The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Discovering God in Ordinary Places

Episode Date: October 12, 2018

This week Jeff talks about how royalty is in your presence, but you have to discover God in ordinary places. To develop eyes that see God in our everyday activities, start by keeping a journal of the ways God intervenes in your everyday life. Check out media.ascensionpress.com/category/ascension-podcasts and click on The Jeff Cavins Show icon to see the shownotes for today's episode.

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, Episode 85, Discovering God in Ordinary Places. 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 this week, coming to you deep in the world. woods of Minnesota, and the weather is starting to change. On the way here to my studio in the cabin, I ran into a bunch of cars that were coming from Fargo and north of Fargo, and snow was dropping off of the cars. First time this year, a little bit scary, you know. And in Minnesota,

a lot of people say we're getting cheated out of fall this year because we've had gloomy skies and rain, but you know what? If you're walking with the Lord, every day is shiny. I want to talk about something really practical this week, discovering God in ordinary places. I know so often people are looking for God in, you know, extraordinary ways, but they miss him in just everyday life and that God might be speaking to them. And I know God might be encouraging them in some way. And I know based on the email that I'm getting from you that, wow, we need encouraging, don't we? Life is difficult for many people. And a lot of you are facing some real difficulties in your life. And I want you to know that when you send me an email at Ascension Press, the Jeffcaven show

at ascensionpress.com is the name of the email. I read them and I pray for you. And I appreciate the relationship that we have here. And we're one body. There's solidarity here. And we have to pray for each other. Deborah writes, and she says, I love listening to your show. I absolutely love my new Bible. What she's talking about? It's the Great Adventure Bible. And right now they happen to be sold out, but they've got a whole boatload coming in in just about a week or so.

So if you're interested in getting the Great Adventure Bible for Christmas gifts this year, we're going to have a lot for you. Continue to go to ascensionpress.com. She said, I am a cradle Catholic who has never read the Bible. and it has caused me considerable anguish over the years. 55 of them, to be exact. I guess that's your age, Deborah. I have always color-coded things to help remember and associate topics.

So when I saw this Bible, I thought, thank you Jesus for answering my prayer. Thanks for all you do in the name of our Lord. Thanks, Debra. And Jolene from Florida writes, and she says, I have been following you ever since Life on the Rock. Well, that was a while ago. and she said, I am thoroughly enjoying the ride. My Bible study group has completed quite a few of your studies. We are currently working on James. Wow, Jolene, that is a great study. That is the New Testament

Proverbs and very, very practical. Jolene goes on and says, I recently purchased the new Bible and I'm loving it. I touch it and turn the pages very gently. Well, that'll go away, Jolene, you'll start to really use that thing. She said, I thought I would get the supplies that you recommended a while back for marking your Bible. I remember that a few shows after you gave instructions for, you know, she's referring to a past show. And she didn't get all of that. Okay. So if you want to mark your Bible, especially the new Great Adventure Bible, I recommended the zebra pens and the extra fine point zebra pens. And I think I said green, blue, red, and black. And I underline all of the verses that I am interested in in colored pencils. And that was as simple as that. Hey, if you want to

write me, you can write at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. What an exciting time to be on earth and to serve the Lord. I know there's difficulties in the news, but there's so many opportunities to serve him and to be a witness to Jesus. And I'm excited about it. Today I want to talk to you about discovering God in ordinary places, because that's where you're living ordinary places. Work, home, the cabin, picking up the kids, you know, at soccer practice, whatever it might be. And that's where we need to start discovering God. And I want to start with Acts chapter 17 versus 22 through 28. I'll put this in the show notes so you don't have to You don't have to get into an accident.

But Acts 17 says, so Paul, standing in the middle of the area Pagas, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to an unknown God. What therefore you worship is unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one

every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us. Can I repeat that? He is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Wow. I love that. You know, one of the things I was watching over the last number of years, is this whole fascination with the royals over in England. And when people see Prince William or Prince Harry, they get all excited. There's something about royalty. There's something about royalty. And when royalty comes into your presence, people get really, really excited. This week, I want to

talk to you about how royalty is in your presence, but you have to discover God in ordinary places. There were two types of people that were represented there in Athens when Paul gave this amazing speech in Acts chapter 17. You had the Epicureans. Maybe you've heard that word before. When I was younger, I heard that, but I frankly didn't understand what they were. But the Epicureans asserted that happiness and pleasure were the principal aims of life. Kind of sounds like America, doesn't it? We all know the expression, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Well, the Epicureans held that everything happened by chance. The gods were remote and did not care, so worry and concern made little difference at all.

Eat, drink, and enjoy. They were the Epicureans. And I know that if you thought about it long enough, you could identify the Epicureans in our culture today. The second group were the Stoics. they were opposite to the Epicurean philosophy. Everything for them was faded by the gods. Life had to be lived according to nature without emotional intensity or involvement. And the Stoics were pantheistic, seeing their gods as all and in all. They were in everything, the trees and everything. And Paul points out something very important. Paul points out to them, you are looking to worship.

He then tells them, and you openly acknowledge that you aren't sure. You have found the truth. And then Paul proclaims the truth. Number one, God is the one who created the universe and everything in it. Number two, he is the source of all life. So Paul, first of all, dismisses the idea of pantheism. God is not in the trees. God is not an impersonal force, but rather a personal God who can be known, someone we can relate

to, someone we can have a relationship with. And then we see God as guiding history. He has planned the exact times when nations should emerge and decline. He also planned the specific area to be occupied by each nation. He is God the designer. things are not left to chance as the Epicureans wanted to think order and design are part of the universe's makeup. It's part of the DNA of the universe. Now Paul goes on to say that God had a clear purpose in doing all of this preparation, this planning, this guiding. It was this. Verse 27,

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Paul continues this theme in Romans 1, chapter 1 verses 20 and 21, says God, you know, the personal God arranges creation and history and blessings in such a way that we who naturally seek after may find him. Oh, God wants us to know him. He wants us to find him. And the heart of Paul's message is that God wants us to reach out and find him. And even though he is not very far from us, he's there.

It is God's desire that he be found by us, not only in the experience of salvation for eternity, but also in the everyday light and stressful times of life. We may see his face in his grace. Let me ask you a question. Are you going through stressful times? Are you having a difficult time, and you have no time to learn Greek and Hebrew and Latin and go deep into all the creeds and everything else to try to find God? He's nearer than you thought. He's nearer than you thought. He's not very far. Jeremiah chapter 29 said, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. question, are we seeking? Are we deliberately watching with eyes of faith and minds that keep track and remember God's presence and involvement in our lives? We must develop eyes that see God in the everyday activities. This is what I want to talk to you about today, is that we can

discover God in ordinary places. I'm going to take a break when I come back. I want to give you some practical things to look for, to discover God in the ordinary places, because he's not far off. And like Paul in the Book of Acts, you know, speaking to a culture that was worshipping an unknown God, we can know God. He's not far off. He is screaming at us, that he wants us and wants a relationship with you. I'm Jeff Kavens, and this is the Jeff Kaven show. We'll be right back. 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 Moby 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. Hey, welcome back. Talking about discovering God in the ordinary places. You know, all the way throughout salvation history, God has revealed himself piecemeal from Genesis all the way to Malachi and then a full revelation in Jesus Christ. If you go back and you look at the Bible, you'll see, for example, Moses was herding his sheep on an ordinary day, like your day today, when the bush burned. You know, he didn't get a memo saying in the next 30 days you're going to see a bushburn. It just suddenly was an ordinary day.

in a bushburn and God spoke to him. And that's what he could do to you today in your life. Maybe he has. The boy Samuel was lying in the place where he normally slept, you know, thinking about hot wheel cars and everything else. And suddenly he heard the voice of God. It was just an ordinary day like yours today. And David was tending sheep when God told him he was going to be a king. The tax collector, Matthew, do you remember that little story of You remember that? Matthew, he was at work on a normal day when Jesus approached him and said, follow me. His life was never the same. Zakias down over in Israel on one particular day at Jericho, he climbed up a tree to see Jesus, just another day, and his whole life changed at that point.

Amazing. So God has always been at work in ordinary places. I like with Psalm 1.3.1.3.5. I like with Psalm 1,000. 39 says, I'll put it in the notes for you. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? And the answer, of course, is nowhere. Nowhere. I love that. If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn. If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your hand, your right hand, will hold me fast. I love that. You know, there's three words that are really important to discovering God in the ordinary places. One is omnipresent. The theological word is omnipresent, present everywhere. Omnipresent means that God is everywhere at the same time.

You cannot go to any place in all creation and find that God is not present. What a thought. Another word is transcendent. This means that while God is everywhere, he is more than the sum of everywhere and everything. Ineminence. Imminence means that even though God is everywhere, he is intensely here right now. In your life, right now, God is present. And there's a lot of evidence of God's involvement in the ordinary. First evidence is any obvious answer to prayer. We prayed at bedtime, you know. We pray at bedtime and ask God to lead and guide us in the next day. He is leading and guiding us, but we have to pay attention. Another evidence is an unexpected evidence of God's care, of God's care. How many times has God, you know, out of nowhere just

really blessed us and met the need in our life? And I know he's done that. I remember back in Bible college. My wife and I were in Bible college, and Emily in Dallas, Texas had to go back to Minnesota because we couldn't afford to put her to school through school anymore. And on the very last day, we had lunch with a family friend, and he felt the Lord was leading him to pay for her. her semester of tuition. God was there. He was there. Another evidence is the unusual linking or linkage or timing, you know. And we look at the timing and, oh my gosh, I have so many stories I could tell you about how God came through just at the last minute. I knew this was the Lord. And another evidence is any help to do God's work in the world, right? You know,

The catechism, I just want to give you this this week. Look at paragraphs 31 through 38. I'll put it in the show notes. There are a number of ways to come to know God. And while the church gives us three major ways to come to know God outside of divine revelation, I think in these things we can constantly hear the voice of God and the presence of God. Number one is the world, paragraph 32 of the catechism, the world, the catechism says the world's order and beauty, through the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe. You can just look around you every single day and see the marvel of the world and thank God that he's there, he's present. You're not alone. You can look at the laws of thermodynamics.

You can look at physics and, you know, the catechism even says that the laws that are built into the foundation of the world are simply reminders of God's unfailing faithfulness. Give him glory. Thank him. The human person, paragraph 33, with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about about God's existence. In all of this, he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. We know in our longing of our heart that God is there, and he's wooing us. Reason. Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God, but for man to be able to enter into real

intimacy with God, God will both to reveal himself to man and to give him the great of being able to welcome this revelation in faith, and that comes to the fourth way that we can come to know God in ordinary places, and that is divine revelation. The Bible, sacred scripture, sacred tradition, the magisterium. God reveals himself in a magnificent way. But I want to return to what we're talking about right now, and that is this. God wants to reveal himself to you. And he wants you to notice his handiwork in the world, in the human person. If you're longing for peace today, that's evidence of God.

God is wooing you. If you are blown away by a sunset, God is speaking to you. And if you are thinking to yourself, you know, using reason that there has to be a God, God is revealing himself to you. I want to encourage you to do something in conclusion today, and that's this. I would encourage you to start keeping a journal, a record of God's sightings in your life. I'm talking about billboards. I'm talking about weather. I'm talking about books you're reading, comments that neighbors make, something you heard in a homily. God is near you. And this week, I truly believe with all of my heart that God wants to

speak to you today and encourage you and guide you, but we have to start paying attention to God in the ordinary places. Practicing the presence of God, Brother Lawrence, I love that book. Check it out. You know, washing the dishes, God can speak to you. Keep close track of your God's sightings. As Jeremiah said, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. this week, I want to challenge you as I'm challenging myself. Seek God with all of your heart, my friend, you will find him. You will find him. Right now, and I'm just, I'm just sensing this in my heart right now as I'm talking to you. Some are asking some deep questions in life right now. God wants to answer you. He does. He may answer you in his word. He may answer you in a homily

this week. He may answer you in something you see on a billboard, but I know that you, God wants to speak with you. We see that this is what David did. He recorded what happened to him and acknowledged it as God's work. In Psalm 57, it's a great example of such an account. It's a song of David while fleeing from Saul in a cave, and he saw God. Read it, Psalm 57. So I want to encourage you this week, you know, in an ordinary day, God will speak to you. If you think about it, I mean, think for a moment ago, a long time ago, a woman went to what? Went to a well in John chapter 4. It wasn't an ordinary day.

Like today that you're listening to this show, it was an ordinary day, but this woman met an extraordinary man. What he said so gripped her that it changed her life. I could give you five, six, seven, eight, I don't know, nine days in my life where God intersected my life in such an ordinary way, but it changed my life. Like the day I sat in Dinky Town in the University of Minnesota, way back in 1980, 85, and I had this idea to create a Bible timeline chart. It was an ordinary day. It was overcast.

I was late for school. And I wanted to know God, and a thought came, just like your day today. An ordinary day, an ordinary well, one more ordinary place where Jesus, the extraordinary man, made a difference. He's still walking. He's still intersecting our paths. Look for him today. God loves you. I love to hear for you, my friend. If you want to write me, you can write me at the Jeff

Cavan show at ascensionpress.com. The Great Adventure Bible currently is, if you're listening to this, it's 2018. It's October. And we're out right now. We have a whole boatload coming in about a week or so. So keep at it. Really excited about how the Bible is changing people's lives. And if you have an idea for a show, you'd like me to talk about something, which, by the I've got a list of probably 15 shows now that we're going to be doing based on your comments. I would love to hear from you, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. By the way, my next door neighbor, deep in the woods in Minnesota, does not have a lung yet. Keep praying for that, will you?

His name is Sandy, and we're praying that God is going to give him a lung. He's got a rare lung disease, and we are lifting him up in prayer. Will you agree with me? I need to know that you're praying with me on that. Tough times right now in the world for many people. Let's remember to pray for the church, pray for our bishops and priests, and pray for more vocations. Let's pray as we conclude the show in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lord, we thank you today for giving us life. And we thank you, Lord, for just your faithfulness and your justice and your kindness.

Lord, we want to see you. We want to hear you. We want to know that you're directing and leading our lives. Help us to see you in the ordinary at home and what we hear in the media and certainly what we read in scripture and our study and enduring the Eucharist at mass. Lord, make us sensitive, make our heart sensitive to your voice and help us to distinguish between your voice and the voice of the world and ourselves. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you, my friend. Have a great week.