The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Advent - Will You Be Ready?

Episode Date: November 30, 2018

Jeff talks about how we can prepare for the season of Advent, and let it transform our lives. We’re not waiting for a day of gifts and good will, we’re waiting for the coming of Christ. Send Jeff your prayer intentions for Advent at [e-mail]. He will pray for them during this Advent season. For the full shownotes, including the scripture verses and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, go to https://bit.ly/2KJSshN (https://bit.ly/2KJSshN) and click on the episode. Or email us at [e-mail] to let us know you'd like the shownotes sent to your inbox!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 92 Advent. Will you be ready? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. 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. Hey, welcome to the show. We are at the time of this broadcast getting ready for Advent, which is that time of the year where we await the Lord's coming at Christmas. And the church gives us quite a few weeks here to prepare for the coming of the Lord. And I wanted to talk a little bit about that today. Not going to be a long show, but I want to just share some things with you

that I'm thinking about in my own life as far as preparing for Christmas, preparing for the coming of the Lord. Because, as you know, it's just so noisy right now, you know, with what's going on and the news and the shopping has kind of become ridiculous, you know, in a lot of ways. You have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, this Tuesday, that Wednesday, and so forth. And the whole marketing engine of the country wants us to really focus on Christmas, but they don't want us focusing on Christmas the way we should. be focusing on Christmas. They want us to focus on Christmas because they have their focus on our wallets. And that is simply not what Christmas is about. So I want to talk about preparing your heart

for the coming of the Lord because this is a unique time for us to invite the Lord into our lives to deal with areas that really do need to be dealt with. And what's interesting is that what comes up around Christmas so often with family get-togethers and emotional turmoil, you know, between siblings and all these things that can go on. Those are some of the things that the Lord actually might want to work on you this year. You know, he might want to work on you in that area this year. And I know that there are some areas in my life that the Lord wants to work on as well. Hey, I got a nice letter from Paul in Great Britain, and he says that he met his part. partner a few years ago, and she introduced, introduced him to regular church attendance. He says,

I'm not Catholic. She is. A couple of years ago, after spending several years sitting at the back of our church, we got a new priest, and things then just really started to change. And he said, now I'm attending the RCI, and I will complete it at the Easter Vigil in 2019. He says he's really enjoyed the show, and he's working through the backlog of the shows, and he is just really getting an awful lot out of it and growing, and we want to pray for you, Paul, and thank you for writing. And we get a lot of people that write and tell us what's happening in their life, as well as a number of questions. And we do have a few shows that are getting lined up in the future, where we're just going to be answering a lot of these questions that come in.

You know, speaking of email, you can get a hold of me at the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. And I want to invite you to do something over the next couple weeks, and that is, send your prayer requests in to me. If you have any prayer requests during the Lentons, or during the Advent season here, I want to pray for you. And so just I encourage you to send those in, whatever it might be. I want to offer that to you, that I will pray for you. Well, the Advent season is a season where we're preparing for the coming of the Lord, and one of my favorite texts is in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter three and four. And chapter three is where John the Baptist goes down to the Jordan River in the wilderness of Judea. And Jesus is going to be coming to the Jordan River to begin his public ministry. At the very same place that the Old Testament, Joshua, started his public ministry by taking the Israelites across the Jordan River over into Jericho to take that. But listen to what John says in preparing for the Lord, and this is something that is going to be really important for you and for me to prepare

for Advent and to reorient our hearts and our minds during Advent. John said, Matthew's Gospel says this in chapter three, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And for this is he who is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. I love that because it really talks about how do we prepare for the coming of the Lord. Well, throughout the whole season of Advent, we have this amazing opportunity to prepare, and at the heart of it really is repentance. It is repentance. But I want to kind of put a spin on this in the way that the catechism of the Catholic Church puts a bit of a

spin on this and shows us, I think, a different way to envision what it means to repent. Let me read a little bit to you from the catechism, starting in paragraph 1430. In fact, it's 1430 all the way to 1432. And it really has some great insight on how to repent as far as preparing for the Lord. Now, before I read that, the reason that repentance is so important is that we have to reorient our minds, our whole life, to receive the Lord, because he wants to come in. and do some amazing things in our lives. Maybe it's a habit that you have. Maybe it's a relationship that is an unhealthy relationship, right? Maybe you're caught up in worry or envy, or you're struggling with your diet, whatever it might be in your life. And you're uncomfortable about it. And you're

saying, Lord, you know, man, if you could come into my life, this is the area that I would love for you to deal with in my life. And I think that's part of what this whole preparation is about is, Lord, I'm anticipating at Christmas more than just physical gifts from them all. What I'm anticipating is your work in my heart. And that's where I'm at this year. And I wanted to share that with you, is that I'm asking the Lord, I'm asking the Lord to do a work in my heart that needs to be done in different areas and to de-emphasize what our culture is putting so much emphasis in, which is material things and purchasing, you know, buying the whole economy. Now listen to what the catechism says. It says that Jesus calls, Jesus called to conversion and penance like that of

the prophets before him does not aim first at outward works sackcloth and ashes, fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false. However, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures, and works of penance. And that's what we need to do to begin to prepare for the coming of the Lord, is we need this interior conversion, the conversion of the heart. Now, the very next paragraph is one of my all-time favorites, 1431. It says interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life. Isn't that a beautiful statement? I love that statement. You know, when we think about repentance, oftentimes people will, they'll go back to an

image they have in their head of some guys standing on a street corner, you know, with a great big sign, repent or go to hell. And we have this really nice. negative connotation when it comes to repentance. But repentance, if you really understand it, is an incredibly positive thing. So we go from what is hurting us to what will give us life. And to repent means that there's going to be a radical reorientation. That's right. We're going to reorient our lives. Our whole life. It's a return. It's a conversion to God with all of our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions that we have committed. And at the same time, it entails the desire and resolution to

change one's life with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of His grace. And so this opportunity that we have now is one to reorient your whole life. And so if your finances are out of control. This is a time to reorient your finances and align them with God's will. If it's your eating habits, if it's envy or you're just struck down with jealousy over a family member, this is the time, my friend, to reorient your life. It's a time to get everything back in order the way that it should be. And to me, you know, this Advent season is a, is a it's an opportunity for grace. It's an opportunity for mercy for me to say, you know, this year has been rough. And maybe it has been for you. Some of the emails that I receive, I know that

you're going through difficult times. And God in His wisdom in the liturgical calendar gives us a time for every season that we can deal with our heart in multiple ways. And this time of the year, Advent is one of preparing for Jesus to come into our lives in a powerful, powerful way. And in a lot of ways, this is a smaller look at a much bigger reality, and that is the second coming of the Lord. Will you be ready? Or will you be thrown off, you know, totally surprised? Well, we've got the advantage with the liturgical year where we can actually purposely prepare

for his coming. I love that. So the liturgical calendar begins, it begins the season of Advent shortly, the period of anticipation for the Lord's arrival. And I'll just ask a question, are you ready for a new era with Christ? A new period with Christ? Do you need a new beginning? This is your opportunity. Don't let it go by. But you're going to have to make some changes because the pace of the holiday season will drown you if you don't make a decision to do something different. It's really, really true. Are you in need of healing, restoration in a relationship, as I said, personal conduct? What would be more exciting this Christmas, three or four new CDs or new clothes, or for your family relationships to be healed? Or the anxiety that you experience to

subside. The worry that has gripped your heart to go away. Something much greater than material gifts awaits us this Christmas. Jesus wants to heal us and restore broken lives, but it requires a change on our part. In fact, you'll see this all throughout scripture where God wants to work in our lives, but he requires us to do something prior. Hosea talks about tilling the ground, know, and we need to till the ground so that the seed of God has a place to germinate. Oftentimes, in the Bible, God required things of people that they should do this, and he will do that. And we'll do a whole show on that sometime, but it's actually quite, you know, quite fascinating. Elijah experienced this, you know, with getting the oil for a miracle.

Now, through repentance and humility, the road is made strong. for Jesus to come into our lives this Christmas season. Anticipating the Christmas season is a wonderful thing, but so often we aim so low and subtle for a few material gifts. Allow Christ to bless you with his peace and his vast provisions. If you're like me, every Christmas, I buy presents for my loved ones, but I have a hard time waiting because I want to give my gifts to them early. And as much as we desire all that God has for us, he desires to give us a gift even more. In the words of St. Augustine, God thirsts that we would thirst for him. I'm going to take a break. When I come back, I'm going to give you just a few suggestions on what you could do this Advent season

and preparing for Advent that will make it more fruitful and truly allow Christ to come into those areas of your life that he desperately wants to change. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. If you're looking for a way to learn more about your Catholic faith, I invite you to check out the Ascension Presents YouTube channel. You're going to find tons of free videos featuring Catholic presenters like Matt Frad, Leodero, Jackie Bobby Angel, and Emily Wilson. Go to YouTube.com slash ascension Presents. That's YouTube.com slash ascension presents. And if you like what you see, please share and subscribe. Welcome back. We're talking about preparing for Advent, which Advent in itself is a season in the liturgical year where we prepare for the coming of the Lord. And we were talking before the break about this idea of repentance and what repentance is, which is a reorientation of your whole life to Christ. And so as we prepare for Advent, and this message obviously goes on into Advent as well,

Well, a couple things I want to share with you. Number one is, I think it would be a great idea, and this is what I'm doing, is to take some time to pray, get alone with the Lord. It could be a holy hour. It could be before the blessed sacrament. It could be in your office. It could be in your car before you go to work. You know, it could be in the morning with a cup of tea. Whenever, find that time to sit down with the Lord and say, Lord, I really need you to speak to my heart. I need you to speak to my heart. I need you to elule. illuminate my heart and what is going on in my life. Now, get a pen or a pencil and a notebook and begin and pray and say, Lord, I want you to shine your spotlight on the areas of my life that you

would like to come into and you would like to change because I want to prepare for that change by reorienting my life toward you in these areas. Now, as you pray that, just be quiet for a few minutes. Just be quiet and take 10 minutes or so and ask the Lord to show you. And I believe he can because when we ask him to do these things that are going to help us to become better disciples and to give him honor and glory, I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is capable of giving you a thought about these areas. So if you prayed and suddenly you're thinking, Lord, you know, I'm not controlling my appetite anymore. And that could be in food, that could be in media, you name it. Maybe the Lord is putting his hand on that area of your

life. Are you struggling with a sibling or a coworker or a neighbor? Is there envy in your heart? You know what envy is. Envy is, jealousy is, I want what that guy has. Well, envy is, I don't want that guy to have what that guy has. And when he gets blessed, it makes me sad. Envy is a terrible, terrible sin around Christmas, especially as the family gets together. Is the Lord shining his light on that area of your life? Is it your internet life? You struggle with pornography? Do you struggle with endless YouTube videos for entertainment and you're really wasting your time? Maybe that's something that the Lord would shine his light on. Maybe you are struggling with somebody at work and you're angry. Maybe there's an anger issue that the Lord wants to come into your life and

he wants to heal. He wants to help you in that area. Or trust. Whatever it is, I could go on and on with all these different problems that we struggle with, which are common to all of us. But the key is this. It's you and the Lord. You take the time. You take the time to get together with the Lord and to say, Lord, you illuminate my heart. You show that light right on those areas. and you write them down. So you take your notebook and you start writing down these areas of your life that you really feel like the Lord wants to change. You know, he came into the world 2,000 years ago because he loved you. He loved you and he wants to give you life and he wants to give you life more abundantly, but we must respond to the good news with repentance, turn our lives around,

reorient our lives, as we were mentioning at the first of the show today. Now, once you have that list of the areas that you feel that the Lord is, he's coming in, he wants to come in and he wants to zero in on those areas, then what we need to do is we need to change the way we live, because I'll be honest with you. If you're like me, if you don't make the effort to bring margin, into your life, time, extra time into your life where you can be with the Lord coming this Advent season, then it's probably going to be like the years in the past. And for me, unfortunately, for many years, that meant that, well, it wasn't any different than any other time of the year other than

my problems in my heart got bigger. You know, the struggles got bigger. And my life was busier than ever during the season. Isn't it interesting, my friend, that at the time, when the Lord wants to come into our lives and change us, we ramp everything up to high gear, 100 miles an hour, spending money, spending time, and eating and eating, and wow, we missed it. We missed it again. Don't let that happen this year. What I'm going to encourage you to do beyond writing down those areas that you think the Lord might want to change is find some times for silence. Do something different. There's the traditional, which are fantastic. Sign up for some holy hours, a church, sit down and read scripture more often. Pray the rosary in the car rather than listen to the radio. There's all kinds of things that you can do to put yourself in a place where you can hear God and you can settle yourself down and start to allow him to address some of these issues. If a couple of the issues seem to be really glowing on that page, like, wow, I know he's really

dealing with that, you might want to get a book on that topic from a good Catholic bookstore and read it during this Advent season as a way of saying, Lord, okay, I know you're putting your hand in that area of my life, and I want to start to be open here and listen to wisdom on what I can do. Maybe take, you know, buy a couple of books to address those issues. do some things differently. Maybe it's, maybe it's in the morning. You're just going to go out and take a walk. And maybe you don't normally do that, but you're going to say, you know, for this Advent, I'm going to take a walk in the morning to just spend that time with the Lord. I am going to be in the car and I'm not going to turn the radio on during Advent because I want to hear you, Lord. I want to

talk to you out loud in the car. I haven't done that, you might say. But this Advent, you could. You could. Maybe you want to go to Mass on Sunday, 15, 20, 30 minutes early, and just sit in his presence. And if your church has a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is present, it's a great time just to sit before the Lord. You might want to do something that is radically different for you. Maybe go snowshoeing, maybe go cross-country skiing, and just spend that time with the Lord conscious of what he's trying to do in your life. I guess what I'm saying, my friend, is this year, do something a little different. Do something a little different to give time to the Lord for quiet. The storm is going to come, believe me. The advertising is there. Trust me. And it's going to get busy. And the family is going to be

coming in from out of state, and everything's going to be turned up. But you will have prepared. you will have prepared. And if you are struggling with unforgiveness towards any of your relatives, now is the time to begin to ask the Lord to soften your heart, to till the soil of your heart, so his word can take hold, and it will accomplish then what he wants to accomplish in your life. You've got several weeks. Let's not squander it. We've got several weeks. Let's be imaginative. Let's be creative. Let's get the notebook out, write these things down. Let's make up our mind that I'm going to do these two or three things during Lent. They're going to give me the time to prepare my heart for Christ coming in.

And then on Christmas morning, you can say with a jubilant heart, man, Lord, I'm so glad I prepared for your coming. You have been doing a work in my life, and I want to celebrate that now that you have come into the world. I want to celebrate what you have been doing in my life. Well, I'm going to pray for you, and I do pray that you have a great Advent. I just wanted to share with you a couple things that I'm doing, and I'd like to hear from you. And if you have prayer intentions during Advent, go ahead and send them to me. We will compile those.

I will pray for you. My wife will join me and will pray for you. And I'll share many of these with the staff at Ascension Press. They'll pray for you. but we want to pray that God will give you a fruitful Advent, an Advent that is different than any other Advent you've ever gone through before. God loves you. God wants to change you, and the power is available to do it. He's just asking us to take that step. Reorient your life. My prayer for you, my friend, let's pray right now. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord,

I lift up my friend listening right now, and I ask that you will give them the courage and the strength and the creativeness to reorient their life in preparation for your coming. And that as we reorient our life, we will hear you clearly. Oh, God, we want to hear your voice. We want wisdom on these areas that need to change in our life. We celebrate you. We just celebrated Christ the king. You are the king.

And Lord, now we invite you into our life in a special way during this Advent season. We thank you for the change that you are going to bring. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, my friend, it's been good to talk to you a little bit this week. Hey, by the way, I did not tell you, I don't think I told you, the Great Adventure Bible was sold out. They have them in again. You can pre-order it now.

So if you go to ascensionpress.com, you can get your Great Adventure Bible. We've never seen anything like this. I mean, these things don't fly off the shelf. They explode off the shelf. And it's amazing. And if you have any experience with the Great Adventure Bible, send me an email. I'd like to know what you think of it and how it has changed your Bible reading and your understanding of salvation history. Again, my email is The Jeff Kavan Show.

at ascensionpress.com. God bless you. We'll talk to you next week.