#Even_If

Even if you feel imperfect and don't feel worthy, remember that being a child of the King, means you, through Christ, are redeemed. Even if you have made mistakes and lived in constant sin, our God is still right there, and is still able to save us all. (John 3:17)

Even if you feel like Judas Iscariot, you can refuse the 30 pieces of silver, and even if you have already accepted them, you can still turn to the cross, rather than the rope. God can and will use you to His glory!

Even if you run like Jonah, or lie (as in lie down for those unaware of the Jez lifestyle) like Jezebel, God can and will use you. Hopefully we choose to be used for the kingdoms advancement through our advancement, rather than our being made an example.

Even if you feel rehab is beyond you, think of Rahab. She was a sporting woman that entertained many men, and God through Joshua used her, and saved her! Amazing how the entire city was destroyed and every wall downed, but Rahab and her house were saved! Yes, even if everyone else looks at you as filthy and worthless, God is able to change and save you, and rehab a Rahab! (Joshua 5&6)

Even if you struggle with sin, don't struggle with the knowledge of the love of God. Know His love, and you won't struggle with no love.

"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world though Him might be saved!"(John 3:17 KJV)

Even if all hope appears to be gone, don't give in, don't give up, give everything, and give it to HIM, not man! Cross or rope, the choice is yours. The imperfect one prays that we all choose life!

Peace, Blessings, and Joy... that real PB&J!

How Gay Is It Now!?

Some of you may not remember the movie "Philadelphia," with Tom Hanks, Antonio Banderas, and Denzel Washington. Dizzell's (Washington's) character was the attorney for the life partnered characters portrayed by Hanks, and Banderas. It is a very touching movie, and also a very educational movie. The scene that I think changed Washington's character most, however, was the scene where the tall, athletic football player from Penn State walked into the corner drug store, and recognized Washington's character as the famed attorney. The football player with mild conversation, asks the attorney out on a date. The attorney somewhat offended, told the football player to get out of his face, before he stuck foot to him. The football player explained calmly, to the attorney but with a high level of intensity, that he was a collegiate receiver that could bench press over 400lbs, ran a 4.3 in the 40, and took hits from other collegiate athletes that hit a lot harder than the everyday average Joe, and as the football player walked out he brushed the attorney as he walked past on his way out, and said, "I like to see you try!" Referring to the whole kick your butt attitude from the attorney. The attorney, stood in silence, and had a Jack Handy moment... he thought deeply on what had just taken place. Now that's not everyday, but that was an awesome lesson taught in a lenient way that could have been dealt out with a much more harsh reality. On the other hand, the imperfect Christian knows an attorney that is very athletic in his own right, knows Isshinryu Karate, and had earned a Black Belt if the old memory serves the imperfect one correctly, so even a big gay receiver could possibly meet his match.

This is not everyday either, but a loud mouth kid standing 5 foot nothing, and about 150lbs kept bad mouthing gay people at a gas station one morning, and a much taller, stronger looking 6 footer, walked by him at the gas station, and said something to the affect of, "Keep running that pretty yap, you are the perfect height to talk about a being gay like that!"

Again, for the record, the imperfect Christian is not a belligerent person, and does not condone sin, not even his own, but people should just be more considerate. The imperfect Christian has not been so insecure to ask another person about their preferences before allowing them to be his friend, co-worker, or hired hand. As the old cliche goes, "what you do behind closed doors is yours." What you do on the open floor, regardless of preference can get you fired, cause you to lose a friend, or possibly get you jailed if it belongs behind closed doors! Just some food for thought.

Peace, Blessings, and Joy... that real PB&J

Three Strikes, You're Out!

"How many times should I forgive my brother Lord?"

How many times in life do you want God to forgive you?

I have wondered how two (2) guys can square off in the ring, and then hug afterwards. I mean at least I feel that way about the ones that talk smack for 90 days, and then try to literally kill one another. Then after it's over see it as just business as usual, and hug and make up after the fight. Some folks may have had a fight in third grade, grow up, and still be so immature that they can't find a way to shake the hate.

Well here's what God says...
Pete, you pitched a good game, you managed to strike out friend number one on three pitches, but being a good sport, you doubled his chances, plus one and gave him four more strikes, but nonetheless you still struck him out! Why not give him 70 times 7 in his chances, and better your odds at keeping a few friends? I am the only friend you have that homers at every at bat, and pitches a perfect game every outting..." (Matthew 18:22)

Father if I have one friend that I have offended, or hurt, I pray for that 7-70 rule. If I have a friend that feels that they are in need of the 7-70 rule, then I pray that You, our Sovereign Arranger, would bless me with seeing that, and having the time that I need to make it right. I give You the praise Lord God, and ask for Your forgiveness in all of my sin, and give thanks for Your taking my place at the Cross. Blessed be Your name Lord Jesus. Amen.

Peace, Blessings, and Joy... that real PB&J

Glass Houses...

Jesus said to the Scribes, and Pharisee's when they were prepared to stone an adulterous woman to death, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." (John 8:3)

Then there was the Samaritan woman that John spoke of in chapter 4... Jesus asked her for water, and she questioned Him relentlessly about her relationship to Him (Her being recognized as a Samaritan, and Jesus being recognized as a Jew). She brought up the point that Jews and Samaritans did not associate with one another. He explained Himself, and told her of the "Living Water," and how anyone that would partake in it, would never being thirsty again. Then Jesus instructed the woman to get her husband. She said that she did not have a husband. Amazing as to how we try to lie our way out of things huh? Even more amazing as to how we react when we get caught in a lie! In case you are wondering I am not throwing any rocks! Jesus said to her that she was true in saying that she did not have "a" husband, because she had taken five, and that the one that she was staying with at that time was not her husband. She then saw Jesus as a prophet, and not as God in the flesh, and He had to reveal the truth to her, so even a five year old could understand it.

I have looked at those who chose to be victims, and I did not see my own choosing. I have looked at those addicted, and did not see my own addiction. I have been truly sorry, and then again I have been sorry only to get caught. Which woman was worse, the woman that had five husbands, and was staying with a sixth man (not a husband), or the one that they caught with only one? Before you answer that ask yourself in a serious sense, "What would Jesus (say) Do?" Do you have an addiction? Is it alcohol, drugs, sex, or something else? Why do you serve the addiction, and not Christ? Let's go even deeper, let's say you don't know Christ yet like you should. Why do you serve the addiction, the sin, instead of your family? Oh you're single, so why serve the addiction and the sin, rather than serve yourself? Why is the sin good to you? I can't answer for anyone else, but for me, to escape reality for a milli-second, and to feel like I was free, seemed to make things better. It's easy to be a Barney Christian! "Let's pretend that immorality is OK for a day boys and girls!" Sorry I couldn't stand that purple dinosaur! I had to come to realize that the truth is, the further you allow yourself to be swept into the fantasy world, the further away you fall from the real world. From true life, from eternal life.

Don't dream of a happy family, don't say one day my house will be a home, create it now! Drop your rocks, and stand on The ROCK!



Father God in the name of Jesus, forgive me as I look down my nose at others. Forgive me as I wallow in self pity. Forgive me for the times that I do not put You first. Lord let me focus on You, and not the crimes of others, nor the sins in my own house, that they would over shadow Your mercy and grace in my life. Let me pray in thanksgiving, giving You all the glory. Thank You Lord, for loving me. Amen.

Prayer requests, comments, discussions can be made here, or on the website in the upmost of confidence:

http://sites.google.com/site/gotravvy

Or you can just ask Christ into your heart right now, and give Him everything. If you listen for His call in your life, get into a good Bible based church, and surround yourself with loving brother's and sister's I can assure you of three things:

1.) You will still be imperfect, however, 2.) Your life will be better, because you will see the perfection of Christ through the imperfections of self, and others. 3.) He will see you through! No matter what the situation, He can handle it, when we can't, He will deliver you!

Peace, Blessings, and Joy... that real PB&J

Pour Some Sugar On Me

I had awakened and early on Saturday morning, and the days of my being able to crawl into bed with my mom, and pull her eyelids were gone. My attempting such a feat as a teen would land me, as Fred G. Sanford used to say, “Five across the lips,” while shaking his fist at Lamont. Well my mom began dating a fellow that was sort of a bully, and not very kind to put it lightly. And he had been at our house a lot, and the more time you get to spend with people the more you learn about them. He had recently lost his job, started drinking, and was sponging off of my mother. Mom finally saw that he was not the same fellow that she had first met, and asked him to leave. It was not a pleasant ordeal needless to say. But there was one bright spot in his being there. It was another life lesson for me, and has made me a better father, and helped me in the prank business as well!

Our bully had decided to go out for a run bright and early on the Saturday morning that set me off. What set me off was the fact that when he returned he ate the last of my Rice Chex cereal! He just snarled at me, like what will you do about it! Did I mention that he had lost his job? Yeah I thought so. Well I am a man that believes restitution should be paid in full. I am also a very patient soul when it comes to payment, receiving and giving if need be. Well it is better to give than to receive, and it was my turn to give. You can’t eat a brotha’s Chex and then punk him out like that! Most of all you don’t treat a Mama’s boy’s mama with such disrespect! He never gave her money, and he never cooked one meal for her!

Well our friend the bully again was there every day that following week, including the weekend. He went to the cupboard to find the cereal that was purchased without any contributions from his hand, and poured a Jethro Bodine sized bowl of Chex. Used my imperfect Christian Jethro Bowl in the deal again, and my favorite spoon! Did I tell you that he didn’t have a job, and that he hadn’t paid for any of the food that he was consuming!? I did, my bad, OK on with the facts.

He got the milk out of the fridge, again the milk that he had spent nary a dime on, and filled the bowl. Then he grabbed the sugar bowl, and put about five table spoons full on his larger than life bowl of cereal. He sat down and took a bite. Of course I had to stick around because I had grown to be a rather testy teenager. My Granddaddy told me that it took a man to dish out a beat down, and more of a man to stay in the fight and take one. Well I wasn’t going to miss this one, and was willing to take the beat down! He yelled through the house like the house was on fire and told my mom that the cereal was bad. A grown man whining to the woman of the house, the one that he was sponging off of, and had the nerve to wake her and tell her his cereal was bad. I would like to punch him in his grill to this day, for the way he treated my mama! Lord forgive me for imperfect, and unrighteous thoughts.

My mother came out to check on him. He was worse than a two year old, and said, “This cereal is no good.” My mother coming to his rescue began to investigate the crime scene. She checked the milk first. “It’s not out of date, it smells ok,” she took a sip, “it tastes ok.” So then she took some cereal out of the box, “The cereal doesn’t taste bad,” she remarked. So on to the sugar. “It tastes like salt,” she exclaimed.” Wow, probably because it is…” she said holding back tears from laughing hysterically inside! He got up and was ready to kill me, and I smiled as I walked by him with my baseball bat in hand. I praise God for allowing me to be surrounded by friends that prevented me from using another smaller Angels bat on the bully while he was talking trash to my mother. I walked past him straight to my room, and my friend had told his dad that he thought I was going to do something bad. He went into our house, and passed out drunk on my mother’s sofa. I didn’t go to a juvenile detention center, and our bully tried to come back drunk, and promptly got served a butt whoopin’ by the same man that kept me from hitting Juvy. God is too good. All stories should end well, and have a hero. Live the righteous life imperfect Christian, and God will be your hero, and the final chapter will be a victorious one!

Well brothers and sisters, be blessed with a sunny and peaceful Saturday, and give love, as you are loved, and even when you don’t feel loved. For what greater love do we know than the love that was given to us when He laid His life down for us, now that is a man who knows about the beat down!

Peace Blessings and Joy… That real PB&J

Close

Close, but yet so far away...

I am certain that all of you have heard that one before. You get close and then you realize that you were light years away. I was as excited as a kid at Christmas on July 22nd. I was in the Georgia Dome, and had seats four rows from being on the field with Ro-Ro (Ronaldinho), my favorite soccer player of all time! But I was ions from being on the field with him! That's the way I view some many things now. I look at Jesus, and then I look at Judas, and satan. A man that I look up to and respect very dearly told me that we were all closer to Judas in our righteousness than we are to Jesus. Now that's not to say that daily we look to betray Jesus, that's just saying that Jesus alone made the perfect walk. The imperfect Christian knew this already, but needed a refresher. For example we look at a grid that shows a marker on top of the chart, and then in the middle we see another marker, and at the bottom one more. OK we put Christ at the top of the chart, and then we put Moses, Noah, and Paul toward the center. At the bottom goes lets say, Hitler, Bin Laden, and satan. Where do we as individuals go on that list? Well if I am mid way praise the Lord, but reality tells me that even being in the middle is a lot closer to the bottom than it is the top! Christ is up there by Himself. First He had the disciples asking, "who is the greatest Lord, who is closest to you?" Then He has people today ignoring Him and asking others where they stand in this day and age.

I stopped listening to a few Christian radio stations during the elections of '04. They bad mouthed every candidate accept the one that they chose. Every other candidate was the anti-Christ and the world would come unglued and off of its axis if their candidate did not take office. What did I do? I jumped off of the condemn the Pro-Choice people, and onto the condemn the extremist wagon. I am still in awe as to how people look at one form of murder, and sin, and completely overlook another. What I am saying is that in God's eyes a sin is a sin. To us we still have that justice balance. For example: if I curse you out in private you might get a little upset with me, and in God's eyes that's a sin. If I curse you out in public it's a little worse than the private curinsing, however, if I shoot thru your living room window I have waged a war! That too is a sin regardless, but being a mere mortal I would prefer the cursing. I prefer the cursing daily if need be before someone tried to kill me, or before I had to defend myself to the death.

It feels good to be close, but the imperfect one doesn't want to just get close, he desires to stay close and get involved. Involved in love, and not condemnation! Now I am not saying that I would lay down for just anything, I believe in standing for what's right, but I think the world could use a little more peace, rather than war. Well past my bed time, and the pizza has settled so hopefully I am tired enough to sleep through the night, and not experience too many nightmares. The morning may tell, until then imperfect brothers and sisters... Peace, Blessings, and Joy in Him!!! That real PB&J!!!