The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Thank God It’s Friday

Episode Date: January 1, 2021

Happy New Year! Today, Jeff gives some encouragement for starting 2021 strong and spiritually healthy. Snippet from the Show “You can know his heart and plan, but if you don’t trust him, you may end up placing your trust in other things.” 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 199. Thank God, it's Friday. 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.

Well, here we are. We're at the beginning of a brand. new year. And typically all my shows come out on a Friday. And when it comes to this Friday, I know many of you are thinking and looking back at 2020 and saying, thank God that's over. Or you could say thank God it's Friday. I'd rather go even more positive on that today as I share for a few minutes with you in saying that, thank God, it's Friday. Thank God it's Friday. We've got a new opportunity here to serve the Lord with a brand new year. You know, every year people go through their parties

and their New Year's resolutions and what they're going to do. And I would be so curious to hear what the new resolutions are going to be given the year of 2020 behind us. I know that your life has been turned upside down. Many of you have written me and told me your stories

and my heart goes out to you. And I just want to encourage you, just take a few minutes today. It's not going to be a regular length show, but I want to take a few minutes to encourage you as you go into 2021. Not only is it a new year and an opportunity to make new resolutions, but it's really at the heart an opportunity to start over, just like every week has seven weeks, and we start over every Sunday with a brand new week. We get an opportunity today to start over this year. And I would really encourage you to take some time and get a pen and paper in your Bible and just go to a quiet place for a few minutes and ask the Lord to help you understand

this last year by doing a couple of things. One is writing down the difficulties, the hurdles that you faced in 2020. And I would do that on one. side of the paper. On the other side of the paper, I would take some time, and maybe you want to Google. Maybe you want to read a book or read your Bible. I say Google to find out what's in the Bible, if you don't know the Bible real well, but to find some promises of God and some things that God says about that particular area in your life. In other words, to get just a good snapshot of this last year and how you dealt with this last year. If you're like me, there's room for improvement. There's room for improvement in the way I handle my anger or my expectations or my relationship

with family or colleagues. And the Lord wants to bring light to all of this as we go into the next year. We have been living through a year that not only was upset with COVID, 19, but we've also gone through a political year like none other. And a lot of people, and I'm going to talk about this in the next couple of weeks on my podcast. I have a couple of podcasts that are, I am really working on because I got some important things that I want to share with you, which I think are extremely important in understanding where we're at right now politically and in our relationship with the Lord. But I think there's a lot of people who have put their trust in men in the political system. And they feel cheated or they feel like there's no hope or what has our

country become. There's talk of socialism. There's talk of just very bad things that happen in the political arena. And it leaves a lot of people feeling lost, you know, anxious, depressed, if you will. But if our life is truly built on Jesus Christ and he is the king of kings, then we are on a foundation on which we can trust, on which we can walk in peace, and we can walk with a sense of certitude, knowing that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I do think you have an opportunity this year, and it's not too late. Father Mike Schmitz and I, in the last couple weeks we talked about this, we have an opportunity for you to read through the Bible in chronological order for one year.

We've taken the Great Adventure Bible study and the reading program there, which is a three-month reading program that takes you through the Bible in three months, and we've expanded that to take up the whole year. And so this is kind of an unprecedented opportunity for you to read through the Bible with Father Mike Schmitz with some commentary,

and I'll be giving some commentary on where the story is going, and how to understand it, how to avoid the pitfalls where people lose all sense of direction when they read the Bible. We're going to make this as easy as possible. And if you sign up, you can also get an amazing, colorful plan that'll take you through the Bible in one year. I really don't know of a better thing to do. I mean, we could all argue for better things, I suppose, but this is the one thing that I think is so important to read through the Bible. Now, what will you get out of that? Well, paragraph 236 of the catechism says that there are two really important things to understand,

and I would say two important things to understand going into 2021. The catechism says in paragraph 236, and I'll just read the first part of it to you, it says the fathers of the church distinguish between theology and economy. theology refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity, an economy to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. It goes on and says, so it is analogously among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions. And so they work, hand in hand, knowing a person and their actions. And when you read the Bible, you're going to

come to understand the theology, which will break it down even further, the heart of your father. If you read the scriptures, you're going to come to a better understanding of knowing the heart of your father. And then the economy, oeconomia, in Greek, the economy, the economy speaks of the father's household plan. You're going to know his plan. Now, listen, this is really important coming off of 2020. Maybe you feel like you've blown it. Maybe you feel like you are out to sea and you have no anchor or direction. Well, this will bring you hope, which is an anchor, and that is knowing the heart of your father

and knowing the plan of your father this coming year. You see, knowing the heart and knowing his plan acts as a sure foundation. To do what? To trust him. to trust him. You see, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and we can trust him. But here comes the kicker. This is the really important point going into 2021, and I'm drinking this medicine myself, and that is that you can know his heart and his plan, but if you don't trust him, you may end up trusting yourself, or trusting someone on television, or trusting someone on the

internet with their so-called wisdom. But don't we need a sure foundation, sure wisdom? Don't we need to build our lives on that which will withstand the storm? That's Jesus Christ. And so I'm challenging you as a brother in Christ this year to get to know the scriptures and read the Bible with us. You can go to ascensionpress.com. You can sign up for this. and I'll put that link in the show notes for you. And let's go on it together, shall we? I believe that 2021 will be different. It might be a little shaky still,

but our response to it will be from a place of a sure foundation, knowing his heart and knowing his plans. Now, it doesn't seem so scary going into the next year. More like an opportunity to do that. A quick reminder also, Father Mike Schmitz and I will be be going to Israel in June for a pilgrimage, and you can come with us. All you have to do is go to my website, jeffcavens.com, and the information is there under the pilgrimage tab at the top, and it's filling up, filling up with a lot of young people who want to get together. And by June, aren't you

going to be ready for a new day? Wow. You know, I was just reminded of what Pope Benedict said about Lexio de Vina. And I think that Lexio de Vina is something that you can pair with reading through the Bible in a year. Lexio de Vina, if you're not familiar with, it is just a beautiful way to read the Bible and hear a new fresh word from God every single day. And Pope Benedict said that Lexio de Vina is the key to a new springtime in your life. So you need a new springtime. Do you need a new beginning? Behold, the Lord is doing something new. And you want to be in on it. So join us in Israel. Join us for the 365 days. Go right now and sign up and pick up with us. It's not too late. And we would love to have you come to the scripture party with us. Well, God bless you. And you do have a good year.

I love you. I really do. And I pray for you. And I know you're praying for me. And I appreciate all of the correspondence that I receive from you. God bless you and we'll see you next week.