The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) · Ascension

What Do You Smell Like to God

·25 min·1 clip

Jeff says love and sacrifice are “a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.”

The speaker opens by naming the episode’s central question: what do you smell like to God. He treats the phrase as a spiritual test rather than a joke. The point is not physical scent. It is the kind of life being offered. He begins with biblical language about offerings that are a pleasing odor to the Lord. He asks whether God is reacting to smoke itself or to the heart behind the sacrifice. The answer he presses is that the heart is the real issue. That sets the frame for the rest of the teaching. From there he turns to Exodus 30 and the altar of incense. He lingers over the details of the incense recipe and the seriousness around it. The Scriptures, in his telling, do not treat this as decorative ritual. They treat it as holy. He connects that incense to the prayers of Israel. The smell rising from the tabernacle becomes a sign of prayer rising to God. That movement lets him shift from ancient worship practice to a more interior question about what prayer is doing spiritually. He then brings in 1 Timothy 2. Paul’s call for supplication, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving becomes part of the same pattern. The prayers are meant for all people, including kings and others in high positions, so that believers may lead a quiet, peaceable, godly, and respectful life. Prayer is not just speech. It is an offering. The episode keeps returning to the idea that the Lord receives something from the believer’s life. The speaker repeatedly moves from the outward sign to the inward reality it signifies. The practical question underneath is simple: what is your life sending out. What does it leave in a room. What does it say about the Lord you serve. He folds the listener into that question with direct pastoral language. The answer is not meant to stay theoretical. It is meant to touch the way you pray, the way you speak, and the way you live. He keeps pressing toward a life that is visibly faithful. The closing prayer gathers the episode’s themes into worship. He thanks Jesus for salvation and asks to stay with him always. He asks that the listener’s life be a continual sacrifice pleasing to God. He names the qualities he wants to see carried into public life: faithfulness, mercy, loving kindness, gentleness, and sheer goodness. He also includes Marian prayer in the closing devotion. That final movement keeps the episode firmly in Catholic prayer language. The tone remains warm, earnest, and direct all the way through. The episode is structured like a pastoral meditation that keeps returning to one symbol until it becomes personal. Incense, sacrifice, prayer, and daily conduct all become part of the same spiritual question. The speaker does not let the image stay abstract. He turns it into a call to examine the soul. A recurring theme is that God is not limited to external ritual. The ritual matters, but it points somewhere deeper. What reaches God, in this framing, is the offering of a life aligned with him. That makes the episode less about scent than about holiness. The teaching also assumes a listener who is comfortable moving between Scripture and Catholic prayer practice. That is part of its identity, not an add-on. The biblical citations and devotional ending belong to the same argument. There is little interest here in detached analysis. The episode stays close to exhortation, reflection, and prayer. It wants the listener to respond, not just agree. The show also treats prayer as something public and social, not merely private. The speaker connects intercession to kings, leaders, priests, bishops, and the life of the parish. The believer’s scent is not hidden. It affects others. He keeps the emotional register warm rather than severe. Even when he speaks about sacrifice and holiness, he does so as a shepherd urging the listener toward hope. The desired result is not shame but conversion. By the end, the episode has built a single devotional arc. The listener is invited to see worship, prayer, and ordinary conduct as one offering. The final prayer seals that together. The life of faith is meant to rise like incense.

As heard by us

A clear Scripture study on sacrifice, prayer, and what rises to God.

This episode treats sacrifice, prayer, and the spiritual fragrance of a life with steady, plainspoken care. It moves from Old Testament offerings to Exodus 30's incense pattern and then to 1 Timothy 2, where supplication, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving are set before…

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