The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Bible Time Challenge

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

What is a good use of your time? There are so many different ways we can spend our time. However, some ways are better than others. Today, Jeff talks about the importance of reading the Bible and how each of us can find the time to do it. We must simply choose it over something else. Snippet from the Show We choose how our time is spent, so it is up to us to decide whether our time is better spent watching television or reading God’s Word. 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!

Welcome to the Jeff Kavens show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 314, The Time Challenge, TV or the Bible. Welcome to our first time challenge, TV or the Bible. I'm Jeff Kavans, and today we're going to to do something quite different than any other show that I've ever had. It's show 314. It's time we do something a little bit different, but this is really different. We're going to take a look at our lives and find out what we're spending our time doing. How do you spend your time 24 hours a day, right? What do you do with it? How much TV do you watch? Do you get a chance to read the Bible? Do you go to church? Do you spend some time in adoration before the Lord? How do you do you do you do you do you do

divvy up your time throughout the week. How you divvy up your time will have a lot to say as to whether you're going to be successful, victorious in your life with the Lord, or whether you're going to just struggle like everybody else in trying to find extra time in your life. And that's what happens when we don't have real priorities, right? And my hope is that you have a real priority for the Bible. And if you've gone through the Bible at a year with Father Mike and myself, well, you probably are pretty serious about getting into Scripture, and congratulations on that. And if you're in the catechism in a year, great. But I want to talk about this a little bit differently, and that is some of your, shall we say, some of your

discretionary time. And how much of the Bible do you get to read yourself in a more of a contemplative way? I think the Bible in a year is fantastic, and everybody who has gone through it has had such good things to say. And I'm just going to challenge everybody who hasn't gone through the Bible in a year to do it and to take up this challenge right here. And that is to decide what are you going to give your heart and your mind to? TV or the Bible. And I really believe you can't get enough of the Bible. You really can't get enough of hearing God's word when you need comforting and you need direction and you need correction in your life. You're just, you just can't get enough. You really can't. Hey, by the way, if you want the show notes for today's show,

I've got a lot of stuff for you. All you got to do is type my name, Jeff Kavens, one word, Jeff Kavins, and text it to 33777. And you'll get all the show notes, all right? Okay, so what I have in my, in my hand here, bring this over right here, holding this in my hand right now, is a chart. It's a chart that shows me how many minutes exactly, how many minutes it takes to read the Bible at an average rate. How many minutes does it take to read Ephesians or how many minutes does it take to read Romans or a gospel or Genesis? And it's very interesting. We have about 60 hours, 6.0 hours to read the Old Testament. About 17 hours and 44 minutes for the New Testament, that makes about 75 hours to read the whole Bible. Seventy-five hours. If you went through Bible in a

year, then I would say you probably put in about 75 hours, maybe a little bit more. But I want to ask you the question, have you read the Bible? Do you read the Bible on a regular basis? Or do you often say, which I have said in my life in the past, I don't have time to read the Bible like I really want to, or I don't get around to it. Well, let's just see how much time you might have. One of the problems facing us today is that we are slowly becoming assimilated into American culture. And there are many good things. Don't get me wrong, but as you know, there are many bad things. There's a lot of bad habits. There's a lot of things that will steal your time away. Your heart will start to go after other things. You'll numb the pain and you don't give your time

to the Word of God. Now, you and I have been called to be holy as God is holy. Six times in Leviticus, God says, be holy as I am holy. But to do that, we must know God and we must know what we are to become? The question is, can you do that? And at the same time, give yourself to lots of TV. So this show is for those who might watch a lot of television, for those that know people that watch a lot of television, for people who have people in their life who want to watch a lot of television, but at the same time, want more of God. You see, we only have so much time. And the question is, what will we do? with this very, very, very valuable commodity. Now I have my chart of all of the books right here

and how much time it takes to read them. And I'll tell you how you can get a copy of this chart in just a little bit. I'll tell you how you can get your own copy. So are you ready? Let's do some exchanging here. And let's begin the challenge, the time challenge, TV, or the Bible. Are you ready?

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to name off some television shows, and I'm going to tell you how long it takes to watch that show, and then we're going to look at this handy-dandy chart, and we're going to find out how we could replace that show with Books of the Bible. So, for example, if I tell you about Law and Order, special victims unit, which is my first one, that's a one-hour show. That's a one-hour show. But if I told you that instead of watching Law and Order Special Victims Unit, you could read the Bible, how much Bible would you get read for one law and order special victims unit? If you gave up two episodes of Law and Order Special Victims Unit, two episodes will get you

the book of judges. You can read the book of judges in what would have taken two hour or two different shows of law and order. Judges takes approximately one hour and 41 minutes. Now, you can either watch the lawlessness in New York, which is great for your soul. Or you can read about what God did in the midst of the book of judges, where every man did what was right in their own eyes. Kind of sounds like New York. Well, granted, Olivia Benson is a good actress, but she has nothing on Deborah. Nothing on Deborah.

And Gideon, he could take on an army bigger than any gang in New York and was the weakest of his weakest tribe go figure god brought law and order to israel in the book of judges and it's not fake and god can bring law in order to your life as well he can so that's how we're going to play this that's what we're going to do we're going to look at these shows and figure out if i exchange that for the bible how much bible can i get or one of these shows how about the voice that's a big one right you got the voice you got american idol a lot of these reality shows now where people have contest daniel you you know, so you think you can dance and all that. I'll use the voice, and that is what?

One hour. Now, right now they're going Monday night, Tuesday night, and then they get to these other rounds and they'll slow down a little bit, but the voice takes one hour to watch. Sure, the up-and-coming stars can be heard on the voice, but will that move you further down the road when facing difficulties? I don't think so. Why not listen to some transforming musical lyrics,

like Psalms. Five episodes of the voice. Five, count them, one, two, three, four, five. Five episodes of the voice will get you all 150 Psalms. Think you could do it? Think you could take that challenge? Let me know. Give me an email, the Jeff Kaven's show at ascensionpress.com. That's five episodes of the voice. You'll get all 150 Psalms if you give up the shows and you read the Psalms. Now that's music to my ears. one hand, with the voice, you will respond with phrases like, I like her voice. It reminds me of Olivia Newton-John. But with the Psalms, you'll find yourself saying things like, now I know I can get through that problem at work tomorrow. See, big difference. Getting through work tomorrow, Olivia Newton-John. How about Survivor? Oh, what a popular show that is. That's also

on a one-hour show, Survivor. Jeff Probst has lasted a long, long time, hasn't he? Now, the obstacles that these participants face are rather difficult. They are so difficult and incredibly challenging. I saw one episode where someone had to shoot a ball into a basket 20 feet away, and it was hot out. I kid you not. But I got to tell you, Job would have found 30 days in Fiji a vacation.

If you want to watch Real Survivor, get into Job. It will only cost you two episodes of Survivor. For two episodes of Survivor, you can get into Job and you can complete it, and you'll know at the end of that what surviving is. It's only one hour, 41 minutes to read. You'll even have 19 minutes left to contemplate. how great you have it. Okay, that's Survivor. Now, here's what I'm doing. I'm showing you how to trade, how to trade this stuff in for some stuff that's really going to matter. So if someone says,

you know, I don't have time to read the Bible like you do, honey. You can say, well, do you watch the voice? Yeah, I do. All right, well, give it up. Give it up for five, five episodes, and you can read all of all the Psalms. Do you watch Survivor? Yes, yes, I do. Well, you can go through two episodes, you know, burn through two episodes, throw them out. And what will you get? You'll get Job, the real survivor. All right, what about a major league baseball game? That's about three hours, isn't it?

Major league baseball, three hours. Is there a finer team sport than baseball? Yes, hockey. But let's talk about baseball for right now. the average game is three hours believe me i understand how alluring it is to watch grown men spit and adjust their pants and the inspiration that is drawn by watching a man hit a ball three out of ten times but listen you want a game ever heard of david and goliath talk about a battle talk about a match that's a game with some serious drama and there is a wonderful lesson in it on how to

trust God. You'll find that story in 1st Samuel. And guess what? It only takes two hours and 15 minutes. Two hours and 15 minutes. That gives you an extra 45 minutes, which could be filled with the book of wisdom, which takes 41 minutes. Now after reading wisdom, you might ask yourself why you spend so much time watching professional sports. Just saying. Okay. Oh, we're finding time, aren't me? One baseball game will get you first Samuel and wisdom. One game. You think you could do that? I challenge you. I challenge you. How about every single night? I remember this growing up. When I was a kid, my parents would watch the Tonight Show every single night. And every network has their tonight show type of show right and uh that takes what one hour that's one hour i think it used to be

an hour and a half when i was a kid but it's an hour now when was the last time honestly stick with me when was the last time you said to yourself tonight i would really like to be pummeled with political jokes that attack all i stand for and on top of that watch singers and actors that use their platforms to persuade my children that I'm wrong. I've said good night to that kind of a thing long ago, but here's a substitute, Daniel. Daniel is the story of a young man living in Babylon, and under the constant pressure of believing, acting, and even eating like the pagans to come around to their way of thinking, the way he becomes victorious is masterful.

You can answer this. It's almost rhetorical, I think. I think you know what I'm saying. Do you think that Daniel would have watched the Tonight Show every night? If you're like me and you're tired of giving your time to those shows that are diametrically opposed to all you believe, take comfort in Daniel. It only takes, you ready, an hour and six minutes to read. One hour and six minutes to read Daniel. Read just a little bit faster than normal and you'll have it all in one hour.

One episode of The Tonight Show for Daniel, such a deal. You see, instead of going into the lion's den on purpose, you can learn how to stay protected in this great, big lion's den that we live in. All right, so you like food, huh? Let's go with Rachel Ray one hour. Rachel Ray, she's been doing this show for quite a while now. Rachel Ray, one hour show. She'll show you how to cook all kinds of food.

and who doesn't love a good meal? Well, Exodus only takes two hours and 51 minutes. It's a big book, but nearly three hours, you're going to have it done. That's three, count them, three Rachel Ray shows. And you're going to have the Book of Exodus under the belt. It's either a healthy paleo banana bread recipe or discover all you can do with manna in the book of Exodus. You can make banana bread. you can have manacotti, you can wash it down with manashevets, among many other creative recipes.

Sure, Rachel Ray's banana bread is gluten-free, but in Exodus, God is the chef and he serves fresh manna every day, which is a prototype, I must tell you, of the Eucharist. Bam, top that. Three Rachel Ray shows for an Exodus, 4,500 calories with Rachel Ray, or a diet of pure life found in the Eucharist. Gotta love it. You got to love it. You know what?

I've got some more shows for you. And when I come back from the break, we're going to talk about the evening news. And we're also going to talk about Shark Tank. Coming up, you're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz. I am the host of the Catechism in the year podcast. If you've been following along with us, you know that God's plan for us is a plan of sheer goodness, that He wants to bring us into a relationship with him. You know that already.

One of the ways that God actually brings us into this relationship and keeps us, sustains us in this relationship is through the sacraments. Again, you might know that already. You might further know that so many of us miss out on the beauty and the power of the sacraments. But Ascension has an answer to this. Ascension has created two new programs. One is called Renewed, your journey towards First Reconciliation. The second is received your journey towards First Holy Communion. We know that our youth, they're our future. And yet at the same time, it's so hard oftentimes to reach them with this incredible news of God's love for them in reconciliation, God's love for them in the Eucharist. If you want to check out Ascension's new program, renewed your

journey towards First Reconciliation and received your journey towards First Communion, go to ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free preview. I knew you had come back because your one right now how much you can get for the evening news because you do it every night you watch it every single night you're thinking to yourself you know that evening news is just always bringing me down and i don't know why i watch it i know what they're going to say and blah blah blah right okay well this is what we're talking about today we're talking about what we would call the time challenge tv or the bible share this show with all of your friends everyone's doing

this. Everybody's going through the time challenge, the TV or the Bible. So let's look at the evening news. It takes a half an hour, 30 minutes of every single day that you can bask in the bad news worldwide, making a great segue between your workday and dinner. While your kids have a problem with their friends at school, you can occupy them with the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. You can talk about that some more. Your kids will give you. you that look that says, dad, you're the best, kidding. Why not prayerfully read the gospel? That's where the good news is. That's the, the U.N. Gellian, the good news that Jesus gives the world. The four gospels, you know how long it would take you to read all four gospels?

Well, it's going to take you eight hours. Eight hours to read all four gospels. So if you skip the evening news for three weeks. You'll get every bit of the good news contained in the four Gospels. I challenge you. I challenge you. I dare you. I double dog dare you. To give up three weeks of the evening news for the Gospels. You're going to be a better person as a result of it. Have you ever read a complete gospel? Next time you are tempted to hear the latest from Dr. Fauci. just remember sin is spreading in a viral way all around this country we've got good news well it used to be when i was a kid the only way you'd get the news is you'd watch the evening news that 30 minutes but then CNN came on the scene and then fox came on the scene and MSNBC and all the rest and you've got

sort of the stars you know you got the stars of all the networks like on CNN you got Anderson cooper and Fox, you have Sean Hannity, and each one of them are one hour. Now, see, I'm mentioning both of these networks, so you won't think that I'm partisan. But each of these shows is one hour. Now, let me ask you, do you find that you sleep better after an hour of watching people discuss politics, scandal, espionage, and laptops? Me too. Not, isn't there enough to consider with your family and work and finances?

Do you really need this? Yeah, like a migraine. Now, here's what I have for you. If you like wars and espionage and heroes, then you will really get into First Maccabees. When was the last time you read First Maccabees? It's the story of the world power, Greece, led by a despot Antiochus Epiphanes,

and his plan is to destroy Israel and occupy the temple. and that's what he does he comes in and he just makes havoc of the temple and the outcome is nothing short of amazing the Maccabia's family revolts and they take back

the temple in heroic fashion there's even a story about a mother and her heroic sons here's the good news first Maccabees it only takes two hours so if you gave up one Hannity and one Anderson Cooper

or two Hannity's or two Coopers, it's up to you, you will have the time to read First Maccabees. What a deal! Now, when you put it like this, and you start to look at this idea of a time usage from this perspective, you talk about cashing in. You're going to be reading the Bible so much more. You really are.

Shark Tank, one hour. Have you ever had an idea for a product and thought to yourself that if the right person saw your idea, they would back it with lots of cash? Well, maybe you or someone you know will be the future stars of retail and innovation. Jonah was an up-and-coming star. Story of the prophet who had something to sell

but just needed God's encouragement? Seriously, it's a whale of a story. The decision is yours. The shark tank or the belly of the whale? Jonah takes what, eight minutes. So guess what? You have 20 minutes left. So you can read Philippians, which only takes 14 minutes. Philippians is Paul writing from not a fish, but a prison. The whale must have felt like a prison. So who knows, you may find some commonality between Jonah and Philippians. Look at that. Jonah and Philippians for Shark Tank.

Kevin O'Leary or the Holy Spirit. Hmm. Okay, so then we have, oh, here's a one. Now, I know this one's going to really, some people are going to say, yeah, but I do need this. I do need this. College basketball game, two hours. Two hours to watch your average college basketball game.

Well, it brings you back to the good old days when you actually thought it was fun to watch a sport you weren't interested in. well the last time i looked there were dozens of games offered on tv every week that the team choice is completely up to you i think you could even get a package where you can watch all of them if you really want to but it's going to take you about two hours to watch so let's see what could you do for two hours that would be more profitable if it's just tall people you like to watch might I suggest Goliath returning again to 1st Samuel

going back to 1st Samuel it will only take you two hours and 15 minutes now that's almost a clean trade one college basketball game for one of the great battles in the Bible there are actually other battles to read in 1st Samuel as well it's a slam dunk the Bible wins

out here and if you really want to get into the Word of God trade in one college basketball game for 1st Samuel. Okay? Here's one, Dateline. I might save Dateline for a different show.

I have a list here of all kinds of shows that are good trade in. So let's look at the next one here. What do we have? How about this one? The Pond Stars on the History Channel. Now, the History Channel

has all kinds of history. The Pond Stars are on there for some reason. That is one hour. for the pawn stars. Now, the book of Acts, the history of the New Testament Church, takes two hours and 15 minutes to read. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I think to myself, I don't have much time tonight. But if I can grab an hour, I would love to watch strangers argue about buying a 1974 Polaroid camera. Might even invite my friends over. Picture that. Now, if that doesn't tickle your fancy. Then I have a number of history books from the Bible, okay? First Samuel,

which we've covered, takes two hours and 14 minutes. Second Samuel takes one hour and 49 minutes. That means for three pawn stars, you can read both first and second Samuel, just three shows. Rividing duel over a Polaroid without the original box. or Saul, David, and Solomon. It's your choice. You say you have read those books, then move on to First Kings, which takes two hours and six minutes. In fact, Second Kings takes the same amount of time. Isn't that interesting? For four pawn stars, you get both First and Second Kings. Now, for those of you who really like history, this means that for seven, seven, count them seven pawn stars on the history channel,

you get the bulk of history surrounding King David. First, second, Samuel, first second kings. Didn't I hear you say a while ago that you don't have the time for the Old Testament? Are we having fun yet? Okay, here's one. This is the last big one. Morning Joe on MSNBC. Do you know how long it takes to watch Morning Joe on MSNBC every morning?

Four hours. You say, Jeff, I don't watch that stuff. Well, I know you probably don't, but you probably know people who do. Four hours a day. You heard me right. Four hours a day. That's 20 hours a week for Morning Joe. Now, this is a hard one to equate because four hours of this show is very similar to another very popular activity.

And that is watching paint dry. but let's give it a shot. If you have four hours a day, you could read all of Isaiah, which only takes three hours and 43 minutes, or Jeremiah, which only takes three hours and 51 minutes. Here's the bonus. If you read Isaiah or Jeremiah in the morning, you can do it with a cup of real Joe, unless you are the type that drinks foo-food drinks like Starbucks, you know, a cup of marchalino di Ambrosio latte, something like that.

that. I'm staying with straight tea. Okay, so I just noticed that you can read Ezekiel here. I was looking at the chart and I noticed Ezekiel is three hours and 39 minutes. Just sip it a little slower and take four hours to read Ezekiel. We've got so many others, but I don't have the time for him. You've got the property brothers one hour. You could read Joshua in that time. Well, you could read for two property brothers you could read Joshua twice twice no two let me get this right two property brothers you trade those in to read Joshua because that only takes one hour and 42 minutes and it talks about it's among the brothers the the tribes of Israel dividing up the property in the holy land so there's a good equation there or an equal value the property brothers for Jacob's sons and all the brothers

they're dividing up the land. So I've got all so many other ones. I've got Dishing the Dirt with Courtney and Jane. I got the Today Show. How about this? Let's end with this. I've got a, this is the power of giving up a series like Mandalorian. 17 episodes.

I think it's close to 20 hours. 17 episodes, get this, it takes five hours to read all 13 of Paul's writings. All 13 of Paul's writings. five hours that means that you can read all of paul four times if you gave up the series of mandolorean what about yellowstone oh you say we're getting close here don't talk about my yellowstone there's five seasons there's nine in the first season 10 in the second 10 in the third 10 in the fourth and 14 in the fifth i guess not all of them are out yet that's 53 hours remember it only takes 60 hours to read the Old Testament

only 60 hours to read the entire Old Testament so you could basically give up all the seasons of Yellowstone for the Old Testament can you imagine how much richer you would be trading exchanging John Dutton for the Apostle John Beth Dutton for Elizabeth Jimmy for James, Lee for Levi summer for the fall of Adam and Eve,

Rip for the resurrection, Monica for St. Monica, Walker for the Amas Road. The guy's walking on that road. Make the exchange, my friend. Make the exchange. It's a challenge. It's a time challenge.

I'm serious about this. I'm really challenging you to start trading in some of the unneeded television for the Word of God. And I would love to hear from you. Email me, The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress. Make the exchange. Get into the Word. Get into the Bible in a year. Get into the great adventure, a journey through the Bible. Get into unlocking the mystery of the Bible. All will be in your show notes. It's a way to get deeper into the Word of God at Ascension Press. And next time someone says they don't have time to read the Bible, pass this podcast over to them. Because I know you have time to do it. Now, if you want the chart that I've been using for this podcast and you want,

on all the books of the Bible and the chart that tells you how long it takes to read every single book. I'm looking at this right now here, and I can tell you, there's some books that only takes, Obadiah takes four minutes. Some of these books are very, very small, 11 minutes for 1st Thessalonians, 7 minutes for 2nd Thessalonians, 3 minutes for Philemon. I want to check this. Two minutes for 2nd John and 2 minutes for 3rd John. I've got all of these, but if you would like the chart, if you've already signed up for the show notes, you're going to get it.

If you'd like the chart and you haven't signed up for the show notes for every show, if you sign up, I'll get you the notes. We'll send them to you, and all you've got to do is send my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and send it to 33777.7. And we will get you on the list and you'll get the notes. You'll have the chart. And you will be ready to go. So many ways that we can be creative and swapping out, you know, all of the hours that we waste on television, give it to the Lord and to grow in our faith and to become enriched in his word. And in his word, once he sends his word out, it will not return to him void. It will accomplish that. at which he desires. You really will. He really will.

So let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friend to you today. And Lord, as we have some fun looking at this, in all seriousness, there is a problem today with giving ourselves to those things that do not pay or bear fruit, those things that don't satisfy. And we tend to ignore the things that we really, really need. We eat the cotton candy and spit out the vegetables. Lord, reverse that in our life. We exchange, we redeem the time in our life by making the right decisions. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I love you, my friend. Talk to you next week.