Imagine this:   every single day, you wake up and out on your front lawn is forty-three million dollars.  Just laying there.  In one dollar bills.   Piles and piles of money on your front lawn.  You don't know where it comes from, but every day, when you wake up - it's there!  The first day this happens, God Himself speaks to you and says,  "Take JUST ENOUGH to get you through today.  Take what you NEED for today.  ONLY TODAY!".  

"Are you kidding, God??? Whadya mean???"  I would probably say,  "I'm going to rent a tractor trailer and fill it with this money.... and keep it in my back yard, God! The next morning, I look in my trailer and all the money has rotted and it unusable.   And I get annoyed at God.  But I look and there on my front lawn is ANOTHER forty-three million dollars. And He says again,  "Take JUST ENOUGH to get you through today. Take what you NEED for today."  So this time I listen.   And I realize that I need $57 for my electric bill, and $35 for gas, and $100 for groceries.  So I count out $192 and walk away from $42,999,808.00 dollars. 

That's what happened to the Israelites as God led them from Egypt.  They didn't need dollar bills - they needed food in the desert.  It was a matter of survival.  And God sent manna - which translated means, "What is this?".  God was providing for them in a way they had never experienced before with something they had never seen before.

The Manna Concept is that God will provide enough for today.  He will do it in a way we have never experienced before with something we have never seen before:  FAITH.  And when we try to spend today's manna on tomorrow's problems, it doesn't work.   The real test of faith is using what He gives me today ON today.  And not wasting it by worrying about tomorrow.  

"Call to Me and I will show you great and mighty things that you do not know" - says the Lord.   Last night our church had a prayer meeting.  Phil was leading the worship and he reminded us all of that verse... and that.. IF WE WILL CALL OUT.. CRY OUT to the Lord...He will answer us.   Then, halfway through the meeting...our pastor reminded us that we must BELIEVE that God will answer when call out to the Lord.   And already GOD IS ANSWERING specific prayers that we prayed at the prayer meeting.   God is changing hearts... bringing conviction....turning things around...  WE JUST prayed LAST night about situations that have been going on for MONTHS... and YEARS.. and last night God caused people we prayed for to reach out... and want to talk.

ISN"T THAT AMAZING????  God cannot answer a prayer that we do not pray.  Call out to the Lord.   How many times do I call a girlfriend to talk about something.. or my mother.... or Phil.....instead of calling on the Lord?   Today I will call to Him.   And He will answer me................and He will answer you too... if you call out to Him.

The last time I saw the gym was Monday. Today is Thursday.  I've been busy, ok?   I'm going this morning.  OK???? OK. 

People talk about going to the gym like it's the equivalent of going to an orphanage to feed hungry and neglected children, like it's a pilgrimage to a holy shrine.  They speak of it with awe and reverence.  They ask,  "Don't you feel SO MUCH better????" And Marie The Liar says,  "Oh.. yes.. so MUCH better."  I want to say,  "Are you insane??? Why should I feel better about getting up and getting dressed and getting to the gym and getting on the treadmill and getting hot and getting sweaty and looking in the wall-to-wall mirror watching myself get hot and sweaty????"   I hate the gym!  I hate the gym! I hate the treadmill!.  There I said it!  NOW I feel SO MUCH better.

I keep going because I am at the perfect weight for somebody who is six inches taller than I am - and I've accepted the fact that I've outgrown any future growth spurts.  And more than the fact that I'd like my body to get in better shape (not that I'm not just so AWESOME looking.. ha) but at my age, my heart needs the exercise too.  OK.  So I'm going.. but.. I don't feel much better....Well.....ok....come to think of it  - it is MUCH easier for me to walk two miles... and today I'm going to try to walk three.  And it's true that when I actually overcome my laziness and actually go and walk on that treadmill I feel so much better, so much better about not letting myself talk myself out of it.  OK.. so maybe I DO feel a little tiny bit better about going to the gym........and ok......I've lost 5 lbs too.....  but I'm still praying for a miracle.....and that tomorrow I'll wake up and be 5' 7".  IT COULD HAPPEN!

HOWEVER, I'm still perplexed by the Lettuce League.  These are people who actually LOVE lettuce (my husband is one of them.. and so is my son, my daughter-in-law and my grandkids.  I'm surrounded by them).  People who belong to the Lettuce League WANT to eat salad, boiled eggs,carrots and lettuce.  That's eating?  That's a gulag menu to me.   I mean, ok, sure, from time to time, I CHOOSE a salad.  There are days (I think I counted almost 4 last year) that I want to eat a salad. There are times.  But 99.99999999999999% of the time, if I can eat what I want to eat.....I'm gonna choose something with lots of carbohydrates. 

Sometimes I fervently pray that if He isn't going to do a miracle and give me those six inches of height... that God would  turn me in to a bona fide member of the Lettuce League and that I would crave cucumbers and desire the crisp, thin nothing taste of  lettuce but.....unfortunately my heart belongs to the Pasta People and their cousins the Potato People.   

Anyway, it's Thursday and I'm getting ready to go the gym... because the fruit of the Spirit is self-control.  And if He is in control of my life then I should have control of my appetites.  And so .............I'm going to the gym.  And I'm going to listen to Keith Green CD's as I walk, and I'm going to thank God that He gave me the strength to do something I SHOULD do and not just WANT to.  In the meantime, would you join me in prayer for that 5'7" request??? Thanks.  

(OK.. so it's an hour later and I just got back from the gym and I walked 2 miles in 32 minutes.....and I feel SO MUCH BETTER.....)

Starting at about 8 PM and all the way through until about 3 AM there were KILLER tornadoes passing through....The storm didn't touch down in our city. but..you never know where it will touch down.  The thing that's so surreal is that the storm that just killed people and destroyed one town is the SAME STORM that is passing over our house a few minutes later... and it doesn't come down low enough - it doesn't touch down and so it leaves your life the way it was.    Last night... it didn't touch here. But it destroyed lots of places close by.  The sun is just coming up so we'll be able to tell how much destruction there is.  But people lost their lives last night.  I might change my Mack Truck Theory to Mack Tornado Theory.   It hits.. destroys... and then calm.  

It's difficult to comprehend that everything a person, a family, has spent a LIFETIME building - can be gone in 30 seconds from something like the wind.  And even more sobering to see that the wind can destroy like a bomb.    It makes you stop and remind yourself that, as the Bible says,  "What is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal. Focus therefore on what is unseen."  Thanks to our friends who called to see if we were ok.......we're good.   Thank God.

So, if you read the newspapers in New England, it was the "pressure for perfection" that got to the Patriot's quarterback Tom Brady. (IMHO it was also the "pressure" of a 300 lb. Giant defensive player on his chest that had something to do with it.)

One of the sportswriters for the Boston Globe (Herald?) gently pointed out to his readers on Monday morning that there is a difference between the words "undefeated" and "perfect".  The Patriots were undefeated... not perfect.     As soon as perfection became their goal - pressure became their constant companion.  

As a Christian.. I must also remember that I will go through life "undefeated"... but I will never be perfect.  Jesus has won every battle.. and he won them for me.  I don't even have to fight.. all I have to do is depend on what HE did.  I will NEVER be defeated.  He has conquered it all.    As soon as perfection becomes MY goal - pressure will become my constant companion.     When I think, that  because I am now a Christian, I should now have a perfect marriage... or a perfect attitude all the time... or a perfect anything... then being a follower of Jesus becomes all about the pressure for perfection.   Which is really a wonderful tactic that the OTHER TEAM uses to keep us from realizing we are guaranteed an undefeated season until the day we see the Lord.

And that's where the real tragedy of the pressure for perfection is revealed.  1 Cor. 4:7 says, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."   If I'm reading this verse correctly, Paul is telling us that we're SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE jars of clay not Golden bowls of perfection.. We're SUPPOSED to be people who readily and humbly admit that we are NOTHING without the Lord .. just regular folks... trying each day to follow Jesus.  We should be OPEN and HONEST and admit that sometimes... even though we name the Lord as Lord... we still struggle.  We aren't perfect. 

I want to be that way.  I don't want to come off as someone who isn't REAL.   So that WHEN  the Holy Spirit decides to take me and do something . incredibly SUPERNATURAL through me or IN me ..... the people around me SHOULD SAY... "Wow. Did you see that? Did you hear that?  I know Marie.  She doesn't have all the answers and she isn't always perfect...... and.. so for THIS to happen in HER life... wow.. it's got to be GOD!!  That has to be God's power at work!  Wow! God is REAL!"   

Being a simple jar of clay - which is what I am no matter how I convince myself I'm not - accomplishes two things.

#1-  It causes people around me to give the glory to God for whatever may be accomplished through my existence on Planet Earth.   It causes them to acknowledge that the POWER which is exhibited in me is GOD'S Power.  It causes them to LOOK UP at Him and not at me.  If I say I want my life to point people to Jesus - one of the ways this will happen is when people who know me recognize HIS POWER at work in me.  If I want to take the credit - then I've accomplished nothing with my life.  He will NOT SHARE HIS GLORY with anyone.  

and #2- It encourages everyone around me to understand that God wants to exhibit HIS power in THEIR life as well.   "If God can use me, fill me, change me then God can use you, fill you, change you" - SHOULD be the story my life tells. Living with the pressure to be perfect keeps us from that. 

So let me relieve some of the pressure:  People who really know you know you aren't perfect and people who hardly know you know you aren't perfect.. because NOBODY'S PERFECT.   Chances are that no matter how hard you are trying to hide it, some people close to you have figured out that you don't have a perfect marriage, that your kids aren't perfect and that you struggle with following the Lord at times.  When you try to hide these facts.. then you eliminate the only place that God has provided for you to get some help bearing the burdens of these burdens.. The Body of Christ.  How can anyone in the Body pray for you.. help you... care for you.. if you are so pressured to appear to be spiritually mature, perfect and without problems????.. SO... just admit it...and feel the pressure fade away..  I tried it.. and it works..  It really does.  

It's not about me being perfect.. it's all about the fact that Jesus is.   I get to claim HIS perfection.  What a deal!!

OK... my young friend Angela calls these "Marie sermons".  I'm done.

Right now, I'm out the door with Phil  to vote in our Tennessee Presidential primary.   Super Tuesday. Not real happy with the field I get to choose from....but....anyway.. If you read this far... please send me an email and give me your thoughts????  ..thanks.

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Today has been a great day.  A great day.  A super day.  Our church worship leaders were away today.. and so our Pastor asked Phil and I and our dearest and best friend Guy to lead worship. We're all members of the same church.  It felt like home.  It really did.  The three of us singing together.. the wonderful church choir behind us...  The Lord was there.... And there's nothing like meeting together with God's people and feeling Him there - because what's the point of God's people meeting together and NOT feeling Him there????. 

Watching the people forget about themselves and concentrate on God.. You can almost SEE the burdens falling off their shoulders. AND in addition to that ----- our friends Dick and Joan and Joyce and Fred were passing through town on their way to Alabama.  We've known them for decades. They live in Illinois.  And they got to come to church and meet our friends and our friends got to meet them...and we got to go out and eat with them.. and catch up on what's going on in their lives....   This has truly been a super Sunday.. 

Later today, Phil and I, Guy, Angie and their kids.. Jody and Emily are going to Don and Debi's house to watch the Super Bowl on his 315 foot HD TV.   They live a few miles away.. and I think we could actually stay home and still see Don's TV.. but we won't.   I don't want to alienate any Patriot fans out there... but.....you know.. I'm from New York.. so.....well......yup......that's when I'll be jumping....When they score points...Except for the fact... that KYLE BRADY  - #88 tight end for New England is someone I interviewed years ago - when he played for the New York Jets.. and he's a really solid and dedicated Christian... so..  I guess I'd be happy if they win because then he wins.. He's from our home town in PA... so there's all these connections.. but then..the most important thing is the commercials and the DIPS at the party... So... well.. I guess I don't really care who wins... Talk atcha tamorrow.