The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Opportunities to Witness

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

What's holding you back from sharing Christ with others? With real-life examples and practical advice, Jeff encourages us to recognize and seize opportunities to witness God's love to others. Snippet from the Show As disciples of Christ, we all have the voice to share why we love Jesus and what he's done in our lives. 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 and living as activated disciples. This is show 435 Opportunities to Witness. Welcome to the show this week. Good to have you back again. And to have a few more minutes just to talk. to each other about the good things that the Lord has given us. Last week, I was talking about Christ in you, a change in perspective.

And I hope that that makes a difference, you know. The difference between simply seeing yourself following Jesus versus Jesus in you, continuing to do his work. Well, no doubt, one of the items on the agenda as far as the work that we're supposed to be about in the kingdom of God is witnessing to other people. and sharing Christ with other people. And so I would like to take some time today to talk about that what it is and what it isn't and how easy it is.

And I'm going to give you some examples and maybe some suggestions here on how you can go about it. But I can say one thing for sure. Wow, do we make this complicated? We make it so complicated. You know, if you had to introduce your parents to somebody, would you be this all stuck, you know, and not know what to do?

and just befuddled, no, you would not make it complicated, that's for sure, because you're introducing your parents. And what we're doing when we share Christ with people is we are sharing Christ. We're introducing Christ to people at varying degrees of depth. You know, it can be just a very brief thing. It can be a longer conversation. It might turn into a relationship where you are getting together with somebody more frequently just to talk to them about what the Lord would like to do in their life and what he's done in in your life. By the way, if you want some of the goodies, shall we say, from the show today, that's scriptures and quotes and so forth. Go ahead and text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, Jeff Kavans, and you can text it to the number 33777. We'll get you

on board. And if for some reason you're not getting the notes for the show or it stops suddenly, just go ahead and sign up again. We'll take care of it for you. Sorry, for the D. All right, opportunities to witness. I have found that over the years this has become one of the easiest things to do is to listen for opportunities for you to introduce Jesus to people. As I said earlier here, in varying degrees of depth. You know, it can be just a quick thing or it can be something a little bit longer or can turn into a long-term relationship.

Who knows, you might end up becoming a sponsor of somebody for the OCIA, And you will accompany them into the church. You know, as you look around today, in all the goofiness that's out there, and all of the so-called solutions to life, it's important to realize that people really are looking for two things in their life right now. They're looking for, number one, a brighter future. Everybody wants a brighter future. Nobody wants a dismal future or depressing future

or a future filled with terrible challenges and financial problems. and all that. People are looking for a brighter future, generally speaking. And I think that I think that's something to remember when we go about talking with people is they want a bright future. You want a bright future. So do I. So number one, people are looking for a brighter future. And number two, they're looking for someone to trust. And those things are hard to come by these days. They're not quite sure who they should trust. People have typically trusted the news. They have typically trusted politicians, I guess, to some degree or another, years and years ago. And they've trusted clergy, and the list goes on.

There's a number of people that people have typically trusted. But that trust is eroding now. People are not trusting the news anymore, or politicians, and perhaps even some of the people in their family. They've kind of lost trust. But they're looking for a brighter future and someone to trust. And what we have in our relationship with Jesus is we have a future for sure. In fact, it's eternal, and we also have someone to trust. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

We trust in him with all of our heart. You know, the days that we're living in right now are quite confusing, and they remind me a lot of the days of Habakkuk, the prophet. In Habakkuk, prior to Jesus, of course, in Habakkuk, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, it gives a description of society and the idea that the law has really gone slack and it's paralyzed. it's perverted even. And so listen to this from the beginning of Habakkuk and see if this does not fit today. The oracle of God which Habakkuk the prophet saw, O Lord, how long shall I cry for help? And thou wilt not hear. Or cry to thee violence and thou wilt not save. Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife and contention arise. the law is slacked and justice never goes forth for the wicked surround the righteous so justice

goes forth perverted now that is is very revealing for the wicked surround the righteous and justice goes forth perverted that's that's pretty telling isn't it now the new international version bible says therefore the law now in the in the rsv Catholic condition says so the law is slacked. The NIV, that says, therefore, the law is paralyzed. It's paralyzed. And then the ESV, the English standard version, says, so the law is paralyzed and justice, justice never goes forth. For the wicked, surround the righteous. So justice goes forth, perverted. Boy, isn't that true. So you can see that in Habakkuk's time, justice went forth perverted and the law was paralyzed. They were surrounded.

by the unrighteous. Now, as long as we allow ourselves to be surrounded by the unrighteous, we have a job to do. And that is not to succumb to the unrighteous, but to let the light shine and tell our story and our relationship with Jesus. Now, some people think to themselves, I don't really know if I really have a gift for this type of thing, of sharing the Lord with others. And I'll be honest with you, that's baloney. It really is. Because all of us, John Paul the second said, every one of us that's been baptized has a chasm for evangelization. And we evangelize in a lot of different ways. But I do think that we should all, no matter what our giftings are, have the ability, at least, to voice why we love Jesus and what he's done in our

life. You know, if somebody were to ask you, what's your relationship with your parents and what did they do for you, you wouldn't say to them, that's not my gift. I'm not gifted at telling people about my relationship with my parents or what they did for me or how my dad changed my life. I'm just not gifted in that area. You would look at them like, you've got to be kidding me.

But people pull that with the Lord, and one of the reasons is that they think they have to come up with so much theology and so much insight from scripture and church councils and the catechism and creeds and church fathers

and, well, have you ever introduced your parents that way? You know, most people say, you know, If I'm going to introduce my parents, I've got to know their history and their parents' history, and I have to know the history of Indiana, and I have to know some of the politics of Indiana, and I have to know what people from Ireland were, you know, you don't. Just introduce them and talk to others about them.

That's what we're doing with Jesus. So you have that charism of evangelization, and your lifestyle is actually very important when it comes to sharing Christ with others. Now, this has become second nature for me because I've been doing it for 48 years, been sharing Christ with people, and it's like a muscle. You just get used to it as part of your life. Just earlier today, spent a half an hour talking to someone at a store. They struck up a conversation with someone at a store. They asked me the question of why I came back to the Catholic Church, and we had about a half hour discussion. It was not a big deal. You know, it's just part of the day.

So your lifestyle is very important, and when you share Christ with people, it's typically out there in your typical schedule, where you go, where you get gas and eat and where you work. But your words are very, very important. Listen, there are broken people all around you, and they are looking for answers. Where are people looking right now for answers? Where do you think they're looking? Well, they're certainly looking on YouTube videos. They're looking to talk show hosts. They're looking to some politicians, I would imagine.

And they're looking towards TV preachers and that type of thing. Or pop psychologists or Oprah. They're looking to people like that for answers in their life. People are broken all around us. And the recipe for healing comes from the, one who didn't read a book about it, but the one who created them. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as Christians, part of our whole lifestyle, part of our whole deposit of faith and all that we have is an understanding of the condition of man. And man is broken and desperately seeking

answers. They really are. So in the middle of all of that suddenly comes for us as Christians divine providence. Do what do I mean by that? God is giving you opportunities everywhere you go. There are opportunities everywhere you go. And you simply have to be aware of it. So let me ask you a question. Are you aware of that during the day?

Or is that something that you're even thinking about? Is that today God may bring somebody into my life that I can talk to and share something very simple about what God has done in my life? or offer a prayer, or some encouragement, or a Bible verse, or a story. So divine providence plays into our role as lay evangelists going out into the world. God is giving you opportunities. Are you aware? I remember one time I went into Barnes & Noble in the Twin Cities, and I went over to the religion section, and I like to see, you know, I have a few books out there, and it's kind of fun to go over

and see if they're being stocked. And so I walked over there, and there was this guy who had, I'd say, seven or eight books. He had seven or eight books. And one of them was from Matthew Kelly. One of them was mine. And then he, I think he had four or five other books. And he was still looking at the stacks there, what you might buy, and looking at forwards and the back covers and so forth.

And so I saw it and I thought, wow, what are the odds of that? that a guy comes into a store and picks up my book while I'm standing there and he's going to go up and buy it. What are the odds? I'd say it's remarkable, actually. So what do I do? Do I say, well, that's just a quinky dink. You know, that's a coincidence, a God incident. Or do I say, Lord, obviously something's up here? I need to enter the fray. I need to get into this story. And so I followed him up to the cashier, and he paid for his books, and right as he stepped away, I stopped. And I said, excuse me, I said, I saw the books you bought there. What got your interest in those particular books? And he told me he was a Protestant pastor

who was getting ready to retire, but he had been pulled into the studies of the church fathers, and he was interested in going into the background of Catholicism because it's been pulling on him. And I said, well, I'm the orange book right there. I'm Jeff. And he goes, really? I said, yeah. I said, well, I just want to offer not only the book to you, but my services, if anything I can do, if you'd like to have a cup of coffee, love to get together with you. So that's what happened. Now, I could have looked at it and just said, you wouldn't believe it. I was standing there in Barnes and Noble on this guy bought my book. And isn't that cool?

No, no, it's not cool if you don't do something about it. It's not cool. Why didn't you say something to them, Jeff? Oh, that's not my gift, you know? And so we had a nice conversation and a good conversation later as well. No, you say to you say, Jeff, I don't have a book. Well, that might be true. But you knew about the book.

Maybe. Maybe you know some other good books. Maybe you recognized a couple of those titles. You could have said, hey, I read that book. Why did you buy it? I'm just curious. You could have done it just as easily. It's just a matter of providence.

It's looking around, seeing what's happening. Let's continue our discussion, shall we? You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I'm Jeff Kavens. My name is Jackie Angel. My name is Father Gregory Pine. My name is Sister Orienne, Pietra Renee.

My name is Father Patrick Rivier. I'm a priest of the Diocese of Homo Tibito 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 it. 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 I hope it'll be a gift for you as well. God bless you. Talking today about opportunities to witness and what I want to do today really

is just talk about these opportunities and some suggestions in the second part of the show here and not make this overly complex. complex. I think one thing that people appreciate is that if you're going to talk to them about sharing Christ with other people, don't make it so formulaic, you know, so black and white, very rigid. There's anything like, I can't remember all of that. But you can remember who Jesus is. You can remember what he's done in your life. You can remember what you like about him. You can remember how he made a difference in someone else's life. This is all we're talking about here.

You were talking about beginning the conversation, get the conversation going to anybody, any day, anywhere. And I truly believe that. I stand by that. I can witness to anybody, anywhere, any day. The Lord, I believe, can give me an opportunity. Actually done that several times. Someone said, do you think you could talk to that guy over there in the blue? I know very well I could go over there and talk to that guy in the blue.

They said, well, let's do it. And went over and struck up a conversation and actually had a wonderful. 10-minute conversation. Exchange numbers. We make this so difficult. We really do. So here's the deal. Jesus, in the New Testament,

he met many people, didn't he? He met so many different people. And you have to ask yourself, and the people that Jesus met, was it an accident that he met those people? Was it mere coincidence that he met those people? Or is there something bigger than accidents and coincidences

in our life. I believe there's something bigger, and I think that is Providence, and I believe that that is God orchestrating things in our life. Because, why? Because he knows we will do something about it. He wants to get to those people far more than you do, far more than you do. But he needs your cooperation. He's not looking for expertise. He's not looking for, you know, a real rasmataz. He's not looking for you to impress people. He wants to engage with people. So we have to trust that the Lord is walking with us and in us, as I talked about last week. Everywhere we go, he's in me. And everywhere I go, he has an agenda. He has a plan of sheer goodness. Now, typically, I'll give you this just some practical pointers for me.

Okay, I'm standing in a Starbucks. I'm standing in line, waiting to order. Someone is in front of me. I'm listening. I got to get out of my. myself here. You can't be just focused all day long on yourself. You have to, as a disciple, you have to be aware of what is being said around you. You have to look at expressions on faces, at restaurants, you have to listen for commotion. You are aware. Why? Because I'm a man on a mission, and you are a man on a mission. You're a woman on a mission. So the first words are very important, and I might be standing there in that line at Starbucks, and I might over hear the ladies say, I'm on the way to the hospital, my husband has stroke last night.

Okay. Well, I can sit there and say, well, wow, God, let me in on that one so that I could say a little prayer later today. Well, true, and there's no minimizing that. But God may be opening up a door for you. But you'll never know unless you do something. Jeff, aren't you afraid? Afraid of what? Seriously, afraid of what? afraid of changing someone's life afraid of possibly having a friend here possibly being the answer to the woman's prayer this morning when she got up and was crying and didn't know what to do and said God help us afraid of what what can man do to me what can man do to you I could stop right then and I could say excuse me I could say the person behind me go ahead and pay here I'll just get I'll go back in

mind. Excuse me, I couldn't help but over here that you mentioned your husband had a stroke last night and you're on the way to the hospital. I go to St. Vincent DePaul Church, or I go to St. Joseph the Worker Church, or I go to St. Mary Basilica, whatever it is, okay? I go to St. Vincent de Paul Parish, and we have a prayer ministry there, and I'd love to be able to put you and your husband on our prayer list there. Would you mind if we prayed for him? Oh, that's nice. Thank you. Wow, that touches me. You might hear from them. And what's your husband's name? My husband's name is Paul, Paul Johnson. Well, we're going to pray today at church for Paul Johnson. And they may at that point say, that's very nice. What's your name? What church do you say you go to? People respond to love. I'm not talking Greek, Hebrew, Latin. I'm not giving them catechism or verses. And I'm not telling them they're going to hell over coffee. I'm just, engaging in a conversation and I'm introducing Jesus into this and I say you know I remember when my father had a stroke and I remember what I felt like and I just want you to know I'm praying for you

my name's Jeff just see where it goes it's very easy the first words are important they're one words of love invitation affirmation it's it's it's people are not alone I remember one time a lady reading a book on an airplane so I had three times where I say sat next to someone who was reading one of my books on an airplane. And that's not what this story is about. But that's a whole other show. That's a lot of fun. But they were reading a book that was written by a popular writer, John Gray, men are for Mars, women are for Venus. And I thought, huh. Now, this lady is reading the book. She must be interested. She's putting time into this. She spent the money.

And so here I come up with the deepest question possible. And I know that most people could not imitate this. What do you think of that book? That's all I asked. What do you think of the book? It opened up a half-hour conversation. By the end of it, she knew that I was a Christian. She knew that I loved the Lord.

She knew about covenants in marriage and so forth, just in a discussion. And all it started with was, what do you think of that book? I saw that at Barnes & Noble or wherever. What do you think of it? You see, nearly everyone we meet, nearly everyone we meet, they give off clues. They are usually giving you clues, what they're doing, what they're saying, where they're going, who they're with, what they're holding, crying, frustrated, phone doesn't work, whatever it might be. They are usually coming to you with clues, questions, problems.

And, you know, I remember asking a lady, yeah, this was a lady too, at the airport, have you seen the chosen? It was on the airplane. Have you seen the chosen? He goes, oh, that's interesting that you had mentioned that. My son was telling me that he was watching it. And no, we haven't seen it yet, but my son seems to be very, you know, enamored by it and everything. I said, oh. And so that starts the conversation. Or were you surprised at hearing we got an American pope? What do you think about that? Or what do you think? is happening in our country right now. If they ask you what you do, tell them and then tell them that you really like your parish and you're involved there. Or you have found just a wonderful life as a member of your parish and your relationship with the Lord. Because I know some people

say, well, Jeff, I didn't write a book, you know, or I don't have a podcast. I very rarely start off that way talking to people. I've got a podcast. You know, I tell them where I go to church, especially if you're talking about scripture on the airplane, and then they find out you're Catholic. Then they're even more intrigued. So you never know how these conversations are going to go. But, you know, you can, you don't have to be afraid. I listen to issues of the heart. People who are depressed, anxious, confused, addicted, loss, health-related. family related and all this takes is boldness willingness availability prudence and love that's what it takes and so i'm going to put in i'll tell you what i'm going to do because i have talked about this so

many times on the podcast the corigma the corigma is the proclamation of the gospel eight times in the book of Acts, we see it. Five Peter, three, Paul in the book of Acts. They give you the gospel. God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. I'm going to put all of this in the show notes for you. God loves you and has a plan for your life, right? Sin will destroy you and ruin God's plan for your life. That's part of the gospel. Christ Jesus died to save you. Number four, repent and believe the gospel. Number five, be baptized and receive the Holy spirit. Number six, abide in Christ and his body, the church. And number seven, you go make disciples. There's a whole cycle to this. I'm going to put, I'm going to put it all in the notes.

I'm going to put even my notes on those notes, in the notes. I have to make a note of that. I'm kidding. No, I'm going to put it all in there for you because I don't have time today to go through all this, but I have gone through it many, many times over the last 435 shows. So I want you to have it. It's the corigma. It's what we share with people. It's, seven points that we make ours. We own it. It's part of the gospel. Number one is God loves you and has a plan for your life. Just telling someone that God loves you has power. It has power. And I'll even give you the scriptures at the end that talk about how the Holy Spirit confirms the message. The Holy Spirit confirms the message that we have to share. Now, here's an interesting thing

is that in the book of Acts, eight times we have this. curigmatic message, this pattern of the good news being proclaimed, eight times. And every time it's on the heels of a miracle or a happening, a wonder. And so that begs the question, well, if we're going to share the gospel with someone, shouldn't there be a miracle first? Shouldn't there be something that's like, wow, first? And the answer is yes. And that wow, that miracle, is your relationship with God, what he's done in your life. That's the miracle where you can share with someone that's depressed, anxious, addicted, broken, marginalized, that maybe you know what that's like.

And can I take just a moment to share with you what Jesus did in my life? It won't be long. Most people are going to say, sure, yeah. And you can share that with them. So, yes, there needs to be a miracle prior to sharing the carigma with people, but the miracle is you. I'm not a miracle, Jeff. I'm not, I wasn't a drug addict. I wasn't in prison.

I wasn't a meth addict or anything. I just have always been, I loved God. Oh, so that's a less of a miracle, huh? You stayed faithful? That's less than being a drug addict? No, it's a wonderful thing. Don't you think that that's what they're looking for is your consistency? your faithfulness. Don't you think they're after your smile and contentment, your marriage,

your children? Yes, we are witnesses. We proclaim, listen, we proclaim the gospel from the perspective of firsthand witnesses. We are firsthand witnesses. We have witnessed the love of God, the mercy of God, the kindness of God. We have been consoled. We know we're not alone. We know we're not alone. It has made a difference in my life. It's not just theology. It's not just mind food. It changes us and people need to know. The early Christians didn't simply proclaim formulas and doctrines and creeds. Those were all very important, but what they proclaimed was Christ crucified. What they proclaimed is that God loved people and had a plan for their life. sin screwed up the plan, but he died for that. And he asks us now to radically reorient our life

to him. That's called repentance. And so I'm going to put all that in the notes for you. And I do want to carry this conversation further in the future and talk more about it. And I'd be curious from you. Do you want to know more about examples of sharing Christ, how I went about doing it, how other people are sharing Christ with others, how easy it? How easy it. is, if you do, get a hold of me. Just email me. My email is The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. That's it.

The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And we'll put, I'll put it, you know what? I'll put it in the show notes for you. I'll put that email. There's been times where I actually gave the wrong email. I don't know who ended up with it, but we'll put it in the show notes for you. Okay. And I hope, and this is in the notes, Mark 1620, that I was mentioning to you that the scriptures talk about how the Holy Spirit and Jesus, they confirm the preaching and the proclamation.

Mark 1620, and they went forth and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. man, that'd be nice to hear in our own life, wouldn't it? All right, my friend, so I wanted to share some of this with you today, and I hope that it encourages you. I hope that it gets you curious as to whether you could do it, because I know you can. Remember, Pentecost erases all excuses. It does.

You are equipped. And we need to stand up and do what Jesus told us to do. Other people are dying. Other people are anxious. Other people are broken. the answer, let Jesus out. Let them out. Let's pray. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lord, I lift up my friend to you and I ask you, Lord, to just baptize them in enthusiasm. Lord, really, really stir up the gift that is in them. Stir up that desire to please you and that

desire to tell other people about what you have done in their life. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I love you. Can't wait. to talk next week.