The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Drinking From An Eternal Fountain

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

Just as our bodies need water, our souls need nourishment too. Today, Jeff talks about the importance of renewing our relationship with Christ through his eternal fountain. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this episode, Ave Maria University (https://tinyurl.com/yycd3xng) Snippet from the Show “God thirsts that you would thirst for him.” - St. Augustine 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!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 208, drinking from an eternal fountain. 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 once again. as we begin, once again, to talk about all things discipleship and the word of God and just growing deeper in our relationship with the Lord. I do hope you're having just a great week. And I know that this last year has been difficult, but from what I'm hearing from people, we are turning the bend and returning to some form of normalcy. Although, you know what's funny is that a lot of people will say, I don't know if I want to go back to what we considered normal, you know, a year, a little over a year ago.

They've made some changes during this time, and they are wrapping their arms around those changes, and they don't want to give them up. And I know in my life that has happened too, particularly with health and that's physical health, but spiritual health as well. and that is praying like never before, spending time with my wife and going into God's word in a deep way. I don't want to go back to kind of the life before, even though, I mean, life was good, but there was just so many good things learned in the last year. And I'd love to hear from you, and you can just send me a note, an email, the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. I would love to hear from you. I want to talk to you today about drinking from an eternal fountain. And I'm going to give you a metaphor today that is very, very

powerful. All of the scriptures that I'm going to share with you today, they are available. I'll send them to you. All you have to do is text my name, Jeff Kavens, to 3377. The number is 33777. Just type my name, all one word. We'll get you on board here. You'll get the show notes for this show, and all the shows in the future. We're at 208 right now. By the way, there's a lot of good stuff in the back of the bus of things we've talked about for a number of years now that you might want to check out.

Just go through that list, and maybe there's some topics that you're dealing with, and you can dive into one of those. The Bible in a year continues to go strong. If you have not started going through the Bible in a year with Father Mike Schmitz and myself, get on board. and I'll put that information in the show notes. You know, I remember years ago when I had the opportunity to go down into the Sinai Peninsula and to Mount Sinai.

And we stayed in the wilderness with some Bedouins, and I mean it was hot and it was dry. And our guides told us, they said, you know what, you guys just need to drink and drink and drink water because down here where it's very, very dry, you need a lot of water. And even when you don't think that you need water, you need to drink water because it'll catch up to you. And all of a sudden, you know, you feel faint and you start to tingle. And it's too late at that point. You need some help. And so the idea is that in a rough, arid place, you need to get ahead of the thirst curve and drink water. That kind of fits into what I want to talk to you about today, and that is the power of the Word of God, the power of scriptures as a fountain that

delivers a very satisfying and life-affirming and necessary quenching to our thirst. And I have known for years the power of God's Word. And when I find myself dry spiritually, I know where I need to go, even though I might not feel like it. Isn't that funny? Have you ever felt like that where you felt so dry and kind of an arid time in your life? I'm not going through one of those right now, but I can tell you, I've had them and I can remember them. And the wisdom of the church, the wisdom of Christ is really calling us to His Word and to the relationship, because that's where the refreshing cool water is in that dry place that you might be right now. And if you're going through a dry place in your life right now, I want to encourage you to drink from an eternal

fountain that will give you really what you are, what you need to revive your spiritual life, your life in general. I like what Jesus said in John chapter 4 in verse 14, he said, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring, a spring of water welling up to eternal life. I have found that when I drink daily from God's Word, it refreshes me in such a way that it gives me a peace in my life. How do you explain, how do you describe refreshing? It's really one of those things it's hard, isn't it? You want to think about it for a moment. How would you describe refreshing? Well, refreshing is refreshing. It is when you feel good and you feel some rest,

on, a break, and you feel replenished, invigorated? Maybe that's how we would describe it, you know, and that's what it means to be refreshed. And when you read God's word, there is a refreshing that comes to you because you have depleted your energy. And we're going to talk a little bit later on on this show about depleting our energy in all the wrong places. where people look to be refreshed in the wrong places, and they end up broke and not refreshed. But I can promise you, my friend, as your brother in the Lord, I can promise you that God's word is like an eternal well that keeps giving and giving and giving, and there is no way that you can get to the bottom of this well. and it is available to you 24-7, 24-7.

Jesus said in John chapter 7, it was the Feast of Tabernacles, and at the Feast of Tabernacles, they traditionally would bring water from the pool of Siloam, which is at the south end of the Temple Mount. If you want to go there with Father Mike Schmitz and myself, this June, I'll put show notes, I'll put that in the show notes for you, but we'll take you right to the this pool called the pool of Siloam, and this is where they took the water, and then they carried it up to the temple mount, into the temple, and every day they would pour out a water libation. It was an offering for the Lord, for God. And it really spoke of a day when the Messiah would come,

and then water would flow out from the temple into the Araba, into the desert, and it would water all of the flowers and fresh, fresh growth. And it's, it's, it's, it's on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles that there is a super duper. I don't know if that's Greek, but there's a super duper pouring out, a super duper water libation. And it's on that day, the last day of the feast, the great day that Jesus stood up and he cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me. drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart, will flow rivers of living water. Isn't that great? He said that in John chapter, John chapter seven, of course, the leaders, they didn't like that too much, to be honest with you. They didn't like it too much.

And they actually rejected Jesus. They rejected him. And we are told in the book of Jeremiah later that this rejection of Jesus would end up with their names being written in the earth. And if you look at John chapter 8, which is just after John chapter 7, you'll see that that's exactly what Jesus did. They rejected, they rejected the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Now, with the Lord himself and our receiving of the Lord in the Eucharist, there is a tremendous refreshing that comes into our lives. But I would present to you this idea that on a daily basis, you can be refreshed by the Word of God, which gives you direction, it gives you correction, it gives you consolation, it puts a light on your path. It's amazing.

And we do have this thirst in our life. We're thirsting for truth. We're thirsting for direction. We're thirsting for consolation. And I was reading, and maybe you've heard this quote before, but I found out that St. Augustine says, he thinks that God is thirsty too. Have you ever thought about that? We've all experienced thirst. Man, I can remember those baseball games growing up, you know, in a hot, hot day. And we come in from the outfield. And I mean, you are so. thirsty, you can't wait to get a hold of that water bottle. But could God be thirsty? Well, St. Augustine says, yeah, he says, God thirsts that you would thirst for him. Isn't that beautiful? God thirst that you would thirst for him. I like that. I like that a lot. Revelation 22, the Spirit and the bride say, come, and let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty, come. let the one who desires to take the water of life without price. You see, God is offering us this beautiful, refreshing water.

You know, David wrote about this in Psalm 63, a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. And if you've ever been in the wilderness of Judah, which we're going to go there in June, and you'll experience it in all of its heated glory, if you've ever been in the wilderness of Judah, you know that it is so hot, it is so dry. And he says to God in this Psalm, you are my God earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Well, all you have to do is go into a dry and weary land where there is no water and you'll learn what thirst is all about but you may say to me today Jeff

I got to be honest with you my life feels like a weary land where there is no water do you feel like that right now do you feel like life has kind of dried up there is there's difficulties facing you on every side and it seems that there's no no relenting and no path out of this circumstance that you are in? Does your soul thirst for God? If your soul thirst for God, and that's a good prayer to pray too, isn't it? Lord, help me to have a thirsty soul. If your soul thirst for God, I've got news for you, and that is that God will quench your thirst. He will refresh you with his refreshing water from the well that never, ever runs dry, ever. One of my all-time favorite Bible verses that I like to read when we go down by the Dead Sea

on our trips to Israel is from Psalm 42, and down there it's really dry, really dry down there. and we go to the spring of Aingeti, Ingeti, where David hid from Saul, and it's where David was hiding in that area. And a lot of the Psalms are attributed to that area. And so a lot of the themes of David's Psalms deal with thirsting for God, being in a dry place, panting after God, and comparing this to the thirst of an animal or the agility of a deer. And he says in Psalm 42, as a dear pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you,

O God. My soul thirst for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would. go with a throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation. Isn't that beautiful?

Well, when I take a break here, I'm going to take a break, not when but now. When I come back, I'm going to share with you a beautiful, beautiful metaphor from St. Ephraim that I think you're going to be really blessed by and you're going to be able to carry this metaphor around with you for the rest of your life. And it will be a source of encouragement and refreshing for your soul. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Nestled under the warm Florida sun is a university. whose name indicates a vocational call. Ave Maria, Latin for Hail Mary, recalls the Angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary

of her future vocation, becoming the mother of God. Enriched by God's grace, Mary freely ascends to this call. This is the model for all students. Come to Ave Maria University where we offer a liberal arts curriculum buoyed by the sacraments.

This empowers you to clearly see your vocational call, whatever that might be. Ave Maria University, your vocation location. visit ave maria.edu or call one eight three three amuswfell okay we're talking today about drinking from an eternal fountain we're talking about drinking from a fountain that will never ever will never know the bottom of it because there will always be something for you and I'm talking today about the word of God the

sacred scriptures and reading them and receiving a refreshment from the Lord as a result of meditating in his word. And of course, there's a refreshment that comes from the Eucharist and from the sacramental life. But I have found on a daily basis God's word to be so, so refreshing. I want to introduce you to St. Ephraim. St. Ephraim was from about 306 to 373. He was born and raised in a Christian household in Mesopotamia, and then he took up a life at Edessa, where he won fame as one of the absolute most spectacular teachers, and he was one who battled against heresy, and he lived an ascetic life. He was a deacon, and he was one of the 36 doctors of the church. And so this is the guy that we look to to really, you know, crack open

some of the nuts that we've faced theologically and the predicaments of life. And we really sit at the feet of these doctors and we learn. And the prayer of St. Ephraim, he has a prayer about the Word of God being a fountain, which I personally have found so amazingly encouraging when he says that when you come to the Word of God,

do not be discouraged when some of the fountain falls to the ground but be encouraged knowing that you do not exhaust the fountain, but the fountain exhausts you. In other words, it's going to be there every day, every year for the rest of your life. God's word will be there ready to give you refreshing water, and you do not need to be discouraged. Just like if you're at a drinking fountain, you know, you played an outdoor game or you just went for hours. without drinking anything and you're so thirsty and you go to the drinking fountain, you push that button and all the water comes up and you start drinking from it and it feels so good going down your throat. And when you're done, you go, ah, that was so good. And you might

push it down and get some more to drink. But I've never run into anybody. At least I've never done it, where I drank from a drinking fountain. And as I was drinking, all of a sudden, I was overcome with depression and anxiety and anger as I realized there was so much water hitting the ground. I've never done that. But I have always been thankful for the water that went into my mouth. And that's what St. Ephraim is saying is, don't be discouraged. You know, when you study the Word of God, when you read scripture, when you go through Bible in a year with Father Mike Schmitz and myself, don't be discouraged by the things you're not getting, the things you're not understanding, but be grateful for what you are getting.

St. Ephraim explains that studying the Bible is like drinking from a fountain where we actually take in much less than we leave behind, right? I've studied the Bible for over 40 years, and I can tell you I, for sure, have left behind far more than I have taken in, you know? And that's just the nature of the Word of God, because it's like an onion peel. It has layer after layer after layer. It is so deep. But he says, don't be discouraged if you don't get it all. Don't be discouraged by what falls to the ground.

But he says, rejoice in what you have received. And I think that is a fantastic attitude to have when, studying the Bible, whether it's a serious study like the Great Adventure or whether it is a devotional reading of the Word of God. And I hope you take great comfort in knowing that although your thirst may be quenched at one moment, yet in the next moment, you may go on to thirst for a spiritual drink again, but you'll never exhaust the fountain. Now, here's that prayer. And I'm I'm going to break it up a little bit and go through this with you because it's so beautiful. This is the prayer of St. Ephraim. He says, and I'll stop every once in a while.

Lord, who can grasp all the wealth of just one of your words? Isn't that great? Oh, that's beautiful. Lord, who can grasp all the wealth of just one of your words? You know what the answer is? No one. Not me. Not you. not a pope, no priest, no theologian, no, no laity. No one can, nobody can grasp all the wealth of one word. That's just one word. And then he goes on, he says, what we understand is much less than we leave behind,

like thirsty people who drink from a fountain. For your word, Lord, has many shades of meaning just as those who study it have many different points of view. Isn't that beautiful? And that's really true, isn't it? That when you get into the Word of God, St. Ephraim says there, he says that it has many shades of meaning. And that's true.

If you look in the catechism from paragraphs like 110 to 120, you will see that the church gives you direction on going into the many shades, we'll call it, in the words of Saint Ephraim, the shades. The catechism calls it the spiritual senses. How does it apply to the Lord? How does it apply to me? How does it apply to the future? What's the literal sense?

All kinds of ways of looking at the Word of God. St. Ephraim says it has many shades of meaning. And that's one of the reasons you can't exhaust it is because it just keeps on giving and giving and giving. And it's deep. It's deep as God is deep. He goes on in his prayer and he says, the Lord has colored his words with many hues so that each person who studies it can see in it

what he loves. Isn't that great? I don't know about you. I get kind of excited about this when you think about God's word having many hues. And there's a lot of different hues, right? There's a lot of different hues. There's a lot of different shades, according to St. Ephraim. He goes on, He has hidden many treasures in His Word so that each of us is enriched as we meditate on it. The Word of God is a tree of life that from all its parts offers you fruit that is blessed. It is like that rock opened in the desert that from all its parts gave forth a spiritual drink. He who comes into contact with some share. of its treasure, should not think that the only thing contained in the word is what he himself

has found. Just pause there for a second. Isn't that beautiful? And you know, I have done this, actually, to be honest with you, from time to time where I studied scripture, and I came upon a hue, or I came upon a shade, as St. Ephraim says, that I thought, this is holy mine. this is the meaning of this text and this is the best interpretation possible. And what St. Ephraim is saying is, you know, he who comes into contact with some share of its treasure

should not think that the only thing contained in the Word is what he himself found. So what I found in the Word, and you can experience this in Lexio-Devina in Spades, what I found in the Word, you might find something else. And what you found in the Word, I might find something else. And I might find something else now in God's Word, in Psalm 23, for example, than I found in Psalm 23 when I was 25 years old. See, it's a fountain that you cannot exhaust. He goes on, he should realize that he has only been able to find that one thing from among

many others. Nor because only that one part has become his, should he say that the word is void and empty and look down on it. But because he could not exhaust it, he should give thanks for its riches. Be glad that you are overcome and do not be sad that it overcame you. The thirsty man rejoices when he drinks, and he is not downcast because he cannot empty the fountain. Rather, the fountain quench your thirst, then have your thirst quench the fountain. Because if your thirst is quenched and the fountain is not exhausted, you can drink from it again whenever you are thirsty. Pause there for a second. Man, you can grab a hold of that Bible in your hand right now and you can just look down and say, this is an everlasting fountain. I will never exhaust it.

It will always give me refreshing water. Always. Continue on. But if when your thirst is quenched and the fountain is also dried up, your victory will bode evil for you. So be grateful for what you have received and don't grumble about the abundance left behind. What you have received and what you have reached is your share. What remains is your heritage.

what at one time you are unable to receive because of your weakness you will be able to receive at other times if you persevere. Do not have the presumption to try to take on one draft what cannot be taken in one draft and do not abandon out of laziness what can only be taken little by little. Oh wow. I bet you want that in the show notes, don't you? I wonder if I should put that in there. All right, I will. Because I just know you're thinking right now, I'd love to have that quote.

I would love to have that quote. Okay, I'm going to put it in the show notes. If you don't have show notes, remember how you can get them. Text my name, Jeff Kavins. Text it to 33777. Now, that is worth pulling over for it right there. Just get those numbers down.

And you'll get this super quote from St. Ephraim. All right, let's tie this all together, shall we? if your life right now could be described as an arid dry experience and you desperately are looking for refreshment I am going to with all of my heart encourage you not to turn the TV on now I know there's some good stuff on there don't get me wrong don't turn it on don't turn the radio on and please Don't go to YouTube or Instagram or Facebook. Why go to the places that are not going to satisfy? Isaiah 5811 said,

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong. And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Jeremiah says, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living water and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Do not go to man-made cisterns. Go to the Word of God. Will you do that? This week, go to the Word of God and read and meditate upon it. talk to God about it, and sit in his presence and enjoy him, ask for direction, ask him to give you a word. He will. He will. I promise you he will.

This is the nature of the Word of God. It is unlike any other book, and it will do that which God desires in your life. Renew your relationship today with Sacred Scripture. Let me pray for you. in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you today for giving us life. And I pray, Lord, for all my friends listening that you would encourage them and draw them to your word and that they would experience that refreshing of the soul that comes from the fountain that cannot be emptied. I thank you for what we have received and look forward to what we're going

to receive tomorrow the next day and the next. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I love you. Look forward to talking to you next week.