The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Encouraged by the Word of God

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

As we begin the new year, Jeff emphasizes the power of God's Word to provide insight, healing, and encouragement. He shares several Scripture verses that address topics such as self-control, identity, trust, and peace, all aimed at helping us have a transformative year. Snippet from the Show " In moments of disappoinment this year, remember this: God know your name and your story." 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 https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show 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 show 411, encouraged by the Word of God. Welcome, my friend. Jeff Kaven's with you. Well, Christmas is over with. I imagine all the present. after they were sorted into piles and hung around for a few days, they now have been distributed to rooms and your New Year's resolution.

Don't forget that. Most people make a New Year's resolution, unless, of course, you're one of those who says, my New Year's resolution is that I will not make a New Year's resolution. Well, in thinking about you and our relationship in the Word of God, talking about discipleship and all the things happening in the world these days, I thought to myself, what would be something that could be encouraging, healing, insightful, you know, affirming, and I can't think of anything better than the Word of God? And, you know, especially at the times that we're living in right now, you know, what just happened in New Orleans on New Year's Day was horrible, wasn't it?

I mean, absolutely horrible. And it is a clear call for us as disciples of Christ to intercede and pray. for our brothers and sisters in New Orleans as well as the authorities who we're trying to sort all of that out. It's a reality. We do have wickedness in the world, sin in the world, brokenness, and it manifests in so many different ways. But be sure of this, sin comes from the enemy and he will try to use anybody that he can. He doesn't care about you. But the enemy will use anybody to try to destroy the image of God here on earth. And it is, is our job to intercede and pray for our nation. You know, you can turn on the news now and you can

see a lot of blame going on, you know, that it was the FBI, it was this government agency, it was the state, it was that, or whatever. But I can tell you this, we as Christians do have a responsibility laid upon us by the Lord to intercede and pray for those who have authority over us. And so that's just a quick reminder there. I want to make a, quick announcement here. I'm sure you've heard of it by now, but the new premium Great Adventure Bible is out. I'm going to be doing a show on that in the near future. And it is a work of art. It is simply put, the most beautiful and the most sturdy and the most usable Bible in the Catholic world. I believe that with all my heart because the Great Adventure Bible teaches you how to

read the Bible as a narrative so you can get the most out of it. I don't know. if anybody else is doing that, but I know that the Great Adventure Bible provides that, and now the Premier Bible has a beautiful goat skin cover, and it has so many different features that move it into that category of Premier Bible, Premium Bible. It's a legacy Bible, if you will. It's the type of Bible that if you use it every day for the next 50 years, your grandchildren will be able to use it as well. That's how well built it is.

and what a fine piece of workmanship, really. And we'll talk about that more in the future. Okay, so today, what I'm going to do is I want to share with you some things to encourage you from the Word of God. I used to do this a lot prior to coming back to the Catholic Church when I was a Protestant pastor, a pastor of a non-denominational church, two of them actually, one in Minnesota, one in Ohio. And I would oftentimes just allow the Word of God for the people. in the congregation to just permeate their thinking and their heart and allow the Word of God, which is alive and active. It will accomplish, as the Prophet said, it will accomplish that

which God intends. And so when you unleash the Word of God, the Word of God can do so many things inside your soul. Whatever you're facing right now in your life, you probably are seeking out some advice or you're seeking out some direction in your life, whether it's a book or something, a podcast or a YouTube video or getting counseling at your local church, allow the Word of God to speak to you today. As I go through these, I'll make a few comments here and there, but when you listen to the Word of God, whether you're running, whether you are at home or getting ready, you go to work and you're having breakfast or driving in the car, allow it to sink in for a moment and ask yourself the question.

just like Lexio Divina, is this speaking to me? Is there something about that verse that is speaking to me at the beginning of 2025? If so, wrangle it, grab it, go look it up, write it down, make it yours today. Today, do that. If there's more than one, then write them down and kind of space your time out so that you can meditate on these verses. God may be speaking to you today in his word. I'm just reading it, but he may be speaking to you in a very powerful way. So are you ready?

Okay, let's go through a number of them today. And if time is short, we may end up doing it again at maybe the next show or the show after that. We'll see. Okay, we will see. It's a beautiful day here in Minnesota. It's cold. Getting down to one below tonight.

Hope it's a little warmer where you're at. But we're kind of weird. We love it. So in the midst of the cold, I've got my hot tea. made with the finest tea leaves from Japan, I'm ready to go. Okay, so the first one. This one has to do with God giving you self-control. It's 2 Timothy 1-7.

Paul said, for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Now, that's great for the New Year's resolution, isn't it? Because so many people make a resolution, and then they are overcome by a spirit of fear. they don't feel they have any power and they don't feel like they're loved they don't feel like they can really control their life you know if they they said I'm going to lose 25 pounds

on January 1st January 2nd they went to his smorgasborg and that one was out the window well listen God can give you power if you meditate on the scripture you spend time with Jesus in prayer and you receive

the Eucharist and you go to confession you know you're set for success here, you can walk in self-control. And don't ever tell yourself you can't because you can. And Paul would not have told Timothy this if it was impossible. And you're not the exception. That's something to think about today. You are not the exception. You can do it if you press in and give control of your life to Jesus. And so one of the things you can control is just the input of the garbage in your life in 2025, like the news, Facebook, internet, just nonstop binging on YouTube. Do you know how many videos on YouTube are actually wrong? And propaganda? It's amazing.

I won't go into all the detail there, but careful in 2025 of how much of the world's narrative you're going to allow into your heart and how much of the world's narrative you're going to keep out and how much with God's narrative you're going to let into your heart, into your thinking. Okay, number two, going into 2025, know who you are. That is so important. And that's what the enemy tried to bring against Jesus in Matthew 4. When Jesus went into the wilderness of Judea for 40 days and 40 nights, the enemy struck at the point of identity.

If he said to Jesus, if you are the son of God, then do this, this, this, and that. Well, he tried to challenge the identity of Jesus, and Jesus didn't fall for it. Going into this year, my friend, it is so important to know who you are. And Paul gives us some real fodder here in Romans 8, 15 through 17. Oh, I didn't tell you, did I? All of this is in the show notes. You can get a text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word. Text it to the number 33777.

Okay, so Paul had something to say here. Romans chapter 8. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship when we cry, Abba, Father. It is the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided, we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. And so this is really important. Know who you are. Know who you are. Listen, you're not a victim. You're not a victim. You are the recipient of a status that is sought after, longed for, and that is you're a daughter of God. You are a son of God, period.

You're not a victim. Don't live this year out thinking you're a victim. Just to dismiss that right now take control of those thoughts and what are you going to do with them make them obedient to christ take those thoughts and make them obedient to christ stop fooling around with that kind of thinking and start thinking the way god thinks about you number three this is a good one this is really good how many times in this new year are you going to be all you know all kerfuffled, that is a word, I believe, about the cares in your life, all of the responsibility in your life. And you can feel like all the cares of life are just, they're just on my shoulder. And you need a spiritual neck rub. You need something to deal with the cares in your life. And Peter

has that for you in 1. Peter 5, 6, and 7. He says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that in due time he may exalt you. Now the first thing, there's more here, but the first thing that Peter says about cares in your life is humble yourself. Don't think more of yourself than you should. Think of yourself in terms of your relationship with God. Get that in line and then with one another, humble yourselves. And then the second thing he says, Peter says is this, cast all your anxieties on him. Or he cares about you. He's not just like a you know, a machine that you cast your cares on and there you go. You're taking care of.

No, God is a personal God. He is our Lord. He's our Savior. And he says, cast your anxieties on me. I care about you. I do. I care about you. You know, if you think about it like a fishing rod, it's like casting your care.

Put that care on the hook and cast it out there. And here's the key. Don't get stuck in the weeds. Don't get stuck in overthinking everything. cast your care upon the Lord and Peter didn't say this but I if I was writing the Bible I would have said it don't reel it back in cast your cares upon the Lord and snip that line okay we're going to take a break when we come back oh I got a good one the next one you're going to really like you're listening to the Jeff Kaven show I'm Father Mark Mary Ames with

the Franciscan friars the renewal my brothers and sisters at the service of becoming saints and falling in love with Jesus and Mary in the most holy rosary the team here at Ascension Press have put together the Rosary in a Year podcast. Each day, we're going to have a 10 to 15 minute episode where we're just going to work through the basics of the rosary. Who is Jesus? How do we encounter Jesus? Who is our lady?

What does that mean for us to be in a relationship to her? We're going to go through the Hail Mary, the Our Father, each of the different mysteries. And then we're going to bring in some saint writings on the mysteries and some sacred art that speaks on the mysteries and all of this to help enrich our prayer to renew our. our prayer to help us fall in love with Jesus and Mary and to fall in love with the rosary again. If you want to join us in this journey, you can begin by going to ascentpress.com forward slash rosary in a year to download the prayer plan and by listening and praying with us through the Rosary in a Year podcast. All right. Look forward to the journey with you.

Thanks for returning. You didn't get stuck in the weeds. We're talking today about about scriptures that are encouraging to think about as we enter. into 2025 and we know that the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-ed sword. It will accomplish that which God purposes. So I'm casting it today. I'm just reading this today and making some comments. You're the one that's going to either receive it or you're going to say, well, okay. But hopefully there'll be something here that you can receive. Number four, we are called to trust. This kind of goes with the last one, doesn't it? Casting our cares upon the Lord. We are called to trust God. Now, someone might say, well, I do trust God. Really?

Do we really trust God? Or do we carry the burden and worry about things? Worrying about things is almost like saying that God doesn't exist. We're the ones that have to take on that worry. We're the ones that have to take on all of that stuff out there. We're not called to distrust God. we're not called to live our life with an attitude of distrust we are called to trust and the psalmist in psalm 56 verses three and four listen to this maybe this one will set the alarm off in your spirit listen when i am afraid ding ding ding ding when i am afraid i put my trust in thee in god whose word i praise in god i trust without a fear what can flesh do to me Isn't that good?

When I'm afraid, I put my trust in thee. I love it. Oh, here's a good one. God is with you. There it is. That's number five. God is with you. Now, Jeff, why are you so excited about that?

Because I'm going to be there too. Wherever I'm at, God is with me. His name is Emmanuel. God is with us. and all throughout this year of 2025, I need to remember that God is with me. And if Jesus is with me in 2025, can you think of one situation? Can you think of one scenario where you should collapse and worry and give up and start crying, even though Jesus is there?

I can't think of anything. I'm not saying people don't cry or don't get all bent out of shape about things but you know where I'm going with this and that is listen God is with you if you really believe it then you can go through anything

you really can Joshua has something to say about this in Joshua 1-9 have I not commanded you be strong and of good courage be not frightened neither be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you

wherever you go. Or I might add to that or don't go. Because some people don't go. Some people just stay home and they never do go. Some people don't open their mouth. They just don't go. But the Lord will be with you there as well

with the hopes that you will go. So I love that. Wherever you go. You're going to go watch a ball game. You're going to go watch a professional hockey game. He will be there with you. He will be. be there. You're going to go to church. You're going to go to a funeral. You're going to go

skating. You're going to go to a birthday party with the kids. He is there with you. You know, it might be good just to acknowledge that once in a while during the day. And I'm speaking to myself now, too. I'm not lecturing anybody, except you and me. No, I'm not lecturing. What I'm saying is this is what I need to remember in my own life. As a Bible teacher, you got to, you got to take the medicine. You've got to feed yourself the word of God. even if you're a teacher. It's like a mom taking all that time to, you know, get everything ready for the kids to eat. Well, mom, you got to eat too. You got to eat too. Number six. Oh, this is the advice actually of an organization. I got some friends in this organization. One day at a time. Sweet Jesus. Just live one day at a time.

Don't take in the whole week. Don't take in the whole month. Don't take in the whole year. One day at a time in 2025. Matthew chapter 6 in verse 34 said, says, and this is the Lord, therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow. For tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. Isn't it interesting to think that tomorrow is being anxious for itself right now? It's got its own anxieties attached to it. I'm going to live today. And so don't be anxious about tomorrow. Live today. Live today. Okay, number seven. now this is important going into 2025 god knows your name now no doubt there's going to be times this year where you feel alone or forgotten or forsaken in some way we all do it's nothing new but underneath all of

those thoughts and that self-talk we have to recognize and we have to proclaim that god knows me that God knows my name. That's what's amazing about this. You know, the psalmist, David, when he looked at the stars, he was amazed. You know what he was really amazed about? Certainly, I'm sure, the size of the universe and the fact that he could see six or seven thousand stars up there in space. But what he was blown away about was that God was mindful of him. So Isaiah 43 won, but now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob,

He who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. That's a good way to go into the year. I called you by name, Sarah, John, Peggy, Larry, Donna, Peter, Frank, Isabel. God is called you by name. Rebecca, Thomas. You are mine.

He purchased you. He redeemed you. Calling out a daughter and name every other one before yours, call out a bunch of names. Get your daughters or your sons there and call out a bunch of names. They're going to look at you a little bit funny. But then all of a sudden call out their name. They're going to look at you right away. If you're in a crowd and someone yells, hey, Bob, hey, Jerry, hey, Susie.

hey Susan but your name's Gary and they yell hey Gary that one that one sound that one voice will catch your attention because they know you're talking to them even when my dad used to get my name wrong you know towards the end of his life and struggling with Alzheimer's and you'd call me Jack sometimes while Jack was their dog and but I knew who he was talking about I knew he was talking about and that was me. Okay, so number eight, God's peace. That's big for this new year, 2025. Could you use some of that in the midst of your workday with your family and the things

you're going to be facing? You know, this idea of biblical peace isn't like two fingers raised up from Woodstock. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the word shalom. And the word shalom means this inner and complete peaceableness and affirmation. and that all is good. Peace, shalom. John in chapter 14 and verse 27 said,

it says of Jesus, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let them be afraid. That's beautiful. Isn't it?

I like that. So God's peace, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. If that's ringing a spiritual, bell right now inside your soul write it down carry it with you that's john 1427 number nine god consoles you he comforts you in a time of disappointment you're going to have any times of disappointment this year no of course you are of course you're going to have some times of disappointment that's called life but god consoles you in the disappointment he consoles you when the

cares of my heart, scripture says in Psalm 94, when the cares of my heart are many, thy consolations cheer my soul. Boy, that's something just to carry around with you in your wallet or your purse or on your phone or on the bathroom mirror or on the kitchen counter on the dashboard of the car. Anywhere, when the cares of my heart are many, thy consolations cheer my soul. So with love, truth, peace, faithfulness. You can console others with these things as well. God consoles you as a father waiting to console you. He's waiting to console you and with the hopes that you'll console other people. Then number 10, this is a good one. Peace behind locked doors. Is your door locked? Is your,

is your heart locked right now? Have you been hurt? Are you afraid? Have you been disappointed? You don't want to love again. You don't want to take chances. That is no way to live in 2025. John 20, verse 19, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Shalom, be with you. Peace. Be with you. So I would say this, my friend, if you right now are locked behind doors, if your heart and mind are locked behind doors, you're not going to try it again. You're not going to be vulnerable again. Turn that around in 2025 and make yourself available and vulnerable to be loved. You don't want to live behind locked doors. He'll come to you

behind those doors, but that's not where he intended you to live. He intended you to live a life that was fruitful and out there in the open. Let that light shine. That's what he intends for 2025. Lee, F-R-E, and that's the way we do it around here. So if you don't have the show notes, remember, it's just 3-3-7-77. That's it. I couldn't remember it earlier, I guess. 3-3-7-7 will get you all set up to get the notes every single week. Now let's pray together, shall we, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Lord, I thank you for my friend, and I lift them up to you. today. Lord Jesus, as we begin this new year, I pray, Lord, that the word of God would come alive like never before in my friend's life and that it would saturate, permeate the soul, and feed and nourish them. I thank you, Lord, for your word directs us and it consoles us and corrects us. Lord Jesus, have your way in our life this year, and may your word do what you have wanted it to accomplish in our souls. In Jesus' name, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. I'm going to put some notes together there for you. So there's going to be a link on how to get that premium Bible. God bless you. Have a wonderful week.