The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Hospitality That Touches the Heart

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

How can you be the hands and feet of Christ through your hospitality? Jeff shares an important example of hospitality, caring for one another and listening to the voice of God especially in the simple moments. Snippet from the Show “Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to be Lord of your life. Jesus has a plan.” 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 Kavens show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together and living as activated disciples. This is show 436, hospitality that touches the heart. Hello, my friend. Welcome. I'm Jeff Kavans. Thank you for joining me again this week, where we talk about the Bible. We talk about the Bible. We talk about. discipleship, certainly evangelization, which we're going to be talking about today, and just how to put God's word into practice in your life. I don't know if a talk show in the world, I don't know of a book or anything else, the television show that hits the heart deeper than simply doing what Jesus

said to do. And that's the great adventure in life. That's what we're living. And I want to encourage you today, whatever is going on in your life, do not forget to seek the Lord with all of your heart. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that the world is talking about and worried about and need and desiring. Look, God will take care of you. Just make sure you have your priority. If you have priorities, please cast them aside and come up with the priority, which is to seek first Jesus Christ and His will. your life and all the other areas of your life are going to take care of themselves. Well, today, this is the third time I've done this.

This is evangelization stories number three, where I tell stories in my life of encounters with people and how the Lord used me in a situation or used other people in a situation to bring people to Christ and ultimately bring glory to the Lord. I did a show, let's see, quite a while ago, show 404, evangelization stories, number one, that was called the car and the ice storm. And then I did evangelization stories number two, and that was show number 415, and that was becoming Jesus on the plane. Today we're going to talk about evangelization story number three, and I've entitled it, hospitality that touches the heart. Hospitality that touches the heart. I think you're going to be interested in this

because it certainly does involve your home. Also involves some discernment and prudence. in evangelizing people, but I'm going to share the story with you. Hey, if you do want show notes, then all you have to do is text my name, and that is Jeff Kaven's one word, and text it to the number 33777. That's 3377. Hey, shout out to all my friends who were traveling throughout Italy over the last couple of weeks. Good to be with you. Miss you guys already. had a wonderful papal audience with Pope Leo, that was really great. My good friend, Jonathan Rumi, was in the country shooting The Chosen.

I think he might still be over there, but shout out to him. And, oh, it's exciting. You know, you go to Rome and I'll tell you that people are excited right now. Pope Leo has something about this guy that it kind of reminds me of John Paul II, but there's certainly an excitement about him, a down-to-earth holiness that I love. time I go over there. I hope to meet him. I still remember meeting Pope John Paul the second, and that is life-changing. Okay, so let's talk about evangelization, hospitality that touches the heart. I have to take you back in this story to the year 1982. 1982, the place was Pella, Iowa.

Pella, Iowa is a Dutch community outside of Des Moines, about an hour or so, and lots of reformed churches and Dutch Reformed churches, just a beautiful town, really, really nice. They're very famous for Tulip Time. People come from all over, and they go to Yarsma Bakery and get Dutch letters, and they get their Pella Bologna. They can get it from a couple of places over there. It's a great place. Anyway, I was in radio, 1982, Christian Radio at KTAV, and I loved it.

And my wife was working at a hotel cleaning rooms, and this was the people. period where I was in Christian radio, and it was also the period where Pope John Paul the 2nd was shot and President Reagan was shot. And I was on the air for both of those and got that word out to Central Iowa really quick back then. And we were in a part of a church that was in a Bible study, you know, a lot of Bible study. I had left the Catholic Church at this time and after, as you know, returned. And so, you know, some of the evangelization stories really don't have a lot to do with being Catholic or Protestant. It has to do with the corigma, the proclamation of the gospel, has to do with compassion, has to do with courage.

It has to do with just doing what Jesus said to do. Get her done, right? And so it was about 1982. I was in Christian radio, and I just had such a hunger to be out there in the public. I mean, I enjoyed Christian radio. I enjoyed it very much. But I wanted to be out with the public, to share Christ, to witness, to be a part of all that. So I ended up taking a job for a while there. It was in addition to radio. And it was to run a very small gas station in Pella, Iowa, it's called Derby, the Derby Station, right there in the main drag. All of my friends in Pella, you remember that place, right?

Right down there by the pizza parlor. So I decided to do it. So this was really, really a whim. You know, I didn't grow up thinking I was going to, I'm going to run this little gas station or anything, but I wanted to be out with the public. And so I took it. And so every day, people would come into the gas station. And back then, they had full service and self-service.

Self-service was kind of a new idea. But otherwise, one pump was for self-service. One was for full service. So I'd go out and do the windows and all of that and put the gas in their car. And I was always looking for opportunities to share the Lord. That's just the way I've always been. So I'm sitting inside the little bitty derby station right next to the fire department there in Pella, Iowa. And this guy comes in in the afternoon on a motorcycle.

And he's out there on the pump where you take care of yourself. So I'm looking at him, watching, you know. And back then you had to look for people that were going to get gas and take off too. And you have to call the police and tell him what happened. Well, I'm looking at this guy and I'm starting to pray for him. Now, there's a lot of stories that go with this gas station. Let me deviate just for a moment here. I remember one time just between you and me on this.

This is a different than the story, but this one time, a guy comes into the gas station at 6 in the morning. That's when we opened up. And when he came in, I felt the Lord said to me, tell him that I love him. And I thought, what? That's not a way I'd want to start off my day. really but and I felt very strong in my heart tell him that I love him that's it just tell him that I love him so I thought well okay and the guy came in to pay for his gas and he comes in

the first guy in the morning big guy too and I was not a big guy and so he comes in and he puts his credit card down on the on the table and I looked at him and I said sir um I just got to tell you something and he goes what's that and i said jesus loves you so much and the guy looked at me and in his eyes i thought i was done there was something that rose up inside of him and he put his hand together as a fist and slammed the counter and said what is it with today i backed off a little bit and i said what he said what is it with today and i said i don't know And he said, it's six in the morning and you're the third person that has said that to me. I kind of chuckled and I said, you might want to pay attention to that then.

Because, sir, God does love you. And it ended up in a wonderful conversation, a really, really good conversation. Okay, back to the main road. This motorcyclist, he comes in, he's filling his tank up, you know, a couple gallons of gas. Probably costs about 35 cents back then. But anyway, he comes walking in to pay for it. And he came in and I struck up a conversation with him. Where are you going?

Because I liked motorcycles and I had one. And I said, where are you going? And he said, where are you coming from? And he said, well, I'm coming from California. And I said, really? What's your name? And he said, his name was Dean. Well, for the sake of this podcast, we'll call him James Dean.

Okay. His name was Dean. And I said, well, where are you going? And he said, I don't know. Now, that's a strange answer, isn't it? I don't know. I said, what do you mean you don't know? He says, I guess I'm more running than anything else.

And I said, really, what's going on? He said, well, I don't know. I don't want to talk about it. And I knew, well, I want to talk about it. I think Jesus might want to talk about this. So, you know, I talked to him about his bike a little bit. And I said, you know, Dean, tell me what, you look like you're really concerned about something or something in your life.

And I said, I'm a Christian and love to talk to you. That's all you got to say. See, the things I'm saying on this show, these are not graduate level skills. They're higher than that. They're so simple. So I said, well, I'm a Christian. I'd love to talk to you about it. I said, where are you going?

He said, well, I'm running from my wife. I'm running from my marriage. Running from California. And I said, really? What happened? And he talked about how he and his wife. wife were coming to the end. He was a young guy. I'd say he's 26. Maybe he's 27 years old at the time. But man, his head was hung low. His eyes had sadness all over him. And he said, things are just

not going well with my wife. And we had a huge argument. I just left. And I got a few clothes and things. And I'm on the road. And I don't know if I'm going to go back. And I'm just running. And I said, wow, I'm glad you ran into me. I'd love to talk to you. So I said, do you put your bike over here next to the building? Let's talk a little bit. And he brought it over there and I said, can't get you something to drink, coffee, pop or something like that? Or as he say, I'm California, I think soda. And he said, sure, and he gave him a cup of coffee and nobody was coming to get gas for a while.

And I talked to him for a while. And he told me about the difficulties that he was having. And I said, Dean, can I share something with you? I said, sure. You know, you and I are a lot alike. I mean, the motorcycles, and I love motorcycling, and you and you and I are married, and we both, everybody has, you know, basically the same problems, whether it's communication or misunderstanding or maybe something really, really bad happened in their relationship at that point.

I didn't know, and I started to talk to him about how much God loves him, and I said to him, I want you to know something that God really loves you, and he loves your wife as well. And he loves you, and he's got a plan for your life. Now, if you've been with me for a while, you know, this is the corigma, right? So I told him that. God loved him. God had an amazing plan for his life. He really did. But Dean, you got to believe me when I say, and I know this from firsthand experience and talking to a lot of other people, and that is that sin breaks the plan. Sin really complicates life. And you know what? Oftentimes, I don't even have to tell anybody

what sin is. They just, they know, and that sin breaks up families, marriages, breaks our lives, just breaks him. And so I told him that. And then I said, you know, I think God brought you to the gas station because the answer to this is Jesus Christ. And Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to be Lord of your life. Jesus has a plan. He started opening up a little bit to me and telling me about his past, his relationship with God, and how at one time he was interested. and he didn't really go far with it. But you could tell by the way the conversation was going that he had a real strong sense that this was divinely ordained.

That is that we meet in Little Pella, Iowa. So we ended up talking for about maybe an hour. And I said, where do you think you're going to go from here? And he said, I honestly don't know. I don't know. And he went outside and it was getting, he was pack on again and all that. And I was going to come out and say goodbye to him. but I called my wife, Emily, and I said, I explained to her who I met, Dean, James Dean.

I met Dean, this guy, and I told her what was going on in his life and everything. And I said, you know, I've been discerning this and talking to him. And I really feel the Lord's brought this guy into my life, into our life. And I said, would you be okay if I invited him over for dinner tonight? and I want to invite a couple of our other friends over to Prudence. I've never met Dean before. I feel safe around him. He's a young guy.

Probably I could take him. I don't know. I wasn't thinking that way back then. But I said, I really think this is the Lord. And let's invite over so and so and so and so. So it's more like a group, safe, you know. And she said, well, if you think that's what the Lord wants you to do. And I said, I do.

She said, all right, I'll get it all ready. We'll have dinner tonight with Dean. and our couple of other friends. So I went out there and I said to Dean, what are you doing tonight? And he said, well, you know I'm not doing anything. We're going to come over for dinner? I called my wife and we're going to have a nice dinner tonight.

We'd love to have you over. He said, wow, that's, that's really nice. Sure, yeah, yeah, okay. So I told him to be back at the station at so in time, you know, like it was five or six in the evening when I was done. And you can follow me over, go over to the, the house and so he did he came back to the station and then he followed me over to the house and there's a couple of my friends there already and emily has made a beautiful meal brought dean into the

house i said dean this is my wife emily these are my friends this is dean james dean now this is dean and dean's been writing from california and uh came down to the derby station and and and i thought it'd be nice to have him over for dinner tonight share a little share a little bit of the good news and hospitality. And so we ended up having this tremendous dinner. And you won't believe what happened that night. What took place after that dinner that caused this man to reverse everything he was doing on the trip. And we'll talk about that next. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I'm Jeff Havens. My name is Jackie Angel. My name is Father Gregory Pine. My name is Sister Orienne,

Pietra Renee. My name is Father Patrick Riviera. I'm a priest of the diocese of homotibato down in South Louisiana. And I'm excited to partner with Ascension Press and dozens of other Catholic creators to share an all new series of reflections based on the titles of Jesus that come from the litany of the Sacred Heart. And if we personally often struggle with praying litany, I just feel like I'm kind of saying a bunch of words. It was a real gift to have the opportunity to go deep and to sit with particular titles to kind of unpack what Jesus was trying to say to me through those words. So it's been a blessing for me to pray with and I hope that it'll be a blessing for you. Invite you to download the Ascension app. Go to ascensionpress.com

slash app and subscribe so you can participate and pray along with these litanies. I know it's been a gift for me and hope it'll be a gift for you as well. God bless you. Welcome back. Man, I had a feeling you're going to stay with me on this one because the story is compelling when God brings people into our lives like James Dean here, and they're obviously broken. And I have an answer in Jesus. Amazing things can happen. And what happened that day, back in 1982 in Pella, Iowa, Derby Station, had nothing to do with skill, nothing to do with memorizing anything, nothing to do with knowing all things theological and all things Honda motorcycle. It just had to do with saying yes to what's in front of you and simply sharing

what Christ has done in our life, our marriage. So anyway, back to the story, we had this wonderful dinner with Dean. And afterwards, we're sitting in the living room and I started to talk to him about Jesus and about repentance and about sin and how it destroys our life. And what repentance is and repentance is really radical reorienting of your life to Christ. And Dean drove all away from California to Pella, Iowa to hear this. Look at a map. Pella's not on the main drag. It's not on the main highway east to west or west to east in Iowa. You got to go off the road a bit to get to this small town. And God brought that guy off the road a bit to meet one of his disciples. Mois. And so I'm talking to him about this. And then I said,

Dean, tell me about your wife. And he started to talk about his wife. And I said, finally, I shared with him the whole corigma. And you know, you've been with me. It's, God loves you, has an amazing plan for your life. Sin busts the plan. Number three, Jesus loves you so much. He died for you.

Fourth, he wants you to reorient your life. Now, repent. And he wants you to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and join his amazing church. So this is the message, and this is what I gave him. And as we were sitting around in that living room that night, all of a sudden, when I said to him, Dean, you've got to make a choice, you can keep on going east and running, or you can stop right now and give your life to God. Give your life to Jesus. And I'm sure your wife is waiting for you back in California. and he started crying and people in the room were quite moved to watch a man repent to watch

a man broken and give his life to God is an emotional thing and I went over there I put my arm around him and prayed with him a little bit and he said can I use your phone I said you sure can't we didn't have cell phones back then and uh he went in the other room phone and he called his wife he called his wife you could hear him a little here a little there and I'm so sorry I met this guy I'm in the middle of Iowa I'm coming home I'm coming home this is my problem and I gave my life to God tonight I gave my life to Jesus tonight and I want to come home now and they talked for a few minutes and he came out wiping tears from his eyes and his whole life had changed and all he did is stop at a gas station in the middle of Iowa that's it now what

happened after that was equally amazing and that is that we got to go on the phone we got to pray with his wife and him and uh i believe it was two days later the next day or the day after he ended up going back to California, and I got a call from him later. He wanted to move to Pella, Iowa. He wanted to be a part of this kind of atmosphere of Christians that took their faith seriously and weren't afraid to open up their homes with hospitality. And to, of course, prudence, right, wisdom, prudence. I don't want to say, go down in the seedy part of town, just say, hey, anyone want to come over for dinner tonight.

This is all wisdom and prudence discernment. using your head, right? And this guy's life changed. And you know what? He ended up moving to Iowa and he joined the church. That's an evangelization story. It's amazing. Hospitality touches the heart. Now, we ended up moving years so after that, but he stayed and I still remember him today very very clearly. Now, throughout the entire thing, I got to tell you, there wasn't a lot of scripture quoted. There wasn't a lot of theology flung at him, you know. We just talked about Jesus and what Jesus did for him and how much he loved him. And that's what we are asked to do is to open up our lives. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you to pray. And I'm going to ask you to pray

and to be open about hospitality. Maybe your home at times can be used. Maybe your kitchen table at times can be used to bring people in and talk. You know, there's something about the kitchen table that is so warm and inviting where people can sit around and share food. And when you share food, that's one step from sharing your heart. And you can do that. Just ask God to give you the opportunities to use your home as a, a place of hospitality, a place of caring and loving.

It might not be a story as dramatic as what I'm talking about here in the middle of Iowa, but it might be a friend at work, you know, what you guys to come on over, you know? Maybe you hear someone at work who's having some difficulties in their marriage or difficulties with health situation, whatever it is, and to say, hey, why don't you guys come on over for dinner tonight? Love to have you. and the Lord might open up an opportunity for you to share the good news of Jesus Christ and what's

happened in your life and how God is moving in your life. Now, if you do get a chance to do this, I'd like to hear from you. My email for the show is the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And I'd love to hear your story. Now, remember, when I did this, I wasn't a pastor. I didn't have a graduate degree at this point.

I was a guy in radio that decided to work on the side there at a gas station for the sake of just talking to people, you know, about the Lord. And that's what happened at that gas station. A lot of other stories I could tell you there, too. Really, really amazing stories. So let me pray with you. Okay, my friend, name of the first. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, I thank you. I thank you for my friend. Lord, I lift up Dean to you today, wherever he is around this country and his wife and family, continue to

bless him. I pray for my good friend listening right now that you would move on their heart and that Lord, you would give them a boldness that comes from confirmation. They would be authentic, courageous witnesses and not afraid of even being rejected, but more afraid of not doing your will. We stand in awe of you, Lord. We stand in awe that you have given us something to do that is above our pay scale. And we can only do it by the power of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we give you our lives. Give us opportunities. Give us opportunities, we pray. 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.

Thank you.