend an awful lot of time with him. So, fan or follower?

What are you? Are you a fan or follower? Let me tell you just a quick little story about my own epiphany here, discovering in certain parts of my life that I am not a follower. I'm a fan. And I don't want to be just a fan of Jesus.

I want to be a follower. And so I'll tell you this little story. Years ago, when I was a pastor, I came back to the Catholic Church, obviously. But when I was a pastor, I picked up painting in Dayton, Ohio. And I loved painting, and it was oil on canvas, and it was plain air, outdoors, landscapes, and then also still life. And I really, really liked it. But I got to a point, you know, where I just didn't have the time to do it anymore.

And so I gave it up, and about 10 years after that, I said to my wife, I really need to pick up something creative here. I've got these creative juices flowing and I'd like to do something. So I thought about all the things that I could do and I came up with, well, I could have come up with painting again. I could have done that, but I didn't think I had the time. I could have done pottery. I could have done all kinds of stuff. But I decided on photography. And so I did what so many of us do when we get into a new topic and that is I just gave myself to reading all about it. photography. So I went up to Barnes and Noble, and as you know, they've got quite a magazine rack, and they had about 25 different magazines, something like that. About 25 magazines on photography,

so I bought 10 of them, came home. I know 10. You're in 10th, Jeff. Well, tell me about it. Talk to my wife. I am. I am. And maybe you're that way, too, where you get into something and you just, you look, you look at videos on it, and you study it, and you get books and articles. And It just really grabs you. That's the way I'm wired. I've given up on trying to change that. My mom and dad know it. My sisters know it.

My wife and my children know it. All my friends know it that I'm going to study like the Bible. I go after it. Whole hog, right? So I bought 10 of them. Came home and started reading all about photography. I'm underlining in magazines and I'm keeping notes in a notebook and I'm learning all about it. black and white photography and digital and outdoor American photography, wedding photography.

So after I read all those magazines, I ended up going back and getting another 10 sets of these 10 magazines. Came home and read all those and kept all the notes. And I started at that time to go to a photography club. And then I went also and told all my relatives about everything. I was learning about photography. and I guess the way I shared it with people, all my knowledge about photography, it gave them the idea that I was actually a photographer.

So I was telling everyone about photography and I was going to the photography club every other week and talking to these great photographers. So the third month rolls around and I bought another 10 magazines and continued to study and acquire knowledge. And then on the fourth month, my wife said to me, she said, honey, and I said, yes. and I'm reading my fourth month of magazines. She said, why don't you buy a camera? So I said, well, you know, I'm studying about it. I will.

So I went back up to Barnes & Noble. I got two magazines that were basically a review of all the different camera equipment that you could buy. So I bought both of them, came home, and I finally picked out my gear. I got a Canon D7, a couple of lenses, and a remote, and a couple of lights and a tripod and I set it all up and then I got my fifth month of magazines and continued to read and it was at that time I continued with the clubs and telling all my friends about photography and getting into conversations and it was on that fifth month that my wife said to me honey and I said yes and she said why why don't you don't you take a picture I said I will

but I'm studying now maybe you identify with this but in the fifth month in the fifth month in the month that Emily said why don't you take a picture the photography club that I was going to

invited me to be the keynote address the keynote speaker in their fall banquet I told him I'd think about it I was invited by a relative on the fifth month to come and shoot their daughter's wedding to which I said I'd pray about it

and the Lord said no because I hadn't taken a shot yet but all my talk about it made people think that I must be quite a photographer enough to shoot a wedding and enough to be a keynote at a photography club a good photography club so I say all that to say this

if I can be invited to shoot a wedding and I can be invited to speak at a photography club and I haven't taken a shot. Is there a chance that I could learn all about the Bible and all about the catechism and all about the, you know, the synods and, and, uh, everything, the saints and, you know, all of the everything and never take a shot. The answer is yes. That can happen. And so I'd like you to think at the beginning of this retreat that we're doing together,

where are you? Are you a fan of Jesus? Have you fallen into the trap of your faith has become your hobby? Or are you a follower? There is a big difference between being a fan of Jesus and a follower of Jesus. A fan of Jesus is just that. They're a fan of Jesus. They're in the crowd. They're up in the stands. They're not on the field. They're not playing the game. They're not out there contributing and doing what he said to do. They're just studying and they love it and that has become their hobby. They love conferences. They love Catholic TV. They like radio. They like CDs and stuff and yeah, they can't get enough of it. But they're not a follower. They're a fan. A follower is quite a bit different. A follower is someone who responds to the call, which we're

going to talk about in a couple of weeks, the call of Jesus to be a disciple. And they actually follow him. And so there is a big difference. And I'd like you to think about that in your life right now. I have. And to be honest, at times I start slipping kind of over into the fan category rather than the follower category. There is a big difference, a big, big difference. And sometimes you can't tell from the outside. But if you follow someone around long enough, you'll learn. They're a fan or they're a follower. So pray about that, will you? We're going to take a break. here in a moment. Pray about that and ask the Lord, are you more on the fan side or the follower's side? We'll be back in just a moment. I want to share something a little bit different with you that's

actually not in the book, The Activated Disciple, but I think it will be a great benefit to you to think during this retreat we have together. Fan or follower? I'm Jeff Kavans, and you're listening to the Jeff Kavins show. We'll be back in just a moment. Hi, I'm Sonia Corbett, the Bible study of Angelista, and a Baptist turned Catholic. As a Baptist, I thought that Catholic beliefs were invented, that they came out of nowhere and had no connection whatsoever to the Bible. I also happened to believe that the Old Testament was about rules, rituals, and sacrifices that the New Testament gave us permission to ignore for a personal relationship with Jesus. It's a long story, but as God began connecting the Old and New Testaments for me, I was stunned. stunned by the beautiful consistency of God in the Catholic Church. I can't tell you how exciting

it was when God opened my eyes to the incredible ways the Old Testament foreshadows God's plan for the New Testament and for his Catholic Church. In my book fulfilled, uncovering the biblical roots of Catholicism, I explain these amazing connections, and I share how those connections helps change my life. If you read this book, I promise that you will come away with tools to help you share your Catholic faith easily, answer questions about how your Catholic faith fits with what's in the Bible, and most importantly, grow deeper in your relationship with Christ. If you're interested in learning more or ordering a copy of fulfilled, uncovering the biblical roots of Catholicism, you can do so at ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. All right, we're back and we're talking about

fan or follower. It's the first lesson in our activated disciple retreat over Lent this year. And we are fresh off the ashes on Ash Wednesday, and we're talking about being coming a disciple. And I left you just prior to the break asking that question, are you a fan or a follower? I want to introduce something else to you in this first session that really is powerful. It's a picture, a word picture, of the process of becoming a disciple. Now, this is not the process that I'm going to be going through in the rest of our retreat. I'm going to actually be going back into Scripture next week and showing you the foundation of discipleship.

And then the week after that, we're going to go back 2,000 years. But I saw scripture in Isaiah that I thought was really powerful. And I wanted to just riff off of it a little bit with the time we have left this week. And it's from Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 2. that's Isaiah 49 and verse 2 and I love this in Isaiah 49 and verse 2 it says he made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand he hid me he made me a polished arrow in his quiver he hid me away Isn't that beautiful? I like that.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and then this is the part that I like. It's talking about a polished arrow. And it says, in the shadow of his hand, and you can imagine his hand over the arrows, because the arrows go in the quiver on the side, in the shadow of his hand, he hid me, he made me a polished arrow. In his quiver, he hid me away. Isn't that beautiful? And so I want to talk to you just for a few minutes as we begin this retreat about

becoming a polished arrow in the quiver of the Lord. Certainly a follower of Jesus, a disciple of Jesus, is really the same as a polished arrow in God's quiver. It's someone who is a polished arrow. God has worked on them. God has honed in on what they are to really become and their mission. And they are a polished arrow. In other words, they're ready to be used by the Lord.

Lord. But it doesn't always, it doesn't always, you know, start that way. When you decide to follow Jesus, you certainly are not a polished arrow, but you are in need of a lot of work as I was when I was 18 years old. And that's when I, as an adult, at least, I made a decision that I was really going to follow God. Being a polished arrow in the quiver of the Lord speaks of a couple of things one is a time of preparation and change and then second readiness listening quietly waiting for his hand to grab us to be used in whatever way he wants to use us but years ago i went over to a guy who is a professional arrow maker way back in ohio and i made an appointment with this guy and i told him what I was doing that I wanted to learn more about how you make an arrow because I wanted to be that

polished arrow in the quiver of the Lord that is spoken of in Isaiah 492. So I sat down with him and here's what he gave me. And I have mentioned this on other podcasts before, a long time ago. And I think there's even a podcast that has this title. Nevertheless, it's good to repeat it here. When you take a stick off of a tree, it's obviously not an arrow. It has a lot of work that needs to be done if it's going to be a polished arrow and serve the purpose of the archer, the one who's going to shoot the arrow, the one who's going to employ the arrow in service. And so the very first thing that you would do with a branch from a tree is you would cut away the obvious things. You would cut away the very obvious things that need to go. And when we talk about the obvious things, we're talking about major stuff.

We're talking about mortal sin. We're talking about behavior that is not becoming of a disciple of the Lord. These are things that are obvious on the outside. Other people who are around you, perhaps your spouse or your children or colleagues at work, they might even be able to identify some of these rough areas that need to be cut away from the branch so that you are more of a straight arrow. And I think about scriptures like Hebrews 12-1 talks about how we need to get rid of the things

that easily beset us and they weigh us down. And Paul talks about in Romans 6, being obedient to the teachings of Jesus is the way that we begin to hack away at these great big protrusions on the stick that need to go. He says, Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey,

either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I love that. So take a moment this week, and this is in the show notes, by the way, all the outline here. You can think about what are the major areas that really need to go.

And I highly recommend the place where you can hack these off is in the confessional. And to make an appointment, go to confession. Now, after you cut away the obvious, the big things there, then you start to do the sanding process. But before you get into the sanding process, there's one thing that is very important to remember as a disciple or a wannabe disciple, and that is that everything on this arrow, every single little bit, needs to line up with the head, which is Christ, which is Jesus. And we're going to learn everything about that next week. next week we're going to go into that but that's important so the next part after cutting away the obvious is the sanding process now the sanding process are those things in your life that prevent you from becoming the instrument in god's hands that that you want to become but these

things have a tendency to be hidden they're not as obvious as the the big pieces of wood on the on the branch they're not as obvious most people wouldn't catch them you know they're kind of internal even you know it might be uh anger it might be shame. It might be envy. Oh, that's a killer. Envy. You want to be an arrow in the quiver of the Lord. You're never going to fly right with envy. I'll tell you that right now. Envy is a big one. These have a tendency to be hidden. You're the, you may be the only one who knows about them. Maybe your wife, maybe your husband or a friend, but typically we're the only ones that know of those things that need to go, undergo the sanding process. These things are just as damaging

as far as hitting the target. Listen, it is sin that causes one to miss the mark. God gives us his word, the Torah, but this idea of sin in Hebrew, chet, means to miss the mark. And you miss the mark because there's a lot of work that needs to be done. The farther the arrow is shot,

the more important it is that imperfections are dealt with. Now, I talked to this guy, and he also gave me a few things about other markings, on the arrow that were really important, like the fletching. Those are the feathers on the side to stabilize the arrow in flight. That reminds me of the Holy Spirit, you know, in John 14 and John 16, the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, will guide you and direct you in the service of the Lord. And so if you're going to be a disciple, having a relationship with the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary because the Holy Spirit is called the pericles. The paraclete, guess what that

means one who's called alongside to help. That's the fletching. That is those feathers. And the guy told me, he said, one thing that most people don't know is that the feathers have to be from one side of the bird or the other, not both. So it's, it's one or the other. And also the cresting was important. He told me about the cresting. And the cresting is, that's the identifying marks on the arrow. It's the stripes. It indicates, it's not just for art. It indicates who the arrow belongs to. And you and I, as disciples, we have markings in our life. Jesus said that we're to love one another. By this, all men will know that we're as disciples by our love for one another. And Paul even said in Galatian 617 concerning persecution, he said,

I bear the marks of Christ in my body. Now, he also said a couple of things that were very interesting here that I want to kind of close out with. And that was, he said that the nature of a good arrow is very important. You cannot make a good arrow out of yourself. Dead works and self-effort won't accomplish it. As you are obedient to him, he will transform you and develop you with skill. But we can get to a point where we feel like, yeah, I got it together. I think I'm looking pretty good, pretty straight, you know, and I think everything's lining up with the head, and wow, these, uh, the fletching, you know, these feathers, they really, they really speak loudly to who I belong to, uh, the cresting rather, and the fletching, you know, the feathers speak about

the Holy Spirit in my life. And so we can feel pretty good about ourselves, but an arrow can look pretty good, but, but until you try it out, you won't know. You won't know. You won't know. So an arrow can look pretty good, but you won't really know until it is tried. Okay. And so that gets back to a point I was making earlier, and that is there's a difference between a fan and a follower. A fan and a follower. They're very, very different. So let's take a look here. Once you actually try out the arrow, if it's too stiff, it will go up to the left. You know what I mean by too stiff? Have you ever run into Catholics who are just a little too stiff? Just a little too stiff. Nobody identifies with them. Everything is rules and regulations.

And it's all about doctrine, all about doctrine, you know, not about the way we interact with people, the kindness and the gentleness and the mercy that we display and the humility that we walk in. It's all about right and wrong. I've been around a lot of people. like that. And that kind of arrow will go up to the left. You'd think it would go to the right, wouldn't you? But it goes up to the left. And if the arrow is too loose, too limber, too flexible, it will go up to the right. A good arrow speaks of balance. But the true test of an arrow is this. Does it go where the archer wants it to go? That's the test. Does it bear fruit? Or as Jeremiah said, does it not return empty-handed?

Very important. Very, very important. He also told me this guy who made the arrows years ago, he said that there's a way, though, once you make an arrow and it's really a good arrow, you can ruin a good arrow. You can ruin a good arrow because arrows are meant to rest in the proper environment.

And that's the quiver of the archer. Idle time in the wrong atmosphere will cause a select arrow to warp, it's too dry or too wet, it will warp and you will not hit the target. And so, my friend, if you endeavor to be a polished arrow in the quiver of the Lord, an activated disciple, the process of becoming that arrow or disciple is critically important, but once you are there and you feel like you are really an activated disciple, the atmosphere in which you rest in which you live after that has a lot to do with whether you're going to continue

to be that effective instrument in God's hands. So it's true that God can use you at any stage of this arrow. It's true. It really is true. How he uses twigs, I don't know, but he does. I know he does. He used me at the twig level when I was young and I didn't know anything. I know he still used me, but I certainly wasn't at a place that he wanted to bring me. But that's really not the issue. How effective do you really want to be? You know, it's not like, what do I got to do to get into heaven? Like, what's the least? That's not what we're interested in. What we're interested in is, you know, how affected do we really want to be? And I asked the owner of this archery shop in Bellbrook, Ohio, what the most important thing to remember.

about a good arrow was. You know what he said? And I think this is so powerful. Very, very, very powerful. I'm going to leave you with this. He said that the main question to address concerning a new arrow that's polished and ready for use, he said the main question to address is, will the arrow, when it's ready to use, be able to withstand the power transferred to it from the bow? Oh, that is so good. Can I say that again? He said that the main question is to address is, will the arrow, when it's ready to use,

be able to withstand the power transferred to it from the bow? If the arrow is not properly sized and weighed and proportioned, it will not be able to handle the power that it will receive from the bow. That is the power of God. Some people have asked me over the years, is how come God doesn't use us today? How come we don't see the miracles today

that we heard about in the Bible? Well, there might be one reason, and that one reason may be, I'm not saying it is, but it may be that we just cannot handle the power of God in our lives. In Acts 1-8, it said, you shall receive power

when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Wow. So you see, that's where we're aiming at, the ends of the earth, to bring this message of Jesus to the ends of the earth.

But in order to do that, you and I are going to have to become polished arrows in his quiver. You and I are going to have to become activated disciples. So between now and next week, I encourage you to, if you got the book, you can read on. and you can go into the next chapter after Fan or Follower, and we will, we're going to look back into the foundation of discipleship going all the way back into the Old Testament next week.

Let me close in prayer for you, and by the way, if you have friends that want to join us on this Lenton retreat together, and you say, well, it's too late now, no, it's not too late, that's the beauty of recording these things, is they can listen real quickly to the first one and join you and me on the second one as we move forward together. If you have not received the book, the show notes will have the way to get the book. And I really suggest you get it. It's a book I put a lot of time into, you know, a lot of heart into, because I'm just hungry to become that disciple that the Lord has called all of us to be. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, oh, Jesus, we love you. And we thank you, Lord, that you are,

working in our lives, that we might become polished arrows in your quiver. Lord, we submit to you in every area of our life. Use us, Lord. Use us, mold us, shape us into your image so that we can truly be used in your mission. This is what we're all about, Lord, in the earth here. And you died for us that we might come to you and be with you forever and ever. Thank you, Lord, for this Lenton retreat. Thank you for this time where we can focus on our relationship with you. in Jesus name amen name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen god bless you my friend love you pray for me i'll pray for you