Coffee With Chaplain Mike

It’s the Lord’s Day!

I should admit at the outset that I’ve never considered myself a cat person. Beth has two beautiful cats at her house and is a devoted cat Mom, and my three kids and five grandkids have several cats between them. But I myself just never considered having one as a pet. Always was a ‘dog guy’ growing up.

But this past December, Christmas Day actually, I was “gifted” a cat by a neighbor and friend who was moving to St. Louis and couldn’t take the cat with them. In came the cat, who knew me from visiting my patio a few times. Along with said new pet came his litter box, a food bowl, and no instructions.

Ok, I wasn’t a cat person. I didn’t even know whether it would come back if I let him out, but he found the correct door in the neighborhood each time. It’s the one wherein were located the “Delectables” lickable treats which he is now addicted to.

Suffice it to say, he has now worked his way into my heart. He is the “Master of this house” and I’m his loyal staff I suppose. He does make me laugh sometimes with his antics, which he does during the 14 1/2 minutes he’s awake during the daytime. Nighttime is for prowling and exploring. He locked himself in the hall closet once and I didn’t find him for two hours! His name is Socks, so named by me because of his white paws contrasting his otherwise grey coat. He’s a somewhat handsome feller, as far as cats go.

After a few weeks, we bonded pretty well. The other day I wasn’t feeling great, the results of a UTI, and Socks curled up beside me with his paw on my arm, and slept there for about an hour, as if to say “I’ll take care of you Dad, just rest”.

Which he didn’t. At all. He just wanted to sleep near body heat.

Here’s a totally amazing encounter we recently had though. I was in my recliner resting, and asked him to bring me the remote, which was just out of my reach. As he sat upright on the floor staring at me, he lifted up his right paw and licked it for a few seconds, set it back down, looked back at me, and casually meandered out of the room.

I know, right? Totally useless. Dogs fetch. Cats look at you with disdain like you asked them to clean out the gutters. . Having given you the “look”, they then leave the room, wondering how you have ever survived on your own, since you’re just an incompetent human being.

But there’s a point to all this. Are WE like cats when it comes to God?

Do we expect Him to provide all that we need, answer every request we make, protect us and keep us well, yet we hardly give Him the time of day?

Is His speaking to us similar to our speaking to a cat? Dogs seem to acknowledge phrasing and certain words, cats not so much. Are we unable to understand when God does speak because we, like cats, don’t comprehend our Father’s language?

I hear people say that they have never heard the voice of God. The truth is though, God is always speaking. He is speaking through the Holy Spirit though, which dwells in us if we are believers.

But it’s not a foreign language that He speaks, like our words must seem to a cat. His voice is tender and rather quiet. And it is deep within our spirit, not in our minds. Our minds are where we dwell, and also where Satan communicates. The Holy Spirit and the devil cannot occupy the same space, trust me, so the Holy Spirit is communicating with our spirit in our soul. The devil on the other hand, can only put thoughts in our minds.

You must condition yourself to hear the Holy Spirit. You must train yourself to hear Him from within you. You must get quiet. You must be in an attitude of worship. You will then hear Him. But it’s more of an impression than an audible voice. But He was sent by Jesus to help you, so why would He remain silent?

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever— the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive and take to its heart because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He the Holy Spirit remains with you continually and will be in you.”
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭Amp

“I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf, He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.”
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭Amp

““I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear to hear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth, full and complete truth. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears from the Father—the message regarding the Son, and He will disclose to you what is to come in the future.”
‭‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭Amp

The Holy Spirit is there for you, dwelling in you to exalt Jesus, to direct you, to give you wisdom, to give you understanding, and to give you knowledge.

And again I’ll say this….its not audible. It’s more of a knowing. It’s an understanding that you have. It’s something that you didn’t come up with on your own also. An example would be just an urgent sense in your spirit, literally in your chest, that you need to pray. You don’t even know what you’re praying for. You just know you need to get quiet and pray. Or maybe you’ll have a sense to do something as mundane as checking your emails or your mailbox. Or maybe you feel prompted to call a parent or loved one to check on them. There will always be a reason you will have an impression down in your spirit from Him that you need to do something, or make something right. Some would call that your conscience, but it’s always the Holy Spirit convicting you, if you’re a believer.

All believers have the Holy Spirit in them. Each one of us! It’s a promise Paul told us about. He called it a guarantee the Father gave to us to show us we are truly saved…..

“And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Praise God for that guarantee or pledge to show us we truly have eternal life in Christ Jesus!

So when God is speaking to you through His Holy Spirit, don’t be like cats who simply stare at you. At least dogs will c**k their head like they are trying to understand! We are given the gift of reason. We are given the ability to reason so that we can have a relationship with God and to walk with Him while here on earth. Take advantage of the fact that you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God!

You have the Creator of the Universe dwelling within you! Tap into the wonder of who He is! Don’t be like Socks, who couldn’t care less what I’m saying and then leaves the room. Spend time with the Lord. Sit quietly before Him and listen.

He is waiting. He won’t even stare and yawn when you call on Him.

It’s the Lord’s Day!

“How do you know if you’re saved?” Part 2

When I’m looking on TikTok I always avoid those posts which have two or three or eight parts, but it was necessary in this case to break this topic into two parts because it was turning out to be so lengthy.

If you didn’t read last Sundays post I encourage you to do so, because it asked this very important question. “If you were saved when you were younger, are you still saved now?”

If you had a childhood or teenage experience and gave your heart to Jesus, then are you still saved today, no matter how you lived your life? Let’s look deeper into this.

If you recall, I got saved at 19 and served God faithfully for 28 years before coming to the conclusion that I didn’t really KNOW God. I then asked myself the question, “Was I still saved?”

The answer isn’t a straight yes or no right this minute, but I will tell you today how I learned that I am indeed now saved, and I will tell you how you can know you are saved too!

To pick up where I left off last week, I was miserable in my soul even though on the outside everything was going well. I was a Trim Carpenter with my own company, and making very good money, having trimmed 33 new houses the year before, but I was empty inside. I asked the question last week, was I even saved at that point? The realization that Sunday night in 1998 that I didn’t even know God led me on a search for Him and to truly know Him, and ultimately gave me the answer I desperately was searching for.

I won’t share all the journey because I’ve done that so many times in the past, but on days when work was slow or I didn’t have bids to make, I would have my Bible laid on the steering wheel of my truck sitting in the parking lot of either Home Depot or the Main Library in midtown Memphis, and I would read and pray for hours! I literally mean the entire day. This went on for weeks.

I attended a few different churches during that seeking period, including Christ The Rock. Where I went for a year or more, and I learned quite a bit. I was serious about this journey. I would get up in the middle of the night and lay face down on the floor of my bedroom and pray in the dark. I would devour the word, going completely through it cover to cover twice. I was hungry for more of God and I was desperately seeking Him!

I ended up finding a little Full Gospel church called Agape in Memphis which also had a Bible School. That was where I found what I’d been searching for; the answer to whether or not I was saved.

During that time, I ended up shutting down my Company, selling all my power tools and a new GMC truck, and I went to Bible college for a year and a half. This was all done in response to answering a call of God on my life!

I had run from Him all my life, which is exactly why I felt empty, and why I stated last week that HE was the one who placed the hunger in me to know Him.

I eventually became ordained in 2002. But going to Bible School didn’t save me. Nor did being ordained. I even served as an Associate Pastor in two churches but that didn’t save me. I’ll tell you what did in just a moment.

The Bible has much to say about serving God after you’ve surrendered to Him. In truth, you are first saved when you realize He is the Son of God, and you believe that everything His word says about Him is true. Paul explained this perfectly in Romans…..

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced.””
‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

But does that apply to you throughout your life if you were saved as a youth, but lived your life doing it ‘your way’ from then on?

What does the Bible say?

Notice that Paul gave us a clear definition of what a ‘saved’ person should look like…..

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So you DON’T get to live your life the way you choose after all. You belong to the person who bought you. Jesus bought you. He purchased you with the blood He poured out to cover your sins. You are His obedient slave now, so your life should represent Christ in all you do!

There is also a VERY important point I want to make today that involves the most quoted verse in the Bible. That verse is John 3:16. But it doesn’t say what most people quote it as saying.

Most people will say that “whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish”. But that isn’t what it says. Look at the King James Version….

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him SHOULD not perish, but have everlasting life.”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭KJV‬‬

They SHOULD not perish. God doesn’t want you to perish and He made a way through Jesus, but that doesn’t mean you won’t perish, it means you SHOULDN’T perish. If you do, it’s your fault because you avoided His plan of salvation.

But let’s wrap this up. Do you know when I found out I was saved? Do you know when I was convinced that I was going to spend eternity with the Lord?

When I believed I was, and when I started living like it.

I’ll say it again…..

When I believed I was saved, and when I started living like it.

Yes, it’s that simple. You are saved when you truly believe that you are because of Jesus finished work on the cross, and when your life reflects that fact. It’s your FAITH that saves you! Faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection covering your sins! Faith in His forgiveness! Faith in His power to keep you saved! Look at what Jude says…..

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling or falling into sin, and to present you unblemished, blameless and faultless, in the presence of His glory with triumphant joy and unspeakable delight, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
‭‭Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭Amp

It is JESUS who is able to keep you, not you yourself! You are not saved by faithfully attending church, or by paying tithes, or by reading the Bible. Yes, you should strive to do those things, but it is faith in Jesus that saves you! Faith in His finished work on the cross. He himself said “It is finished”. Meaning that it’s done! There’s nothing to add to that other than for you to believe!

Folks, I went through what I did; my seeking God and going to Bible College, being ordained, and serving as a Pastor, all for this; to learn and to be able to explain to you that you’re saved when you believe you are and your life reflects it. Paul contrasted the difference between someone who is saved and someone who isn’t very clearly in his letter to the church in Galatia. Pay attention to the contrast and see which describes your life…..

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬-‭25‬

So, please let your life reflect the fruit of the Spirit. Live your life for God wherever you are and in whatever you’re doing. Look, I don’t care if you work in a Casino, or ANY other place for that matter. God needs His children everywhere; in bars and clubs and liquor stores and EVERYWHERE, but just let your life reflect Christ where you are.

Jesus said this…..

“The person who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who really loves Me; and whoever really loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him. I will make Myself real to him.””
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬ Amp

You know His commandments. You are to love the Father with all your heart your soul your mind and your strength, to love your neighbor as yourself, to treat others the way you want to be treated, to walk two miles with your neighbor if he asked you to walk one, to not ask for your coat back if it’s borrowed, to turn the other cheek, and so many more that you’re familiar with.

You should watch your language as well. If people are using the “bleeps” on your social media videos as a drinking game, you need to clean up your language big time. Your vocabulary you use in your everyday speech is to reflect Jesus! Paul said this…..

“But now rid yourselves completely of all these things: anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene abusive, filthy, vulgar language from your mouth.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬ ‭Amp

But above all else know this; that you are saved because GOD said you are if you believe in His Son!

You ARE saved if you believe it and if you live it!

Rejoice! You have a permanent home in Glory and your name is carved over the door!

It’s the Lord’s Day!

If you are one who got saved when you were much younger that’s great news! But are you still saved now?

If you aren’t sure you’re currently saved, then let’s talk about that. I’ll tell you my experience, anyway.

As I’ve shared before, I got saved when I was 19. But I was barely wise enough to have any godly understanding, or even any common sense for that matter, and there’s no way that I was a deep thinker and able to process anything relevant about God at that time.

I was emotionally immature in my teenage years, and me and my rowdy buddies were just interested in having a good time. Our lives evolved around drag cars. We stayed out all night drinking beer, we got in fights, we street raced, shot pool, and did anything but act mature, I actually lived off what I made shooting pool for a few months when I was 18.

Another favorite activity of ours was trading licks. We would stand in a circle, usually about 5 or 6 of us, and take turns punching each other in the shoulder. The winner was the last man standing, or the one who didn’t get out of the circle. How stupid was that?? I never said we were smart, but we were in fact pretty dense to make up for it. We were the hood before it was called a hood.

We made fun of guys and girls who would talk to us about Jesus. I did believe in God though, because of my grandmother and the godly life she lived, but that’s as far as it got. I didn’t understand God’s grace or anything about theology at all really.

My best friend at the time was Sammy Hall, and he and I loved drag racing and spent a lot of time at Lakeland Raceway. His ‘67 Chevelle was better overall for racing than my ‘63 Dodge 330 so we raced it, but I was a somewhat better mechanic than Sammy, so I did all the work on his car. We were also building a 1951 Henry J drag car together as well, and thought nothing of stealing race car parts to put it together.

I stole a tunnel ram intake off a Chevy that we had learned about. Back then we called those risky escapades Midnight Auto Supply. Yes, you can pull an intake off in the dark with a cheap flashlight, a 9/16”, a 1/2”, a screwdriver, a pocket knife for the fuel line and hoses, and pliers for the distributor hold down. And yes, it was ABSOLUTELY wrong, and I feel awful about that to this day, but we had no conscience back then. We just did what we wanted. We were lost, or I was anyway. Completely lost, and headed to hell.

Anyway, Sammy’s car had a 327 small block which ran pretty decent, but the car was not that consistent on the track because it was a three speed on the column and the Holley carb needed work, an oversized 750cfm double pumper which was way too much carb for the cam we ran! So, Sammy asked me to install a Hurst floor shifter for him and rebuild his carb. I told him I would, and we headed to Dennis Hall’s gas station on Shelby drive one Sunday afternoon, because Dennis would let us use his lift. As a matter of fact, I ran into Chad last week who manages Dennis’ Salvage Yard for him and he said Dennis is now living in Florida and still doing great!

Anyway, we got his car up on the lift that Sunday, which was March 29, 1970. I know the date well and I will never forget it.

So while I’m working under the car Sammy says “Hey, come to church with me tonight.” He had to go because his parents made him. He still lived at home as did I, so he did what he was told to do. You obeyed the parent’s rules; that’s how it was back in those days!

I told him I really didn’t want to go to church, but he kept on insisting. Truth be told, he didn’t want to be alone in his misery sitting in church instead of being out running around.

Anyway we got the car back together (it now power shifted great and the carb was much more drivable with some cleaning and smaller jets installed. He took me by my house to get changed, and off we went to church that Sunday evening.

The church was Whitehaven Assembly of God and Rev. Paul Tinlin was the pastor. I could not tell you what he preached on, but I knew I was overcome with guilt that night. I knew God was dealing with me as I sat there during the sermon, and I knew I was feeling worse by the minute. When the sermon was over the altar call was given, and a member of the church with fiery red hair by the name of Ruby (Goodwin I think) came over to me and asked me if I wanted to go to the altar and accept Jesus. I said I didn’t know, and then realized I had started crying. Sammy and his older brother Mike said they’d go with me, so off we went to the altar, me bawling like a 12 year old girl, and that night I gave my heart to the Lord. Sammy had passed in the nineties, but Mike and I are still friends to this day.

I immediately stopped cussing, which was amazing to me, and I repented for every sin I could think of over the next few days, which was a lot as it turned out!

I then spent the next several years in church every time it was open. I sang in the choir, I taught Sunday school, I served in the youth group, played drums in worship bands, and I did whatever I could do to serve God, but I’ll tell you something that is the absolute truth…..I still really didn’t know God.

Was I saved? I have no clue, really. But I know that I didn’t know God back then. I read my Bible every day because that’s what you were supposed to do. I prayed for things I needed, but I wasn’t seeking God. It was always about me most of my life.

Fast forward to 1998, when I was serving faithfully at Bartlett Assembly of God. I had gotten back into drag racing in the mid eighties and was a Track Champion in ‘85 and eventually moved into managing several tracks, Memphis Motorsports Park being one of them. In a subtle way, racing had taken me further from God once again and in 1998 God said “enough”. Divorced, and feeling pretty miserable inside those days for no real reason that I could point to, I walked out of that church one Sunday night and said out loud to myself in the parking lot, “There has to be more than this”.

That night began my true search for God. Lots of praying, lots of attending many different churches, lots of reading my Bible more intensely, sometimes for hours; all in an attempt to really, really know Him. Little did I know at the time that HE was the one behind my search. It was the Lord Himself drawing me closer to Him.

We’ll continue this next week with how I ended up knowing that I’m saved. Yes, Paul said confess and believe and you’re saved. But look closely at what he told Timothy…..

“Pay close attention to yourself, concentrate on your personal development, and to your teaching; persevere in these things and hold to them, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”
‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬ ‭Amp

Why would you need to “ensure” your salvation if you’re saved by confessing and believing? Jesus had more to say about being saved too. Such as loving God with all your heart mind and soul, and loving each other as much as you love yourself. He said our righteousness had to exceed that of the Pharisees, so faithful church attendance doesn’t count in our being saved. They were far better at playing church than us. After all, they kept the entire law.

So, if you’re in doubt about your own salvation then come back next week and we’ll explore the topic together. This is already too lengthy, and if I made this post any longer no one would read it for certain, so we’ll see you then.